Looks like Joe Nardiello, Republican candidate for City Council in the 39th district, pissed off a lot of people this morning with the fake tickets he put on their car windshields in an attempt to spread the word about his candidacy.

Note to Joe: You probably don't want to cause apoplexy when trying to get people's attention about your campaign. Or do you?

The feedback I'm hearing on Brian Lehrer show is that people were really annoyed, still don't remember your name and found it to be downright offensive!

Nardiello, a former advertising executive, really bombed with this so-called creative concept!

Office Work

Of course there's work

To do without fail

But that must wait

Till post-email.

Tomorrow is Election Day. VOTE. Finally. This local election season is over.

 Public schools are closed and there is no alternate side of the street parking. I assume the banks and post offices are closed but I will check into that.

November 3rd at 7 PM at the Community Bookstore(143 Seventh Avenue between Carroll and Garfield):

Climate Change: Picturing the Science
With editors Gavin Schmidt and Joshua Wolfe, and author Frank Zeman

The first book anyone seeking a layman’s understanding of the science of global warming should read…one of the most reasonable, unflappable, pleasantly humorous and least stuffy experts in any subject that we’ve met. ––Popular Mechanics

[A] masterful account of the science of climate change…It will leave you both in awe of the Earth we inhabit and of the science itself, with all of its uncertainties and incomplete answers. ––Seed Magazine
Schmidt, a climate scientist at NASA, and photographer Wolfe seek to advance public education about human-induced climate change in a combination of arresting images and lucid explanations of the science of global warming and the pursuit of global cooperation in adopting new, sustainable ways of living. With contributions by 16 scientists, engineers, writers, activists, and photographers, Schmidt and Wolfe address a host of observable changes, from the melting of ice and permafrost at the poles to the rising of sea levels in cities such as Venice and Miami. From discussions of increasing drought, forest fires, and extreme storms to the deadly buildup of industrial and agriculture chemicals, the coverage is clear and bracing. And it’s inspiring to learn about the work of these cutting-edge experts as they marvel over the finely calibrated checks and balances of  the earth’s systems, elucidate the ways human-induced climate change is making the planet less conducive to life, and chronicle inventive approaches to averting environmental catastrophe. In the midst of sobering reportage, the authors manage to appeal to our fascination with epic challenges. –Donna Seaman

 
Hope all of you had a WONDERFUL HALLOWEEN.
the weather was perfect,

The bubbles were amazing,

The parade was great

as were the ghouls.

Bring your old Jack-O-Lantern to the MS 51 garden, 4th St./5th Ave. between 1-5 pm
& learn more about composting and gardening on the site.

Sponsored by the Old Stone House Garden Club

Just noticed this interesting article in the NY Times about Bishop DiMarzio and Assemblyman Vito Lopez. Readers of OTBKB may remember that Bishop DiMarzio may have been involved in the decision to fire Principal James Flanagan at Saint Saviour Elementary School last spring.

And about the powerful Assemblyman Vito Lopez: Steve Levin, the candidate for City Council in the 33rd district (which includes parts of Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, Navy Yard, Williamsburg and Greenpoint) is the former Chief of Staff for Lopez.

In an unusually overt step into politics by a religious leader, the
Roman Catholic bishop of Brooklyn is urging voters, via robocalls, to
support Vito J. Lopez, an assemblyman and the Brooklyn Democratic boss, whose hand-picked candidate is in a tough race for a City Council seat.

The bishop, Nicholas A.
DiMarzio, in a recorded phone call sent to every registered voter in
City Council District 34, praised Mr. Lopez’s legislative service to
the Catholic Church this summer. Mr. Lopez played a key role in defeating a bill that would have let adults file suit over childhood sexual abuse that may have occurred long ago.

Mr.
Lopez, a longtime kingmaker in Bushwick and Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has
energetically championed the candidacy of Maritza Davila, who is
running against Councilwoman Diana Reyna in District 34.

Park Slope's Capathia Jenkins and Louis Rosen will be playing at Joe's Pub on November 8, 14, 21, 22 at 7 PM.
Their new album, The Ache of Possiblity, is available at CD Baby, Amazon and elsewhere.

 


http://donwiss.com/pictures/Halloween-2009/

Smartmom’s couch saga entered the inertia phase last week. As
reported in this paper, Smartmom and Hepcat went to Room & Board in
the city earlier this month and looked at a plethora of couches. They
both liked one called the Townsend and vowed to go back to take another
look.

But that hasn’t happened yet. Last week, when Smartmom and Hepcat
were in Manhattan on other business, Smartmom suggested that they go
look at the couch at the shop in SoHo.

“It’ll just be a quick trip,” she pleaded.

But Hepcat was in no mood for couch shopping and he was anxious to get back to the living/room office to do his work.

So now a week later, they still haven’t made a trip to Room &
Board and Smartmom can barely remember why she liked the Townsend so
much.

In the meantime, Hepcat took a photo of the green leather couch for
The Brooklyn Paper. It wasn’t really a fair photo; when Smartmom wasn’t
home, Hepcat carefully “styled” the couch by putting red pillows on it
and a small Ugly Doll.

Still, when Smartmom saw the picture in The Paper, she felt
vindicated. The couch looked so awful, so saggy, so worn out that she
was sure that everyone would agree that her family was in need of a new
one. Not surprisingly, Hepcat saw things differently. He was convinced
that the comment section would be filled with posts saying that the
couple should stop whining and just keep the couch.

Smartmom couldn’t have disagreed more. Wasn’t it obvious that after
18 years of good service, that couch was ready to hit the streets? But
just in case he was right, Smartmom checked the comments section in The
Brooklyn Paper, and was relieved to see that there were none. Phew.

But then Smartmom got the surprise of her life. Brooke Dramer, a
writer and friend since she and Smartmom had babies at the Montessori
nursery school, e-mailed her with “a serious offer.”

“I would like to buy your green leather couch,” she wrote. “Our
green leather couch died, and we have been searching for a replacement
on Craig’s List. Very few companies are still manufacturing green
leather couches (I guess they think it’s so last century).

“My boyfriend Dave brought the green couch with him when he moved in
with us in 2001. He brought only one other piece of furniture — a green
chair — plus four guitars, a bass, a banjo, and three amps. We agreed
to throw out my blue velveteen convertible couch. No arguments at all;
my couch had no history whatsoever — until we put it out on the street
for garbage collection. Friday morning, we found that two people had
opened up the convertible across the sidewalk and were sleeping on it.
They’d unzipped the velveteen covers from the cushions and slipped them
over their heads. Dozens of children were walking to school with their
parents and thought it was really funny to have to walk around two
people sleeping on a pull-out couch. The two sleepers just wouldn’t
wake up. We had to call the cops, who drove by with a policewoman
yelling through a bullhorn, ‘Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!’

“The sleepers stirred a bit. They turned out to be a short, skinny
man and a tall, stocky woman — not two men, as we’d originally thought
when their heads were covered. But the police drove on, and the people
went back to sleep. Dave finally got rid of them by placing our stereo
speakers in the window and playing Black 47, full volume. That woke the
sleepers up, and they finally left. Dave and I ran out and folded up
the couch. Dave’s (now our) green couch suffered some splits in the
leather after being sat on, jumped on, and slept on by kids for more
than 18 years. Finally, just a few months ago, the slits opened up, and
large scraps of leather pulled away.

“We’ve got to get rid of this thing (which I’m sitting on now as I
type this). But we’re very busy. If we buy your couch, we could just
pay for it and lug it three blocks. You could film us carrying it away
and post the video on your blog. That’s closure.”

So Hepcat was right. There are people — OK, at least one person —
who think it’s a perfectly good couch. Some would even spend money on
it.

But how much? Brooke didn’t say, and now Smartmom and Hepcat should
probably set a price. But doing so requires a knowledge of one thing:
what’s that damn couch worth to them?

Talk about closure!

Yeah I'm a good aunt (and a great sister). I walked with my sister and niece to the middle of Prospect Park for the Spook Walk and Halloween Carnival.

First order of business: Ducky needed to have her face painted. She was a GORGEOUS lady bug and she needed a lady bug face. OF COURSE. A lovely face painter knew just what to do. A red face with black polka dots.

Best moment of the day: A real lady bug landed on Ducky's lady bug costume. What joy. What fun. A lady bug on the lady bug.

Fun sighting: The lovely and gracious Tupper Thomas, President of the Prospect Park Alliance, introduced herself to the Spook Walk line waiters. I said hi:  "So great to meet you, I'm Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn…"

Another fun sighting: Brad Lander with his wife Meg and daughter were on line for the Spook Walk. "Hey, Brad is this off the record?" Lander is running for City Council inthe 39th district. 

How was the Spook Walk: Fabulous. The actors who don costumes and participate in the very theatrical and scary fun Spook Walk do a fantastic job! They stay in character the whole time. I got freaked out a couple of times…

Change is good. The new route of the Park Slope Halloween Parade was a roaring success. On Third Street anyway. Third Street dwellers enjoyed their front row seats for the parade. I for one sat inside our gated front yard and watched the entire parade from start to finish.

It was partytime for the grown ups and kids on Third Street.

And what a parade it was! I actually got to see the skaters with the long arms and white grim reaper faces. I got to see Paprika and all the big puppets. I saw Marty Markowitz, Chuck Schumer and other local pols.

And then there was Gersh Kuntzman's float. Dressed as Miss Brooklyn, he made quite a splash with a microphone…

As usual, the parade started on 14th Street and Seventh Avenue but this year for the first time, marchers made a sharp left onto Third Street and walked to JJ Byrne Park at Fifth Avenue.

Blondie at the Brooklyn Museum Who Shot Rock and Roll ? opening last
night.

The answer: well just about
everyone.
 









 

Blondie by the way gave an outstanding performance, even overcoming the
almost-as-bad-as-Winterland acoustics of the Brooklyn Museum.

I enjoyed this article in the Park Slope Civic Council newsletter (and website) about Catherine Bohne, the recent winner of the Park Slope Civic Council’s 2009 Lovgren Award. It's called:  "You can't put down a neighborhood that has a Catherine Bohne" and it is written by Erza Goldstein.

This was written in October 2005.Teen Spirit was 14, OSFO was 8. Smartmom was…

Photo by Adrian Kinloch, Brit in Brooklyn

Halloween morning, the kids popped out of bed early, ready for their
breakfast candy. "Stop stealing from the trick or treat bowl. That's
for later," Hepcat bellowed. Even Teen Spirit, who is historically
difficult to rouse in the morning, was up and ready for high school in
record time, his pockets stuffed with Hershey's kisses.

The Oh
So Feisty One packed her cowgirl chaps in her pink backpack. "Just in
case my teacher lets us put on our costumes." This was unlikely because
her school prohibits any recognition of Halloween in sensitivity to the
children whose religious beliefs prevent them from participating.

Smartmom
tried to get some money work done on Monday but by 2 p.m, she
surrendered to the reality that Monday afternoon and evening were for
one thing and one thing only: Halloween.

First crisis of the day: the case of the missing cowboy hat: OSFO searched the apartment
high and low. Smartmom finally unearthed it underneath Teen Spirit’s
bed.

Second crisis: Teen Spirit needed a shirt for his impromptu
pirate costume. "You can wear this black shirt of Dad's." Smartmom told
him. "No he can't," Hepcat screamed from the living room. "That's my
special black shirt."

"it's alright, mom," Teen Spirit told Smartmom ever-attentive to Hepcat’s moods.

They
did manage to find a billowy white shirt in the closet. Teen Spirit
strapped on his belt, plastic sword, and the pirate hat he'd purchased
at Rite Aid, ready to join a band of roving teenage pirates who were
waiting downstairs.

Aargh.

Trick or Treating on Seventh
Avenue, OSFO was, characteristically, driven to procure as much candy
as she could possibly fit into her shopping bag. They were joined by
Ducky, who was dressed in a zip-up bunny costume with little paw gloves and a
cloth carrot.

Her first Halloween ever – god knows what Ducky
was thinking. Big brown eyes open wide, she inhaled the crazy costumed
scene from her stroller.

The group went back to Groovy Aunt’s
for some apartment-building style trick or treating. Volume is what it's about. "Let's see," OSFO calculated. "They've got six floors
and eight apartments on each floor…”

OSFO hasn't learned her multiplication tables yet, but still, that's a lot of candy.

Third Crisis: OSFO developed Halloween fatigue mixed with an acute case of "not being the center of attention."

That
darn baby in that darn bunny suit: Ducky was sucking all the attention
out of the room with a straw. OSFO ripped off her cowgirl chaps and
flung her Payless cowgirl boots across the living room and staged a a
world-class snitsky. Arms tightly crossed, she faced a wall and snarled. The only remedy: a large dose of alone time.

Rejuvenated
by a few minutes of quiet and three mini Twix bars, OSFO was ready for
a little trick or treating and the Halloween parade. "The houses with
the Jack-O-lanterns are the ones with the candy," she said with the
assuredness of a seasoned navigator. Racing up and down the brownstone
stoops, she rang on door bells and filled her bag with more candy.

Crisis
number four: By the time they got to the parade, it was over. The
streets were filled with teenagers. Teen Spirit was spotted in front of
Starbucks with a can of shaving cream – horror of horrors. Strange to
say, with all her worries about sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, Smartmom
never once imagined he'd be a shaving cream trickster.

Live and learn. Hepcat trailed Teen Spirit and the teenage pirates to Barnes and Noble and insisted that he be home by nine.

Before
bedtime, OSFO weighed her Halloween treat bag on the bathroom scale:
"I've got five pounds of candy. Don't anybody touch it," she screamed
and then proceeded to stash it in her secret hide-a-way.

Halloween
Crisis number five: The day after Halloween, Teen Spirit couldn't keep
his eyes open during English class. He fell asleep on his desk.
Smartmom hopes he didn't snore. Now that would be very distracting.

How was your Halloween?

When you go to sleep on Saturday night set your clock back because Daily Savings Time ends on Sunday morning. And while you're at it change your smoke alarm batteries.

Ever wonder about the history of Daylight Savings Time:

"Although standard time in time
zones was instituted in the U.S. and Canada by the railroads in
1883, it was not established in U.S. law until the Act of March 19,
1918, sometimes called the Standard Time Act. The act also established
daylight saving time, a contentious idea then. Daylight saving time was
repealed in 1919, but standard time in time zones remained in law.
Daylight time became a local matter. It was re-established nationally
early in World War II, and was continuously observed from 9 February
1942 to 30 September 1945. After the war its use varied among states
and localities. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 provided standardization
in the dates of beginning and end of daylight time in the U.S. but
allowed for local exemptions from its observance. The act provided that
daylight time begin on the last Sunday in April and end on the last
Sunday in October, with the changeover to occur at 2 a.m. local time.

"During the "energy crisis" years, Congress enacted earlier
starting dates for daylight time. In 1974, daylight time began on
6 January and in 1975 it began on 23 February. After those two
years the starting date reverted back to the last Sunday in April.
In 1986, a law was passed that shifted the starting date
of daylight time to the first Sunday in April, beginning in 1987.
The ending date of daylight time was not subject to such
changes, and remained the last Sunday in October. The
Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed both the starting and ending dates.
Beginning in 2007, daylight time starts on
the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November."

For a very readable account of the history of standard and daylight
time in the U.S., see

Ian R. Bartky and Elizabeth Harrison: "Standard
and Daylight-saving Time", Scientific American, May 1979 (Vol. 240,
No. 5), pp. 46-53.

 Another Momasphere event:

Author Shari Storm for a reading and signing her book Motherhood Is the New MBA. (Book release: September 29th). Includes a discussion and Q&A,  plus giveaways, wine and food!

“Regardless of whether you are a mom, just starting out, or
established in the workforce, the ideas presented in this book offer a
fresh perspective and new ways of thinking about the applications of
your everyday life experiences.” – Victoria Colligan, founder and CEO
of Ladies Who Launch and co-author of Ladies Who Launch: Embracing Entrepreneurship & Creativity as a Lifestyle

Date:  Thurs, November 5th, 2009
Time:  7-9 pm
Place:  Park Slope Eye, 682 Union Street (bet. 4th and 5th ave.) – Brooklyn, NY 11215
Price:  Tickets are $10 online & $15 at the door

 Space is limited so you must RSVP by purchasing tickets online. Sponsored by Park Slope Eye & Hybrid Mom. A portion of the proceeds of the event go to Children of the City.

Food & beverages will be served. Great raffle prizes will be
given away and every attendee will receive a free goodie bag that
includes, Hybrid Mom Magazine, a big Momlogic canvas tote and and delicious all natural Q.Bel chocolate candy bar!

More tips from BFFE:

HALLOWEEN:

—Haunted Walk in Prospect Park at Lookout HIll & the Nethermead from 12 –3 PM. Rain or shine.  Suggested donation, $1.The
beloved Halloween Haunted Walk is back and scarier than ever! Lurking
high on Lookout Hill are zombies, wolf men, headless horsemen, good and
bad witches, and other creepy characters. Visitors brave enough to
experience this harrowing hike should head to Lookout Hill. The
Halloween Haunted Walk is suitable for young children accompanied by
parents/guardians or older siblings.

–Boo at the Zoo at the Zoo for a frighteningly good time with the animals.

–Howloween Pups On Parade. A special event to benefit Washington Park. Prizes for best dog costumes! Registration: $10 per dog; 12-12:30 pm. Parade at 12:45 PM.

—Park Slope Civic Council Halloween Parade. Start: 6:30 PM at 7th Ave/14th Street. Finish: JJ Byrne Playground/Washington Park

–Phantom of the Opera showing in the sanctuary of the Fort Greene landmark Lafayette Avenue
Presbyterian Church, on a 14-foot wide screen with live Organ
accompaniment by J. David Williams on the 1910 “Austin Organ”. 7 PM. 

–Freaky Cats at BAMcinematek. See OTBKB Movies by Pops Corn.

RUNNING: The marathon starts in Staten Island at 9AM on Sunday. Watch from Fourth Avenue.

MOVIES:

–An Education with Peter Sarrgaard and Alfred Molina at BAM.

–Michael Jackson's This Is It at the Pavilion.

—-Freaky Cats at BAMcinematek. See OTBKB Movies by Pops Corn.

FAMILY THEATER: The Legend of Ichabod Crane adapted from the Washington Irving story and performed by Dan Kitrosser.Brooklyn Lyceum. 227 Fourth Ave. at President Street. (718) 857-4816

TALK: On Sunday, Nov. 1: Children of Imprisoned Parents speak at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture (PPW at 1st Street) High school students Davian and Kai Reynolds speak about growing up with an imprisoned mother. 11 PM. 

POETRY: On Sunday Nov 1 at 7 PM. Galway Kinnell at the Brooklyn Lyceum.

COMEDY: On Sunday, Nov 1 at 7:30 PM. ith Eugene Mirman at Union Hall.

Yeah. You can read Smartmom inside the NY Post today. Here's the spiel from the Brooklyn Paper: