Things are NOT going well for poor Bianca. This ProHo Cutie needs a home, fast. Right now, she’s down on Vanderbilt near Atlantic, if you want to go meet her. See the message boards for details.
Links:
Looking for a Great Dog? [Daily Heights Forums]
ProHo Cuties [Daily Heights]
Adult Spelling Bee emcee Josh Reynolds reports that he recently received an e-mail from blog-savvy Daily News reporter Deborah Kolben:
“She wanted to do an article on the spelling bee. I was pretty excited about this and called her up. She said, ‘So…you have this adult novelty spelling bee.’ and I launched into my spiel and she stopped me very early on to say, ‘So, it’s not adult?’ … ‘Uh, well, we don’t spell the names of vibrators or anything like that. I mean, other than being in a bar, it’s a pretty wholesome spelling bee.’ She said, ‘Oh’ in a disappointed way, and told me that she was probably not going to be able to pitch the regular old spelling bee story.”
“I guess a ‘Sex and the Spelling Bee’ event is a good idea, but how hard are those words to spell really?”
Bonus! Heather reports on last week’s bee:
“…not packed to the rafters like last time, but … any time there are no tables left completely empty, it is a good turnout … It always seems half the people there don’t participate in the spelling, so it’s not like you’d be alone in your spell-lessness if you were to come just to watch. As non-speller Mark pointed out, it’s not just a competition, it’s entertainment.”
The next Adult Spelling Bee takes place at Freddy’s Backroom on the last Wednesday in April.
From the “stuff you have always wanted to do” file:Corie Trancho and Alexis Robie have documented some of those intriguing and stately ruins over at the Brooklyn Navy Yards. Turns out this is called Officer’s Row, also known as Admiral’s Row. The 10 houses (seven remain), built between 1864 and 1901, served as to high-ranking officers and their families:
“We came into contact with two very special families, both of whom whose siblings had spent small portions of their childhood and adolescence, between the early to late 1970’s in Officer’s Row. As we began to communicate with one another via email, memories flowed. They began to outline invaluable personal histories of life in the yard. Fascinated, we listened, questioned, and began to dig.
“This site is a workbench for our questions and research. We hope to shape it more as our project moves forward.”
Officer’s Row: Memories of the Brooklyn Navy Yard [officersrow.org]
From the Better-late-than-never dept.:
Get the details from Gothamist.
Issues on the table, according to Council Member Letitia James, who will be holding a press conference in front of the MTA offices in about an hour:
-MetroCard price hike for working and low-income families
-Rider safety in the face of token booth closures
-Irregular and unsatisfactory bus and train service
Charles Star writes: “As I was walking to the train this morning, I snapped this photo of workmen taking down the sign for the Medgar Evers Head Start center at Park & Vanderbilt. I don’t know the backstory, but is it possibly a casualty of Bush administration education funding / No Child Left Behind?”
Anybody know anything about this? Here’s the website for the Medgar Evers College Head Start Child Development Center.
UPDATE: oops. Things not looking good for Head Start today.
LINKS:
Head Start Program Faces Uncertain Future [Houston Chronicle]
Head Start abuses anger U.S. lawmakers [Kansas City Star]
The News Interview: Bruce Ratner
“Opponents of your plan complain that you are using the threat of eminent domain – forced acquisition of property by government – to make the project work.”
“We’ve already privately acquired a very substantial portion of the site, and given everybody on the site the opportunity either to relocate or make a fair amount of money above what they originally paid. Most people have taken that option, so we don’t have to depend to any great extent on eminent domain.”
“How does the arena project fit into the overall development of the borough?”
“All the outer boroughs live in the shadow of Manhattan, but Brooklyn has the best chance of escaping that because we have our own brand. Bringing a team to Brooklyn will enhance that brand and give people civic pride, but we have to keep pushing and promoting. Look, I’m not from Brooklyn, I’m from Ohio – but I chose Brooklyn. One of the biggest compliments I was ever paid came when Howard Golden, the former borough president, introduced me to an audience as born and raised in Brooklyn.“
“Thought flows in terms of stories – stories about events, stories about people, and stories about intentions and achievements. The best teachers are the best story tellers. We learn in the form of stories.” — Frank Smith
Brooklyn Public Library, at Grand Army Plaza. Brooklyn, New York. | Go look through the archives of Frank Lynch.
Laura B writes in the ProHo Forum: “In addition to Outdoor Loudness Season, I’m afraid it’s also now Outdoor Crime Season. Last night a woman was apparently held up at gunpoint on my block (St Marks betw Carlton & Vanderbilt) at around 10:30 pm, a time I usually consider relatively safe to walk home alone. She screamed and he ran away; I admire her bravery but it’s probably not what I would have done.
“Anyone like to share experience, advice, or strategies for avoiding being a target, or what to do if you are one?“
NOTE! Go to the message boards to share experience, advice or strategies.
On St. Johns Place there is always plenty of activity during Outdoor Loudness Season (OLS). There is a girl in the next building over that plays guitar on her roof while singing at the top of her lungs. A neighbor a few floors up plays saxophone or some such wind instrument. And let us not leave out the piano man coming from who knows where and hosting speakeasies where people sing what appears to be the Fame soundtrack well into the wee hours of the morning. Last spring I thought I would participate in OLS by filming a music video on my roof with Cuban surf rock band The Cuban Cowboys. No sooner did the George Bush piñata get strung up then did a woman in a house coat come up to the roof and tell us to shut the hell up. Perhaps she had employed a beta version of Google Satellite Maps and saw what we were up to. Just enter 11238 into the search and click the “Satellite” link on the upper right to see who the heck it is up there making all that racket. By the way, 3 days after my failed Outdoor Loudness, this lock appeared on the door to the roof.
Thanks to Heather for sending in her ProHo cuties: Tigs (left) and Otto (right). Alert! Send your ProHo cutie (human or animal) to… prohocuties @dailyheights.com.
Links:
Love, Love, Love [noisefootprint]
