Are you sick and tired of waiting around for a cab at 2 a.m. on a sweaty Sunday morning? Are party buses and hummer limousines just not doing it for you anymore? Then worry no longer, because you and your posse can try to hail the most refrigerated ride in town: a Mr. Softee vehicle. For five clubgoers on one soft-serve night recently, that dream was realized when Mr. Softee driver Oner Ismail picked them up and offered to take them club hopping for a price. He was unfortunately caught soon after by police, and given a $350 summons. TLC commissioner David Yassky quipped, "We require that taxis have working air conditioning, but this is getting carried away." more ›

This weekend, that won't just be high blood pressure you're feeling—we're in for another brutal heat wave. And worst of all, our greatest defense against the burning in our hearts may be in serious danger: the NYPD may be cracking down on ice cream trucks. more ›

Around the start of monsoon season summer, we heard from a couple Brooklyn moms who were outraged about Mr. Softee's mission to turn perfectly healthy children into sugar-addicted diabetic amputees. The ice cream truck backlash has only intensified since then, with anti-ice cream moms demanding death to Mr. Softee nationwide. In Chicago, ice cream trucks have been banned entirely from the 18th Ward, and here the group Asthma Free School Zone is urging principals to shoo the trucks away from schools. And then there's Vicki Sell, mother of 3-year-old Katherine and co-owner of the fish and chips mini-chain Chipshop, which doesn't exactly offer the healthiest cuisine in the world. She tells the Times, "I fall into the camp of parents who are irate...I want Katherine to have the full childhood experience and all. But it’s really predatory for them — two of them — to be right inside the playground like this." The "two of them" are the unlicensed pushcart frozen ice vendors who stalk the playground to seduce precious Katherine over to the sweet side. So now Sell calls 311 to defend her child from the peddlers. But still they come, and they've been driving Katherine to an "inconsolable meltdown." more ›