Its Gets Grimmer

The drip, drip, drip of bad news for sleazy Staten Island Congressman Michael Grimm just gets drippier.

Turns out that this law-and-order guy associates with criminals and is a deadbeat.

If this guy's political career survives, it'll be proof that there's no honesty in public life anymore.

History of NYC in Ten Objects

The public radio station WNYC is doing a special upcoming segment on the history of NYC in ten objects -- ten objects that have come to define the evolution of our city. Right now you can go online and see some of the objects that listeners have submitted.

There are some interesting and certainly worthy suggestions -- Greek coffee cups, water towers, the Times Square New Year's Eve ball, hot dog carts, even the legendary Andy Warhol "The Velvet Underground and Nico" album cover.

I like all of these things but there's one item missing -- granted it no longer exists but it used to define what it meant to be a New Yorker. And virtually every New Yorker had one -- if not more than one -- in their pocket at any time.

Of course, I'm talking about ... the subway token!

Personally, I think our city is poorer without them. 

Bloomberg at 70

Yesterday our fair mayor turned 70 years old.

Happy belated birthday Mike.

Also, in just under two years, he'll be out of office. So what does he have planned for his final days in office?

Read all about it here.

Jeremy Lin Inspires Basketball Mania

New York Post sinks to a new low ...

Can you believe the New York Post did this?

New York Post Outs Greg Kelly's Accuser With Front-Page Photo

It's shameful. Outrageous. Disgusting. 

Or business as usual for these people. 

Of course, this paper is owned by Rupert Murdoch which also owns Fox News and those papers in Great Britain that hacked the phones of dead people. This is a journalistic organization that has no morals, no ethics, no sense of common decency. This is an evil company. 

It will be a great day in NYC when Murdoch and his minions no longer own a newspaper -- or anything -- in this town. 

Hookah Central

In that Mediterranean village on the East River called Astoria, located about 5000 miles west of the actual Mediterranean in the borough of Queens, is a stretch on Steinway street known as Little Egypt. There are several Egyptian restaurants there serving hardcore, no nonsense Egyptian food that, having sampled it a few times, is very delicious. There are also Egyptian specialty stores

And then there's the hookah lounges.

These are the places where Egyptians congregate, talk about the politics and their memories of the old country, and smoke hookah -- a hashish boiled in water, the fumes of which are then smoked through a big glass pipe.

This small article is about what is, allegedly, the first hookah store in the United States and how it captures a little bit of Egypt in NYC. I've never tried hookah myself but, if you're curious, you should check out Little Egypt in Astoria and take a small trip across the world via the subway.

Frisk This

Of the many controversies swirling around the NYPD, the biggest one that will probably be an issue in the 2013 mayoral race is the policy of Stop and Frisk.

This is basically where cops stop people and search them for drugs, guns, knives or anything else that would prove they are menaces to society. Many who are caught with something are either arrested or issues summonses. Those who are not found with anything are just annoyed and inconvenienced. 

The NYPD and the mayor -- backed by most of the newspaper editorial boards and powers-that-be in this city -- support the practice and tout it as a key crime fighting tool. Those who are mostly the targets of frisky cops obviously don't like the practice and question its effectiveness. And, not surprisingly, blacks and Hispanics are overwhelming the people being stopped and frisked. 

This policy and its controversy is clearly one of those issues with huge potential to become a wedge issue in this city's politics. Wealthy people and white people will probably support the policy while poorer and minority people won't. It's one of those policies that just about everyone who isn't affected by it supports. But if anyone is affected by it, they hate it and want it stopped. 

It's too bad that in the second decade of the 21st century, issues like this still emerge to divide the city. 

A couple of articles in this week's Village Voice show the human side of stop and frisk, and how people react to it. If it's something that happens to other people, you don't care. If it happens to you, then you crusade to stop it. 

In 2013, Stop and Frisk will either stop -- or the cops will be more frisky than ever.

Classic Mr NYC

A couple years back I interviewed Arianne Cohen, the editor of New York magazine's Sex Diaries, for this blog. The main topic of the interview was her book The Tall Book, about her life as a very tall woman. But, naturally, the subject of Sex Diaries came up (ha ha) and she confirmed that they are totally real.

**Blush blush **

Well, once again, Mr NYC was ahead of the curve. Recently Arianne published a book compiling 1500 of the Sex Diaries that she edited. And she gave a great interview to The Daily Beast. You should definitely read it but, remember, Mr NYC was two years ahead of the curve.