All posts by louise crawford

Civics and Urban Life

What Happens When Everyone You Know in Park Slope is on Facebook?

4 Comments

Louiseportrait
It's strange. You're walking down Seventh Avenue and you see out of the corner of your eye someone you've "friended" on Facebook. And they're not a great friend or anything but a good acquaintance. You might know them from you kid's school or through a mutual friend.

But now you know way more about them than you used to. You've read their 25 Random Things About Me and their favorite words and you have a running sense of their daily status.

Maybe you see them on the way to the subway and you kind of know where they're going because they posted about that; or you run into them at Sweet Melissa's or 'Snice and you're curious how something or other turned out.

But it's not really appropriate to say anything. Or is it? Is it rude not to? What's the etiquette here, now, Emily Post?

It's the strangest thing. I'm wondering if this brand of "social networking" will lead to a tighter sense of community or a community of people who nervously avoid each other when they're out on the street because, like, you've seen high school pictures and you know how they wore their hair back in 1982. You've seen their wedding outfits and pictures of them as babies…

When you're on Facebook it's one thing. Over there it's like a high school party, where you're free to check  everybody out. You see your friends, your friend's friends, the teachers, the parents.

Everybody is at the party.

You can explore their information and find out their favorite books and movies. You're glad they shared their favorite panini recipe after you posted about your new panini press; or that they offered their favorite cold remedies and hope you feel better because you posted about being sick.

But running into them on the street is different. You're not sure if you need to say "hi." It's like you know them in your secret life, the one on your computer. And yet, you know them for real, too.

On Seventh Avenue on a cold March day. Hey, Emily Post, a little help here, please.

Civics and Urban Life

March 12 Memoir-A-Thon: Not for the Faint-Hearted

Brwpix 
On your mark, get set, MEMOIR!

Brooklyn Reading Works
presents the annual Memoir-A-Thon, which is curated this year by Branka
Ruzak. For this special event, she has gathered together a stellar
group of memoirists, whose work collectively touches on: incest,
teenage psychiatric incarceration, life in a Cuban AIDS sanitorium, a
mother's Alzheimer's, and a family legacy of obsessive compulsive
disorder.

This iteration of the Memoir-a-thon is not for the faint hearted. That's for sure.

Robert Goolrick reads from "a blistering family memoir of a life deformed."

Mindy Lewis writes in honest, unflinching prose of a teenage stay on a psychiatric ward.

Elena Schwolsky shares her experience working in an AIDS Sanitorium in Cuba.

Erica Silberman writes about her mother's experience with Alzheimer's.

Branka Ruzak writes about a family legacy of obsessive compulsive disorder.

Bios:

Robert
Goolrick is the author of The End of the World As We Know It, described
by the New York Times, as "a blistering family memoir." His novel A
Reliable Wife, will published by Algonquin Book on April 7th. He worked
for many years in advertising and lives in NYC.

Mindy Lewis is the author of Life Inside: A Memoir (Washington Square
Press), named a 2003 Book of the Year by the American Journal of Nursing and
an ELLE "Must Read". She is also the editor of Dirt The Quirks, Habits and
Passions of Keeping House, forthcoming from Seal Press this spring. Her
essays have been published in Newsweek, Lilith, Poets & Writers, and Body &
Soul magazines. She teaches at The Writer¹s Voice of the Westside YMCA, and
has also taught at Brooklyn College and the Metropolitan Center of Empire
State College/SUNY.

Elena Schwolsky public health educator in NYC who is writing a memoir
about her experience working in an AIDS Sanatorium in Havana, Cuba in the
mid 90's.  Elena spent ten years on the frontlines of the AIDS epidemic as a
pediatric nurse in Newark, NJ.  When her husband died of AIDS in 1990, she
found her voice in writing and began to explore the intersection of her
personal and professional experience.  In 2001, Elena was honored with an
award for her writing from the Barbara Dane/Money for Women Fund.

Erica Silberman reads from her collection of essays, Nuts in My Pockets,
Tissues Up My Sleeve. She is a playwright, essayist, and screenwriter. She has written
sixteen times for theAtrainplays, a twenty-four hour theatre project. Her
plays have been produced or developed at The Ensemble Studio Theatre, New
World Stages, Playwrights Horizon, the Stonington Opera House, and the
Metropolitan Playhouse. She is published in Teachers and Writers, and will
be published in Playscripts, and Sunday Salon 'zine. Erica has been featured
on NPR's PRI. She is a mentor at Girls Write Now and the co-president of The
New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts & Media.

Branka Ruzak has been a writer, producer and editor in commercial and
corporate advertising. The daughter of immigrant parents, she spent many
childhood hours listening to her father¹s stories and playing Croatian folk
music. Her enthusiasm for Indian classical music, novels and textiles, as
well as a good cup of chai, have often taken her to India. Her essay Hungry
Heart is in the anthology Dirt: The Quirks, Habits, and Passions of Keeping
House, coming out this spring. She is currently at work on a collection of
essays about family, identity, culture and travel.

The Where and When

Thursday March 12th at 8 p.m.

The Old Stone House

Fifth Avenue and Third Street

Civics and Urban Life

March 21: Benefit Screening For Washington Park Dog Run

1 Comment

Tilt_screening_07
The folks over at Willie's Dawgs are calling it Shorts-4-Dogs and it's a benefit screening for the dog run in Washington Park.

Cool.

On Saturday March 21st at 7 p.m. get yourself over to the Old Stone House for a screening of lovable, award-winning short films. A benefit for Washington Park Dog Run, the price of admission is $20. That's twenty bucks.

And for that you get plump, juicy and delicious hot dogs grilled any way you like them and reverently tucked into our hand rolled homemade buns,  traditional, natural or veggie dogs on challah, mulitgrain or rye rolls. You get a ton of different homemade toppings piled high plus all the necessary stuff like fresh hand cut potatoes and our own
buttermilk onion rings fried in peanut oil by our precision staff.

And a movie, beer and popcorn. And good karma!

The Where and When

Saturday March 21st at 7 p.m.
Shorts-4-Dogs
The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street
Tix are $20, which includes hot dogs (veggie, too) beer, and popcorn.

Brownstone Voyeur

Bklyn Designs Announces its 7th Annual Lineup of Designers

Product9
Bklyn Design 2009 has just announced its 7th annual all-star lineup which features 45
of Brooklyn's top designers!

Bklyn Designs 2009 highlights "the freshest and most innovative contemporary furniture, lighting,
carpet, flooring, and wall coverings designed by both new and veteran
exhibitors."

The show, presented by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce
from May 8 – 10 at Saint Ann's Warehouse in DUMBO, kicks off New
York Design Week. For a complete list go to bklyndesigns.com

During this highly anticipated three-day
showcase, BKLYN DESIGNS bustles with over 6,500 visitors, including
interior designers, retailers, manufacturers, distributors, developers,
and other design-conscious members of the public who follow New York
City's hottest trends.

"Brooklyn is burgeoning with talent, and
BKLYN DESIGNS is one way we have been able to support and celebrate our
local designers over the years," says Carl Hum, president & CEO,
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

The BKLYN DESIGNS 2009 jury includes design aficionados that hail from top publications like New York and Interior Design
magazines, from popular blogs including Design*Sponge and Inhabitat, as
well as acclaimed New York City educational and cultural institutions
like the Brooklyn and Guggenheim museums and Pratt Institute.


Election

deBlasio to Appear with Parents, Children and Day Care Advocates

Councilmember Bill de Blasio wants the city to explain its plan to move 3000 5-year-olds from day care to public school.

Tomorrow, he will stand with a large crowd of parents, children and day care advocates to support low incomeparents’ choice to send their children to child care centers instead
of public schools.

Afterwards, there will be a joint hearing of the General Welfare and Education Committees to demand the City explain its plan to move over 3,000 five year olds from day care to public school

Press Conference
12:00PM, Thursday March 5
City Hall Steps

General Welfare and Education Hearing
1:00PM, Thursday March 5
250 Broadway, 16th floor (bring photo ID)

Brownstone Voyeur

Starting Thursday on casaCARA and OTBKB: Brownstone Voyeur

Brownstone Voyeur is a joint project of casaCARA and Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn.

Tomorow will be the first in a regular Thursday series that will take you behind those pretty facades to see what you’ve strained to glimpse through windows in the past (admit it, you have).

We’ll walk you through the interiors and gardens of brownstones, brick row houses, pre-war apartments, detached Victorians, carriage houses, lofts, and other Brooklyn abodes to see the colorful, creative, clever, cost-conscious ways people really live in New York City’s hippest borough.

Steal their ideas, and enjoy.

EDUCATION

Rummage Collection At PS 321: March 9-12

 



Rummage Collection
will be Mon. 3/9 —
Thurs. 3/12
in the school
lobby

YES: baby & kids clothing, coats, kids winter &
rain boots, bikes, scooters, cleats, skates, dolls, action figures,
NEW stuffed animals, toys, games, complete puzzles, all kids books,
adult fiction (please NO outdated non-fiction), CDs, DVDs,
videos.

NO: adult clothing or shoes, used kids shoes, baby gear or
equipment, jewelry, household items, music cassette
tapes.

Center for the Urban Environment

Urban Environmentalist NYC – Sustainability Beat

Here is a snapshot of the sustainability issues that faced the borough and city this past
February. The links were compiled by Rebeccah Welch, Senior Associate
Director of Communications at the Center for the Urban Environment
(CUE). To learn more about CUE, visit  www.thecue.org.

Setting ‘Green’ Goals [NYT]

Urban Environmentalist NYC: The Commandant’s House (Brooklyn Navy Yard) Revealed [GL]

N.Y. Water Taxi to Build a Beach on Governors Island [Tribeca Trib]

Preparing for a Flood of Energy Efficiency Spending [NY Times]

Gowanus Businesses, Officials, Activists Discuss Environmental Concerns [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

How sweet it is! [Brooklyn Paper]

Milking It [Brooklyn Based]

Retailers Reel From Recession [New York Magazine]

Bike Lanes Run into Opposition [Gotham Gazette]

Don't Slash Our Funding, Say Aquarium, Botanic Gardens Execs [Green Beat Brooklyn]

Luxury Affordability Marks Green Renewal in the Bronx [City Limits]

The Tracks: A Glimpse into Bushwick’s Past [Bushwick BK]

Keeping Up the Pressure On Greenpoint Oil Spill [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

Urban Environmentalist NYC: Q&A with New York Water Taxi   [GL]

Public Forum on Trash in the Hood [Bed Stuy Banana]

Idling Gets you Nowhere [Report – Environmental Defense Fund]

Protecting the City's Wetlands [Report – PlaNYC]

Postcard from the Slope

Hear Simone Speak, Hear Simone Play

1 Comment

Dinnerstein_300
Thanks to Fred Child, you can now hear a recent interview he did with acclaimed pianist and Park Slope resident, Simone Dinnerstein. He writes:

When I met Simone Dinnerstein in 2007, she was a surprise (and
somewhat surprised) classical star. The recording she paid for from her
own pocket had shot to No. 1 on the classical charts in its first week.
Seemingly overnight, she had gone from scratching out a few small gigs
to playing for sellout crowds at the most prestigious concert halls in
the world.

That kind of success can exact a price. Even in the
world of classical music, some A-list musicians fall for the trappings:
luxury hotels, five-star meals, gala receptions, fawning adoration from
moneyed admirers. Dinnerstein maintains a clear-eyed focus on what she
loves most about all of this: the music.

When she returned to our
studio this season, she seemed genuinely reflective, pausing to
consider each question for a moment, then speaking straight from the
heart. No matter the topic, her thoughts seemed remarkably well-formed,
as if she'd been sagely pondering these questions for ages. Her
continuing love of music by Bach. Her appreciation for a 21st-century
set of variations on Bach. How her new celebrity means more time away
from home, but deepens her connections with her husband and son. How
her playing has evolved in the last two years.

Dinnerstein
creates a similar mood when she plays piano: It's contemplative and
insightful. Thoughtfully grounded, but at the same time suggesting
something more — a timeless, numinous beyond.

Turns out this was one of Fred Child's favorite sessionns so he put it on the WNYC website. For the enjoyment of OTBKB readers, here's the
link to the interview http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101102623

 

Postcard from the Slope

Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin in The Park with Nancy Meyers

1 Comment

Picnic_house3
Over at the Picnic House in Prospect Park production designers have transformed that space into a Dean and De Luca/Pain Quotidian type of bakery/cafe for some important scenes in the Untitled Nancy Meyers Project.

Meryl Streep plays an Alice Waters type of character, a recently divorced middle-aged chef/baker who has recently divorced her husband.  Alec Baldwin plays her ex and Steve Martin is the new man in her life.

IMDB describes the film this way: A romantic comedy in which two man vie for the affection of a woman.

The movie takes place in somewhere near Santa Barbara. But they're shooting all the interiors in New York City.

BROOKLYN READING WORKS

March Events at The Old Stone House

Oshpix
Here's what's going on in March at The Old Stone House.

Friday, March 6th

Jazz at OSH
Tacuma Bradley, Sax; Mike Petrosino, Drums; Dan Shuman, Bass; and Charles Sibirsky, Piano
8:00 pm.
Tickets: $12.

 

Saturday, March 7

Light & Sound
The Music of GI Gurdjieff & Thomas de Hartman
Featuring Timothy Hill, Vocals; Julianne Klopotic, Violin; and John Watts, Piano
Special Guests: Tabla Maestro Aditya Kalyanpur & Maria Jeffers, Cello
8:00 pm.

Thursday, March 12th 

Brooklyn Reading Works
The Memoirathon
Curated by Branka Ruzak
8:00 pm.
$5 suggested donation

Friday, March 13th & Saturday, March 14th

Theatre Group Dzieci Presents
Makbet: A Chamber Ensemble Interpretation
8:00 -9:00 pm.
$10 suggested donation

Scott Turner of Rocky Sullivan's

Greetings From Scott Turner: Two Magic Words

Once again, Scott Tuner, a graphic desinger and writer, who runs the Pub Quiz at Rocky Sullivan's honors us with one of his magical missives.

Greetings, Pub Quiz Snowdrift Searchers…

The two most magic works in children's ears rang through New York City yesterday.

No, not "Pub Quiz!"

It was "SNOW DAY!"  A simple two-word reminder that no matter how
buried in the past, some things claw their way back to the present. 
They catch us be surprise before, gently, making us smile.

Of course, given our susceptibility to hype and dire-if-baseless
prognostications, Sunday evening's "one for the ages" snowstorm
rhetoric fell well short.  Officially, the city got eight inches of
snow.

It wasn't like the 1888 blizzard…

http://symonsez.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/blizzardof1888wallstreet.jpg



The run of big storms in the '60s…


…or the big supermamma in 1996":

The '96 storm was so bad Brooklyn's streets had to be excavated with steamshovels and earthmovers. 
Trucks drove back and forth to the East River, backing up to the
water's edge and dumping the snow into the watery currents.  It was the
only way to clear the streets.  This was no "wait 'til it melts"
operation.

"Official" snowfall measurements are taken in Central Park, by Central Park Zoo employees directed by the National Weather Service.  The measurements used to be taken at Belvedere Castle.

But Central Park is hardly the center of New York City.  That distinction goes to Bushwick, Brooklyn.  It's not surprising that New York's never-vanquished  Manhattancentricity continues
to base its meteorological standing on Central Park.  "But, the
National Weather Service's equipment was at Belvedere Castle!!"  Yeah,
but they moved to Brookhaven, NY in 1995.

It's high time we beamed NYC's stats to the world from the true
center of the city — Bushwick, Brooklyn.  Same with rainfall,
temperatures and sunrises and sunsets.

Always remember: Central Park…a misnomeratic moniker, if ever there were one.

Brooklyn Blogfest

Yesterday: The Local on Brian Lehrer

You can listen to yesterday's podcast of Brian Lehrer's show about The Local, the new Brooklyn blog run by the New York Times here.

So this morning, besides watching in something between awe and horror as our in-boxes rapidly filled up, my colleague Tina Kelley and I got to talk to Brian Lehrer on WNYC 93.9 FM, and answer questions about The Local.

Here’s the clip, for those who are interested. Just click on the little arrow below the W in WNYC.

BROOKLYN READING WORKS

Memoir-A-Thon Tackles The Darker Side of Life

Brwpix 
On your mark, get set, MEMOIR!

Brooklyn Reading Works presents the annual Memoir-A-Thon, which is curated this year by Branka Ruzak. For this special event, she has gathered together a stellar group of memoirists, whose work collectively touches on: incest, teenage psychiatric incarceration, life in a Cuban AIDS sanitorium, a mother's Alzheimer's, and the family legacy of obsessive compulsive disorder.

This iteration of the Memoir-a-thon is not for the faint hearted. That's for sure.

Robert Goolrick reads from "a blistering family memoir of a life deformed."

Mindy Lewis writes in honest, unflinching prose of a teenage stay on a psychiatric ward.

Elena Schwolsky shares her experience working in an AIDS Sanitorium in Cuba.

Erica Silberman writes about her mother's experience with Alzheimer's.

Branka Ruzak writes about a family legacy of obsessive compulsive disorder.

Bios:

Robert Goolrick is the author of The End of the World As We Know It, described by the New York Times, as "a blistering family memoir." His novel A Reliable Wife, will published by Algonquin Book on April 7th. He worked for many years in advertising and lives in NYC.

Mindy Lewis is the author of Life Inside: A Memoir (Washington Square
Press), named a 2003 Book of the Year by the American Journal of Nursing and
an ELLE "Must Read". She is also the editor of Dirt The Quirks, Habits and
Passions of Keeping House, forthcoming from Seal Press this spring. Her
essays have been published in Newsweek, Lilith, Poets & Writers, and Body &
Soul magazines. She teaches at The Writer¹s Voice of the Westside YMCA, and
has also taught at Brooklyn College and the Metropolitan Center of Empire
State College/SUNY.

Elena Schwolsky public health educator in NYC who is writing a memoir
about her experience working in an AIDS Sanatorium in Havana, Cuba in the
mid 90's.  Elena spent ten years on the frontlines of the AIDS epidemic as a
pediatric nurse in Newark, NJ.  When her husband died of AIDS in 1990, she
found her voice in writing and began to explore the intersection of her
personal and professional experience.  In 2001, Elena was honored with an
award for her writing from the Barbara Dane/Money for Women Fund.

Erica Silberman reads from her collection of essays, Nuts in My Pockets,
Tissues Up My Sleeve. She is a playwright, essayist, and screenwriter. She has written
sixteen times for theAtrainplays, a twenty-four hour theatre project. Her
plays have been produced or developed at The Ensemble Studio Theatre, New
World Stages, Playwrights Horizon, the Stonington Opera House, and the
Metropolitan Playhouse. She is published in Teachers and Writers, and will
be published in Playscripts, and Sunday Salon 'zine. Erica has been featured
on NPR's PRI. She is a mentor at Girls Write Now and the co-president of The
New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts & Media.

The Where and When

Thursday March 12th at 8 p.m.

The Old Stone House

Fifth Avenue and Third Street

Brooklyn Blogfest

New Blog on the Block: The Local

So the New York Times is blogging in Brooklyn. The new blog is called The Local and it's based out of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, already two of the bloggiest communities in America. But that doesn't mean they don't need more local coverage. More is more.

The Local is an experiment in hyper-local journalism by the Times run by seasoned reporter Andy Newman. They are also staffing it, I believe, with students from the CUNY School of journalism.

In that familiar Times Roman type we all know and love, The Local's mission statement blurbbage says that "it provides news, information, entertainment and informed
conversation about the things that matter to you, your neighbors and
your family, from bloggers and citizens who live, work and create in
your community — as well as journalists from The New York Times." 

The editors of The Local were on Brian Lehrer, like, 2 seconds ago.
They wanted to put me on when I called in but the segment ended before
I could get on.

What was I going to say?

I was going to say what I say to all new bloggers. Welcome to the neighborhood. Glad that you're here  because the more coverage of Brooklyn the better. I'll even bring the welcome wagon by if you want. Some advice: keep it real, do it with passion, love and a true interest in the community that you're covering. And post frequently.There are some hungry blog readers out there.

Civics and Urban Life

The Local: New York Times is Blogging in Brooklyn

Andy Newman, editor/reporter/blogger for  The Local, a new Brooklyn Blog run by the New York Times in Clinton Hill, Fort Greene and Maplewood, New Jersey wrote this by way of an introduction to The Local

Welcome to our big little experiment.

Greetings, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. This is your Local speaking. Soon, we hope, you will talk back to it.

Starting today, The Local is an online news site for these
communities. But if we build it right together, The Local will be
something much more: a glorious if cacophonous chorus of your voices
singing the song of life itself in these astoundingly varied and
vibrant neighborhoods.

With your input, The Local will tell stories that matter: crime and
politics and culture and civic life and everything else. Some stories
will be snapshots, mere moments. Others will unfold over days or weeks
or marking periods — the birth pangs of a food coop or a high school
newspaper, the aftermath of a crime, and, as the unstoppable wave of
local gentrification crashes into the unstoppable wave of global
economic meltdown, an ever-growing tale of loss and struggle.

Through all this, I will be your co-curator, moderator, referee and
Local recruiter. I will also be doing old-fashioned journalism.
Postcard from the Slope

Tonight: Book Launch and Talk for Toxic Truth by Lydia Denworth

400000000000000113333_s3THIS EVENING: Park Slope's Lydia Denworth is having a book launch party and talk at the Old Stone House (in
conjunction with the Community Bookstore) on Tuesday March 3rd at 7
p.m.There will be books for sale and signing.

She is the author of Toxic Truth: A Scientist, A Doctor and the Battle Over Lead, the first book to tell the incredible story of the two men behind the bitter thirty-year fight to protect children from lead.

Join Denworth for this party for her book. A writer and editor based in New York City. A former reporter for Newsweek and bureau chief for People, Denworth's writing on science, education and social issues has appeared in the New York Times, Redbook, Health and other publications.

In
2009, she'll be teaching in the journalism department at Long Island
University. She serves on the boards of trustees of the Berkeley
Carroll School and the Oliver Program, which expands the educational
opportunities of black and Latino students.She lives in Park Slope Brooklyn with her husband and three sons.

The Where and When

Join Lydia on Tuesday March 3rd at 7 p.m. for

The Toxic Truth Book Launch and Talk (With books for sale and signing)

The Old Stone House

Fifth Avenue and Third Street (in JJ Byrne Park)

BROOKLYN READING WORKS

Lydia Denworth: The Minimum You Need to Know About Lead and Your Child

400000000000000113333_s3
Park Slope's Lydia Denworth is the author of Toxic Truth: A Scientist, A Doctor and the Battle Over Lead, the first book to tell the incredible story of the two men behind the bitter thirty-year fight to protect children from lead.

I asked Denworth to tell me the most important facts we need to know about lead. She sent me this:

The Minimum You Need to Know About Lead and Your Child: 

–Test your child if you live in a house or apartment built
before 1978.

…if you child attends a school or day care (or visits a
relative) in a building built before 1978.

…if you or your spouse works in an industry where lead
is used. 

–Test yourself if you are pregnant or thinking of becoming
pregnant and any of the above is true. 

–Test your home if it was built before 1978, especially if
you are planning renovations or you have peeling or cracked paint

–The latest research shows that the greatest effects from
lead come at the lowest levels. Put another way the difference between lead
levels of 3 micrograms per deciliter and 10 micrograms is much greater than
that between 13 and 20.

The Bottom Line:

Lead poisoning is a man-made disease and entirely
preventable. The way we prevent it is by not exposing children to lead. Almost
every product that is currently made with lead (certainly this is true of toys
and artificial turf) can also be made without lead. Why not avoid the problem
in the first place?

I also asked Denworth what she is most proud of in relation to this important book:

That writer Steven Johnson called the book “a page-turner”
(not an easy thing to pull off!) and Newsweek’s Sharon Begley called it
“riveting” and “fascinating.”

That the book will bring more attention to the work of Clair
Patterson and Herb Needleman


TODAY: Denworth is having a book launch party and talk at the Old Stone House (in
conjunction with the Community Bookstore). That's Tuesday March 3rd at 7
p.m.There will be books for sale and signing. 

Buy Local

A Shout Out for Kids RX Pharmacy

1 Comment

Some Park Slopers are probably unaware that Pure Essentials, the new health and beauty shop where Second Street Cafe used to be has a Kids RX in the back ( I think there's a separate entrance on 2nd Street). Here's a nice shout-out from a member of Park Slope Parents:

On their website, KidsRX describes itself as "a real community pharmacy that places special emphasis on the healthcare needs of children."  They accept all insurance plans, and offer fast, free, same day delivery in Manhattan (they have a branch in Tribeca) .Do they deliver in Brooklyn, too? Not sure.

I have often told people that living in Park Slope is a little like
living in Mayberry.  You know, without Barney Fife or a swimming hole.

I can only urge people to give Kids Rx on 7th Avenue & 2nd Street a
try.  Get this–I actually got a call from the pharmacist telling me
that he had been reviewing his records and sees that I am due for
refills on 2 drugs I take regularly and would I like him to fill them
and deliver them.  Seriously.  Who does that anymore?  Everyone there
is lovely and my kid finds their train table beyond thrilling.  But the
pharmacist has gone above and beyond for us several times and is just
the nicest guy.

Take that Duane Reade and CVS!

Current Affairs

International Women’s Day with ‘Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees’

Haitian
  Since 1992, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees (HWHR) has been providing cultural programs to working class immigrants, including adult literacy, popular
education, community organizing and media production to fight worker exploitation and anti-immigrant
policy.

Ninaj Raou (pictured left) co-founded HWHR after working with Haitians who were detained
by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay after fleeing the military
coup in 1991.

After the ouster of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Ninaj, a former-fashion journalist, responded to a call by the U.S. Justice
Department for Creole interpreters to go to Guantanamo Bay and
help translate the 20-minute interviews refugees that were granted to
establish their legitimate fear of persecution. 

Back in Brooklyn, Ninaj and two fellow translators,
Nicole Payen and Marie Cerat, opened their homes to women who were
released in their final months of pregnancy and flown to New York with
no resources or any notification of relief agencies.

Scrambling to meet
the needs of these women, Ninaj and Marie went to see President
Aristide, then in exile in the U.S. When they were asked for the name of their organization, the two women founded (and named) Haitian
Women for Haitian Refugees on the spot. Soon after they began to help the new arrivals with housing and public assistance.

HWHR will celebrate International Women's Day on Monday, March 9th from 6-8 p.m at Kombit (279 Flatbush Avenue). 

There will be a Silent Auction of rare and original Haitian artwork All proceeds will go to Haitian Women For Haitian Refugees' community education program: Haitian Workers Project.

If you can't make it to the event, consider making a contribution. Send your tax-deductible donation payable to:

IFCO/Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees
418 W.145th Street ,
New York , NY
10031

The Where and When

Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees
Silent auction and celebration of International Women's Day
Kombit
279 Flatbush Avenue ,
Brooklyn , NY
11217
(#2 or #3 train to Bergen
or B or Q to Seventh Ave. )

Donation $50

For more information contact:
718 735-4660 haitianwomen@aol.com

Food and Drink

CasaCara: The Best Tin Ceiling in Brooklyn

Bartino
Casacara has a favorite tin ceiling  in Brooklyn. It's in the restaurant Bar Tano. which also serves her new fave burger. Nice.

That's the place we had Hepcat's birthday party last year. But there's other news in this story, too. The Bar Tano/Bar Toto (11th Street and 6th Avenue) people are venturing to the South Slope and opening Bar Tini on 8th Avenue and 13th Street and 8th Avenue. Here from CasaCara:

Finally, I have a new favorite restaurant: Bar Tano
on Third Avenue and 9th Street in Gowanus, a pioneering location hard
by an auto body shop, with plenty of free parking under the El.
Bar Tano almost replaces the late Uncle Pho on
Smith Street in my personal mythology. Alan Harding’s French-Vietnamese
place was my go-to for watermelon martinis and spring rolls, until it
unceremoniously closed and was replaced by a generic Indian restaurant.
This was quite a few years ago, but to me, the demise of Uncle Pho was the beginning of the end of Smith Street (which is now practically over, with the coming of Atomic Wings to the Boerum Hill Food Company’s former space).

The other night, my friend Nancy and I sat at the bar at Bar Tano, where I admired, as always, the phenomenal job they did re-creating old-fashioned ambience
— a job so good that even I, veteran old-house person, was initially
fooled.  “Everything you see in there is brand new,” said the owner,
Peter Sclafani, “believe it or not.” (Sclafani also owns 7-year-old Bar Toto in Park Slope and the forthcoming Bar Tini, opening in mid-April at 8th Avenue and 13th Street in the South Slope.)

Civics and Urban Life

Affordable Organic Produce: Flatbush Farm Share

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There's a new CSA in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn: Flatbush Farm Share. The
mission of Flatbush Farm Share is to make fresh, organic, produce
available to any Brooklyn resident, regardless of economic status.

There are 100 shares available for all income levels, and a generous
subsidy program for low-income members.

So what is a CSA? It is an opportunity for a group of people to form a direct
relationship with a local farmer. Members of a CSA directly benefit by
paying less for their produce – 20% savings in an average year – and by
getting a weekly delivery of organic produce fresh from the earth. In
exchange, CSA members make a financial commitment to a local farm by
purchasing a share of its crops before the start of a season. This
investment supports farm operating costs, and guarantees a buyer for
their harvest. A CSA is great for you, for your community, for the
local economy, and for the environment.

FLATBUSH FARM SHARE
Distribution site: Flatbush Reformed Church
(at Flatbush Ave and Church St)
Share Pick-up: Wednesdays, June 3 – October 28,
from 5-8pm
Parking lot on site, blocks from Church Ave Q & B train, and the 41 and 35 bus route

www.flatbushfarmshare.com