Hot Chat With Librarians: As a kid I made good use of the NYPL's telephone reference line. Got me out of some homework jams. I didn't even realize I could reach those same helpful info hunters online until I stumbled into the NYPL's online chat site. Thought I'd help my wife do some research for her job. Not that she needs my help but it was the first topic that popped into my mind. Here's the transcript of my encounter. I'm the "Patron."

[Patron]: Hello. Hope you're having a good day. My question is where can I find photos of Victorian era school children? Thanks
[Patron]: Am I too late today to get an answer or are you just too busy? No problem if either (is) the case. Just wanted to know if it is worth wating. Thanks!
[Librarian]: Busy, please hold. 4 others befeore you.
[Librarian]: Are you in NYC?
[Patron]: Yes, I'm in NYC. Will hold. Thanks!!
[Librarian]: Start with the Mid-Manhattan Library Picture Collection,, http://www.nypl.org/branch/central_units/mm/pc/pic.html
[Patron]: Thanks. You're the best. This is (a) great service. Do you ever get marriage proposals? :-)
[Librarian]: Thanks for the laugh....
[Patron]: No problem. Have a good day and thanks again.
[Librarian]: Also try the Photography Division at the Research Library:http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/art/photo/photo.html
[Librarian]: You are welcome. Thank you for using Ask Librarians Online Chat Service. Good-bye.
[Patron]: Bye.

They also e-mail the transcript to you for posterity. After poking around on my own and with a little help from Gawker, not to be outdone by a bunch of librarians, I found the online database that houses these photos. The NYPL online photo database is still being built out but when completed, it will include more than 600,000 images.

Best & Worst Jobs: The WSJ has an item about the new edition of their "Jobs Rated Almanac" featuring the nation's best and worst jobs.

BEST JOBS: Biologist, actuary, financial planner, computer-systems analyst, accountant, software engineer, meteorologist, paralegal assistant, statistician and astronomer.

WORST JOBS: Lumberjack, fisherman, cowboy, ironworker, seaman, taxi driver, construction worker, farmer, roofer and stevedore.

According to the WSJ: "The jobs were analyzed according to six key criteria -- environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands, security and stress -- using data from such sources as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as studies from trade associations and industry groups. The lower the score, the higher the ranking."

The good news is that my chosen profession is not in the worst list category (Although, I've always liked the Monty Python Lumberjack Song). The bad news is that my chosen profession is not in the best list category (Although, I aced my high school biology practical. You know, the one where you had to identify what organs of that formaldehyde-soaked frog had little flags sticking out of them).

Is Arianna A Gasbag?: Yesterday I wondered how could I have wound up on the same side of an issue as Arianna Huffington. The conservative columnist turned Hollywood hobnobber has been pushing for more fuel efficient cars to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Today I read this article by James Glassman and got my comeuppance, sort of.

Huffington's message (greater fuel efficiency) is no less important today than it was yesterday but I do agree with Glassman that using TV commercials to equate buying an SUV with supporting terrorism is just silly. So I guess Huffington is a gasbag but she's a pontificator who is having the last laugh. She's helping to bring the issue of fuel efficiency to the forefront (even if she lives in a big house that gobbles up kilowatts) which is what she intended to do all along.

NYT Editorial: Today's New York Times has an editorial that further drives home the need for less energy dependence:

"...America's current predicament — it confronts the possibility of losing both Venezuelan and Iraqi oil at the same time — is thus instructive on two counts. It provides another powerful incentive, if any more were needed, to tighten fuel efficiency standards and to push more aggressively for the long-term development of alternative fuels. Since the United States has less than 3 percent of the world's proven oil reserves, the only sure road to greater self-sufficiency is through reduced consumption and new technology..."

My Prayers Are Answered: The Onion finally has an e-mail newsletter. When it comes to finding things on the Web, I'm a lazy slob. I'll dig if I have to but if you can deliver information to my inbox, you'll have me for life (assuming the stuff is worth reading).

I know that some people are trying to push new forms of "push" technology (Can you say Pointcast?) but unless it is really compelling (like Instant Messenger or Internet Radio) I don't see the majority of consumers willing to take the time to download a desktop application to read news headlines -- given people's paranoia about viruses and their general lack of time.

I'll be perfectly happy receiving my electronic tidbits the old fashion way (by e-mail) until something much better comes along. Now all we have to figure out is what to do about spam.

Blogging Demos: A while back I wondered about the demographic breakdown of bloggers. Here are some interesting stats from LiveJournal. Not sure they're representative of the larger group of people maintaining Weblogs but they're still worth a look.

Stop The Madness: If you ever told me I'd be agreeing with anything Arianna Huffington had to say (about anything), I'd tell you to stop smoking crack. Well, I do agree with her crusade to break Americans of their addiction to SUVs. Automakers are selling record numbers of these gas guzzlers at a time when we should be paying more than lipservice to energy conservation. But there seems to be a backlash against larger vehicles growing out West which I'm hopeful will rumble eastward. As one San Francisco columnist put it, "Are Hummer Owners Idiots?"

What Was She Thinking?: They say there's no such thing as bad publicity but after seeing Lara Flynn Boyle's outfit at the Golden Globe Awards last night, you have to wonder why she'd make such an ass out of herself just to get some headlines. If I were her, I would have coughed up the extra dough for a better publicist and called it a day. Ok, that was bitchy. I have to stop reading Gawker. It's a bad influence.

What Were They Thinking?: Speaking of public image and our fascination with the physical, what were the folks at Dr. Pepper thinking when they aired one of their new commercials -- a parody of the famous beach scene in the Bo Derek movie "10". In place of Bo and Dudley Moore we see an unattractive (I'm being really generous) man and woman flapping down the beach towards each other only to turn around and sprint in the opposite direction when they catch a glimpse of the approaching bucktoothed vision of beauty. Pretty cheap shot. You can get my attention (even make me smile) without diving into the trash.

Speaking Of Soda: Could this be the father of the modern-day beverage coozie? It's called the "No-Drip Bottle Protector." Even has its own Web site.





Back in the day, it was also registered with the U.S. Patent Office (photo above). As the ad for one of these pups proclaims:

"Trifles make perfection, but perfection itself is no trifle."

ESB Blog: Here's a new blog devoted to the Empire State Building. You can download a paper model of the tower, among other things. Could a Chrysler Building blog be far behind?

Gollum's Golden Globe: The little guy didn't even get nominated let alone walk away with a statue last night. I won't stop trying to help my man bring home an Oscar. Gollum would cut quite a figure on the red carpet and I guarantee you he wouldn't show up in a tutu. First step is to get him included in the Best Supporting Actor category. The nominations will be announced February 11th so there's still time to bombard the Academy with e-mails. Too bad it isn't a Miramax movie. Harvey Weinstein would be all over this.



© New Line Cinema

Joe Lieberman & Israel: Jeff Jarvis offers an interesting insight into one of the underlying issues that will weigh on Sen. Joseph Lieberman's run for the White House in 2004 -- his orthodoxy and whether Americans feel comfortable with an orthodox president, Jewish or otherwise.

I watched Sen. Lieberman on Meet The Press this morning and realized that one of the other challenges he faces is getting the message out about his true beliefs. He missed an opportunity on national television to address another issue that is on the minds of some American voters -- will he be even-handed in his Middle East policy or favor Israel because he is an American Jew.

Lieberman is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. Some American Jewish leaders worry that his comments about the importance of an independent Palestinian State could signal an approach to resolving the Middle East conflict that will hurt Israel. Yet a recent poll indicates that other Americans wonder if Lieberman will unduly favor Israel. It's hard to know, however, if that sentiment would translate to those same voters not casting their ballot for Lieberman.

Joe Lieberman doesn't have control over many things that will sway American public opinion. What he does have control over is his own message. Visit his new Joe Lieberman for President 2004 Web site, however, and you see no mention of his Middle East policy, at least none that I could find. If he favors a two state solution, say so and let the chips fall.

The Bigger They Come: Finally, a sports superstar with a sense of humility.

Valentine's Day Dash: What a racket NYC restaurants have when it comes to Valentine's Day dinner. My wife and I wanted to do the right thing and find a romantic place with good food but we needed to make sure we didn't break the bank in the process. Problem is that tables at many of the really good restaurants are gone as soon these places start taking reservations (in most cases a month in advance).

Our first choice for dinner on February 14th "sold out" 20 minutes after 9 am on January 17th. I guess I could have camped out at my phone from 7 am on that morning repeatedly hitting speed dial while also trying to make the reservation online but I didn't want to feel like one of those pathetic social climbers skewered in the play "Fully Committed." Even if you can find a place for dinner, you then have to deal with prix fixe menus at $75 per person.

Good news is we got lucky. We found a restaurant that comes well recommended and didn't jam a prix fixe menu down our throats. Here are some suggestions of reasonably priced spots that might still have tables: Gus' Place and Figs Bistro & Bar. Just a bit of advice if you're still looking for a place to eat on Valentines Day, time is running out.

Two Quilts: Went to see two exhibits at the Whitney today. They had more similarities than I would have thought.

The first was The Quilts of Gee’s Bend, a collection of “approximately seventy quilts made from the 1920s to the 1990s by more than forty African-American women from the small rural community of Gee’s Bend, Alabama.” The women stitched together an ingenious collection of old jeans, handkerchiefs, cotton sheets, corduroy scraps and any other material at hand to fashion quilts that looked more like cubist paintings than something to keep you warm at night.



Courtesy Tinwood Books


The second exhibit was Listening Post, a multimedia installation “composed of a suspended grid of more than two hundred small electronic screens that display fragments of texts culled in real time from thousands of unrestricted Internet chat rooms, bulletin boards and other public forums.”

The installation flashed snippets of chat room and BBS banter across the screens and – using voice recognition technology – simultaneously pumped that same text through speakers as words. At times, it was a cacophony but at other times the phrases flying across the ether were woven into a series of themes that held together tightly. The phrases “I love...” and “I am...” were two such groups of words grabbed from thousands of real-time Internet discussions and thrown up on the screens. Each phrase was finished by its authors with crude or classy endings.




© Brooklyn Academy of Music


I sat in the darkened exhibition room and watched the tiny empty screens fill with glowing green text while listening to the disparate words form an Internet chant.

It even looked like a quilt.

Between The Lines: Buried in the eighth paragraph of today's page one NYT article about Mayor Bloomberg's declining popularity ratings (wowie, how surprising that a mayor who increases taxes and cuts services would see his is ratings drop) is a way more interesting finding. According to The Times:

"For the first time in the decade since The Times began asking the question, a majority of black New Yorkers gave positive ratings to the performance of the police."

The Dangers Of Globalization: Saw a subway musician today on the platform of the 77th street station (6 train) playing "Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera on an Erhu.

NYC Photos: Quarlo has some of the best photos of NYC I've seen in a while. He even gives you music files to listen to while you're viewing the pics. He's been kind enough to let me use the photos on this site.



© Quarlo



© Quarlo

Jeff Mermelstein is a photographer with an unique perspective on the city. Wish I could find more of his photos online.

News You Can Use: "With U.S. military action against Iraq looming, the first Surviving Hostile Regions course will be offered in New York Jan. 19-24. Produced by AKE Ltd. of England, the class will cover risk reduction, security planning, and field medical skills for journalists." The MTA should offer this class to subway riders. (via Editor & Publisher)

But On A Serious Note: It is becoming more and more dangerous to be a journalist these days. (via PBS)

At A Loss For Words: So you're alone in the elevator or even worse in the bathroom with your company's CEO. Do you look away? That could be a problem in the restroom. Do you make small talk? Do you curry favor? Do you hide in the corner and hope you're not noticed? Here's how some people have dealt with that uncomfortable moment. (via The Wall Street Journal)

It's A Rumble: I've been following the fisticuffs between New York City and San Francisco bloggers over where they'd rather live. It sure has gotten nasty. My question is: Why did people take the bait? You could see that ambush coming a mile away.

Who's Looking For Osama?: By February, 150,000 U.S. troops are expected to be in the Persian Gulf as part of the buildup to "possible" war with Iraq.

Nothing possible about it. We're going to war. Even though organizations like this one are delivering the sensible, rational message of letting the U.N. inspectors finish their work before making any decisions.

Before we let the rockets fly, however, I just have one question. Do we have anywhere near the same number of people and amount of brainpower charged with finding Osama Bin Ladin and dismantling his terrorist organization? I sure as hell hope so.

Space-Age Sewing: Since when is sewing "unexpectedly cool?" When you're Singer and you're trying to introduce a new generation to a needle and thread. Singer's "IZEK" sewing machine is controlled with a Nintendo GameBoy which stores patterns and sewing instructions. Says Singer:

"...IZEK is no ordinary sewing machine. It's unexepectedly cool, thanks to Nintendo Game Boy technology. It's unexpectedly easy to use, with loads of user-friendly features...The Game Boy's on-screen menu will guide you through all the functions you need to make sewing fun and easy." (via Webmonkey)

Google & The First Ammendment: Google responds to a lawsuit filed against it by SearchKing (which claims to be able to improve a Web site's ranking in Google search results) by saying that Google search results should be protected as free speech. (via Clive Thompson)

Matzo Balls To The Wall: The next stop on the IFOCE (International Federation Of Competitive Eating) tour is NYC's Ben's Deli for the annual charity Matzo Ball Eating Contest. These boys take their work seriously. After all, there's a $2,500 grand prize to be awarded at the finals on January 28th. They even publisher a newsletter -- The Gurgitator and have an inspiring promotional video.


© IFOCE

The current Matzo Ball record is held by Oleg Zhornitskiy who scarfed down 16 1/4 Ben's Kosher matzo balls in 5 minutes 25 seconds. Here's what the IFOCE Web site has to say about the sport:

"Competitive eating is among the most diverse, dynamic and demanding sports in history. It dates back to the earliest days of mankind and stands alongside original athletic pursuits such as running, jumping and throwing."

Or is that throwing up?

Hipster Handbook: There are guides to help people spot the birds that populate the Eastern United States. Now there's a guide to help you track down that species which nests below 14th Street and in Williamsburg -- The Hipster. Anchor books is releasing The Hipster Handbook in February. It follows in the tradition of The Official Preppy Handbook but with way more facial hair. It is totally deck. While Hipsters have been spotted as far east as Astoria and as far west as Hoboken, I've taken the liberty of giving everyone a headstart in their search by preparing this Hipster Habitat map for Manhattan. Now that they have their own book, it's just a matter of time before Hipsters will become extinct so get going and happy hunting. (via The New York Times)

Supermarket Adventures: I pride myself on being the family hunter-gatherer. In NYC, that means that I buy the groceries each weekend. I’ve gotten it down to a science – at least I thought I had – with a detailed list organized by product type and shopping cart driving skills that would give Jeff Gordon goose bumps.

So what happened yesterday? I’m still trying to figure it out. I didn’t realize that supermarket shopping required such a sense of nuance. It’s clear that at least on 1/11/2003, they sent a man to do an intelligent man’s job. Some highlights from my visit to the Food Emporium.

I should have know things were heading south when I rolled into the meat department in search of pork loin chops. There in the refrigerated case were packages of “pork loin chop – center cut”, “pork loin boneless thin sliced”, “center cut pork chops”, “pork center cut chops thin” and “pork chop thin slice bone in.” The “other white meat” was giving me white knuckles. Was a chop a loin chop if it didn’t say loin? After deliberating with my wife on the cell phone for a few minutes, I grabbed “pork loin chop – center cut” and moved on.

It seemed like I was out of the trouble until I hit the home cleaning products aisle. Assignment – find Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner and Lysol Basin, Tub & Tile Cleaner. Stacked on shelves like legions of battling bathroom warriors were “Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner”, “Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner with Bleach” and “Lysol Cling Toilet Bowl Cleaner" (Country Scent and Pacific Fresh). As if that wasn’t bad enough, what was the difference between the basin, tub and tile cleaner and the kitchen cleaner or the all-purpose cleaner? Back on the cell phone I went. My wife couldn’t control her laughter.

I finally arrived at the check out counter and was about to pay for my groceries when Jennifer V., the person who was ringing me up, asked tentatively:

“Are you ok?”

Wow, had the shopping trauma taken that much of a toll that the exhaustion was painted across my face?

“I’m fine, why?” I said.

“Well something smells like vomit,” she said.

I looked around and there it was, a chunk of “Pecorino Romano” cheese that I had picked up from the deli department. She was right. I had old sweat socks that smelled better. But what did I know? Wasn't fancy cheese supposed to stink? She looked at me with that -- well I can't stop you from making a jackass of yourself -- look on her face. I exchanged the Romano for something a bit better smelling and checked out -- with the hope that next week’s visit to the Food Emporium would be a bit less painful.

We Media: That's what Dan Gillmor calls the trend of readers becoming contributors to the gathering and analyzing of news and information. Says Gillmor: "Journalism is evolving away from its lecture mode — here’s the news, and you buy it or you don’t — to include a conversation."

See The World: ...through the front pages of 150 newspapers. (via Gawker)

But Not If You Live In China: Chinese government is blocking access to blogs on blogspot.com. (via BoingBoing)

Hot Chocolate Festival: There is nothing better than a hot chocolate from The City Bakery. It's like drinking chocolate pudding from a coffee cup -- if you like that kind of thing. City Bakery is having their annual hot chocolate festival in February. Check it out.



© 2003 New York Metro.

And There's More: Dave Winer offers some answers to a question I've been wondering about since I began writing a blog a month ago. What applications are there for weblogs beyond journalism? Dave Winer is a smart guy and an accomplished blogger. I'm a neophyte (whose blog is read by his wife -- because I force her to -- and one or two friends who humor me).

Nevertheless, here's a thought. Can weblogs be used as a barometer of public health? Bloggers write about their fears, passions, frustrations, big ideas, small ideas and so on. As it gets easier and easier to aggregate content from blogs, can they become a useful tool for mental health professionals to gauge the public pysche? Required reading for shrinks? Even if that makes sense (It just may be too silly to think about any further), I wonder whether the sample of people who write blogs is really representative of the larger population? It would be fascinating to do a demographic survey of the blogosphere.

One last thought -- a mob blog on relationships. A place to go after you've met that special someone on match.com to talk about your relationship and get advice from others. Anyhow, just some musings.

Auto Neurotic: Is it just me or does it seem like most of the news out of Detroit this week at the North American International Auto Show focuses on bigger luxury cars and more SUVs? Now that's a step in the right direction when it comes to reducing our dependance on oil. Ok, let's be fair, there was this announcement from General Motors. The sooner the better.

Betrayed By A Peanut Butter Jar: There's been a lot of discussion lately about the risk to our privacy presented by the government's Total Information Awareness program. Fact is, we're all excited about building the kind of technology that will make surveillance simple. I am a technology nut. Love it. Can't help but see the benefits to consumers, companies and anyone else you can imagine. Neverthless, in our dash to build a wireless society, we need to consider the consequences. Case in point -- technology is being developed to monitor product levels on supermarket shelves by using a wireless transmitter known as a Radio Frequency ID tag. Interesting innovation. It just can't be abused.

As CNET describes it:

"Gillette, Wal-Mart and the U.K.-based supermarket chain Tesco plan to install specially designed shelves that can read radio frequency waves emitted by microchips embedded in millions of shavers and related products. The shelves can scan the contents of the shelves and, via computer, alert store employees when supplies are running low or when theft is detected, said Gillette spokesman Paul Fox."

Forrester believes widespread adoption of this technology is about five years away but with Sun Microsystems and large consumer product companies and retailers (Procter & Gamble, Gillette, Wal-Mart, Unilever, Tesco and Target) leading the charge, the MIT research initiative (Auto-ID Center) is building up a head of steam. Mastercard is also testing a "smart card" system that embeds computer chips and radio antennae into a credit card to broadcast details wirelessly. If Wi-Fi catches on, people's IP address will no doubt be trackable as they move from wireless hotspot to hotspot. Oh, and I forgot cell phones


Am I Paranoid?


Ok, so I'm starting to sound a little like that character in the Mel Gibson movie Conspiracy Theory. I'm not that bad. Yet if I take a jar of peanut butter off the supermarket shelf, I don't want it to be a beacon that allows someone to track my every move. Excuse the hyperbole but with the benefits of a wireless world comes an even greater need to safeguard privacy.



© 1997 Warner Bros.


CNET reports that Gillette and the Auto-ID Center are assuring people privacy is a top priority and are taking precautions like allowing retailers to disable the devices at the checkout counter, putting the chips only in packaging not in the product containers and making sure that the signal range is just five feet and can't pass through walls or floors. Let's hope so and then some. My advice? Hug someone from the Electronic Freedom Foundation today. Send them some money too.

Words To Live By: Steve Outing has a great piece in Editor & Publisher offering eight things he'd like to see done on online news sites in 2003. One suggestion really caught my eye. Outing argues that if Google and other search engines don't start indexing paid content, the growth of that market could be seriously stunted. The responsibility is on content providers to make that case and work with the search engines to find a solution that makes sense. (Via PaidContent.org).

HoJo's A No Go: One of the last symbols of the old Times Square may not be much longer for this world. The space that houses the Howard Johnson's at the corner of Broadway and 46th Street is on the market, according to the Post. I grew up with that place. I used to go to the 50s-style soda joint for chocolate ice cream as a kid when my parents took me to a theater matinee. Then, as I got older, and even more precious, I'd go with friends to the same place for cocktails after work as part of some kitschy walk down memory lane. In its later years, HoJo's became a bit run-down but I'll miss it nonetheless.

Your Little Piece Of Paradise: I must have real estate on the brain today but I also came across this item about the latest land grab on eBay. Last month, the town of Bridgeville, CA was auctioned off for $1.78 million (Don't know if anyone has claimed their prize yet.). Now you can buy Thatch Cay, a 230-acre island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, at a minimum bid of $3 million, according to Reuters. The barriers to buying bigger and bigger items on eBay are breaking down. Call me crazy, but if I were about to put down big bucks for an island, I'd definitely want to kick the tires first.

This latest online real estate auction got me thinking about what NYC parcels I'd like to buy on eBaby if I had a few million dollars. First on my list would be this community garden in the East Village. Not to worry, I'd keep it a community garden. Bette and I are definitely on the same wavelength here. This spot is one of the most tranquil, welcoming patches of inner-city around. There are a few places I'd like to buy just to tear down but that's for another time.

Norwegian Hip Hop: Don't believe me? There's more where that came from.

Wireless Urban Renewal: John Markoff of The New York Times reports that wireless Internet access is being offered by some cities as a stimulus for economic development. According to the article:

"Long Beach is one of a growing number of cities and community groups that are considering free wireless Internet access. A number of cities are exploring the idea of installing such networks in downtown areas or throughout entire communities; they include San Francisco; Seattle; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Lodi, Calif."

How about lower Manhattan?

Candy That Glows: Clive Thompson has found some flotsam and jetsam from the U.S. Patent Office that is about as quirky as it gets.

In related patent news (Boy, how exciting is this?), Tri-State Tech Wire reports that:

"The New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research announced on Monday that a record number of patents were awarded last year in the Empire State. It was the fourth consecutive year that patents have risen in the state."

Here's the report as a .pdf file.

I'll Cop To That: FWIW, Narc is one of the best cop movies I've ever seen. It's in the same league as Serpico and The French Connection.

Dangerous Rocks: Legend has it that if you make off with a lava rock while visiting Hawaii, bad luck will follow you home. Has the supposed curse struck again?

The Perfect NYC Automobile?: I know I'm fighting a losing battle thinking we could ban automobiles from Manhattan from 7 pm through 4 am (with the exception of emergency vehicles and cabs) but I can dream can't I? In the meantime, please fight the urge to buy the latest vehicle to capture the imagination of well-heeled gear heads. Yes, there's a new Rolls-Royce on the market. Be still my heart. If you must buy a car to keep in NYC, have a look at a Mini Cooper. Granted, you won't get the built-in humidor that comes as standard equipment on the Rolls, but you will get a parking space.



© 2003 BMW Group

Fat City: My wife tells me that the gym she uses near our house is always packed with guys in weight belts huffing and puffing their way to fitness. Maybe so, but when it comes to sheer tonnage, NYC isn't exactly svelte. According to Men's Fitness Magazine, we rank 15th among "America's Fattest Cities." Houston tops the list of porkers and Honolulu weighs in as the most fit. Fifty cities made the total list of weighty or waiflike .

Some of the NYC statistics from the survey:

"Finding a place to work out isn't easy: The city has only one gym, health club or aerobic studio for every 24,500 residents. Only Detroit has a worse ratio. Health-food stores are relatively rare. On a per capita basis, Miami offers about 15 times as many outlets. No wonder there are such long lines outside the nightclubs: New York has the second-lowest ratio of drinking establishments among all cities surveyed. The city has more municipal tennis courts - 551 - than any other city in our survey, but on a per capita basis, it ranks second-worst: Only Mesa, Ariz., has fewer courts per capita. The region leads the nation in participation in boxing and lacrosse."

Seems like we're just not playing enough lacrosse.

So Tart: I'm starting to see those golden tins appearing in delis around Manhattan -- but not quickly enough. Altoids is now selling "Citrus Sours" which are tart enough to leave your lips in a permanent pucker. If you don't spot the brand at a store near you, you'll have to make do with buying them online.

Pleasant & Painful Memories: I was cleaning out my closet a few days ago when I came across a copy of New York Magazine. I had saved it for posterity among a box of mementos from a former dotcom employer. The headline splashed across the front page read:

"High Tech Boom Town
Special Report
It's 1995, and suddenly New York
is Cyber City"

We all know what happened. Whenever I want a sobering reminder of failed Internet companies, I just take a look in my t-shirt drawer. Yet skimming through the articles, this one passage (admittedly melodramatic) caught my eye:

"What stays constant in the end, after all the rollouts and shakeouts and buyouts have played themselves out, is the dream: that visceral sense possessed by the Alley's denizens of participating, here at the nostalgia-choked, sequel-smothered end of this century, in something entirely new."

Hundreds of millions of misspent dollars later, the shine is off NYC's high-tech apple. Yet it is that sense of creating something new or at least tweaking technologies that deliver information to people in compelling ways, which still keeps some of "Silicon Alley's" walking wounded walking.

Mea Culpa: Coincidently, James Ledbetter, who used to work for The Industry Standard, has an op-ed piece in The Times today in which he reflects on the role "so-called new economy publications" played in the tech bust. Dave Winer is less than impressed.

Gollum vs. Dobby: It's obvious to anyone reading the papers these days that Warner Brothers is trying put a wrench in my efforts to get an Oscar nomination for Gollum, the sometimes sinister, sometimes sensitive animated character in Lord of the Rings -- The Two Towers. Since June, there's been an ad teaser campaign to promote Dobby, the house-elf in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The damn elf is everywhere and no doubt distracting Academy voters from giving Gollum his due. If 14-year-olds were members of the Academy, Gollum would get the statue going away. Boy, I need to get out more.




-© Warner Bros.

Speaks For Itself: From About.com.

Productivity Run Amok?: The Times has a front-page article today about how the use of wireless laptops in college classrooms has become a major distraction for some teachers and students. Wandering minds and fast fingers aren't a problem for students alone. I used to work at a company that had a wireless LAN which allowed us to take our laptops anywhere in the building. It was a tremendous productivity enhancer and one that I wouldn't have wanted to give up.

On the other hand, it was a bear keeping people's attention in meetings as we checked our e-mail, sent IMs to each other and surfed the Web (all related to business of course). Combine that distraction with people pounding on their Blackberry hand-held devices and it became a hi-tech Tower of Babble. As a last resort, speakers would ask meeting attendees to close their laptops and turn off their pagers during presentations or discussions. Then again, if you want to keep people engaged in a conversation, make the topic worth listening to.

The Year In Mug Shots: The Smoking Gun puts its unique spin on year-end lists.

The Pay Phone Passes On: Increased cell phone use and other evolving technologies like Internet kiosks and Wi-Fi will mean the end of pay phones, according to the Washington Post. Pay phones are disappearing from major cities. One thing I won't miss are the scam artists who monopolize banks of phones to run illegal foreign call centers using stolen phone card numbers. On the other hand, removing pay phones may come at a price to people who can't afford cell phones or telephone service. According to the article:

"It is much easier -- and cheaper -- to dial from a cell phone for customers who can afford one. However, pay phones are still profitable in the lowest-income areas of a city, said Terry Rainey, president of the American Public Communications Council Inc., an industry group representing independent pay phone operators around the country.

"There are a great number of people in this country without a phone," Rainey said -- 4 and 5 percent, which is more than the 1 or 2 percent of the U.S. population that lacks television sets.

"Some lower-income areas rely on [pay phones] for regular communications, as well as, in some cases, emergency calls," said Mason Harris, president of Robin Technologies and of the Atlantic Payphone Association.

Find them and use them while you can. In a few years, these photos and the occaisional museum exhibit may be all that's left of pay phones.

Mouth Off: The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation could learn a thing or two from the Municipal Art Society about using the Web to gauge public opinion on the redevelopment of the WTC site. The LMDC's answer to gathering public comments is a flimsy comment form and slide show on their Web site.

The Municipal Art Society, on the other hand, is working with NY1 TV to present video clips and a much more detailed public opinion section on their site. These features include a more complete comment form, a slide show, video of each proposed design and the public presentation by each architect, as well as a way to submit your own ideas. Your back-of-the-napkin sketch probably doesn't have a snowball's chance of getting noticed. My only point here is that the Internet is an incredible tool for seeking public comment on redeveloping downtown and the LMDC isn't making the best use of the technology.

Vlogging Is Child's Play: Interesting discussions about vlogging, the concept of video blogging spawned by Jeff Jarvis. I'm in the camp that says vlogging has a future but kids will be an even stronger catalyst than adults. Kids have cameras, they have technological savvy and they have time. It is already happening -- in a manner of speaking -- on MTV.com.

What A Snow Job: I used to wonder why some New Englanders I know are so obessed with the twists and turns in the weather. There's no doubt it takes a hardy soul to brave New England winters but I got a first hand view of the real cause of this hysteria over the Christmas holidays.

On a visit to Boston, I was treated to the a hype-job like few I've ever seen. One of Boston's television stations -- Channel 7 -- was breaking into their programming every 30 minutes with weather alerts about the killer snow storm that was heading our way on Christmas Day. It got so bad that during one of these news flashes a panting weatherman excused his breathless delivery by saying he had just sprinted into the studio with the latest news on "hurricane" strength winds heading toward Cape Cod. The long and the short of it? We got four to eight inches in Boston. A nice white Christmas.

Now You're Scaring Me: Not only does the recent news that a group may have cloned a human being raise all sorts of ethical and relgious issues, but get a load of the philosophy espoused by the sect behind this development -- as quoted in The New York Times:

"Raëlians are followers of Raël, a French-born former race-car driver who has said he met a four-foot space alien atop a volcano in southern France in 1973 and went aboard his ship, where he was entertained by voluptuous female robots and learned that the first humans were created 25,000 years ago by space travelers called Elohim, who cloned themselves."

And I Don't Even Own A Mac: There are two ways to sell computers and electronics -- the way Apple sells them and the way everyone else sells them. Don't believe me? Visit the Apple store in SoHo.




Then, compare that experience with a visit to J&R Computer World in Lower Manhattan.
At the Apple Soho store, a former post office building, you can wander unattended from laptop to desktop to iPod to flat panel display. While waiting for a friend who asked me to help her buy a Mac, I made a three-minute movie, did a little Web surfing and blasted the B52s on one of the nearby iPods, cranking up the base until the sound waves rumbled through my chest. Ok, that was obnoxious.

The store is retail as theater. As a matter of fact, there is a movie theater on the second floor which showcases product demonstrations, learning workshops those Mac "Switch" TV ads. One of the sales people told me that he spends a decent amount of time each day helping people figure out how to read their e-mail on the store's computers (every computer in seems to have an Internet connection). All that's missing is coffee and bagels.

Meanwhile, over at J&R, none of the computers I tried connected to the Internet. Just to get to use any laptop, I had to have an annoyed sales person put in two passwords. All the mp3 players were under lock and key with no music on them to sample. I know that Mac can't compare with PCs in terms of marketshare and that J&R has great prices. Believe me, I've taken advantage of those deals more than once but these days there are plenty of places to buy competitively priced products on the Web. This is not about whether PCs are better than Macs. It's about creating an environment that's fun to be in and does the best job of promoting the product. Apple does and J&R doesn't. Put it this way, Apple got me hook line and sinker. A few thousand dollars later, my friend walked out the door with a hell of a Mac setup.

Give The Scrawny Guy An Oscar: Clive Thompson writes about the top-notch performance by Andy Serkis as the animated and gruesome Gollum in The Two Towers and wonders if he could be in line for an Oscar nomination. Good 'ol Gollum's battle of conscience was a much better acting moment than I've seen this year from a whole crop of supporting actors. If the Academy isn't willing to give him the nod, then they should establish a new category. How about: Best Depiction of a Tortured Soul by a Computer-Generated Graphic?

A Good Year For Bloggers: Wired News has one of a growing number of articles about the influence of bloggers on mass media. The piece leads with the Lott controversy but has some other interesting examples. Is blogging navel gazing or an emerging form of niche media that's getting some attention these days? It's both.

Happy Holidays: Taking a break. See you next year.

Chalk One Up For The Good Guys: Time Magazine picks three whistleblowers as Time Person(s) of the Year.

The High Line: In a city starving for public space, this is a no-brainer -- open space above the ground on a long-deserted railway. It's nice to see the Bloomberg administration is taking the notion of saving the High Line seriously. Heaven knows where the money will come front but at least there's momentum for not tearing it down.

Don't Mess With Medea: Saw Medea on Broadway last week. This is one person you don't want to fool with. Scorned by her husband Jason (of Argonaut fame), she kills their children, her husband's new wife and the wife's father -- who happens to be the King. Fiona Shaw's performance as Medea was spectacular. At first, the non-stop breast beating is a bit much to take but when she settles into the slow and steady climb to revenge, you're grabbed by her power, her anguish and an almost whimsical insanity. The set looks like an unfinished midtown office building (plate glass doors, stainless steel and cinder blocks stacked high) and the soundscape that droans in the background peaks to a frightening crescendo at the climatic murder moment.

One thing I did regret, however, was that some Medea-like retribution wasn't exacted upon the knucklehead whose cell phone went off during one of the play's more dramatic moments. I'm not a big one for legislating behavior but I was definitely thinking I'd have made a citizen's arrest had the New York City Council's recently passed ban on using cell phones in theaters had been in effect. Mayor Bloomberg promises to veto the legislation saying it is not enforceable.

I don't know, the city has made a great deal of progress on "quality of life" issues over the last few years. Would this ban be any harder to enforce than the city's new smoking ban or the state prohibition on using your cell phone in a car -- both of which are admittedly much more important to public safety. Last Friday, I was definitely willing to give the new law a try.

Let Us Rabble Babble Online: Lots of news and comment on the new WTC site designs issued last week by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. They are spending a lot of time seeking public opinion which is great but don't seem to be doing much to use the Web as a forum for public discussion -- at least this time around. When the first set of designs were released, they teamed up with Web Lab to offer anyone an opportunity to debate the merits of those proposals online. It's definitely worth doing again.