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No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
Today is Small Business Saturday
Today is the first ever Small Business Saturday, a day to remember that small businesses, shops and restaurants are the local economic engine of our communities.
Today is a great day to honor those shops and restaurants that make our neighborhood so interesting, help our neighbors and reinvest our money close to home.
I don’t have to tell you that local businesses like the Community Bookstore, Lolli, Scaredy Kat, Diana Kane, Cog and Wheel, Brooklyn Mercantile, Stitch Therapy, Urban Alchemist, The Clay Pot, Bird, City Casuals, Kiwi, Lisa Polansky, Loom…the list goes on and on (and I will add as the day progresses) are part of what makes Park Slope and other Brooklyn neighborhoods such fun places to be.
So before you go online or into a big, huge store think about spending your money right here in your own backyard. You’ve heard that statistic, for every $100 spent nearby, that’s $68 invested back into the community.
That’s one of four good reasons to support small and local. The other three are these (info from the Small Business Saturday website)
–Small businesses employ half of all private sector employees.
–Small businesses represent 99.7% of all employer firms.
–For every year over the last decade, 60-80% of new jobs was generated by small business.
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
Divorce Thanksgiving Style
Here’s a Thankgiving Smartmom from the Brooklyn Paper from few years ago.
Thanksgiving: that most American of holidays. Pumpkin pie. Football. Divorce.
For much of Smartmom’s childhood, Thanksgiving meant standing in
front of the Museum of Natural History waiting for Underdog and Mighty
Mouse to fly over.
Listen by W.S. Merwin
My cousin, who runs the Petra Foundation, which honors individuals who work on behalf of the rights, autonomy and dignity of others, read this W.S. Merwin poem at our Thanksgiving a few years ago. I liked it a lot.
Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water looking out
in different directions
back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
Ducky’s First Thanksgiving 2005
This post was written in 2005.
On Ducky’s first Thanksgiving:
She will watch the Thanksgiving Parade on TV while she cruises around the apartment, babbles into her play telephone, looks at her board books, and hugs her soft baby doll.
She will eat her breakfast and lunch in the high-tech high chair in the dining room picking and choosing between Yo-Baby yogurt, homemade mashed vegetables, and that old standby: apple sauce.
She will listen to one of the many children’s CD her mother plays frequently. What will it be? Raffi, Music Together or Dan Zanes? Anyone in the mood for Kumbaya?
She will go to the Tot Spot in Propspect Park for a quick romp on the miniature playground equipment perfect for an active 15-month-old.
She’ll watch as her mother pulls out the outfits she is deciding between. There will be much discussion about which dress will be most perfect for Ducky’s first Thanksgiving.
All this talk about dresses, shoes and tights will make her sleepy. She will fall asleep in her crib, resting up for the big event.
Thanksgiving 2001
In 2001 Hepcat’s sister and brother-in-law, who live in San Francisco, came east for Thanksgiving. After the feast, they wanted to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to see Ground Zero, which was still burning. Up until that day, Smartmom had been emotionally unable to visit Ground Zero. But on that first Thanksgiving after the 11th, she felt ready to join her S.F. relatives on their journey across the river.
Smartmom was nervous about walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, as the bridge and other New York City landmarks had been cited many times as major Al Queda targets. Everytime she took a subway, rode across a bridge or was in a tunnel she felt imperiled. It was a strange time, New Yorkers felt under attack in a very personal way.
But Smartmom didn’t mention her own fears—not a word. She stiff-upper-lipped it and braved the walk like the ever-reliable New York booster and tour guide that she is. Her relatives seemed to have no fear of walking across the bridge. Smartmom, on the other hand, felt the familiar flutter of anxiety that had been a constant since the 11th. She remembers thinking: how ironic if we’re blown up on Thanksgiving night wanting to pay our respects to the dead at Ground Zero. Death was never far from her thoughts back then.
Tom Martinez, Witness: Spiderman
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
Madigan Somerville: Condoms and the Pope
In her latest Huffington Post essay, poet and blogger Michele Madigan Somerville, who lives in Park Slope, reminisces about the time she heard Rev. Daniel Berrigan talk about reading The Bible. A gay man seated in front of her raised his hand to ask Berrigan about his Christian perspective on distribution of clean needles and condoms as means for preventing the spread of AIDS. According to Somerville, “Berrigan looked lovingly around the exquisite church sanctuary, paused to think, then said this: “Just because you can’t do everything … it doesn’t mean you have to do nothing.”” Here is an excerpt from her post, Condoms and the Pope:
I thought of that response Sunday morning as I read the New York Times’ account of the pope’s interview with German journalist and author Peter Seewald. According to the Times, Benedict has said that there may be circumstances in which the of use of a condom might not be “condemned by the Church.” According to the Times, the pope cited the example of a male prostitute as one such case: “There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility.”
At first, I found it hard to know what to make of this, but the more I thought about the pope’s statement, the more it struck me as maybe the first genuinely “pro-life” utterance to come out of his pontificate.
It may be that lives are saved as a result of these words, which is something.
Red Cross Tips for Avoiding Thanksgiving Hazards
Today I spoke with Chi Kong Liu, assistant director of web services at the American Red Cross, about the hazards of Thanksgiving and ways that you can avoid fire and other disasters on this day.
He told me that Thanksgiving is the peak day for cooking fires, 90 percent of which are caused by unattended cooking. That’s why the American Red Cross came up with this list of ten tips for keeping your Thanksgiving fire-free:
1. Stay in the kitchen when you are frying, grilling or broiling food and keep a fire extinguisher handy. If you leave the kitchen even for a short period of time, turn off the stove.
2. If you are simmering, baking, roasting, or boiling food, check it regularly, remain in the home while food is cooking, and use a timer to remind you that you’re cooking.
3. Clean cooking surfaces on a regular basis to prevent grease buildup.
4. Keep anything that can catch fire—potholders, wooden utensils, food wrappers, towels or curtains—away from your stove top.
5. Make sure your sleeves are out of the way when cooking. Wear tighter fitting clothing with shorter sleeves.
6. Have a “kid-free zone” of at least 3 feet around the stove and areas where hot food or drink is prepared or carried.
7. Never hold a child while cooking, drinking or carrying hot foods or liquids.
8. Turn the handles of pots and pans on the stove inward to avoid accidents.
9. Smoke alarms save lives. Install a smoke alarm near your kitchen, on each level of your home, near sleeping areas, and inside and outside bedrooms if you sleep with doors closed. Use the test button to check it each month. Replace all batteries at least once a year.
10. If you are deep frying your turkey, before filling your fryer with oil, take into account how much the oil level will rise with the turkey in the fryer to prevent overspill. Also make sure the turkey is completely thawed in the refrigerator for 3 days. Frying a frozen turkey will splatter violently.
Visit www.nyredcross.org/fire for more fire prevention tips or take an online Turkey cooking quiz.
OTBKB Music: Three Bands If You Are in Town Tonight
There are three bands playing later tonight you should catch if you are staying in town at least until tomorrow morning. First up at 9:30 is My Pet Dragon. Later, there’s a double bill of The Mastersons and Will Sexton. Get full details on this great late triple header right here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.
–Eliot Wagner
Everyone Loves Pies, Farmer’s Market is Open and More
If you’re not making your own pies for Thanksgiving here are a few suggestions:
Wednesday at the Farmer’s Market at Grand Army Plaza (yes it’s open!) Bread Alone is selling pecan, apple and pumpkin pies for $10 each! Get over there soon.
Everybody’s talking about Four and Twenty Blackbirds but you better get over there before they sell out. Tuesday people lined up at 7AM. They will open at 8AM on Thanksgiving and stay open until they sell out of: Salted Caramel Apple, honeyed pumpkin, bittersweet chocolate pecan, bourbon sweet potato…yum.
Lady Bird Bakery is another great bet. Remember when it was Two Little Red Hens? Well, they still have great pies including double crust apple, apple cranberry, Fall medley, chocolate pecan, buttermilk chess…
Cousin John’s will be open on Thanksgiving selling cran-pear, chocolate pudding, key lime, pecan, lemon meringue, mince meat, peach custard…
Restaurants Open for Thanksgiving
Here are five local restaurants that will be serving Thanksgiving dinner in the area. Per person charges range from $50-$75 (and kids are less). Go to the websites of these restaurants or call them for more information about reservations, rates and menus.
Rosewater will be serving butternut squash soup, rosemary charred smoked turkey breast, seared fluke, baked polenta, pumpkin and apple pie and chocolate pecan bread pudding…
Stone Park Cafe will be serving Pennsylvania natural turkey dinner – roasted breast, confit leg, pan gravy; grilled pork chop– spaghetti squash, pork belly, smoked cranberry bean ragout, pickled mustard seed; pan seared grouper – root vegetable puree, marinated greenbeans, caviar mustard beurre…
Sette Enotecha e Cucina in Park Slope will be serving first courses of pumpkin, apple puree, asparagus fondue with crispy pancetta, artichoke bottoms filled with mushrooms & fontina cheese, wood oven baked clams, spinach salad with poached pears, hazelnuts & gorgonzola cheese, papardelle alla Genovese – (Braised lamb & shaved parmesan cheese) Pansotti filled with butternut squash, goat cheese & apricots – (In a butter & fresh sage sauce), asparagus & mushroom risotto with fresh mascarpone cheese, and of course: oven roasted turkey breast with chest nut & golden raisin stuffing – (Served with sauteed spinach & honey glazed sweet potato)…
Paolo Santo will be serving autumn vegetable soup, quinoa salad, pomegrante with sunchoke and watercress, dark meat braised in Mole Poblano or white meat with traditional fixings…
Purple Yam in Ditmas Park will be serving but instead of the traditional turkey, Purple Yam will celebrate Thanksgiving with chicken slow cooked in bamboo tubes with young coconut juice (buko) and tamarind leaves as its souring agent. Back home in the Philippines, this is an old and forgotten cooking technique which we are trying to revive. For my birthday party in Manila this past October, we flew in Mrs. Remedios Sugon of Bacolod to show us this lost art of packing into bamboo tubes the chickens and its flavoring agents of lemongrass, onions, tomatoes, potatoes and native sour leaves known as libas and cashew leaves…
The Farm on Adderly in Ditmas Park is serving Thanksgiving but they are booked. They are taking names for a waiting list so it might be worth a try to get into this cozy, delicious restaurant.
Bklyn Bloggage: food & drink
Food porn from El Pollo: Here’s Park Slope
3 new Park Slope restaurants: Eat to Blog
Pecan pie and who needs corn syrup: A Cake Bakes in Brooklyn
Gram’s lasagna recipe: A Kitchen in Brooklyn
Dinner at Brucie in Cobble Hill: Eat It
Tuesday Techlucks at the Brooklyn Museum: 2 Cooks in the Kitchen
Cranberries of the day: Ditmas Park Blog
Late night menu at Castillo Plan: Ditmas Park Blog
Here’s Park Slope: Great Local Reporting
Here’s Park Slope, an excellent hyper-local blog in Park Slope, has been in existence since 2009. Dan Meyers, who runs the blog, has been doing some real shoe leather reporting about restaurants, stores, architecture, and Park Slope history. He posts frequently and has an impressive weekly editorial schedule:
Tuesday: Business of the Week
Thursday: Then & Now
Know Your Bartender
Friday: Foodporn
Every Day: News and Observations
Here he is on Aunt Suzies, today’s restaurant of the week:
When Brooklyn native Irene LoRe decided to open up a restaurant on Fifth Avenue in the late 1980s, gentrification was still years off. Bodegas and dollar stores dominated the avenue, and if you wanted a decent meal your best bet was to head up to Seventh. Enter Irene: named after her mother, Aunt Suzie’s was the family friendly, inexpensive local place that neighborhood folks had been waiting for…
Here he is on one of my favorite houses in the South Slope.
As you venture further south in Park Slope, the uniform brownstones of the North Slope side streets give way to a hodgepodge of brick townhouses and vinyl- and wood-sided buildings. The latter houses vary between run-of-the-mill and completely outlandish, and stumbling upon one of the crazier ones can make you stop dead in your tracks…
The blog’s name, I assume, is an homage to E.B. White’s great book, Here is New York, a tribute to New York City in all its wonder, chaos and complexity.
At Here’s Park Slope, Meyers brings Park Slope to life and seems to be an all seeing, all knowing member of the community, who takes the time to tell us what he sees. Thanks, Dan.
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
Noah Baumbach and Jennifer Jason Leigh Split
Director Noah Baumbach, who immortalized 1980’s Park Slope (his hometown) in his 2005 film, The Squid and the Whale, which dealt with divorce and its repercussions, has split from his wife, Jennifer Jason Leigh. The acclaimed actress has starred in many films including, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Short Cuts, Single, White, Female and Baumbach’s Margot at the Wedding.
The couple, married in 2005, have an infant son. Leigh filed for divorce claiming irreconcilable differences.
Panel: No Waiver for Cathie Black Unless…
According to the New York Times, the panel selected to advise New York State’s education commissioner, David M. Steiner, has voted to deny a waiver to the publishing executive her appointment as NYC Schools Chancellor unless—and this is a big unless—an educator is selected to assist her.
Poll Says School Head Should Have Education Experience
I’ve been hearing this all day and I’m finally getting around to telling you about it!
According to a poll from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, a majority of New York City voters believe Cathie Black, the publishing executive selected by Mayor Bloomberg to be NYC School Chancellor, is the wrong person for the job because she lacks educational experience needed to run US’s biggest school system.
An eight-member panel was selected to help state education Commissioner David Steiner decide whether or not she should get a waiver because of her lack of qualifications.
Now everyone wants to know how and why this panel was chosen because the panel includes three former school officials who worked under Chancellor Joel Klein and New York Historical Society President Louise Mirrer, whose museum received a half million dollar donation from the mayor.
Conflict of interest you say? What’s going to happen next?
Pub Crawl with Brooklyn Women’s Rugby
Women’s rugby is one of the fastest growing sports in the world and it is currently a big deal right here in this borough of Brooklyn.
Say hello to: Brooklyn Women’s Rugby!
Apparently, women’s rugby has the same rules, regulations and equipment as men’s rugby, which is rare in women’s sports.
Maybe you’re interested in getting involved…even if you don’t know a damn thing about the game.
Brooklyn’s Women’s Rugby accepts athletes of every skill level, even if you have absolutely no experience. You can find out more by doing a pub crawl with these women…They also have recruiting events, which you can find out more about on the team’s website.
On Saturday, December 4 at 3:30 PM, BWR will have its First Annual Winter Holiday “it’s f*cking cold out so let’s drink” Pub Crawl. The group will be stopping at pubs along Smith Street, including The Brazen Head, Ceol, and more!
The pub crawl starts at 3:30 PM at The Brazen Head (228 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11201).
Official Pub Crawl t-shirts will be sold for $12, which will entitle you to all of the drink specials offered at each bar.
Bklyn Bloggage: neighborhoods
Rainbow Bandshell, beloved venue: Sheepshead Bites
Save Sheepshead Bay High School: Gerritsen Beach
Tionna Smalls looking to open Bed-Stuy store: Bed-Stuy Blog
East Williamsburg Photo Du Jour: NY Shitty
Sunday afternoon talk with State Senator Daniel Squadron: Pardon Me for Asking
PS Bklyn coming to Union Street: Here is Park Slope
Midnight arsonist in Park Slope: Effed in Park Slope
Woman raped on Central Avenue: Bushwick BK
New record for Bishop Laughlin’s can drive: The Local
Will a pop-up cafe come to Prospect Lefferts: Hawthorne Street
The Universal Thump to Perform All Things Must Pass in Its Entirety
After sobbing through last night’s American Masters’ documentary Lennon NYC, timed for the 30th anniversary of Lennon’s death, I’m ready for some George Harrison
Coming to The Bell House on November 29th at 8PM, there’s a 40th anniversary celebration of of All Things Must Pass, the former Beatles’ first solo (triple) album, released on November 27th, 1970.
Interestingly, it was the best-selling album of any solo Beatle and was co-produced by Harrison and the legendary Phil Spector (who later worked with John Lennon on Rock ‘n Roll).
The album displays Harrison’s spiritual side “My Sweet Lord,” as well as “Behind That Locked Door” to ‘wall-of-sound’ wonders such as “What is Life?”
Out of love for the album, The Universal Thump, a Brooklyn-based orchestral pop collective, led by singer-songwriter-pianist, Greta Gertler and Adam B Gold will perform “All Things Must Pass” in its entirety with a 15-piece, expanded ‘wall-of-sound’ mode including: 2 drummers, 2 bass players, strings, horns, guitarists, keyboardists and more with the guest vocalists listed above.
P.S. Greta Gertler shares my maiden name (minus the H). Yay for G(h)ertlers!
What Are You Thankful For?
Send me your list. Here’s a list from Leah Taylor, managing editor of Flavorpill:
Things I am thankful for this year: really good books. Subway buskers (even when we’re on the F shuttle bus). Jon Stewart. Pua the anteater. Kanye kats. Naked Holidays (just like the ones we used to know?). Puns. Hats. NYC TV — and my show (shameless self-promotion alert!). Booze in general, but especially when incorporated into a scrumptious Thanksgiving meal. Raising Hope. Friends, family, fiancé. Buttermilk Channel. NYCB. The Big Lebowski store. SXSW, Northside, CMJ. The Brooklyn Flea. Food52 (and their upcoming Piglet Party). Flavorpill’s iPhone app. Awesome coworkers. Happy hour at Botanica. Febreeze. Foursquare. Spanx. Le Creuset. The Hairpin. Christmas in Vegas (really!). Gerber Daisies. New York f*ckin’ City.
90th Birthday Celebration for Brooklyn Health Advocate
In a collaboration between the Paul Robeson Theater and The Imagine Project, there will be a celebration of the life of a real Brooklyn heroine, Dr. Josephine English, one of the first African American women to practice OB/GYN in New York State.
An advocate for the health care of men and women of color, Dr. English was granted a license from the New York State Department of Health to develop a free-standing ambulatory surgical center in Bed-Stuy. She is also responsible for a senior citizen center in that neighborhood.
“Community is the answer to helping the children and each other. It is community development that is going to change the world. We have to change it for ourselves. We have to make the community work for us and we have to work for the community,” Dr. English said.
Reserve ahead for tickets to this celebration, on December 18, at 6PM at the Paul Robeson Theater (40 Greene Avenue), which will honor Dr English’s contribution to the women and children of Brooklyn. There live performance of new songs and special holiday material by young actors from NYC Homeless Shelters, many of whom created the original material they will be performing.
These young actors will also perform several pieces from the Off Broadway show “IMAGINE. Time Out New York gave it four starts and wrote: “A must see for youngsters, their families and all who care about the beauty and magic of childhood.”
12% Increase in Need at Brooklyn’s Largest Soup Kitchen
St. John’s Bread & Life is Brooklyn’s largest soup kitchen. Located at 795 Lexington Avenue (that’s Brooklyn, folks), they expect to serve 2,000 meals on Wednesday, a 12 percent increase from last year. Besides serving more than 2,000 meals daily, Bread and Life also provides numerous social services, including nutrition counseling, housing referral services, medical support, education, support groups, a legal clinic and tax preparation.
So while people say that the economy is rebounding (oh really?)the intensity of the need and the services provided at St. John’s Bread & Life proves that there still is a growing number of New Yorkers, who will need emergency food services by the year’s end.
“As our community continues to struggle with lay-offs and home foreclosures, we’re seeing many new faces at the soup kitchen- including families,” said Anthony Butler, executive director of Bread & Life wrote to me in an email. “Our Thanksgiving tradition ensures that the spirit of the holiday is shared with those less fortunate. We have volunteers up at the crack of dawn to make sure the homeless are not forgotten.” Due to the ongoing economic issues and the unemployment rate hovering at 9%, the demand for emergency food services in New York City has surged.”
WHEN: Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE: St. John’s Bread and Life Soup Kitchen, 795 Lexington Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11221
Free Thanksgiving Turkeys Arrive at Local Organizations
Props to Assemblywoman Millman and Fairway Market. T hey partnered to deliver 50 frozen turkeys to seven community organizations today. The following organizations received donated turkeys:
The YMCA at 30 Third Avenue; The Raices Times Plaza Senior Center at 460 Atlantic; The Prospect Park YMCA on 9th Street between 6th and 5th Avenues; The Hope Program of Brooklyn at One Smith Street; The Raices Gowanus Senior Center; CHIPS, Christian Help in Park Slope, located at 200 Fourth Avenue; and the Eileen C. Dugan Senior Center located at 380 Court Street.
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
