Both events are at the Community Bookstore. Seventh Avenue between Carroll and President in Park Slope.

Thursday, December 6th @ 8:00 p.m.
Book release party for Jezra Kaye’s new book of poetry, Kicking: Love Poems.
Kicking: Love Poems was 40 years in the making. From 1960s communes to 1980s corporations to the wilds of contemporary, middle-aged marriage, these fresh, poignant poems chronicle one woman’s grapple with the ever-changing face of love.

Please join communication/ speaker coach Jezra Kaye for a party and reading to celebrate the release of her book Kicking: Love Poems.

Friday, December 7th @ 7:30 p.m.
Why is it that with everything women have accomplished, we still struggle with our feelings about our bodies? Perhaps it’s because, in our society, body image has become a loaded term.

In FOR KEEPS: Women Tell the Truth About Their Bodies, Growing Older, and Acceptance, twenty-seven gifted authors write personal essays about how body image has colored, changed or enriched their lives…or how life’s events have changed their body image.

With Masha Hamilton, Ellie McGrath, Christine O’Hagan, Abby Frucht, Leora Skolkin-Smith, Sally Terrell, Susanne Dunlap, and Victoria Zackheim

This from New York 1:

Brooklyn row house that may have been a stop on the famous Underground Railroad will escape demolition, although other homes may still be torn down.

Following community pressure and a lawsuit this past summer, the city agreed Saturday not to use eminent domain to condemn a house on Duffield Street.

The house was slated to come down as part of the massive Downtown Brooklyn Redevelopment Plan, but some preservationists argued the home was a stop for slaves escaping the South before the Civil War. The fate of six other nearby homes has yet to be decided

This from Metro NYC

Flight delays at the region’s three major airports outpaced those in the rest of the nation, hurting the city’s economic competitiveness, said a report released yesterday by Comptroller William Thompson.
If the trend is not reversed, Thompson warned, the airports might be forced to impose flight caps or implement a congestion-pricing charge, with landing fees based on the time of day.

“The situation is urgent,” he said. “The much larger declines in on-time performance could discourage employers from locating new jobs and facilities in New York and lead some firms to relocate jobs elsewhere.

PS I Love You, the Park Slope column penned by OTBKB friend and fave Wendy Ponte in the Brooklyn Paper, has the the story behind the story of Sweet Melissa’s victory at the Edible Ornaments Tournament on the Food Channel. Here’s a taste and go here to read more.

Melissa Murphy, owner of Sweet Melissa, a Seventh Avenue pastry and
luncheon venue, might indeed be sweet — but judging from her recent
adventure on the “Food Network Challenge: Edible Ornaments”
competition, she’s more like Tough Melissa.

Sure, Murphy (pictured) is  young, attractive and savvy with energy to spare and far-reaching plans (damn her!).

But
she is also a renowned chef and is on the advisory board of the French
Culinary Institute in Manhattan, where she herself went to school. This
year, the Zagat Marketplace gave her stores the award for “Best Tarts
and Pies” in New York.

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

The night before Thanksgiving, Smartmom registered for the Turkey Trot, the annual five-mile race sponsored by the Park Slope Track Club.

In the basement of Jack Rabbit, she was given her race number, an electronic running chip, and plastic ties to attach it to her running shoes. Unfortunately, they’d run out of Turkey Trot black backpacks and special booty.

“We were expecting 1,000 runners but many more registered,” an organizer told her.

Out on Seventh Avenue, Smartmom checked her number, 1610 (the ages of her two children, Smartmom realized). It also said, “Female, age 49.”

“Nice,” she thought. “Do they have to make it so friggin’ obvious?”

It’s not that Smartmom wants to hide the fact that she’s 49. She just doesn’t like to broadcast it to all of Park Slope.

Why not just publish it in the newspaper while they’re at it?

When she got home, Smartmom didn’t tell Hepcat that she was going to trot the Trot. She didn’t even mention it to Teen Spirit or the Oh So Feisty One. It’s not that she wanted to be the stealth runner. Or it was some kind secret. She just didn’t want to make a big deal about it.

No “Go Mom” signs or familial cheerleading squads for Smartmom. Not that she would have to worry about that. The likelihood of Teen Spirit and OSFO standing on the sidelines of Prospect Park with a “Go Mom” sign at 9 am on Thanksgiving morning was close to nil.

And that was fine by Smartmom, because she wanted to do the race Greta Garbo style. In other words, she vanted to be alone (with more than 1,000 strangers, that is).

The Turkey Trot was something Smartmom always wanted to do and this year seemed as good a year as any. For one thing, their family Thanksgiving didn’t begin until 6 pm and it was in a restaurant in Manhattan.
Naomi Village: In the heart of the Poconos

No muss, no fuss.

Also, Smartmom has been running the 3.3-mile loop around the park a few times a week. And being 15 pounds lighter, she’s feeling quite fit and sprightly.

And it’s not like Smartmom hasn’t run a race before. She ran the Brooklyn half-marathon in March, 2005. That’s 13 miles from the Coney Island Boardwalk to the loops of Prospect Park. Impressed?

So, Smartmom figured why not? She especially liked the idea of running off the Thanksgiving turkey (stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie) even before she’d eaten it.

Is it possible to lose weight on Thanksgiving?

The weather on Thanksgiving morning couldn’t have been better. Unseasonably warm and sunny, it was the kind of morning that makes you want to sing Handel’s “Messiah” or at least “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night.

And talk about reasons to be thankful: Smartmom wanted to give thanks to Kirsten at Slope Sports for recommending the snazzy blue and silver Saucony running shoes on her feet.

She wanted to thank her high school principal, Phineas Anderson, who coached the Walden girl’s track team and taught her how to run. She wanted to thank her legs, which have held her up all these years.

Most of all, she wanted to thank the universe for making this a Thanksgiving without worries (for the time being) about homework, middle school, money, getting a book published before she’s 50, family illness, and marital squabbles about basement clean ups.

It was a day to run, and Smartmom was going to go for it.

On Thanksgiving morning, Smartmom tiptoed out of the bedroom so as not to wake her sleeping giant of a husband. She quietly passed Teen Spirit’s bedroom so as not to wake her sleeping giant of a teenage son (wait a minute, he’s not even in his bedroom…where is that boy?).

Smartmom arrived on the north side of Prospect Park at 8:45 and at exactly 9, there was a gunshot and 1,200 runners were off and running (at various speeds).

All sizes, all shapes, all colors, all abilities, all genders, the Turkey Trot is the perfect Brooklyn race.

Most of all, Smartmom loved the bystanders who seemed to take great pleasure in cheering runners they didn’t even know.

“Looking good.” “Way to go.” “You can do it.”

Smartmom took the race nice and slow. A solid 11-minute miler, she actually enjoyed the run and didn’t even struggle going up the famous hill at Battle Pass. After mile four, she did develop a stitch, but belly breathing helped her control the pain and in the last minute of the race, she actually sprinted to the end, finishing in just over 55 minutes.

Walking back to Third Street, Smartmom kept checking her iPhone to see if anyone was wondering where she was. Maybe OSFO woke up and thought to call. How about Hepcat? Wasn’t he wondering why half the bed was EMPTY?

Smartmom wanted to tell someone, anyone: “I just ran the Turkey Trot. Yea for me.”

But that wasn’t the point. She could have told her family about the race. She could have asked her kids or Diaper Diva to be there.

So why did she feel the need to do it Greta Garbo style?

Could it be that Smartmom is afraid of being the center of attention around her children?

While she is eager to carve out a slice of her life for herself, she’s ambivalent about doing it in front of Hepcat and the kids.

Buddha knows, she needs to get in touch with her own body and her own thoughts and for that she needs to go solo.

While still being a devoted mother and wife, Smartmom vants to be an independent self and sometimes that means running alone.

Shifting just $100 of your shopping budget to local shops is a tremendous benefit to the local economy!

Many of the shops on Fifth and Seventh Avenues will be open until 10 p.m. on December 13th for a Buy in Brooklyn festive shopping even sponsored by the folks who brought you the yellow umbrellas (the Park Slope Civic Council, the Community Bookstore and others).

Wine. Refreshments. Entertainment. It’s all part of the fun. Make it a great night to do holiday shopping and support local merchants, entrepreneurs and artisans.

Click on the poster to make it larger.

I saw a For Lease sign on the window but I guess I wanted to pretend that I didn’t see it. But it’s true, the Tempo Presto on Seventh Avenue is closing.

I for one LOVE the place so I called the restaurant right away to see what’s going on.

"Our winter over there was too slow. The rent is too high," Jose Diaz, one of the managers of the Fifth Avenue Tempo Presto, told me. "It’s due to the rent because it is just too, too high. Our other location on Fifth Avenue will stay open."

Diaz suggested that I call one of the owners, Michael Elliott, to get more information. Elliott was more than willing to share with me his disappointment about this turn of events. "Tempo Presto just wasn’t doing the volume on Seventh Avenue we needed to pay the rent," he told me.

"The volume isn’t there. It’s a Manhattan-size rent in Park Slope. Very expensive. And this is still just a neighborhood. As you know the commercial rents have gone through the roof," Elliott told me. "Pretty soon it will just be big retailers that can afford the spot over here."

Elliott isn’t exactly sure when Tempo Presto will close. It depends on when they find another business to take over the lease. Fortunately, the Fifth Avenue Tempo Presto and Tempo, the restaurant, are staying open. "The Seventh Avenue exposure definitely built exposure for the Tempo Presto concept. The neighborhood loves us."

And what is the Tempo Presto concept exactly? In my mind it’s delicious and fast breakfast, lunch, gelato, and take-out in a cool and colorful modern interior. "It’s a franchise concept. A good concept. But you have to get into the right market if you’re going to pay this kind of rent. If the rent was a third  what it is it would work. You can’t work it for this price point. We took a real hit." Elliott told me.

What about Fifth Avenue, I asked Elliott. Are the rents really cheaper over there?  "Fifth Avenue is just as expensive. But Fifth has a more vibrant scene. After dark, Seventh Avenue dries up," Elliott told me. "On Fifth you get a lot of younger people coming out in the evening."

On Seventh, lunch and after-school were profitable.  "But there are too many points of
the day when there is nobody in the place or just one or two people. You can have that if
you’re a Starbucks. But not for a company like this."  Elliott said. 

Elliot and his two partners hold the lease to the space on Seventh Avenue and they’re looking for the right tenant. He tells me that they have had interest from at least two national retailers. No decision has been made as yet. Says Elliott: "There needs to be a fit for the landlord, as well as us.

Opening the Seventh Avenue Tempo Presto was clearly a labor love for Elliott. "It is disappointing when you try to grow a concept. It is what it is. A learning experience. The idea didn’t fit this particular space." 

Elliott says that Park Slope is unlike any other neighborhood he’s worked in. "It’s not only seasonally sensitive but it’s also very weather sensitive. When it’s too cold, too rainy, too hot nobody goes out. This goes for the restaurants on Fifth. We all feel it when the weather is affected it puts a strain on the business.

Elliott admits that he like many retailers in Park Slope would like to see more support from the neighborhood. He hopes the local Buy in Brooklyn initiative proves to be a success.