It seems that Valle's girlfriend's niece Tiffany Turner got into an argument with the BED coat check girl around 4AM on Saturday morning. The Daily News reports that the 20 year old Turner was getting her coat when BED manager Granville Adams "made a gesture toward her."
The coat-check woman, who apparently is dating Adams, noticed and started screaming at Turner.more ›
The opening of the United Nations General Assembly today means a lot of gridlock and protests today. President Bush is addressing the UN tomorrow - but he'll be speaking at the NY Public Library this morning to discuss global literacy and will be raising money for the Republican party tonight.
There is a lot to be said about Warren Buffett's announcement that most of his billions-of-dollars fortune will be given to charities, with particular focus on giving about $31 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And we hope his actions, as well as those of the Gateses, reverbate through billionaire and millionaire circles, because giving back to the world that made them rich makes sense - tax incentives or no. For instance, when Ted Turner donated $1 billion to the U.N. in stock, he said, "When I got my statement in January. I was worth $2.2 billion. Then I got another statement in August that said I was worth $3.2 billion. So I figure its only nine months' earnings, who cares?"
- And there are some excellent Easter Parade pictures on Flickr - love those hats!
Last night, two children were shot in two different incidents in the Mott Haven area of the Bronx. First, a 13 year old was shot in the leg yesterday afternoon while he was outside MS 220 on Brook Avenue; police think his shooter was aiming for someone else. Then around 7:30PM, a 10 year old girl was also hit in the leg while she was playing outside, and she was caught in the crossfire of some arguing men. The two children were both brought to Lincoln Hospital, where they are recovering. Is it too much to hope that the city can do more to stop the illegal gun trade, as the Mayor tries to encourage gun control laws?
The NY Sun's architecture review of the new Bronx Library Center on Kingsbridge Road prompted us to look for some photographs (James Gardners says the library is like a "flying saucer in a cornfield" - and that's "not necessarily a bad thing"). And the NY Public Library's Bronx LIbrary Center website does have photographs of the new buildling's construction progress. Gothamist loves how the library is next to Tuff City Tattoos.
The NY Public Library continues to move into the modern age, now offering downloadable e-books via their website. However, since the NYPL's deal is with Microsoft, the e-books can't be read on the ubiquitous iPod... which can only mean that iPod users will never read! The e-book on your computer or PDA will expire after 21 days, but CNET points out that e-books burned to disc or stored to the drive will be fine. Which makes Gothamist wonder if the new underground illegal file sharing fad will be books - take that, libraries that ban books! [Via reader Matthew]
Arthur Frommer and the pharmaceutical company Novartis have teamed up to give Americans the Where to Stop & Where to Go of places to travel and places there where you can go to the bathroom, and one of the cities mentioned at length is New York City. Novartis makes a drug for OAB, which stands for Overactive Active Bladder (apparently 33 million Americans suffer from it!), and when you go to the site where you can order the guide, you fill out a survey that asks you whether you urinate "8 or more times over a 24-hour period (frequent urination)." (Gothamist became slightly freaked out when we took the survey, but then realized our goals of trying to drink 8-10 glasses of water a day also causes the frequent urination.) And you can print out a "I Need to Go Now" card (PDF) for you to flash storeowners, but we doubt that showing this card at a fancy boutique will get you anywhere.
More information from Academy of American Poets. Here's a list of outstanding poetry from the NY Public Library, and here's the NYC Poetry Meetup group. WNYC had some poets read their poems - listen and read here. And one of the event's sponsors, The New York Times, has an article about poetry blogs today.
Both teams have made improvements and there is excitement in the ranks. The Yankees added Randy Johnson, a deal that was almost a year in the making. Does this make them the team to beat? Perhaps, but they are always the team to beat and haven't won the World Series since 2000. Not good for a team with a payroll north of $200 million.
Spencer Tunick, best known as "that guy who takes those photographs of all the naked people lying on the ground," took photographs of 450 naked women in Grand Central Terminal yesterday morning. The photo shoot was during the station's closed period, with women streaming in at 3AM. Tunick had originally asked the Museum of Natural History and NY Public Library, but they refused. Nice work, MTA, but this wasn't listed on the activites of 90th anniversary activities. The way we figure it, that's 5 naked women for each one of Grand Central's years. Not bad. Though we think at Hef's 90th, he'll have that beat.
