Results tagged “thanksgivingday”

So Thanksgiving is next week. If you still haven't decided whether you’re going to cook, leave town, or stay in bed, you might as well just face facts and make your dinner reservation now. For $40 or less, here are a few spots that are either offering traditional dinners at low prices like the $10 deal from A Piece of Chicken, or are featuring otherwise interesting menus, like the Lebanese-themed Thanksgiving dinner at Al Diwan.

Will Macy's give its regards to Broadway? The NY Times reports that the developers who are trying to redevelop the James Farley Post Office building into the new Moynihan Station "are in the early stage of negotiations with Macy’s" to move from the store's landmark Herald Square location to the Farley building on Eighth Avenue. Charles Bagli's article summarizes the progress of the Penn Station redevelopment and Farley-into-Moynihan Station project: It's complex, given the...

The Post finds out that if sold, the inflated balloon of artist Jeff Koons' Rabbit, which made its debut appearance in the 81st Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday, would go for $5 million. The balloon isn't for sale, but the parade is so happy with the balloon that it's interested in ideas from other artists. Um, formaldehyde Damien shark, anyone? Or how about a Takashi Murakami Mr. Pointy balloon? Dan Flavin light balloon?...

A day after the NY Post served up a Thanksgiving day front page cover of Knicks president and coach Isiah Thomas as a turkey, the embattled Thomas proclaimed he would stay in his job, saying, "I don't foresee there being any changes this year." Which the Post calls "LOAD OF BULL?" But really, if there's one thing that the Post and Daily News must have been thankful for, it's having such a spectacularly poorly managed...

Crews are working to remove oil from Long Island shoreline that spilled into the ocean sometime on Thanksgiving Day and started washing ashore. Surfers called the Coast Guard to report "tar-like balls of oil." A number of agencies, including the Coast Guard and NY State DEP, are working on the cleanup. The spill seems to be about 500 gallons of no. 6 oil, an unrefined bunker oil, and Newsday reports the samples from the spill...

Two men walking along the East 79th transverse near Fifth Avenue were robbed at gunpoint by four men around 7:15PM on Wednesday night. The victims, ages 34 and 38, gave up their wallets and a cellphone for the robbers, who are described as young "black males between 18 and 20" years old" who "fled in the direction of the Great Lawn." The 34-year-old victim spoke to the Daily News and explained he and his partner...

Yesterday's lovely weather made the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a big crowd pleaser. An estimated 3.5 million spectators watched as giant balloons, floats, and hundreds of parade performers sauntered from 77th and Central Park West to Herald Square. Some people waited since 4AM in hopes of catching a glimpse of their favorite performers, who included Dolly Parton, Wynonna, the cast of Legally Blonde, American Idol winner Jordin Sparks, Good Charlotte, Menudo (really!), the Rockettes...

After seeing the Jets take Pittsburgh by surprise Sunday, the Cowboys weren't going to be ambushed. They dominated the Jets in every way in a 34-3 Thanksgiving Day whupping. Anyone who sat down to dinner after the Jets' first two series didn't miss much. Tony Romo led Dallas on a quick-strike scoring drive to start the game, and then Leon Washington fumbled the ensuing kickoff. Kellen Clemens couldn't get comfortable in the pocket when...

Starting in the afternoon, the masses traveled to the Upper West Side yesterday to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons get inflated on West 77th and West 81st Streets between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. By 6PM, crowds were penned in for blocks - it took us about 30-40 minutes of shuffling and snaking around before we could get close to any balloons. We suspect the Broadway stagehands' strike as well as...

Another gloomy day today. A bit of fog this morning may delay flights out of town. You may also have weather-caused delays if you're going to northern New England (ice and snow), Chicago-Detroit-Milwaukee (rain) and the front range of the Rockies from Denver northward (snow). If you're staying in town you can expect cloudy skies and mild temperatures with a high in the mid-50s. It won't cool off much tonight, making for a comfortable...

The Thanksgiving Day and Thanksgiving Day Eve have emerged as some of the busiest travel days of the year. While the media shows shots of crowded airports and train stations on the Wednesdays before Thanksgiving (like today), the Bureau of Transportation Statistics says that when personal vehicle travel is included into calculations, "Thanksgiving Day is actually a heavier long-distance travel day [to and from a destination more than 50 or more miles away] than...

Tomorrow is one of our favorite days of the year: The annual Thanksgiving Eve inflation of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons!

Did you see the snow this morning? Light snow, drizzle and fog were in the mix at Central Park for several hours this morning. More intriguing, between nine and ten this morning the Weather Service reported "unknown precipitation" as falling on Belvedere Castle. Very mysterious! Not enough snow fell in the city to actually be measured but places to the north and west reported up to three inches of snowfall. Aside from the momentary snow...

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Nostrand Ave. in Brooklyn, an overturned auto on the LIE and Oceania St. in Queens, and a fall victim on 170th St. and University Ave. in the Bronx.
• Two NJ teenagers attempted to escape the wrath of a parent, who caught them drinking alcohol last week, by tieing together bedsheets in order to rappel down the side of their highrise building. The incident ended badly, although both are expected to survive.
• The negative effect of a stagehand strike may be ameliorated by spillover business directed towards off-Broadway productions. It's being reported that off-Broadway business is up about 30% as major productions have shut down.
• Fats Domino was presented with the key to the city for his work on behalf of struggling musicians in New Orleans. The actual key is worth $100 and is presented in a black velour case--just some of many interesting tidbits in this Times piece.
• Experiences with the police when one is taking pictures legally--even when one is not arrested--can still be a huge unnerving pain in the ass.
• The famed New Jersey Satriale's butcher shop, which was featured for several years as a location on the HBO mob drama "The Sopranos," has been knocked down and turned into a condo building called "The Sopranos."
• Three new giant balloons are entering the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade: Shrek, Abby Cadabby, and Hello Kitty. The three giants took a test-inflate in Queens this Sunday.
• Friends and family gathered to remember the victims of Flight 587, which crashed in residential Belle Harbor, Queens shortly after takeoff six years ago.

Green M&Ms have held this mythic place in many people's candy-eating consciences, whether due to fables, Van Halen's concert riders or advertising. And now green M&M's will be associated with a very real place in New York - Central Park. Tomorrow, M&M's World Store in Times Square will start selling a special new color, Central Park Green, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Central Park Conservancy. These M&M's have a mottled...

a Statue of Liberty M&M floating by.

Yesterday's 80th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade went off smoothly, if very wet. The big balloons were kept low to the ground, due to concerns about the high winds, and basically stayed out of trouble, though, according to the NY Times, a Humpty Dumpty balloon "somersaulted" as one point and a Garfield balloon handler slipped during a gust.

With weather advisories in effect, warning of storms and winds, city officials are contemplating what to do with Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons. From the NY Times:

The poor weather and heightened oversight could ground some or all of the 13 big balloons — 1 fewer than last year — that are set to fly today, starting at 9 a.m. In the best case, they could be flown so low as to practically be floats. In the worst case, as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg warned, the hapless helium-filled creatures could be pulled onto side streets and summarily deflated.

Continue reading "Will the Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloons Fly?"

Get ready for some helium action! The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons will be blown up tomorrow at 3PM on the Upper West Side. The blow-up is basically all around the American Museum of Natural History - along at 77th and 81st Streets between Central Park West and Columbus. There may be a helium shortage (who knew?), but planners know and have taken that into account. Just be sure to bundle up.

Oh, man, Gothamist's head is spinning this afternoon. We just read the New York article about near future weather and climate changes the city is facing. We cringe whenever we see the words "freakish" and "weird" in any story about the weather as their use usually means the author doesn't have a firm grasp of the subject matter. This case is no exception as we found numerous little errors and misinterpretations. Despite these errors the article mostly gets the big picture right: There's a mild El Nino (which usually indicates a mild winter), the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation is in its warm phase (greater hurricane frequency), and longer-term global temperatures are continuing to rise (more intense hurricanes).

The holiday season is upon us, and with shorter work hours and more days off, it often seems like the perfect time to hit up those museums you never have a chance to. Beware the holiday hours, however. Below is a little cheat sheet of what to expect at the (major) museums over the next month.

So, if you’re a turkey, this probably isn’t a good time for you. Our condolences. But for us humans , we can’t help but get all giddy at the thought of long days spent lounging, nibbling and, of course, imbibing. It’s almost enough to make us want to stop and give thanks, in the very least to the turkey. Therefore to show it the respect it deserves, we’re putting together a delicious holiday meal. OK, actually we’re not putting it together (thanks mom) but we will be bringing some wines worthy of the occasion.

A look at some noteworthy programs this week:

The History Channel is creating a wild, NYC-centric float for this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. According to its press release:

Designed to mirror a child's tin wind-up toy, The History Channel float will feature a giant replica of New York City's most famous skyscraper, the Empire State Building. In addition, the float will reveal through its wind-up motion, iconic dates, celebrations and locations, tracing the history of New York City. Through the artistry of the Macy's Parade Studio team, the float will feature landmark events throughout history from the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty to Babe Ruth's defining moments at Yankee Stadium, to the world-famous World War II "Kiss" in Times Square, all helping to bring history to life.

Investigators have spent the hours after a plane, carrying Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor Tyler Stanger, crashed into an Upper East Side building gathering evidence from the street. Federal transportation investigators believe that the single engine Cirrus SR 20 was trying to make a U-turn when it turned left over the East River, based on something either Lidle or Stanger told an official at Teterboro Airport. According to radar, the plane had flown over the East River at an altitude of 700 feet and was at 500 feet a quarter mile north of 524 East 72nd Street.

Oh, Bloomie, Bloomie, Bloomie. Mayor Mike shot an arrow at State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer yesterday on his weekly WABC radio address. After Spitzer has moved to slow/stop/co-opt a number of his and Pataki's larger projects (read: The city's planned purchase of the West Side Rail Yards from the MTA and Moynihan Station) Bloomberg made it very clear that he thinks Spitzer needs to just let elected officials do their job:

"The tendency when you're near the end of an administration [is] to say, 'Oh, let's postpone everything for the next administration, so the next administration gets a chance to weigh in.' "

Continue reading "Bloomie to Spitzer: Let Us Do Our Jobs"

Maybe Gothamist has Thanksgiving on the brain, what with yesterday's Pikachu balloon test, and our overall love of the holiday (we love turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie and...). But how could we not post about some great photographs from a 1930s Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade? Reader Jon sent us a link to a Swaptorium post describing a trove of photographs found in a small Texas town. Swaptorium writes, "The marquee on the movie theater is showing Divorce in the Family with Jackie Cooper which would date the photos to around 1932."

It's November in May...or something. DailySnapshots went up to Times Square to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade practice. NY1 is reporting that traffic was snarled all over Midtown for most of the morning because of it. The exercise was intended to avoid the tourist-maiming incidents that have occurred in years past. But what will Pikachu do without his semi-annual blood sacrifice? Only time will tell!