Slowpokes and procrastinators beware: Late fees from overdue library books in New York could be costing you points off your credit score. The New York Times has an article today that describes how the The New York Public Library and the Queens Public Library have been using a private company named Unique Management Services, which is a collections agency that library late fines are referred to when not paid by book borrowers. One rabbi in......

Anthony Bourdain has repeatedly professed his undying affection for Fergus Henderson’s roasted marrow bones with parsley salad, and even considers the British chef to be his “favorite food person.” For eaters who willingly choose seared squab hearts over heart-healthy turkey burgers, Henderson’s offal-heavy cookbook The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating is considered a classic. It contains recipes such as Blood Cake with Fried Eggs, Tripe Gratin, and Crispy Pig’s Tail. Stuff like that. This......

The city of New York is mourning the death of Brooke Astor. The philanthropist, who died yesterday at age 105, had channeled millions from her husband's fortune into a numbers of institutions and organizations - from Carnegie Hall to small community groups across all boroughs. The NY Times obituary makes a very good point about why the $195 million she donated through the Astor Foundation was so important: "Although the foundation was not large......

Brooke Astor passed away today. A gentleman should never ask a lady her age, but once Brooke Astor passed the century mark, she probably didn't care who knew how old she was. Brooke Astor was the wife of Vincent Astor, the only son of John Jacob Astor IV, who died in the sinking of the Titanic. The Astor family's roots stretch back almost as far as the history of New York City itself. The subway......

The New York Public Library is closed today––it is a national holiday––but New Yorkers should be proud to hear that the main branch on 42nd St. and 5th Ave. has been entrusted with one of two surviving copies of the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson himself. The document is a handwritten duplicate of the document signed in Philadelphia 231 years ago, asserting the original thirteen colonies' indepedendence from England and starting the American......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a slashing on East 156th St. and Union Ave. in the Bronx, a missing patient on East 135th St. and Lenox Ave. in Manhattan, and a person under a subway train at Lenox Ave. and Central Park North in Manhattan. Being a Jew-hating Nazi in Brooklyn must be neverending work. One miserable person in Park Slope keeps slogging away though. The New York Public Library is opening its first......

At the end of this month, your friendly neighborhood Spider Man will be all over New York for...Spider Man week! A five-borough-wide celebration (marketing ploy) featuring a ton of live events, screenings, parties and exhibits. The city has been central to the Marvel Comics legend since Spidey's beginning in 1962, so it only makes sense to launch the latest movie here. "On one hand, New York is a battleground, and on the other, it's a......

November 18: Gluttony Gotta love an event called "Gluttony," although we were sad to learn there wasn't any food involved. Atlantic food writer Corby Kummer pulls together chefs Mario Batali and Dan Barber (pictured), and James Beard Award winning writer Barbara Kafka to discuss whether the newest high-tech equipment glorifies or destroys the freshest low-tech ingredients. 1:00 PM in South Court Auditorium of The New York Public Library. Arrive early for best seat selection; doors......

Street photography is generally thought to have come about in the late 1950's, right here in New York, when a new generation of photographers (Robert Frank and William Klein) changed the nature of documentary photography. Now, through June, you can check out New York street photography from the 1960's and 70's - at the New York Public Library. From the NYPL's site: Photographs of the street are as old as photography itself. The earliest practitioners......

The New York Public Library announced that it bought the archive of writer William S. Burroughs, including his letters and drafts of Naked Lunch. This makes the NYPL's collection of Bea-era materials the most comprehensive, since it already holds the Jack Kerouac archive. The NY Times story about the acquisition had the interesting sidenote about how Allen Ginsberg wanted the NYPL to buy his collection, but since he wanted to sell it quickly, the NYPL......

FASHION: This is the last weekend to catch Rara Avis: Selections from the Iris Barrel Apfel Collection at the Met. The exhibit has been up since September and captures one of the most vivacious personalities in the worlds of fashion, textiles, and interior design. Check it out and gear up for fashion week, which is on it's way whether you like it or not. All Weekend // The Metropolitan Museum [1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd......

Today, the Parks Department will announce that Bryant Park will get a skating rink from October 28 until January 15. The New York Public Library had been worried that a rink would damage an underground book storage area, but say, "The concerns we've raised are being addressed and we know that Bryant Park, with its views of the library's Beaux-Arts facade, will provided a beautiful setting for skating this winter." And how. The rink, called......

Earlier this week, the NY Times looked at how the "New York brand" is co-opted into many more products these days, from brand names (Maybelline New York) to product names (the Subaru Tribeca SUV, Seven for All Mankind jeans' New York Rinse). And why does everyone want a piece of the Big Apple? Mayor Giuliani "cleaning up" the city, September 11, and TV shows Seinfeld, Sex and the City, and Friends - you know, shows......

In June of 1776, five men - John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston - began drafting the Declaration of Independence. A final draft was sent to Congress on July 1, and it was ratified on July 4. However, Congress had made some revisions, much to the dismay of Jefferson, the primary author. For posterity, he immediately made several copies of the original text, underlining the sections that had been......