Gowanus Lounge has the dope: A $25 Million Prospect Park skating rink could open by 2010. Usually I get press releases from Prospect Park. I didn’t hear nothing about this.

The big new skating center in Prospect Park, a $25 million facility that would replace the Wollman Rink,
could be open by 2010. The Lakeside Center–so called until it is
renamed–would include two rinks, one for hockey and one for
recreational use. It would rise on the site of a parking lot next to
the existing Wollman Rink. The site of the current rink will be restored to its original landscaping at an additional cost of $10 million, bringing the total price tag to $35 million

Sunday’s New York Times has a list of food blogs to reckon with. Megnut, a blog by blogspot founder Meg Hourihan, is on the list. Check out all of these blogs.

Among the many New York restaurant blogs, here are a few that are considered to be top-shelf by other food bloggers.

Eater
A smorgasbord. Troubled restaurants fear being added to Eater Deathwatch.

Grub Street
From tips on proper “eatiquette” to information on available same-night reservations.

Restaurant Girl
Easy to read reviews of new hotspots and snippets of food-world gossip.

NYC Nosh
Traipsing through the city’s food scene with fellows named Nosher and Hungry Man.

Augieland
Food for thought about food.

Midtown Lunch
Budget recommendations and entertaining profiles of real-life Midtown lunchers.

The Amateur Gourmet
The Roger Rabbit of food bloggers. See him frolic in photo-comics from restaurants.

Serious Eats
A food bloggers network, aggregating leading voices.

Snack
Easy to digest tidbits of foodie news.

The Strong Buzz
Tidings of opening and closings along with musings on trends.

Gothamist Food
The Camera in the Kitchen feature has mouthwatering close-ups of chefs’ creations.

Megnut
A blogging pioneer, Meg Hourihan switched her focus to all things food last year.

Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the newly renamed Brooklyn Paper:

Saturday night, Smartmom, Hepcat, and OSFO found themselves at Two
Boots, Park Slope’s beloved Cajun pizzeria known for its tolerance of
unruly children.

For a frigid January night, the restaurant was
moderately crowded and the maitre d’ told them it would be three
minutes until their table was ready.

“This is way more than three minutes,” OSFO whined as her parents sat at the bar drinking Turbo Dogs for more than 15 minutes.

Finally, the maitre d’ gathered up menus and took them to their seats.

“I’m
very sorry,” she said. “I had a bunch of tables that looked like they
were ready to leave…” Like most of the staff at Two Boots, she was
charming and full of spunk (you have to be to work in a restaurant
where the children run wild with small balls of dough while their
parents zone out on peach Margaritas).

As they walked toward the
pizza window, Smartmom noticed a long table of teenagers eating an
interesting assortment of appetizers. At another table, a kid blew
straw paper

“Oh sh—,” Smartmom said aloud. The maitre d’ was
making a beeline for the table near the pizza window — aka the
Second-Most-Dangerous Table in the restaurant. It’s the same table
where a dough ball once landed in Smartmom’s Margarita, tossed by an
unrepentant 4-year-old.

The Most Dangerous Table, of course, is the one next to the pizza window.
When there are too many kids at the pizza window, they use that booth
as a kind of off-ramp. At one dinner, Groovy Grandpa got many an
Elephantan shoe on his thigh.

As Smartmom perused the familiar
menu, she found herself overwhelmed with remembrances of things past.
She was unable to imagine ordering anything other than what they’d
ordered so many times before:

Pizza face for OSFO; goat cheese
and andouille pizza for the grown ups; a small house salad and an order
of calamari for the table.

And with each menu item, she saw a picture of herself and her children at various stages of their lives.

On
a cold January night in 1989, Hepcat proposed to Smartmom in the East
Village Two Boots, which was their favorite restaurant back then.
They’d usually eat after 10 pm and were barely aware of the
restaurant’s status as child-friendly. As far as they were concerned,
it was hipster cool.

“Will you marry me?” Hepcat purred as he offered an empty white porcelain coffee cup as an engagement ring.

You know the answer to that question (even though a busboy whisked the “ring” away with the other dirty dishes).

Fried
calamari from Two Boots was baby Teen Spirit’s first solid food. Or so
they like to say. He was a regular at the restaurant by the time he was
2.

OSFO’s first meal at Two Boots was in a Baby Bjorn. Smartmom
splayed the napkin over her infant’s head and gorged on pizza as the
tot slept. As she grew, it became a family tradition to celebrate her
birthday there.

Despite these crusts of memory, Smartmom longed
for something new. “How about the Sophia, the special pizza of the
day,” she blurted out. Red pepper, spicy Italian sausage, Vidalia
onion, and fresh mozzarella.

Sound good?

Hepcat made a
face. A creature of habit, he had his heart set on the usual. But with
that passive-aggressive flair, he left it up to Smartmom.

“We’ll
still have the house salad and the calamari,” she offered. He forced
his lips into a smile. Smartmom hoped the Sophia pizza would make him
forget this change in the routine.

The teenagers at the table
nearby looked like they were having fun. They looked so comfortable in
their seats — like they’d been there a million times before. And they
probably had.

In different incarnations of themselves, of course.

Once upon a time, they were carried in by Bjorn. Or wheeled in by single or double Maclaren.

Later,
they were one of the doughboys and girls at the pizza window. Perhaps
they were one of the runners, a kid who nearly trips a good-natured
waiter, holding a tray full of Sangrias.

Smartmom wondered how
they perceived the place. Was Two Boots the fuddy-duddy place their
parents always took them to? Or the childhood restaurant they
remembered most fondly?

Would this be like the restaurant on Fire
Island that sent plates from the kitchen by electric train that
Smartmom never forgot? Or was it like the Great Shanghai, the cavernous
Chinese restaurant on West 102nd Street that she was dragged to every
Sunday night for years?

Smartmom watched as Hepcat bit into her
steaming hot Sophia pizza slice. “How do you like it?” she asked
hopefully, her mouth full of savory, succulent pizza.

“It’s OK.” Hepcat is known for his pathological understatement. “OK” is actually a compliment in his lexicon.

But
then he made a face. “I don’t like this sausage as much as the
andouille. And the fresh mozzarella — it just doesn’t compare to the
goat cheese.”

You just can’t win. Still Smartmom enjoyed her
Sophia pizza and OSFO, after she removed the olive eyes, the broccoli
nose, and the tomato slice smile, was thrilled with her Pizza Face.

“Why do they put all this stuff on it that kids don’t eat?” OSFO yelped.

This is Park Slope. Kids DO eat vegetables here. And they love it.

At
that moment, a waitress bolted out of the kitchen with a slice of cake
with a single birthday candle. The kids at the teenager’s table sang
“Happy Birthday” to a very embarrassed birthday girl.

Soon the
entire restaurant was singing along. Out of the muck of discordant
voices came a gorgeous operatic soprano, from a cheerful woman sitting
at the Most-Dangerous Table.

Her soaring voice rose above all the
rest. It was clear as a bell, deep and full of ebullient feeling. Her
son hid under his shirt clearly embarrassed by his mother’s artistry.

The crowd applauded. Smartmom shouted, “Bravo.”

As
the Park Slope diva exited the restaurant, customers thanked her and
shook her hand. She stopped at the teenager’s table and wished the
birthday girl a happy day. Smartmom overheard that she was chorus
singer at the Metropolitan Opera.

Done with her food, Smartmom asked the busgirl she’s known for more than 10 years to pack up the remnants of the Sophia pizza.

It
may not be as memory full as the goat cheese and andouille, but it
would certainly taste great for breakfast tomorrow morning.

For
research purposes, Smartmom asked the waitress what the most popular
topping is: “Hmmm,” she thought for a moment. “Andouille. With goat
cheese,” she said assuredly.

Hepcat smiled. Vindicated at last.

It’s winter, which means that it’s time for BAM Family at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Get tickets early.

BAMfamily Book Brunch
Walter Dean Myers & Christopher Myers

Ages 8—12

Sat, May 5, 12—2pm
BAMcafé
$20 adults; $15 children 16 and under; 20% off for subscribers to Eat, Drink & Be Literary.

Bring the kids to this literary and musical jam session with the
award-winning team of author Walter Dean Myers and his son, illustrator
Christopher Myers. Their latest collaboration, Jazz,
captures the history and spirit of this vibrant American art form
through syncopated poetry and exuberant illustrations. The event starts
off with a buffet of kid-friendly food and drink followed by a reading
accompanied by live musical demonstration. The authors will discuss the
history of jazz and the art of writing, display the original artwork,
and explain how the illustrations were made. A question and answer
session will be followed by a book signing. 

This breast friends thing is, like, so kinky. I mean, you don’t need to be a sex therapist to see that.

I know all about wet nurses and such but one of the most important aspects of breastfeeding is the bonding that goes on between mother and child.

Yes, breastfeeding can be a bit exhausting and draining (literally) but the big payback is the closeness with your baby. And that’s a beautiful thing for a developing infant.

As has been said, breast milk is one great nutritional product: it protects the baby’s immune system big time and provides them  with just about everything they need. 

But the bonding thing. That’s a big, big part of it and I don’t think a baby needs to bond with mom’s best friend in this way. I just don’t.

I’ve got nothing against kinky. But isn’t it just so obvious that those two heterosexual friends are attracted to one another? And there ain’t nothing wrong with that. Just come out with it.

Why use your baby to act out a sexual feeling between you and your friend?  Why use your baby as a way to get closer to your friend (even platonically)?

Female friendships are complex. That’s why I’m all about boundaries even if I’m not always the best about upholding them. Healthy boundaries between friends is important. To me, this would be a case of too much too muchness.

I can already see the breakup of that friendship coming. And the ensuing Maelstrom. There are going to be some very SOUR feelings there. "I breastfed your baby…"

Come on, girlfriends, don’t put your baby in the middle of a female friendship fiasco. Whether it’s about sexual feelings for a friend or a desire to be closer or just the convenience angle (she vacuumed my rug, she breastfed my kid, what a friend) there ain’t no good can come from this.

I say, stay out of it. Bad. Bad. Bad idea.

Beautiful pix by Wendy Cooke on Flickr. 

NBC did a good thing. They invited the architects of their own obsolescence into Conan O’Brien’s studio and told us that they want to work together with us. They respect the  blogger’s ethos of  hyper-local, personal journalism. They like the speed with which we report things. They like our voices and our quirky perspectives.

And they want a piece of our action.

So what’s in it for us? If it
means positive exposure and lots of credit it’s a good thing. Money
would be good, too.

I think NBC may have an enlightened attitude toward blogging. Compared with other news outlets, that is.  In the last year or two, reporters from the New York Times or the Daily News would get in touch with me, ask for my sources, and and be done with me. I FELT TOTALLY USED. And I didn’t play.

This
was different. The NBC people who organized this event GET the value of
blogging, they respect it, they plan to make it a part of what they’re
doing and they need us — we’re on the ground getting the stories that people want to read.

SO WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS? Because they smell their own obsolescence and they want to change that outcome.

And maybe they’re being smart. NBC’s big credibility ticket is  Sree Sreenivasan, the dean and professor at the School of Journalism at Columbia University and the new tech reporter at NBC news.

He’s a smart, tech journalist and I liked his enthusiasm and his insider knowledge. I think it was cool that he brought one of the owner/developers of Movable Type (maker of blogging software) to the summit.

What’s in it for the bloggers? Exposure, money, getting plucked out of obsolescence.

Also, if the mainstream media starts paying attention to the stories we think are important — that’s probably a win win for everyone. We could change the face of local news, which might move beyond sex and wrecks, fires and murders.

Look what happened with Atlantic Yards? That was a story that nobody wanted until blogger, Norman Oder took it on big time. And the rest is history. Now look at what Gowanus Lounge is doing with Coney Island, Gowanus, and the Williamsburg development  stories. These are the big mainstream stories of tomorrow.

Like the "new media" movement of the 1960’s which changed the face of journalism in its own way, bloggers have the power to make a real difference.

I think a lot of bloggers are thinking today — what was last night all about? The food was nice. The hospitality was super nice. Was it hype. Was it real? Was it just the same old same old? It remains to be seen. Send NBC a story, see what happens.

That’s all we can do at this point.

I

Yay. A new thing to get all opinionated about. Sharing breast feeding with a friend, a breast friend, that is. What fun. Read Babble’s story of two women, writer Jennifer Baumgardner and her friend, Anastasia, who decided to share breast feeding duties.

"When my son was a few months old and my dear, dear friend Anastasia was at the
end of her pregnancy, she turned to me one day and said, "I have a request."

"Anything," I said. After all, she had come over two or three times a week
since my baby was born to help me as I finished a book. She’d done everything from
returning phone calls to burping the baby to vacuuming. When she tipped over in the course of
trying to rock my son, Skuli, she bonked her head rather than drop him, prompting me to
wonder if it was fair to relegate administrative tasks and baby-care to a woman who was nine months pregnant.
   

"I want us to nurse each other’s babies," Anastasia said.

"Okay," I said, immediately.

"They’ll be milk-siblings," she said excitedly.

"Yeah," I said. "Wow."According to La Leche League, I shouldn’t even be giving my own child my tainted milk, let alone another woman’s.

What I didn’t do was yell, "OMIGOD! THAT IS SO BIZARRE THAT YOU WANT
TO DO THAT!" But that was my first internal reaction. Second internal reaction:
how am I going to get out of this when I already said okay?"

NBC graciously welcomed 130 NYC bloggers to Studio 6 (Conan O’Brien’s studio). It was quite the event. They even served sandwiches and shrimp. "The last time they served shrimp was at Gabe Pressman’s 80th birthday party," Erin Monteiro, Interactive Content Specialist at WNBC-TV, and one of the organizers of the event told me.

No drinks, though. Alcohol is prohibited at FCC regulated facilities. They did invite everyone to an after-party at the NBC Bar on West 48th Street.

Lots of notable bloggers were in attendance: Gawker, Gothamist, Curbed, Gowanus Lounge, A Brooklyn Life, Laid-Off Dad, Footnoted, Media Bistro, Manhattan Offender, City Rag, Fourbyfour, East Village Idiot, Varsity Basketweaving, and many, many others.

They will send out a a list tomorrow.

NBC wants to make nice with NYC bloggers. They want our stories, they want our tips. They want the "content" that we’re finding in our neighborhoods, on our beats.

And they will give credit to us, link to our blogs, and even interview us on television.

They also gave out NYC Blogger Summit baseball caps.

"It was a groundbreaking night. The biggest gathering of NYC bloggers ever. TV meets the web." Hey, I’m typing this as I watch Sree Sreenivasam, Dean of Students and Professor at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and WNBC’s Tech Reporter.  

Smith and Vine
268 Smith St., nr. Degraw St., Carroll Gardens; 718-243-2864
I saw it in the New York Times’ food section today: Smith and Vine, Smith Street’s fabulous wine shop just moved to biger digs. In fact, they are doubling their
space for its huge wine and single-malt-scotch
collection (50 and 80 labels).

Here’s the blurb about the blogger summit on the WNBC website.

The world of media is changing, and WNBC.com has taken unprecedented steps to embrace the future. Wednesday night, the people who write more than 130 of New York’s most-read blogs came to our station, talking about the digital future.

New York’s first Blogger Summit was held in Studio 6A at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, known to many as the home of the Conan O’Brien Show. There, WNBC and the team of bloggers spent time talking about covering New York, its many niches, and the role "new media" plays in a world previously dominated by networks and newspapers.

The hope is that those bloggers will work with WNBC.com, trading news and information and giving additional exposure to big stories, both on blogs or on tv.

For example, if a blog gets a scoop on a big news story, WNBC would work with that blogger to report that story on television, giving more exposure to that blog. Also, if WNBC has video of a news event that might be interesting to a blogger, the blogger will have our blessing to post that video on their site.

The bottom line is… both the blogs and WNBC.com can now do a better job delivering news and information.

Before they arrived, we asked all the bloggers to answer a few questions for us, that show just how the "blog-o-sphere" works. Take the survey yourself, and see if any of these answers surprise you…

For the survey, go to their site.

 This was my idea so I’ll take all the credit. Mrs. Cleavage has a blog on Metro Parents and it’s SO FUN. It’s called: Mrs. Cleavage’s Diary

Mary MacRae Warren (aka Mrs. Cleavage) is a single mother who lives
with her delightful young boy child in a cluttered apartment in East
New York. She is saucy, opinionated, creative, and a smarty-pants – not
necessarily in that order. This is her story, live and unedited from
Brooklyn. Here’s an excerpt. She just lost her job…

At 11:30
a.m., my boss called me into the conference room sat me down with the
Senior Vice President of Human Resources who politely informed me of
the terms of my severance, due to structural reorganization.  Hey, at
least I wasn’t actually fired.  I’m just unnecessary.

I feel so much better.

Strained
smiles and handshakes all around, then Mrs. Cleavage went to pack up
her desk.  Who knew in six months one could accumulate such sh*t.  Into
the paper bag went my son’s photo and the cardinal paperweight he made
me, the spare pair of panty hose, the baby wipes.  Gave my Earl Grey
tea to my co-worker along with my hand sanitizer, the Emergen-C to my
boss. Fired off a couple of farewell emails, deleted junk from my hard
drive and that was that. 

Then I turned in my keys, picked up
my little bags, and went into the ladies room to freak out.  I sobbed
all the way home on the train.  What a nightmare. I hate public
displays, but I could not keep it together. 

I messaged a
friend who couldn’t really deal with my panic.  I called my therapist
who now stands even less of a chance of being paid for his services. I
hiccupped through that phone call. 

I feel like such a loser.
This morning and in the last couple of weeks, I’ve been so – um –
tranquil in the face of all the crap that’s happened to me in the past
two and half years. In essence, I’ve just handed myself over to the
safe-keeping of the universe (what some people call giving themselves
up to god, but which I can’t say because I’m not invested in a
figurehead).  And this is what the universe thinks I f*cking deserve –
unemployment, no money and no career prospects, no lover or social life
to speak of.  Nice.

Okay, I sound a bit sour grapes here.  And
right now I am very bitter.  But there is got to be a positive reason
for all of this.  I have to believe that or I’d stick my head in the
oven tonight. 

Monday morning I’m going to get up, get dressed
and pretend to go to work.  I can’t tell my son I don’t have a job.
What the f*ck?

Monday on the F-train, on my way back from Tekserve, a Englishman asked me how far it was to Coney Island.

"Is it worth the trip?" he asked.

"Absolutely," I said. In the next few years it’s going to change a lot. You really should see it before it’s all destroyed."

The man had a camera around his neck so I figured he wanted to take pictures. We talked a bit. He wanted to know other "off the beaten path" destinations for sightseeing.

Williamsburg. Dumbo. Brooklyn Heights. I told him to catch Doug Aitken’s outdoor film installation at MOMA, Sleepwalkers. Harlem. 

Turns out he’s on a grand trip after being laid off from his job in IT. "I’ve been working 17 years straight and I wanted to do something interesting before looking for another job."

We talked a bit. He’s rethinking everything and getting out of the computer business. He doesn’t know what he wants to do next. This guy wasn’t young but he’s facing the future with a very open mind.

For starters, he got a special off-peak Amtrak ticket only available to non-American travelers. For 30 days he can take Amtrak anywhere. He’s going to Florida, New Orleans, Tuscon, San Diego, San Francisco.

From San Francisco he’s going to New Zealand. Then he goes back to London to look for a job.

"I’ll be out of money then," he said.

Inspiring. I love the idea of a train trip across America. "I’m sitting in a railway station got a ticket for my destination…"

To Look  for America. And himself. Sounds very exciting to me.

Since Friday, my three-month-old MacBook has randomly been turning itself off. No warning. Nothing to do with the battery. In fact, it tended to do it when the Macbook was plugged into the wall. I thought maybe it had to do with the power source…

I took it to Techserve on Monday. The technician said, “I think I know what’s wrong. The first batch of Macbooks had a software problem, which resulted in random shut downs…”

He looked at my Macbook and said: “Have you done any upgrades?” I told him that I hadn’t.

Well, my Macbook needs multiple upgrades and that should take care of the problem…

At Issue Project Room this month: Couplings: Likely, Unlikely & Actual

FEBRUARY 3-24, 2007

Saturday, February 3
christine bard + jim pugliese
julian bennett holmes + jim pugliese

first set

CHRISTINE BARD + JIM PUGLIESE

The long-awaited reunion of Duo Bard and Pugliese in Concert
a.k.a. “The Mighty Drums of Christine Bard and Jim Pugliese”

Bard and Pugliese play percussion that creates other worlds and takes
you on a guided tour. They will make sounds move through IPR, to
surround and suspend the listener on the pulse of their own Chi.
Pitched and “non-pitched” instruments will play pieces of precision
and
beauty. Deep drums will take care of the rest.

second set

JULIAN BENNETT HOLMES + JIM PUGLIESE

Julian Bennett Holmes was born in New York in 1991. He has been the
drummer in the bands Stungun, Soñar (which debuted at Issue Project
Room) and Fiasco. He co-founded (with Lucian Buscemi) the independent
record label Beautiful Records (beautifulrecords.org,
myspace.com/beautifulrecordsny) in 2005, which has since released three
albums – two Soñar recordings and one recording of Care Bears on
Fire’s Confuse Me, which was released in November 2006.

8:00 p.m.; $10

Isabel Hills documentary, Brooklyn Matters, will be playing around Brooklyn in then next few weeks. The film.

Here’s the blurb from the website:

No single event will have a more drastic and long-lasting impact on Brooklyn than the proposed Atlantic Yards development. This uncommon proposal, however, is mostly misunderstood. Brooklyn Matters is an insightful documentary that reveals the fuller truth about the Atlantic Yards proposal and highlights how a few powerful men are circumventing community participation and planning principles to try to push their own interests forward.

February 1 6:00 pm Pratt Institute, Higgins Hall Auditorium, 61 St. James Pl, Bklyn.

February 21 7:00 pm Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School on Clermont and Greene, Bklyn.( sponsored by Fort Greene Association and Society for Clinton Hill.

February 27 7:00 p.m.Fifth Avenue Committtee-621 DeGraw St, Bklyn RSVP-718-237-2017, ext. 162 or vrentz@fifthave.org

March 7 7:00 p.m.Two Boots Pioneer Theater (sponsored by the Historic Districts Council) East 3rd St bet Aves A & B, NYC, RSVP: 212-614-9107 Ext/ 10 or lbelfer@hdc.org

Gowanus Lounge has a post about the BAM cultural district. It looks like that’s moving forward on the $650 million project built around BAM, it will include a theater (Theater for a New Audience, an arts library, dance studio, public park, a musuem and a gallery, as well as underground parking and residential houseing. Read more on Gowanus Lounge.

This excerpt from the NY Times. Read more…

IT was only a matter of time before someone was able to spot the
test driver deep within me. O.K., test parker: I was asked if I would
do a road test of the self-parking device on the new Lexus LS 460 L.
Although I like to think that I was being perceived as a laconic man
with steel nerves and steady hands, I suspect that the invitation had
something to do with my authorship of “Tepper Isn’t Going Out,” which
is considered by most scholars to have been the first parking novel. It
might even have had something to do with the fact that in 1964 I was
the founding co-editor of Beautiful Spot: A Magazine of Parking, which
I’ve seen referred to as a one-issue publication even though we prefer
to say that the second issue hasn’t come out yet. (We’ve had some
production difficulties.)

If I were asked to name my talent —
talent, that is, in the way the Miss America pageant uses the word
talent, as in “Miss West Virginia will now do her talent” — I would say
“parallel parking.” For the second issue of Beautiful Spot: A Magazine
of Parking, I’ve been preparing an article on how I came up with the
term “slicing the bread” to describe maneuvering into a spot that
leaves only the width of a bread slice between your bumpers and the
bumpers of the cars ahead of and behind you. In a later issue, I intend
to discuss “breaking the matzo” — getting into a spot so small that a
matzo would crack if you tried to place it between the relevant
bumpers. Just for the record, the last time I broke a matzo was May
1994, on Riverside Drive, between 83rd and 84th; unfortunately, there
were no witnesses.

Start the new year right. Get a proper work spac — invest in your career.

Writer looking to share her office space with a nice, quiet person. Great location in Park Slope. Great for writer, graphic designer, computer programmer, web designer, etc. Free Internet. Nice, clean space.

The office is also available nights and weekends solo.

If you’re interested, please email louise_crawford@yahoo.com

it contagious. You live in Park Slope — you write a book.

Senator Chuck Schumer, a Park Slope resident, has just published "Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time"

Here’s something about Schumer’s new book from the New York Daily News:

"Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time" is a half-memoir, half-policy list that Schumer dubs "the 50% solution."

"This book is an attempt to answer the question, ‘What do Democrats stand for?’" Schumer said at a signing yesterday at Grand Central Terminal.

"I yearned for the Democrats and the government to start connecting with the middle class again," he said.

In the book, Schumer creates his version of a typical middle-class family. The family has an annual income of $75,000, two cars and three kids, and lives in Massapequa, L.I. The father, Joe, works in insurance.

"The Baileys are people I have talked to for 15 years," he said of his imaginary constituents. "They’re fictional, but I know them well."

The book opens with Schumer listening to election returns last November, then goes through his personal and political life, right down to his favorite Chinese restaurant in Washington.

His proposals run the gamut from reducing – all by half – property taxes, dependence on foreign energy sources and cancer deaths to increasing test scores.

"I hope the presidential candidates will rip [the ideas] off and use them," he said. "But I don’t think it will outsell either Hillary Clinton’s or Barack Obama’s book."

How did I not know until recently that the makers of Zoloft are were located in Brooklyn. There’s an extensive history of the makers of the famous anti-depressant in the Sunday’s Times.

If this area on the Williamsburg-Bedford-Stuyvesant border is not
quite Pfizerville, it still may be the closest thing to a factory town
in this largely postindustrial city. For 158 years, the Pfizer company
has presided over this remote-feeling stretch of Brooklyn, a windswept,
big-sky place sliced like a pie by broad, angling streets: first as
industrial magnet, then as big brother-benefactor.

So Pfizer’s imminent departure, which the company announced on Monday, will mean more than the loss of 600 jobs.

“I
wish it didn’t have to end,” said Ricardo Guadalupe, who was laid off
from the plant last year and still gazes at the brick behemoth of a
factory every time he drops his two sons off at the school. “I wish it
could have lasted forever.”

The school will remain open, but
Mr. Guadalupe, who lives several miles away, now works in New Jersey
and is not sure how much longer it will make sense to send his children
there.

Tens of thousands marched in Washington on Saturday against the troop increase in Iraq. The event drew demonstrators from across the country,

"I can’t believe it was less than one hundred thousand," a Brooklyn friend who attended the march said this morning. "It wasn’t an angry march. Not angry enough," she said.  "People were committed. But it wasn’t loud and angry."

"What does it take for people to really get angry. Does it take bringing the draft back?" she wondered. "People are disgusted. They don’t want the escalation."

My friend who drove down, noticed a lot of Brooklyn groups there, including Brooklyn Parents for Peace. The weather was gorgeous; perfect day for marching.

Code Pink was there in full force. My friend described a wonderful puppet, brought by a group of Seattle puppeteers, that was a 30 ft long spine made of white, silk parachute material. On it was printed: Impeach, Indict, Imprison.

On the other side it said: Fund the Homecoming (of the soldiers.

According to my friend, all the usual celebrity suspects wise were there. The big surprise: Jane Fonda spoke. It was the first time in 34 years that she has participated in a protest march.

My friend spotted a counter protest — five or sx people — with signs that disparaged Jane Fonda (Hanoi Jane) and other peaceniks calling them Al Queda Appeasers.

On the march, people talked about impeachment.  "We want to get him out before the term is over. But then you have Cheney. You have to impeach Chaney first. Then get Bush out," she said.

Tim Robbins, a fave of my friend, "had great energy, he’s lively." Susan Sarandon spoke about the vets and the cost of the war on the mental and physical health.  She said that 200 returning vets have committed suicide thus far. They’re having a hard time when they get back and there’s little support for them.

This from New York 1:

A Brooklyn man froze to death in his car after he and his wife spent 32
hours stranded in below zero temperatures upstate.

The couple was driving home from a wedding in Montreal when their car crashed off Interstate-87 around 1 a.m. Thursday.

Barbara Langner had tried to call for help with her cell phone but couldn’t get service.

Family members reported them missing, and state police found the
couple Friday in their Lincoln Town Car in North Hudson, about 90 miles
north of Albany.

When authorities found the couple, Alfred Langner – who was 63 –
had died of hypothermia. Barbara Langner is hospitalized. She suffered
frostbite and also hurt her back.

THIS FROM BABY GADGET:

A bit of old news around the blog world, but one of our favorite onlines stores, ModernTots
has opened it’s first retail showroom in Dumbo, Brooklyn. The 2500
square foot store has plenty of space to showcase all their tempting
products with enough room for your toddlers to explore and try out toys
and furniture. I’m a big fan of online shopping – especially since
having my second – but I admit to being disappointed by a few products
that were not what I expected ("hey, this looked so much more blue on
my computer screen, why is it gray??"). So it makes sense to be able to
see products firsthand, if possible, rather than trusting the screen,
especially if you’re about to invest in some furniture (who here has
opted not to return something they didn’t quite like because it was too
much hassle?).

The showroom is located at 53 Pearl Street in Dumbo.

And while you’re checking things out, there are a few more days left in the ModernTots winter sale. Stock up on wiinter items for next year, like these adorable hats below.

Standing in the first floor hallway at PS 321, Frank McGarry, the school’s beloved music teacher, walked over and thanked me for putting him on my blog. He is responsible for teaching the kids about Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Mozart, and Bob Dylan.

McGarry, a school treasure, also teaches them:  "Here Comes the Sun" and the Bob Marley song, "Three Little Birds" "Don’t worry about a thing, cuz every little thing is gonna be alright."

"People kept telling me about it," he said. "It was an interesting list. I learned a lot about what people are doing around here," he said.

Well, he deserved to be there. And I told him so.

Teen Spirit and I went into Lisa Polansky, a shop on Seventh Avenue near Carroll Street, while waiting for his passport picture to printed at Photofaction next door. TS had never been in Polansky’s self-named store, which is chock full of shoes and clothing from floor to the ceiling. She carries an impressive selection of Converse, Doc Martins, and cut-rate Giraudon, and every imaginable clothing item for women. TS found the store interesting although he had to stoop so as not to bump into hanging gloves, scarves, and sweaters,

I asked Lisa Polansky is she’d seen her citing in the Park Slope 100. She didn’t know a thing about it. "But I have heard about these Brooklyn blogs, tell me how to go there,"

As I wrote down the URL of OTBKB, I told her that she’d been chosen because she’s an important member of the community; her store is a longtime institution.

"You made my day," she said with a big smile.

Once out on the street, I asked Teen Spirit  if he wanted to go into Loom. "Not if you’re going to mention the blog," he said. "You’re such a shameless self-promoter."

But Loom isn’t even on the list. Yet.

I see that Gowanus Lounge and I share an appreciation for the old signage that’s revealed when buildings are torn down or storefronts are in the process of being renovated.

Revealed on Second Street near fourth Avenue where a warehouse was torn down is a sign for a stomach remedy called Castoria.

My find: the long-vacant Korean market on Seventh Avenue and Garfield was a butcher in a  former life and there’s fantastic (and authentic) 1930’s style art deco lettering on the old signage.

Check out Gowanus Lounge’s pic of the Castoria ad.

This from NY 1:

A 90-year-old Brooklyn subway station is getting a much needed makeover.

Congressman Vito Fossella and Senator Marty Golden announced Friday
that the 86th Street station in Bay Ridge will undergo an $8.5 million
renovation.

Lawmakers say public and private money will be used to modernize the station, which was built in 1916.

The station underwent some remodeling about four years ago, but the
new plan calls for even bigger changes including repairs to the
staircases and new tiling for the walls and floors.

Safety treads will also be installed along the platform edge.

The MTA says the preliminary design phase has started, and all the work should be done in about three years.

Got this in my inbox from a reader:

Greenjeans is a Seventh Avenue store (between 15th and 16th Streets in Park Slope).  A blog! And now a web site for shopping.

Greenjeans offers fine handcrafted items
skillfully made by independent artisans from around the country.
Founded on the values of craftsmanship, sustainability, and
conscientious living, Greenjeans is a unique place where you can find
distinctive items that fit your style, providing a valuable alternative
to the homogenous shopping experience.

Here’s the about blurb from the new website:

Greenjeans is the shop, website, and blog owned and
operated by us, Amy Shaw and Jae Kim, and based in Brooklyn’s
burgeoning South Slope. After working for many years in art galleries
and museums, we established Greenjeans in March 2005 as the place where
we could put our values and ideas about sustainability, craftsmanship, and conscientious living into action.

Inspired
by the principles and aesthetic ideals upheld by the Shakers, the Arts
and Crafts Movement, and the Mingei movement of Japan, we
travel far and wide visiting studios and workshops, be they in an urban
loft or at the end of a long dirt road. We are always on the lookout
for artisans pushing the edges of craft, as well as for lesser-known
masters of continuing traditions.

All works at Greenjeans, from pottery and furniture to toys and jewelry, are created with integrity and distinction by richly talented independent artisans from around the United States, as well as one from Canada and one from Japan. Currently, Greenjeans represents nearly 50 artisans, most of whom are exclusive to Greenjeans in New York City.

Greenjeans is the next generation American craft gallery providing valuable alternatives to the mass-produced, corporate-driven wares that dominate the marketplace today.