Post Beats Times on Pumpkin Story

As I mentioned down thread, the New York Times had an appalling pumpkin story on its front page last Saturday. I guess since Halloween is around the corner, editors are clamoring for pumpkin stories. Well, if that's the case, The Washington Post wins the prize with this one.

Sad! People.

This site's a gem. I hadn't laughed so hard since when I first discovered www.Engrish.com.

Inadvertently Supporting a Rat

My first night in NYC, this go around, was spent at the Malibu Hotel on Broadway. Little did I know, it is owned by one of the city's worst landlords. Hank Freid comes in at No. 5. You can read the report at this Web site. Go to the tab "Top Ten List" and at the bottom of the entry you will see a link to a PDF file, which gives the lowdown on some of the city's worst.

Risky Business

Two of the most dangerous jobs in New York are driving Gypsy cabs and delivering food. Here's an item from the Daily News about a guy who got shot in the eye for trying to stop someone who ripped him off. A read.

Raw Photography in New York

I' ve not been here long enough to expand my sources, so again, I got this from Gothamist, but it's worthy. Here.
.

One-year Birthday for Active (and semi-active) Blogging

On Wednesday, October 12, I started writing regularly for Rank, a blog I started in Taiwan. Now it's in better hands. Go take a gander.

New York City Taken Over by Crack-addled Squirrels.

Okay I cribbed this first from Gothamist, who got it from Gawker. Take a look.

News Judgment Anyone?

Saturday wasn't a good day for the front page of the city's dailies. One of two lead stories in the Daily News was was that tired vein of a reporter boards a plane, sends luggage with exacto knives, or gets on a bus looking suspicious. This time one of the tabloid's reporters boarded the city's subways with a baby stroller with no baby, just to see if the cops would pick up on it, and you know what--gasp!--they didn't. Now I guess we're all supposed to be shaking in our boots about how damn unsafe it is to ride those subways if the cops can't even manage to mistake a well-groomed, and fit I might add, woman Daily News reporter for a terrorist. So, you put the paper down and shrug your shoulders, and say "Well, it's a tabloid after all."

Then you turn to the front page of the New York Times, and below the fold is a compelling article on how some of the produce at pick-it-yourself pumpkin patches doesn't actually come from that particular patch. Scandal of Scandals! To make matters worse, here's a reporter who is trying too damn hard to sex up a story:

"Not since 1948, when microfilm hidden in a hollowed-out pumpkin led to Alger Hiss's indictment on espionage charges, has there been such a whiff of pumpkin intrigue."

I kid you not.

Lost in the Shuffle

Big stories dominate, as well they should. Yet, here is a development at Guantanamo, that I have yet to see the US press cover. Perhaps it has, but The Guardian makes it front-page news, one story away from Katrina.

The Fly By

Okay, a quick summation of the last week. I sat in on a murder hearing in the Bronx, got thrown out of a public school and spent several hours with outreach workers for the Bondala Initiative in Harlem, an AIDS prevention program that focuses on undocumented West African Immigrants.

Tomorrow, I'm scheduled to check out a press conference where an independent investigation of the Oli-for-Food scandal releases its final report. Should be interesting.

Jargon Gone Terribly Wrong

I've already e-mailed this account to a number of friends, but it's such a gem, I thought I'd share with all. On my first day in NYC, I met a woman who was attending a conference on animals here because she works at a zoo clear across the country. I asked her what she did at the zoo and she told me that she was an Artificial Emotional Enhancement Coordinator. I replied that I'd been out of the country for awhile, so didn't have the slightest clue what that meant. She looked at me and said, "It means I make toys for the monkeys."

Living in America ...

Out in the country there are so many things to avoid such as the three poisons, ivy, oak and sumacs. Then there are ticks, lyme's disease, snakes and God knows what else. One must avoid the television as well or soon you will find yourself repeating the inane babble you heard on ailse eight in the grocery store last night, Cereal Canyon, when some woman said, "I can't believe it, I just missed my FAVORITE reality show." But perhaps the greatest danger of navigating through this land of plenty is, well, the plenty itself. Every restaurant piles your plate high with as many calories as they can, ziggaurats of food, most of it fried.