Year: 2011

Weed Menace Grows in New York City–NYPD Responds

Your Attention Please: Marijuana has now been found in all five boroughs. Luckily, in response to this plague, the NYPD has cracked down and arrested more people than ever for the crime of possessing marijuana. In 2010, 50,383 were arrested (86 percent of these are black or Latino). Noble drug warriors estimate that a continued…
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Smoker-free worker

Ahhh, I hear the immortal if overused words of Martin Niemöller… then they started drug testing at work. But I did not complain, because I was not a drug user. Actually, just for the record, I’ve complained every time I’ve taken (and passed) a drug test. Well it seems that now there are more places…
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Guardian Angels foil ‘L’ Robbery in Chicago

Even since I felt safer after seeing them on the ‘L’ growing up in Chicago, I’ve always been pro-Guardian Angels. But they’ve never so popular among police, or at least police unions, who don’t like to see other people keeping the city safe… and doing it for free. Their founder, Curtis Sliwa, certainly has some…
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Police Bust Giraffe-Fighting Ring

Well, of course it’s from The Onion. Since the late 1980s, giraffes have become a status symbol in many American cities, but increasingly, the grazing land mammals are dropped off at shelters when they become too difficult to care for, usually because their owners live in … homes without high vaulted ceilings. … “I always…
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I Miss Baltimore Crab Cakes

I was at a good fish store on 9th Avenue in Manhattan yesterday and bought a pound of good fresh Maryland crab meat (non-lump, $16). So for breakfast today I made crab cakes. They were good. Delicious. Fried in butter. But still not even closeto as good as you can get at Faidley’s or almost…
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NYPD Flashback

From a larger series by Jen Carlson at the Gothamist. Here’s how it looks today: Though I’m not certain if The Two-Five is still at the same location. Anybody know if they’ve moved? It would be a shame if they tore down those two solid old buildings. [thanks to Alan I.]

“Name something that gets passed around…”

What first comes to mind? This is worth 2 minutes of your life. Watch to the end; there are two punch lines. (Thanks to Drug WarRant)

1919 Map of Ethnics and Other Seditious Activities in New York City

You know how “kids these days” think everything in the world is online and can be found with Google? Well, find this: John B. Trevor’s 1919 Ethnic Map of New York City. I’ve wanted this map ever since I saw it. Trevor, non-elected but politically powerful, was worried that immigrants (Jews in particular) were going…
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Seat belts

Wear them. And some interesting stats from Maine: Medicaid paid out, on average, $24,500 for crash victims who were wearing their seat belts at the time of the incident. . . . The Medicaid payout for unbelted victims, meanwhile, was nearly triple that figure, or roughly $74,000 per patient, Steele said. In an earlier review…
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Animal cruelty and crocodile tears

Jean Marbella has a good column in the Sun regarding trial of two brothers accused of torching a pit bull in West Baltimore in 2009: Somehow, I feel It’s come to this: The rest of us turn our backs on these neighborhoods, and the blue-light camera is the only one still looking. … No similar…
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