It’s not enough that Leona Helmsley already died, but now her dog gets a $12 million trust. The dog, named Trouble, is receiving the single-most amoung of money from Helmsley’s will, with her brother getting $10 million and $5 to two of her four grandchildren; the other two, presumably “little people” get zilch. In order for the two grandchildren to get their cash, they have to visit their late father’s grave at least once a year, preferably
For a New York ice queen, she was “generous” enough to leave her chauffeur $100,000. We think it’s hush money.
Featured Song: “I Wanna Be Your Dog” by The Stooges
It’s always something with transporation in New York: if it’s not a blizzard, it’s a steam pipe. If it isn’t a steam pipe it’s a strike.
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance is rallying against a new mandate that would make drivers put GPS machines in their cabs and is asking its 10,000ish members strike for two days starting Sept. 5.
Great idea guys; let’s frustrate paying customers because of something they have nothing to do with. Anyway, the Alliance’s Bill Lindauer explains why they’re right:
There are two issues. One is moral and constitutional, the other is financial…Under the system [mandated by the Taxi and Limosine Commission], drivers are tracked, they’re spied upon. It’s like we’re under surveillance. Not only are we under surveillance we have to pay for the dubious privilege.
Moral issue? Really, now. There are plenty of contract and freelance workers out there who repeatedly use company-owned equipment for personal use, and we’re they’re just as likely to get caught dowloading 100 plus songs a day not working by company technology.
It’s actually more complicated than that, but all the same, how else is tourist supposed to get from Union Square to Fort Hamilton Parkway when he realizes his particular subway line turns into an express route after 11 p.m.?
This is an example of the kind of picture that I couldn’t take under the new rules because I was with another photographer when I took it.
We’re generally the sort of people who pride ourselves on the idea that taking political action is best left to other, crustier people. If you’ve been reading this site for a while, you know the number of times we’ve asked our readers to actually do anything other than join us in deriding the pathetic state of nation and that number would be zero. Though we’re about to change that number by 100%, we pledge that calls to action will be few and far between if one is ever to come again.
But so look. New York City is a wonderful place, but the folks in the Office of Film and Television are about to do something really fucking stupid. Unless there’s substantial public outcry by August 3, they’re going to change the rules about filming and photographing on New York City streets so that any group of *2 or more people* would need *a permit from the city* and *$1 million in liability insurance*. The rationale for this is that since anyone can produce movies and tv shows and whatever and use the internet to reach an audience, groups of 2 or more people no longer count as the non-commercial whatever that protected us before.
I’m sure we don’t have to explain why this is a bad thing. Should this pass, other cities might get the same idea and that’s just bad news for everybody. Ronald Reagan beat Communism for a reason, and it’s so we can film and photograph whatever bullshit we want on the street whenever we feel like it and post it on the internet. That’s the idea that led Ronald Reagan to invent Freedom in the first place.
So sign this petition, even if you don’t live in New York. And if you do, there are going to be some public hearings and things and it would be rad if you found the time to go to them and say something intelligent for the cameras.
Thanks guys. Let’s beat this and then we’ll never have to ask you for anything ever again.
Granville Adams once played one of the prisoners on ‘OZ,’ the HBO prison drama we watched all of that time we had the stomach flu and had just gotten digital cable. Adams was arrested over the weekend after he got into a fight at BED in New York, and killed a guy by pushing him down an elevator shaft. He’s been charged in with negligent homicide and is facing up to four whopping years in prison.
Also, this is unrelated other than it comes from the same news article, a quick game. Which of the following paragraphs is unlike the others?
The elevator had previously passed all necessary inspections, a Department of Buildings spokeswoman said. The impact of the men’s bodies popped an elevator door off its rollers, according to Rus Laiosa, an elevator inspector who was called into the club following the incident.
BED’s patrons can sip cocktails and don the club’s complimentary socks while looking out at the city from an outdoor deck.
Police have said that the block, 27th Street between 10th and 11th avenues, houses a complex of clubs that has become a magnet for drug dealing, assaults and robberies. Investigations in the area have led to several nightspot closures.
We think that one of the main problem with having three levels of government is that it forces us to endure too many politicians. Case in point: Brooklyn Senator Carl Kruger, who must have been looking for something to do, has proposed a ban on electronic devices in crosswalks after two people have been hit by cars while using their iPods in his district. The ban would effect mp3 players, cell phones and Blackberries.
Do we need to explain why this is stupid? Well, we’re going to. Obvious issues of enforcement aside (traffic cops are supposed to give tickets to the legions of people walking down the sidewalk every day?), um, look both fucking ways before you cross or you could possibly get hit by a car. The reason this concept is reinforced to steadily in the minds of toddlers everywhere is because it’s a pretty basic concept for survival. The Crackberry/iPod lobby inevitably has found strong allies in Albany, and this legislation will go nowhere. But god damn it, does the Onion know what’s it’s talking about or what?
After we get thrown out of a bar after last call, we usually go desperately in search of a place to take a piss and something to eat. And usually, as far as either of those go, anywhere will do. Pizza, a hot dog, a disgusting tuna sandwich from a bodega or, if we’re lucky, 711.
But maybe we ought to start thinking about that. The New York City health food safety inspectors routinely turn up pretty disgusting shit. From Eyewitness News 3:
There was a market in Queens that had 12 beefy armadillos in the front window. In Brooklyn, inspectors found 15 pounds of iguana meat. And a grocery in Manhattan had smoked rodents.
How many iguanas had to die to procure 15 lbs of meat? That sounds like a regular Iguanacost.
