You can see what are the most recommended and most commented posts on the Gothamist Favorites site, but here are the top three for both: Most Recommended 1. Bad Ad Ideas: Pakistan Airlines, 1979: An old ad showing the shadow of an airplane against the World Trade Center brought up some spooky associations as well as questions about whether the ad was real. 2. Breaking: Shots Fired at Police by Man Barricaded in Park Slope......

The plastic bags that New Yorkers walk away with after shopping have many functions in their 2nd lives - picking up dog poop, reuse as garbage bags, or even getting caught in trees - but there's one especially novel usage. In today's entry on the city's new plastic bag recycling bill, which awaits Mayor Bloomberg's signature, we learned that plastic bags can also be used as toys for children: The best way to reuse plastic......

Not everyone got an over-hyped "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" when it hit Whole Foods last year, so the powers that be had to step in and put an end to the bag's nemesis: The Plastic Bag! Yesterday, the City Council passed a bill, 44 to 2, requiring stores over 5,000 square-feet to offer recycling for plastic bags, as well as have bins where bags can be returned. And on the plastic bags stores give......

Yesterday the NY Post warned non-recyclers that they'd have to don a "scarlet litter" if they didn't clean up their acts. We hoped this "scarlet litter" would be a hat hand-crafted by a Freegan and worn atop the heads of the environmentally-challenged, but instead it's something much more sensible: a clear bag for all of your garbage that leaves little to the imagination. New York, we don't really want to see your trash, so please......

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and City Council member Peter Vallone presented a proposal withnew requirements about grocery stores' use, recycling and storage of plastic bags. Stores bigger than 5,000 square feet would need to:Use recyclable bags Have bins where customers can return bags Print "Please return this bag to a participating store for recycling" in 3"+ high letters on bags Provide reusable bags for sale (this can also mean more durable plastic) Record......

Robert Chambers, whose privileged Upper East upbringing earned the tabloid nickname "The Preppy Killer" when he killed a woman in 1986, was charged with 14 counts of selling and possessing drugs. Since two of the counts are for first-degree sale, which the Daily News reports carries 15-30 years, Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau said, "I would expect he would spend the rest of his life in jail." Chambers and girlfriend Shawn Kovell were arrested by......

Clarence Dean, a registered sex offender in Florida and Alabama, was charged in the murder of a young woman whose body was found at a Times Square hotel. While cleaning a room on Thursday, a housekeeper at the Hotel Carter, on West 43rd Street near 8th Avenue, noticed some plastic bags under a bed and realized there was a body inside. Dean had checked out of the room on Wednesday. Dean reportedly told the police......

The police are questioning a man who had been registered a room in a West 43rd Street hotel where a woman's body was found on Thursday. Clarence Dean, a 35-year-old "fugitive" sex offender from Alabama, had checked out of the room 608 at the Hotel Carter, an inexpensive hotel near 8th Avenue popular with tourists. He was not charged with any crime, but police picked him up after seeing him at Park Avenue and East......

Every morning, Bobby Fish parks his busted up maroon Dodge van at the edge of a Hess Express parking lot on West 207th Street. He unloads his signs and opens his Coors Light umbrella. “Bobby Fish,” the signs proclaim, “El Rey Del Ceviche.” People call him the King- it's not just his own posterboard. The King pulls a few lawn chairs out of his van and sets them on the sidewalk. Behind him, a Harlem......

Yesterday we mentioned London designer Anya Hindmarch's I'm Not A Plastic Bag was finally arriving at Whole Foods today. The canvas tote was made popular by a combination of things including celebrity and unavailability. Hindmarch told the NY Times “To create awareness you have to create scarcity by producing a limited edition. I hate the idea of making the environment trendy, but you need to make it cool and then it becomes a habit.” We're......

Scientific American has an fascinating feature An Earth Without People, not to mention these renderings of what the city might look like sans humans. The drawing above is what Fifth Avenue/St. Patrick's Cathedral would look like and the drawing below is what the subways would look like after just two days. SA interviewed Alan Weisman, whose book The World Without Us discusses would happen if people just vanished completely from the face of the......

Just in time for summer in the city, Time Matter Energy offers this Con Everyone shirt. It's a great gift idea for any friends who live in Queens! Con Ed did say they would have enough energy for this summer, but do you trust them? And we have to give a shout to the Thank You Tote Bag, which pays homage to one of the more ubiquitous bodega plastic bags in a very green......

There's a fascinating NY Region op-ed in the NY Times. Written by Colin Beaven, Worms in the Apartment looks at how, for the first time in his life, Beaven has changed his life to reflect his belief: For the year beginning last December, my wife, our 2-year-old daughter and I, while living in the middle of the city, are trying to survive without making any net impact on the environment. This means we’ll get as......

One of the wonders of a nice fir tree for the holidays is that they can stay beautiful for a while. But the bummer is getting rid of the tree. The Department of Sanitation encourages city residents to clear out their trees by mid-January, as its annual Christmas tree curbside collection starts on Friday, January 5 an runs through Tuesday, January 16. Here's how it works:Residents should remove all tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments......

With free kayaking, many public events, a bustling boat basin, and runners, bikers and pedestrians on the move, Riverside Park is a vibrant destination - up to a point. The NY Times has an article about how the Frederick Olmsted-designed park seem much dingier, dirtier, and more dangerous above around 125th Street: The park’s southern tier, which stretches some 266 acres along the river from 59th Street to 125th Street, has among its highlights......

It's that time of year again, when you trade in your summer clothes for your fall sweaters. And why don't you get rid of the things you never wear while you're at it, as the city is having it's annual Fall Electronics Recycling & Clothing Donation Events in all five boroughs. The first event is this Sunday in Staten Island, and next weekend on September 24, the event will be at Union Square in Manhattan......

Residents of Chinatown, Lower East Side, Soho, Nolita, Little Italy, etc., get your cameras and Culture Club vinyls ready: Boy George will be cleaning your streets starting August 14. The Department of Sanitation told the Daily News that Boy George will get a "shovel, broom, plastic bags and gloves" when he starts his 5 day community service stint (required after he pleaded guilty to falsely calling in a break-in). The DoS says that the singer......

One of our most commented-posts was the one about various scams that are pulled on people, especically on susceptible people unused to New York City-style hustle, grifts and cons. And many con artists do like to stalk areas that are flush with tourists and students. So we were pleased that all of the tips and scams our commenters had given us the first time around could benefit other people, such as reader Josh who sent......

Jason Kottke has been travelling in Asia for the last week, and we've been following along via Flickr and his blog. All of his travel coverage is interesting, but he's doing particularly well spotting weird beverages-- including this Pepsi Coffee soda, and Fanta in a bag. The latter is particularly interesting: apparently street vendors in Bangkok pour the soda into a bag and stick in a straw-- this way they get to keep the recycling......

On Sundays, Gothamist puts its own opinions aside, and asks friends and strangers to write Op-Ed pieces for us. If you want to submit one, email Jake. Here's a review of Ian Frazier's new book, by Ben Cosgrove-- sounds like a winner to us: Has anyone ever written a single, great, quintessentially New York novel? Or a single, great, quintessential history of the city? If anything, the books that feel most "New York" are those......

These days, most people either rent movies with Netflix or On-Demand them, but some of us still have our trusty Blockbuster memberships, so we can stumble into a store to debate what to rent and only end up renting something we've seen many times before (The Cutting Edge, anyone? And did you know there's a sequel to The Cutting Edge for some sort of distribution in 2006, The Cutting Edge 2). But now, our last......

Good morning, fellow commuters. In this new era of pro-active policing, we'd like to know your experience was taking the subway this morning (or last night, as we hear some searching starting then) - were you checked, did you see others checked, did it take any longer. Overall, subway riders realize they need to be checked and are okay with it, even though civil liberties groups question the legality of doing so. According to......

Why do bodegas insist on putting everything in a brown bag, and what's with sometimes putting one item and its brown bag inside a plastic bag? Glenn Gothamist shares your curiosity and, from the tone of your email, frustration. We recently bought a pack of gum at our local Duane Reade and before we could say anything, the sales clerk put our tiny purchase in a small white plastic bag. As we left the......

The seamy details of murders were examined in the NY Times article about some recent discoveries of murdered bodies. The big news is that murderers are utilizing plastic bags more (versus steamer trunks in the old days), and that actually helps the NYPD identify the victims, not to mention figure out who might be behind the crime. Gothamist found this explanation from former chief medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden fascinating: The plastic tends to preserve......

Gothamist doesn't know what the local papers would be covering without the Republican National Convention coming to town, because as the days go by, the stories pile on. The hot button issue is, as ever, security. Mayor Bloomberg had a press conference with Police Commissioner Kelly to hype the pros of having the convention here ("This will be a unique opportunity for NYC to advertise itself"), although it came after they spoke to private security......

Laurie Woolever, Cook/Food Writer...