Filed under: Hiking, Guatemala, Budget Travel, Central America

If guidebook writers even bother to mention Guatemala's Semuc Champey, they rarely offer more than a teaser about the enchanting natural wonder. The cascading pools of turquoise and emerald are often looked over in favor of the many other places worth venturing on the Guatemalan map, among them the ruins of Tikal, the colonial city of Antigua and the volcano-ringed Lake Atitlán.

I should know: I was an editor of one of those guidebooks. After reading the short description of Semuc Champey over (and over... and over...) something about it aroused my curiosity. So when I embarked on a 10-day trip from Guatemala City to Belize City, I made sure Semuc Champey was on the itinerary - even if it was a little out of the way. Now that I've been there and back, I can tell you it was well worth the extra effort and the few extra bumps in the road.

Gallery: Guatemala's Semuc Champey

Continue reading Semuc Champey: Guatemala's Next Big Attraction

Semuc Champey: Guatemala's Next Big Attraction originally appeared on Gadling on Sun, 09 Dec 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If we were friends with John Paulson, we might start worrying right about now.

Clearly, the hedge fund gazillionaire is suffering from exhaustion, or why else would he be acting like the NBA players in the first 75-ish minutes of Space Jam?

CNBC reports that P-Money is down 17 percent in his main Advantage fund this year, and nearly 30 percent down in his Gold fund. Combined with last year's dismal performance, this year's face-plant means that Paulson has now spent 24 months in a row failing to live up to the lofty expectations he set in 2010, when he made — let's see, 20 percent of ... hmm ... carry the one — approximately infinity dollars.

So, John, as your imaginary but genuinely concerned friend, here's our advice: Kick your feet up. Relax, breathe deep, take a little walk in the park. Send the boys home in 2013, get a mud facial, drink some daiquiris in Cabo, maybe buy one of these, and come back in 2014 refreshed and ready to earn your 2-and-20. Your investors will still be there, and they'll be happy to see you back to normal.

It'll do you good. We promise.

Read more posts by Kevin Roose

Filed Under: paulson in peril ,business ,wall street ,john paulson ,if we were friends with john paulson we'd be staging an intervention

Starring Bo, the administration's vessel of holiday glee .

From The White House Blog:

The card was designed by Larassa Kabel, a professional artist from Des Moines, Iowa. Ms. Kabel has been creating photorealistic prints, paintings and drawings for the past 8 years and was featured as a solo artist in the Des Moines Art Center's Iowa Artist Show in 2009, the Iowa Artist 2010 group show and many other solo and group shows in Iowa, Michigan, Texas, Florida and New York. Her work is in several private and corporate collections including Aviva, Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, and the World Food Prize headquarters. She also has a much-loved dog at home, which is why she chose to feature Bo in this year’s White House Holiday card.

By Our Correspondent

I’m posting this anonymously for obvious reasons, but apparently along with good folks like Charlie Custer, Will Moss and more, my extraordinary drug dealer has suddenly become part of the Diaspora.

Probably deported, but he was a true gentleman and gracious businessman while he lasted. Chinese business folk could learn a lot from him – shit, I happily recommend him as a lecturer on customer relations to any Chinese business school, including the vaunted Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.

He was African, of course, but a grade above the shysters prowling Sanlitun with their sly nudges and bogus-to-thoroughly-overpriced mediocre self-medications.

I’m a child of the 60s and 70s and no stranger to recreational use, though didn’t even bother to look when first landing in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, as besotted I was with the new experience, then discovering that heavily codeine-laced Madame Pearl cough syrup was readily available should I feel the need.

Upon relocating to Beijing I first met my man – call him Dre & Co – when a fellow blogger asked him to make a home delivery as I was visiting. Good herb and some other wares, including hash, ecstasy and the sweet cousin were on his menu. And home delivery! Take that, KFC! He seemed affable and affordable so I later called him for a further meet and greet and an order.

A small dependable b-t-c relationship ensued through the months and years, even during the Olympics crackdown. We finally arranged a mutually convenient meeting place where people didn’t look too askance at a black and white guy “talking” as my address kept changing. And yes, there were occasional mishaps; bad product a couple times for which he actually apologized and gave me refunds when I gave him what was left.

Unfarkingbeliable! I think perhaps only Target stores in the US offer this kind service. And a couple of times I accidentally underpaid him 100 kuai for which he forgave me and took the next time we met. Unlike say, the local power, phone, gas and water companies that suddenly cut you off at 8 pm with no notice because you’re 5 kuai overdue.

He’d also send txt messages about weekend “specials” and for at least three New Years running was the first person – before my gf, my pals, coworkers, etc — to send me greetings.

At times though the texts kinda left me in a small communication quandary. He’d use sort of pseudo-Jamaican patois as in “be dere soon mon,” which kinda left me wondering if I should respond like the basic starchy white guy I am — “That is fine, Mr. Dre. Please do not hesitate to take your time” — or, “Cool, mon.” I finally just settled on “cool.”

Dre later morphed into Sly and then Frank as visas ran out or other vague problems ensued, but the chain didn’t dry up. My phone number remained constant as did the quality service. While back in the USA for an extended period before returning to BJ, I still received texts about weekend specials, holiday greetings, and finally replied I was outta country but keep my number handy, I shall return.

I did and business ensued as we’d never been apart. Then as all good things do, especially in China, it came to a sudden, inexplicable end.

I recently had an unexpected message from a Chinese friend who wondered if I could score a small amount of weed for her with which to “experiment.” Sure, happy to corrupt and undermine the social moral order, m’dear. That’s what friends and foreigners are for.

Alas, calls and texts to Dre & Co for the first time in years went unanswered and then into the “does not exist” mode. I scrambled through another foreign friend who used her dependable connection and managed to help me out. The Chinese friend thanked me later but said it did nothing for her. Dre & Co would’ve given a refund, I suspect, but those daze are gone.

Wherever you are, though, keep on pushin’ mon. You were a model worker in an otherwise merciless town.

From Bond to Britney Spears, a year of triumph for the counted out and the overlooked.

Image: Murray Close/Lionsgate

With the entertainment industry fighting off challenges left and right — from the digital world to international competition — Hollywood has been running scared for years now, seeking magic bullets in everything from 3-D to teen vampires. At times like these, the doors swing open to the less traditional talents, and new audiences find their day in the sun. A business that is generally complacent to churn out a steady diet of action francises marketed to teenage boys built around stubble-faced hunks finds itself looking in different directions.

2012 was a year of impossible comebacks and small-timers turned stars; a time when the biggest star on the horizon was an indie actress barely out of her teens, when those used as props in the lives of the giants turned the story around to their advantage, and when wacky television animators got tapped to host Hollywood's biggest night. Some had been counted out, others just ignored, others forced us to see them in a new light. But one thing's for sure: A year or two ago, no one would have expected that these would be the faces everyone would be talking about at the end of 2012.

1. Jennifer Lawrence

Image: Murray Close/Lionsgate

From Mel Gibson to Tom Cruise, Will Smith to Robert Downey Jr., the blockbuster stars of Hollywood, those leading lights who could move effortlessly from action to comedy and drama have traditionally had one thing in common — they have all been men. Kristen Stewart knocked on this door with the Twilight series, but this year, Jennifer Lawrence kicked it down, and with no giant action hunk dominating the screens right now, the next few years could easily see the box office crown passing to this young actress, straight out of the indie circuit.

In 2010, the teenage actress proved her indie acting cred with a showstopping performance in Winter’s Bone. In 2012, however, she established herself as perhaps the most potent presence in film today. This year, she gave audiences a one-two punch: first as the front woman of filmdom’s newest goliath, The Hunger Games. Then, she backed up that show of box office creds with a dazzling tour-de-force romantic comedy lead in Silver Linings Playbook, a role in which she both charms the abrasive Bradley Cooper and stares down Robert DeNiro. With range and presence winning over audiences and critics alike, Lawrence is poised to become, essentially, the only giant new star Hollywood has created in years, and ready for a run of box office success unseen by any female star since Julia Roberts' Pretty Woman decade.

View Entire List ›

Enjoy.

Government-run Gannan Daily reported Monday that China’s supreme court, top prosecution body, and police jointly issued the legal opinion that those who incite or abet self-immolations should be charged with “intentional murder.” In an article that reeks of Chinese media, it states (translation made available yesterday by San Francisco-based Duihua Foundation):

So that the recent self-immolation cases that have occurred in Tibetan areas may be handled in accordance with the law and in order to ensure social stability, the Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have, based on relevant laws and regulations, jointly issued an “Opinion on Handling Self-Immolation Cases in Tibetan Areas in Accordance with the Law.”

I’m not sure why a small paper in Gansu province was given this scoop — Gannan Daily is getting credited by SCMP, Washington Post, Global Times, etc. — and as a result I’m not sure whether to take it seriously. Certainly no lawman would slap murder charges on someone who survives a self-immolation attempt… right?

But the announcement might also be the government’s latest, almost desperate attempt — in the absence of the Dalai Lama doing anything — to stop people from setting themselves on fire. More than 90 Tibetans have self-immolated since 2009, a number that’s simply mind-boggling.

The legal opinion, which repeats the phrase “in accordance with the law” like a mantra, clearly states that “anyone who organizes, plots, incites, coerces, entices, abets, or assists others to commit self-immolations shall be held criminally liable for intentional homicide in accordance with the Criminal Law.” Furthermore — and this one’s the shocker — “anyone who actively commits self-immolation in which the circumstances are serious and that causes major harm or serious danger to society shall be held criminally liable in accordance with the law.”

Another excerpt:

The Opinion points out that the recent self-immolations that have occurred in Tibetan areas are cases of significant evil that result from collusion between hostile forces inside and outside our borders whose attempts to use premeditated, organized plots to incite splittism, undermine ethnic unity, and seriously disrupt social order. [The cases] have seriously affected the present overall situation of ethnic unity and social stability in Tibetan areas. Those who carry out self-immolations in these cases are unlike the ordinary world-weary person who commits suicide. Their common motivation is to split the nation and they endanger public safety and social order, classifying their self-immolations as illegal criminal acts. Organizing, plotting, inciting, coercing, enticing, abetting, or assisting others to carry out self-immolations is, at its essence, a serious criminal act that intentionally deprives another of his or her life.

The copy then devolves into a beautiful comedy of propaganda, featuring the cliches “public security,” “harmonious and beautiful society” and — my favorite — “splittist sabotage.” (Okay, that last one is more poetry than cliche — good on you, government writer.)

Look: this is a tricky, complex issue, and no one should ever try to explain setting oneself on fire as someone’s fault. But whatever your feelings on this matter, I think we can agree that the government — if indeed this story is true — has again made one hell of a terrible public relations blunder. Self-immolation is not murder. It’s a tragic, incomprehensible, radical act made against harsh political, social, and economic realities. Perhaps, if China’s lawmakers could turn off the mechanical parrot in their brain constantly squawking “in accordance with the law, in accordance with the law,” they could examine the issue with proper respect for those who have died and those whose lives remain at stake.

[Image via Cultural Anthropology]

The breakout star of Jay-Z's mini-documentary "Where I'm From," a look at his opening eight concerts at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, is a 67-year-old white woman. Ellen Grossman, a New York City visual artist, was sitting quietly on the subway when the rap legend sat conspicuously beside her, camera crew and smartphone-snapping fans in tow. "Are you famous?" she asked. "Not very famous — you don't know me," he shot back, introducing himself simply as Jay and announcing that he was on his way to a show by public transit. "I'm proud of you," she replied with grandmotherly warmth. Both of them wore real smiles.

"As the conversation evolved, I realized, He's really famous!" Grossman told Daily Intel by phone this morning. "So I said, 'What was your name again?'"

"I was on a fairly sparsely populated subway car, and I was sitting in the corner," she explained. "At Canal Street, a surge of people got on, and since my son was in the buildings on 9/11, my first reaction was that there had been a disaster upstairs. But everyone was laughing and smiling. My second reaction was, 'Oh there's a flash mob.'

"They were filming this one guy that I didn't recognize, which is why I said, 'Are you famous?'" she recalled. When he finally said Jay-Z, it clicked. "I thought about R&B ... rap, that music, which I listen to occasionally because I want to be in touch." Her knowledge of hip-hop, though, is dated. "LL Cool ... Ice Cube — it's old stuff."

Grossman, a Brooklyn native, was shown the film when its producers asked her to sign a waiver. "I loved it! It was very energizing talking to Jay-Z. Just who he is, not having to do with all the cameras, but he really, genuinely spreads an aura of empowerment around him," she gushed. "And I suspect he was always able to do that even before fame. It's not just directed at younger people. I picked up that feeling, too."

Now that the clip has taken off, "my friends have all gotten in touch with me, and I have a zillion requests to be Facebook friends with people," said Grossman. Her jealous 12-year-old granddaughter said, "I wish I could hang out with Jay-Z, too." And yes, she'd definitely be willing to collaborate with Jay, suggesting that maybe her work with chain-link fences would match his aesthetic. "I don't think I'm capable of altering what I do to tailor to him, but I think there might be some intersection," she said.

But she'd settle for watching him in action. "Now I want to see the show!"

Read more posts by Joe Coscarelli

Filed Under: the most important people in the world ,ellen grossman ,jay-z ,barclays center

OH SHNIZZLE. Science shirt is back in stock as is Revenge. AND, we discounted our discount section so the discount is discounted.

Beginning in New Year's Day, some foreigners will be able to visit Beijing without visa for 72 hours, provided they can prove they are in transit and have a plane ticket to leave the capital city.

Early in October, I got a call from Bayard Winthrop, an entrepreneur who claimed to have created the world’s best hooded sweatshirt. Because I found this claim amusing—who sets out to make the world’s best hoodie?—I agreed to chat with him about the sweatshirt and his company, a San Francisco-based apparel startup called American Giant.

Seriously, this is just the best.

In October, Jay-Z rode the R train to his last performance at the Barclays Center and this happened:

Source: i.imgur.com

Watch the whole clip here:

Source: i.imgur.com

Your actual Christmas might look a little different.

Christmas is not a drinking holiday, per se (we have Saint Patrick's Day and the Super Bowl for that), but it is the holiday that presents the strongest reasons to drink: family time, shopping madness, end-of-year ennui, sweater parties, cookie swaps, hearing "The Little Drummer Boy" for the fourteenth goddamn time in one day. The only sensible way to navigate the Yuletide gauntlet is with drink in hand.

But just as you (probably) shouldn't give your grandma a gift subscription to Dear & Deer Hunting magazine, you (definitely) shouldn't just break out the eggnog and go wild. Instead, you've got to match your drinking to the particular holiday situation.

Visiting Your Family
As you grow older, Christmas at home becomes less about waiting until you can finally open that Sega Genesis you just know is under the tree and more about unwrapping something else: family dynamics. Add to that the trifecta of seasonal stress — travel, sleeping in someone else's house (or your childhood bedroom), sitting around for hours on end with nothing to do but stare at a fire. To top it off, your family's booze selection probably won't be as good as yours.

Here's the move: Get your own small supply of decent stuff (either travel with it, or pick up a few bottles at the nearest liquor shop — doesn't matter) and anoint yourself bartender. In other words, take over. Delayed flights, forced interaction, and your sister-in-law's newfound veganism are all out of your control; your cocktails will not be. If you've got similarly aged siblings, enlist their help.

Every day at five o'clock, make some classic drinks to go around. I tend to stick with martinis, but anything in the cocktail canon works. Offer to make things for any adult who's nearby. You'll be surprised by how happy they are to oblige your offer. "So fancy," most of them will say, before no doubt telling you, "Gosh, I hope this doesn't go straight to me head." Be the classy relative, but don't overdo it. Being buzzed with your family is fine; being hung-over with them is unbearable.

Hosting Your Relatives
You retain control over your booze in this scenario, but your house will be full of other people fucking up your stuff. "Uncle Matthew, where is the glue?" your brother's 6-year-old kid will ask, innocently enough; "Well, that's an interesting way to clean the counter," your mom will say to you in the kitchen while your dad struggles with your TV's three remote controls in the living room.

You're going to have to get loose. Breaking out the barware at five sharp is too aggressive (also, do you want your family drinking up all your booze?). But pouring two fingers of some whiskey for yourself on an as-needed basis is a fine solution. Use a nice solid tumbler that can be easily set down on fireplace mantels, the carpet where puzzles are being put together — wherever. Drink slowly and get just lubed up enough that it won't bother you too much when your nephew glues your bathroom cabinet shut.

Holiday Parties
Office-party drinking is its own beast (head here to help tame it), but you'll also probably need to navigate a cookie swap or general holiday party in the next few weeks. The strategy here is simple: only accept invitations to parties you really, really want to attend (you’ve got the perfect excuse to decline anyway: “Ah, I’d love to but you know, the holidays are so busy!”). Treat any party you do go to the way you'd treat any night out with your friends.

The fly in the ointment is eggnog. Surely you will be offered some at some point and you will need to make a decision, fast. Here is the Official Sloshed Eggnog Policy: If it is fresh-made, from high-quality ingredients and a real recipe, there is no more appropriate thing to drink on a holiday evening. But if the 'nog's pedigree is in any way questionable — it came from a carton or jug; the friend who made it owns neither a bottle of rum nor a bottle of brandy — stay away or you will later regret a misguided effort to be festive.

Gift Shopping
Flask and backup flask. You don't know how long you'll be out there.

Caroling
You do not need a drinking strategy because if someone can convince you that caroling is a good idea, you've probably had too much to drink already.

Present-wrapping
This task would be bad enough if it only required tricky surface-area calculations and copious amounts of tape. But you also have to do it alone, hiding from everyone so as not to ruin the surprise of giving them exactly what they requested. Depending on your seasonal role, you might only have to wrap a couple of presents, or you might need to be behind closed doors for hours at a time as my poor mother was when my two siblings and I were growing up.

This is a wine bottle situation. Grab it by the neck, get a glass, and head upstairs to do your dirty work. While the 750-milliliter wine bottle is often said to be the perfect size for two people to share, it also happens to be the exact right amount for a single person cutting patterned paper and writing fuckloads of "To: and From:" cards.

Decorating
Decorating your (or your family's) house for the holidays falls into two camps: ladder activities, and everything else. Start your day with the ladder things (light-hanging, wreath-adjusting, mistletoe-placing) and do so with nothing more than a Thermos of cocoa.

Move on to ground jobs and booze-drinking after. Go for a real hot toddy here. Tree-decorating — everything, really — is better when you're feeling jolly.

Matthew Latkiewicz writes about drinking and other subjects at You Will Not Believe. His work has appeared in McSweeney's, Wired, Time.com, Boing Boing, and Gastronomica. Follow him on Twitter.

Related: How Drunk Can You Get at Your Office Christmas Party?

Read more posts by Matthew Latkiewicz

Filed Under: sloshed, booze news, drinking

Just a few of the AOL clues in Times crossword puzzles over the years:
Jan. 14, 1997: Prodigy competitor, for short
Sept. 13, 2000: Yahoo! competitor
Sept. 2, 2001: Netscape purchaser
Jul. 18, 2004: MSN competitor
Aug. 26, 2008: Co. in a 2001 merger with Time Warner
Apr. 21, 2010: Pioneer in instant messaging
Oct. 9, 2011: Company with Patch Media

* The history of AOL as told through New York Times crossword clues (qz.com)

Follow @drewtoothpaste and @nataliedee on Twitter or join the Married To The Sea Facebook Page.

The Global Terrorism Index, a report released today by the Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace, tracks terrorist attacks in 158 countries between 2002 and 2011 and paints and interesting and at times surprising picture of post-9/11 terrorism.

For instance, there's the dispiriting fact that the two countries where the United States launched wars in the name of fighting terrorism early in the last decade went on to account for more than one third of terrorist incidents during this period. More than a third of all victims between 2002 and 2011 were Iraqi and the biggest global rise in terrorism occurred between 2005 and 2007, which the authors attribute primarily to events in Iraq. 

While only 31 of the countries surveyed experience no terrorist attacks, violence was highly concentrated with just ten countries accounting for 87 percent of attacks:

 

North America was the region least likely to experience terrorism during this period -- Western Europe suffered 19 times more deaths -- and with notable exceptions like the 2009 Ft. Hood shooting, most U.S. terrorism is not tied to Islamic extremists or  international groups: 

"The attacks in the U.S. during the 2002-2011 period were predominately of a ‘domestic' nature and mainly committed by environmentalists, animal activists, racists, and anti-abortion activists."

As is usually the case with these reports, defining what counts as a terrorist attack or a terrorist fatality is a bit tricky -- and at times a little misleading. According to the report, the deadliest single terrorist attack in the last decade -- deadlier than Madrid, Beslan, Tal Afar, and Mumbai -- was a little-remembered attack by Maoist rebels on a Nepalese army barracks in 2004. The vast majority of the 518 fatalities in that attack were the rebels themselves.

The good news in the study is that the number of attacks seems to have leveled out since peaking in 2007. The bad news is that there were will still more than four times more attacks in 2011 than in the first full year of the war on terrorism.

He's a tiny horse with a bell that collects donations for the less-fortunate, truly amazing.

This is Tinker and his Christmas donations bell.

Image by Carrie Antlfinger / AP

Regular Salvation Army employees typically bring in around $250 in donations.

Image by The Daily Sentinel, Andrew D. Brosig / AP

But Tinker brings in close to $2,500 in the same amount of time (because he's awesome).

Image by Carrie Antlfinger / AP

Merry Christmas to you too, Tinker!

Image by Carrie Antlfinger / AP

View Entire List ›

 

Opening Your Own Retail Store
Taetzsch
1977

Think the retail landscape has changed much in the last 30 years or so? Just like career materials, old business advice is absolutely weed-worthy.  In 1977,  I would have loved this book. The bookkeeping examples are easy to follow and explain in plain language the ins and outs of record keeping, especially payroll.  I especially like how things like Bank Americard (the precursor to VISA), are really going to be important in the future of retail sales.

Shame on the small public library that still has this on the shelf. This book was DOA by the early 80s.

Mary

Other Business Advice @ yourlibrary:

Get Rich Now! 

Dotcom your way to wealth and happiness!

Real Estate: Solid as the Rock of Gibralter

A “New” Business Venture

Tis the season for really cute pups .

Via: jillbeninato

Via: houndbound.com

Via: swvhreno.com

Via: 500px.com

View Entire List ›

The fourth annual timesunion.com/Table Hopping Mac-n-Cheese Bowl to benefit the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York has filled all 30 slots for restaurants to participate in the competition (list after the jump). I will start accepting recipes on Jan. 2 from readers who wish to be considered for the home-cooks portion of the event; 10 finalists will be invited to bring their version of mac-n-cheese to compete for awards from the judges. (Health code prohibits allowing home cooks to feed the public at such an event.)

The event will be held Saturday, Feb. 16, at the Albany Marriott on Wolf Road in Colonie, with tasting sessions beginning at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Tickets go on sale Jan. 6. The price will be $15 for adults, $5 for kids age 5 to 12 and free for younger than 5 until Jan. 31. After Jan. 31, tickets will be $20 for adults. The first 1,600 tickets will be available at Price Chopper stores and may be used for admission to either session; after they’re gone, tickets will be available only at the food bank’s Latham headquarters or at the door and may be used for the later session only. Admission covers tasting mac-n-cheeses from all participating restaurants.

Restaurants interested in being on the waiting list to participate should contact Jessica Tanner at the food bank, jessicat@regionalfoodbank.net or 786.3691 ext. 295.

Albany Marriott
Angelo’s 677 Prime
Albany Pump Station
Chez Mike
Comfort Kitchen
Druthers Brewing Company
Farmer Boy Diner
Finnbar’s Pub
Hannaford Supermarkets
Illium Café
Katie O’Byrne’s
Lanie’s Café
Lark Tavern
Latham 76 Diner
Maggie’s Café
Nighthawk’s Kitchen
Pinto & Hobbs Tavern
Price Chopper Supermarkets
Saati Deli & Catering
Taste
The Mallozzi Family
The Century House
The Standard Restaurant & Lounge
The Pasta Factory
Uncle Marty’s Adirondack Grill
Valente’s Restaurant
Wolff’s Biergarten
Wolf’s 1-11
Wheatfields Bistro & Wine Bar
Yono’s/dp

A fleet of combat-capable drones on display at the recent Zhuhai air show in China seemed to support the conclusion of a Pentagon report that said "the military significance of China's move into unmanned systems is alarming."

Under the heading "the benefits of paired em dashes, part 57″, Mark Swofford sent in the following screen shot from yesterday's New York Times:

The main part of the caption under the most prominent photo in the screen shot reads:

"Mazarine Pingeot, the daughter of François Mitterrand, the former French president, and his longtime mistress, has published a diary."

As Mark says, "It took me several readings before that stopped sounding incestuous."

Proud owner of an UES project.

It's not exactly a fixer-upper, but at least the three-bedroom co-op at 115 East 67th Street is old. And there are plenty of charming pre-war details, like a wood-burning fireplace, that could conceivably require some expertise from new owner Bob Vila. We just hope the co-op doesn't have summer work rules!

That is, if Mr. Vila ever even moves in. The most famous toolbelt-wearer in the country has a track record of flipping Manhattan properties, although not always profitably. There was a townhouse on the West Side, a condo in Tribeca (shockingly, the place was move-in ready when he bought it) and now he's moving in on Lenox Hill. Could the man of a million houses finally be looking to settle down in a pied-a-terre?

It looks move-in ready. What a disappointment!

Mr. Vila and wife Diana Barrett paid $2.46 million for the sunlit spread, a little under the $2.99 million ask. Not bad considering that it offers eight rooms on a high floor of the Millan House, a swanky co-op built by the Rockefellers in 1931 for Standard Oil execs. Of course, we all know that the Rockefellers themselves preferred the far tonier private elevator landings of 740 Park.

Still, this is about as close to blue blood as the blue collar hero moved in Manhattan. Not only does the apartment come with a small staff wing—two staff rooms, a private bathroom and separate laundry facilities, but buyers can also purchase lobby level staff rooms with separate baths. Although we can't imagine the king of D.I.Y. will take advantage of such offerings.

The apartment was sold by the estate of Norma and Richard Flender, a banker at JP Morgan who divided his time between East Hampton and Manhattan.

Besides a little refinishing here and there, what can the bearded home improvement guru look forward to? The co-op listed with Brown Harris Stevens brokers Burt Savitsky and Elayne Roskin, has some awfully nice touches, like a 30-foot-long living room, that make it feel more like a Massachusetts Victorian than a box in the city. And we bet the co-op board interview was a breeze for Mr. Vila. After all, how many millionaire residents can fix their own leaky faucets?

kvelsey@observer.com

The SodaStream home soda maker system, which bills itself as an alternative to bottled soft drinks, is joining the expensive ranks of advertisers during Super Bowl XLVII.

Merry birthday, loser.

Having a birthday in December sucks sometimes.

Source: imgur.com

Because even though people are kind of excited about the anniversary of your birth...

Source: dispatch.com

...they're way more excited about the holidays.

Source: marinerschurch.smugmug.com

And it'll be this way for the rest of your life.

Source: schulenburgsticker.com

View Entire List ›

VIEW SLIDESHOW: First Look: Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue in Gowanus

[Photographs: Alice Gao]

Note: First Looks give previews of new dishes, drinks, and menus we're curious about. Since they are arranged photo shoots and interviews with restaurants, we do not make critical evaluations or recommendations.

"We're not trying to recreate something that's been done in Texas," says Bill Fletcher, owner of the recently opened Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue in Gowanus, on what makes his restaurant specifically Brooklyn barbecue.

To Fletcher and pitmaster Matt Fisher, that means an emphasis on local products. All of their meat comes from either nearby Lucky 7 Farm or Pat LaFrieda's farm cooperatives, which raise their animals humanely and without hormones, using sustainable practices. They get their wood from an upstate farmer who specially cuts green wood to fit their smoker, a J & R pit from Mesquite, Texas. Their beer and vegetables are local as well, and they make everything in-house, including the pickles, of which there is a new variety every night based on what is in season.

And while their menu boasts traditional barbecue offerings like St. Louis ribs, brisket, and deckel cuts, other items break from that mold. The Char Siu is an Asian-inspired pork shoulder that is cut into steaks, marinated in ginger, hoisin, and soy, then smoked for six hours. "It's about being curious eaters, and working different spices into a smokehouse menu without becoming fusion," Fisher notes. Currently, they're working on coriander- and pineapple-smoked baby back ribs.

Fisher and Fletcher met through Grillin' on the Bay, the Brooklyn barbecue competition that Fisher helped found. Fletcher, who owned an advertising agency until two years ago, indulged his passion for barbecue every weekend, and was a frequent competitor.

Fisher, on the other hand, fell in love with barbecue at a young age, while travelling through the South to visit relatives as a kid. "I loved the culture surrounding food in the South," he says. He began working at a barbecue restaurant in college and never looked back. Before opening Fletcher's, he owned a barbecue catering company, opened Wildwood BBQ in the Flatiron, and was the pitmaster at Rub BBQ in Chelsea.

Just because they're Brooklyn doesn't mean they aren't influenced at all by Texas, of course: Fletcher's counter service set up was inspired by barbecue joints in that state. The menu is written above the counter on a black board, reminiscent of a meat market. The kitchen is completely open, so nothing is left to diners' imagination. When you order at the counter, your meat is placed directly on the paper that goes on top of a metal tray, and the order is written right on the paper. The restaurant's impression is one that is homey and comfortable, but also streamlined and stylized.

When seeking a location, Fletcher looked around Park Slope, but ultimately fell in love with Gowanus. The design of the bar, which includes tables from a Hudson, New York craftsman who makes furniture from old barns, and posters by an artist friend, was a gradual and meandering process, says Fletcher, but he and Fisher always knew just the vibe they were going for. "The goal is to be a neighborhood restaurant," he says.

See more dishes in the slideshow »

Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue

433 Third Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215 (map)
347-763-2680
fletchersbklyn.com

About the author: Hally Wolhandler is a New York native and life-long food lover. She interns for Food52 and works in the the bakery of Dorie Greenspan's Beurre & Sel cookie company.

There are lots of metaphors floating around for language learning. Fortunately most of them accurately stress the need for time, exposure, and deliberate practice. Here are a few them:

“Learning a language is like…”

Source: It’s a metaphor.

• Learning a language is like learning a musical instrument. “Commitment is way more important than natural talent, which simply doesn’t exist for getting the basics and even a pretty good idea of both music and languages. It’s actually just an excuse used by those who both can’t and don’t really want to put real work in.”
• Learning a language is like losing weight. “You know how to do it, really. There are billions of dollars spent every year on products that claim to make weight loss and language learning fast, easy, and painless. But they’re all variations on the same theme. To lose weight, diet and exercise. To learn a language, study and practice. There aren’t any shortcuts.”
• Learning a language is like learning to dance. “Yes, learners who do not like to perform (such as in role plays) and are reserved, quiet, and not eager to interact with others are disadvantaged when it comes to language learning.”
• Learning a language is like learning a sport. “…One of the great lessons of my childhood was that no one has the right to be naturally good at anything. More there’s a particular pleasure that comes from becoming good at something which you kind of naturally sucked at.”
• Learning a language is like running a marathon. “You don’t wake up one day and think: ‘Dude, I’m totally going to run the marathon of Los Angeles today.’ No, running a marathon or any significant distance requires practice and a healthy lifestyle.”
• Learning a language is like peeing. “You always pee less than you drank: input and passive vocab will always outstrip output and active vocab. Input precedes and exceeds output. Never expect to drink a liter and pee out a liter.”
• Learning a language is like playing Soul Calibur. “The same goes for input – that is, blocking against incoming strings of attacks. At first it seemed chaotic, and I didn’t know whether the blows would be high, low, or come from the side. Soon the chaos become patterns; now at the beginning of an attack I know exactly what is coming. I can anticipate the incoming chunk of actions, and only need to consciously react to the minor details – just like French.”

Oh yes, and living in China is like an RPG. Other metaphors are welcome! Leave a comment.