We love fine dining as much as the next gourmand, but there’s something about fancy French restaurants with their retinues of waiters, sommeliers, captains and bread sergeants that we find slightly offputting. Upon arriving at Last Thursday’s tasting of Vérité wines at Bouley we were in a bit of tizzy, not because of our issues surrounding Le/La/Les establishments, but due to our walking in some five minutes before vigneron Pierre Seillan’s speech ended. This......

Last Thursday, a murder suspect jumped out of a third floor interrogation room at a Queens precinct when detectives, who had uncuffed him, left the room. On Friday, another suspect in an interrogation room got out of his cuffs and jumped out a Crown Heights precinct window. Now, early this morning, a burglary suspect taken to Long Island Hospital has escaped. WNBC reports that the police had removed the 46-year-old's handcuffs at the Brooklyn hospital......

The Queens DA's office has charged a man in the murder of 20-year-old Natasha Ramen. And it turns out that Hemant Megnath had raped Ramen in 2005; police believe the Megnath slashed Ramen's throat last Thursday to keep her from testifying about the rape. In May 2005, Ramen had been apartment-hunting and was introduced to a fellow Guyanese immigrant, Megnath, who had been working for a broker. Megnath took her to his Brooklyn apartment and......

Last Thursday, all of the stations covered the tragic fire in the Bronx quite well and took the opportunity for some refreshers on basic fire safety. As expected, WCBS went way overboard creating a whole special set of graphics for the station’s coverage, complete with new lower thirds that used a different font which were ready by Thursday’s 5 p.m. newscast. For 6 p.m., CBS 2 needlessly sent anchor Jim Rosenfeld to the scene, as......

Last Thursday, we watched Late Night with Conan O'Brien with Howard Stern as guest. Howard, who you probably remember more when he was on 92.3FM was the guest, was doing his best to pimp Sirius Satellite. And how did he do that? After giving Conan (but not the whole audience) a Sirius Satellite radio, he mentioned that he had Martha Stewart on his show and she revealed she used a vibrator (The Thumper, though she......

Just in time for July 4, the International Union of Operating Engineers has called a strike after failing to agree on a new contract Friday. "It's safe to say the strike will affect hundreds of construction sites over the weekend," said Christopher O. Ward, the managing director of the contractors association told the Times. Not only does this strike mean that high-profile projects like the foundation work for the Freedom Tower and the excavation......

Day 1 was long, but we managed to get a few hours of sleep and gear up for the rest of week. Last Thursday we started off our day at the South By Stereogum party. Brisket on white bread was served, Fat Tire beers were distributed and Aziz Ansari was hosting the show, which had a solid lineup: Aloha, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Thunderbirds Are Now!, Rogue Wave and Ted Leo. Thunderbirds Are Now! [pictured]......