Diaper Diva and I went into ‘Snice today and were pleased to see how crowded is was. We ordered lentil soups and smoked tempeh wraps. That’s my favorite sandwich so far.

Mike, who owns the restaurant, said that on Saturday they were very busy. "As busy as we get in Manhattan," he said. He seemed really happy about that.

‘Snice is the nabe’s new vegan sandwich shop, cafe, and great spot for tasty restaurant-made desserts.

"We just have to convince everyone that they need a pumpkin muffin every morning. They’re really great!" he told us.

On Saturday at the Writers at the Beach conference in Rehoboth, Delaware, a panel called "A Hard Day’s Work", featured two Park Slopers, a writer from Washington, DC and a journalist from Baltimore. Here was the panel description.

Once upon a time, the 8-hour work day and the forty-hour work week was
the norm. No more. Study after study shows that Americans are
increasingly working longer days and working more days. In this sense,
who we are is increasingly a matter of what we do.

Much of our unique
knowledge, our way of looking at the world, our individual experiences
,are deeply embedded in our working lives. At the same time, ways of
working and entire stores of knowledge are being lost as the kind of
work we do continually changes. Writing about work, then, is another
way of writing about the times and culture in which one lives.

But how
can we translate this often very specific experience into compelling
narratives that will appeal to a wide audience? In this discussion,
writers will talk about how to write about the work experience, in
either fiction or nonfictioin, in a compelling and dynamic way no
matter what kind of work is involved: working in a steel mill, acting
in Hollywood or fishing for a living, being a full-time mom, even
designing refrigerators.

Park Slope’s Rob Spillman edits Tin House, the acclaimed literary magazine, which had a special issue about work, featuring "Seven Times Seven", a masterful story by Dorothy Allison about a baker.

Mary Kay Zuravleff is the author of award-winning novel, The Frequency of Souls, which has just been rereleased by Picador.
That book follows George Mahoney, a refrigerator designer gone stale,
and his new office mate, Niagara Spense. While George considers
electricity a useful tool, about as complicated as a hammer, Niagara
sees it as a mysterious animating force; in her spare time, Niagara is
hoping to locate electrical evidence of life after death.

Mark Reutter, a  newspaper journalist and author of the book, Making Steel, writes about the steel industry and what is happening to American manufacturing. His articles can be found on his website,  Making Steel.

I was there because of Smartmom and I read a piece about the day Hepcat lost his job at the Edgy Start Up for the second time.

The discussion touched on good writing about work, ways to illuminate character through specific work descriptions, and how to research various occupations for use in fiction and non-fiction.

Today’s the big day: at a joint session of the state Assemby and the Senate in Albany, Lt. Governor David Paterson will be sworn in as the first black governor in American history and the first blind one.

Governor David Paterson.

It’s all happened so fast and everyone is still spinning form Spitzermania. But that’s old news now. Onward and upward.

"People are relieved that the government is being handed to someone so capable," said Albany reporter Elaine Rivera on WNYC this morning.

Coverage of the swearing in will begin at 1 p.m. on WNYC radio.

As I was finishing my run around the loop in Prospect Park this morning. I saw what, from a distance, looked like bright green specks on the lawn of Longs Meadow.

What were they? I wondered. What was it? Some kind of art piece, a gardening project, weird animals?

As I got closer I saw that they were frisbees. Chartreuse frisbees. I also saw a camera crew taking still photographs of the scene. They had lots of equipment set up and some nice women standing around.

"We’re doing a poster for and animal shelter, BARC. We’re giving away 250 frisbees," one of them told me. "The name of the shelter is on the frisbee."

The Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition is an animal shelter in Williamsburg. Their mission is to provide safe haven for homeless animals and find permanent and loving homes for them. The animals receive quality food, shelter and medical attention. They also exercise them frequently. They are able to do this through the revenues generated from their pet supply business. But they are always in need of donations.

OSFO and I visited BARC a few years ago. Everything they say on their website is true: they do take very good care of the animals in their care.

Photographer Ty Cole worked hard to get the shot just right. He donated his services pro bono.

They also had a box of yellow tennis balls with BARC printed on.

And her recipe for sweet almond bread pudding with raspberry sauce is in there. Omigod. I am really curious how she makes it. Like what’s in it? How does she do it? What magic goes into that delicious confection?

So how does she do it? Run a great bakery with two locations and write a book? What a gal.

For those who don’t know, Sweet Melissa’s is a Seventh Avenue patisserie that is admired for its constantly expanding array of beautiful and delicious desserts. It’s also a popular hang out.

The Sweet Melissa Baking Book looks great and is filled with great photos of all her delectable treats. It is sure be at the store and other local bookstores. She writes in the introduction:

Everything that is baked at Sweet Melissa’s is my favorite thing. The fun part is getting there, a a lot of testing goes into perfecting these recipes. Once I think I’ve gotten it, I try the recipe on my customers. I know when I’ve got it right: I see the person’s eyes close as they bite into a gooey sticky bun or a decadent piece of cake. They nod their head as they chew, and reluctantly swallow. Often there’s an accompanying hmmmmming sound. They they smile when they open open their eyes to see that there’s enough left for another bite.

It is 1:15 pm and at a joint session of the state Assembly and the
Senate in Albany, Lt. Governor David Paterson is being sworn in as the first black governor in New York history and the first blind one, too.

David Paterson is funny. He’s endearing. He’s a terrific speaker. I think we’re going to love him! Let’s hope we love him.

He is adorable!

He introduces the dignitaries in attendance like a host on a late night talk show. Pataki is there. Hugh Carey. Andrew Cuomo. Mike Bloomberg. David N. Dinkins. Edward I. Koch. Governor Corzine from New Jersey They’re all there.

Introducing Chuck Schumer, Paterson says, "The senior Senator from New York and of course a rose from Brooklyn, Charles Schumer." Introducing Hillary he says, "The junior Senator from New York who has a lot of places to go these days and I am so flattered that she would come be be here today Senator Hillary Clinton."

The crowd is cheering. The crowd is chanting "David, David, David." They love him in Albany. Boy do they love him.

He introduces the former Secretary State of New York, his father Basil Patterson. And finally, he  introduces his beautiful wife, his step-daughter, and his son.

"This transition is a historic message to the world that we live among the same value that we profess and that we are a government of laws and not individuals. Today, we can be proud of our democracy. This has been a turbulent week. Today is Monday there is work to be done, an oath to be taken, trust to be restored…"

Unfortunately, I have to leave to go to my son’s school so I can’t hear the rest of this historic speech…

Thank goodness Hepcat put up his No Words Daily Pix. I’m in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware at a writers conference called, Writers at the Beach and I have to do my blogging workshop in ONE HOUR.

Not much time to blog, let alone think.

My friend is doing a comedy writing workshop and she has pink eye. That’s in an hour, too.

We need some coffee. Now.

I always love to blog about Zuzu’s because her emails put me in a GOOD mood. Spring is on the way, everyone. Go to her site, there are loads of pretty pictures.

Dearest Zuzuites…

I am listening to the Cardinals trilling outside. My garden door is open and one lone lavender Hyacinth is blooming in the South side of the flower beds.
Spring is in the air!

I thought I might generate a little Zuzucraving with an update on what is in the shops or on the way.  

And, of course,
before you know it, the Pansies will be in
and its off to the Garden for us all.
Stop by for a weekend visit.

The Big
374 Fifth Avenue
718 638-0918

Little Zu
158A Berkeley Place
718 636-2022
our website is coming soon:
www.zuzusparkslope.com

I saw it on Gowanus Lounge: Urban Outfitters is opening TODAY and Bob’s got a a pix of their Brooklyn poster.

I almost wrote Brooklyn Outfitters.

Apparently, they’re giving 10% of their first week sales to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. VERY, VERY NEIGHBORLY.

Also first 300 customer get a KB/UO canvas bag. Go, go, go!

I heard it on Brian Lehrer:

The son of Basil Patterson, the first black New York Secretary of State, Lt. Governor David Patterson is generally well-liked and well-respected in Albany. And it can’t be denied that David Patterson is from a remarkable political family.

“Father and son are both extremely gentle but extremely serious people who want to get things done. They both believe that people should like you,” says Wayne Barrett, political reporter for the Village Voice.

Patterson has been described as a smart, sweet-tempered, good-humored and genuinely progressive guy.

“We’re going to need to see, in a state that needs the dramatic reform that Eliot Spitzer promised, we’re going to have to see a tougher side of David Patterson,” Barrett told Brian Lehrer. “He will do it in a different way than Eliot Spitzer would have done it.”

Andrea Bernstein, also on Lehrer’s show, has covered David Patterson, who is legally blind, for years. “His eyesight is not an issue. There is no adjustment to his functioning in any way. He is genuinely well liked in Albany. Pataki was well liked, too. Eliot Spitzer was going to be the anti-Pataki. He was not going along to get along. That exhausted people. People looking to David Patterson to mend fences.”

In his new blog post, New York State Politics: A Brand New Day, Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn writes.

Now it’s time for all elected officials to Do the Right Thing in service of the people of this great state with regard to the budget, economic development upstate, education, and other critical issues that the state faces

.

I like to keep OTBKB readers up to date on public school applications. Here’s information about the early grade application process for 2008-2009 on Park Slope Parents.

Watching WNBC, I see that Chopper 4 is recording Eliot Spitzer’s slow, traffic-addled drive down Fifth Avenue. It’s 11:20 a.m. and he seems to be caught in traffic near 59th Street.

Congestion pricing, anyone?

Read Second Avenue Saga’s post titled: With Spitzer in Trouble, Congestion Pricing Hangs in the Balance.

When the Eliot Spitzer scandal hit on Monday afternoon, my thoughts turned to congestion pricing. Slowly gaining momentum with New Yorkers but losing the support of key politicians, the congestion pricing plan was going to require a monumental negotiation in Albany. With this scandal, I fear it is all but dead, and with it, we lose a chance to significantly improve both the environment and mass transit in New York City

.

Eliot Spitzer’s resignation speech leaves no doubt that he is not only resigning but leaving public life for good. As he said earlier today.

As I leave public life, I will first do what I need to do to help and heal myself and my family. Then I will try once again, outside of politics, to serve the common good and to move toward the ideals and solutions which I believe can build a future of hope and opportunity for us and for our children. I hope all of New York will join my prayers for my friend, David Paterson, as he embarks on his new mission, and I thank the public once again for the privilege of service.

This brings to mind F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous quote about there being no second acts in American liife. But I think that Fitzgerald got that wrong, wrong, wrong.

In the age of Oprah, there are plenty of opportunities for people to, to quote Fred Astaire, in the movie, Swingtime, "pick yourself up, dust yourself off, start all over again."

So what will Eliot Spitzer do next?

Write a book about sex addiction?

Become a philanthropist? The Spitzer Family Foundation? He’s rich enough.

Continue to fight for the things he believes in?

Retire on a tropical island somewhere?

Bill De Blasio sent a reminder email to me about a forum he is hosting Thursday night at St. Francis College to bring together members of the community to strategize about stopping the Department Of Education (DOE) school budget cuts.

There will be many different groups at the event- including constituents, members of the Community Education Councils (CEC), PTA and other education leaders.

This event is an opportunity to for community members to:

1. Hear from teachers, parents, advocates, and union leaders about how these sudden cuts will affect our schools

2. Learn how to be a leader in your school and district to champion support for resolutions to reverse these cuts NOW

3. Discuss concerns and ideas with Brooklyn Parent- Teacher Associations (PTA) and Community Education Councils (CEC) about how we can preserve our children’s education and reverse the budget cuts together.

Here are the ‘tails:

When: 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Thursday, March 13th

Where: St. Francis College, Callahan Center, 180 Remsen Street, 1st Floor (Between Court and Clinton Streets), Brooklyn, NY

This just in: Sweet Melissa’s Melissa Murphy is NOW a cookbook author. And the book is coming out in March. In fact, I should have a copy in my hands very soon.

Sweet Melissa is quite the superstar. Well, we’re excited because we’re continuously amazed by the quality of the desserts over at Seventh Avenue’s Sweet Melissa’s, which has become quite the local mom hang. And not just moms.

Everyone around here seems to like Sweet Melissa’s on Seventh Avenue between 2nd and 1st Streets.

Here’s the blurb from the publicist at Penguin Press. Nice publisher, Melissa:

We all have that a favorite sweet treat… a gooey sticky bun warm from the oven, a slice of fresh peach and raspberry pie, or the perfect, mouthwatering chewy chocolate chip cookie. Brooklyn local, Melissa Murphy of the beloved Sweet Melissa Pâtisseries, shares all her favorite treats in simple, tried-and-true technique recipes in The Sweet Melissa Baking Book (Available March 2008, ISBN 9780670018741, $27.00).
There are desserts for every day, such as Toasted Almond Lemon Bars, Double Dark Chocolate Cherry cookies, and delicious Chocolate Walnut Brownies. There are desserts you can have for breakfast, including Sweet Potato Bread with Cinnamon Orange Glaze, Raised Waffles with Warm Brown Sugar Bananas, and Caramel Apple Turnovers. Melissa offers decadent recipes that will impress and charming anecdotes from her childhood memories of picking apples for preserves and pies to her day-to-day experiences running a beloved bakery.

It’s always fun to run into a blogger in the flesh. But to run into a blogger in the new, much blogged-about frozen yogurt shop, Yogo Monster, is even better.

Last night on my way to writers group, I ran into Midnight Cowgirl, who I met for the first time on Sunday at the Brooklyn Blogade brunch at the Old Brick Cafe in Kensington.

MC, wearing a fetching hat with a cute bow, was standing at the front of the shop as I came in We greeted each other enthusiastically.

“Are you the cranky cartoonist,” I said to her husband who was sitting with their two young children.

Maybe that sounded strange but MC writes on her that she’s “Mama to two sweet little ladies, wife to a cranky cartoonist.”

As for the theme of her blog, MC writes:

Watch as a mama drags her brood to New York City. Will they end up on the Mean Streets or will they find a 2-bedroom apartment for under $2k and joining the Park Slope Food Coop. Stay tuned.

MC’s husband is the cartoonist, T. Motley. The family gave up the suburban life in Denver for a two-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn and they are slowly getting acclimated to life in Brooklyn. Midnight Cowgirl is a childbirth educator and her husband is a professional illustrator and cartoonist.

MC was a big hit at the Blogfest with her piece, A New York State of Mind. No one quite expected the story she told. It was probably the last thing anyone expected of this sweet-looking woman from Denver.

One day, when my brother worked at a certain big-box store in Brooklyn, a customer went into the restroom, took all his clothes off, took a big shit, and then rolled around in the shit, screaming. The police had to be called to take the man away – naked, covered in shit, still screaming. My brother called me that evening to tell me what a disgusting day he’d had, how tired he was of living in Brooklyn, and what a terrible place it was. Little did he know that I would love that story; that it would keep me going some days, that I would tell it over and over to anyone who would listen

.

I ordered the blueberry/vanilla swirl with dark chocolate chips. It was delicious but next time I’ll get the smaller size because I had a case of brain freeze afterwards.

Props to Midnight Cowgirl for coming to the Blogfest and letting the other Brooklyn bloggers get to know her.

Just heard on WNYC: Spitzer will resign today. He will address the public later this morning.

I heard it on Brian Lehrer this morning:

9/11 and the Patriot Act mandated banks to be more scrupulous about monitoring bank accounts. But the biggest push came from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

“Spitzer said it is no longer acceptable for a bank to say, ‘we didn’t know.’ He said, to do due dilligence, you have to use these software programs,” says Adam Davidson, WNYC’s business and economics reporter on this morning’s Brian Lehrer show.

These software programs that Spitzer demanded are good at following the transfer of sums.

“Before 9/11 it was left to individuals to do the accounting. There was no way that someone could uncover thousands of transactions. Now it’s done trivially by computer,” said Davidson.

Eliot Spitzer was undone by the very mechanisms he mandated.

“He should know more than anyone how these things work. It brings up real questions about his judgement let alone his sanity,” Davidson told Lehrer.

Park Slope resident and WNYC political director, Andrea Bernstein, has been working hard these last few days (and she’s just back from Ohio covering primary and Burma before that teaching Burmese journalists).

The Spitzer story is a perfect story for her because she KNOWS New York politics and she’s been covering it for years. 

Today on WNYC radio, Bernstein continutes to prove that she knows her stuff. She is very familiar with all the cast of characters of this story—Eliot and Silda Spitzer, David and Basil Patterson—and  has been very even-handed even compassionate toward Spitzer. It’s a tragic story and she has shed light on it with honesty and depth.   

Remarking on Silda Wall Spitzer’s calm demeanor during Spitzer’s resignation speech, Bernstein told Brian Lehrer this morning:

"People’s marriages are private. I wouldn’t want to second guess her decision. They always seemed to have a good relationship. She is, herself, an accomplished lawyer. She’s from North Carolina. She’s exhibited grace in every circumstance. They have three children, they have a long marriage. If she decides she doesn’t want to give that up over this. That’s not a decision I would second guess."

And she hasn’t just been on WNYC radio. Last night Diaper Diva called to say, "Andrea Bernstein is on News Hour!" Click. She hung up fast so she could get back to actually seeing Andrea Bernstein on TV. Here’s an excerpt from that Newshour broadcast.

Andrea, you make Park Slopers proud. You looked confident and smart last night on Newshour:

RAY SUAREZ: Here to bring us up-to-date on this story is Nicholas Confessore, who covers Albany for the New York Times, and Andrea Bernstein, New York Public Radio’s political director.
Andrea, yesterday, Governor Spitzer closed his impromptu news conference by saying, "I’ll report back to you in short order." Has he? Has any public statement of any kind come out of the governor or his office today?

ANDREA BERNSTEIN, Political Director, New York Public Radio: No, in fact it’s been long order. It’s been complete lockdown in the governor’s office. They’ve had nothing to say.

And from all my reporting I did today, it seemed that only a very few aides were in on the governor’s thinking. Some top governor’s office staffers were not aware of what was going on.

And at about, I think, 4 o’clock, the New York Times reported there would be no resignation today. I asked the governor’s communications director, Christine Anderson, if that was true. She said, "Nothing for you." And then, shortly before 5 o’clock, I got an email from her that said, "Nothing today."

That is all the communication that I’ve gotten from the governor’s office. So whatever deliberations have been going on in his home, with his top aides, have been very, very closely held.

Governor Eliot Spitzer was, of course, the talk of Seventh Avenue on Tuesday. Most people I spoke to were fairly disgusted with him and felt that he had no choice but to resign.

The silver lining for most: Slopers seemed excited about getting the first black and the first blind governor, Lt. Governor David Patterson.

In Starbucks, I had a quick conversation with a composer friend, who thought the real problem was that Spitzer was a reformer, the Sheriff of Wall Street, who put himself above the law. This friend deconstructed Spitzer’s so-called apology and said it was B.S. “He said he violated his obligation to the public, his family and any sense of right and wrong. He didn’t violate anything, he just got caught. He should have admitted what he did.”

Mid-morning, a friend from Prospect Heights told me that she and her husband tried to come up with the perfect New York Post headline. “Spritzer Spritzes” was the one they liked the best.

Another friend, a a 9/11 widow and writer, said she really respected him and the things he did on Wall Street and for the firefighters. “I spoke to him and really liked him,” she said. She is very saddened by this turn of events. But she knows that he has to resign.

For many, hypocracy was at the crux of the issue. “How do you devote your career fighting to liars and cheats and do something like this,” someone told me.

There was much in the way of psychological examination. Last night at Santa Fe Grill, a friend, a Unitarian Minister in Kensington, told me that there’s a Freudian term for what he did. “Freud called it reaction formation.”

I looked up that term in a handy online dictionary of Freudian terms at changingminds.org:

Reaction Formation occurs when a person feels an urge to do or say something and then actually does or says something that is effectively the opposite of what they really want. It also appears as a defense against a feared social punishment. If I fear that I will be criticized for something, I very visibly act in a way that shows I am personally a long way from the feared position.

Also at Santa Fe last night one friend said, “This wouldn’t even be an issue in Europe. In France. No one would care.

“But it’s the hypocracy of the thing,” someone countered.

“And what about the fact that he’s a delegate for Hillary Clinton. She loses a delegate in all this,” one of my writer friends piped in.

For Hepcat, it’s all about irony. “Eliot Spitzer may have a career ahead of him as the little picture in the dictionary that illustrates irony. He pushed through the banking regulations that caught him.”

Last night in a discussion of Spritzergate at the Santa Fe Grill on Seventh Avenue, a friend, a Unitarian Minister at the All Souls Bethelem Church in Kensington, called my attention to the Freudian term, reaction formation.

As usual, Wikipedia comes in very handy. Here’s the Wiki about Freud’s psychoanalytic term, reaction formation, which may be an element in Eliot Spitzer’s behavior.

In Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, reaction formation is a defense mechanism in which anxiety-producing or unacceptable emotions are replaced by their direct opposites.[1]
This mechanism is often characteristic of obsessional neuroses. When this mechanism is overused, especially during the formation of the ego, it can become a permanent character trait. This is often seen in those with obsessional character and obsessive personality disorders. This does not imply that its periodic usage is always obsessional, but that it can lead to obsessional behavior.
Contents [hide]

A man who is overly aroused by pornographic material who utilizes reaction formation may take on an attitude of criticism toward the topic. He may end up sacrificing many of the positive things in his life, including family relationships, by traveling around the country to anti-pornography rallies. This view may become an obsession, whereby the man eventually does nothing but travel from rally to rally speaking out against pornography. He continues to do this, but only feels temporary relief, because the deeply rooted arousal to an “unacceptable” behaviour such as watching pornography is still present, and underlying the implementation of the defense. At that point he can be said to have developed an obsessional personality above and beyond the defense mechanism.

An example of Freud’s theory is when a “heterosexual” individual supports and maintains strong “homophobic” beliefs as a way to cover-up their deep-seated and often untouched homosexual desires. A reaction formation is used to balance the ego-id-superego emotion of this “homosexual” living as a “heterosexual” in order to relieve the individual’s anxiety.

The case of prominent Congressman Mark Foley (R-Florida), in 2006, might also be considered an example of reaction formation. As chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus, Foley had introduced legislation to protect children from exploitation by adults over the Internet. He also sponsored other legislation designed to protect minors from abuse and neglect. His resignation followed the revelation that he exchanged sexually explicit electronic messages with a teenage boy, a former congressional page, and that he had engaged in potentially inappropriate contact with pages for a number of years.

Last night, OTBKB friend and fave, Jezra Kaye, an executive coach and corporate speech writer, watched a panel discussion on PBS about Governor Spitzer’s recent travails. While the panelists—four men and one women—were lively and knowledgable, something troubled her: the panel’s one woman, who was more than holding her own in the dialogue, seemed to physically fade from view whenever she wasn’t actually speaking.

"Her small physical size, the colors she was wearing (soft neutrals that flattered up close but faded in a group shot) and her resting body language (hands placed demurely in her lap) all conspired to give a small impression, at odds with this woman’s actual power," she writes in an email I got this morning.

According to Kaye, even if you’re a small person, you can take up your fair share of visual space by following these simple tips:

1. Wear "power" colors.  There’s a reason why Hillary Clinton favors red.  Strong, solid colors catch the eye and proclaim your confidence—and importance.

2. Put your hands on the table.  If you’re sitting at a conference table (as last night’s panelists were), forget your mother’s etiquette advice!  Putting your hands in your lap makes your shoulders slump.  Resting them on the table squares your upper body and makes you look alert and ready to respond.

3. Think big.  It’s amazing how much we control what other people see in us.  If you feel or think that you’re taking up space, you’re much more likely to appear substantial.  (The same is true in reverse for large people who project a sense of lightness and agility.)

The trick is to apply these insights in a way that’s right for you.

Jezra can help you improve your presentation skills. She is offering a workshop on Fun Presentation Skills for Women on April 3rd, 2008.

Enjoy getting in touch with the strength of your feminine side, while learning how to prepare and deliver a powerful speech for any occasion.  From a new business pitch to a panel presentation to a “chat” with your kids about their curfew, you’ll learn how to:

    * Focus and organize your ideas
    * Be your best onstage
    * Persuade an audience
    * Have fun!

You’ll also learn the 5-Point Presentation Plan—a simple way to instantly create a professional-sounding presentation or statement on any subject.

WHEN: Thursday, April 3rd/ 6:30-8:30PM

WHERE: In Good Company Workplaces, 16 W. 23rd Street, 4th floor, NYC

REGISTER: by emailing Jezra@JezraKaye.com

General Public:  $39 in advance/ $49 at the door

IGC Members: $29 in advance / $39 at the door

This workshop is limited to 20 participants, so sign up now!

Said to be weighing resignation, Governor Spitzer has engaged Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, a Manhattan law firm for his legal representation.

At the Brooklyn Blogade brunch at the Old Brick Cafe in Kensington, I met a new blogger, Midnight Cowgirl, Recently, she and her husband and two kids gave up the nice suburban life in Denver for a two-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn.

In a piece called, A New York State of Mind, the cowgirl tells a story of a man who got naked in a big box store in Brooklyn and rolled around in his own poop (gross). It’s a story she loves. Apparently, she loves to tell it again and again. Here’s why:

This is the thing: I haven’t ever, not once, I mean never, gotten naked, screamed, and rolled around in my own poo in public. Most of the time, I go around feeling socially awkward, fairly weird, kind of unacceptable and freakish. I have some self-esteem issues. I feel like there could be a psychotic break bubbling just under the surface of my MILF-ish exterior. But no matter how insane I might be feeling, I think about this man and feel good about the fact that I am not that far gone yet. It could happen, but not yet. When I’m feeling like a freak, I check myself – have I screamed and smeared my naked body in poo? No? All right then, I’m doing okay.

I want to live in New York City because I think that my people are there. It would comfort me if the person standing next to me on the subway might be about to take his clothes off and smear shit all over himself. I don’t want to be surrounded by mild-mannered soccer moms, or even just run-of-the-mill bums and weirdos, all of the time. I need to be where the freakiest freaks are. I can’t wait

His name is David A. Paterson and he was elected New York’s lieutenant governor on November 7, 2006. In other words: you probably voted for him. The son of Basil Patterson, he would be New York’s first black governor and possibly the first blind governor if Eliot Spitzer’s career really does blow up.

Here’s his bio from the ny.gov website:

Elected to represent Harlem in the New York State Senate in 1985, David Paterson has demanded and achieved change at every level, not simply by what he stands for but by who he is.

In 2002, David Paterson was elected minority leader of the New York State Senate, the first non-white legislative leader in New York’s history. In 2004 in Boston, he became the first visually impaired person to address a Democratic National Convention. And 2006 saw Mr. Paterson make history again by being elected New York’s first African-American lieutenant governor.

As New York State Senate minority leader, David Paterson led the charge on several crucial issues for New York’s future, proposing legislation for a $1 billion voter-approved stem cell research initiative, demanding a statewide alternative energy strategy, insisting on strong action to fight against domestic violence, and serving as the primary champion for minority- and women-owned businesses in New York. As a result, Governor Spitzer asked Mr. Paterson to continue to lead New York State on these issues as lieutenant governor.

Lt. Governor Paterson, who is legally blind, is also nationally recognized as a leading advocate for the visually and physically impaired. A graduate of Columbia University and Hofstra Law School, Mr. Paterson also currently serves as an adjunct professor at Columbia’s School for International and Public Affairs. David Paterson lives in Harlem with his wife, Michelle, and their two children, Ashley and Alex, and he is the son of Basil Paterson, the first non-white secretary of state of New York and the first African-American vice-chair of the national Democratic Party.

The blogger from  A Year in the Park, was also at the Blogade brunch. In her blog, she documents her daily explorations of Prospect Park. Today, AYITP pastes an image of a proposed apartment building, "a glass sheathed atrocity", into a photo of the park.

What disturbed me about the nascent debate over this flagship of skyscrapery in PLG was the opinion expressed by some that Brooklyn would have "arrived" once Prospect Park was virtually ringed with towers, in the manner of (its vastly inferior rough draft) Central Park.

The vision of Vaux and Olmsted was explicitly that harried urbanites could refresh their souls in a place from which the city was mysteriously cloaked and hidden. Every turn of path and rise of land was placed with an artist’s hand to support this exquisite illusion; the periphery of the park is not mere real estate, but more akin to the priceless frame around a Monet.

It matters deeply how it appears to those within, as a legacy of our greatest civic treasure, and the intention of its creators should be pondered before we assent to hemming it in (visually and psychologically) with a forest of glaring eyesores.

Eliot Spitzer, our governor, who made his name prosecuting Wall Street cheaters, has been caught on a federal wiretap making plans to meet an expensive prostitute at a Washington hotel on February 11th.

Known as Client 9, Spitzer made a telephone call confirming plans to have this prostitute travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a hotel room.

February 11th. I hope that wasn’t the night he was at Marty’s State of the Borough address. He did seem to leave quickly. No, the State of the Borough was on the 7th.

Well, the news was public for less than ten minutes and our scribe, Leon Freilich, the very prolific verse responder, had this speedy response in sharp prose.

Is there a 10-year-old wannabe Mafioso who doesn’t know you don’t do business–especially dirty business–over the phone? Unbelievably the Feds caught Spitzer on the line with a hooker enterprise ordering up a hot body to be sent to his hotel room in Washington. Arrogant enough to suppose everything goes? Self-destructive?

My guess is he’ll now lash himself to a shrink’s couch long enough–he hopes–for this mis-schtup to blow over.

After 12 years of a Bush-caliber chief state executive, we were lucky enough to get a people’s fighter into the Governor’s Mansion. It’s our loss that he proved, Clinton-like, unable to control himself. A steamroller, as he called himself, without a sense of direction

I walked by one of the two storefronts pictured on Brownstoner today and wondered, yes I wondered, what’s going in there. Alas, there was no one to ask.

And wouldn’t you know it, Brownstoner Knows.

The owners of the 7th Avenue’s Sotto Voce are bringing versions of their popular Italian formula to two new locations on 5th Avenue. Within the next month they’re going to open a bistro called Aperitivo
on the corner of 1st street (shown above left). One of Sotto’s managers
says Aperitivo is going to be open from early morning to late at night
and have classic bistro trappings like a marble bar…

Read more at Brownstoner.

Park Slope 16-year-old, Derek Garcia, won 1st place in BCAT’s BK4Reel competition for best short film by a high school student.

BK4Reel is the only show on television that features and promotes the work of Brooklyn teenage videographers (9th-12th graders).
Well, we couldn’t be more proud.

Derek is a really good guy. And he’s clearly got a great eye. Take a look at beautiful cinematography of Coney Island. Nice, nice compositions, DG.

The film is called "Brooklyn is Everything" and it’s about a boy’s solitary journey from his apartment in Park Slope to Coney Island. What a long, strange trip that is.

You can find the video here on You Tube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ViyNUgtJF58