It’s on Gowanus Lounge today, who saw it on Clinton Hill Blog: A CHB reader asked: “Do you hear a noise like a fog horn or a ship’s horn on occasion? Is this noise from the Navy Yard, or from cruise ships coming and going from Red Hook, or from ordinary East River ship traffic?

My daughter asked the same thing last night. Here’s a transcript of that conversation to the best of my memory. We were walking down Third Street with friends.

“Is there some water nearby?” my daughter asked.

“No, the newstand is closed,” I said thinking she wanted some drinking water.

“No, I mean lots of water,” she said.

“Yeah, there’s a lake in the park and a big river not too far,” I said.

“Big enough for there to be big boats that make loud sounds?”

“Yeah,” I said.

Luckily my friend Ed was standing nearby. He grew up in Boerum Hil.

“It’s from the Gowanus. The boats on the Gowanus. When I was growing up I used to hear the boats on the Gowanus.”

Suddenly I got this very romantic picture of a boy growing up on Dean Street (back when Dean Street was Dean Street) listening to the far off boats on the Gowanus.

“Well, I’ve been hearing this low sounds at night. These horns or something. They sound like this…” she said making a low fog horn like sound.

On the Park Slope Parents list-serve,  people have been asking where to find Santa Claus. Turns out he will be making an appearance on Saturday December 1 at the  Lefferts Historic House near the Prospect Park Zoo and the Merry Go Round. 

Get the jump on Santa Claus when the Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum celebrates St. Nicholas Day, the traditional Dutch holiday. The jolly man himself will arrive on horseback, and for more rustic charm, visitors can take a candlelight holiday tour to see how Brooklyn celebrated before electricity.
Noon-4 pm at the Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum (5816 Clarendon Rd. at 58th Street in Ditmas Park). $3. For information, call (718) 629-5400

Lefferts Historic House is located at the Children’s Corner,
      inside the Park’s Willink Entrance, at the intersection of Flatbush and
      Ocean Avenues and Empire Boulevard. Lefferts is also on the Blue
      Trail.

I am still working on it but there still a lot on there. Have a look:

WELCOME TO OTBKB’S 2007 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE. Created by Louise Crawford of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, a Park Slope blog, the guide is a great tip sheet for gifts on Park Slope’s Seventh and Fifth Avenues.

OTBKB stops in at just about every store on those Avenues and selects at least one UNIQUE and fabulous gift. Sometimes I find more. Much more. For location and more information about the store click on the store name and you will be transported to the shop’s website (if they have one). Any questions, comments, or additions, email louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com. During the holiday season, it is a pleasure to shop locally and support local artisans and entrepreneurs.

Check back often, I will be updating throughout the gift buying season.

Brooklyn author Michael Thomas’ book Man Gone Down was selected as one of the ten best books of 2007 by the New York Times Book Review. Thomas’ book is about a young black father of three in a biracial marriage on the eve of his thirty-fifth birthday looking for a job and a way to support the upscale lifestyle of his family. He finds himself broke, estranged from his family, and living in the Brooklyn bedroom of a friend’s six-year-old son.

Thomas is also one of the 2007 Park Slope 100 (which will be released on December 6th). Here’s my blurb:

Michael Thomas because your book Man Gone Done is written in a masterful first-person voice that is intense, poetic, angry, vulnerable, real, and full of thoughtful rage about race and class, marriage and love in New York City.

I love the people over at Slope Sports and am always happy to know what they’re doing.

We run every Saturday morning at 8:00am – rain, snow or shine – all year round. Meet at the Grand Army Plaza entrance of the Park. We meet up & determine distances and routes there. All distances & paces welcome. It’s free and fun and a great way to meet people!

There’s a new sign at Old First from the Park Slope Coalition for the Homeless. It’s about calling 311 when you need to get help for a homeless person. The sign is obviously an outgrowth of the meeting of the Department of Homeless Services and the newly established Park Slope Homeless Coalition, which is made up of representatives from the community, Beth Elohim and Old First Church that was held more than a week ago at Beth Elohim. Here’s some background on why the sign is there from Andy Bachman’s blog:

And finally, we learned that the fastest way to immediate help is by dialing 311.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

Well last night, while walking home, I encountered what one would call a chronically homeless man. He was in his 30s; seemed mentally disturbed; and was silent, sitting atop a park bench near my apartment. I approached him and said hello. He looked back and said nothing.

So I walked some distance and called 311. It was 11 pm. The phone picked up and I got a very friendly city employee. She immediately connected me to DHS. I stayed on the phone for five minutes, giving a profile of the man along with my name and number. And within the hour, a team was dispatched. I was told I’d get a call today to follow up and let me know how it went.

I was impressed enough by the response. If I get the call today, I’ll be blown away.

To know, at this level, that human dignity is at the core of this city agency’s mission and that it squares with the mission of the synagogue and the church is a good sign–a siman tov–for the ecumenical and human ability to solve problems, increase ethics, and, for those so-inclined, do God’s work in the world.

As the meeting ended, I thought and said aloud, “We should overturn Term Limits in the city. Why not let the city elect the Mayor for as many terms as it takes to build this kind of culture of problem solving.”

Brooklyn Based tipped us off about The Brooklyn Sampler, a beautiful package of items made or designed here in Brooklyn, by artists, designers and crafters who hail from Bed-Stuy, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Ditmas Park, East New York, Fort Greene, Greenpoint, Kensington, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Sunset Park, Williamsburg, and Windsor Terrace, and whose work is available at fabulous boutiques like Spring in Dumbo, Rare Device in Park Slope, the Brooklyn Indie Market, or online at that one-stop-shop for handmade goods, Etsy.

This box is so Brooklyn, it’s even wrapped in Brooklyn maps and lined with The Brooklyn Paper (there’s also a map of the future Brooklyn Greenway and a Zagat’s guide to BK restos inside).

Here’s the other kicker: It’s $20 (plus shipping), an incredible value for one-of-a-kind work made by your gifted neighbors, curated by Brooklyn Based, and sold by The Sampler, a San Francisco company whose founder Marie Kare came up with this brilliant idea of mailing boxes filled with the wares of indie businesses to spread the word about their work. This month they began a series of Samplers called City Samplers, packed with goods native to one place. It launched with their hometown, and Brooklyn Based happened to call at the right moment and propose a box filled with goodies made by Brooklynites.

Brooklyn Based is a tri-weekly email that will tell you about what’s going on in Brooklyn. Sort of a Daily Candy for Brooklyn I think. Founder/Editor Nicole Davis is also the arts editor of three community papers in Manhattan, and writes for a number of publications. She moved to Brooklyn in 1997, and lives in Clinton Hill with her husband. Turns out that the Brooklyn Sampler is a collaboration between Brooklyn Based and The Sampler, a company in San Francisco. Davis wrote me in an email: “I called them and said, “Wouldn’t it be great if I put together a sampler of just Brooklyn goods and they said, “How did you know we had just begun doing City Samplers (which focus on one place)?”

So it was serendipity. They agreed to let me curate it, and I rounded everyone up and got the stuff to them, and am trying to promote it as best I can. The Sampler folks do a lot of promoting, too and decoupage the boxes, so they should look great,

Davis describes Brooklyn Based, as a much more in-depth version of Manhattan Users Guide for Brooklyn– a lifestyle newsletter (art, events, food, etc) with a little focus on shopping. Here’s the blurb from the Brooklyn Based website.

Like all good things, we come in threes — three emails a week that will help you get the most out of the County of Kings.

We won’t cram your inbox with a laundry list of things to do, or convince you to buy things you don’t need, or tell you the same exact thing you already learned from your favorite blog, mag or paper. (And we certainly won’t spam you.)

Think of us as an essential supplement to the best food, art, services, shops and people the borough has to offer: Brooklyn distilled.

Sound good? Then sign up for Brooklyn Based, delivered Tuesday through Thursday.

Here’s something new from our pal Pete of Full Permission Living.

There’s
a nice piece on the benfits of napping and giving oneself as a parent
time for rest and recovery from the tasks of the daily job on Heather
Cabot’s website: http://www.thewellmom.com.

I have incorporated napping into my daily routine since the late 1980’s
– 20 to 40 minutes usually does it – and I have found that it can be a
great help in re-energizing the body and clearing the mind, important
to me, not only as a parent, but in my work as a therapist and writer.
Solving an intractable mental problem, like writer’s block, for
example, can frequently give way if you "sleep on it." Another good
alternative to refresh the body and mind is a walk – preferably in
nature (Prospect Park
is still pristine enough and quite suitable). Getting out of the house
and moving one’s body is also a great reliever of stress, anxiety and
depression in the short run. So, folks, have your R & R every day,
along with your apple, and keep the doldrums away.

Peter Loffredo (http://fullpermissionliving.blogspot.com/)

With holiday baking season in full swing, I thought
"Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn" readers might be
interested in a recipe swap run by WNYC, New York
public radio.

"The Leonard Lopate Show" is asking visitors to share
their favorite holiday cookie recipe, along with the
reason why the recipe is special:

<http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2007/12/11/segments/89398>

Special guest Ruth Reichl, Gourmet magazine editor in
chief, will pick her favorites and talk about them
on-air.

The deadline to post a recipe is Thursday, Dec. 6, at
noon.

Thanks for your consideration. If you have any
questions, please let me know.

Best regards,
  Chrys Wu
  Editorial Curator
  for WNYC.org
  <http://www(dot)wnyc(dot)org>

Yesterday I was just rushing, rushing, rushing. And then I was out of the office all day and I couldn’t correct the links. Sorry. I reprinted the Holiday Cards post with Alex’s correct email. And for the Turkey Trot times go here.

Sorry I got Alex’s email wrong yesterday. Here it is correctly. arichman33(at)gmail.(dot)com.

I got this email from Alex Richman, a photographer and blogger, who lives in Windsor  Terrace. LOOK AT HIS CARDS!  I think they are great.

Email Alex if you are interested in buying his cards: arichman33(at)gmail.(dot)com. His blog is called Sidewalk Photography.

Alex writes: I don’t have
a store in Brooklyn but do live in Windsor Terrace and am selling Holiday cards that I create. 

They are hand-crafted personal New York City
scenic holiday cards. These original photographs are hand-mounted onto
premium felt finish card stock and come with a matching envelope.  I
was wondering if you would be interested in posting this on your gift
guide.  I’ve attached the
photos that are mounted. I am selling them 8
for $20 or $2.50 a piece.

Anyone know where these recent transplants from Manhattan can get a leather jacket repaired?

I just wanted to say that i absolutely love your blog!  my boyfriend
and i recently moved to Park Slope from Manhattan and are instant
converts.  We use your blog as a reference guide.  I had a question perhaps
you may have the answer to.  Im looking to repair a leather jacket with a
small tear in it.  Any idea of neighborhood places which may helpful?

Thank you for your help and keep on doing what you do.

Erin McHugh presents her new series The Portable Queer, 4×6 hardcovers at paperback prices. Titles include:

–Homo History: A Compilation of Events That Shook and Shaped the Gay World;

–A Gay in the Life: A Compilation of Saints and Sinners in Gay History and

–Out of the Mouth of Queers: A Compilation of Bon Mots, Words of Wisdom and Sassy Sayings. 

Park Slope Barnes & Noble  FREE!  267 7th Ave at 6th St, 832.9066