Doesn't look like anyone's in the market for some original John Steinbeck writing. According to the AP, many of the author's letters and manuscripts from his New York City apartment have either failed to sell, or have sold for less than expected. All in all, Bloomsbury Auctions say the lot brought in just under $74,000, when it was expected to bring in as much as $250,000—more than half of the lot didn't sell, including his acceptance speech for the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature. more ›

FESTIVAL: Conflux 2007 has arrived. Starting tonight and running through Sunday, their "annual New York City festival for contemporary psychogeography" will help re-imagine urban spaces with a series of events, lectures, workshops, installations, parties and so much more. Get all the info and schedules you need, here. more ›

The Department of Buildings says that 86 Bedford Street, aka the building that houses the pub and former speakeasy during the Prohibition era, is secure as contractors have "contractors shored up the building". A construction crew was doing interior work at Chumley's - without a permit - and a chimney collapsed, imperiling the wall and causing residents in the building and nearby to be evacuated. more ›

• The Port Authority has officially agreed to fund $1 billion of the Freedom Tower's construction
• Dr. Denton Sayer Cox, whose patients have included Andy Warhol and John Steinbeck, told police he was beaten and burned with a chemical at York and East 73rd Street but police believe he was the "victim of a gay pickup gone wrong" in his Upper East Side apartment. Either way, he's fighting for his life.
• A corrections officer gets a $1 million settlement because his female boss said things like "You better come and get some of this. My stuff is not going to wait for you forever." and "Why don't you let me make a man out of you?"
• Admissions for NYC public schools are "much more difficult" than college according to parents
• Bickfords, Corvingtons, and bishop crooks: Forgotten NY looks at old-fashioned street lamp design
• A 12-year-old boy died yesterday morning, after falling out the window of his 5th floor apartment in Harlem. His father believes his son pushed the air conditioner and may have tried to retrieve it, but the police are investigating.
• New anti-outdoor advertising poster boy: Restaurateur Keith McNally who picketed the Hotel Gansevoort today
• And in days old news, the Law & Order episode based on the Adrienne Shelly murder was came in second last Friday night, beaten by an episode of Numb3rs.
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