Lynn Rosenberg’s Cast and Loose Tumblr has become sort of a legend. For about the last year or so, the actress has documented the wacky and often offensive and tone-deaf casting notices posted in various publications. Last night (7/28), she gathered a group of actor friends to read some of the most notable notices at Joe’s Pub. Watch the video above or on YouTube.
So your Tea Party Facebook friends are doing a lap and high fiving each other right now over this “news item”:
The National Report: Sheldon Wayne Thomas is a New York firefighter stationed in Brooklyn’s 68th precinct. He accompanied officers Tuesday because of his experience as a climber, helping them traverse the cables to reach the flagpoles 277 feet above the ground.
“What NYPD Commissioner William Bratton failed to mention during the recent press conference–and what I believe the American people deserve to know–is that evidence found at the scene point to Islamic involvement.”
It’s not true, it’s satire as the National Report is a humor site. Of course simple logic would alert you to the fact that:
A) The 68th Precinct does not cover the area of the Brooklyn Bridge, it’s the 84th Precinct.
B) Firefighters are part of Engine or Ladder Companies in NYC, not precincts.
Not only that, using a simple tool we’ve discovered called “Google” reveals that Fox News has been duped by this site in the past as has Arizona Governor Jan Brewer.
Yesterday’s flag flip on the Brooklyn Bridge was not an act of terror. It was a silly prank, most likely pulled by skateboarding teenagers (if you go by the latest NYPD notion). The only thing terrorizing about that would be if the skateboarders were older than 19. No one over the age of 19 whose name is not Tony Hawk should be riding a skateboard.
In the pre-9/11 era in Brooklyn, teens fortified with hubris, pot and a 40 would regularly climb the bridge’s towers. It was considered a rite of passage. So the idea that scaling these towers was somehow a new event is just wrong. And as for flag theft, it’s happened at least twice before. And we’re all still here. So nuts to the claim that this has somehow made the bridge more vulnerable to attack.
While we’re at it, saying the flags “could have been bombs” is to use the vernacular whack. Because even if they were bombs they’d have to be pretty big to do damage and the NYPD patrols on either side of the bridge would surely spot that sort of thing.
And while Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams “isn’t laughing” about the incident, but some people might see a little whimsy in the prank. The only thing that will be maddening is if it’s a marketing stunt for some TV show or worse yet a wacky website (remember GoldenPalace.com?).
In a year we’ll all look back and laugh at this — that is if we even remember it. After all, isn’t there Justin Bieber and Kimye news to keep us occupied?
Every year, millions of tourists head to Napa Valley to take in the sun and quaff wine at the source, so to speak. Friends often ask me for recommendations on their trip and my answer is simple: I’d go to Sonoma County instead.
When I first started to go wine tasting, you could drive from winery to winery, picking almost at random. You’d go into a barn, or a shack, or just taste on a picnic table out front. While tasting, chances are you’d be talking to the winemaker or at least someone who had worked there for a decade. It’d be a lingering tasting, alternating between joking and learning from your host. You’d make friends with another couple that came in. It wouldn’t be unheard of for the host to open up something special just for fun. After a while, they’d give you a recommendation on where to head next. There’s little better relaxation available than sipping wine in the warm sun looking out over vineyards.
Unfortunately, that experience is largely gone from Napa. There are still places where you can do that (I suggest giving Spring Mountain a try), but by and large the barn has been replaced by million dollar tasting rooms, where you elbow your way to the bar, often so you can hear a memorized script.
Luckily, Sonoma still has plenty of places that offer that relaxed and special feeling. Maybe there aren’t many tastings in barns anymore, but it’s still a casual experience. You will rarely be jockeying for space or feel like you are being rushed along to finish your glass. Quite a few folks will simply sit and chat, and that special bottle still often appears from nowhere.
The other enormous advantage is that Sonoma has variety. This may be cheating a bit, as Sonoma County is simply much larger than Napa with more varied climates, but that’s kind of the point. Here’s where I’d head:
If you’re into Pinot Noir, head first to Russian River. The valley itself produces spicy and bold Pinots, but most of the wineries there also source grapes from nearby Sonoma Coast, which produces a more tart, light and bright Pinot Noir than most people are used to getting from California. They’ll also often have Anderson Valley and Oregon fruit as well, which means even more styles to sample.
Recommended Stops: Visit Siduri for the best value. Visit Lynmar for great wine, great gardens and views. Visit Littorai for amazing wine and an education in biodynamic winemaking.
Want bolder, bigger wine? North of Russian River is Dry Creek Valley. It’s most famous for its Zinfandel, and for good reason. Dry Creek Zin is spicy and juicy, and can be one of the best combinations of both big fruit and complexity out there. But Dry Creek’s climate also does a number of other wines well—Rhone and Italian varietals seem to do especially well here.
Recommended Stops: Visit Bella for caves, a wonderful picnic spot and my favorite Zinfandel (their Lily Hill Estate Zin). Visit Ridge because their Zinfandel is just that good. Seghesio has a number of great Italian wines. including their Omaggio, which goes wonderfully well with my rib recipe. Hit up Unti for the best Italian varietals in Northern California and Frick for some great, affordable Rhone varietals.
None of those hit the spot for you? That’s alright. There’s more Zin in Rockpile, Chardonnay and more in Chalk Hill, some nice Cabernet in Alexander Valley and just about anything you could want in Sonoma Valley proper.
Have I convinced you yet to abandon your trip to Napa and head on over to Sonoma? Well, the good news is you don’t really have to choose: Sonoma is right next door to Napa. You might just have to extend your trip.
Alan Greene is co-owner of Tipsy, a wine and spirits shop in Brooklyn. Tipsy hosts 3 or more free tasting events every week. Visit us at the corner of Myrtle and Classon or online at www.shoptipsy.com.
A synchronized attack took place last night on the Brooklyn Bridge. While we don’t know what the motivation was behind the act of stealing the flags atop the span’s towers and replacing them with a bleached American flag and a makeshift white one, it was without doubt an act of terror. This was a planned action carried out by more than one individual with improvised tools (they used tin pans to cover the tower’s lights) designed to draw attention. So despite what the NYPD is saying this was a terrorist action.
COUNTERPOINT: Brooklyn Bridge Flag Swap: Pranksters Are Not Gangsters Let Alone Terrorists
NYPD photo shows how the perps covered up the tower lights with an aluminum pan
Marketing stunt? Artistic statement? Still an act of terror. At the very least this stupid and selfish act shines a light on our vulnerabilities and will only encourage those who wish us and our city actual harm.
Step it up NYPD, the city is depending on you.
image via
Writer Emily Gould has upset Brooklyn Heights resident Lena Dunham. Apparently the author of the new book Friendship has been using an anecdote about the “Girls” star and her boyfriend/rock star Jack Antonoff engaging in “PDA” at a party here recently. This resulted in Dunham reportedly (and rightly) direct messaging the author saying “you fully suck”.
Gould now says she’s sorry.
Huffington Post: “I really wish that none of it had ever happened,” she told HuffPost Live’s Ricky Camilleri. “I’m a big fan of hers. I really am and I always have been. It was really disappointing to me that she felt like, because I had been outspoken in interviews about being jealous of her, she felt like she couldn’t support my book. I feel really hurt by it.”
The anecdote in question detailed the 28-year-old Dunham engaging in “elaborate PDA” with her musician boyfriend, Jack Antonoff. While Gould admitted that if she was in her shoes, she may not’ve “behaved any differently,” she still hoped for more from the actress.
Silly Millennials! This is hardly a good show biz feud. Take it from the masters Gore Vidal and Brooklyn Heights legend Norman Mailer. Ladies, this is how it’s done:
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/68841
Jack Antonoff of fun. who is currently enjoying success with his latest project Bleachers, talks to Vulture about what he’s been up to lately. Part of the interview includes a passage about how he and girlfriend Lena Dunham have recently traded up here in Brooklyn Heights:
Vulture: It took a full year to close on his new apartment in Brooklyn Heights with Lena Dunham. “If you’d told me that when we bought it, I would have just exploded, like my head would have fallen off,” he says. They’d been looking to upgrade for a while since Dunham’s apartment felt too small for two people with a lot of stuff, plus a dog. Also, their neighbors were smokers, so their apartment always smelled. And, most irksome to Antonoff, the building was so old they only had two-pronged outlets, which meant they couldn’t plug in electronics that had three prongs, which is basically all modern electronics. The new place will have a studio for Antonoff and an office for Dunham, and hopefully a Victorian doghouse for their rescue dog, Lamby.
He also adds that he was kidding around about being on a “double date” with the first family:
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/68674
The folks at addressreport.com have created an animated map that shows every demolition in Brooklyn since 2003.
Think there hasn’t been too much development? Think again.
This Craigslist poster claims to be from someone representing a “busy NYC restaurant” in Midtown East. It details the difference between the diners of 10 years ago and today. Bottom line – today’s diners are obsessed with selfies, texting, group photos and everything but getting their order in quickly.
So what do you think?
We are a popular restaurant for both locals and tourists alike. Having been in business for many years we noticed that although the number of customer’s we serve on a daily basis is almost the same today as it was 10 years ago, the service just seems super slow even thou we added lot’s more staff and cut back on the menu items.
One of the most common complaints on review sites against us and many restaurants in the area is that the service was slow and or they needed to wait a bit long for a table.
We decided to hire a firm to help us solve this mystery, and naturally the first thing they blamed it on was that the employees need more training and that maybe the kitchen staff is just not up to the task of serving that many customers.
Like most restaurants in NYC we have a surveillance system, and unlike today where it’s a digital system, 10 years ago we still used special high capacity tapes to record all activity. At any given time we had 4 special Sony systems recording multiple cameras. We would store the footage for 90 days just in case we need it for something.
The firm we hired suggested we locate some of the older tapes and analyze how the staff behaved 10 years ago versus how they behave now. We went down to our storage room but we couldn’t find any tapes at all.
We did find the recording devices, and luckily for us, each device has 1 tape in it that we simply never removed when we upgraded to the new digital system.
The date stamp on the old footage was Thursday July 1 2004, the restaurant was real busy that day. We loaded up the footage on a large size monitor, and next to it on a separate monitor loaded up the footage of Thursday July 3 2014, the amount of customers where only a bit more than 10 years prior.
I will quickly outline the findings. We carefully looked at over 45 transactions in order to determine the data below:
2004:
Customers walk in.
They gets seated and are given menus, out of 45 customers 3 request to be seated elsewhere.
Customers on average spend 8 minutes before closing the menu to show they are ready to order.
Waiters shows up almost instantly takes the order.
Food starts getting delivered within 6 minutes, obviously the more complex items take way longer.
Out of 45 customers 2 sent items back that where too cold we assume (given they were not steak we assume they wanted the item heated up more).
Waiters keep an eye out for their tables so they can respond quickly if the customer needs something.
Customers are done, check delivered, and within 5 minutes they leave.
Average time from start to finish: 1:05
2014:
Customers walk in.Customers get seated and is given menus, out of 45 customers 18 requested to be seated elsewhere.
Before even opening the menu they take their phones out, some are taking photos while others are simply doing something else on their phone (sorry we have no clue what they are doing and do not monitor customer WIFI activity).
7 out of the 45 customers had waiters come over right away, they showed them something on their phone and spent an average of 5 minutes of the waiter’s time. Given this is recent footage, we asked the waiters about this and they explained those customers had a problem connecting to the WIFI and demanded the waiters try to help them.
Finally the waiters are walking over to the table to see what the customers would like to order. The majority have not even opened the menu and ask the waiter to wait a bit.
Customer opens the menu, places their hands holding their phones on top of it and continue doing whatever on their phone.
Waiter returns to see if they are ready to order or have any questions. The customer asks for more time.
Finally they are ready to order.
Total average time from when the customer was seated until they placed their order 21 minutes.
Food starts getting delivered within 6 minutes, obviously the more complex items take way longer.
26 out of 45 customers spend an average of 3 minutes taking photos of the food.
14 out of 45 customers take pictures of each other with the food in front of them or as they are eating the food. This takes on average another 4 minutes as they must review and sometimes retake the photo.
9 out of 45 customers sent their food back to reheat. Obviously if they didn’t pause to do whatever on their phone the food wouldn’t have gotten cold.
27 out of 45 customers asked their waiter to take a group photo. 14 of those requested the waiter retake the photo as they were not pleased with the first photo. On average this entire process between the chit chatting and reviewing the photo taken added another 5 minutes and obviously caused the waiter not to be able to take care of other tables he/she was serving.
Given in most cases the customers are constantly busy on their phones it took an average of 20 minutes more from when they were done eating until they requested a check. Furthermore once the check was delivered it took 15 minutes longer than 10 years ago for them to pay and leave.
8 out of 45 customers bumped into other customers or in one case a waiter (texting while walking) as they were either walking in or out of the Restaurant.
Average time from start to finish: 1:55
We are grateful for everyone who comes into our restaurant, after all there are so many choices out there. But can you please be a bit more considerate?
Gilberto Aceves Navarro’s Las Biciciletas appeared at the Fruit Street Sitting Area in Brooklyn Heights last week. Karl Junkersfeld has filed a video report about them.
There are many exhibits in Brooklyn and Manhattan through September. Full map here.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/68607