Barbara Rushkoff may have to change the name of her Babble blog. As noted on OTBKB as well as many other blogs, her husband Douglas Rushkoff was mugged at gun point on Christmas Eve. They’re both mad as hell and can’t take Brooklyn anymore.

Brooklyn, Schmooklyn. Yeah, it’s pretty here, but we are surrounded by crime. Kings County (Brooklyn’s county) is one of the highest crime areas in the country. Insurance is more here than almost any other place. It costs $2000 a year to insure my wedding ring. Most other cities it would cost $150. The other day we saw a coke deal go down in front of the post office while Bugaboos passed. The diner up the street (the one next to the hospital) was robbed on Friday night. Nah, I am not liking it here much now.

She makes a good point. And getting robbed at gunpoint just made matters worse.

It’s not cowardly to leave a place you love because you have a family now. I say it’s brave. It’s hard to leave what you know, who you know, the city you once loved, for a calmness, a stability, a not so fast pace that might be a little boring. But we are a family now, and it’s not about being close to Manhattan. Mamie doesn’t know from Manhattan. She wants to be outside and not in a park where rats roam as soon as the sun goes down. She wants to be a kid. And I want to give that to her as safely as I can. Is it worth staying here knowing that she will most likely see muggings, and most likely get mugged herself? Do I want her seeing dope deals go down right around the corner? Will I have to buy her pepper spray for her bookbag? I don’t want to think about things like this, but if we stay I will have to.

Yes, I’m upset, and yes, I may be overreacting. But man, I am too old and tired for this.

We outta here.

I wonder where they’re going?

Lake Superior State University has a list of overused words that should be banished in 2007. LSSU accepts nominations for the banished-words list throughout the year. To submit your nomination for the 2008 list, go to http://www.lssu.edu/banished/submit.php.

GITMO — The US military’s shorthand for a base in Cuba drives a wedge wider than a split infinitive.

"When did the notorious Guantanamo Bay Naval Base change to ‘Gitmo,’ a word that conjures up an image of a fluffy and sweet character from a Japanese anime show?" — Marcus W., St. Louis, Missouri.

COMBINED CELEBRITY NAMES — Celebrity duos of yore — BogCall (Bogart and Bacall), Lardy (Laurel and Hardy), and CheeChong (Cheech and Chong) — just got lucky.

"It’s bad enough that celebrities have to be the top news stories. Now we’ve given them obnoxious names such as ‘Bragelina,’ ‘TomKat’ and ‘Bennifer.’" — M. Foster, Port Huron, Michigan.

"It’s so annoying, idiotic and so lame and pathetic that it’s ‘lamethetic.’" — Ed of Centreville, Virginia.

AWESOME — Given a one-year moratorium in 1984, when the Unicorn Hunters banished it "during which it is to be rehabilitated until it means ‘fear mingled with admiration or reverence; a feeling produced by something majestic." Many write to tell us there’s no hope and it’s time for "the full banishment."

"The kind of tennis shoes you wear, no matter how cute, don’t fit the majestic design of the word." — Leila Hill, Damascus, Maryland.

"That a mop, a deodorant or a dating service can be called ‘awesome’ demonstrates the limited vocabularies of the country’s copywriters." — Tom Brinkmoeller, Orlando, Florida.

"Overused and meaningless.’ My mother was hit by a car.’ Awesome. ‘I just got my college degree.’ Awesome." — Robert Bron, Pattaya, Chonburi, Thailand.

GONE/WENT MISSING — "It makes ‘missing’ sound like a place you can visit, such as the Poconos. Is the person missing, or not? She went there but maybe she came back. ‘Is
missing’ or ‘was missing’ would serve us better." — Robin Dennis, Flower Mound, Texas.

PWN or PWNED — Thr styff of lemgendz: Gamer defeats gamer, types in "I pwn you" rather than I OWN you.

"This word is just an overly used Internet typo. It has been overused to the point that people who play online games are using it in everyday speech." — Tory Rowley, Corunna, Michigan.

NOW PLAYING IN THEATERS — Heard in movie advertisements. Where can we see that, again?

"How often do movies premiere in laundromats or other places besides theaters? I know that when I want to see a movie I think about going to a shoe store." — Andrea May, Shreveport, Louisiana.

WE’RE PREGNANT — Grounded for nine months.

"Were men feeling left out of the whole morning sickness/huge belly/labor experience? You may both be expecting, but only one of you is pregnant." — Sharla Hulsey, Sac City, Iowa.

"I’m sure any woman who has given birth will tell you that ‘WE’ did not deliver the baby." — Marlena Linne, Greenfield, Indiana.

UNDOCUMENTED ALIEN — "If they haven’t followed the law to get here, they are by definition ‘illegal.’ It’s like saying a drug dealer is an ‘undocumented pharmacist.’" — John Varga, Westfield, New Jersey.

ARMED ROBBERY/DRUG DEAL GONE BAD — From the news reports. What degree of "bad" don’t we understand? Larry Lillehammer of Bonney Lake, Washington, asks, "After it stopped going well and good?"

TRUTHINESS – "This word, popularized by The Colbert Report and exalted by the American Dialectic Society’s Word of the Year in 2005 has been used up. What used to ring true is getting all the truth wrung out of it." — Joe Grimm, Detroit, Michigan.

ASK YOUR DOCTOR — The chewable vitamin morphine of marketing.

"Ask your doctor if ‘fill in the blank’ is right for you! Heck, just take one and see if it makes you ‘fill in the blank’ or get deathly ill." — R.C. Amundson, Oakville, Washington.

"I don’t think my doctor would appreciate my calling him after seeing a TV ad." — Peter B. Liveright, Lutherville, Maryland.

CHIPOTLE – Smoked dry over medium heat.

"Prior to 2005 . . . a roasted jalapeno. Now we have a ‘chipotle’ burrito with ‘chipotle’ marinated meat, ‘chipotle’ peppers, sprinkled with a ‘chipotle’ seasoning and smothered in a ‘chipotle’ sauce. Time to give this word a rest." – Rob Zeiger, Bristol, Pennsylvania.

i-ANYTHING — ‘e-Anything’ made the list in 2000. Geoff Steinhart of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, says tech companies everywhere have picked this apple to the core. "Turn on…tune in…and drop out."

"Banish any word that starts with it. i am just tired of it. it’s getting old. — Brad Butler, Adrian, Michigan.

SEARCH — Quasi-anachronism. Placed on one-year moratorium.

"Might as well banish it. The word has been replaced by ‘google.’" — Michael Raczko, Swanton, Ohio.

HEALTHY FOOD — Point of view is everything.

Someone told Joy Wiltzius of Fort Collins, Colorado, that the tuna steak she had for lunch "sounded healthy." Her reply: "If my lunch were healthy, it would still be swimming somewhere. Grilled and nestled in salad greens, it’s ‘healthful.’"

BOASTS — See classified advertisements for houses, says Morris Conklin of Lisboa, Portugal, as in "master bedroom boasts his-and-her fireplaces — never ‘bathroom apologizes for cracked linoleum,’ or ‘kitchen laments pathetic placement of electrical outlets.’"

LSSU accepts nominations for the banished-words list throughout the year. To submit your nomination for the 2008 list, go to http://www.lssu.edu/banished/submit.php.

Issue Project Room presents, "THE INDEPENDENTS" is mammoth month long festival of independent music or all stripes, including the following artists: Tony Conrad, Rhys Chatham, Phill Niblock, Leif Inge, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Zeena Parkins, Gamelan Son of Lion, Richard Bishop, Loren Connors, Peter Walker, Charles Gayle, Paul Flaherty, Bern Nix, No Neck Blues bands and more…

Check the schedule at their web site. Admission: $15 bucks. Well worth it.

Citing its charming Victorian brownstones, stimulating cultural scene, family-friendly ambiance, the oldest and largest food coop in the US, Park Slope has been selected by Natural Home Magazine as one of America’s top-ten eco-Neighborhoods.

Park Slope is #4. Asheville, North Carolina is #1, Austin Texas is #2, Bozeman, Montana is #3.  Here’s what they have to say about us. See the rest here.

Can anyone help this Boston guy?

I’m a Boston guy and it bothers me that I cannot figure out how the flags are raised and lowered.  When I noticed the flag at half mast for either Gerry Ford or James Brown, probably the former, I realized that the flags must be raised and lowered regularly.  How is it done? Helicopter?  Internal stairway? I presume not by someone climbing up the cables.

Got this in my inbox today. Remember Paul Leschen, OTBKB’s restuarant critic (Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn Restuarants)? He’s a very talented guy and a great food critic. He’s also a musician and composer. He wrote the songs for this new musical adaptation of Oliver Twist. Cool. Way to go, Paul.

Twist is a new rock musical by Gila Sand, with music by
the Scissor Sisters’ songwriter Paul Leschen. It casts a spell of
luscious drag, scintillating S & M, twisted humor, delicious candy
and other addictive treats. In this fantasy of Victorian England,
Dickens’ orphan has grown into an attractive young man with a taste for
trouble, caned at the Workhouse, strait jacketed at the Undertakers,
and picked up on the street by a wolfish Artful Dodger, portrayed by
Brian Charles Rooney (‘Lucy Brown’ in the 2006 Broadway revival of The Threepenny Opera), who brings Twist  home to a decidedly different Fagin than ever seen before.

The score of 14 new songs is performed by Paul Leschen & band, live at the Kraine Theater at the following dates and times:

Dec 13 & 14            10:30 pm
Dec 20 & 21            10:30 pm
Dec 27 & 28            10:30 pm
Dec 29 & 30             8 pm

No show first week of January

Jan 8, 9, 10              8 pm
Jan 11                     10:30 pm
Jan 15, 16, 17           8 pm pm
Jan 18                     10:30 pm

I am pretty much partied out. But I am still trying to figure out what to do on Sunday night. Any ideas?

Barbes should be quite fun and rambunctious with ZAGNUT CIRCUS ORCHESTRA. Here’s what the blurb on the Barbes calendar says:

Beware, Brooklyn has been balkanized. Its territory has been divided into a myriad of geo-cultural entities ready to wage war onto one anoother. The Zagnut will celebrate the new years by celebrating the chaos it helped create in the first place. The best party band around will usher the new year by playing the kind of brass and accordion music usually found at weddings throughout the Balkan. They combine elements of Greek, Turkish and Roma (gypsy) music. They will make you drink Serbian Moonshine and dance in odd meters faster than you can say Opa!. – until the dawn of 2007 – $10

They will be dancing on the street outside of Barbes. Wonder if Colson’s will be open, too.

The Guardian Unlimited had this story about the next Harry Potter book.

Harry Potter’s arch enemy, Lord Voldemort, is odds-on favourite to kill
off the boy wizard in the final instalment of the series. Bookmaker
William Hill said punters were throwing their weight behind Voldemort,
and even Harry, to bring about his demise. The revelation came days
after JK Rowling’s seventh book was revealed as Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows. A William Hill spokesman said: "… the general
consensus seems to be that Harry is the final Horcrux and to ensure
that Voldemort dies he will need to be sacrificed." A Horcrux holds a
person’s soul, ensuring immortality.

Reporter Ariella Cohen reports in the Brooklyn Papers that an underground cloud of toxins is moving from the industrial
neighborhood along the Gowanus Canal toward Park Slope.

An engineer told state officials that a dangerously high levels of benzene — a gasoline byproduct that can
cause cancer if it is inhaled — have seeped into the soil below the
Third Avenue site where Whole Foods is building its first Brooklyn
store.

The engineering report traces the Whole Food site’s toxins to a
canal-front parking lot and fuel station owned by Verizon at Third
Street, a block west of the epicurean grocer’s future home (pictured in today’s No Words_Daily Pix).

Hepcat and I happened into the Zana Cafe on Seventh Avenue near Ninth Street. We noticed Owner Rosana Rosa, who also owns Delices de Paris and  assumed that the new place was a branch of Delices de Paris. But Brooklyn Papers has the real story.

The Zana Cafe is Rosa’s solo effort. She and husband, Michael Martin, have split up. They continue to own Delices de Paris together. But at the new place, Rosa sells French and Italian pastries and European
products — just like Delices de Paris.  I wonder who is baking for her now? If memory serves, Martin was a big deal Upper East Side French baker who worked for Jackie Kennedy. The couple owned a shop in the mid-west before coming east to Park Slope.

With all the drama: customers are confused: Martin hung a sign in the front window of Delices de Paris  warning his customers that his shop has nothing to do with his ex’s new shop — despite
how much it looks like his 9th Street shop.

He told the Brooklyn Papers: “They are completely different products,” he said. “She used the
same [paint] to mislead the customers and make them think that the two
shops are related.”

She told the Brooklyn Papers: “Sure, there is competition, but so what? Each block in Park Slope
is different, there are people who live up here and don’t even know
about the shop down near Fifth Avenue."

In the Brooklyn Papers article, Rosa defends her right to create a shop that looks like the other one. She told BP:  “I built Delices de
Paris with my own hands. When we began, there was no place in Park
Slope to get a chocolate croissant, now you have Colson Patisserie on
Sixth Avenue and everyone is doing the French thing.”

I can attest to that: Delices de Paris was for a long time the only good French bakery in the neighborhood. Many people in Park Slope were unaware of it as it is located on 9th Street near Fifth Avenue. But word spread.

I was always very impressed with the shop and Rosa struck me as a savvy, dedicated and adventurous entrepreneur She was very much the front-person of the shop. But Martin, of course, was the master baker in the kitchen.

Obviously the Rosa-Martin divorce has gotten ugly. Still, I am quite sure that Rosa will make a success of her new location.

It’s a funny thing the dailyness of blogging. I write my postcards, Hepcat posts his pictures. We do it together and yet apart. Some days his pictures astound me — it’s a lovely daily surprise.

Some days — for whatever reason — he doesn’t post. He hasn’t done it very often. But it always makes me wonder — does he need a break? Did he forget? His his day job too demanding right now? Is he getting sick of this.

It’s been a beautiful thing creating this blog together. At first, it was my thing as in “Hey can you put a picture up?”

Now it’s very much our thing. A blog by the two of us, it’s a project we do together each in our own way. He has nothing to do with the writing, I have nothing to do with the pictures.

But the sum of the two parts is so much bigger than just…

Thanks Hepcat for No Words_Daily Pix.

Barbara Ensor, director of the Little School of Moving Pictures, is offering CLAY ANIMATION CLASSES for 8-12 year olds and 6-7 year olds in PARK SLOPE.  Enroll soon — the classes fill up quickly.

It is sooooo cool. Kids love her teaching style—Barbara  really gets them turned on to making animated movies. For information about the classes email Barbara: barbara@barbaraensor.com

Barbara is a talented visual artist, an author, and a TERRIFIC TEACHER. Her new book is called,  CINDERELLA: AS IF YOU DIDN’T ALREADY KNOW THE STORY.

if everyone doesn’t already know, Barbara Ensor has written for New York Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Family Life, the Village Voice and numerous other publications and Web sites. Her illustrations have appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, Self and Graphis, among others.

She
grew up mostly in London, England. Her first job after graduating from
Brown University was as a traveling puppeteer-which occasionally
required her to walk on stilts. Barbara Ensor is the mother of two
children and lives a fairy-tale life in Brooklyn, New York.

Brooklyn Papers has the story. Bar Minnow out and Brooklyn Burger Bar in. Bar Minnow owner, Aaron Bashey, closed Bar Minnow when he moved to Los Angeles. Greg Murjani, who owns Greg’s Express Rubbish Removal, is the new owner.

Bar Minnow, best known for its fish-and-burgers menu, has been rechristened the Brooklyn Burger Bar — at least if you can believe awnings.

New, bright yellow “Brooklyn Burger Bar” awnings popped up this weekend over the shuttered space, at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Ninth Street in Park Slope. Bar Minnow had been closed since owner-chef Aaron Bashey moved to Beverly Hills to run The Prime Grille.

New owner Greg Murjani told us that he doesn’t eat fish, but he loves a good burger — and, in true Brooklyn spirit, he’s promising a mega-mound of meat called “the Fuggedaboutit.”

Beyond that Angus prime classic, Murjani’s Burger Bar will sell Kobe beef burgers plus the usual French fries and onion rings. There will be a full bar and a killer milkshake, he told us.

Murjani, who also owns Greg’s Express garbage service, is a born and bred Brooklynite and grew up in Park Slope, wants his place to be family friendly but also a late-night stop.

He will serve food from 11am to 2 am, and will keep the bar opened until 4 am.

Someone is selling an SUV that is parked on Berkeley Place just east of Seventh Avenue. The flyer on the car says:

Quit the Food Coop and buy this car so you can drive to Fairway.

 Someone else who shoulda been on the list (ah next year)…

Tonight at Barnes and Noble: Mo Willems will be at the Park Slope Barnes & Noble to read from his latest book, Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct.
6:30 pm.  267 7th Avenue.

Brooklyn Papers editor-in-chief, GERSH KUNTZMAN, has devised the perfect Hanukah or Christmas gift. OR SHOULD I SAY CHRISMUKKAH GIFT. THIS BOOK IS SURE TO TICKLE MANY A NEW YORKER.

CHRISMUKKAH: THE OFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE WORLD’S MOST BELOVED HOLIDAY by Gersh Kuntzman It’s a must-give gift, must-have, especialy around here where inter-marriage is rampant.  Read about what happened when Gersh did a reading at the Park Slope YMCA:

As tout le monde
knows, the cover of my book, “Chrismukkah: The Official Guide to the
World’s Most-Beloved Holiday,” features a statuette of Santa Claus
wearing a belt adorned with a gold Jewish star and hair featuring
Hasidic-style side curls (in white, to match his beard, of course).

As far as I’m
concerned, you can judge this book by its cover. To me, that
Jewish-leaning Santa is a cute icon that perfectly captures the spirit
of Chrismukkah.

But to some Park Slopers, it’s an offensive, horrifying image that must be censored!

The trouble
started last week, when organizers of the Writers on the Rooftop series
at the Prospect Park YMCA created a large poster to advertise my
reading on Dec. 4. 

Find out the rest of the story here.  Here’s the book’s blurb from Amazon, where you can order a copy. Or order it from our local indie booksellers, Community Books (she probably has it in stock) or Park Slope Books.

It’s Chrismukkah time of year again — yet all across America, Jews,
Christians and even famous Chrismukkan Sean Penn can’t figure out how
to celebrate this blessed day (or couple of days, maybe). Thank
goodness we have Chrismukkan scholar Gersh Kuntzman to share the
historical origins and rituals associated with this mixed-faith
hybrid holiday. Whether discussing traditional Chrismukkah rites such
as "the Measuring of the Children," "the Refusal of the Gift," or "the
Burning of the Sacred Herbaceous Green Plant," offering recipes for
such Chrismukkah delicacies as Ham Latkes and Savory Oyster
Hammentaschen, or uncovering the long-lost Charles Dickens novella A Chrismukkah Carol, Kuntzman’s wildly entertaining Chrismukkah treasury is the perfect remedy from those other holidays.

I got this email in my inbox today. It’s a nice tribute to a nice gesture made by one friend to another.

Today, I wanted to point out something that my friend, Fonda Sara did.
This past summer, our office worked to have the corner of Carroll &
Seventh dedicated as Jackie Connor’s Corner.   

As you may recall, we
decorated the pole with the maypole-like ribbons that were a fixture on
Seventh Avenue for many months after the street corner-naming. 

They
withstood lots of bad weather and were looking kind of tattered.   So I
am walking in the neighborhood on Saturday and notice that the old
ribbons were gone and NEW ribbons (in holiday colors) had replaced
them.   

I smiled to myself, because it had Fonda’s fingerprints all
over it.  Yesterday I called her just to say how great I thought that
was.  What a devoted friend and a great Park Slope neighbor.

Did anyone notice all the yellow signs that said, "Sit Here" around the Slope yesterday? I noticed one on the corner of Third Street in front of the derelict building just west of Seventh Avenue It was in an empty baby stroller.   

In front of Cousin John’s I also saw three of these yellow signs. Today I am determined to find out the origin of these signs.

I know they are unconnected to Caroline Woolard’s bench project. But I am very curious. Anyone have any info?

Caroline Woolard, an artist and blogger in Williamsburg, went to the trouble to make sure New Yorkers have a place during the holiday season.The Brooklyn Papers broke the story but This from New York 1:

Caroline Woolard’s "have a seat" program involves small painted wooden platforms she has bolted to metal signposts throughout Williamsburg, Brooklyn and one in the East Village.

She says she installed them at night so she wouldn’t get in trouble, but so far she’s been happy with the popular response.

"So many people in the neighborhood have been really into it, so people just congratulate me, or I see people reading the morning newspaper, so it seems like it’s been positive," says Woolard.

"I think it’s a great idea, I mean utilizing your own street signs to make a comfortable space," said a resident.

"You’ve got a lot of old people in this neighborhood, so sometimes they do a lot of walking and they need to sit down and rest a little bit," added another.

"I wish you could put more of these seats on every sidewalk," said a third.

NY1 reached out to the city for comment, but have yet to hear back. For more information about the artist, visit www.carolinewoolard.blogspot.com.

You know how your mother has been telling you for years to sit up straight and you’ve been telling that to your kids (if you have kids). Leif Parsons has a piece in today’s Times about research that may debunk the notion that anything other than sitting up straight is bad for your back.

Despite its persistence, that
advice is wrong. Parents may insist that sitting up straight with your
thighs parallel to the ground is the best way to sit, but a long list
of studies has shown that that position increases stress on the lumbar
disks in your lower back.

Thirty years ago, scientists first
showed this by inserting needles into the backs of volunteers and
measuring the amount of pressure created by various seating positions.
They found that a reclining position was ideal, placing the least
strain on the back and minimizing pressure that could lead to back
problems. Since then, multiple studies have confirmed that finding.

But
it was only in 2006 that scientists produced direct visual evidence. In
a study that used new magnetic resonance imaging machines that allow
people to sit instead of lie down, a team of researchers at the
University of Aberdeen in Scotland looked at 22 volunteers who sat in
three positions. The first two positions, sitting upright and sitting
with the body hunched forward, produced the greatest spinal disk
movement, causing the internal disk material to misalign. The third
position, in which the subjects reclined at a 135-degree angle with
their feet planted on the floor, created the least strain.

According
to the study, any position in which a person leans back, opening the
angle between the thighs and the back, is preferable to sitting up
straight.

THE BOTTOM LINE Sitting upright at a 90-degree angle strains your back; leaning back places less pressure on the spine.

I checked out artist Caroline Woolard’s blog and found this writing about her Have a Seat bench project, which was part of a show at ConFlux: the annual NYC festival for contemporary psychogeography
where international artists, technologists, urban adventurers and the
public put investigations of everyday city life into practice on the
streets. The show is no longer open.

Have a Seat
is Caroline Woolard’s gesture towards reclaiming public space. It is a
platform for a new vantage point on the street. As seating bolted to no
parking signs in New York, Have a Seat offers rest and contemplation in
transitional spaces. Installed for ConFlux in Brooklyn from September
14-17, these temporary seats are the culmination of three years of
prototypes in New York and Rhode Island.

In the city, the street
should be a destination in itself. Many people use the street to get
from one place to another, but it is an invaluable arena for immediate
interaction. Instead of walking to a park or other zone calculated for
relaxation, Have a Seat serves those people who want to pause amidst
action for a direct perspective on the momentum of the city. The seat
is a signal at the scale of the human body in a city of buildings that
consume space and light at the expense of pedestrians who are swept
forward by wind tunnels in the shadow of skyscrapers. Unlike monuments
that overpower people in scale and pretension, these wooden chairs wait
to be used by a single body on the street.

Have a Seat makes
everyday environments strange, pushing for a moment to reevaluate the
monotony of consistent routine. Robert Musil writes, in The Man Without
Qualities:
“Everything we feel and do is somehow oriented
“lifeward,” and the least deviation away from this direction toward
something beyond is difficult or alarming. This is true even of the
simple act of walking: one lifts one’s center of gravity, pushes it
forward, and lets it drop again- and the slightest change, the merest
hint of shrinking from this letting-oneself0drop-into-the-future, or
even of stopping to wonder at it- and one can no longer stand upright!
Stopping to think is dangerous.”

This project celebrates
individuals actively shaping shared space and the interactions in it.
It encourages pedestrians to stop and think. Although disembodied
conversations (Blackberry, cell phone, etc) and narrative accompaniment
(iPods) inevitably insulate individuals from this reality, I hope that
a symbol of rest amidst action allows some people to create immediate
connection with the street.

Pix: Light Molded to my Face by Caroline Woolard

Show your love for public transit. I got this email this morning in my in-box:

Hey Louise! It’s Newmindspace, the kids who did the union square pillow
fight, bubble battle + more.

We just released 24 one inch buttons featuring NYC’s various subway
lines,and we were hoping you could blog it! We are trying to raise money for
more trips to New York to host free, fun, public events, as well as help people show their love for the subway.

http://www.subwaybuttons.com is the website.

There is a good image here:
http://www.subwaybuttons.com/images/newmindspaceButtons.jpg

Thanks a lot :)

Kevin * Lori
Newmindspace

Continue reading WEAR YOUR SUBWAY LINE PROUDLY →

Park Slope resident and New York Senator Chuck Schumer announced yesterday that he would support Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for the democratic nomination for president in 2008 if she should choose to seek it.

The
two had breakfast on Thursday in his office. Mrs. Clinton has recently held several such meetings to discuss her White House aspirations
with officials from New York and from important presidential nominating
states.

The correct URL for the Community Bookstore website is: cbjupiterbooks.com better bookmark that because it might be tough to remember (I can’t seem to get it right).

Check out the site — it has tons of information about books for gift buying and other interesting, odd, and quirky elements.

From Fonda Sera:

I think that house on montgomery place was the one owned by cyril
golodner who, with her husband, raised their family there.i met cyril
quite a while ago, right after her husband passed away.

Her daughter
from way out of town had ordered flowers from me for mothers day and Cyril made her way down to the shop to tell me…in a really unpleasant
way…. just how much she didn’t like them.

I don’t know how i did it
but instead of getting all defensive and bent out of shape, i was able
to see how lonely she was and whatever i did, she left smiling. over
the next 10 years we became pretty familiar. she’d come to the shop and
ask me to fill a small vase when one of her kids was coming to visit.we
always had long conversations while i put the flowers together. she was
smart, funny, tough. i liked her alot. when she decided to put the
house on the market we had a long talk about how that felt for
her…..hard, and sad.

i heard she died recently, she’d moved away and
lost touch. so i am thinking of her right now and can just see her face
and hear that bark of a laugh she had…."6 million plus". yeah…you
go girl.

If it’s not cyril’s house then, gilda ratner it…."never mind"

From Bob Apfel

Fonda is right. It was Cyril’s and Harry Golodner’s house one owner before the most recent one.

When my wife and I moved to the Slope we knocked on heir door and
asked if we might purchase the house, since it had an elevator (and we
physically couldn’t handle the stairs in a brownstone).

Harry was a quasi-retired cardiologist who was in his late 70’s or early 80’s at the time (this was back in the mid-1990’s). 

He and Cyril had lived in the house for about 30-40 years. They
raised their kids in the house…In fact, the childrens’ rooms were
still decorated just as they had been when the kids went off to college.

We visited the elderly couple about half-a-dozen times, to both
"size up" the house…and perhaps convince the Golodners that they
should sell the house to us….take the money…and travel to Spain and
other destinations that they said they’d like to spend some time in.

During our visits to the Golodners we dragged along our daughters
hoping that the elderly couple would conclude that our "traditional
looking family" would be well housed in their abode. These visits
turned into pleasant social calls that we enjoyed (as did Harry,
especially). He was proud of his house and enjoyed showing it off.

Harry loved the house and despite Cyril’s desire to "see the world"
or perhaps move to an apartment near Lincoln Center (they loved
attending concerts) Harry …. with a smile….finally concluded that he
would have to die in the house. Yes, he concluded that this was to be
his destiny.

"Come back when I’m dead….and the house will be yours," he joked.   

In the spirit of humourous conversation with an old "trickster heart surgeon" I asked, "When will be that be Harry?"

With a smile, he responded, "Four years."

I am not sure when Harry passed on….but it might have been just
about four years after the date of that conversation in the beautful
vestibule of his house.

We had an immediate need for a house, so we bought a house around
the corner on Garfield Place where we have lived happily ever after.

I am sad to learn of Cyril’s passing.

I hope that she did have a chance to get out and see the world
beyond that which was visible from her bedroom on the second floor of
45 Montgomery.

After posting Fonda and Bob Apfel’s musings about that house on Montgomery Place, I found this 1998 article from the New York Times about Mr. Apfel’s house, which also has history and a good story. I believe I found a typo the Times’ article: they refer to Everett Ortner when I think they mean Evelyn Ortner, the neighborhood brownstone preservationist who died recently.

When Robert C. Apfel and his family moved into 313 Garfield Place
last June, they started work on the interior. They plan to begin work
on the facade shortly. ”Right now, we probably have the ugliest house
in Brooklyn,” Mr. Apfel said of the wide, gabled residence designed by
a turn-of-the-century architect, C. P. H. Gilbert. Mr. Gilbert designed
many famous Fifth Avenue mansions, including the Warburg Mansion at 92d
Street, now the Jewish Museum.

The house, just west of Prospect
Park West, was resurfaced in terra-cotta-colored stucco (which now
looks orange) sometime, Mr. Apfel believes, in the late 1940’s. ”It’s
pretty ghastly,” his wife, Jai Imbrey, said. They hope to restore the
original red sandstone facade, which had been pitted by the elements.

But
neighbors on the block, which is full of historic brownstones, are not
so sure the house is so ugly. Nor, they said, do they want to go
through another summer like the last, which they described as marred by
noise, fumes, dust and double-parked cars from workers at the house.
”I want to know what kind of chemicals will be released with the red
dust,” said Michele Finley, a neighbor. ”How much will blow in our
windows and choke our gardens?”

The Landmarks Preservation
Commission plans to issue a work permit by next week. ”It’s all
restorative,” the commission’s chief of staff, Terri Rosen Deutsch,
said of the work. ”What they’re doing is great.” The architect,
Edward I. Mills and Associates, said the work would take about six
months.

Mr. Apfel said the family bought the house because of
its elevator, its width (”26 feet, not that unforgiving space” of
most narrower brownstones) and the striking woodwork in the entrance
hall (”almost a Tudor feeling”).

Now, his wife said, they are
”getting maniacal” about Mr. Gilbert, the original architect. They
organized a recent tour of other Gilbert houses on nearby Carroll
Street and Montgomery Place.

Ms. Imbrey said she thought her
neighbors were ”jumping for joy” over the planned renovations. But
she seems to have misread at least some of them. ”I would just let a
sleeping dog lie,” said Everett Ortner, the chairman of the Brownstone
Revival Coalition, a 30-year-old preservationist group. ”Maybe it’s
better to go back to places that really need help, like those on Fifth
and Sixth Avenues,” in Brooklyn, ”the places that have been covered
in plastic siding.”

–ERIN ST. JOHN KELL

Detres, the beauty salon above Connecticutt Muffin, suddenly went out of business. Or suddenly to me: I was walking across the street the other night and it was gone. Poof.

Anyway, Betty, who used to be at Detres is now at Frajean on Seventh Avenue between Berkeley and Lincoln Place: 718-622-4448

The people who cut and color our hair are indispensible. It’s good to know where they’ve gone.

Park Slope Parents is teaming up with DWA FANM (WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN HAITIAN CREOLE) TO MAKE THE HOLIDAYS HAPPIER:

From Jennifer at DWA FANM:

Every holiday season, we hold a Holiday party for our clients and their children. We currently serve over 250 women in the community and their children.  Hence, we are seeking donations such as:

•    GOODIE BAGS FOR WOMEN: 
     Beauty products (nail polish, mascara, etc.), perfume, toiletries (soaps, shampoo, conditioner, etc.), jewelry, etc. for our client survivors of domestic violence.

•    TOYS FOR CHILDREN:
     Toys for the children in our program. Their ages range from
newborn-17, boys and girls.  Gently used or new toys or books would
be greatly appreciated.

We would be happy to pick up any donations we may receive. Please
contact Jennifer @ 718.230.4027 x 313.

Dwa Fanm is a human rights organization committed to empowering all women and girls with
the freedom to define and control their own lives. Through service, education, advocacy and grassroots programs, Dwa Fanm works to end discrimination, violence, and other forms of injustice here and abroad. Since its formation in 1999, Dwa Fanm has developed its
programming in direct response to the needs of women and girls in New York City’s Haitian, Caribbean and other Black immigrant communities.

While Dwa Fanm is best known for its work on domestic violence, we understand the connections between various forms of hate and discrimination and the necessity to address these problems comprehensively and with leadership from within our communities. We
remain committed to addressing a broad array of issues of critical concern to the populations we serve through a model that integrates service, advocacy and empowerment, and we continually seek to develop more effective ways to synthesize these inter-connected
goals.

Gowanus Lounge has nothing but praise for the LA Times story about Broken Angel. I am on a mission to read the LA Times as a good high school friend is the OP ED Editor there and I promised him I’d read it more often. Meghan Daum has a column there. The paper is going on my Bookmarks toolbar…

NEW YORK — Turn down a side street in the Clinton Hill neighborhood and
a strange structure rises above the skyline. It is wooden, and
handmade, and — depending on your angle of approach — it can resemble a
15th century flying machine, or a warped Gothic cathedral, or a pile of
sharecroppers’ shacks poised deliriously over Brooklyn.

The
building is the work of Arthur Wood, a slight man of 75. For 27 years,
Wood’s neighbors have watched him climb to the top of his building to
begin work on its next level. Wood builds without exterior scaffolding
or a harness, and often with no assistance except for his wife,
Cynthia. The structure has risen to 108 feet. Wood says it is about
one-third finished.

"Broken Angel," as Wood and his wife
named the building, is loved by many in Brooklyn, and recently it was
the backdrop for the documentary "Dave Chappelle’s Block Party." But on
Oct. 10, Wood’s solitary work ran into trouble when a fire broke out on
an upper story. The fire triggered an inspection by the city Department
of Buildings, which declared the building "highly cannibalized" and a
"deathtrap." When Wood would not vacate the premises, the department
ordered his arrest… read more here