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BP Well to Be Sealed By Saturday, Says BP

The good old days.​Hey, everybody, remember that well in the Gulf? The one that broke a while back, and leaked its oil everywhere, and got all over a bunch of birds, and fish, and shrimp, and people? Oh, come on, remember? Yeah, it was a long time ago that happened. Like, before the summer eve ... More >>

Morning Links: Cordoba House Imam Speaks; Google Has Another New Logo

​• The imam behind the proposed Islamic center near ground zero, Feisal Abdul Rauf, speaks out in an op-ed in the New York Times. "We are proceeding with the community center," he says. It will include separate prayer spaces for Muslims, Christians, Jews, and people of other faiths, he write ... More >>

GM Salmon to be Approved; Coffee Prices Skyrocket

​At kosher, all- dairy Basil, a café and wine bar in Crown Heights, all staff are required to adhere to the Lubavitch dress code, even though most are African-American and Caribbean-American. [Wall Street Journal] The FDA has begun the process to approve the first genetically modified animal ... More >>

Meatless Mondays Founder Also Brain Behind 'Squeeze the Charmin' Commercials

Flickr Commons; Steinfeldt Photography Collection of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper MidwestIf you would like to distress these men ...​ Heard of Meatless Mondays yet? If so, that's probably thanks to the man behind the "Squeeze the Charmin" commercials that ran from the '60s to the ... More >>

Bootleg Roundup: Download Spoon At Madison Square Garden, And Darcy James Argue's Secret Society At the Newport Jazz Festival

All hail Spoon, arena-rockers at last. Pic by Ben Jay.​A couple splendid bootlegs to start your week, starting with Spoon's triumphant, 15-song (!) opening set for Arcade Fire at MSG last Wednesday, as captured by the indomitable NYC Taper. Britt Daniel and co. fill the place just as capably a ... More >>

BP Will Probably Drill in the Gulf Again, After This Mess Blows Over

​Um, too soon? BP took the opportunity today -- as crews plan to seal the damaged well via an 18,000 foot relief well -- to tell us that they'll probably drill again right in the same place where millions of gallons of oil have leaked into the Gulf. Because, after, all, there's still a lot of ... More >>

Why We Can't Eat Canada Geese; How the Cost of Bacon is Rising; and More

​Canada geese killed in New York this month to help control the population were double-bagged and thrown in landfills because there is no way to process the meat into food. Also, it would take six years to study the safety of the bird meat. [NY Times] The city has reportedly spent $3.3 millio ... More >>

Jersey Shore and the New York Stock Exchange: The Guido Effect (Updated!)

Image via NPR/Getty.​"Is nothing sacred?" asks NPR today of the picture you see to your right. Because -- if you haven't heard -- the creatures of MTV's Jersey Shore (and Village Voice cover models!) rang the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange today. At the half-way mark of the day, h ... More >>

Man Who Received World's First Full Face Transplant Shows New Face on TV

​The world's first full face transplant patient appeared on TV today for the first time since surgery to thank the donor's family and his doctors. His name is Oscar, and "he spoke with difficulty," which is only to be expected considering his extreme surgery, which took 24 hours during which d ... More >>

The Village Voice Remembers Daniel Schorr

​Legendary, veteran political journalist Daniel Schorr -- who won Emmys, Peabodys, and inclusion in Richard Nixon's "Enemies List," which he considered to be among his greatest achievements -- passed away this morning in a Washington, D.C., hospital. He was 93. NPR has a comprehensive, compell ... More >>

Cupcakes Driving NYC's Economy; Pot Drinks Get Stonewalled

​Cupcakes have gone beyond trendy to become a legitimate driver of the city's economy. Cupcake cafés like CRUMBS Bake Shop and Butter Lane have fueled the labor market in the past year. [Wall Street Journal] The city's most inventive watermelon dishes include Bond St.'s watermelon cucumber g ... More >>

Morning Links: Roman Polanski Won't Be Extradited; Well May Be Re-Capped Today; Mayor Bloomberg Hearts His iPad

​• Switzerland has refused to extradite Roman Polanski to the U.S. over a child sex case (regarding a 13-year-old girl) dating from 1977, and he has been freed from house arrest. "The reason for the decision lies in the fact that it was not possible to exclude with the necessary certainty a ... More >>

The Guggenheim to Get a Food Cart; Pringles Go Multigrain

​Mississippi is the most obese state in the country for the sixth year in a row, according to the seventh annual "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future" report. New York tied for 36th place with Florida and Idaho. [NY Daily News] The Guggenheim Museum is seeking permission from ... More >>

Whole Foods Dumps Boozy Kombucha; the Most Exclusive Subway in Town

​Food mega corp ConAgra is recalling all Marie Callender's Cheesy Chicken and Rice frozen meals, regardless of when they were made, due to possible salmonella contamination. [USA Today] Whole Foods is removing kombucha, a fermented tea drink, from its shelves because of concerns over the low ... More >>

Is Pabst Blue Ribbon About to Become Bumble Bee Beer?

​The NPR website reports that counter-culture favorite Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer may be on the verge of being sold to C. Dean Metropoulos, the man responsible for developing such food brands as Vlassic Pickles and Bumble Bee Tuna. The sale, brokered by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, will reporte ... More >>

BP Tries, Tries Again...and Again We Wait

​Good morning! Today in your BP oil spill update: After cutting the pipe at the wellhead (with 20-foot shears), officials have placed a cap over the well to funnel oil to a ship at the surface. But, as usual, "it will be some time before we can confirm that this method will work and to what ... More >>

In Celebration of 100 Years of Strap Marks, Doctor Introduces "Human Bra"...Plus, Scenes from a Bra's Life (a Photo Gallery)

​If we live to be 100, we hope that our friends and remaining family members who don't hate us entirely will bring us a nice melty ice cream cake (not too frozen, for the sake of our dentures) and some jolly tales of the good old days, when we used to be pretty and fun and able to eat solid fo ... More >>

Are Nonprofit News Sites Doomed to Fail?

​This morning, the Poynter Institute reported that Columbia University's launched a nonprofit news website via their Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media. It'll be focusing on national and regional reporting about education. Follow? A website, funded as a nonprofit, strictly devoted ... More >>

On Treme's (Possibly Redeemable) Annoying Characters And Fraught Quest For "Musical Authenticity"

Don't write Steve Zahn off yet, folks​David Simon's Treme is, as has been mentioned far and wide, clearly not going to be The Wire. Sure, it's dealing with rampant corruption in a major American city and the frustration of human beings forced to deal with that corruption, doing so with an unca ... More >>

The Census Is a Lot Like the Time You Lost Your Virginity

Soooo awkward​So today's your last day to fill out the census (supposedly) before you can expect some lovely government-enabled body to come pound on your door demanding facts and figures and being generally pushy and bureaucracy-oriented. And since we personally have been alternately bored/co ... More >>

NPR Takes on Williamsburg, and Very Important Things Are Revealed

​Subversive culture thermometer NPR has uncovered a trend over the weekend, and boy oh boy, is it subversive, all covered in ironic mustaches and plaid! In the grand and cringe-worthy tradition of old people talking about young people as if they know what young people are actually doing, and ... More >>

New York Food Trends Head (Middle) East; The City's Secret Dishes

​The dangers of hot dogs lie not only in their nutritional value (or lack thereof). They also cause some 17 percent of all food-related asphyxiations. The American Academy of Pediatrics wants to see foods such as hot dogs redesigned to make them less easy for children to choke on. [USA Today] ... More >>

Das Racist Cover the Beastie Boy's Paul's Boutique at Cameo Gallery, Enrage Internet

"Not-really-rapping-beastie-boys-and-mostly-throwing-shit-around-the-stage-while-people-walked-out," went one review that got sent our way. Fair enough. New York was also baffled. Pictures (below) more or less confirm the story. But let's take a moment here. This was not All Tomorrow's Parties. My ... More >>

Humorist Mo Rocca on Pale-Faced Vegans, Gay Thai Food, and Eating Eyeballs

Mo Rocca: Gentleman farmer, duck-lover, possessor of newly acquired abs-of-steel ​ Mo Rocca is a writer and humorist, a regular correspondent on the CBS Sunday Morning show, a panelist on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and an Iron Chef America judge. He has appeared on Ugly Betty, The Tonight ... More >>

Not-Technically-CMJ: Sharon Jones Boogaloos Through The Daptone Soul Revue

Daptone Soul Revue Knitting Factory Friday, October 23 Greetings from the R-for-Retro wing of Slate's infamous DORF matrix, which chides NPR for only spotlighting black music made by those who are Dead, Old, Retro, or Foreign. Verily, Daptone Records has the R on lock, with multiple backing band ... More >>

GreenBox to Revolutionize Pizza; Bill Owens Hasn't 'Got Milk'

​The GreenBox is a new pizza box that allows you to rip off the top and separate it into four plates, while the bottom folds in half and becomes a container for leftovers. The GreenBox was invented by William Walsh, who came up with the idea in college. [NY Daily News] Certain "Smart Choices" ... More >>

Quick Hits

Twitpic from GiGi_NYC. Welcome the new bus ad campaign for atheism! Though we think that, as a market for this product, New York is pretty well fished out. This weekend, the Pride Parade -- by which we of course mean the Immigrant's Pride Parade on Sixth Avenue between West 37th and 57th Streets ... More >>

Sarah Vowell: Standing Room Only at the Brooklyn Public Library

Michael D. AyersLive, onscreen, from the Brooklyn Public Library "I only have one ticket left," says Meredith Walters, Manager of Adult Programs at the Brooklyn Public Library, to the couple standing in front of me. The last purple stub to get in was for a chance to watch NPR contributor/history ne ... More >>

Letters 12.17.08

Rap Activism, Or Not: Young Jeezy on NPR

East Village Radio Music Festival: It's Hard Out There for a Pirate

Voice Choice: AquaCabaret: Danica McKellar Puts You to the Test

Sigur Rós: Hopelandic Springs Eternal

Icelandic wailers return, as pretentious and indescribable and overwhelming as ever

WTF: A Six-Pack of Bud is $12.99 in Brooklyn Heights!

Science Class: On Food Memories

'The Page Turner'

DV Suicide-Bombing Drama Lacks Narrative Urgency

Comic (Un)convention

Books

Dust Raking

Stop the presses! Liberal journos donate to Democrats! Plus: N.Y.C. protesters spark mad tab disease

Friends in Smart Places

It's a steady job but they want to hire a paperback writer

Giant Step: Raising Funds to Ensure the Kids Are Alright

In Hack Heaven

Bios of dead journos reveal tricks good muckrakers carried off: booze, lies, big truths

The Jobs of the Future Are a Thing of the Past

Outsourcing and the sad little movement to stop it

365 Days Later

The Other of Invention

What Would Demos Do?

The Contenders' Exit Strategies

Away From It All

A Blackout Letter From an Absent Friend, Friday, August 15

WBAI = Anti-Free-Speech Radio

'Democracy Now!' Suspended

Supreme Court in Contempt

Rewriting the Constitution

Blind Alley

Surfing Through the Scuttlebutt