All right, stop, collaborate and listen: Vanilla Ice told the NY Times about real estate buying spree when he was "young and dumb" (and cash-flush), "I bought houses in L.A., in Laurel Canyon right next door to Michael J. Fox; on Star Island, next door to Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith; in Utah; and on Bleecker Street in New York City. Three years went by. I never used any of them, and I thought it was the worst investment of my life. So I said, 'Let’s sell everything, and I’ll have one primary house here in Miami.' When I sold them, I made, on each one of them, $300,000 to $400,000. I stopped in my tracks and said, 'It can’t be that easy.' But it was." [Via Curbed] more ›

Now that the five-week long State Senate coup-turned-stalemate is over, thanks in no small part to Pedro Espada's defection from the Democrats to align with Republicans...only to boomerang back to the Democrats after being made majority leader, Governor Paterson is speaking out against the perks that apparently make switching party allegiances very tempting. He told the Associated Press, "It is so blatantly quid pro quo that it borders on the boundaries of illegality. And because no one is saying anything about it, it's becoming acceptable ... it's becoming very dangerous." more ›