[UPDATE BELOW] We've received a report that a Manhattan-bound F train was delayed this morning because a woman was going into labor, and the MTA has confirmed it. The woman was "removed by EMS from Southbound F Train at 21st-Queensbridge," and the delay was from 8:58 a.m. until 9:21 a.m. This is officially a trend! Will the next issue of Brooklyn Magazine skewer the designer afghans you can spread out on train benches for when little Dylan greets the world? more ›

With job prospects increasingly dim for many Americans, thousands of moms around the country are reportedly turning to the phones to put food on the table. Specifically, they are working as sex phone operators. Y'know, like Jennifer Jason Leigh did in Robert Altman's classic Raymond Carver movie Short Cuts. "I look at what I do as a business," one a single mom explained to Good Morning America. "It happens to deal with sex." more ›

Back in May, we met the Hipster Church of Flushing, whose Korean pastor proudly proclaimed himself a hipster and bragged about listening to MGMT. Now, the Times has introduced us to a competing hipster church in Williamsburg, and this one totally has the hallmarks of real hipster down pat. more ›

The Gray Lady tackles the gentrification of Bedford-Stuyvesant today—and essentially, what they are saying is that Bed-Stuy is now the domain of organic bodegas, tricycle riders, foie gras-filled doughnuts, and doughnut summonses. But we're just grateful that they didn't ask if Bed-Stuy is the new Paris. more ›

Because little Fido's kibbles simply must be organic, several of the city's high-end butcher shops are now producing gourmet dog food. And though it sounds ridiculous at first, it's maybe, actually, somehow not the worst idea in the world. more ›

There have been some pretty awful trends for ladies over the years—jeggings, anyone?—but this one just might take the cake: say hello to pregnant belly painting. more ›

We've known about the affliction "Blackberry thumb" for a while now, but chances are it hasn't affected anyone who didn't deserve it. But what are you doing to protect your dainty neck as it bobs up and down in between sexts? A Midtown salon is now offering a $200 "Blackberry Facial" for those of us who are subconscious about the state of their nape, and a brave Daily News reporter underwent the treatment to see if it made a difference. Symptoms of "Blackberry neck" are wrinkles, soreness, and the inability to just put the goddamn thing down for three seconds while a cashier rings up your pack of Orbit. more ›

Because apparently no one in this city can get enough of food that comes out of a truck (it's magic!), the Prospect Park Alliance has put together an event that will make it even easier for you to find a meal on wheels, and they're calling it, creatively, Food Truck Rally. Taking over Grand Army Plaza next Sunday, the festival promises everything from lobster rolls (Red Hook Lobster Pound) to falafel (Taim Mobile), all in one convenient parking lot—but wait, haven't we seen this before? more ›

Yesterday it was announced that crack-pie hotspot Momofuku Milk Bar was moving out of its shared digs with East 13th Street's Ssam Bar and going all the way across the street. And today we find out what's happening in the newly vacated space: duck. A lot of it. Starting next week, Chang and Co., who have previously been best known for their work with pigs, are installing a rotisserie in the former Milk Bar space and turning weekday lunch service at Ssam Bar into a regular ol' duck party, complete with duck over rice, a duck sandwich with duck-liver mousse, duck charcuterie and duck wonton soup. And looking around the city's dining scene, it's becoming clear that Chang isn't the only one going ducking crazy. more ›

Today we get word over the tipline about a grody-sounding supposed new trend: edible alcohol. And while we're generally in favor of all things involving booze, these offerings give us reason to pause. We're not talking about penne a la vodka here—think more like "drunken desserts" and "aperitif apps." more ›

It was only a week ago that we first heard about the crazy new bath salts drug trend, but they're already being targeted by the man for permanent banishment. Senator Chuck Schumer announced a bill today to add the two active ingredients in the powders, mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, also known as MDPV, to the list of federally controlled substances. more ›

We've heard of some strange crazes over the last year: Four Loko, breast milk cheese, vodka eyeballing, synthetic marijuana, and of course, spaghetti tacos. But now officials have pinpointed the next great weird drug trend: bath salts...wait, uh, bath salts? more ›

Williamsburg's condo boom went bust during the Great Recession, but now that high-income New Yorkers have gotten back on their feet, the condos are a-rockin' again. And the neighborhood is being flooded with a new breed of hipster... breeders. Not that the two cliches are mutually exclusive; just check out the crowd at a They Might Be Giants kids' show (half of the band, John Flansburgh, is also a Williamsburgher). The NY Times loves a good trend (especially in Brooklyn), and a new article headlined "Williamsburg, Toddlertown," explains what happens when a man and a woman love each other very much and make a baby in a Brooklyn neighborhood THAT IS NOT PARK SLOPE. How is that even possible?! You could read it all yourself, but maybe it's a little too early on a Friday to throw up in your mouth. Not for us; here are our four favorite regurgitated parts: more ›

Brian Williams's appearance on Morning Joe on Christmas Eve last week has been rescued from the holiday memory hole by NYTpicker, and hooray for that, because the NBC News anchorman was really in rare form. As the talking heads were droning on about the biggest media story of 2010 (Joe Scarborough: The iPad!), Williams went on a sardonic tear about the New York Times' "discovery" of Brooklyn. "Once a day, there’s a story about all the riches offered in that borough," Williams japed. "There are young men and women wearing ironic glass frames on the streets. There are open air markets, like trading posts in the early Chippewa tribe, where you can make beads at home and then trade them for someone to come over and start a small fire in your apartment that you share with nine others." Oh, he didn't stop there; here's video: more ›

You are a worthless P.O.S. if you don't hire a bartender for your house party, say people who own catering companies and two random douchebags. This is a certified trend, according to the Times Thursday Style section, which, ahem, reports that "a growing crowd of 30-something New Yorkers who wish to signal they’ve graduated from post-collegiate squalor to young professional coming of age... won’t invite friends over for cocktails without the assistance of a bartender — eve [sic] if there’s barely room for the bartender to stand." Interviews with caterers and people who've hired bartenders confirm it, and here are the three most infuriating quotes from this most infuriating of articles: more ›

Trend pieces are like self-fulfilling urban myths; you want to believe them, and you start discussions about them at the Twitter cooler, even though you're pretty sure they're fake. In that spirit, the Daily News reports on a new trend that's swept across NYC faster than you can say #brosicingbros: the Tea Party. more ›

On Tuesday Google launched this new social interaction feature called Buzz. No one fully understands it yet, but basically it lets Gmail users create sort of a one-stop Twitter/Facebook/Misc. interface (and bypass your employer's social media blocks). Or something. Some say it's the DEATH of Facebook, while others are vowing to "buzz your Gmail inboxes so hard they're going to explode!" But the exciting new what-have-you has also spread fear, because when you activate it, the default setting automatically lets all your Gmail contacts (like your wife) see the people you IM and e-mail most (your ex-wife!). Take it away, irate Buzz user: more ›

According to the NY Times, "New York lost fewer residents to other states in 2007-8 than during any year in at least a generation." Demographers at Queens College broke down census info and found that "some 257,000 people moved away during those 12 months...the first time the number dipped below 300,000 since the Census Bureau began measuring the annual flows in 1982." And why might this be happening? The real estate market—if you can't sell your house, you're not moving. And a possible "silver lining" to keeping residents in New York, where the economy isn't doing so well? The Empire State may only lose one Congressional seat, instead of two. more ›

Over the weekend, the Times used all of the buzz surrounding the inauguration frenzy down in DC to spin out the age-old question, "Is New York over?" The article focused in on the doom and gloom of late around town (jobs being lost, shops closing down) to question whether we're all collectively basking in an "ambient bummer." Apparently LA isn't slowing down as they keep "spinning out hits" like Gran Torino and Bride Wars (was Hollywood expected to shut down?). Ultimately it's one of those pieces that takes no real stance, citing prodigal daughter Joan Didion calling the city "over" 40 years ago. But the article still manages to speculate that we're “definitely shedding whatever New York was a few years ago.” Not to celebrate the tanking economy, but if one of those things we're shedding is "people complaining about $20 cocktails or $300 bottle service," is it possible that we're righting our course? more ›

Joel Kotkin, author of The City: A Global History, pontificates on urban social trends over at The Observer, saying that New York should, and may already, be modeling itself after other cities. He warns that "New York has been on what you could call the ‘plutonomy wagon.’ So New York has been the ultimate trickle-down economy—it’s been a relatively small group of people driving the economy. The skills of New York are still here; the roots of some of the industries are still here. But, unless many things are grown to replace this plutonomy, the city’s going to continue to go through this spiral where it becomes more and more bifurcated—there are no middle-class jobs, except in the plutonomy." His solution: look to San Francisco as a model! Or Chicago, though all he really says about the Windy City is that they have good PR. more ›

Approximately 85 undocumented workers are being fired from the high-end grocery delivery company Fresh Direct on the on the eve of the holiday season because their status as U.S. residents is disputed. Dozens of workers filed out of the company's Queens warehouse. Fresh Direct blamed a federal probe for the axing of almost a hundred workers. According to the Daily News, "management insisted it carried out the purge under pressure from federal authorities to crack... more ›

Official crime statistics recorded by the city this year indicate that New York is on track to record fewer than 500 murders in 2007, the lowest number since reliable statistics began to be recorded in 1963. The trends recorded thus far this year, show that murders by strangers are also down dramatically. So far, there have only been 428 murders recorded in 2007––412 killings and 16 people who succumbed to injuries sustained earlier. According... more ›

This weekend Kanye West's mother (and manager), Dr. Donda West, died after surgery - which the BBC is reporting was cosmetic (UPDATE: she was warned prior to getting the surgery). West was very close with his 58-year-old mother, often speaking publicly about their bond and even writing a song for her. Just this summer the two were at Borders to promote her new book, Raising Kanye. Kanye was in London when told of the death,... more ›

You may or may not have noticed that it's Fashion Week -- either way, style is saturating the city right now more than ever, and we've asked Faran Krentcil to help us figure the whole thing out. She who holds down the fort at Fashionista.com fills us in on The Tents, the trends and the tricks. more ›

After a protest in East Harlem, baseball cap manufacturer New Era has agreed to pull Yankees caps from store shelves. A number of caps seem to refer to the Bloods, Crips and Latin Kings and became a controversy during a back-to-school shopping trip. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck on Pennsylvania Ave. and Fulton St. in Brooklyn, a bank robbery on Co-Op City Blvd. in the Bronx, and a commercial high-rise fire on Broadway in Manhattan.
• An actor who once played a police lieutenant on L&O: SVU turned himself in to NJ cops today on suspicion of possession of child pornography.
• YouTube wants to subpeona comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert in a lawsuit charging that the pair appear in purloined Internet videos clips of their shows on the video-sharing site.
• A family court judge is being investigated for perhaps being too TV-friendly while serving on the bench of an actual family courtroom. She's mocked the foreign accent of a lawyer and routinely trash talks people who appear before her.
• We doubt this story about dressing up dogs in wigs is worth an email to the ASPCA, but it's getting close.
• A man was crushed to death between an elevator car and the elevator shaft at an industrial site in Brooklyn.
• Staten Island's Victory Diner was carted from its Dongan Hills location to a Parks Dept. location thanks to the donations of the Richmond County Savings Bank and several other local organizations. "'I was so happy when I heard it was going to be saved I actually cried,' said local resident Susan Pugliese, who was married in the diner."
• A directory to charity thrift shops around NYC.