Hey, has your face melted off yet? Oh, it has. Sorry, guess that came off as kind of glib. Well, look, there's a solution—just get yourself a job at an ice factory! Alternatively, you could try getting a job as a reporter desperate for a heat wave story on a slow summer Thursday, like the crew over at NY1. They've got the scoop on the guys with the coolest job in town. more ›

We've gleefully chronicled such gilded age menu items as the $25,000 dessert and the $81 hamburger, but former NY Mag dining critic Gael Greene is reporting what may be the most hubristic example of restaurant chicanery yet. She has it that Morton's The Steakhouse recently tried to charge financial columnist Dan Dorfman $2.50 extra for ordering a cocktail on the rocks. His beverage was served with five of the sublime little frozen delicacies, translating to 50 cents per ice cube. He objected after noticing the charge on his bill, and Greene writes, "If you know Dorfman you know his protest was not pretty." Morton's ultimately waived the fee, but Dorfman says, "I bet they get away with it more often than not since that's a place that attracts a fair-sized Wall Street crowd and I'm sure many of them say nothing." Though in this economy, one might anticipate plenty of Wall Street whining over this kind of over-charging. Then again, the beguiling frozen ambrosia that is the Morton's ice cube has never graced our vulgar, provincial lips, so maybe it's actually a bargain. more ›

The cutest mustachioed baby in this town is definitely the new walrus at the New York Aquarium. The baby walrus, who was born on June 12 and weighed in at 115 pounds, is ready for his public, as he made his first appearance yesterday. But he needs a name, and people can vote on the Today Show's website for one of four names: Utvak (Means ice made from snow or ice cube), Ukiivak (Means king island), Utumek (Means earth), Akituusaq (Means gift given in return). more ›

Better known for the pinkish Vitamin Water flavor based on it, fresh dragon fruit is currently available at Chinatown produce markets. Because dragon fruit (pitaya plant) pollination occurs only at night, when its huge white flowers bloom, fruit is harvested just a few times a year. Production is notoriously tricky, sometimes requiring a little human-dragon fruit “husbandry.” And while buying food that was jetted at least a few thousand miles to be sold out of a crate on the streets of New York is sort of the antithesis of eating locally, growing one’s own dragon fruit at home is an epic, but still entirely possible, task (see green-shaded area here). Each fruit contains about one thousand seeds that can be used for home-growing experiments. So for the sake of New York needing more crazy fruit pioneers, let’s talk dragon fruit for a minute. more ›

. The running time is longer than a usual Hollywood blockbuster but the steady stream of oozing fake blood, rapid fire witty details and laughs at movie clichés are never boring. more ›

Updated: more ›