You might think Jared Kushner has it all—Ivanka Trump as his wife, a baby on the way, a newspaper, real estate. But he has his problems, too, based on this Wall Street Journal article today. See, back in 2006, he paid $1.8 billion for a MIdtown skyscraper, and now, the WSJ reports, "With cash running low, the 30-year-old developer is scrambling to hold on to 666 Fifth Ave. ahead of a looming default deadline." more ›

Everybody knows that 9/11 was a vast conspiracy perpetrated by the US government, the Freemasons, President Obama, global warming and bedbugs. But now we can add another name to that illustriously evil list: The Simpsons! Or, maybe it's the writers of The Simpsons? Why did I have the bowl? It's all a bit vague, but at the same time, shockingly real. According to several fringe conspiracy experts, it is undoubtedly within the realm of possibility that The Simpsons predicted 9/11 in the episode "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson." Catch up on all the pupil-dilating details at The Observer sheeple, then watch the video below to complete your education. You could use facts to prove anything that’s even remotely true! And faster than you can say The Simpsons already did it," you'll have discovered that they probably very likely almost definitely did do...something... more ›

Mommy blogger Elyssa Stern allegedly offered to pay off a $45K dental bill by publishing a four page glowing review in the Observer's Playground magazine, which she is the editor-in-chief of. According to the Daily News, Stern is now being sued by the dental practice (Lowenberg & Lituchy DDS) after the article never ran, and the bill has remained unpaid. more ›

Back in the '60s, ungrateful hippie protesters spat on soldiers coming back from Vietnam; today the ungrateful rabble hurls invective at brave, patriotic bankers in the financial sector. It's true, insists one "handsome" young banker "with slightly mean-looking eyes" in a priceless New York Observer profile. "I had these big dreams when I was a kid to help people," whines the anonymous young tool. "But it’s much harder than one might think. You have to do your job. You’re in the Army, and they send you to Vietnam. It’s not a good war, but they tell you to shoot. You shoot. It’s very complicated, but people don’t see that." Damn, if he thinks it's tough now, just wait until he rotates back to the world and the flashbacks start. Someday, this mortgage-backed derivative security financial crisis is gonna end. more ›

This week The Observer coins a new word to describe those enthusiastic eaters who spend an inordinate amount of time discussing, blogging, contemplating, and tweeting about food: They are foodiots, and New York is crawling with them. We hope this catches on, because "foodie" just doesn't go far enough to describe a mother tweeting about her homemade pear tofu purée nutmeg baby food. more ›

Jim Lahey— the effervescent, no-knead dough guru and chef/owner of Sullivan Street Bakery and pizza joint Co.— has some advice for Frank Bruni following the single star Times review of Co. earlier this week. "If you want your cheese and sauce, you can get it [at Ray's]," he told the Observer’s Daily Transom. "They'll actually put extra shit on for ya!" Lahey’s working pizza philosophy at Co. (megawatt chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten is an investor) adheres to a principle that pizza should not be laden with toppings and it is best cooked in a 900 degree oven. “The driving force was to change this genre of food-making so it's not falling into the same stupid cliches,” Lahey told the Observer, “like, the thick crust on the edge and lots of tomato sauce and cheese.” Lahey conspicuously sports a “Consume Less” t-shirt on the Sullivan Street website; Bruni’s admonishment that Lahey “needs to sweat the cheese and the rest of it a little more” seems to have specifically irked the chef. The Observer article, with more expletives, is here. Expect a Diner’s Journal rebuttal to Lahey’s rebuttal, which veers sharply into self-deprecating territory, sometime today. (photo courtesy Adam Kuban/Slice) more ›

Since opening over the summer, Delicatessen, that trendy restaurant-bar-lounge-tool magnet has been pissed on, robbed, and threatened by neighbors furious about the hotspot's cacophony. Now the Observer has piled on too, declaring it "undeniably the city’s most loathed new restaurant in 2008." Even if you know you hate the place already, it's a fun read, detailing how owner Mark Thomas Amadei, 35, installed Delicatessen in the space formerly occupied by the humble Buffa’s Coffee Shop, which he frequented during his N.Y.U. days. Amadei swears he's unfazed by all the hate because he went through the same thing with his Chelsea diner Cafeteria, where "everyone" said he wouldn't last: "Fast-forward, ten and a half years later, every celebrity in the world comes there all the time." So piss off, no-name haters! more ›

If there's a Kushner, there's a controversy! The former head of the financing arm of real estate developer Kushner Companies is suing his former employer and claims money from commission of the purchase of 666 Fifth Avenue (for $1.8 billion) actually went to keep the Observer, owned by Charles Kushner's son Jared, afloat. Swill also claims that other money was put into trusts for Kushner's kids and to pay off family loans--and that some money also went to Mark O'Donnell, aka boyfriend of former Governor Jim McGreevey and a Kushner employee. The Kushners' spokesman denied the accusations, calling Swill a "disgruntled employee." Well, this is interesting, but not as good at when Charles Kushner hired prostitutes to seduce his sister's husband and his accountants so he could blackmail them, but only his brother-in-law took the bait. more ›

The Observer has video of Representative Anthony Weiner trying to make a Sarah Palin joke. But it's just terrible (and terribly sexist): Referring to the VP debate, Weiner says, "Undeniably, undeniably, we saw a vice presidential candidate who had nice legs. I won’t dispute that... but we also saw a vice-presidential candidate who tried to explain her running mate’s health care position.” more ›