Communities are coming together coast to coast to save their cherished independent booksellers. Read "Who’s Buying the Bookstore" by Nathaniel Popper in today’s Wall Street Journal:

At the Community Bookstore, in Brooklyn, the owner,
Catherine Bohne, composed this email to her customers last February:
"I’ve gambled and staked everything I have, including every last asset,
every ounce of my energy, and . . . it seems it isn’t enough to make
things work."

These announcements have elicited swift replies from
coast to coast. After a June 2005 article appeared in a Eugene, Ore.,
newspaper proclaiming the imminent demise of that city’s Tsunami Books,
a group of professors from the local university offered some $35,000 to
save it. In the past year, the number of investors in Tsunami has grown
to 28 — who collectively own a third of it.

Bobby Fisher died and Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn has the story.

Brooklyn-raised, Chicago-born chess icon Bobby Fischer, who became a
Cold War symbol when he defeated Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky as world
champion in 1972, has died at age 64.

In May 1949, the
six-year-old Fischer learned how to play chess from instructions found
in a chess set that his sister had bought at a candy store below their
Brooklyn apartment. He saw his first chess book a month later. For over
a year he played chess on his own. At age seven, he joined the Brooklyn
Chess Club and was taught by its president, Carmine Nigro.

Bobby Fischer attended Erasmus Hall High School together with Barbra
Streisand, though he later dropped out in 1959 when he turned 16. Many
teachers remembered him as difficult. When his chess feats mounted, the
student council of Erasmus Hall awarded him a gold medal for his chess
achievements.

No Land Grab beats Norm Oder in Atlantic Yards quiz (No Land Grab)

Countdown until Spring in Bay Ridge (Right in Bay Ridge)

Clinton Hill Meeting recap (Clinton Hill Blog)

Not your ordinary baker (Creative Times)

The story of a house for a dollar (Brooklynometry)

Name that Tune celebrates 1988 (Union Hall)

No Parking, Marty (NY Daily News)

Park Slope kid’s authors win Caldecott Medals (Brooklyn Paper)

In a corner with photographer Irving Penn (NY Times)

Mike Daisey, Brooklyn Monologuist in Seattle (Seattle Times)

So how was it? The new Union Market on Seventh Avenue and 12th Street opened yesterday.

Was it a mob scene with lots of press or a fairly quiet day at the supermarket? How did it look? How was the service? Most importantly, how was the food?

A new Union Market in the nabe. Now that’s news.

Tonight at Brooklyn Reading Works, a staged reading of Side Street by Rosemary Moore, directed by Ian Morgan of the New Group.

A woman discovers that her dead mother has been living in a studio apartment on the Upper East Side for the last 30 years. Ad she’s the same age she was when she died. A mother/daughter reunion you won’t want to miss.

The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street
8 p.m.
Your $5 donation includes wine and refreshments.

Finally a sign on the storefront vacated by Zelda Victoria on Fifth Avenue and Third Street. It says ‘Snice. Short for: It’s nice? S’nice?

It’s a West Village sandwich shop/cafe that’s heading across the river. Free wireless, good food. I am so there now that Tempo Presto is gone.

The Brooklyn Paper says ‘Snice is veggie friendly. Wonder if it’s vegan, veggie, or just diverse?

‘Snice will learn the hard way that Brooklyn establishments need to have a web presence otherwise everyone will get their info from Blogs when they google ‘Snice.

Super Vegan likes the place in Manhattan:

Not only does Isa have a new book coming out, she tells us that ‘sNice (home of awesome sandwiches and cupcakes, and arguably the only place worth eating the West Village) is opening a second location in Brooklyn! Seems to be happening somewhere in Park Slope. Details (sort of) can be found from here.

The chef/owner of the store has a cookbook. Always a good sign. I’m psyched.

Rabbi Andy Bachman recommends a film adaptation of a David Grossman novel. It will be screened at Congregation Beth Elohim (8th Avenue and Garfield in Park Slope) on Sunday:

Noah Stollman’s beatifully written adaptation of David Grossman’s Someone to Run With kept getting sold out this week at the New York Jewish Film Festival at the Walter Reade Theater.

If you want another chance to see it, come Sunday night January 20 at 6.30 pm to Film Park Slope at CBE and you’ll get to meet Noah and talk to him about the movie.

“A vibrant, at times frightening, Jerusalem emerges as a significant character in the exhilarating Someone to Run With. Based on the best selling novel by David Grossman, the film captures the literary work’s sense of pace, suspense and heartfelt drama while taking viewers on a riveting tour of the stone alleyways and pulsing 24-hour street life of the ancient city.

Here’s some useful advice from a member of the Park Slope Parents message board regarding the recent credit card/debit card fraud that had been rampaging through Park Slope. Some on the message board thought to post the names of merchants in PS, who may be responsible for credit card fraud. Obviously PSP is rejecting posts with merchant names as there is no evidence that specific merchants are at fault. Nor is this problem limited to Park Slope.

Since the PSP board is rejecting posts with the names(s) of
merchants they believe have been resposnsible for CC fraud. Its
worrisome to know that this is happening and that I have no way of
even trying to protect myself despite the fact that others are
willing to share their information.”

If you’re concerned, I’d suggest emailing directly the people who’ve
said they might have ideas as to which stores might put your credit
info at risk; their email addresses are included in their posts. Note
that I didn’t say these merchants are “responsible”–because as an
earlier poster made clear, it’s entirely possible or likely that the
merchants have been hacked without their knowledge, and are no more
responsible for the situation than their customers.

Absent any hard proof beyond speculation, I’m sure you can appreciate
how unfair it would be to announce to some 7,000 people in the area
that Merchant X is not to be trusted; it could easily be a death
sentence for a small business that has done nothing wrong–and may
have been identified mistakenly in the first place.

In the meantime, there is plenty you can do to protect yourself. Only
use bank ATMs. Pay only with credit cards, not debit cards–or,
ideally, use cash instead. Put a freeze on your credit report, as has
been explained earlier. And keep in mind that, as one of the
fastest-growing areas of crime, credit card fraud and identity theft
are a much bigger problem than a single breach in a single store;
these are all measures we should be taking anyway, regardless of the
current suspicions.

This credit card fraud thread has a lot of people spooked, myself
included! But it would be a terrible thing if, in our eagerness to
play detective, we ended up victimizing one of the local merchants
who make PS such a special place.

Last week, Citibank told me that our debit card may have been compromised. That’s why they reduced our cash limit suddenly without telling us. There may have been a robot call but I’m not sure.

I found out when I tried to take out more than $500 from my account on a weekend and the screen told me that I wasn’t allowed to do that.

When I called Citibank, they told me that many debit/credit card passwords had been compromised in this area and as a safety measure, they were limiting the amount of cash that can be withdrawn from a large number of accounts in the area.

I’m not sure why they suspected that my account had been compromised or if they are protecting a random selection of local accounts.

In order to get the security limit lifted, the Citibank operator went over every transaction on my card made since December 12th.

I was able to confirm that there were no fraudulent uses of the card.

Reading Park Slope Parents, I see that a lot of members are talking about finding purchases they never made on their cards. Many of the purchases are at gas stations in Texas.

Gowanus Lounge has the story,too.

Park Slope’s Nancy Kalish, author of The Case Against Homework, writes in an Op/Ed in Monday’s New York Times:

Research shows that teenagers’ body clocks are set to a schedule that is different from that of younger children or adults. This prevents adolescents from dropping off until around 11 p.m., when they produce the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, and waking up much before 8 a.m. when their bodies stop producing melatonin. The result is that the first class of the morning is often a waste, with as many as 28 percent of students falling asleep, according to a National Sleep Foundation poll. Some are so sleepy they don’t even show up, contributing to failure and dropout rates.

Many of our presidential candidates have been relatively silent on how they plan to save our troubled education system. For those still searching for a policy that might have a positive impact, here’s an idea: stop focusing on testing and instead support changing the hours of the school day, starting it later for teenagers and ending it later for all children

Are we still bracing for a big storm or did it just blow over? Once again, the kids are disappointed. They were hoping for a snow day. “Did it snow, did it snow?” Teen Spirit made a beeline for the front window when he woke up.

Hope snows eternal.

According to Weather.com, flurries and a few snow showers throughout the day. Temps in the mid-30’s. Chance of snow 30%.

Brooklyn Junction proposes a ban on the term Nor’Easter.

I propose a temporary ban on the term Nor’Easter, until further study of its impact on society can be undertaken.