Monthly Archives: February 2008

Civics and Urban Life

PARK SLOPE JAZZ SINGER BIRTHS BABY, WANTS TO SING

Hey, the pregnant jazz singer isn’t pregnant anymore. Toby Williams gave birth to a baby girl and she’s itching to start performing again with some members of Cocktail Angst.

So the big news is this, in Toby’s words:

I’m emerging from the homespun, housebound cacoon here with baby Cleo and am ready to sing something other than “Open and Shut Them”.

Please join me at The Marriott Residence Inn this Thursday night, 2/21, for some cocktails and songs.
xo,
Toby

Details:
The Marriott Residence Inn (39th St. and 6th Avenue)
Studio 100 (on the 3rd Floor)
7pm to 10pm
Thursday 2/21
Keith Ganz on guitar
Sean Smith on bass
Toby Williams singing

Postcard from the Slope

STITCH THERAPY AND BIDONVILLE COFFEE AND TEA TEAMING UP

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It looks like Stitch Therapy, the wonderful knitting shop on Lincoln Place, and a Bidonville Coffee and Tea in Ft. Greene are teaming up for a Two Day Workshop on the Basics of Knitting.

A chance to try out a coffe bar in Ft. Greene. A chance to learn how to knit. Sounds like a win win.

Materials (approx. $40 worth) must be purchased at Stitch Therapy. Registration deadline is February 24th for this $75, 2-day class.

Two Tuesdays: February 26 and March 4th 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. at the Bidonville at 47 Willoughby Avenue near Ft. Greene Park.

Stitch Therapy
176 Lincoln Place
between 7th and 8th Avenue
718-398-2020

ONLY THE BLOG KNOWS BKLYN RESTAURANTS

COCOTTE: SORRY TO SEE YOU GO

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I am sad to hear via Gowanus Lounge that Cocotte, that romantic French restaurant on Fifth Avenue and 4th Street is going out of business.

The life of a restaurants in Park Slope can be so unstable. Cocotte really made a try of it—they’ve been around for five years or more. I remember after ZuZu’s Petals had the fire at their Seventh Avenue Store, there was a lovely fundraising party at Cocotte, an event which helped them finance their Fifth Avenue store.

My friend Jerry, who knows everything about food in Park Slope, said that Cocotte had gotten really good in the last year (he liked it better than the new Belleville). I must speak with Jerry about this. What’s the word Jerry?

According to Bob at Gowanus Lounge, rising rents are to blame for the death of Cocotte. But I think they’ve been having a hard time for a while. The original Cocotte was opened by the couple who owned A Table, a wonderful, defunct restaurant on Lafayette Avenue in Ft. Greene, with some friends.

Thank goodness for OTBKB readers. One just wrote in with the real story:

Cocotte was opened by my former next door neighbors. Their first and other restaurant was Lou Lou on Dekalb Avenue , not A Table. They sold the coop next door, bought a house across the street, sold it and last I knew had moved to New Jersey . I lost touch with them, but it could be that the commute, on top of the high rent, suggested it was time to move on. If they could open 2 restaurants and make a go of both, they could surely be doing it again. I hope they’re doing well, wherever they are and whatever they’re doing. They’re great people. I remember that special event they hosted for Fonda. I met her that night for the first time. We really do live in a community full of extraordinary people.

In a later email, she wonders if perhaps they sold the restaurant when they moved to New Jersey.

As recently as last week, I recommended Cocotte for a romantic Valentine’s meal. It was, indeed, the perfect place for onion soup, Long Island Duck Breast with root vegetable couscous, picholine olives, quince (YUM), delicious crepes, Steak Frites, and hamburgers.

According to Paul Leschen, who briefly penned Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn Restaurants, Cocotte had one of the best burgers on Seventh Avenue (after Stone Park Cafe and Bonnie’s Grill):

The burger across the street at Cocotte is pretty good, too; it’s bigger than Stone Park’s, and it too is made with a high quality beef. But the meat at Cocotte is too lean, and as such, it wasn’t overly juicy or flavorful. I had been told it could be served with Gruyere, but I was only offered Swiss. The fries, on the other hand, were Belgian-style and flecked with fresh herbs and, along with a great glass of house Cote du Rhone, made up for the burger’s minor deficiencies.

Cocotte made a great go of it. I for one am very sorry that they’ll be leaving the block across from the The Old Stone House. First Living on Fifth, now Cocotte. Hang in there Brooklyn Mercantile, Serene Rose, Razor and the rest…

VERSE RESPONDER: LEON FREILICH

VERSE RESPONDER: LEON FREILICH

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Here is something a bit more epic from the Oh So Prolific One (OSPO), Leon Freilich

HARK, HARK, OK TO PARK

Seeing spots before your eyes?
If you own a car, they’re a prize,
Each a space where you can dock
Sans the need to check the clock.
This year rest, enjoy your slumber:
Parking yeses have risen in number.
Now they’re up to forty-five,
Luscious days, no need to drive
Round the block, the nabe, the borough
Searching madly, crazy-thorough,
Bye to early rising–kick it!–
Windshield wiper sports no ticket.
Of the parking holidays
Twenty-eight (the Lord to praise)
Are religious, across the board,
Good behavior brings reward,
Touching every major group
Making up New York’s rich soup;
All Saints’ Day and Yom Kippur,
Good Friday and Eid ul-Fitr,
Holy Thursday, Simchas Torah,
Passover and Eid ul-Adha.
Best of all, what could be sweeter,
On six Legals forget the meter.
For the parker, a year of thriving;
Only headache: city driving.

Election

YVETTE CLARKE A SUPERDELEGATE FOR HILLARY

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I may be hours from Brooklyn but I’m still on top of the Brooklyn news. This story arrived in my in-box and I had to post. Luckily, the hotel where I am staying has an Internet connection (for a fee). OSFO is taking a break from the pool so I had a few minutes to blog this.

Seems that Yveltte Clarke has announced that she plans to use her superdelegate vote for Hillary Clinton at the convention despite the face that Barack Obama was a big winner in her district.

A Prospect Lefferts Garden blog had a post that I thought might be of
interest to other Brooklyn residents. The congressional representative for
the 11th district (which includes Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush,
Flatbush, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, and Kensington), Yvette Clarke, is
planning to use her superdelegate vote to back Hillary Clinton at the
convention – despite the fact that Barack Obama won the 11th district by a
higher margin of votes than Clarke herself received when she was elected.
Personal preference aside, it’s irksome to see a superdelegate planning a
vote against the direct will of her constituents.

http://www.hawthornestreet.com/2008/02/yvette-clarke-n.html

Postcard from the Slope

TIME WARP ON WNYC: WHAT IS A BLOG?

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I just finished listening to a radio segment on my beloved Leonard Lopate Show about Sarah Boxer’s new book: Ultimate Blogs: Masterworks from the Wild Web but I have to say: I feel like I was in some kind of WEIRD TIME WARP.

What are blogs?

Who reads them?

Do those bloggers use a special language?

Does “self publishing” mean the standards are low?

TIME WARP. TIME WARP. What year is this? 2002? 2003?

Maybe the segment had that feeling because Lopate was purposely playing dumb and being real gee whiz about the whole thing. Obviously he doesn’t read blogs and he thinks they’re some kind of crazy, new-fangled thing. (Note: I am a HUGE Leonard Lopate Fan.)

Lopate interviewed Sarah Boxer, who edited a book of blogs worth noting. This is meant to be the go-to book about blogging. The it-book. The look-book . I haven’t looked at the book but a quick peek at the Amazon blurb revealed that a few of the bloggers are actually real journalists. And that must mean they have good blogs. Right? Well, the book is edited by a real journalist with STANDARDS.

Talk about a traditional media bias.

On the other hand, Boxer included Johnny I Hardly Knew You, a real live blogger-poet, who sounds eccentric, interesting, erudite, creative. At one point in the show someone asked, “Are there poetry blogs?” And Boxer said, “I don’t know…” I almost fell out of my seat (as I was blogging the show).

I mean, there are, like, so many excellent poetry blogs.

Lopate’s guests spent a good bit of time talking about how bloggers use acronyms. Not one of the 50 or so bloggers I read use acronyms. And I’m sure that barely one of the 50 or so bloggers I read are in Boxer’s book.

Here’s how it works: a New York Times writer bestows credibility on blogs by selecting William Saffire’s and Alex Ross’s blog. Nothing wrong (and lots right) about Alex Ross (The Rest is Noise). But these are late adapters who started blogging after being successful journalists.

Yeesh. I hate when a New York Times writer decides to get on board with something like this and gets it all wrong or partly wrong or maybe partly right but they act like this is the DEFINITIVE BOOK ON THE SUBJECT.

Yeesh.

Brooklyn Blogfest

NEW BLOG BOOK: ULTIMATE BLOGS BY SARAH BOXER

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She’s on the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC. NOW. Go to WNYC.

Hepcat says that reading a book about finding the best blog is like trying to find the interesting people on the beach by reading a newspaper.

But maybe he’s wrong.

Then again.

Sarah Boxer of the New York Times has sorted through some of the best. Ultimate Blogs: Masterworks from the Wild Web.

She is joined by bloggers Alex Ross and Jenny Portnoff of Johnny, I Hardly Knew You.

Event: Sarah Boxer will be speaking and signing books with Alex Ross and Jennie Portnof
Monday, February 18 at 7 pm
Barnes & Noble
675 Sixth Avenue (at 22nd Street)

So who’s in that BOOK?

Postcard from the Slope

WHAT’S CLOSED ON PRESIDENT’S DAY?

Remember when stores actually closed? Like, you couldn’t go shopping on Sunday or on holidays. That was a long time ago.

But President’s Day has always been a big sale day. Ever since there was a President’s Day, that is. When did President’s Day start? Gothamist has the answer:

Today is a federal holiday honoring the birthday of first president George Washington. Washington was actually born on February 22, but in 1971, the holiday was “shifted to the third Monday in February, by the Uniform Monday Act” (per Wikipedia). Given that Abraham Lincoln’s birthday is February 12, some state governments call the holiday “President’s Day.” And then the marketers got involved, making this day for sales as well and many presidents in one fell swoop.

Banks, financial markets, and the Post Office are closed. The subway is operating on a Sunday schedule. No garbage pick ups and school’s out ALL WEEK.

YIKES: what are the kids going to do this week. We’re thinking of getting out of town. What are you doing? Any good ideas out there?

Civics and Urban Life

I WAS ON THE BRYANT PARK PROJECT

I was interviewed this morning by the Bryant Park Project about — you guessed it — the Union Hall stroller ban.

So what is the Bryant Park Project?

Well, it’s a radio show, a podcast, and a blog. Here’s how they describe themselves:

On the radio, The Bryant Park Project is a morning drive-time news show that will change your life, speed up your commute, and jack your test scores 50 points — in whatever order you choose. On the Web, The Bryant Park Project is a glorious digital river of podcasts, videos, photos, blogging, debating, and giblets so cool we’re afraid to name them.

Do I belong here?
You bet. Look, they let the rest of us in. Our gang aims to make you feel at home, with surprising interviews and tasty segments soaked in fully carbonated NPR smarts. So pull up a chair, will ya?

Why ‘The Bryant Park Project’? NPR New York is right across the street from Bryant Park — which is where they have Fashion Week, which is sort of like the center of the universe, which is sort of like us. Plus, the boss liked it.

What’s the purpose of ‘The Bryant Park Project’ blog? Think of it as a combination laboratory, cocktail party, and invitation to take this outside. We’ll use the blog to experiment with nifty stuff, from story ideas to multimedia wowees. You might catch a glimpse of what’s coming up on the show. You might catch a glimpse of what happened after a story aired. Most importantly, you’ll get a chance to have your say — about The Bryant Park Project in particular, or about the wider news of the day.

Watch the blog for stories to love, sites to get stuck on, songs to set on “repeat,” and true confessions from Bryant Parkers like you … whatev, whenev.

You can hear the story/interview at their website.

Postcard from the Slope

NEXT SAT AND SUN: 15TH ANNUAL BOOKSALE AT PARK SLOPE CHURCH

Every year I hear from this OTBKB reader about a booksale at her church. So it is with great pleasure that I bring you this announcement of the 15th annual booksale at Park Slope United Methodist Church. From what I hear, it’s quite a booksale.

What? They’re still accepting donations. I am so THERE. In fact, you can donate today (President’s Day) from noon to 7 p.m. and other dates this week (see below):

The fabulous 15th annual BOOK SALE at Park Slope United Methodist Church is almost here!

* SATURDAY, Feb. 23 (8:30am to 4pm)
* SUNDAY, Feb. 24 (afternoon only – 1pm to 4pm)

As always, there will be thousands of new & used books as well as DVDs, CDs, records & tapes. Also a terrific Children’s Corner with books, games, videos & puzzles.

Books will be replenished throughout the day. This year we have a special collection of hundreds of early 20th century German language books (fiction & nonfiction), numerous French books, and lots of first editions of English and American fiction, drama & poetry. A browsers paradise!

Great prices! Free admission. Cash only.

The church is on 6th Avenue at the corner of 8th Street in Park Slope.

We are still accepting donations (excellent condition only), on the following days:
* Monday, Feb. 18: noon to 7pm (Presidents Day)
* Thurs., Feb. 21: 7pm to 10pm
* Friday, Feb. 22: 10am to 9pm

No magazines or textbooks, please! To arrange a car pickup (Park Slope & vicinity only), please call Rick at 347.538.7604.

We hope to see you at the sale. Please forward this email to your book-loving friends — or just bring them along! More info at www.parkslopeumc.org. To be added to our email notification list, send a note to churchbooksale@earthlink.net

Postcard from the Slope

MOMMY AND BABY POST-NATAL FITNESS

No, I don’t think this is one of those classes where you’ll be using your baby like bar bells to strengthen your arms.

In fact, I think the babys just hang out in their strollers or in their carriers for the duration of the class.

I did a post-natal exercise class after OSFO was born at the Dance Studio and it was great for a number of reasons.

First off, it was fantastic to move my body, which was sorely in need of stretching and working out.

It was also great social experience. I met people there that I am still friends with.

In the class I took, the leader was not only a fitness expert, but a lactation specialist and someone who was in training to be a midwife. So she was very well equipped to lead such a class.

Here’s a new class from the Fitness Collective and from the sounds of it it’s everything you need to get your body back: Motivation, group support, and a really great workout.

New sessions begin March 4th
When: 11-12pm Tuesdays and Thursdays
Where: Park Slope Fitness Collective, 366 7th Avenue (11th St.)
Who: moms and babies ready to move!
Why: If you are so busy caring about everyone else, who is going to take care of you?! This is your time.
How: Sign up today to save your spot.

8 week Program
1x per week: $135
2x per week: $220
single drop in: $20
Mention this posting and register by March 1st to save $10.

Testimonial supplied by Park Slope Fittness Collective:

I approached the Park Slope Fitness Collective about creating this class shortly after my daughter was born. Even though I was still healing a little, I was eager to find a way to work out again. The class they created far exceeded my expectations: I left each session feeling like I got a great workout and it helped me to slowly return to my pre-pregnancy body. Although it was sometimes difficult, even at 11am, to drag myself and my newborn there, I was always energized afterwards. The trainers were wonderful about holding and watching the babies when they needed attention, so we really could get into the workout. And I sometimes went to coffee or lunch with other class members, many of whom were also on maternity leave. I went to the Work Out, Baby! class for more than 3 mos, until I returned to work and “graduated” to The Fit Club class! We’re privileged to have the Park Slope Fitness Collective in the neighborhood, and I strongly encourage every new mom in the area to sign up for this.

–Renee, mom to Eliana, 6.5 mos.

Park Slope Fitness Collective
366 7th Ave (11th St.)
Brooklyn NY 11215
718-499-1849

Cobble Hill Fitness Collective
278 Court St.
Brooklyn NY
718-643-1109

Civics and Urban Life

A WEEK OF STRINGS AT ISSUE PROJECT ROOM

String, strings and more strings at Issue Project Room all week. Too much to say here. So check out their web site if you like the best of the best cutting edge, avant garde new music. Here’s Friday and Saturday’s show:

8pm $10Friday February 22nd
alex waterman, kenta nagai + todd reynolds w luke dubois

8pm $10
Saturday February 23rd

dave soldier w/rebecca cherry and winsome brown + elliott sharp’s
all-string syndaKit

Rebecca Cherry performs excerpts from “The Compleat Victrola Sessions”
scored to film collage in collaboration with composer Dave Soldier.

Brilliant young violinist Rebecca Cherry, formerly principal violin in the
London Symphony, will present selections from The Complete Victrola
Sessions, a collaboration with composer Dave Soldier, with pianist Jerome
Tan – an evocation of the allure and danger of addiction in the 1920’s,
using black and white silent film with nostalgic, surreal virtuoso music.

Elliott Sharp’s All-String SyndaKit

performers include:

Eszter Balint
Reuben Radding
Dave Hofstra
Ron Lawrence
Kevin Ray
Jessica Pavone
Judith Insell
Alex Waterman
HaYang Kim
MV Carbon
E#

SyndaKit was premiered in 1998 for Elliott Sharp’s Orchestra Carbon and
has since been performed by the German group Zeitkratzer, the Beijing New
Music Ensemble and ensembles in Vienna, Palermo, Tubingen, Bratislava, Los
Angeles, plus many more.

Constructed of 144 composed cores and a set of simple instructions for
their manifestation and manipulation by the players, SyndaKit creates an
ever-shifting rhythmic matrix, a pulse bristling with vibrating detail
based on the activities of flocking birds, African drum choirs, cellular
automata, hunting packs, and recombinant amino acids. The sum effect is
that of a lifeform that lives to loop and groove, always mutating.

Postcard from the Slope

FIRE AT MATZOH FACTORY IN WILLIAMSBURG

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Just heard on WNYC that there was a fire at a Kent Street matzoh factory in Williamsburg this morning not far from the building at 475 Kent Street where artist were evacuated last month.

At 475 Kent, artists were asked to leave their homes on freezing cold night. An illegal conversion of a matzo factory, the Fire Department declared it not up to code for residential occupancy.

More as I hear/read more…

VERSE RESPONDER: LEON FREILICH

VERSE RESPONDER: LEON FREILICH

Get your daily dose of poetry from the oh-so-prolific, Leon Freilich:

THE CANDIDATES

McCAIN SIGNS ON

Awful for anyone to be tortured,

Kept in pain by scorcherers;

Worse, perhaps, when the victim

Sides with the torturers

SHIFTING HILL

Each move is calculated,

Consistent with her goals;

Her eye is on Obama

And I know she watches polls.

BEEN WHERE, DONE WHAT?

Barack Obama,

As some have seen,

Radiates–

Obama’s green.

SPEAKS FOR THE U.S.

Should Obama and Hillary Clinton deadlock

The prospects can still be rosy

If Dems turn to real experience

And nominate Nancy Pelosi.

Civics and Urban Life

WARNING: ADVERTISING SPAM

To other bloggers, if you receive an email like this don’t respond, I am pretty sure it is SPAM.

When we googled the name of the company, the only thing we found was something in Romania. When I emailed them to send me a phone number, I never heard back. Today I got another one for the Brooklyn Reading Works blog.

We have reviewed your blog at onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com,
on behalf of one of our clients that would be interested in placing
advertising with you.

We’d like either a 150×150 button, 160×600 skyscraper or 468×60 full
banner (or footer). Alternatively, we may be interested in text-only
advertising.

This would be a weekly, monthly or yearly arrangement. In either case we will require a one time, one day (24 hours) free placement in order to test the quality and quantity of traffic your website can actually
provide*. Within this interval, we will make a final determination, based on the traffic volume, quality, and your asking price. Should we find your terms acceptable, this trial day will count towards the
agreed interval.

Kindly let us know if you would be interested, which arrangement best
suits your editorial needs, and what rates you would like to charge.
We prefer using PayPal but may be able to accomodate alternative
payment methods.

Thank you.

*Please note that we employ software that reliably detects autoclick
and autosurf bots, pay per click and paid to surf type traffic, and
other such non-human traffic. This may be a concern for you,
especially if you are buying “bulk traffic”, or employing the
services of dubious “SEO experts”.

Civics and Urban Life

GO BROOKLYN WANTS INTERNS

Hey, if you’re an undergrad or grad student, think about becoming an intern at Go Brooklyn, the arts, entertainment, and food section of the Brooklyn Paper.

GO Brooklyn is now interviewing candidates for our spring internship program. If you love arts and entertainment and are enrolled as a graduate or undergraduate student, please send your cover letter, resume and writing samples to GoBrooklyn@BrooklynPaper.com.

Hone your journalism skills while accumulating clips for your portfolio!

ONLY THE BLOG KNOWS BKLYN RESTAURANTS

ALATURKA BECOMES MEDITERRA; FATOOSH ON FIFTH, TOO

Middle eastern cuisine seems to be the thing on Fifth Avenue. First there was Alaturka, which went out of business in November only to be replaced by Mediterra, a pretty place that’s reviewed this week’s Brooklyn Paper.

Over on Fifth Avenue near 9th Street, Fatoosh has just opened. They have a branch on Hicks Street near Atlantic in Brooklyn Heights. Here’s a rave among raves from Yelp:

It’s true, perhaps the best falafel around. I mean, it’s on the spicey side, especially with the mahammarah sauce (a red pepper spread of some sort), but wow, what flavor and texture. I wish I had a camera, I’d put a picture of it here. At any rate, they make their own pitas on site, so you get a hot fluffy pita with most every meal. They have all the basics, without much flair, but its got this homestyle goodness. The couscous salad is pretty simple, but the subtle spices they use bring out something beyond the traditional halal-cart fare. It’s worth a shot, but I’ll bet you’ll be back. 2nd only to Damascas Bakery in my opinio

Mediterra (381 Fifth Ave. at 6th Street in Park Slope)

Fatoosh ( address to come; Fifth Avenue at 9th Street in Park Slope)

Civics and Urban Life

JOHN TURTURRO IN ENDGAME AT BAM

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Samuel Beckett and John Turturro together for the first time. Actually, I’m not sure about that. Turturro has probably done plenty of Beckett. April 25 – May 18th at BAM.

“You’re on earth. There’s no cure for that.” How true, and when uttered by John Turturro’s Hamm, these words have a raw and awesome power. An always-outstanding favorite of film directors like Spike Lee and the Coen brothers, Turturro endows one of Beckett’s most affecting works with emotional urgency, creating a man who, confined to an old armchair on wheels and unable to see, registers as poignant, deeply sardonic, and proud. Directed by Andrei Belgrader, master of comic and absurdist stagecraft, each character—from Hamm to his recalcitrant manservant Clov, to his ashcan-dwelling parents—wrestles with cosmic questions. Acutely aware that death is inescapable, they remain divinely valiant in the face of it.

Civics and Urban Life

ST. ANN’S WAREHOUSE SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED

The arts in Brooklyn. Aren’t we a spoiled lot with St. Ann’s Warehouse, BAM, Issue Project Room, Music Hall of Williamsburg, and all the other great performances spaces in Brooklyn? Look at some highlights of what St. Ann’s Warehouse has coming up in the Spring:

Two Concerts from John Zorn (Feb 29 and March 1)

A concert to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hal Wilner’s Stay Awake album, various interpretations of songs from Disney films (April 2)

The Toy Theater Festival (May 23-June 1)

MacBeth (June 17 – 29)

Postcard from the Slope

ASSAULT AT THE PAVILION

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As we exited the 7:10 showing of “Definitely, Maybe” at the Park Slope Pavilion, I saw crowd of policemen on the second floor. A woman came up the stairs and said, “I’m her mother. I’m the girl’s mother.” She then ran an area near the 2nd floor bathrooms and concession stand where her daughter, a teenager, was sitting on a bench icing an injury on her face just below her right eye. The girl started to sob hysterically when she saw her mother.

“Where’s the woman who did this?” the mother asked a police officer. “What’s happening with the girl who did this to my daughter?” the mother asked angrily.

When we got to the first floor there was a woman standing with her three children—two boys and one girl—by the concession stand in the lobby. On closer look, we saw that she was wearing hand-cuffs.

She was taken out to a police car; her children were left behind. I heard someone say that someone had been called to get the arrested woman’s children.

The injured girl was escorted by her mother, father and a policeman to a waiting ambulance. A crowd of people outside were trying to figure out which movie they’d been to.

“I’m thinking Hannah Montana,” one woman said.

Probably “Step U 2 The Streets,” someone else said.

It was determined that the assault occurred during the 7:05 screening of “Step Up 2 The Streets.”

.

Brooklyn Papers

PS I LOVE YOU: GIVING AWAY THE GUINEA PIGS

OTBKB friend and fave Wendy Ponte had this to say about trying to give away her daughter’s guinea pigs in her Brooklyn Paper column PS…I Love You.

When they do find a new home for them it will be our loss. OSFO has often been the guinea pig’s babysitter when they go away.

What do you do with an unwanted small pet in Park Slope? I’ll admit that I have a vested interest in exploring this topic, aside from being a reporter. I am the owner, or really the parent of the owner, of two severely under-utilized hamster-sized guinea pigs.

Olive and Sweetie were adorable when they first arrived two years ago — their purchase spurred on by months of begging from my then-10-year-old daughter.

Cute little fluff balls of fur are irresistible in almost any species. It became quickly apparent, however, that those same balls of fur were making me sneeze in a big way. They had to go.

My boyfriend began to make jokes about taking them for walks in the park and — oops — losing them along the way.

Out of curiosity I called Eugene Patron, the press spokesman for the park: “Do people dump small animals in the park?