Check out the colorful scene on Fifth Avenue around St. Patrick's Cathedral yesterday afternoon, where the sublime weather brought out thousands of celebrants in their Sunday best. Every Easter, the city shuts down a large stretch of Fifth Avenue for the Easter Parade, which is no longer a parade in the contemporary sense of the word, but more of an opportunity for New Yorkers to promenade on the open avenue wearing extravagant finery. (Later in the day, everyone gathers in the Capitol's "Central Park" to watch the annual reaping for the Hunger Games.) Click through for Katie Sokoler's photographs of yesterday's festivities. more ›

Whenever we think there may be demons afoot, we do the sensible thing—call our local Roman Catholic bishop and see if the holy water special is still available. But not Jose Delcid: The Norwalk, CT man thought there were demons in a friends house, so he decided to perform his own exorcism ceremony by burning hats in their driveway. Delcid was arrested and charged with reckless burning; he wasn't admitted to the Norwalk Hospital psychiatric unit because of a policy that prohibits anyone who starts a fire. Delcid allegedly told police that the real culprit wasn't demons, but rather some bad marijuana he smoked, which led to him having strange thoughts while seeing people's eyes transforming and getting larger. more ›

Why are the Yankees so popular among criminals, the New York Times wants to know. Is it because of the team’s "aura of money, power and success"? And/or because "gangsta rappers" and some of their criminal-minded listeners are emulating Jay-Z, who declares in "Empire State of Mind," "I made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can." Or maybe Yankees fans are ALL a bunch of violent scumbags who'd slit their own mothers' throats for beer money? Whatever the reason, the paper of record has found that so many criminals wear Yankees paraphernalia that no other sports team comes close. more ›

It's unclear as to whether or not Jake Bronstein and his Zoomdoggle team are now hired guns for George Lucas & Co., but considering their latest Indiana Jones-themed stunt began on the day of the latest Indiana Jones DVD release, we're guessing it's a safe bet to say they are. Yesterday a Zoomdoggle employee tipster sent us in these photos of IndiHats around town, and another tipster informed us that Zoomdoggle updated their website with the following:

Here's a fun one, call it hat-vertizing, a brim-job, or just one hell of a scavenger hunt, but some Indiana Jones obsessed compatriots of mine have decided to “hide” 800 of these hats in four different cities starting today. In fact, while I type this, teams are cramming them into crannies, nudging them into nooks, and just plain hiding them them in plain sight in LA, San Francisco, Chicago, and right here in New York. Find one and it’s yours to keep. All they ask is that you snap a shot of yourself wearing it and upload it to flickr with the tag “indihat.”

Manhattan's Easter Parade is an annual tradition for people to show off their creativity as much as their finery. Young and old strut along 5th Avenue in front of an appreciative audience, even as they balance sometimes precarious constructions atop their heads. The parade used to be strictly for the peacockery of the well-heeled, but now anyone with a flair for creative design seems to have a chance to shine. Following is just a sample of floral, marshmallow, and NYC-inspired bonnets and hats that participants wore. Seeing it in person is even better. more ›