This NYC-based season of Curb Your Enthusiasm has been taking advantage of the Big Apple's standbys (subways! the High Line!) and last night, the HBO comedy featured Mister Softee. Of course, Larry David has experienced a childhood trauma that haunts him whenever he hears Mister Softee's infectious theme. Here's the curse-heavy video (spoiler, obvs, for those who haven't seen it): more ›

It's tough out there for an independent purveyor of frozen dessert products! Just about all the prime spots belong to Mister Softee, and that company's drivers are notoriously gangsta when it comes to protecting their turf. Watch this video to see what happens when a generic ice cream truck driver tries to occupy another driver's "spot" near Columbus Circle. (Skip ahead to the 2 minute mark for the fisticuffs.) more ›

We've made no secret of our deep-rooted hatred of the insipid Mister Softee truck theme song, which drives us to distraction every summer. But as intolerable as it is for us, we've sometimes wondered how the people driving the trucks can stand it. Well, CNN recently spent the day riding around with one of the operators in Brooklyn, and now we know how they stand it: They completely lose their minds. Driver Nike Olasokan says, "I love it. It's one of the best music I've ever heard in my life. I hear it every day and I still love it." more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] More reports of Mister Softee's violent threats against rival ice cream trucks have surfaced. And this time the target is the infinitely superior ice cream purveyor Van Leeuwen, whose Twitter feed announces, "Truck had to leave midtown :( . There were 3 Mr. Softie Trucks threatening our drivers life. Scary stuff! Sorry guys, maybe another time." Or maybe you just stay off Softee's turf and your fancy trucks don't accidentally burst into flames, capisce? more ›

A Mister Softee ice cream truck driver on Long Island was arrested Saturday after undercover narcotics officers saw him park his truck outside a drug dealer's house they had under surveillance. Police say Kenneth Leiton, 22, rolled up to the home around 4 p.m. and entered the house to conduct a drug deal. He then returned to the truck, turned the music back on, and continued along his route. According to the Post, the cops soon "stopped him cold" and found several small bags of coke and a bag of pot hidden in the sprinkles. He's charged with numerous counts of possession of a controlled substance and with endangering the welfare of a child. Also arrested was Randall Surmanek, 23, who was riding in the truck with Leiton, and two individuals at the drug house. Police tell Newsday Leiton was not the truck owner, but it's still another black eye for Mister Softee—earlier this summer a Softee franchisee was accused of threatening to beat a Kool Man driver for invading "his" turf in Queens. And don't even get us started on the jingle wars. more ›

A Mister Softee truck driver in Queens didn't find anything funny about a rival Good Humor man encroaching on his turf, so he decided to make him an offer he couldn't refuse. According to the Post, on Tuesday afternoon in Elmhurst, George Peralta, 27, pulled his Mister Softee truck in front of 50-year-old Good Humor man Ernesto Valverde, while accomplice Andy Arevalo parked his ice cream truck behind Valverde, blocking him in. With the help of a third man, they allegedly took Valverde's keys and told him to "stay off [our] route, we know where you live, we know where you parked the truck." more ›

While aggravated Brooklyn residents near McCarren Park have launched an organized campaign against the insipid jingles incessantly blaring from parked ice cream trucks, parents in other parts of the borough are taking aim at Mister Softee not for how he sounds but for what he sells to their children. Well, two parents anyway; a Bensonhurst mom tells the Daily News she takes her 7-year-old daugher to Seth Low Park for exercise, but an ice cream truck parked there is tearing her family apart: "I’ve had fights with my daughter in the past about it. You kind of feel like it’s pushed on you. It’s one thing if they’re just in the neighborhood, but to be here by contract [with the city], they might as well be selling drugs." (They've been known to do that too!) more ›

The insipid melody blaring from Mister Softee ice "cream" trucks has Inwood up in arms. City officials say that so far this year there have been 205 complaints about ice cream trucks in the Community Board 12 district, which includes Inwood. One area by Inwood Hill Park is going particularly mental; a resident tells the Daily News, "It reverberates into the building and sounds like someone is in your apartment with their car stereo blasting. It's almost vindictive." New York City noise code bans the playing of jingles while a food vending vehicle is stationary, but the rule seems to be generally laughed off by the truck drivers.The DEP has sent inspectors to Inwood, and this week police told a community meeting they're looking into it. Another resident says the driver of the truck is simply merciless: "He will say he's going to turn it off, and when you walk away, five or 10 minutes later it's back on. It's the repetition as well as the melody itself. Even with the windows shut and your TV on, you can hear it." For more on the Mister Softee Jingle, here are the lyrics, sheet music, and an mp3. more ›

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a carjacking at Tompkins and School Rds. on Staten Island, a person was killed by a 5 train at Bowling Green station in Manhattan, and an armed robbery at 51st Ave. and Northern Blvd. in Queens. Bidding closed at $2,600 for the new owner of the Seinfeld ASSMAN license plate prop on eBay. Another Mister Softee driver was busted for selling drugs out of his ice cream truck, this... more ›

- Long live Craigslist - Sally Tomato finds someone to wait on line for Shakespeare in the Park tickets for her (we remember when tickets to The Seagulls were being sold for $200 - and that was pre-Craigslist!) more ›

Each day, there seems like there's a new possible job avenue for Gothamist. Can you imagine being a private investigator who follows fake Mr. Softee trucks because the actual Mr. Softee wants to nail them for copyright infringement? The NY Times tailed the private eyes tailing the perps, and Gothamist had no idea that Mr. Softee wannabes would copy practically every single detail of Mr. Softee trucks, from the motto to the song, to dupe, poor, unsuspecting ice cream fanatics into buying their faux-Mr. Softee treats. This makes Gothamist wonder if singling out Mr. Softee for its noise was really fair, as the fake-Mr. Softee might be the worst offenders of using the song over and over again. Anyway, the article has loads of important information for any ice-cream-from-mobile-vehicles afficianados: Mr. Softee ice cream is made in Long Island City, Mr. Softee owns the "duh duh duh duh duh" (you know how it goes) jingle, and Mr. Softee has the trademark on the blue and white ice cream truck scheme. Besides knowing that detectives who cover adultery cases are now on the case, Gothamist found it hilarious that "Mister Softee had already spent $120,000 this year on legal fees, investigators and marketing researchers who have surveyed children in playgrounds to prove that the average 10-year-old does not distinguish between an official Mister Softee truck and a look-alike." Like, no duh - Gothamist doubts we would be able to tell the difference, which only makes us realize our other potential career could be as the person who asks 10 year olds if they can tell the difference between ice creams. more ›

So... wham! It's hot, humid, and not even officially summer yet. The forecast shows temps hitting 90 for the next couple of days before dropping to the 80s for the end of the week. The humidity might subside a bit but the sun will remain with us throughout. more ›

Other people were questioning the noise, including club owners, but Gothamist was tickled by this description:

City Council member Margarita Lopez, who represents the Lower East Side, a neighborhood in which the concentration of bars and nightclubs is among the heaviest in the city, asked darkly: "Don't you understand that you are threatening the fiber of my community?"

Recently, City Hall has proposed outlawing the Mr. Softee jingle. James Conway Jr., an ice cream executive (some might say he has the best job ever), reveals that Mister Softee has a lobbyist that is working with the City Council and the mayor to reach a compromise on the jingle. Conway also reveals that there is a technology that stops the song when the ice cream truck stops. Well, hot damn! Where has this been all our lives? And who ever thought you could make a living as an ice cream lobbyist? Where do we sign up to be the local voice of the BBQ industry? more ›

Jimmy, Inwood more ›

The City Council apparently made fun of the mayor for being opposed to banning car alarms (though he might change his mind) while he wants to ban Mr. Softee music. Councilman Peter Vallone gives his thoughts on Mister Softee, who is at the center of one of the noise code's bans, "Mister Softee music is occasionally mildly annoying, while car alarms are mind-numbing, life-altering devices." Word up. more ›