Cigarettes, they're what's for dinner? Yup, long before Nanny Bloomberg came and kicked New York City's smokers to the curb, the scent of burnt tobacco used to permeate the city—restaurants used to even sell smokes as an after dinner treat! more ›

Along with the books, the maps and the historical records, the New York Public Library keeps a good record of the city's culinary past. They have over 40,000 menus in their stacks, many of which will just depress you. It's not like we exactly remember the days of ten cent corned beef at Child's Lunch Rooms with millk "fresh from my own dairy," but couldn't we have been around for when the Flatiron Cafe advertised "all popular brands of cigarettes" right on the wine list? more ›

There are a lot of options for dining out in the city this Thanksgiving, but none of them cost just 75 cents. Ephemeral NY looks back at the Thanksgiving menu from 1899 at the Sturtevant House, a popular hotel on Broadway and 29th Street (which was in operation from 1871 to 1903). As you can see by comparison, 75 cents for the whole meal was a pretty good deal—you could only get an entree for that much at The Plaza on the same night. more ›

The Chinese restaurant worker who was mauled by three pit bulls Sunday morning claims the dogs' owner was more concerned with her pets' safety than his gruesome injuries. Xiu Ming Li was visited in his hospital bed by the Daily News yesterday, and the tabloid paints the scene in classic maudlin brush strokes: "Blood seeped from fresh white gauze covering bite marks on his arms and legs. His right ear—where he lost an earlobe—was also wrapped in gauze. His wife sat at his bedside, her eyes full of tears." Somewhere, off in the distance, a dog barked? more ›

The 2009 U.S. Open tennis tournament kicked off yesterday in Flushing with fireworks, Heidi Klum, an unseasonable chill, and a hotly contested match between Venus Williams and Vera Dushevina, a 22-year-old Russian who, despite being ranked 47th, gave the number 3 ranked Williams a serious run for her money. After narrowly losing the first set to Dushevina, Williams came from behind to squeak out a second set win, then pounded the white Russian 6 games to 3 to win the match—a victory she credited to all the fans shouting "Go Venus!" throughout the long two-and-a-half hour contest. more ›

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Outraged by the unstoppable deluge of delivery menus on your doormat and the inability of our elected officials to stem the rising tide? You are not alone! One man has decided to take matters into his own hands by designing a sticker for your apartment door to ward off unwanted promotions.

I've decided to start promoting my own solution: a simple bumper sticker that uses a helpful diagram to warn trespassers that fingers will be crushed if menus are put under the door. This has actually made a huge difference in reducing the number of menus arriving at my house.