How would you feel if your most favorite dry cleaning gals disappeared? Suddenly. Out of the blue. That’s what happened when I went to Carroll Cleaners all prepared to say hello to Claudia and was told that the business had been sold.

"Was it sudden?" I asked

"No," answered the nice young Korean man. "It’s been in the works for about a year."

I figure it was a condition of the sale that Claudia and Co. not mention the sale. I immediately called Diaper Diva and told her to sit down.

"I am sitting down," she said.

"Carroll Cleaners changed ownership."

"I’ve known that for two weeks," she said.

I saw RED. Why was she holding out on me? When I saw her next she told me what she knew.

Apparently Claudia was married to the son of the owner of the old Carroll Cleaners. His parents sold the business and she’s now working at a Lord and Taylor’s.

I loved Claudia and the other women at Carroll Cleaners. Walking in there was like being on the set of a Pedro Almodovar movie. The woman were beautiful. The Latin conversation spicy and fun.

Ultra stylish Claudia, with her multi-hued blonde, curly coiffed hair do, worked at the shop for 18  years. She always looked fashion forward, sexy and fun and she was just the warmest, best dry cleaning person I’ve ever known. She was also an ace at fitting clothing. You only had to watch her as she pinned someone’s pants or formal dress. She really cared.

I could tell that other people on line at Carroll Cleaners were a little shocked that they left so suddenly. Change is tough. Especially in Park Slope where we all get so attached to our stores and the people who run them.

Novelist Regina McBride, author of The Nature of Water and Air, The Land of Women, and The Marriage Bed, will offer a special one-day workshop in Park Slope on Saturday September 15 from 10 am -5 pm.

Register now to reserve a place in this workshop that is designed for writers of all levels. The cost is $125.

NOTE FROM OTBKB: I have studied with Regina McBride
since 1998 and I recommend her classes to all writers wherever you are
in your process. Using relaxation and sense memory, her technique is
wonderful whether you are just beginning to write, embarking on a novel
or memoir, or very experienced and in the midst of a novel or short
story.

For inspiration, character development and incredible writing
exercises, Regina’s course has been vital to my development as a writer
as it always propels me to my  best writing. Especially great when your
work needs a little jump start.

If you are interested, please email nightsea21@nyc.rr.com

Inner Lives: Developing Characters

An Intensive Workshop with the Focus on the Fictional Character

With Regina McBride

Using relaxation, sense memory, and emotional memory (Stanislavski
acting techniques transformed for the writer) a variety of exercises
will be offered to enable the student to find a deeper, richer
connection to the character he or she is creating.

Exercises will be followed by writing periods, and opportunities for
people to read and share their work. The atmosphere will be safe, with
the focus on exploration. The class is designed to help the student
break into new territory with the character, and with the story itself.

I understand pseudonyms and nom de nets; the need to protect friends and family; the need to protect oneself from employers and corporations; the right to privacy and the dangers of being a public blogger…

Still, I like real names (or consistent web aliases) because I like to know that there’s a real person, who is willing to take responsibility for what they are writing, on the other side of that post.

Especially on a place blog or a community blog.

We all share the same streets and avenues, whether its physical space or cyber space. We live together and we choose to do it in an openhearted, respectful, generous and graceful way.

Our community is a healthy mesh of opposites.  That’s what we love about Brooklyn, right? It’s an energetic, diverse, creative, messy, expressive, sometimes explosive, sophisticated and opinionated place. 

Express your thoughts and opinions in a civil and respectful way. That’s totally fine. Leave your real name. And definitely don’t use someone else’s name (which someone has been doing).

Use your real name and be yourself. Warts and all.

But hiding behind masks and spewing insults? That’s pretty weird.

Just because I don’t like reading Brooklynian, for instance, doesn’t mean I feel the need to hide behind a pseudonym and leave insulting comments.

I don’t believe in that. I’ve got my own blog, with my name on it, where I can express myself. How cool is that?

Brklyn Stories   poses the question and answers it in a personal way. She describes her blog as a resource for residents of Kensington as well as
comments on cultural events within Greater New York and elsewhere. Here’s an excerpt:

The question might seem redundant but sometimes a reflection helps,
especially since blogging risks getting weighed down by negative
entries, forcing many to ask, "What’s the point?" But better yet, why
the negativity? These wavering doubts caused me to postpone opening a
blog for almost a year. This is ironic since I’m an art critic, so you
would think I would be used to taking artists and their ideas to task
quite frequently. Au contraire. Writing and, in this case blog writing,
is still a creative process. Pejorative trains of thought are very easy
to slip into, but unfortunately they are not progressive since it is
very hard to utilize another one’s emotions for anything useful.

Blogs are like photographs. Each is a digital document, in literary and
pictorial form, that attempts to capture the here-and-now moment of our
lives. The free access and exchange of ideas is by and large priceless.
In Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, it was clear that society was missing something very deep down and his adventure brought it all back.

Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the 2007 SNA Newspaper of the Year, the Brooklyn Paper.

The night before the first day of school, there was a festive BBQ in the front yard of Smartmom’s apartment building.

A potluck bonanza, the impromptu menu included pesto pasta salad, chipotle turkey burgers, shish kebob, roasted veggies and a seemingly endless supply of cold white wine.

Best of all, the adults got to commiserate about the end of summer.

“I’m just not ready for this,” one neighbor told Smartmom. “It feels very sudden this year.”

“I am so dreading tomorrow,” another neighbor said. “This summer went by in a flash.”

Clearly, it was the parents who were having a hard time letting go of the carefree days of summer. The kids seemed to be facing the transition with energy and aplomb. A girl who lives in the building next door was hula hoping while finishing “A Tale of Two Cities,” the required summer reading at MS 51.

The Oh So Feisty One wore her first-day-of-school outfit to the barbecue: a test-run of the stylish blue dress, black leggings, and new slip-on black sneakers. Needless to say, she got a lot of compliments.

Upstairs, her blue and purple messenger-style bag was already packed and ready for its debut the next day.

Teen Spirit was clearly in denial about his first day. When Smartmom saw him walk past her with a large group of friends, she reminded him that he needed to get a good night’s sleep — for a change — so that he could leave the house by 6:45 am.

“Don’t worry, mom,” he told her.

But worry she did. It’s not like he’s been awake before 1 pm in months. Smartmom was stressing because she knows what it takes to get her kids to school.

Tabloid Mom could tell that Smartmom was agitated. She told her to have another glass of Chardonnay. But the wine only made Smartmom more morose. She thought of that line from “Charlotte’s Web”: “The crickets sang in the grasses. They sang the song of summer’s ending, a sad monotonous song. ‘Summer is over and gone,’ they sang. ‘Over and gone, over and gone. Summer is dying, dying.’”

Oy. The sound of those crickets. It’s been so loud on Third Street that sometimes Smartmom wonders if they’re in her living room.

Thankfully, Tabloid Mom interrupted the morbid daydream.

“What middle school’s are you looking at?” she asked, posing a question that Smartmom knows she’ll be hearing at least 43 times a day for the next few months.

Yes, this is OSFO’s last year at PS 321 and soon it will be time to fill out those dreaded middle school applications.

Smartmom forced herself to remember the names of the local middle schools she’d blocked out of her mind all summer.

It’s not like she thought about middle school options while she was working on her novel in her Edward Hopperesque room with an ocean view on Block Island.

She certainly did not read “New York’s Best Middle Schools,” by Clara Hemphill, while sitting on the beach in Amagansett.

And don’t think she was comparing middle school test scores while sipping latte and reading beat poetry in Mario’s Cigar Store Café in San Francisco.

But Tabloid Mom’s question brought it all back. All of it…

The next morning at 6 am, Smartmom wanted to ignore the annoying beep of her alarm clock. But she didn’t.

She wanted to stay under the covers and continue dreaming. But she didn’t.

Instead, she dragged herself into Teen Spirit’s room and shook the sleeping giant awake. She knocked on Mrs. Kravitz’s door to borrow back the butter she’d lent her a few days before so that Teen Spirit’s bagel could be buttered…

By 7 am, Teen Spirit was out the door, and OSFO was in her back-to-school outfit and ready to go.

Later, they walked slowly up Third Street to Seventh Avenue as Smartmom thought about all the back-to-school errands that lay ahead (supplies from Save on Fifth, groceries from the Co-op, a new bag for Teen Spirit from Brooklyn Industries). But then something miraculous happened:

Smartmom saw the parade of parents on Seventh Avenue. Friends. Acquaintances. Familiar faces. It was good to see them all.

There’s Angela, the friendly crossing guard on Second Street, who wished them a good new year at school.

When they entered the PS 321 backyard, Smartmom noticed that one of OSFO’s teacher’s from last year is pregnant (and has a little bump to prove it). Cute.

While OSFO lined up with her classmates, Smartmom took in the scene. Friends ran up to OSFO and gave her a hug. A friend’s redheaded daughter got so unbelievably tall. Brainy Lawyer and her family looked suntanned and healthy. Tall and Sultry was jet-lagged after a month in Italy.

“Hey, moms, pose for a picture,” said Groovy Architect Mom. “It’s our last first day of school at PS 321.”

Smartmom joined this interesting gaggle of mom-friends for an enthusiastic photograph. They all smiled. Smartmom felt a twinge of nostalgia. She’d been through a lot with these women.

After the flash, the moms dispersed. They were off to work, off to do errands. One mom said she was “off to open the stacks of mail on my desk.”

Buoyed by the warmth of her mom-friends and the scene in the backyard, Smartmom was ready to face her first day of school, the school year, and everything else that comes her way.

Why was there a HUGE crane on the corner of Third Street and Seventh Avenue? It was attaching something to the top of the building that houses Sette.

Anyone know? Do tell.

From her weather tower in Coney Island, here is today’s weather by Rose at 12:30 p.m.

"It’s 71 degrees now. It’s going to reach into the middle of the 80’s and will be hot and humid. Tomorrow in the 80’s with a chance of thunder showers. The rain might last into Monday."

Because I love it that’s why. It’s one of my favorite things about living in Park Slope. It’s hard to explain but I’ll try.

My work shift:  The best part: I can listen to Brian Lehrer and Lenny Lopate on the radio while I work.

I love when it’s done. I have to add everything up and it all feels very complete. A task well-done.

Shopping: I love the selection of food and the sense that I am buying products that are better for me and my family at a decent price. The produce is GORGEOUS and such fun to select. The selection inspires me to try new things. I love the linens they sell there, the calendars, candles, and cards.

Check-out: I hate the lines BUT I enjoy conversing with the check-out person about what I’m buying and interesting ways of cooking, say, Bok Choi.

Caveat: Yesterday I worked my shift but ended up shopping at the dreaded Key Food.

Why? I needed to have the food delivered. I felt like a stupid idiot but I had to do it that way.

I got hardly any produce. And no items like Amy’s Pizza, which are twice the price at Key Food and Back to the Land.

Overall: To be part of the most successful member owned and operated Food Coop in the US is pretty cool. The very fact that it works as well as it does, that it is a well-oiled machine, is pretty exciting.

Dope on the Slope snapped a lovely photo of Joe’s Shoe Repair on Fifth Avenue. I just love the pix. On the awning, it says: SHOE PROBLEMS CALL JOE.

Thanks DOPE.

Did you notice all the copies of Maynard and Jennica in the window of Community Books? Author Rudy Delson lives around here. He’s a Food Coop member (HEY RUDY, DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE DEBIT MACHINES AT THE COOP?) and a fabulous novelist, too.

I read the book last spring and LOVED it. A quick read, it’s smart, funny, insightful, deep and fun. Catherine at the Community Bookstore loved it, too. That’s why it’s spread across the front window over there (not far from Hepcat’s muggle photographs).

Rudy will be at Brooklyn Reading Works on September 20th at 8 p.m. It will be a festive reading and party at the Old Stone House that you won’t want to miss. This will be no ordinary reading. Friends and other writers will read selections from the book. There will be wine, food selected by Rudy, interesting people. Maybe even some balloons.

See you on the 20th. Maynard, Jennica and OTBKB together for the first time.

…for the pre-dawn festival on West Indian Carnival Day.

Check out his site for great pictures of J’Ouvert just outside the Brooklyn Public Library.

Says Brit in Brooklyn: “J’Ouvert, or jour ouvert in French meaning daybreak, began in Trinidad in 1937. Today J’Ouvert is also celebrated in New York as a predawn festival on Carnival day.”

This from New York 1:

The 40th annual West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade will be stepping down Eastern Parkway this Labor Day.

Musicians from the Pan Tonic Steel Orchestra are practicing their drumming ahead of Monday’s festivities.

Organizers say it’s the city’s biggest parade, with over 3 million participants each year.
Vendors line the three-mile long parade route selling crafts, books, clothing, art, jewelry, and much more.

The event features live music, elaborately designed costumes and floats, and plenty of Caribbean food.

The parade begins at 11 a.m. at the corner of Rochester and Eastern Parkway.

It winds up around 6 p.m. near Grand Army Plaza.

There will also be live performers in front of the viewing stage at the Brooklyn Library.

There’s a new store on Fifth Avenue next door to Cocotte, the delightful and popular French restaurant, near 4th Street. It’s called Brooklyn Mercantile. OSFO and I looked in the front window the other night and it looked to me like it might be something along the lines of Cog and Pearl, beautiful items made from found, antique or recycled materials.

The shop, which seems to sell objects for the home, bags, jewelry, quilts, and other items, looks stylish and very attractive. Can’t wait to actually go in.

Brooklyn Mercantile is not replacing another shop. I believe it was a residential storefront prior to it’s new life as a Fifth Avenue shop.

Savvy, savvy Brooklyn Mercantile: I just found their website. So here’s the blurb and info:

Brooklyn Mercantile is located in the heart of Park Slope, Brooklyn.
A specialty home shop featuring home furnishings, vintage collectibles, fabric by the yard, beautiful ribbons, handmade papers and lots of ideas to spark the imagination.

Brooklyn Mercantile
335 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215

718-788-1233

Hours: Tuesday-Sunday – 11am-7pm

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

American Girl, the enormously popular maker of enormously expensive dolls and accessories, is introducing two new dolls to their historical roster. But the crazy thing is this: these new dolls grew up in the 1970s.

Hey, that’s not historical. That’s Smartmom’s childhood. Just a few years ago.

Talk about feeling old. When American Girl makes a ’70s-era doll, you know your childhood is officially the olden days.

This reminds Smartmom about the time a second-grade friend asked her mother if she had any pilgrim clothing left over from when she was a kid.

Smartmom felt really bad for that girl’s mom. She wasn’t that old and her kid sure had a weird sense of time.

Kids have a funny way of conceiving of history. Ten years seems like an eternity. Your parent’s childhood is, like, forever ago.

The truth is, it was forever ago and to kids like Teen Spirit, it’s more than a little interesting to hear Hepcat’s stories about New York City during the heyday of the Ramones, Talking Heads, and Pylon at the Mudd Club and CBGB.

On the other hand, he barely lowers the volume on his iPod earphones when Smartmom reminisces about the Be-In in Central Park and the Tall Ships during the bicentennial.

Truth be told, family pictures from those days do look old fashioned or, more to the point, like something out of “That ’70’s Show.” The hairdos (and don’ts!). Smartmom’s mother’s mini skirts. Her father’s black turtleneck and beard.

In pictures of Hepcat from high school, he looks like a cross between Bottocelli’s Venus and Jesus Christ. And Teen Spirit loves to go through his dad’s closet to find cool duds like Hepcat’s hand-painted denim jackets and hand-embroidered shirts.

But Smartmom isn’t old, she’s just full of history. So she’s starting to wonder when she’ll wake up from this dream — the dream that she’s 50 years old.

How did she get to that old-sounding age, anyway?

Everyone knows that Smartmom is really 10. It’s 1968 and she’s at an anti-war demonstration, where Peter, Paul, and Mary are singing, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”

OK, she’s 12 and she’s having a bake sale for George McGovern at her progressive private school.

Alright, she’ll admit it, it’s August 1974 and she’s just back from her American Youth Hostel cycling trip and Richard Nixon is about to resign on the evening news.

Or maybe it’s 1975 and she’s just lost her virginity and her parents are splitting up…

This age thing just isn’t fair. When Smartmom looks in the mirror, she sees what she wants to see. She’s still as fit as she was when she was one of the top runners on the Walden High School Girl’s Track Team.

Zoom.

But the other day at a California mall, a little girl asked her if she was OSFO’s grandmother. Smartmom didn’t take it too hard. The girl was standing with her own grandmother who looked no more than 45. But still.

Does Smartmom really look like someone’s grandmother?

Maybe not. But she sure is wise. She can practically guarantee that OSFO is going to want Julie or Ivy, the two new 1970s-era dolls to add to her already huge, messy haired collection of American Girl, which includes, Felicity, a feisty girl living in colonial Williamsburg; Kit, the Depression-era doll, who hangs out with young hobos and even gets a chance to ride the rails; and OSFO’s fave, Molly, the World War II-era doll, whose doctor dad is overseas while her mom works for the war effort stateside.

OSFO has learned quite a bit about American history with these girls.

But does she really need a doll to teach her about the birth of feminism, Studio 54 and “Ford to NYC: Drop Dead”?

She’s got two parents who can teach her everything she needs to know about the time of their youth.

And those parents are at least as much fun as an 18-inch plastic doll, with an expressionless face, who doesn’t even know how to talk.

Now, if OSFO was just willing to listen!

There’s an article about Simone Dinnerstein in Tuesday’s  New York Times. She, along with her parents, Simon and Renee Dinnerstein, were on the Park Slope 100. Her recording of the Goldberg Variations is being released on Telarc.

If you want to be a concert pianist when you grow up, there are
certain rules. You do start playing as a young child. You don’t drop
out of Juilliard. You do win competitions and get the attention of
managers at a young age. You don’t end up at 30 with no management and
no bookings, raising the money yourself for your first recording. And
you definitely don’t make your New York recital debut with Bach’s
demanding “Goldberg” Variations, which are supposed to reflect the
wisdom of long experience, and Baroque style.

Ms.
Dinnerstein’s recording of the “Goldberg” Variations is being released
today by Telarc. It is a distinctive approach to the work: colorful and
idiosyncratic, a contemporary pianist’s rather than a harpsichordist’s
account. It starts with a long, thoughtful, hesitant Aria that seems to
be struggling to lift itself uncertainly out of silence.

An article in yesterday’s Times about Columbia Street illuminated me on the status of Freebird Books, a bookstore I’ve heard a lot of great things about but have never been to.

Freebird has been an anchor. But change is coming there, too. Ms. London, the former co-owner, said she and her partner had recently agreed to sell the property to a longtime neighbor and customer. She said the decision to sell the business was not a financial one, but rather a practical one. Ms. London that she needed to spend more time with her 3 ½-year-old son, and that her partner had decided to move to Florida.

She added that “psychological barriers” created by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway kept people from discovering Columbia Street as a destination.

“People don’t think to come to down to Columbia Street to stroll,” she said. “The construction going on is a deterrent.” Foot traffic picks up in the evenings, she said. A couple of years after opening, she said, her bookstore had become one of the most popular places on Columbia Street, a shop where people browse in peace with no pressure.

Ms. London also works at the Pit Stop, a French bistro a couple of doors down, and she hasn’t given up.

“There is something magical that happens around here,” she said. “Everyone struggles together.”

Peter Miller, an associate director of publicity at the publishing house Bloomsbury/USA, is Freebird’s new owner. He wondered if the neighborhood had to become hot at all to succeed.

Seeing Green is applying for a job with the Bush administration. Wish him luck, read this excerpt. and read more here.

I mean, how hard can it be to work for this man?

Firstly, you don’t have to be competent, as shown by an endless stream of ne’er-d-wells who have been appointed to all kinds of federal agencies they had no experience with, from the EPA to the much-derided Federal Emergency Management Agency. So right there I’m OK, though I may have to downplay my ability to solve problems and write a coherent sentence longer than ten words. That should be easy.

Secondly, you don’t have to pretend objectivity or not having conflict of interest. Any number of corporate flacks have been appointed to agencies that they were battling before they joined it, and, in turn, have brought their own chosen friends aboard. In this, alas, I might have to prevaricate a bit. Not having worked in the vast unwashed corporate sector for a long while, I would have to make up interests with which I can be in conflict. Perhaps I can say I was a factory farmer, which should get me a job in the Farm Agency

Today is my birthday. Heres a post from last year about birthdays past:

Birthdays still feel like special days even when you’re my age. That’s probably because my parents always did special things for us on our birthday. I say “our” because I am a twin and I share my birthday with my sister.

As children, we were often in Bridgehampton, Water Mill or Sagaponick, Long Island on our birthday. We’d stay at this old-fashioned rooming house called Stepankowski (I’m pretty sure it’s not there anymore). It was the kind of place where everyone eats dinner at the same time, and eats the same thing. They probably had a croquet set on the lawn. Or horseshoes. Other times we’d stay in a B&B called the Conklin House and eat breakfast in the kitchen with the Conklins.

We’d always go to the Penny Candy Store in Water Mill —the one mentioned in the The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh—on the day and carefully pick out an assortment of tootsie rolls, licorice sticks, colorful dots on paper, jaw breakers. The candies were still just a penny then. I think that place still exists but you can be sure those candies don’t cost a penny anymore.

We’d go to the beach and swim, play in the sand for hours. Stop at antique stores (my parent’s hobby) and buy swirly colored antique marbles. That’s what we collected then.

I remember many birthday dinners at old fashioned Long Island restuarants (cloth napkins, waiters in white jackets) where I’d always order L.I. Duck L’orange. And coca cola. That was a birthday treat.

A summer birthday like mine often passes unnoticed by friends. When I was a child I never had a birthday party in school. In my day, the schools didn’t do a special summer birthday party for all the kids with summer birthdays.

But that never bothered me. It has always felt like my very private day. I love it when people remember. But if they don’t I understand. It’s the dog days of August afterall and I’m usually away.

So it feels like a secret birthday; I have birthdays just like everyone else (and I grow one year older) but they happen on a day when no one is looking. That’s my summer birthday.

One year, when we were 7 or 8, my sister had a beautiful garden party in Riverside Park. We went to our favorite party store on Lexington Avenue and she picked out the most beautiful streamers, paper plates, cups, napkins, hats; it was absolutely magical, the most special party in the world.

We went to separate schools and had different friends. I remember a sleep over party when I was six. With my cousin, we made groovy sixties posters that said: “Let’s Swing” and “Do the Twist.”

In recent years, we have been separate on our birthday. I’m usually on the farm in California and she’s usually in New York on the day. It felt grown up in a way. Like I was claiming the day for myself. But something was missing…

When in California, my mother-in-law often serves a birthday breakfast; she table in the garden room with her Italian floral plates, Matisse tea cups, flowers from the garden. Fresh oranges, figs, cantaloupe, nectarines. My favorite present ever: from Teen Spirit. He gave me a huge Bob Dylan songbook knowing that I would cry. I did.

We were together for the big Four Oh, when mother threw us a cocktail party in her living room with a jazz trio and a very tall bartender. I even got to sing (Cigarette holder that wigs me over his shoulder he digs me, out cattin’ that Satin Doll). There was champagne and finger food, friends toasting, saying nice things.

One year HC and I went to Chez Panisse on my birthday and discovered that August 28th is also the birthday of the restaurant and they always have a special birthday menu on that day. There are usually other people celebrating their birthdays, too.

For the last five or more years we’ve made Chez Panisse my birthday tradition on our shared birthday. We drive into Berkeley from the farm. Go to Cody’s Books and The Gardener in Emmeryville. Stop in at another favorite bookstore on Shattuck Avenue and then go into the simple but elegant California arts and crafts style restaurant. They always have a special birthday poster by David Lance Goines.

This year, like every year, I want my birthday to be a perfect day in Sagaponick with a trip to the Penny Candy Store, the ocean and a garden party in Riverside Park. A bookstore browse in Berkeley, Matisse dishes in the garden, fresh vegetables at Chez Panisse. A jazz trio in the living room and good friends making toasts.

Ya wanna come?

This from New York 1:

Transit riders might not have to pony up more for their commute after all.

That’s the word from state comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who is releasing a report today blasting the MTA’s proposed fare increase.

DiNapoli says the MTA should wait to see how much money it will get
from the mayor’s congestion pricing plan and Governor Eliot Spitzer’s
upcoming budget.

The MTA announced last month that it would seek a rate hike to close what it expects to be an $800 million deficit.

Mrs. Cleavage (aka Saucy Tart) just called to invite me to her luscious garden for a BBQ. You can imagine that I am quite excited to attend one of her BBQs because she is such a good cook. Hepcat will be sure to take pictures of her lovely jardin.

Check out her food blog, Eat, Drink, Memory.  I linked to it a few weeks ago but the link was wrong. Sorry about that. But check out her blog (with the correct URL) for a recipe for yummy yogurt.

Great-Aunty, who is younger than myself, whipped out a huge bowl of
kurd.  That’s yogurt to you all.  And it looked so good and so fresh
and I asked: where did you find this fresh kurd. 

She made it. 

Unh-huh.  She made it.  With whole milk and a bit of plain yogurt as
a starter.  It was superb.  Naturally, I who pay $3 for a dinky
container of Fage had to know the secret.  And even now, as I type,
kurd is curdling in my kitchen.

Lynn Harris emailed me. Her book, Death by Chicklit, is so much fun. And to add to the fun, if you buy a copy at her Cocoa Bar reading this Wednesday you get a free slice of Death by Chocolate cake.

I am so there. Weight Watchers diet and all. It is the day after my birthday and I deserve a slice of chocolate cake!! Here’s more info:

Lynn Harris reads from the set-in-Brooklyn DEATH BY CHICK LIT at Park Slope’s vice-tastic  Cocoa Bar (chocolate, wine, and coffee!)

228 7th Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets, Brooklyn

Wednesday, August 29, 8 PM

subway: F to 7th Ave. (for other train info, ask me)

Free slice of DEATH BY CHOCOLATE with every book purchase!

Book sales provided by Community Bookstore

www.lynnharris.net

www.deathbychicklit.com

•

"Brilliant"* — New York

"A fun summer read" — People

Amy Shaw and Jae Kim, owners of Park Slope’s Greenjeans (and bloggers), will be featured on the CBS Early Show on August 29th.  The shop, on Seventh Avenue near 16th Street, features traditional and new wave craft items from all around the world.  They have 100% toxin-free wooden toys made by Frank Ridley’s Different Drummer Workshop.

"Every single toy is handmade by Frank in his barn workshop in the woods
of Solon, Maine. The toys are solid Maine pine and maple sanded smooth
with no varnish, paint, or any other finish on them, so kids can play
(and chew!) to their heart’s content with no risk of lead poisoning or
exposure to harmful chemicals," writes Amy and Jae on their blog.

Tune in to the The Early Show on CBS on August 29th to catch a relationship piece about husband-and-wife business partners featuring me and Jae!

It
all happened very quickly, and quite out of the blue, (and no we don’t
have a publicist!). Last week, we got an email from a woman named Amy Kean
asking if we are a couple in business together with the words "CBS
Early Show" in the subject line. Thinking it might be spam, I replied
"Yes!" and figured that was it. But within minutes Amy called the shop
and talked to a very surprised Jae, whom I hadn’t told about the email
yet. It all sounded legit and kinda fun, and the next thing we knew, we
had made a date for CBS to come to our very not-unpacked-yet apartment
(we moved a couple weeks ago) for an interview!

Amy had found
out about us by googling "brooklyn entrepreneur husband and wife" and
finding Shawn Liu’s recent interview with us for his small business
blog, Hear, Hear.
She said that she’d considered asking some higher-profile husbands and
wives in business, but decided she’d rather go with someone who hadn’t
had as much publicity yet. How lucky is that?!

This from New York 1:

The Greenmarket opened yesterday alongside St. Jerome’s Church on Newkirk Avenue.

Lawmakers, employees and customers all agree it will be a boost to the community.

"This is a youth farmer’s market and the idea here is to bring good
food, economic literacy and also a sense of empowerment that people can
take control of their own lives and their own health,” said State
Senate member Kevin Parker.

"Instead of having to go give your money to all these companies who
are giving all these fast foods and all these fatty foods that are
killing you quickly, it’s time for you to take the stand and do what
you have to do and take a stand for yourself and start to eat right,”
said farmer’s market staff member Tamika Daniel.

Along with fresh locally grown produce, the stand will feature healthy cooking demonstrations and workshops on nutrition.
            
            
       

You can donate to Safe Horizons and give a young victim of violence all he/she needs for the beginning of the school year. Even $25 would be a BIG HELP. It buys a HOPE PACK full of school supplies.

Read more here:

Dear Blogger,

Each year, parents and children trudge through endless aisles
debating the perfect paper, pens and folders in a rite of passage—back-to-school
shopping. Besieged by begging, fighting and pleading, parents often dread this
time of year. But for many children, shopping is a luxury and school supplies
just aren’t a priority or even an option.

Safe Horizon, the nation’s leading victim assistance
organization, provides services to 26,000 children annually. These children are
often victims of abuse, caught in vicious cycles of domestic violence and often
living in shelters. Due to their uncertain and dire circumstances, their
families often cannot even afford rent, let alone pencils or paper.

To help provide for these children, last year, Safe Horizon
launched a Back-to-School Campaign—each $25 donation provided a child
with a Hope Pack, a backpack filled with the essential school supplies needed
to begin a new school year. Hope Packs return
a sense of normalcy and belonging to children affected by violence.
A new backpack stuffed with shiny binders, bright colored pencils and
calculators for the new school year symbolizes a new beginning for a child living
with violence.

Safe Horizon believes that every school-aged
child deserves to enter the school year with the necessary supplies—this year,
Safe Horizon is striving to exceed the 1,000 Hope Packs they distributed last
year.

Please let your readers know that this one-time
donation will radically change the lives of
New York City ’s most deserving
residents. School starts soon—with your readers’
help, thousands of children can return to school with not only the tools to
learn, but also confidence in face of their hardships. 

  Safe Horizon, the nation’s leading victim assistance
organization, serves more than 350,000 people each year who have been touched
by violence. Safe Horizon provides the practical tools, emotional support,
education and advocacy to help victims and their families heal and rebuild
their lives. For more information, please see www.safehorizon.org.

 

There’s a Brooklyn-wide voter
registration drive this Saturday at the Farmer’s Market in Grand Army
Plaza from 10 am until noon.

Here

      Here I am in the garden laughing
an old woman with heavy breasts
and a nicely mapped face

how did this happen
well that’s who I wanted to be

at last a woman
in the old style sitting
stout thighs apart under
a big skirt grandchild sliding
on off my lap a pleasant
summer perspiration

that’s my old man across the yard
he’s talking to the meter reader
he’s telling him the world’s sad story
how electricity is oil or uranium
and so forth I tell my grandson
run over to your grandpa ask him
to sit beside me for a minute I
am suddenly exhausted by my desire
to kiss his sweet explaining lips.

Grace Paley

An OTBKB reader was at the Brooklyn for Barack event at the Brooklyn Marriott. Here is her detailed and personal report.

I attended with my children. I have not made any final decision about my vote. I have watched my children grow in a time when patriotism is almost a thing of the past. We have tried to keep our heads high as our administration has embarassed us over and over again. We have felt the shame of their actions. I wanted my kids to hear a speaker that is capable of stirring that patriotism. Ronald Regan did it for the Republicans and JFK for the Democrats. I wanted them to know that they can be part of the political process.

Barack Obama is the first candidate that we have seen that is post-Vietnam. For that reason I find his participation fascinating. I think that he is pretty genuine. He is a politician, so I watched with a careful eye to see ‘the real Obama’. For whatever it’s worth, he was an hour and a half late. I was surprised that there was no security, not even a bag check. I knew as I entered that there would be no questions. No seats, no questions, I concluded. While I was waiting I overheard a woman say that she was a paid blogger for the Democratic Party. The man who introduced Obama was a Jamaican man with his son. The man had contributed $25 on his very tight budget, to the campaign and was asked to participate. His son ran around him and popped his face up between the his legs as he was reading. It lightened the stress of the wait and created a warm entry for Obama.

As any speaker has to access their crowd, Barack did just that, opening with a few shots at the Wall Street troubles and at the high salaries. I wondered to myself if he says that to his big contributors. As a Wall Street wife I was disappointed. He later talked about how Americans don’t want to be red and blue, black and white, fancy and plain… they just want to be people. I couldn’t agree more.

He revealed that he hadlived in Park Slope when he was at Columbia. Seems like a very long time ago. He was careful to mention that it was a sublease (so maybe it was in the summer) and that he couldn’t afford it then and certainly can’t afford it now. I rolled my eyes. He reminisced about running on the Promenade and about getting bagels at some place that I’d never heard of. I thought, why would he run on the Promenade when he could run in the park?

He is a great speaker. He touched on all the things that any good Democrat would want to hear. He did not go into depth. The crowd went wild with everything he said. The cheers were sprinkled with church-like shouts of “speak brother” and “we’ve got your back”. I was close to the front so the feeling was intimate. When he finished the people pushed forward to shake his hand and to have books signed, all of which he did at a calm pace with a sincere attitude.

From a speech writing perspective I was surprised that he mentioned along with his intention to find Bin Laden that 3000 people were killed here. I think that this may be fine somewhere else but in New York it wasn’t just 3000 people that were killed. They were our friends and neighbors and relatives.

I honestly don’t think that there is any way that he will be our President- this time. I studied him, watched and listened and the guy seems to be for real. I keep telling myself that he is a politician but I really think that this one might be different. Does different make him right? I don’t know. All I know is that my kids got goose bumps when he spoke and walked away feeling really sparked by his “hope”fulness.

This from New York 1:

As home to the country’s largest Caribbean community, Brooklyn is
spear-heading hurricane relief in the wake of Hurricane Dean.

Elected officials and foreign consul generals teamed up Wednesday
to announce an emergency aid campaign to support the devastated
tropical regions.

Lawmakers have designated August 27th through September 3rd as
hurricane relief week, and they are seeking donations of supplies and
money.

"My appeal to Brooklynites is to come on out, make the
contributions at the various drop off points,” said Brooklyn Borough
President Marty Markowitz.

"Demonstrate that spirit of generosity that Brooklyn proudly lays
claim too and help our neighbors in the Caribbean to recover from this
disaster,” said Deputy Borough President Yvonne Graham.

New Yorkers can drop off generators, water filters, phone cards,
non-perishable food, soap and other similar items to C.A.P.E on Bedford
Avenue, Dennis Shipping on Utica Avenue, or Laparkan Shipping on Linden
Boulevard. Cash can be sent to the Manhattan consulate offices of
affected countries.

For more information go to http://www.brooklyn-usa.org.

Was anyone at the Brooklyn for Obama event last night at the Marriott? Do tell. This from New York 1 about the sold-out fundraiser.

Wednesday night he held a massive fundraiser at the Brooklyn
Marriott. The sold-out event was organized by the group "Brooklyn for
Barack," and tickets went for as little as $15 for students.

Obama spoke about his love for the city and the country.

"Every single place we go it looks like this, people from all walks
of life, you got black folks, white folks, Asian folks, Latino folks,
and Native American folks and disabled folks," said Obama.

This show sounds very interesting. Here’s the blurb from the Museum.

Nearly eighty works in a wide range of media by 45 artists examining how the Caribbean is defined, as both a real and an imaginary location, will go on view at the Brooklyn Museum on August 31, 2007. The exhibition, which runs through January 27, 2008, approaches the Caribbean as a uniquely flexible space, where culture and history offer multiple possibilities of interpreting contemporary Caribbean experience. The artists represented have ties to 14 Caribbean nations: Barbados, Cuba, Curacao, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Monserrat, Nevis, Puerto Rico, St. Martin, Surinane, and Trinidad and Tobago.