After a 16-year absence from the beauty pageant circuit, Miss Brooklyn returned this year -- which meant that maybe, just maybe, a Brooklynite would become Miss New York, or even Miss America. Of all the 17 to 24 year olds in Brooklyn, last week's pageant was only seven-strong, and the winner is causing a commotion in the borough. The Brooklyn Paper is reporting on the scandalous move of crowning a "queen who's not from Kings."......

The most charming weddings article in the NY Times today is not in the Styles section, but the City section: It's about the many Queens couples who get married at Queens Borough Hall, a three-and-a-half story brick building designed by William Gehron and Andrew J. Thomas. About 9,000 couples got married there last year, and after being married by a deputy city clerk, sometimes they pose in front of a retired Redbird Subway car that......

Figuring out how to get where you are going, without driving, in a city with as many options as our own can be a chore. After very little time in the city your average New Yorker (imported or native) normally has a pretty good grasp of their basic routes but beyond that things can quickly get hazy. Enter the internet. Just like Mapquest and Google Maps simplified driving directions, the past two years has......

- It's official: Eliot Spitzer is the Democratic candidate for NY Governor this fall - Ironic Sans looks at The Critic's animated Manhattan - The transit worker caught sleeping on the job by cameraphone was fired! - Bees attack Park Slope restaurant; no word on whether Winnie the Pooh's hunny pot or Max Fischer was found on the scene - A teenager managed to save her siblings from a Brooklyn house fire but not......

The Department of Transportation is planning a pedestrian plaza in downtown Brooklyn: They will close Willoughby Street between Adams and Pearl, plus the Adams Street Service Road at Willoughby Street, saying this will "enhance safety along the heavily trafficked pedestrian corridor." Work on a temporary plaza, which will be separated from traffic using planters and will include benches, chairs, tables and bike racks, is scheduled to begin in early May. If the project is successful,......

This weekend seems to be all about the music. Outside, in parks, on rooftops. It'll be everywhere, and here is where we would be if we were you... The Music of Nick Drake will be played at the Central Park Summerstage featuring New York musicians Josh Max and Julie James, (plus some special guests) and an orchestra led by arranger Robert Kirby, who collaborated with Drake on many of his songs. [via FreeNYC] Saturday, July......