A Carroll Gardens couple isn’t sleeping together right now because the husband supports Sen. Hillary Clinton and the wife is with Sen. Barack Obama. The wife has told the huband he won’t be getting anything unless he switches sides. We have no idea how the story starting making the rounds.–Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens

This is another photo sent to us by sculptor, artist and photographer Gary Mirabelle, who is a regular photo contributor to GL, from a group of several photos of Clinton Hill.

Not that sunrise and sunset are an hour later than they had been, we’re looking at “plenty of sunshine” in the forecast for today with a high of 44 degrees. Tonight will be mostly cloudy with a low of 32.–Accuweather

The Lola Staar Dreamland Roller Rink will open its doors March 22 in the long-vacant Child’s Restaurant building on West 21st Street because Carlin, a boutique owner, won a “make your dreams come true” contest hosted by Glamour magazine and Tommy Hilfiger.

The Child’s Building is a big, open historic structure decorated with nautical themed terra cotta elements. Taconic Investments, which is the other major developer in Coney Island, has a 49-year lease on the building. Last year, the building was reopened for the Mermaid Ball after the Mermaid Parade. While developer Joe Sitt has encountered massive opposition to his plans, Taconic has hit little controversy and even appears to have won over many in the Coney Island community. While it plans to develop high-rises and big buildings, its property is east of the main amusement district.

Oh, Sunday Brookyn Craigslist Missed Connections, we do love you sometimes. We will say nothing about this weeks selection, except to present it:

Attendees from impromptu seminar on S&M held by 7 min mile runner – w4m – 28

Searching for attendees of an impromptu seminar that took place last Saturday March 1 in bed-stuy. Saw some of you at the meet and greet/surprise party that took place beforehand. I was the keynote speaker on S&M. Unfortunately I left before some of the attendees were able to sign my guestbook and provide me with their contact information. I apologize if anyone was trying to catch up with me, considering I run a 7 minute mile on tempo runs. Only one of you will remember this … I wasn’t accidentally touching your leg! Prove to me you were there, by telling me what decoration/image adorned the cake.

Superb.

Yesterday’s big rainstorm caused some excitement in the South Slope. The photos above and below were shot and posted by f.trainer who also produces the excellent Food of the Future blog. He emailed us to say:

lots of carnage on 20th street between 6 and 7th aves this afternoon. around 1pm they closed of the street after a tree fell onto a car on the other side of the street. not sure how it fell over but there was a pretty massive lightning strike right before that. but that could be unrelated…oh and also a light pole had been knocked down just down the street. from the looks of it, it seems like the pole may have been struck by a firetruck turning around or backing down the hill.

Photo below.

UPDATE: The pole came down because, per an email we got, “a firebox cable strung from streetlight to streetlight got caught in the tree’s branches, and when the tree went, so did the streetlight.”

We know that we’ve had a lot of Sunday Missed Connections material from the L Train recently, but we couldn’t pass up this string of posts about “why guys just stare on the L train.” It started with this:

why do guys just stare on the L train? – w4m

i don’t get it. why do dudes just stare? do you expect us chics to look at you back and smile? it’s creepy. if you want to say something, say something. it doesn’t have to be like “hey, i want you.” be creative. you live off the L.

Here are some of the responses:

They’re looking for girls who are literate enough to know the difference between chick and chic. You’re out of luck.

This:

Ooooohh you told her! It was obviously a typo. But I think more than that she struck a chord with a guy who has an axe to grind about his lack of success with his lecherous ogling on the L train. I mean come on you sound spurned by a woman you don’t know, the irony may be that you are the person being referenced, take her advice maybe it will work out for you, someday. Not like she said she hates men. And who likes to be awkwardly objectified in public anyway?

This:

It’s called window shopping. If you don’t like it put a bag over your head.

And, finally, this:

You ACTUALLY said: “I’m very good looking and she obviously just wanted to look at me… maybe see if I would make a move… to make her feel young and wanted…”

Oh my, you are probably the most egotistical guy I have heard on the missed connections (i apologize to the rest of you true romantics out there that aren’t looking for fame here but some sort of love), man you are laughable. especially the “make her feel young” part, your approach is the type i would expect from any douchebag in a bar and when denied advances chalks it up to it being her issue and age because dammit I’m hot who wouldn’t want a piece of this man sandwich. Well it seems not her, bad example. “are you single” bad opener.

Also for the record in case you are unaware of the inequalities between men and women, women get “stared at” in a very different way than you described, touched, brushed, grabbed at, etc etc everyday so why make the moot point and bring up the differences between your personal experience as one man and “stared at” due to your undeniable “hotness” VS the daily experience of a woman and being stared at. really? i dare you to post your picture so we can weigh in and objectify you here.

And that’s it for this week from the L Train.

On Friday, we posted a reader’s photo and questions about one-way signs that had appeared on Fifth Avenue in Sunset Park. One reader left a comment that some type of construction might be taking place and that the street–which is in wretched condition–was going to be repaved. Yesterday, another reader answered the question with some information on the MTA/New York City Transit website. LizD wrote that “As a regular rider of the B63 I’ve seen notices in the buses that Northbound 5th Ave between 39th st and 20th st will be closed effective March 10, 2008, indefinitely. I’ve heard through the grapevine that it’s for road reconstruction. The Northbound B63 will be re-routed onto 4th Ave. The MTA/NYC Transit web site has the details.” Indeed the website says the B63’s northbound service will be “rerouted due to construction on 5 Av between 20 and 39 Sts. Effective Mon, March 10, 2008 until further notice.” The B63 will run on Fourth Avenue from 39th Street to 20th Street and return to Fifth Ave. Also, we forgot to mention it on Friday, but what’s up with the placement of the Do Not Enter sign sideways?

Every Sunday we highlight a random selection of comments left by our GL readers during the previous seven day’s. Here are a few from this week:

Plans for Controversial Carroll Gardens Building Coming in April. “it will be interseting to see what the lower rung of rogers marvel have planned for this spot. with all the fantasy monster buildings in the public space and the governors island win, little 340 court street could be designed by temps…All this sharing with the nabe just isn’t helping. I think what they all do is design one monster thing, show it to the neighborhood and everyone freaks, then, they go back to their offices and get the not so monster drawings, wait a week, and show again. Just to make it look like they want to work with us. It’ll be a glass nightmare, people.” [Anonymous]

New Look Prospect Park: PLG Getting a Big Glass Tower. “Paging all archi-geeks: Somebody whip up a rendering of what this alien vessel is going to do to the view of the treeline from within Prospect Park! And, um, aside from the benighted Ebbets Field project, isn’t this thing going to be grossly out-of-scale and fingerlike? It looks like two suburban office buildings stacked clumsily atop one another. However, it was considerate of them to include a “park” on the roof; that will spare the residents the inconvenience of having exit into PLG and walk a block or two to the magnificent, historic REAL park that their monstrosity will overshadow. Maybe they can name their building the ‘Stratos’; only Trekkies will get the joke (see “the Cloud Minders”).” [Brenda from Flatbush]

The Unhappy Life of 333 Carroll Continues. “Hopefully, the new firm will have blow torches to cut that thing down and concentrate on the actual brick shell. The neighborhood has had enough of this.” [Anonymous]

Gowanus Meeting on Toll Brothers Project Draws a Big Crowd. “…Some people want the block remain “as is” which is unlikely. If residential isn’t allowed, then expect some major retail store to just build under the existing zoning.” [Anonymous]

• Car Plunges on Subway Tracks in Brooklyn [NYT]
• Ditmas Park as Viewed in 1998 [Ditmas Park Blog]
• Stroller and Bike Parking at New ‘sNice? [OTBKB]
• Dumbo Weekly Links [Dumbo NYC]
• More Brooklyn Found Toys [New York Shitty]
• Bay Ridge Preservationists Conceding Defeat on Church? [Left in Bay Ridge]
• Mill Basin Shopping Center Fire Temporarily Claims La Villa [GerritsenBeach.Net]
• New Duffield St. Photos [Duffield St. Underground]
• Prospect Park Fog [A Year in the Park]
• Condo Rentals at One Hanson [Set Speed]
• Brooklyn Tattoo Moving to Smith Street [Cobble Hill Blog]

The ice skating season at the Wollman Rink is almost over. The last day for skating is just a week from today, on March 16. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children and seniors. Skate rentals are $6. Speaking of the eventual end of winter, pedal boating season on Prospect Park Lake begins on May 3. Info and hours on the Wollman Rink on the website. Seven more days!

Check out this “Mermaids of Brooklyn” vid about the Mermaid Parade, a link to which came to us via an email this week. It was shot on 16mm & Super 8 and directed by Maddy Lederman. Fun stuff.

The “Brooklyn College Target” is open at Flatbush and Nostrand Avenues. “The store first welcomed customers on Tuesday, March 4th. Though the signs on the door have said ‘Opens March 9th’ for about two weeks, it turns out that date is the official ‘Grand Opening’. The store opened with a ‘soft opening’ five days early.” There are many, many photos of the new Tar-zhay.–Brooklyn Junction

“Smartmom can’t wait for the May opening of Babeland, the woman-friendly sex toys shop on Bergen Street off Fifth Avenue. And so are plenty of Park Slopers. Of course, that didn’t prevent the New York Post from oozing out of the Murdochian slime to dis the neighborhood with its story this week on the coming sex shop, ‘Sex Toy Shop Has Bad Vibes in Park Slope,’ ….So why not welcome Babeland? For one thing it sounds like they’ll have an incredible selection of dildos in many sizes, shapes and colors. And while this neighborhood is rife with good restaurants, children’s clothing stores and real-estate offices, there’s a dearth of sex toys shops.”–Smart Mom/OTBKB

This is another photo sent to us by sculptor, artist and photographer Gary Mirabelle, who is a regular photo contributor to GL, from a group of several photos of Clinton Hill.

It will be sunny to partly cloudy today and windy. The high will be 42 but it will feel like 30. Tonight will be partly cloudy and cold with winds gusting past 40 MPH. It will be 28 and feel like an invigorating 9 degrees. Also, there is a warning about black ice on roads that formed overnight, through 9AM.–Accuweather

If you are reading this hear and it is coming as news to you, you’re probably running an hour late. Daylight Savings Time started at 2 AM, taking an hour of daylight from the early morning and moving it to the evening. As of last year, daylight savings runs from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November–except in Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas. We understand that Arizona needs to different, but why do the Northern Marianas object?

Yesterday, someone posted what we thought was a funny email on the Park Slope Parents list making light of the “Is There a Park Slope in Boston?” thread at PSP this week. The writer asked, “What is the Park Slope of Iraq“? We posted it early yesterday morning and it was also picked up elsewhere. Some Park Slopers took umbrage, suggesting it was in bad taste. Other, like us, thought it was intended as humor, in addition to poking fun at what can be a self-centered neighborhood ethos at times (to put it politely). In any case, the original writer has spoken and here is the email as circulated. It turns out that the writer is an Iraqi-American:

I think my email was taken out of context and, perhaps, misinterpreted by a few people. I am certainly not one to take the situation in Iraq lightly. I suppose I should note that I am an Iraqi American, born in Baghdad, and have always been very critical of the occupation as well as US policy in the Middle East. I have family (civilians) who were killed by US forces, whose homes were bombed in the PGW#1, family who fled the region and were imprisoned refugees, and most recently one family member was kidnapped and tortured. The war has hit closer to home for me and my family than it has most others in the world.

All that said, the email wasn’t about Iraq, per se, as several people have pointed out, though it was politically charged. And it wasn’t a serious blow to PSP either. I am obviously a member of this list-serve and live in Park Slope. Yes, I actually own a Mountain Buggy. I also like Trader Joes. While I have not eaten at Red Hot, I do
enjoy Hunan Delight (another shameless plug for them). And, I have also rejected the notion of moving to other neighborhoods because “it’s just not as nice as Park Slope”. The joke was as much directed towards myself as it was to PSP. And so I am also self critical, and understand that we all often live a life of contradictions. I just like to keep things in perspective every once in a while. Therein lies the humor in the post, or so I thought. And I’m glad many others got it also (I received almost 30 supportive emails). To those who didn’t like it, there was no offense intended.

Very well said and, perhaps, not the end of the discussion.

All members of the community are encouraged to attend the event. The more attendees there are, the more our concern and commitment to Brooklyn and Carroll Gardens is displayed.

During the meeting, the Clarett Group and representatives from the architecture firm hired for the project, Rogers Marvel, will present plans and renderings of the condo building and townhouses that will replaces the former ILA building at 340 Court Street. There will be a short presentation from the Union-Sackett Block Association and time for a question and answer session.

Meanwhile, demolition prep work is continuing at the existing building. This morning’s session takes place at the Carroll Gardens Public Library, which is located at Clinton & Union Streets.

Here’s another unnerving tale about a Thursday night mugging in Park Slope–with an odd twist in terms of the vehicle the criminal is using–that’s making the rounds of the inboxes via the Park Slope Parents list and that may pop up elsewhere in a bit:

I was mugged last night (March 6th) , at 8:30PM, walking home from work on 14th Street between 6th & 7th Avenues. It happened right outside the Verizon building.

It seems that this is a NEW kind of mugging, apparently the police had never heard of it before in this area. A man in a old model car (possibly a Plymouth) pulled over as he was driving, got out of the car, grabbed my purse while I fell down, got back into he car, and peeled away.

The man was white, tall (over 6 feet), in his late 40’s to 50’s, and had on a hooded sweatshirt. Now, interestingly enough, I believe this is the SAME man who stood right behind me a couple of days ago walking home at 10:00AM from C-Town down 6th Ave (at 11th Street) & then quickly ran across the street as he saw another pedestrian walking down the block. I really had a feeling he was going to grab my purse, and then he quickly ran across the street. I think this is the same person, whether on foot or in his car.

I am NOT hurt, just sore & shaken up. Just wanted to let you all know that this is happening. Whether in broad daylight, at night, in a car or on foot. BE AWARE.

A cruising mugger in an old model Plymouth who may be hanging out in the neighborhood. How hard can that be to track down?

(Please Note: The vehicle pictured is a Plymouth Barracuda and is used only for illustrative purposes.)

This week we’re featuring two adoptable pets of the week as part of our weekly feature with animals available for adoption at the Sean Casey Animal Rescue shelter in Kensington.

We know that someone out there will think that Terrance is the cutest thing ever. He’s a puggle and here’s his bio:

Terrance is a 7 year old Puggle…he’s neutered, dewormed, treated with Revolution to prevent fleas, ticks, ear mites and heartworm and he’s up to date with vaccinations. His adoption fee is $200.00 and he’ll get one free exam at our vet’s office, one free month of pet health insurance and a microchip. If you’d like to meet him please email us for an adoption application at nyanimalrescue@yahoo.com.

Sean Casey Animal Rescue is located at 155 East 3rd Street in Kensington. They have a lot of different pets in need. Their number is 718.436.5163.

Here is our adoptable pet of the week. We’re featuring animals available for adoption at the Sean Casey Animal Rescue shelter in Kensington every week. If we help one kind soul hook up with one dog, cat or other creature in need of a home, we’ll be quite content.

Hi, my name is Domino and I`m a 1 and a half year old Pit Bull Terrier. I`m all ready to be adopted…I`ve been neutered, dewormed, treated with Revolution to prevent fleas, ticks, ear mites and heartworm and I`m up to date with vaccinations. My adoption fee is $75.00 and I’ll get one free vet exam, one free month of pet health insurance and a microchip! I love to play and to go for walks and I’ll keep you company watching TV too 🙂 If you`d like to meet me, email my friends at nyanimalrescue@yahoo.com for an Adoption Application. I can`t wait to meet you!

Clearly, any potential adopter has to decide if a particular creature in need of a home is right for their living situation, needs and their ability to provide the proper level of care and attention. Sean Casey Animal Rescue is located at 155 East 3rd Street in Kensington. They have a lot of different pets in need. Their number is 718.436.5163.

“While out documenting the despicable demolition of the Ward Bread Bakery Building for Atlantic Yards, i noticed that some birds appeared to be building a nest, or have already built a nest, inside of a support pole on a lamp post on the corner of Dean Street and Carlton Avenue.” Check out the fight over the nest, which is soaked with symbolism and irony.–Not Another F*cking Blog