Snoop Dogg, in town shooting BET interviews last week, was caught green-handed with the drug he claimed to give up at age 30: pot. The rapper was busted outside of hotspot Lotus last Wednesday for marijuana possession, and was issued a desk appearance ticket. The Post reports that didn't stop Snoop from partying the very next night, with his 25-strong posse, at Serafina and the tapas lounge Lollipop (somewhere in between they ordered 15 pizzas,......

Last week there were rumblings of the writers' strike coming to an end, over the weekend it was pretty much confirmed, and since then the TV-nation has been waiting with bated breath. Until last night, that is, when word came in that the WGA (trying to steal Obama's thunder?) announced that the strike has officially come to an end. Fin! In the last of what has seemed like an endless amount of WGA press releases......

So far February has been off to a rousingly warm start. The average temperature has been 10.64 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, including a record-setting, nay record-blasting, high of 68 degrees on Wednesday. The recent warm stretch, today is the 13th straight warmer-than-normal day, will continue only through tomorrow. Today will be sort of cloudy, sort of sunny with a high around 45. We may see a litttle snow early tomorrow and a little rain later......

from her to you, by lisa.lisa at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on 173rd St. in Manhattan, a robbery/assault on 13th St. in Brooklyn, and an aircraft emergency at JFK airport in Queens. Barnard at Columbia has a new incoming president, snagged from Harvard Business School. Don't miss the Super Bowl sitting in your local precinct's drunk tank. Get your Super Brawling out of the way early the next time someone......

Photograph of kicker Lawrence Tynes after the game-winning field goal by David J. Phillip/AP The Giants won the NFC Championship in overtime, beating the Green Bay Packers 23-20 in overtime and overcome the frigid, below-zero conditions. They are now headed to the Super Bowl where they will meet the New England Patriots, who beat the San Diego Chargers 21-12. Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes missed a field goal as time expired in the fourth quarter,......

Are you ready to meet the Real Housewives of New York City? Bravo is spinning off their Orange County-based reality show with a look into the lives of some select East Coast ladies. The show will air March 4th, and The Daily News reports that the "stars" will be Bethenny Frankel, LuAnn de Lesseps (that's Countess, to you), Ramona Singer and Jill Zarin of the Upper East Side and Alex McCord of Cobble Hill.......

As we previously mentioned, the late night heavyweights have been angling to make a return in early '08. Letterman has been leading the pack by working on a deal with the WGA through his own production company, WorldWide Pants Inc. Yesterday they reached an agreement which will allow his show to return to the air next week, writing staff and all. The independent agreement he made with the WGA "included provisions to pay writers for......

Food bloggers from around the world are offering delicious prizes as part of Menu for Hope 4. Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising event hosted by Chez Pim. Last year, Menu for Hope raised an incredible $62,925 to help the UN World Food Programme feed the hungry. Want more details? Well, here’s the FAQ. From December 10-21, you can buy raffle tickets to bid on any on the food-related prizes being offered. Tickets cost......

It's a tie! Last month managed to tie 1947 as the warmest October in the 150+ years of Central Park weather observations. The last time the park had a record warm month was February 2002. The difference between sharing the record warm October with 1947 and breaking that old record was as small as could be. If the high or low temperature for any day last month been one degree higher October 2007 would......

Not making their way to the greenmarket this week are domestic matsutake, one of the most prized mushrooms in the world. Matsutake have a slight pine flavor and give off a wild, funky cinnamon aroma when cooked. This fragrance is said to do things to people, like instantly transport them to Xanadu or make choruses of ladybugs hail from the sky in intense, Busby Berkeley style formations. Hand foraged and scarce, matsutake are in fact......

End September with (the Kelly Ripa-approved!) Ecofest this Sunday, the East Coast's largest environmental event. In it's 19th year it continues to showcase all aspects of the green movement from technology to lifestyle, and even fashion. The fest will feature:• Launch of the newest fleet of Chevrolet's and Volkswagen's fuel cell SUVs and hybrids in a first-ever preview • Education sessions with green thought leaders • For kids, eco-education through arts, crafts and music •......

Why leave all the disaster scenarios to Hollywood or non-fiction TV programming (like the scary East Coast Tsunami program on the History Channel)? New York City, along with the Rockefeller Foundation and Architecture for Humanity New York has created a design competition for "Post-Disaster Provisional Housing." According to the What If NYC website, the Big Apple is considered among the top three cities in the United States vulnerable to the destructive effects of storm......

Today's weather forecast features an exciting race between the remnants of surprising Hurricane Humberto and the Canadian Crusher, a massive, cool, dry air mass that has already captured the Great Plains and is quickly moving our way. Humberto, who reminded everyone that there's still a lot to learn about tropical storms, intensified from a tropical depression to a full-fledged hurricane in only 14 hours, is now just a big mess of moisture centered over northern......

Tomorrow morning, around 4:51AM, the moon will start to pass through the Earth's shadow for a lunar eclipse. However, with the full eclipse estimated at 5:52AM and sunrise estimated to start for the NY area at 6:19AM, WCBS 2 says some people also call it a "sunrise eclipse." The East Coast only gets a half hour of the full eclipse, when the moon is red and orange, what with the sun rising and the......

What's eBay good for if not finding a place to buy and sell things like...John Gotti's cufflinks? The Dapper Don's 14 karat gold cufflinks were given to the eBay seller's father, Jim Smith. Get ready for a 20 second history lessson: Jim Smith was the right hand man to Mickey Cohen, who was the right hand man to Ben "Bugsy" Siegel. When Bugsy was whacked, Cohen took over the West Coast "operations", and eventually wrote......

Note to baseball stadium visitors: Not only do you have to beware of foul balls, you may need to watch out for drunks and others who may fall from the upper levels and injure you. Last week, a baseball fan from Seattle on an East Coast baseball pilgrimage (Yankee Stadium, the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, and Fenway Park) was injured at last weekend's Angels game, when a fan fell on top of him. According......

When Judge Michael Sauer sentenced Paris Hilton to 45 days in prison (which she may not even fully serve), Kathy Hilton asked, "May I have your autograph?" - insinuating he was seeking publicity. Flash forward to May 5th and over to the East Coast where Sauer's daughter, Michelle, was enjoying Cinco de Mayo with family and friends in Brooklyn. The festivities quickly turned to the Hilton case: “Once my cousins showed up and made sure......

The clouds are rolling in and the sky has a threatening look to it this afternoon, but looks can be deceiving. We're very likely to see light rain beginning around 4:00 p.m and lasting until midnight at the latest. Don't worry if you forgot to bring an umbrella to work. With little wind, the cheap umbrellas that magically appear for sale on the street on days like today should last throughout the evening. The rain......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an amputation on the Van Wyck, a jumper down in Coney Island, and an off-duty Corrections officer shot in Bed-Stuy. The Lakers may be in town, but Kobe can't play! Bryant is suspended for hitting Manu Ginobili on Sunday, but we think the Knicks will choke. For the first time in 12 years, the city is going to be giving out new Section-8 housing vouchers to non-emergency applicants. The......

On the one-week anniversary of the noxious natural gas-with-mercaptan stink that took over Manhattan, eastern NJ and parts of other boroughs, we thought that new NY State homeland security chief Michael A. L. Balboni had an interesting idea. The NY Times reports he expressed frustration about the lack of an answer, “What if next time it smells like almonds and it turns out to be cyanide?” He also said he would "put people’s feet to......

It's raining! It's pouring! It's gassy! Finally, something other than warm weather to talk about. Most of the heaviest rain has already occurred, but there may be pockets of rain between now and early afternoon. The rain is happening in advance of an honest-to-goodness cold front. Once the front passes and the rain dissipates sharply cooler air will filter into town. Today's temperatures have probably already maxed out, and temperatures will be 15-20 degrees cooler......

What's a polar bear to do when it is 72 in January? Well, if you're a member of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, you stage a silent protest. The Times reports eight members of the club cancelled their Saturday swim, because the water was too warm. Perhaps more interestingly, the News reports it was nine members of the club and the Post says ten! According to Polar Bear Club treasurer Tom McGann, yesterday was......

Joseph Barbera, one part of the famed cartoon duo Hanna-Barbera, has died at the age of 95. In his life, which started out in New York (Little Italy and then Flatbush), he created Tom and Jerry, Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones and also worked on The Smurfs...all of your childhood favorites, over 100 cartoons in 4 decades. While in New York Barbera attempted banking, playwriting and amateur boxing. He then sent a sketch to Collier's magazine......

A look at some noteworthy programs this week: iVillagelive (WNBC & Bravo, Monday, 12:00 noon) NBC launches this lifestyle show focused on women on Monday. What makes it different from other such shows is that it is going to have an interactive component, since it is a spin-off from the NBC-Universal owned website iVillage.com. The 2006 Billboard Music Awards (WNYW 5, Monday, 8:00 p.m.) Yet another music awards show. The only reason it is noteworthy......

December 1 & 2: Warm Up with Mulled Wine Stop by The Greene Grape and learn how to make this toasty winter warmer from the authors of DRINKOLOGY EATS: A Guide to Bar Food and Cocktail Party Fare. Using a recipe from their new book, James Waller and Ramona Ponce will share their expertise in making this festive drink, and they will be happy to sign a copy of any of their DRINKOLOGY books as......

"An eventual field of underwater turbines in NY's East River" sounds like a dream, but it turns out it may be a reality in a near future. Verdant Power, with the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority is working on the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy Project that would bring up to 10 Megawatts of energy from an East River turbine field. While the first turbines are supposedly being deploye this year, Verdant has......

Some would say that the middle of the summer is prime time to go pick your own fruits, and granted the prospect of a cheap bushel of self-picked berries has appeal. That being said, growing up in the NYC area, apple picking was the most accessible and popular pick your own activity – save for certain subsections of NJ where strawberries likely have a longstanding legacy. The Northeastern United States has a long and storied......

I have a soft spot in my heart for novels that are deceptively simple or straight-forward, and for plots that take their sweet time unraveling their secrets. I appreciate the nuance, the seduction, of well-shaped characters and quiet implications. In certain keys, Nell Freudenberger’s new novel – the chaser to her 2003 short story collection, Lucky Girls – was a well-suited match. The Dissident certainly takes its time. Opening simultaneously in Los Angeles and Beijing,......

If you can't bear the thought of eating hot food on a day like today and you've got a craving for oysters on the half shell, you might want to think twice. According to the New York Times, 74 New Yorkers have gotten sick eating raw oysters originating from the Pacific Northwest: Both the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Food and Drug Administration have warned people not to eat......

It's not just sailors that should be delighted today. Last night's red skies were a harbinger of three days of beautiful weather. Sunlight takes its longest path through the atmosphere at sunrise and sunset. If the sky is clear along that long path the green and blue portions of the sun's rays get scattered and absorbed by air molecules, leaving more yellows, oranges and reds. Since our weather generally moves from west to east, a......