Author Archives: dailyheights

Rock Paper Scissors: Bring It On (Quickly)!

Urbanus-tn.jpgWere you thinking about competing in (DAILY HEIGHTS presents the) ATLANTIC YARDS SMACKDOWN: THE ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS PRO-AM INVITATIONAL on Thursday, May 26th at Freddy’s on Dean St.?

If so, you may want to reserve your spot now! Twelve of the 32 spots have already been taken. If there is overwhelming interest, we may add a second round of 32 (or do a round of 64 with a $400 first prize), but for now, if you hesitate, you may lose your chance to make RPS history! Visit the official blog of the New York Rock Paper Scissors Association (nyrps.org) for details, or simply e-mail [email protected] with “SIGN ME UP!” in the Subject line.

PICTURED: Daily Heights is pleased to confirm that international RPS champion C. Urbanus, accompanied by RPS trainer Lauren H., will be competing in ATLANTIC YARDS SMACKDOWN. “This is excellent news,” Urbanus said after receiving word that his pre-registration had been accepted and approved. “I don’t miss a tournament if I can at all help it. The limited size intrigues and excites me.”

C. Urbanus is inventor of the “Urbanus Defense,” a risky gambit in which a player intentionally loses the first throw of a match in order to (1) give the opponent a false sense of security and (2) gain insight into the opponent’s throwing style.

Urbanus will also be featured in the DVD Playing RPS to Win: Secrets of the Masters. In this video excerpt, he explains Pro Tip #75, Sicilian Reasoning:

“(Sicilian Reasoning) has a lot to do with how much they know about you, and how much you know about them. If they know you’re apt to lead with rock, they’re gonna throw paper. So if you know that they know that you’re gonna throw rock and they’re gonna throw paper, you can throw scissors. But then you have the other thing going, where they could know that you know that they know that you know. And then you just have to play it by ear.”

Local Street Photographed

snow_Jan23 (1)-tn.jpgIsitan writes us: “This picture was taken right in the middle of where I live and my wife’s shop, which was only 3 weeks old at the time (Sunday, Jan. 23). I was just crossing the street and wanted to capture Vanderbilt Avenue transformed to a white asphalt. I’m afraid there’s no story attached to the image other than this. 🙂

OK! I think that’s the last of the winter photos…

Local Bedclothes Defenestrated

bedclothes defenestrated citynoise.org.jpg

Peter wrote: “Whoops! It appears that someone has thrown their bed linens out the window and into an adjacent tree, right off of Carlton Avenue. Just one more strange happening on the side-streets of Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.”

UPDATE 5th May 2005 – 14:10 GMT: “…the bedclothes are no longer defenstrated. the tree is empty and clear.”

LINK: Defenestration of Bedclothes [Citynoise.org]

'Lambkins' out on Amazon

0060599065.01._PE32_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpgThis is graphic artist and P.H. resident Jon Keegan‘s first book cover. It’s for “The Lambkins” by Eve Bunting and you can pre-order it now: “Good for young teens, shrinking children and crazy old ladies with dollhouses,” Jon says.

LINK: “Lambkins” on Amazon / New illo [INVISIBLEMAN]

City Lighting: Locksmith Says… Mexican

Muk, who is obsessed with Chowhound, just found this kernel on CH’s impossible-to-follow, 1996-retro CH Outer Boroughs Message Board: The former City Lighting on Flatbush is going to be “Mexican, according to the new owner of the locksmith shop across the street … He’s had a lot of business from the owners as they are doing construction/ renovations.” Muk will be holding a seminar entitled “It’s Coherent, Really: How to Read Chowhound Theads” this Sunday at the Brooklyn Public Library.

LINKS
City Lighting – Prospect Heights [Chowhound Outer Boroughs]
Chowhound Not Quite the Unleavened Experience [The Muk Report]

Worst Fortune-Cookie Fortunes Ever. In Bed.

maybe-you-can-live-on-moon.jpg

“Maybe”?? (May be?) What kind of weak fortune is that? When you give a fortune, are you supposed to vacillate and hedge your bets–or pronounce the future authoritatively? Or at least “see” something happening in the future: “I see craters – a colony of people … do you know somebody with the first initial J?” “Ohmigod! That’s my uncle Jimmy! We’re going to be living on the moon!

More to come.

These fortunes came from Mr. Wonton in Park Slope. You can reach Mr. Wonton at … wait. Forget it. Am I your frickin’ entertainment directory? Go use Google.

My Gym SUCKS

Go read EmilyM’s rant on quitting the Park Slope Sports Club, which opened in April 2000 and is bursting at the seams:

“I’ve got to face facts: this gym sucks. As the neighborhood has grown, they’ve recruited more and more members without much expanding their facilities. They keep buying more treadmills even though everyone wants the elliptical machines. The weight room and stretching area are too small, but they put in a juice bar for some reason. They play their canned soundtrack too loud for people to comfortably listen to their iPods, even though 85% of members are using them. Most annoying of all, there aren’t enough lockers…” Read the rest…

EmilyM also started this thread in the Daily Heights forum:

LINK: Park Slope Sport Club

Why Play Lotto? …

rps rolling stone.jpg… when you could have a 1 in 32 chance of winning $200 in the Dailyheights.com ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS tournament on Thursday, May 26 at Freddy’s? For more details, please visit our RPS Blog at: New York Rock Paper Scissors Association (nyrps.org)

Signups are stupendously limited (32 competitors), and we have already promised 10 of the 32 slots!! (Maybe we have to widen the field to 64 and have a $400 cash prize, or else hold two separate rounds?) To sign up in advance, send $6.50 per competitor ($6 + .50 Paypal fee) using the “MAKE A DONATION” button to the right. Or save 50 cents by making alternative arrangements: cash, check, drinks, a bottle of pinot noir, expensive Spanish candy bars, etc. (contact us the usual way).

PICTURED:
Hand to Hand Combat: Down and dirty at the World Rock Paper Scissors Championship [Rolling Stone]

Awesome Pickled Okra That You Can't Have …

ricks picks SMOKRA-tn.jpg… Yet.

I ran into PH resident and gourmet pickle maker Rick Fields at his pickle stand in the Union Square greenmarket, on my way to the Virgin Megastore to buy Sex and the City: The First Season (as a gift, I swear).

I asked Rick, “what’s new?” and he pulled out a hand-labeled jar of “Smokra”, which is spicy pickled okra (and some very large pickled garlic cloves that we haven’t had the courage to eat yet). I think he charged me $8 (maybe $9) for the jar.

“It has a variety of spicy elements,” Rick says. “Chilis, curry, pungent mustard seed. It’s the rare pickle that we just recommend eating out of the jar.”

Not only does Smokra sound like the most awesome Godzilla villain that never was, but the pickled okra bobble up and down in the brine like “alien worms from The X-Files,” according to my taste-tester. “You know, the ones that go up your nose and then explode through your stomach.” Hmm… was that X-Files, Season 1, Episode 8?

By now I’m sure you’re dying for a taste of spicy pickled SMOKRA, but it won’t be available until October.

PS. Those links above to Amazon are sponsored. That means you can support Daily Heights simply by clicking on them and buying something. Anything, really.