For the past week, I’ve been going into Manhattan via the Triboro, and each time I drive down 125th Street, I’ve wondered about the sign on the building at 26 E 125th Street for the Trowel & Square Ballroom.

It’s such a great period sign, with red lettering that looks as though it dates to the 1960s. And I like the smaller sign to the left noting it as being “Available for all social functions,” which feels equally dated.

But what was the Trowel & Square Ballroom, and why was it called that? Does it still exist, or was it replaced by the Salvation Army that now occupies the first floor? And if so, is there anything left? Last Saturday, I noticed signs in the window announcing the store’s closing and realized that if I was going to check it out, this would probably be my last chance.

The ground floor certainly has the size to have once been a dance hall, with enormous ceilings and stretching all the way to the rear of the building.

But just stepping through the door, you can feel a real sense of age to the place, with detailed tin ceilings, a mezzanine balcony, ancient hardwood floors, and a row of castiron columns…

…all leading back to a sort-of grand staircase:

The balcony wraps around 3/4ths of the room…

…with columns literally bursting up through the floors:

Here, another column protrudes through the tin-backed staircase:

A detail of the capital:

Each column is studded about midway up:

A variety of tin designs cover the ceiling:

At the rear of the balcony space is a large open area with a slanted roof:

A bit of wall detailing:

But what I like best are the floors, which are wonderfully worn with age:

A squat little radiator at the front:

A hidden No Smoking sign:

But was this once a ballroom, or dance hall of some kind once? The only history I could find was that in 1938, the building was sold to Killian & Ryan to be used as an auction gallery and furniture showroom, which might explain the design. Then again, the balconies seem a little too tight to serve much purpose for store displays.

At some point, part of the building became the MW Alpha Masonic Lodge, which explains the “Trowel & Square” name. Today, the ballroom advertised for rent is on the second floor of the space…

…with the Masonic Hall on the third floor (a number of Masonic sites list this as a bogus chapter, whatever that means).

But I’m surprised they’d put such a big sign out front for just the smaller second floor space. It almost seems more likely that the first floor was the original ballroom, only to later be rented out as a commercial space. I asked several people in the store along with the building’s janitor, but no one seemed to know.

The building is for sale (only $6.5 million) and the Salvation Army has lost its lease, and I wouldn’t be surprised if all of this is gutted in a year or two.

Maybe the answers are lost to history, but I’d love to know if these floors were worn down by customers coming to look at clothes and furniture, or revelers dancing the night away. If you have any information, please share!

-SCOUT

Weird. We always thought you order darkest skinned to lightest.

POW!

Today, speaking at our own Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, Tom Wolfe was asked what aspect of contemporary New York life he’d like to see reported on more often. To which the famed author responded, with total earnestness, “I have never seen a profile of the hipster.”

Seriously, Tom? You’ve never seen a profile of a hipster? Clearly the Man in the White Suit hasn’t met the Gray Lady, having somehow missed the The Times‘s near weekly anthropological fascination with said species (see How I Became a Hipster, Caught in the Hipster Trap, and The Hipster in the Mirror for a quick primer).

Mr. Wolfe, a consummate fashionista himself, then went on to express his fascination with the hipster aesthetic, from their very skinny pants to their incongruous adoption of certain old-fashioned hats. “I’m glad they are coming back,” he said of the fedora. (Come to think of it, Tom Wolfe is kind of a hipster himself. Heck, he might even be the original hipster. Shit. We just blew our own minds.)

Regardless, we’re glad that Tom has expressed interest in covering this pressing issue. In fact, we think it would be a great idea for his next book project, and we can’t wait for the intrepid 82-year old to go all “I am Charlotte Simmons” on Bushwick hipster culture. The Electric Kombucha MDMA Test? Count us in for a pre-order.

I mean, they are *literally* fungus.

Mushrooms are empirically disgusting. They are the worm-iest of foods.

yumsugar.com

Worms or mushrooms?? YOU CAN'T EVEN TELL.

greencompanyeffect.com

Mushrooms are literally fungus.

Fungus does not go in the mouth!!!!

servingupfortcollins.com

Did you know that the FDA legally allows 19 maggots and 74 mites in every 3.5-ounce can of mushrooms!!

FUCK THAT.

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Japonais – Piyano 1

Back in 2012, I found a few incredible instrumental piano tracks in Niger. This trip to Agadez, I asked around and friends were quick to identify them as the work of a young man known as “Japonais”* who had been killed in the rebellion of 2009. It was soon after that I was meeting with his family.

Born with the name Alhoussane Khadim, he was given the knickname “Japonais” as a baby for his small eyes. When he was 12 years old, his mother traveled to Libya and returned with a keyboard. Japonais had a natural ear for music, and taught himself to play, eventually upgrading to a larger keyboard purchased in Zinder. He played his piano in weddings, sometimes accompanying musicians, like Abdallah Oumbadougou. He remeeventually learned to play guitar and drums. “He wrote songs for all the family and for all his friends,” his sister explained. “Everyone had their own song.”

Japonais – Piyano 2

During the last rebellion of Niger, Japonais joined the MNJ (Niger Movement for Justice), a group seeking independence in the North of Niger. For all appearances, the Niger rebellion seems to lack the popular support of the current Malian rebellion. On the other hand, and maybe in explanation for its rapid suppression, the Niger rebellion also was in direct conflict with foreign interests – namely the French company Areva that owns and operates uranium mines in the North with a notorious track record. “It’s one thing to go up against Niger, another to go up against the French,” a friend explains. In 2009, while battling government troops, Japonais was captured, arrested and subsequently “disappeared.” He was 25 years old. The fact that he was captured alive and assassinated by the Nigerien government is unfortunately unsurprising. (“They do this all the time,” a young man explains as I read him this text).

When I ask the family if they have any pictures, they are able to find only two – one of Japonais, a child no more than 12 years old, around the time he first started to play the piano. The other photo shows a young man on the left, arm draped over his friend. The photo is worn and degraded from time and sand and sun. These are the only pictures they have, they explain. After his death, soldiers came to investigate his background and arrest his friends, so they gathered up all the photos and burned them.

Today the music of Japonais continues to circulate through the digital networks of Niger. The songs are often titled “Piyano,” or “Instru,” or sometimes “Bambino” (there are many people that believe the songs are by said artist, due to this clerical error). But not once have I seen one carrying the name of the musician Japonais.

* There is another “Japonais” in the group Tinariwen. This is not him.

The post remembrance appeared first on sahelsounds.

There's a reason wonton soup became one of the backbones of the Chinese-American restaurant menu. Beyond being simply delicious, it is a taste that crosses borders. It's clear, meat-based broth with pasta, meat, and perhaps a few vegetables; If you know chicken noodle soup, you know wonton soup. Long before the current high state of Chinese food awareness in New York arose, wonton soup allowed folks unfamiliar with Chinese cuisine to feel like they were being a bit adventurous while still finding comfort in familiar flavors and texture.

As a kid, a hot bowl of wonton soup was the start of every Chinese take out meal we had, and usually the best part, authenticity be damned. I loved how slippery and salty the skins would get, and how the little slick of fat on top of the bowl would cling to each wonton's folds. I loved the balance of meaty flavor with chives and cabbage in the broth, and the little bouncy nuggets of pork and shrimp hidden in the folded depths of each skin.

I don't know if I'm just looking at the wontons of my past through a slick of rose-tinted chicken fat, but It seems to me like the average quality of wonton soup has been steadily declining. Perhaps my taste as a kid was poor or perhaps wonton soup is really getting worse. Either way, it's been getting harder and harder to find a bowl that pleases.

The solution? Try every available version in Manhattan's chinatown until I find one that recaptures—nay, eclipses—those childhood memories. The best bowl of wonton soup in the city.

The Contenders

I quickly realized that even with limiting my options to Manhattan's Chinatown that tasting every single wonton soup available would be a tall task. I decided to limit myself to restaurants in which wonton soup features prominently on their menu. This narrowed down to options 23. They fell into certain categories of restaurants: Classic Chinese-American New York restaurants like Wo Hop and Big Wong, Fuzhou-style quick lunch counters with their teeny-tiny wontons, and noodle shops that serve wonton noodle soups.

There was a bit of overlap in these categories—for instance, some of the restaurants I'd call Chinese-American also served wonton noodle soups—but once I tasted all of the soups, the classification of where each belonged was pretty clear.

When plain wonton soup was available on the menu, that's generally what I ordered. In some cases, wonton noodle soup was the recommended or most popular menu option, in which case I ordered that. Here's what I tasted, in no particular order:

• East Corner WonTon
• New HK Wonton Garden
• Shu Jiao Fu Zhou Cuisine Restaurant Inc
• Prosperity Dumpling
• Vanessa's Dumpling House
• Tanxia Wang Fuzhou Cuisine
• Great NY Noodletown
• Big Wong Restaurant
• Nice Green Bo
• Tasty Dumpling
• Noodle Village
• Big Wing Wong Restaurant
• Joe's Shanghai Restaurant
• Wonton Garden
• Prosperity Dumpling
• Wo Hop
• C & L Dumpling House
• J.J. Noodle Restaurant
• Sheng Wang
• Old Sichuan Cuisine
• 69 Bayard St
• Hop Kee
• Bo Ky Restaurant

The Criteria

It's tough to do a completely fair side-by-side ranking of all the wonton soups available because there are so many distinct styles. There's the stuff they serve in barbecue shops flavored with bits of char siu. There's the teeny tiny dumplings in celery-flavored broth at the Fuzhou-style restaurants. There's the plump shrimp and pork dumplings in soup flavored with dried seafood and yellow chives at Hong Kong-style restaurants. So in addition to naming an overall winner, I also decided to pick a few of my favorites from among the other great bowls.

Wonton soups were based on the following parameters:

• Overall: Was this a satisfying bowl of soup? Did it taste like it was made with care in a real kitchen using real ingredients, or is it on this menu as an afterthought? Would I want to hunker down on a cold night with only this bowl to keep me company?
• The Wontons: First and foremost, a wonton wrapper needs to be tender and thin enough that it has a pleasantly slippery chew without a hint of doughiness. Some styles are thicker or thinner than others, but doughy is never a good thing. The fillings need to be flavorful and moist, and if there are whole shrimp present, they should be crunchy and pop in your mouth with briny flavor.
• The Broth: A balance of meat or ocean flavors need to form the backbone, balanced by good use of vegetables and aromatics. The broths should be rich enough that they'd make a satisfying bowl of soup on their own—a bit of fat floating across the surface goes a long way in adding flavor and body. And proper seasoning levels can go without saying.

The Results

In this taste test, I was more surprised by the losers than by the winners. I went into this project thinking that even worst wonton soup would be a soup worth eating. After all, I grew up with an indiscriminate love for the stuff whether I ordered it at our favorite restaurants in Chinatown (anyone remember Sun Lok Kee down Mott or the original Phoenix Garden under the Elizabeth Street arcade before it burned down in a wok fire?) or one of the crummy take out joints that every captive audience Vermont ski town had in the '80s. I was wrong.

Some restaurants, like the classic Wo Hop, had wontons with skins that tasted like they were cut out of raw lasagna dough and a broth that tasted of leftover roast pork. Others, like Great NY Noodle Town had slippery, metallic broths and shrimp that were so past their prime that ammonia was the only noticeable aromatic. Truth be told, there are plenty of poor wonton soups in this town.

That said, there were some excellent ones as well. Here's what I liked.

The Best Overall: Noodle Village

This is hands down the best wonton soup you'll find in Chinatown, if not the whole city.

The Broth: Clean and thin in texture, but deeply flavored with dried flounder and yellow chives, giving it a slight ocean-y aroma that compounds its savoriness.

The Wontons: They may be sparse in number, but they're the biggest and juiciest of the lot with plenty of bouncy pork and shrimp that pop with a great crunch in your mouth.

At $5.50 for the bowl, this was the most expensive of the soups I tasted, and worth every extra penny.

Best Wonton Noodle Soup: 102 Noodle Town

Also known as Big Wing Wong (not to be confused with our Chinese-American-style runner up Big Wong), the fresh wonton noodles with wontons ($5) is what to order here.

The Broth: A clear, meat-based broth with plenty of scallions and cilantro, giving it a fresh, clean flavor.

The Wontons: Slippery skins and a sweet, juicy filling make these fun to eat. There are no whole shrimp here, but small chunks of shrimp folded into the filling. The noodles are also stand out—chewy and easily slurpable with a resilient texture.

Best Wonton Noodle Soup Runner-Up: HK Wonton Garden

At $4.50, this generous bowl of noodles and wontons is a great deal, if a little thin on flavor.

The Broth: Very mild in flavor with a little too much salt (perhaps to cover up some basic flaws). It could use more meat and a bit more vegetation. A touch of Chinese cabbage would go a long way.

The Wontons: What the soup lacks in flavor, the wontons make up. Nice, firm shrimp, very thin skins, and a sweet, porky flavor.

Best Fuzhou Style: Shu Jiao Fuzhou

Rather than a half dozen large wontons, Fuzhou-style wonton soups feature dozens and dozens of wispy, translucent, baby wontons in a clear, celery and scallion-flavored broth. For $2, Shu Jiaou Fuzhou's soup has the highest deliciousness to cost ratio in this lineup.

The Broth: Meaty and rich with a nice slick of flavorful fat running across its surface and plenty of celery, cabbage, and scallion flavor to balance it out. It's well seasoned—I'd drink the broth alone and be happy on a cold fall night.

The Wontons: Though they're still small and wispy, the pork dumplings at Shu Jiaou have the same robust sweet pork flavor as their larger, plumper cousins. For me, these things are comfort food at its best. Think tortellini soup, Chinese-style.

Best Fuzhou Style Runner Up: Tanxia Fuzhou

Tanxia Fuzhou is a block away and offers the same amount of soup at the same price ($2) as Shu Jiao Fuzhou, and to be honest, it was a tough call. Both restaurants have redeeming qualities, but Shu Jiao's superior broth pushed it to the top in the end.

The Broth: Slightly underseasoned and a little thin, but a decent amount of celery and scallion flavor and shimmering fat on top.

The Wontons: The thinnest and lightest wontons I tasted. If you love that feeling of their skins dissolving on your tongue (I do), then these are the wontons for you, despite their slightly bland fillings.

Best Chinese-American Style: New Green Bo

New Green Bo (formerly known as Nice Green Bo) is ostensibly a Shanghainese restuarant, and its soup dumplings and other dough-based steamed and fried snacks speak to that. However, their wonton soup is Chinese-American all the way, and like other similar restaurants in Chinatown, the servings at New Green Bo are larger. Eight over-stuffed wontons in a wide bowl of broth for only $4.75. It's easily enough to make a satisfying meal out of.

The Broth: Excuse me sir, but do you like chicken? This broth tastes like its made with straight up boiled chicken bones with some salt and perhaps a dash of white pepper and MSG added for flavor. Not much vegetation or aromatics going on in here. Still, it's satisfyingly rich and fatty.

The Wontons: Plump pork and cabbage filling wrapped up tortellini-style in pleasantly thin and tender skins. Of this style of soup we tasted, it was the only one that didn't have doughy wontons, making it the clear victor.

Best Chinese-American Style Runner Up: Big Wong

Again, our classification system is a little iffy considering that Big Wong serves noodles in their wonton soup, but if you walk in, it's about as classic Chinese-American as it gets. At $5.25 for five wontons and some noodles, it's not the best deal around.

The Broth: I liked the balance of pork and chicken flavor in this broth, with a bit of a roasted element going on. Plenty of salt makes you wonder what they're trying to cover up, but I found nothing offensive and polished my bowl clean over lunch.

The Wontons: The sweet, crunchy shrimp are the best part of these wontons. The dough is ever so slightly chewy and a little too thick. They also use a heavy hand with the sugar.

There's nothing like homemade.

Of course if you want the best wonton soup, there's only one way to achieve it: Make it yourself at home. Check out our recipe here!

About the author: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is the Chief Creative Officer of Serious Eats where he likes to explore the science of home cooking in his weekly column The Food Lab. You can follow him at @thefoodlab on Twitter, or at The Food Lab on Facebook.

Still hungry? Follow SE:NY on Twitter and Facebook.

American Cut's infamous $10 carrot.

The restaurant side dish is the ne plus ultra of check pumpers: Steakhouses long ago perfected the practice of charging too much for things like potatoes and spinach in an effort to get customers to spend, spend, spend. Things haven't changed. And some brave restaurateurs are inching prices ever upward, betting that customers used to seeing $10 sides — a standard price around town — won't be put off by contorni that costs a few bucks more. But is $15 really a fair price to charge for potatoes? Here are 21 of the most outrageously expensive sides in town.

Carrot-Glazed Carrot With Mint and Maldon
Where: American Cut
Cost: $10
A hen-of-the-woods mushroom dish with chile honey costs $14 at Marc Forgione's new steakhouse, but this $10 carrot is, in fact, a single carrot. Think that's a ridiculous price to pay for a vegetable? Beware: It's the cheapest side dish in this Grub Guide.

Sautéed Market Greens
Where: Hearth
Cost: $11
It's one thing to charge $12 for a plate of foraged mushrooms, but $11 for sautéed greens is tough to swallow. (That's the price of a green juice, after all.)

Baked Pasta
Where: Quality Italian
Cost: $11
There's a reason why restaurants love pasta: It costs very little to make so margins are incredibly high. Quality Italian offers three baked-pasta "sides" (artichoke maccheroni, pasta genovese, rigatoni and meatballs) for $11 each, while "the next classics" like creamed kale carbonara and pistachio-pesto baby potatoes are $10.

Wild Arugula With Lemons
Where: Marea
Cost: $11
These are more expensive sides at Marea — $14 delicata-squash caponata, $15 wild mushrooms — but they still probably don't have a higher profit margin than this very simple salad.

Sautéed Corn With Manchego, Jalapeños, and Lime
Where: ABC Kitchen
Cost: $11
It's quite possibly the most expensive Mexican corn dish in New York, and it costs just as much next door at ABC Cocina.

Truffled Thick-Cut Chips With Parmesan
Where: The East Pole
Cost: $12
At this new Upper East Side restaurant, you'll find some of the most expensive potato chips in the city — and it employs a classic menu trick. Adding the word "truffled" to the description gives restaurateurs the liberty to charge whatever they want.

Cauliflower, Goat Cheese, Cilantro
Where: Reynards
Cost: $12
Considering this restaurant in the Wythe Hotel is reasonably priced (entrées are in the low $20s), it's odd that a side of veggies costs so much. That said, cheesy cauliflower is damn good.

Shishito Peppers
Where: Monkey Bar
Cost: $12
Graydon Carter does what he pleases, and high price tags will never deter his celebrity clientele. To give you some context, most izakayas charge $6, tops.

Hot Buttered Corn and Chanterelles
Where: Charlie Bird
Cost: $12
While this comforting dish is ideal for early fall weather, the $8 side of Italian "kimchi"-style escarole with anchovies and Calabrian chilies is equally delightful — and leaves you more money to spend on the excellent wine.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts With House-Smoked Ham and Malt Agrodolce
Where: The Marrow
Cost: $12
Harold Dieterle's sides are at least elaborate: Sweet-pepper risotto comes with a deep-fried egg, pecorino, and pickled hot peppers; and roasted Delicata squash gets paired with pepperoncini, oregano, and saba.

Funghi Misti
Where: Perla
Cost: $12
More expensive mushrooms: A better bet here is the side of soft polenta with pecorino and ricotta instead — a (relative!) steal for $10.

Crimini Mushrooms With Escargot Butter
Where: Bill's Food & Drink
Cost: $12
Just a guess: The emphasis is on the butter, not the snails. It's no wonder that Platt's meal at John Delucie’s revamp of the old Bill’s Gay Nineties townhouse cost $660.71 for four people.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Sweet Potato and Surryano Ham
Where: Commerce
Cost: $14
This West Village mainstay also offers $12 duck fried rice with sesame, ginger, and soybeans.

Champignons Poêlés
Where: Minetta Tavern
Cost: $14
All the famed potato dishes and most of the veggie sides cost $10 (and the pommes aligot are just about perfect), but if you're feeling spendy, opt for the $14 plate of rich, buttery wild mushrooms.

Asparagus Salad
Where: Il Mulino Uptown
Cost: $14
Looks like this Il Mulino outpost hasn't changed a thing since Platt's no-star review last year: Basic sides like roasted potatoes, broccoli rabe with olive oil, peas with pancetta, and zucchini with lemon all cost $14.

Funghi Trifolati
Where: Maialino
Cost: $14
This Italian mushroom dish is traditionally prepared with white wine and anchovies. In Danny Meyer's defense, all of the other contorni side dishes are priced at $8 each.

Grilled Asparagus
Where: Delmonico's
Cost: $14
The Wall Street steakhouse assumes that if you're already shelling out $49 for its signature Lobster Newburg, you won't blink at the $14 charge for asparagus with lemon, olive oil, and sea salt. A side of king-crab macaroni and cheese costs $18, too. Woof.

Dogana Potatoes
Where: Carbone
Cost: $15
Each side at Carbone costs a whopping $15, but this cross-cultural riff on the classic French dish, pommes Anna, is worth it. (Other $15 sides include charred broccoli, funghi trifolati, creamed escarole, and corn tartufo.)

French Fries
Where: Nello
Cost: $15
Of course restauranteur Nello Balan douses his thick-cut fries in truffle oil: This is the same guy who just sold a $95,000 white truffle to a Russian billionaire. He charges $12 for sautéed spinach, string beans, and broccoli, but steamed vegetables cost $10 (a bargain!).

Truffled Gnocchi With Parmesan Cream
Where: Arlington Club
Cost: $16
There's a reason why Platt called this steakhouse "grievously overpriced": Both the gnocchi and a side of wild mushrooms cost $16. Other sides, like crispy zucchini blossoms, sell for $14.

White-Truffle Risotto
Where: Craft
Cost: $95
The white-truffle risotto is in fact listed as a side dish on the menu at Tom Colicchio's flagship restaurant — and it's over $100 with tax. Whether the pricey rice is worth it depends on how much you value real truffles. Low-rollers might consider the $16 corn-and-bacon risotto instead.

Read more posts by Sierra Tishgart

Filed Under: grub guides, abc kitchen, american cut, arlington club, bill's food & drink, carbone, charlie bird, commerce, craft, delmonico's minetta tavern, hearth, il mulino uptown, maialino, marea, nello, new york, perl a, quality italian, reynards, side dishes, sides, the east pole, the marrow

The ongoing movement to raise the wages of fast food workers got a boost today from two new reports that attempt to quantify just how much those low wages cost society as a whole. It's a lot.

Read more...

Combining the glee of being a weird cat person with the fun of being a weird wine person, Japanese company B&H Lifes is introducing Nyan Nyan Nouveau: "wine exclusively for cats."

Read more...

Before Socks, there was Misty Malarky Ying Yang.

Misty Malarky Ying Yang was the apple-headed Siamese cat of Jimmy Carter's daughter, Amy.

research.archives.gov

research.archives.gov

Giant enough to hide a Misty Malarky Ying Yang...

research.archives.gov

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View Entire List ›

* “Never change, CNBC….” (@dorseyshaw)

Rare like a three-legged unicorn, one of those actually funny parody Twitter accounts popped up today to send up the insanely valuable hip-kid bible Vice. The premise is simple: @Vice_Is_Hip ("We're cool because you're shit") is churning out absurdist, extreme headlines that ring so close to true of the third-world foraging, drug-guzzling multimedia company that it's hard to tell the difference. Truth is stranger than fiction and all that. Seriously, see if you can spot the parodies among the self-parodying.

1. The Search for Deso Dogg, the German Rapper Turned Jihadi Poster

2. I Went to a Gay Rodeo, and Now I Want to Bone Cowboys

3. Meet the Tokyo Teens Having Surgery to Look Like Robert Mugabe

4. Meet the Guys Who Want to Turn Tony Danza Into a Dadaist Meme

5. Meet the 89-Year-Old Canadian Man Convinced Jack Osbourne Is The Messiah

6. We Hung Out with Jewish Bodybuilders in Damascus

7. We Went to a GWAR Zombie Prom

8. Talking Bombs, Jihad and Miley Cyrus with the Homeless in Houston

9. Meet the Ex-Murder with the Real-Life Lego Crackhouse in Chile

10. The Strongest Dwarf in New Jersey

11. We Went to a Foam Party in Magaluf

12. The Reluctant Roma Cannibals of Romania

13. Cowboy Heroin Addicts and the New Rise of Communism on the Streets of Texas

14. Meet the Latvian High Hefner Who Wants to Make Haringey the New Orlando

15. Why Can You Go to Prison for Making Scat Porn?

16. Meet the Girls Who Are Terrorizing Juggalos with Their Perfect Asses

17. We're Killing Dogs with Phil Collins' Former Bodyguard in Vienna

18. Why Is There a Photo of R-Patz in the Cuban Revolution Museum?

19. Meet the Woman Who's on a Quest to Have Sex with 100,000 Men

20. Meet the Turkish Eminem Who Married His Dad

Answers: 1. Real 2. Real  3. Fake 4. Real 5. Fake 6. Fake 7. Real 8. Fake 9. Fake 10. Real 11. Real 12. Real 13. Fake 14. Fake 15. Real 16. Real 17. Fake 18. Real 19. Real 20. Fake

Read more posts by Joe Coscarelli

Filed Under: the internet ,media ,twitter ,vice ,blog-stained wretches ,hipsters

I came across this hilarious Craigslist ad today where the poster is offering his room in Williamsburg for a steal of $800. The one catch is that it comes with a roommate who wants to talk about Syria too much. From the post:

I’d like to return to my apartment, but I know that as soon as I do, I’ll be confronted by a roommate with opinions on the Syrian conflict and a determination to share them with me. The apartment has high ceilings and exposed brick along the far wall. At only $800/month it’s a steal for the location.

I won’t listen to your god damn opinions on Syria, Mike. I won’t do it.

and

As for me, I haven’t been home in a week. I’ve been staying late at work, and then grounding myself at a bar until last call. Then I wander the streets until dawn breaks. Cold, afraid, and lonely; content only in knowing that I don’t have to talk to my roommate about Syria.

Oh really, Mike? “Apathy towards the Middle East is bankrupting this nation’s morality”? Stop using my shampoo.

Read the full post here

- Josh Morrissey is on Twitter

The post Great $800 room available in Williamsburg with one catch appeared first on Free Williamsburg.

[Photo: Krieger; Artwork: Go Ramen]
Keizo Shimamoto's popular ramen burgers will be available in limited quantities at Dassara in Carroll Gardens from September 14 through October 15. The restaurant is hosting a kickoff party this Saturday night after Shimamoto gets done with Smorgasburg. Dassara previously served a "bootleg Black Label" version of the ramen burger as a special.

Will people line up for the noodle burgers when they're served at an actual restaurant? Hard to say. Hybrid food mania was really a summer 2013 kind of thing, but maybe it still has some legs and will last into early fall.
· Limited Edition Ramen Burger™ at Dassara... [Go Ramen]
· Ramen Burger Announcement [Dassara]
· All Coverage of Dassara [~ENY~]

Finally, a marketing expert has laid out an explanation on how, exactly, to do an appropriate 9/11-themed ad.

Via ilovecharts.tumblr.com

Alright then.

youtube.com

Wow, isn't nature just amazing?

newton64.ca

Yep.

This isn’t too bizarre — when else is one to get a chance to take a souvenir photo in front of a gigantic poster of the Hong Kong skyline? I mean, holy moly, everyone — it’s a gigantic photo of the Hong Kong skyline!

August 21, CFP, via NetEase, which has more photos.

(H/T Shanghaiist)

Not quite, Mediaite

From other Times book excerpts:

…and there are more. (Thanks to the reader who sent these.)

* In a nearly unprecedented move, the Times prints the F-word in its entirety (theatlanticwire.com)
* What got the New York Times to finally drop an F-bomb? (mediaite.com)

Fuck in New York Times book excerpts:
The Sopranos on the Couch * Positively Fifth Street * Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time * American Vertigo * The Sights Along the Harbor * The Possibility of an Island

CNBC today

* Kayla Tausche: “A deca-box. Is this a CNBC first?” (@kaylatausche) | “There was even a doza-box once.” (@bobfasbender)
* “You know the situation is serious when the ten-box rarity hits your television screen.” (storify.com/CNBC)

CNBC in 2008 (via “The Daily Show”)

* “The enormity of this economic collapse is so huge that eight CNBC pundits aren’t enough.” (thedailyshow.com)

GLONK

This remarkable photo shows the moment just before Animal NY's Aymann Ismail was jumped by a group of spray paint-wielding Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators—an attack he wrote about in an equally exceptional article. (Just wait until the part where he calls his mother.)

Read more...

It’s (almost) as easy as 一，二，三.

Mandarin does not give a damn about tenses.

There are none!

nikenyuanita.blogspot.com

The alphabet is totally phonetic.

It's called Pinyin and it makes the ABCs look pretty lame.

Scott Meltzer / publicdomainpictures.net

livefrombeijing.com

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Filed under: Food and Drink, North America, United States, Video, Budget Travel, Nightlife

NYC happy hours that provide food for free were an essential survival tool for me when I was younger and in college in New York. Notoriously an expensive city, New York isn't without its budget secrets. Happy hours that will feed you for free are among those secrets. Whether you're visiting or living in New York, if you're trying to make a little bit of money stretch while still having a good time, these 10 NYC happy hours that provide free food will help you to accomplish the seemingly impossible: to eat and drink incredibly cheaply in New York City.

1. Agozar, 324 Bowery
Buy a drink between 5 p.m.-8 p.m. and get free tapas.

2. The Charleston, 174 Bedford Ave. (Brooklyn)
Free personal pizza with a drink purchase between 12 p.m.-8 p.m.

3. Aurora Soho, 510 Broome St.
Puff pastries, flatbreads, tomato paste and cookies are put out between 5 p.m.-7 p.m.

4. Tarallucci E Vino, 15 E 18th St.
Snacks like quiche and pizza are put out for drinkers on weekdays between 4 p.m.-close.

5. Crocodile Lounge, 325 E 14th St.
Free personal pizza with the purchase of a drink.

Continue reading 10 NYC Happy Hours Where You Can Eat For Free

10 NYC Happy Hours Where You Can Eat For Free originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 09 Aug 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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