Susan Fox, who runs Park Slope Parents, writes that she knows more about the neighborhood than she thinks, had this to say about the old fashioned barber shop on 11th Street and Seventh Avenue and the man who owns it. I peeked in there for years because of the old car for kids to sit in when they get haircuts. Susan mentions that, too.

The Clover Leaf Barber Shop owner is still alive, but no longer well enough
to open the store. He was in the hospital for a while and there was talk of
him being moved into an assisted living residence, but he seems to be well
enough to stay at his home (which I believe is in the same building).

They have a vintage wooden car in the Clover Leaf Barber Shop, and a poster
of an old old Yankees team.  It wasn’t the best kept place, but boy did it
have character. I miss it being open.  I saw a film crew there a few years
ago but never saw anything about it.

Check out an article in the New York Times today by Christian DeBenedetti about a cool new gadget for the biker or blogger who has everything.

You know those only-in-New-York moments, when
you’re navigating the city and encountering a cabbie
fight, a marriage proposal and a leveraged buyout, all
happening at the same time, cinematic street scenes that
remind you why you live here? Don’t you always want
to share those? Technology to the rescue: bike riders, pick
up a helmet cam, like the Twenty20
VholdR (it can also be mounted on your handlebars) to
shoot as you roll. Walkers and secret agents, check out
ThinkGeek’s Matrix-ish
sunglasses, which have a 1.3-megapixel digital
camera embedded in the frame, plus a flash drive for
storing 1 gig of music and photos. Don them and let
everyone see the New York you see.

Check out the slide show!

"I need a drink," I said to Hepcat last night and we walked over to the bar at Barrio for some r&r and tequila.

It’s fun to have a "happening" bar on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Third Street.

And what a "happening" place Barrio is.

Who are these people and how do they know about Barrio already?

So young So good looking. So verbose. Why, the woman sitting next to me had a Louis Vuitton clutch and her friend was talking about doing schoolwork. They were obviously in their early 20’s

The bar is a tight space with maybe ten bar stools. People wait for friends there, eat appetizers, have drinks. It’s a fun, though slightly squshed place to be; the bartender is a friendly guy and an adventurous mixologist.

Watermelon margaritas with chile salt, anyone?

We had plain margaritas, which were delicious. I think they use premium tequila. Definitely an above average margarita for $8.50 or so. Last night they were still offering the 15% discount on drinks and food. Their special opening discount stopped as of May 1.

Chips, homemade salsa, pork tacos, fantastic guacamole. I had the sense that our corner Barrio is no run of the mill Mexican place. No way.

It’s a hot social spot with great food. Say hello to the Nouveau Third Street.

Dorree’s 100 (Brooklynometry)

Got Pizzazz (Brooklynometry)

Sell the Brooklyn House of Detention (Brownstoner)

Cherry blossom time lapse (Brownstoner)

Here’s a little retail poetry from Fonda of Zuzu’s Petals, OTBKB’s fave Park Slope flower and plant shop, the only one named for a Frank Capa movie. Big Zu is on Fifth Avenue and 6th Street. Little Zu is off Seventh Avenue at Lincoln Place. You know the drill. Mother’s Day is May 11th. That’s soon. Get your cards out NOW.

the zuzumom:
she can be impulsive but never dangerously so.
she has lots of friends who also like each other.
she has one friend she holds most dear.
she loves to sleep late, but can’t resist getting up early.
she loves her house. it is an extension of herself.
she has a great collection of take-out menus.
she loves to cook up a storm in the kitchen when she has the time.
she likes to be comfortable in her clothes.
she is comfortable in her skin.
she loves growing things out in the garden as well as in the house.
she loves handmade, re-cycled, vintage, collectible, natural, unusual, simple, fresh, silly, original, clever, sweet, funny, sentimental.

It must be spring. The Brooklyn Indie Market comes back this weekend and they’re throwing a party.

A Brooklyn Indie Love Fest. No, I misread that. It’s the Brooklyn Indie Fest, A Celebration of Design, to mark the grand re-opening of the fave outdoor market on Smith Street, started by Kathy Malone.

Opening festivities include unplugged indie musicians, temporary tattoo parlour for kids of all ages, face painting, kiddie artisan-craft workshops by Stars and Sprinkles and BIM’s designers, giveaways and meet-and greet with indie designers. FREE
   
The fun happens on  Saturday, May 3, 11a – 7 p, in Carroll Gardens, at the Corner of Smith and Union Street

Look for the red and white striped tent.

And keep coming back for more: At the weekly Brooklyn Indie market, you will find handmade goodness such as jewelry by Wabisabi-Brooklyn, hats by Rocks and Salt, kidswear by Wonder Threads, and frocks by Melissa Bell. Please join us in the celebration of spring, community and supporting your local artisans and emerging designers. 

May-Aug, Saturdays, 11a-7p
Sep.-Dec. Saturday and Sundays, 11a-7p

Did you know: The Brooklyn Indie Market is a collective of up-and-coming and emerging fashion and product design, made up of designers taking their love of all things handmade into its second season, visit www.brooklynindiemarket.com for a designer sneak peek. Stars and Sprinkles, a non-profit children’s event producer, aims at sowing the seeds of opportunity by bringing subjects to life and dreams to reality through educational activities, networking, and interactive platforms.    

Well, I’ve got a lot going on. The Blogfest is taking up a lot of positive energy.

And there are other things, too. Spent the morning at ‘Snice, which is a VERY happening place to be on a Wednesday in Park Slope.

It’s just a constant parade of interesting faces and people. I’ve made it my place to meet people: it’s a great place for serious conversation. And fun.

So I’m overwhelmed. The Blogfest is a week a way and there’s still a bit to do. Thank goodness I have a bunch of great collaborators, who are making this things so, so cool!!!

No invites, no RSVP’s just come to the Blogfest: for bloggers, blog readers, those who are interested in blogging and those who are passionate about Brooklyn. May 8th at 8 p.m. at the Brooklyn Lyceum. 227 Fourth Avenue at President Street. Suggested donation is $10, $5 for students.

All welcome.

It should be quite the event. And there will be beer courtesy of Outside.in

Go, go, go to Blue Barn Pictures and check out the 30-second promo for the Brooklyn Blogfest. It is so GREAT.

Ah, the many moods of the Old Stone House, the museum, historic, and cultural spot on Fifth Avenue near Third Street.

It’s also the perfect intimate setting for a new jazz series curated by Charles Sibirsky, pianist and founder of Slope Music.

Friday, May 2 will feature two sets: Bonnie Goodman,vocals, at 8 pm, and Bob Arthurs, trumpet, at 9:15 pm. Joe Solomon, bass and Charles Sibirsky, piano will play both sets.

They will be playing jazz standards from the American popular songbook of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, as well as the music of Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, and Lennie Tristano.

Tickets are $12 and include both sets. Drinks and snacks will be available.

The Old Stone House is in JJ Byrne Park, between 3rd and 4th streets, just off Fifth Avenue, in Park Slope, Brooklyn. For more information, please call 718-768-3195, or visit the Old Stone House
website at www.theoldstonehouse.org.

Today Brit in Brooklyn, Creative Times and I went into Root Hill, a cafe on Fourth Avenue and Carroll Street, to ask one of the owners, Maria Bowen, if she’d like to host the June Blogade on Sunday June 22 at noon. She loved the idea!

The Brooklyn Paper reported that Root Hill is where you can get a $3 cup of coffee. But that bears explaining. You can pay 3 bucks for a cup made in their highly specialized $11,000 Clover Coffee machine.

They also have less expensive coffee, as well as sandwiches and bakery items. Gersh Kuntzman, editor of the Brooklyn Paper, had this to say about the Clover machine in his column, The Brooklyn Angle.

Here’s what happens: You place your order (and your spouse chides you for spending $3 on a cup of coffee); the barista grinds the precise amount of beans (30 grams for a Yirgacheffe Biloya); then she pours the ground coffee onto a round disc at the center of the Clover; next, it silently descends into the machine while a tap releases water at the perfect temperature (206 degrees for the sensitive Yirgacheffe Biloya); while the coffee is brewing (38 seconds is, I’m told, ideal for Yirgacheffe Biloya), the barista gives it a few gentle whisks; and, finally, your coffee is served (and your spouse is now your ex-spouse).

Interestingly, after Root Hill purchased their Clover machine, Starbucks bought Clover and they’re keeping all the machines manufactured for their stores! Bowen thinks that Root Hill may have one of the last machines available to the public.

The glass fronted cafe has a great view of Fourth Avenue, and a clean, nice modern look. There are flat screen televisions that show movies (without sound) during the day. Today 2001, A Space Odyssey was playing. Bowen said, she played Grey Gardens, one of her favorites, all day Sunday.

The owners are hoping to have music, readings and other cultural events at the cafe in the future. Good taste in movies, good taste in coffee: it bodes well for the place. Bowen said, she and the other owners opened the cafe because, “We wanted somewhere to go for really good coffee.”

Remember Toby Pannone, the Park Slope toddler, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma last year? Well, there’s is good news to be shared.

That adorable little boy is cancer free.

April 17, 2007 was the day that changed the lives of Toby Pannone and his parents, Mookie and Stephen, forever.

Now, it is more than one year later and Toby is cancer free after two surgeries, ten week-long rounds of chemotherapy, more than 50 cycles of radiation to abdomen, spine, upper arm and neck, after countless hospitalizations, 15 days of 3f8 immunotherapy, a month of shingles, and hundreds of injections.

Toby is clean; has no evidence of disease.

The CT and MiBG scans showed no signs of neuroblastoma. The bone marrow biopsies and aspirates showed no cancer cells. And the urine results are normal.

So what’s the possibility of having a giant love-fest in Prospect Park, where we all whirl around and eat lots of food and wine, hug each other and sing praises to God, friends, doctors, nurses? Where Randy sings and the sun shines and children laugh? Where we feel the power of love and hope and community? We are SO there.

Toby most likely has cancer cells still lurking in his body. Since neuroblastoma is aggressive, with an extremely high relapse rate, doctors don’t speak of remission. So treatment will continue unchanged: another round of chemo at the beginning of May, with an attempt to harvest more stem cells on April 28. And we wait for Toby’s hama level to come down.

On Saturday, May 10, Toby, his parents and friends will walk in Central Park to raise money for neuroblastoma research. Mookie, Toby’s mom, writes on their blog.

Kids Walk for Kids with Cancer was started 7 years ago by Shirley Staples’s daughter Sophie. Since then, it has raised almost $525,000. The walk is organized by NYC middle- and high-school students and it has blossomed into quite a wonderful event. It starts at 2 p.m. in Central Park, across from Tavern on the Green at W. 67th and CPW. First is a brief program that includes doctors who treated both Shirley’s son Simon and Toby. Next is the 4.5 mile walk. Everyone is welcome, from babies to grandparents, and even pets. We will be there to walk with Toby, in support of all the brave children battling this terrible disease. The survival rate for neuroblastoma is a dismal 30%, so more funding for research is desperately needed. Funds raised will help MSKCC researchers improve the odds for our children. We hope you can join us. Please email our dear friend Reva at walkfortoby@gmail.com if you would like to participate. Thank you so much and we hope to see you there.

Monday. Fifth Avenue near 5th Street. I heard a crashing sound and looked over at Belleville Restaurant; a plexiglass and metal cafe gate had fallen—on a small boy.

I don’t know why the gate fell. The child may have been playing on it. There may have been a wind. I’m really not sure.

The child’s mother threw her groceries and a box of pizza down on the sidewalk and ran to the boy who was momentarily pinned beneath the large, plexi Cinzano sign/gate.

The mother sat on the sidewalk with her screaming and bleeding son in her arms. She shook with tears herself. A young woman ran over.

“Omigod, omigod, there’s so much blood,” she said and immediately called 911 on her cell; she told them to send an ambulance.

As sometimes happens, wonderful people miraculously appear during an emergency. It happened to me when OSFO crashed into another child at the sprinkler in JJ Byrne Park and bit into her lip. There was so much blood; she later got stitches.

A nice man appeared who told me that he worked with children and knew First Aid; indeed he did; he got the bleeding to stop. He calmed me down.

Yesterday, a nice man swooped in to help the little boy. He told the mom that the boy’s nose was broken. Before our eyes the boy’s nose and the area under one eye looked black, blue and bruised.

The mother moaned as she held her child. She whispered endearments to him in French while the man held the boy’s hand until the ambulance arrived.

Mainly, he was trying to prevent him from falling asleep. Someone from Belleville rushed out and offered the boy cold water. He held a handful of paper towels.

I walked over to the boy’s sister; she was wearing a cute pastel raincoat and rain boots and was standing by the groceries and looking scared.

“How are you?” I asked. She looked about five-years-old.

“I’m not the kid who got hurt. That was my brother,” she told me.

Within five minutes, the ambulance arrived and the boy’s mother carried him to the car.

“A television fell on my nephew. He fell asleep and now he’s retarded,” the woman who called 911 told me. She watched while the EMT guys carried the boy into the ambulance. The man who held the boy’s hand walked away; so did the woman eventually.

I wonder how the boy is doing now. He should be fine.

Gothamist reports that Community Board 6 will hold a meeting to address the renewal of Union Hall’s standing license, which expires on May 31st.

Some neighbors call the bar a nuisance and want to shut the establishment down.

Jon Crow, one of those spearheading the campaign to shut the venue down, emailed us about an upcoming public hearing regarding the renewal of Union Hall’s liquor license, admitting, “those of us fighting this nuisance bar are fully aware this hearing won’t close it down.”

In a long-winded 3-page press release (PDF), he tells the story of how the “enormous drinking establishment, performance venue, rock club and late night hot spot” has caused residents many restless nights; and “while it may look like a library from the outside, it’s anything but.” (Even if it were a library, some Park Slope residents have found a way to complain about that establishment, too.) Regarding Union Hall, last spring 75 neighbors (some who think their homes are now “unlivable”) signed a letter outlining their grievances, and now they’ve gotten themselves a public hearing.

Read more at Gothamist

Our Baltimore relatives, a doctor and a policy wonk, wanted to see the Brooklyn Flea. Avid readers of Design Sponge, they knew all about it.

We met them for breakfast at Tom’s Restaurant. Just as we were pulling up in the Eastern Car Service car, we remembered that Tom’s is closed on Sunday. Oops.

The rain was coming down.

Our relatives, who were standing under a nearby awning, jumped in the car, and we speeded off to Junior’s for a large breakfast of French Toast and eggs. And a bottomless cup of coffee.

After breakfast, we yellow-cabbed it to the Flea not too far away on Lafayette Avenue. We got there close to opening and Jonathan Butler was at the door looking nervously at the foul weather.

They haven’t had one sunny Sunday since the Flea opened and it’s clearly getting on his nerves. Still, he looked excited in his new role as Flea Market entreprenuer.

“I can’t complain. We had 20,000 here the first weekend,” he told me.

Vendors were in the process of setting up as we got there but there was plenty to see and plenty to buy. Our relatives bought a gorgeous bright color photograph of a flower in a bright colored and ornate frame from the artist. They also bought some great vintage mug shot photos.

Hepcat picked up a leveling head for a tripod from a vendor of old photo equipment and was mighty pleased about that.

OSFO and I checked out the many vendors of kooky stuffed animals, artisan jewelry, and children’s items. OSFO bought an original decoupage pin and a necklace made from nickels from Wabisabi Brooklyn.

My cool find: political buttons from the 1970’s: Re-Elect Mailer. November 15th March on Washington, Bring the Troops Home. Another Woman for McGovern. George Wallace Courage to Stand Up for America.

Photo by Raqalmeida

Conditions at JJ Byrne dog run (Brownstoner)

Atlantic Yard Rally May 3 (Found in Brooklyn)

Lady Liberty in the Brooklyn Museum Parking Lot (McBrooklyn)

The king of visceral design (NY Times)

Sharpton calls for civil disobedience in response to Bell verdict (NY1)

In an unusual 1,164 word statement,  Judge Arthur Cooperman aquitted the three detectives, Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper of the multiple bullet murder of Sean Bell, saying that the prosecution did not prove its case. From the New York Times:

The top-to-bottom acquittals of Detectives Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper were delivered by Justice Arthur J. Cooperman in an essay form bearing little resemblance to a standard jury verdict, and were met momentarily with silence in court as spectators looked at one another to be sure they had grasped what he was saying.

The detectives, all but obscured behind a human wall of courthouse officers, finally seemed to exhale deeply, even crumple, with relief. Detective Oliver — who reloaded his gun to fire a total of 31 shots and helped catapult the shooting from tragic mistake to a symbol, for many, of police abuse of force and poor training — closed his eyes and cried,

Except for a few scuffles outside the Queens Criminal Court building and shouted displays of disbelief and outrage, the day passed peacefully amid calls for calm delivered by the mayor, the police commissioner and other officials. Still, the Rev. Al Sharpton, a spokesman for the Bell family, called for street protests and said people should get themselves arrested, “whether it is on Wall Street, the judge’s house or at 1 Police Plaza.

The Fifth Annual Brooklyn Peace Fair is TODAY (April 26 11am-6pm). Speakers and Presenters include Debbie Altmontaser, Senator Eric Adams, and Congressman Major Owens. But from what I understand, it’s not just speeches, and stuff.

There’s a full schedule of events and workshops at www.brooklynpeace.org

Painter Michael Sorgatz volunteered his creativity and his time to design the Brooklyn Blogfest poster. I am thrilled with it an especially pleased that he used his painting of the Brooklyn Bridge on the poster.

Sorgatz recently had a show at the Hudson Guild Gallery in Manhattan. The subjects of his paintings, he says, are the transient moments of life – the millions of ways we spend time each day.” He writes on his website:

I’m attracted to the dynamic quality of crowds and the interactions that take place in settings such as markets, parks, and streets. What I find compelling is the way that well-designed public spaces forge a sense of community and connection between individuals and groups. There’s a value in what are seemingly ordinary transactions: our interactions with the world define us and also shape the world around us

Sorgatz’s best paintings capture some of New York’s city’s most dynamic locations, including the Brooklyn Bridge, Prospect Park, the Greenmarket, and various street scenes around New York City. But most important is the way Michael uses buoyant paint colors and masterful brush strokes to create the blotches and shapes of his painterly world view.

As an artist and a viewer, I enjoy the handmade, non-mechanical nature of painting. The drag and swirl of paint on a canvas has a unique physical dimension that cannot be duplicated by film. I work spontaneously using swift brushstrokes to convey the sense of subjects in motion, constantly moving characters against shifting backgrounds. Colors and shapes are selected to evoke the scene’s essential characteristics and keep the eye moving across the canvas.

Peter Pan pilgrims (Brooklynometry)

Wife Hates Chair (Brooklynometry)

Paul Simon: American Tunes (Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn)

Paul Simon at BAM (Full Permission Living)

New look for Gowanus Lounge coming on Monday (Gowanus Lounge)

A crane in Red Hook (Brit in Brooklyn)

Lara Wechsler’s website

The schedule is here. Yay. The Celebrate Brooklyn schedule is OUT. Here are some highlights for the 30th summer at Celebrate Brooklyn

Issac Hayes: June 12

Miriam Makeba: June 14

Beth Orton/Matt Munisteri: July 12

Deerhoof Metropolis Ensemble playing Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring: July 18

Enter the Dragon: July 19

Brave New World Repertory: Fahrenheit 451: July 24

Powaqqatsi (film) Score played by Philip Glass Ensemble with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus: July 25

African Guitar Festival: August 3

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: August 7

Hal Wilner’s Bill Wither’s Project: August 9

Let them eat organic cake (So Good)

Brooklyn Public Library (Brit in Brooklyn)

Shred Fest NYC at JJ Byrne Park (Gowanus Lounge)

New improved Flatbush Food Coop (Brklyn Stories)

Brought to you by The Feldman Family from their weather tower in Park Slope (truly), complete with maps, charts, graphs, sunrise, sunset times and more. This is a daily feature on OTBKB.

Illustration by www.webdesign-guru.co.uk

Lara Wechsler’s Website

Here’s an excerpt from my article on Newsweek.com called: Helicopter Moms Vs. Free Range Kids by Louise Crawford.

Would you let your fourth-grader ride public transportation without an adult? Probably not. Still, when Lenore Skenazy, a columnist for the New York Sun, wrote about letting her son take the subway alone to get back to her Manhattan home from a department store on the Upper East Side, she didn’t expect to get hit with a tsunami of criticism from readers.

“Long story short: My son got home, ecstatic with independence,” Skenazy wrote on April 4 in the New York Sun. “Long story longer: Half the people I’ve told this episode to now want to turn me in for child abuse. As if keeping kids under lock and key and helmet and cell phone and nanny and surveillance is the right way to rear kids. It’s not. It’s debilitating—for us and for them.”

Online message boards were soon swarming with people both applauding and condemning Skenazy’s decision to let her son go it alone. She wound up defending herself on the cable news networks (accompanied by her son) and on popular blogs like the Huffington Post, where her follow-up piece was ironically headlined “More From America’s Worst Mom.”

The episode has ignited another one of those debates that divides parents into vocal opposing camps. Are modern parents needlessly overprotective, or is the world a more complicated and dangerous place than it was when previous generations were allowed to roam unsupervised?

Read the rest here.

A reader wrote in with this request. Please send repsonses to: poppy43tou(at)hotmail(dot)com

I am trying to track down an obituary announcing the death on September
23, 2006 of a 15 year old boy killed by an automobile or truck in
Brooklyn Heights.

The boy’s first name was Adam. I don’t have the last
name. He was killed chasing a baseball into the street.

Is there any
chance you can/would help me with this? Any assistance you could
provide would be greatly appreciated.

An OTBKB reader wrote in about a found dog:

I am a regular reader of both your blog and The Gowanus lounge, so I am
familiar with how broad your spectrum of topics are. 

I was hoping that
you might do me a favor.  My girlfriend, along with a few caring and
concerned Brooklynites, found this dog around Smith and 9th Streets.

After having almost been hit by a couple of cars, this dog was rescued
and is now being cared for in a temporary foster home. 

We are posting
fliers in hopes of reuniting her with her rightful family, but I was
hoping that a little exposure on the OTBKB might help our cause. 

Would
you be willing to help us out?  If anyone has info as to the location
of this dog’s rightful family, they can contact Joanna at jfern.cf(at)erizon(dot)net

Attached is a good picture of her.  It appears the dog is a chocolate lab pit bull mix with a wonderful temperament.

My friend and fave poet, Michele Madigan Somerville, is starting a brand new poetry reading series at an Irish pub on Smith Street called Ceol.

Come hear two GREAT poets,  Tony Towle and Michele Madigan Somerville, on Wednesday May 7, 2008 at 6:30 pm at Ceol: 191 Smith Street (between Baltic and Warren) 347-643-9911.

Michele writes: "Tony should be the Poet Laureate!  Honestly. 
His book, North, was the first poetry
collection I ever bought — @ Books & Co., Madison Ave. in ’78, with
waitressing money!!"
 

Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the award-winning Brooklyn Paper:

Smartmom is thinking of getting the Oh So Feisty One a cellphone. On Sunday, they went into two shops on Seventh Avenue just to look at them.

Nokia. Samsung. LG. Motorola. Smartmom watched as OSFO studied every model on display. She even picked up a Blackberry.

“I don’t think you need that,” Smartmom said, grabbing the ubiquitous businessman’s device out of her hand. Yeesh.

At one store, OSFO made a beeline for a lavender Sony Ericsson Music Phone.

“This is the one I like,” she told Smartmom decisively.

“Excellent choice,” said the salesman behind the counter. He seemed eager to close the deal.

Patience, young man, Smartmom wanted to say. We’re just BROWSING.

The cellphone will be a gift for OSFO’s fifth-grade graduation, which is just around the corner. OSFO has already selected her outfit.

And, apparently, her present.

This impromptu shopping couldn’t be timelier, given that recent Lenore Skenazy column in the New York Sun in which she admitted that she allowed her 9-year-old son to ride the subway by himself.

Readers ended up concluding that Skenazy won’t win the “Mother of the Year” election any time soon.

But Smartmom understood Skenazy’s dilemma. Kids need to be given some breathing room at some point — and New York is the safest city in America — so whether the kid is 9 or 12, at some point, he is going to have to get on the subway, stand clear of the closing doors, and figure it all out.

Smartmom isn’t ready to let OSFO make such a subterranean journey, so the cellphone seems to be a good compromise.

And they certainly could’ve used that cellphone last week when Smartmom got stuck on the Upper West Side with Manhattan Granny, who was having dental surgery. She knew she wouldn’t make it back to PS 321 by 3 pm.

She called Hepcat, who was at an important meeting at the Edgy Web Design Firm in Soho, and couldn’t leave.

Smartmom did what she usually does when she’s running late for pick-up: she called a friend’s babysitter to ask if she could take OSFO home.

But that didn’t work. The babysitter was on vacation. Oops.

At 3:15, a panicked Smartmom called OSFO’s friend hoping that they were together.

“No, she’s not with me,” her friend said.

“Do you know where she is?”

She didn’t. At 3:30 or so, Smartmom got a call from Hepcat. The oh so resourceful Oh So Feisty One had gone into the office and called Hepcat’s cellphone. He told her to sit tight; he was on his way. Super Daddy!

Smartmom found herself seething with jealousy wondering why OSFO had called her dad and not her.

Then she got teary thinking of her little girl waiting for her in the school’s backyard. Isn’t that the most awful feeling in the world? Waiting and waiting for your mom to pick you up, you go through all of the stages of grief: anger, resentment, pathos, acceptance, but then a little more anger and pathos (Smartmom is summoning up memories from her own childhood now. Here come the tears).

Truth is, OSFO was fine. The backyard is a lively place after school with the many familiar faces of parents and friends.

After a while, OSFO got bored waiting in the office and discovered that she had the house key that Smartmom gave her a few weeks ago (with a cute domino key ring) in her bag.

The latch key kid called Hepcat (again!).

“I’ll meet you at home,” she said. And that’s what she did.

Long live cellphones. And 11-year-olds who are ready to walk home and let themselves in!

Smartmom doesn’t know what they’d do without Teen Spirit’s cellphone. At 16, he’s on a very long leash and the phone helps them keep tabs on him (especially when he’s out as late as 2 am).

“Where are you?” Hepcat always asks in lieu of hello.

“I’m sleeping at Eric’s,” Teen Spirit tells him. He always seems to be at Eric’s.

“Does this Eric guy really exist?” Hepcat always asks Smartmom when he gets off the phone. “Do we know where he lives, who his parents are?”

Eric is a real person, Smartmom tells him. His parents are very nice. But with a cellphone, a kid could say he’s anywhere. There’s really no way to trace it unless you get one of those GPS attachments for the phone.

And Smartmom isn’t ready for that level of helicopter parenting. You might as well put a tail on your kid or put a wire on his best friend.

The cellphone, ultimately, gives Hepcat and Smartmom what they really crave: the illusion of control. If they can hear his voice, they figure he’s probably not lying in a pool of his own blood in Union Square. Or Herald Square. Or even Bartel-Pritchard Square.

They can even say parental things and boss him around.

Smartmom reckons that OSFO will actually need a cellphone when she goes to middle school next year. It’ll help them feel like they’re watching over her even when they’re not.

She can already imagine OSFO’s voice on her outgoing message. “Please leave a message after the beep…”

Beep. I love you, OSFO. Come home soon. I miss you…

This could be fun. I don’t know anything about the Miramar Yacht Club but learning how to sail in Sheepshead Bay. Sounds interesting.

To help promote safe sailing a LEARN TO SAIL In One Night class, will be given at Miramar Yacht Club in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn.

This class will teach all the basics of how to sail. The class will take place Friday night June 6th, 8:00pm -10:30pm.

The total cost for the class, class materials, refreshments and a free sail is $25.

For reservations or information please call 718-743-5823 or email sail@miramaryc.com .

Miramar Yacht Club
3050 Emmons Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11235
sail@miramaryc.com
www.miramaryc.com
Miramar Yacht Club www.miramaryc.com (718) 769 – 3548 sail@miramaryc.com