Big Sky Brooklyn is poetic in his photos and language, too and he presents images and impressions from big sky Brooklyn, where old &
new, concrete & ethereal, desolate & sublime collide/harmonize.

Often there’s even haiku.

Nice piece in the Brooklyn Paper by Nica Lalli about OTBKB pick for the Park Slope 100, Jonathan Blum, the Fifth Avenue artist who’s been on Fifth Avenue since 1999. He does the dog pictures and the forehead paintings you know and love. 

City Planning Commission approved a plan by the Fifth Avenue Committee for a supportive housing project, which includes 49 units of affordable, supportive housing
for low-income community residents and formerly homeless individuals at
575 5th Avenue in South Park Slope, Brooklyn. The building will include
on-site social services, 24 hour front desk security and a gardenThe
development now faces a hearing before the City Council’s Land Use
Committee.

Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the award winning Brooklyn Paper (this time it was an award for their website. Props to Ed and Gersh):

The other morning, while Smartmom sipped her iced coffee on the
steps of the Montauk Club, she noticed a man looking up at one of the
tall London Pines that hang over Eighth Avenue. So she asked him what
he was looking at.

“I think there’s a Nashville Warbler in the tree,” he said. “I can’t see it, but I hear it whistle. It’s very distinctive.”

Smartmom closed her eyes and listened. Then she tried for a minute or so to locate the bird.

“There it is,” the man said. “It’s in the middle there. It’s yellow.”

Still, Smartmom couldn’t find it. She asked the man if the Nashville Warbler is a rare find, and he said it was.

She
kept looking. But mostly, she was looking at the birdwatcher and having
her own flashback. Smartmom’s father is an avid birdwatcher and he used
to take her on walks in the Ramble in Central Park. She was never able
to see the birds. Her father tried to teach her to use his binoculars.

“Find the bird, then press the binoculars to your eyes. It’s simple,” he’d say.

But
it wasn’t, and she was never any good at it. Not being able to find
birds, Smartmom found herself frustrated and bored on these Central
Park expeditions especially when her father got into long conversations
with the other birdwatchers about their recent sightings.

At the
time, Smartmom couldn’t wait to get home. But now she wished she’d paid
more attention or that her father had been a more patient teacher.

Smartmom
wonders whether any of what she tries to pass on to the Oh So Feisty
One and Teen Spirit will be remembered. There’s so much she wants to
share. Sometimes they show little interest. Other times they’re all
ears.

For instance, OSFO loves to hear about the Stay Up All
Night Club, the club Smartmom and her friend, Best and Oldest, invented
when they were 11. On sleepovers, they’d try to stay up as late as
possible, while playing wild games of Truth or Dare.

The dares
were way more fun than the truth. Smartmom remembers running naked up
and down the stairs of her apartment building because she refused to
tell her friend the name of a boy she had a crush on.

The other
night, OSFO had two friends sleep over. After midnight, she could hear
giggles and girlish trills coming from the bedroom. When Smartmom
knocked on the door to ask them to settle down, OSFO said, “Don’t come
in! We’re playing Truth or Dare.” Smartmom left it at that. A chip off
the old block.

But that’s all
right. She may not seem like she’s listening, but she probably is. And
one day, she’ll remember — just like Smartmom did with that birdwatcher
on Eighth Avenue.

Teen Spirit used to love Smartmom’s little
lectures about Broadway musicals and contemporary poetry. Lately,
however, he’d rather do just about anything than listen to his old mom.

Yet the other day, he asked to look at the blonde wood acoustic guitar Smartmom keeps in a hard case under her bed.

Smartmom
finger-picked her way through high school. A regular Joni Mitchell, the
Upper West Side was her Laurel Canyon as she sang, “I could drink a
case of you…” with that old guitar.

Teen Spirit asked if he could play it. Before she knew it, they were walking up to Music Matters to buy a new set of strings.

Back
home, she showed him some old guitar licks. He listened politely, but
declined to give it a go. “It’s not really my style,” he said, taking
the guitar into his bedroom.

Still, she knew she was passing the
torch. While she still loves to play her old songs every now and again,
it’s Teen Spirit’s turn to harness the power of the instrument she
bought at We Buy Guitars on West 48th Street in 1973.

Standing on
the stoop of the Montauk Club, Smartmom was all eyes. She tried to
remember her father’s advice as she scanned the tree looking for that
little yellow bird.

“Find the bird with your eyes. Follow its song…”

“There
is goes,” the birdwatcher exclaimed. Smartmom scanned the tree. And
then, finally, she saw it. The tiny yellow Nashville Warbler flew from
one branch of the tree to another. What a delight it was to see.

And Smartmom couldn’t wait to tell her father.

New York Metro reports that the new Williamsburg Park is open for all to see — on a weekends-only basis – starting this weekend. WHAT A VIEW. Great pix from Gowanus Lounge of yesterday’s opening day.

WILLIAMSBURG. Hipsters rejoice: The gate will be unlocked this
weekend at the East River State Park, a new 7.5-acre waterfront park
stretching from North 7th to North 9th.

The park was originally slated to open last summer but
officials feared heavy rains made the new sod too vulnerable to foot
traffic and postponed the opening. Rachel Gordon, the New York City
regional director of the state’s Office of Parks, Recreation and
Historic Preservation, confirmed yesterday the $1.7 million park will
indeed be open from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. this Saturday through Memorial
Day and weekends hereafter.

“It will just be open weekends because of staffing,” she
explained, advising people to bring their own chairs and pointing out
there’s no permanent bathroom facility yet — just a port-a-potty. “At
this point, we just want to let people enjoy the park. We had to make
sure it was clean, safe, t

CHECK THIS OUT: The Empire Zone, the New York Times’ state and local political blog, does Brooklyn linkage. When I copy it I lose the links and I’m feeling lazy. So go to The Empire Zone and get the links. But this is one for the record books — holiday reading linkage. They’re setting up the transition from The Empire Zone to the City Room, which Times’ blogger, Sewell Chan says will have more comprehenive Blog Roll and, I’m guessing, daily linkage.

The fire on the West Side yesterday means Coach employees can start the holiday weekend early. No more smoking on the roof, though. [Fashionista]

A complaint about blight on Coney Island, in time for the start of summer. [Gowanus Lounge]

A vision for the High Line: a “slow park,” with a lot of steps. [BlogChelsea]

Even though the Bloomberg administration has repeatedly clashed with organizers of Critical Mass, a city-financed calendar reportedly promotes the monthly rides. (There’s one tonight.) [Runnin’ Scared]

A political monthly takes a look at the mayor’s attempts to manage the press. [City Hall]

Video: The Upper East Side street sweeper dance. [StreetFilms]

The Brooklyn House of Ugly? [McBrooklyn]

More details from the panel discussion of the Robert Moses legacy. [Atlantic Yards Report]

A libertarian gives three cheers for Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV’s decision to introduce no bills. [Serf City]

And the Brennan Center calls for a limit on bill introductions. [ReformNY]

Charges of intimidation tactics in the State Senate. [The Daily Politics]

The 92nd Street Y is Gore country. [The Politicker]

Unsolved 2008 Mysteries: Whatever happened to… ? [Urban Elephants]

Albany blogs are banned in China? So’s the Zone, apparently. [Capitol Confidential]

“Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies,” an exhibition of background paintings, film clips, production stills and archival photographs, will be on view through June 22 in Grand Central Terminal, Vanderbilt Hall; grandcentralterminal.com.

In addition, films with New York City settings will be shown Saturdays at noon and 2 p.m. through June 30 on Turner Classic Movies.

POP QUIZ: Name your Senators (sooo easy), congresswoman, your state senator, your borough pres (that’s easy), your city councilmembers (easy, too), your assemblypeople (hmmm), etc. etc.
This column will be an attempt to get to know what the Brooklyn pols are up to — the one’s that don’t get covered as much as the usuals.
ANSWERS: Senate: Hillary and Chuck; Congress: Yvette Clarke; State Senator: Martin J. Golden; Borough President: Marty; City Council: Bill De Blasio and David Yassky; Assembly: James F. Brennan (44th), Felix Ortiz (51st).
Joan Millman (52nd)

So, what’s happening with Congresswoman Yvette Clarke?

You remember, she beat out Yasky, Chris Owens and others in a very contentious race for the 11th congressional district.

We know that she supports Atlantic Yards, is of Carribbean descent, and that her morther, Dr. Una S.T. Clarke was a member of the City Council, making them the
first mother-daughter succession in the history of the New York City
Council.
      

But there’s probably a lot more to know. Where does she stand on issues that matter to the residents of Park Slope and surrounding nabes? And while I am not ready to answer that here, I can include a list of what she’s done and the committees she is currently working in.

Continue reading KNOW YOUR LOCAL POLS: YVETTE CLARKE →

The NY Times’ reports that the conflict of Interest Board approved Marty’s Norwegian Cruise Line because, hey, he’s the borough’s official ambassador and he did a lot of work on board. He couldn’t have picked a better time to be away. The CB6 board controversy was raging and while he may have been in hot water in Brooklyn he was soaking up the sun on board the cruise.

Markowitz has long advocated Brooklyn as a logical home for the overflow traffic from Manhattan’s cruise docks, and he lobbied the mayor’s office long and hard to build a cruise terminal in Red Hook. His office also kicked in $1.5 million toward the terminal’s more than $50 million cost. (In return for renovations the city made to its terminals, the Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Lines agreed to pay the city at least $200 million in port charges through 2017.)

Gene Russianoff, a lawyer for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said that when it came to accepting a free ride on a luxury liner, “inevitably there’s an appearance issue even if you dotted your i’s and crossed your t’s.” But he said Mr. Markowitz had done everything that could have been asked of him to steer clear of choppy ethical waters.

Mr. Markowitz said that other than the cost of the cruise itself, he paid for everything on the trip, including the flight to London for him and his wife, and her boat fare.

Still, that Mr. Markowitz went on the free trip at all was enough to draw reproach from some quarters.

“It’s not something I would have done, even if the Conflicts of Interest Board says it’s O.K.,” said Chris Owens, a former Congressional candidate who is considering a run for borough president in 2009. (Mr. Markowitz is barred by term limits from re-election.)

This from IVAW.org

New York, NY – In an effort to illuminate the true reality of the conflict in Iraq, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) will engage in a series of street theater actions around the New York City area on Sunday, May 27. This day coincides with our national remembrance of Memorial Day on Monday, May 28, which bears particular significance this year as we are in the midst of the fifth year of a war that has claimed the lives of over 3,100 American service members and over 655,000 Iraqis.

Actual veterans of the conflict in Iraq will play the part of American service members – with reenactments that will highlight various aspects of life in combat in Iraq. The event will be treated like a military operation with participants in full military uniform, however, there will be no weapons used at any time.

Read more of this item and
Click here for more IVAW Updates

Notes, Rabbi Andy Bachman’s blog, is a thoughtful, spiritual and sometime spolitical place, where Andy, who is the rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim writes about many of the things that interest him. Here he describes the five yahrzeit candles in his house and who they are burning for.

My father, whose temper flared in his children and grandchildren, long after his flame was extinguished on a cold March day in 1983?

My grandmother, whose lovely but depressed soul joined her beloved in the ground on a frozen January morning in 1979? Whose legends of milky kugel and being babysat by Golda Meir adorn the imaginations of my own children?

My grandfather, whose legendary generosity with medical patients during the Great Depression and beyond befuddled his aforementioned wife, whose book-balancing always found an admirable yet confounding loss in his hesed?

This from NY 1:

With great weather expected for Memorial Day weekend, the Parks Department kicked off the summer beach season at Coney Island Thursday morning.

The beach has seen many improvements over the past few years, including performance spaces, new restrooms, volleyball courts and playgrounds.

“It’s safe. It’s clean. It’s exciting. And it’s nearby, for most everyone living in the region; it really is,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. “And it’s original. All those others amusement areas are manufactured. This isn’t manufactured. This is Brooklyn ambience at its best.”

“We’ve spent a lot of time recruiting lifeguards, and we’re going to a whole bunch of lifeguards on duty this weekend,” said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “And we’ve got big improvements at many of the beaches, and every beach there is something fun going on.”

But, this season could also be the last for Astroland, if plans go through for a new amusement park.

One local elected official says that may not happen, as the city and developer wrangle over a proposed rezoning for the area.

“If we are not ready to move forward on the Astroland piece, I really am working hard to see that Astroland stays open until it’s ready to be developed,” said City Councilman Domenic Recchia.

“I’d like to keep my employees employed, some of them have been there for 20 years or more,” said Carol Albert, the co-owner of Astroland. “We love it, there’s no way around it.”

The $2 billion project would include an indoor waterpark, luxury hotel, and shops.

“It does look a little depressing when you walk around the rest of Coney Island and see some of the businesses boarded up, but that’s all the process of change, and Coney Island will change and hopefully for the better,” said Deno’s Wonder Wheel co-owner Dennis Vourderis.

City beaches officially open when lifeguards arrive on Saturday. The beaches will remain open until Labor Day

This from The Online Beat at the Nation.com by John Nichols. He wrote it last year.

The wisdom of wars can be debated on any day, and this column has not hesitated to question the thinking — or, to be more precise, the lack of thinking — that has led the United States to the current quagmire in Iraq.

But on Memorial Day, it is well to pause from the debate to remember those whose lives have been lost, not merely to the fool’s mission of the contemporary moment but to all those battles – noble and ignoble – that have claimed the sons and daughters of this and every land.

After the bloodiest and most divisive of America’s wars, the poet Walt Whitman offered a dirge for two soldiers of the opposing armies — Civil War veterans, buried side by side. His poem is an apt reminder that, when the fighting is done, those who warred against one another often find themselves in the same place. It is appropriate that we should garland each grave, understanding on this day above all others that wars are conceived by presidents and prime ministers, not soldiers.

It is appropriate, as well, and perhaps a bit soothing, to recall Whitman’s wise words:

The last sunbeam

Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath,

On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,

Down a new-made double grave.

Lo, the moon ascending,

Up from the east the silvery round moon,

Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,

Immense and silent moon.

I see a sad procession,

And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles,

All the channels of the city streets they are flooding,

As with voices and with tears.

I hear the great drums pounding,

And the small drums steady whirring

And every blow of the great convulsive drums,

Strikes me through and through.

For the son is brought with the father,

(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,

Two veterans son and father dropt together,

And the double grave awaits them.)

And nearer blow the bugles,

And the drums strike more convulsive,

And the daylight o’er the pavement quite has faded,

And the strong dead-march enwraps me.

In the eastern sky up-buoying,

The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d,

(‘Tis some mother’s large transparent face,

In heaven brighter growing.)

O strong dead-march you please me!

O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!

O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!

What I have I also give you.

The moon gives you light,

And the bugles and the drums give you music,

And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,

My heart gives you love.

Remember Stephen, who got me all dolled up for my high school reunion? He’s no longer at Frajean Salon. But he works a few blocks a way at 325 Seventh Avenue and his phone number is: 718-398-3900

He colored my hair during my blonde bombshell phase. He styled it and made me up for that big night. In case you’ve forgotten here’s that old reunion Smartmom.

On the day of the 30th high school reunion of the Walden School (a progressive private school on the Upper West Side that no longer exists), Smartmom spent many hours beautifying at the Frajean Salon on Seventh Avenue.

But even Stephen and the staff at the full-service hair salon/spa could not make her look like herself at 17, a hippie wannabe who longed to sing like Joni Mitchell.

(Come to think of it, what the hell was she doing in a hair salon. If she wanted to look like herself at 17, she would let it all hang out, split ends and all.)

The first order of business was highlights. Looking like Hellraiser with tin foil sticking out of her head, Smartmom laughed. In high school, she was the brown-haired girl with big brown eyes that all the boys wanted to be friends with, while Smartmom’s best friend was the blonde beauty whom all the boys wanted to sleep with.

But for the reunion, Smartmom would have blonde highlights! She knew that would throw her old high school friends for a loop. Maybe no one would recognize her.

After the highlights, Smartmom went downstairs for a waxing in a room with bright examination lights and “soothing” New Age music. Hot Wax Lady used boiling wax to shape Smartmom’s eyebrows (no Frida Kahlo unibrow like in high school) and rip off (ouch) the old-lady hairs that grow from her chin and make her feel like the witch in Hansel and Gretel.

Then it was time for her toes and feet, which had to look beautiful because she was wearing gold metallic sandals that made her look six feet tall. She may have been short in high school, but 30 years later, she’d be an Amazon.

The haircut and styling came next. After the cut, Smartmom watched nervously as Stephen got out his hair curler from the bottom shelf.

“Please, I don’t want Farrah Fawcett hair,” Smartmom warned.

“But the 1970s are very big right now,” Stephen said.

“Yeah, but Walden wasn’t that kind of ’70s,” Smartmom said. “We were very natural back then. We didn’t use make-up, or even shave our legs.”

This piqued the attention of Stephen’s 20-ish assistant.

“You didn’t wear make-up?” she said, shocked.

Clearly, she was too young to know of a time when women burned their bras and rebelled against the feminine mystique.

Finally, Stephen applied the make-up. It made Smartmom so nervous that she thought she’d throw up — but as he applied a smooth layer of foundation, he slowly erased 30 years of stress from her skin.

Gone were the lines from 30 years of laughing and crying; the dark rings under her eyes from a cumulative loss of sleep from all-nighters at college, 3 am breast-feedings and overheated arguments with Hepcat about money; the crows-feet next to her eyes that made her think of her mother; the scowly lines next to her mouth from feeling so much disapproval and pain; her sallow complexion from spending too many hours staring at her computer.

When Stephen was done, Smartmom looked great. But later when she and Hepcat took the F-train to the reunion, she realized that she had spent more than $300 for an impossible goal: she could never look like she did 30 years ago because she wasn’t the same person as she was then. For one thing, she would never have spent five plus hours in a hair salon in 1976. Not a chance.

The reunion passed by in a blur of open-hearted, Cabernet-fueled conversation. Most of her former classmates — financial wizards, psychotherapists, writers, lawyers, environmentalists, an op-ed editor of a national newspaper, an opera singer and a dress designer — seemed to be doing what they wanted to do. Everyone looked great (even if the men had lost most of their hair) and were as idealistic as ever — products of a school that taught them to question authority and make a difference in the world.

Smartmom was moved to tears (and skunk eyes from smudged eyeliner) when Opera Singer (the aforementioned blond best friend) sang “Our Love is Here to Say.” She even got flirtatious with some of the boys she had liked back then.

Later, in the cab back to Brooklyn, Smartmom thought about how much had gone on since graduation: there was college, a career, Smartmom and Hepcat’s trip cross-country in a 1963 Ford Galaxy; their wedding on a rainy day in July; the birth of Teen Spirit and the Oh So Feisty One in a Manhattan hospital.

Back in 1976, you could get a brownstone on Garfield Place for less than $20,000. It was before the AIDS crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Bush 1, Bush 2, cellphones, compact discs, Jimmy Carter, the Intifada (1 and 2), the iPod, the L.A. riots, SUVs and Tiananmen Square.

Obviously, Smartmom knew she could never return to her 17–year-old self in the same way that the world can never go back to the way it used to be.

And then she understood: a high-school reunion is supposed to be a time to honor who you were then and respect who you are now.

And if Smartmom looked 30 years older that was OK. Everyone else did, too.

The Park Slope Courier is getting very aggressive about taking up space on the newspaper shelf at Key Food. Today, there were so many newspapers there, I couldn’t find the Brooklyn Paper.

Turns out, the Brooklyn Paper was running late and hadn’t been delivered yet. But by the time the delivery folks finally got to Key Food, I wonder if there was any room. Did they just put The Brooklyn Paper on top of the abundant copies of the Park Slope Courier?

Brooklyn Paper: I was looking for you all day. What caused the delay?

Readers, where do you get your Brooklyn Paper?

Before I say anything else, props and cheers to Judy Anteil for bartending at this great event. She made delicious and strong Cosmos that made for a warm and FUZZY atmosphere during the reading.

And what an event it was. Okay, it was a little long. But that was my fault for packing too much into one evening. Next year: Two Edgy Mom events. But how could I say no with so many great, edgy moms and one dad.

The evening got off to a great start with novelist Tom Rayfiel, who read the funny first chapter of Parallel Play, a must-read for all Park Slope edgy parents. Was he an edgy mom in another life?

a non-mom and journalist, read about a midwife and a mom, from her brand new non-fiction book, Pushed, about birthing in the USA. 

brought smiles and laughter with her beautifully written Shiksa From Manila blog schtick and a great piece about her passion for handbags.

Following Sophia, Alison Lowenstein read a hilarious and sharp excerpt from her novel, Mommy Group.

Then came Susan Gregory Thomas who read various excerpts from her book, Buy Buy Baby, How Consumer Culture Manipulates Moms and Harms Children. The title says it all. Gen-X moms have been branded by advertising execs who want them to spend gazillions on IQ enhancing toys for, like, 18-month-olds.

Smartmom was up next with a piece about parenting tips from a little yellow bird.

The crowd went gaga, as always, for an uproarious and expert poem by Michele Madigan Somervile called "Boob" about breastfeeding her newborn twins in the early morning hours while listening to a right wing radio personality.

had the audience laughing out LOUD about the Park  Slope mommy zeitgeist — and her own transition from sex columist to mommy (and mommy writer). Can’t wait for the book to come out.

Judy Lichtblau read a sad, lovely story about a pregnant tango dancer, whose partner partners up with someone new

gracefully closed the show with her beautifully rendered,  honest writing about life as a white single mom in East New York.

It is a living hell that Mooki and her family are living through. They’ve asked that neighbors and friends give blood for Toby. There’s more information about how to do this at tobypannone.blogspot.com.

i still haven’t posted that update, but wanted you all to know that tomorrow morning toby is going in for bone marrow aspiration and biopsy, to see if his marrows have responded to the 2 mega cycles of chemo so far. on tuesday we will start cycle 3 of chemo.

when toby had his first marrows done on april 21, i remember the doctor coming out of the operating room with gallon ziplock bags filled with vials and vials of toby’s soft spongy tissue. he told me that he could see tumor in the marrows with his bare eyes.

i can’t even think about tomorrow. i am so scared. and i pray that toby’s marrows are cleaner. our wonderful little boy who can tell you about every train in the subway system, who is beginning to add numbers, who loves tomato soup, who delights in birdsong, our little toby deserves to have clean marrows.

mooki

The Endless Feast, a PBS show
which devotes each episode to a different sustainable food system, has produced a Brooklyn show, which features a chef buying pork from Flying
Pig’s Farm and greens from Added Value.

The
show is co-hosted by Anna Lappé, the author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban, Organic Kitchen. She agreed to do the show on the condition that one of the feasts featured took place in an urban center like Brooklyn.

THe show sounds great. It features a big feast at Added Value for the teenagers who
work on the farm. The kids brag about having grown the tomatoes and
talk about how you can’t go back to fast food when you’ve realized how
good the real thing is.

The episode will air again in New York on June 24 on channel 13.

For more about  Added Value, check out their website and learn about the Red Hook Farm that employs teenagers and pays them for their work.

There’s a whole lot of visual stuff going on in it that he thinks is cool. Something about primary colors, triangles. Composition.

Hepcat is proud of this one.

Parking suspended today. Things are  back to normal tomorrow until Monday, which is Memorial Day.

The following is from Wikipedia:

Shavuot, sometimes pronounced Shavuos (Hebrew: שבועות; Israeli Heb. [ʃa·vu·’ʕot]; Ashkenazi [ʃə·’vu·əs]; "[Feast of] Weeks"), is a Jewish holiday that occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan, corresponding to late May or early June. It marks the conclusion of the Counting of the Omer and the day the Torah was given at Mount Sinai. It is one of the shalosh regalim, the three Biblical pilgrimage festivals mandated by the Torah.

The occurrence of Shavuot is directly linked to the date of Passover. The Torah mandates the seven-week Counting of the Omer,
beginning on the second day of Passover and culminating after seven
weeks, Shavuot. This counting of days and weeks expresses anticipation
and desire for the Giving of the Torah. At Passover, the Jewish people
were freed from being slaves to Pharaoh; at Shavuot they accepted the Torah and became a nation committed to serving God.

Shavuot has many aspects and as a consequence is called by several names. In the Torah it is called Feast of Weeks (Hebrew: חג השבועות, Hag ha-Shavuot, Exodus 34:22, Deuteronomy 16:10); Festival of Reaping (Hebrew: חג הקציר, Hag ha-Katsir, Ex. 23:16), and Day of the First Fruits (Hebrew יום הבכורים, Yom ha-Bikkurim, Numbers 28:26). The Mishnah and Talmud refer to Shavuot as Atzeret
(Hebrew: עצרת, a solemn assembly), as it provides closure for the
festival activities during and following the holiday of Passover. Since
Shavuot occurs 50 days after Passover, Christians gave it the name Pentecost (πεντηκόστη, "fiftieth [day]"). However, the actual Christian commemoration of Pentecost occurs on the seventh Sunday after Easter.

In the Land of Israel and among Reform and Karaite Jews, Shavuot is celebrated for one day. In the Jewish diaspora outside Israel, the holiday is celebrated for two days, on the sixth and seventh days of Sivan.

A bunch of locals spoke to Time Out Kids for an article called, Why Do People Hate Park Slope. The  article is out now in the June issue of the magazine on page 8.

The reporter, Lynn Harris, sent an email to those who were quoted to prepare them. She thinks that the tone of the piece was "far more snarky and anti-Slope than her original version." 

The word smugness managed to migrate into the piece and it wasn’t her word. I sort of expected snarky because of the subject matter. Here’s the lede:

"It had to happen, Now that Brooklyn’s brownstone-laden Park Slope is more fashionable, it has become de rigueur to bash, slam, and otherwise trash-talk the nabe. The Slope has arrived — with its famous authors and Hollywood actorsensconced in fancy fansions — and so have its detractors."

She talked to Steven Berlin Johnson, Susan Fox, Catherine Bohne, Peter Loffredo, a frequent commenter on OTBKB and Park Slope Parents and others, including me. What I was getting at was why Park Slope is easy to hate — because it seems like we’ve got it all. We were easier to love when we were scrappier, schleppier Legal Aid lawyers and social workers. Now it’s rich people in fancy brownstones with a great school and a small town feeling. It seems like we have it all.

Who wouldn’t hate Park Slope?

Gowanus Lounge reports that there are  no demolition permits in place and plans for the building were disapproved
by the Department of Buildings on May 17.

Find out more over at his place.