DailyHeights

Awesome Pickled Okra That You Can't Have …

Posted on May 5, 2005 by dailyheights

… 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.

Stoop Sale: The Season Begins

Posted on May 5, 2005 by dailyheights

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DAILY HEIGHTS is proud to announce its latest hare-brained, idiotic experiment in interactivity that is destined to fail miserably: A guide to stoop sales taking place PH/Park Slope this weekend. To maximize chances of failure, we are launching this feature prior to a weekend that will not inspire the planning of outdoor events or spontaneous afternoon strolls (Sat: Rain, hi 60°/lo 48°; Sun: Partly cloudy 59°/51°).

Without further ado, our first listing, from Karen C:

Stoop sale | 558 2nd St., btw 7th and 8th Aves.
Sat., May 7, 10-6 (Rain date: Sun, May 8th)
Designer clothes (many brand new!), CDs, DVDs, books, jewelry and more!

To participate in this debacle, e-mail details of your stoop sale to: [email protected]

[PICTURED: Stoop Sitting.]

Dive Bar Battle: Freddy's Wrests Softball Trophy from O'Connor's

Posted on May 5, 2005 by dailyheights

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Flash! Bill Carney reports: “Prospect Heights’ Freddy’s Bar played Park Slope’s O’Connor’s in softball this past Sunday at Prospect Park. It was a continuation of the epic clash of dive bars begun last season when the teams split the series 2-2. O’Connor’s won the final game of last season and was therefore able to retain through the off season the coveted Triple D cup Blue Bra which the formerly smoke-filled gin mills have adopted as their trophy and symbol of Bar Sports Excellence. Showing a great deal of modesty, O’C’s decided not to display their trophy.”

“Last Sunday, Freddy’s regained the Blue Bra with an exciting 9-8 bottom-of-the-9th one-out sac-fly-to-center sending-home-the-winning-run victory by Jim, the guy who likes to drink something called a Yachtsman. O’Connor’s player-coach Bart the Bartender might have made a critical blunder by leaving in starting pitcher Kenny even as his pitch count neared 4,000. For this game at least, the Freddy’s squad abandoned their trademark weak hitting and porous defense while relying on the ‘being less hung-over than the other team’ strategy, which led them to their 2 victories last season. ‘We’ve stuck with our largely ineffectual batting, but we’re actually playing some defense this season,’ manager Pat O’Shea explained.”

“Jim was awarded MVP and given the honor of hanging the Bra from a lamp fixture behind the bar at Freddy’s. He celebrated with a bevy of yachtsmen. Future games are as of this report unscheduled. “We’ve got the Bra. They’ll have to come to us now,” explained lefty relief pitcher and Freddy’s bartender Matt Kuhn.”

LINK: FREDDY’S V. O’CONNORS SOFTBALL, MAY 3, 2005
Who’s got the better bar? A few drinks later everyone does. [Photos by Stephanie Johnson, Tony Limuaco and Kate Matlack]

DELICACIES in the Times

Posted on May 4, 2005 by dailyheights

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DELICACIES, proud sponsor of the Daily Heights happy hour last week, is going to be featured in a New York Times article. Check it out here. Any word on when the article will be published?

Sakura Matsuri: Cherry Blossom Photos and Beer Line Haiku

Posted on May 4, 2005 by dailyheights

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The annual cherry blossom festival, or Sakura Matsuri, took place last Sunday at the esplanade in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Dope on the Slope was there with camera in hand, and even wrote a haiku about a beer line.

NOTE: The magically updating CherryWatch Blossom Status Map shows that the trees along the Japanese pond garden are pretty much past bloom, but the Cherry Esplanade and Cherry Walk are in peak bloom:

Go Get It Now! Free Sofa Bed

Posted on May 4, 2005 by dailyheights

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Torie writes: “There’s a free green sofabed in good condition sitting on the curb of Sterling Place right near Underhill Avenue.”

Overheard in Prospect Heights

Posted on May 4, 2005 by dailyheights

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“I’m not saying ALL Chinese people look alike. I’m just saying, like, the ones that all got long hair… and… you know, stuff like that.” -Black teenage girl in Hood Hing Chinese takeaway on Underhill Ave.

Learn Real Estate. How Hard Can it Be?

Posted on May 4, 2005 by dailyheights

15 Comments

sje writes: “Why should I knock myself out, when for a lousy $200 and a week of my time, I can be pulling in fat commission checks for selling million dollar condos?”

Shot on the corner of Pacific and Vanderbilt.

[FOUND] Odd Books and Pamphlets, Part I

Posted on May 4, 2005 by dailyheights

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This is one of several books FOUND in a blue plastic tub sitting front of 414 Sterling Pl. (btw Washington and Underhill) the other day.

The mysterious 1907 tome “Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by LEVI,” 1972 printing, was purchased in 1974 from Flying Saucer News on 359 West 54th St. in Manhattan. The book is a record of “the intimate details of Christ’s life” from the “‘lost’ eighteen years so strangely silent in the New Testament … written from the original authentic ‘Akashic Records’ by a student who devoted forty years to preparation for the task.”

Apparently at one point in this book, Jesus is actually refuting Darwinism, about 19 centuries too soon (I guess he could have been foretelling the Theory of Darwin). Follow the link for an excerpt and debate on this.

Link Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ [Amazon.com]

Overwhelmed

Posted on May 3, 2005 by dailyheights

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1. We’ve got a tremendous backlog of material and no time to post. Want to help? E-mail [email protected].

2. Where is the action today? The real action is in the Prospect Heights message boards. Go ask questions, show off your knowledge, randomly insult people, or simply watch the firefight between third-generation Brooklynites and the marauding Yuppie hordes.

3. The two biggest questions in the wake of last week’s super fun DAILY HEIGHTS Happy Hour are, (a) why am I so shy that I showed up and didn’t introduce myself? and (b) when’s the next event?

Answer to B:

DailyHeights.com | Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, USA presents:
Rock, Paper, Scissors Eastern Seaboard Pro-Am Series 2005

DAILYHEIGHTS.COM Invitational: Atlantic Yards Smackdown
(Now: An official competition of the World RPS Society (www.worldrps.com)!

Brooklyn’s Toughest Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS) Players Go Hand-to-Hand in the Footprint of Bruce Ratner’s Proposed Megastadium

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — On Thursday, May 26, at 8 p.m., Freddy’s Bar & Backroom (www.freddysbackroom.com; 485 Dean St., 718-622-7035) hosts the New York Rock Paper Scissors (NYRPS) Association’s Atlantic Yards Smackdown*, part of the 2005 Eastern Seaboard Pro-Am Invitational Series.