On Saturday, we ran a photo that a reader had sent in of one of those “No Menus” signs hanging in Cobble Hill. She wrote back to say that it had been torn down, but also, in response to a reader question noted that they are available at Tony’s Hardware on Smith Street (181 Smith) and are two for five dollars. She writes, “They are flimsy and small and mine have been torn down twice, but, for the nano second they were up, we were flyer-free.” One would hope for a free source of the signs if they have a tendency to disappear that quickly, however.

When last we heard about Poolaid, its URL had been domainnapped and was being held for ransom. Or, at least, someone had bought it and wanted to sell it back to them. There’s no word on how they got the domain back, but an email went out last night that the website is back up and will be updated soon. To quote the email: “Yay.”

• Bummer Black Friday at Fulton Street Mall? [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]
• Community Board 13 Meeting on Wednesday [Kinetic Carnival]
• In the End, It Might Come Down to Coney Island Monuments [Lost City]
• Upside to Neighborhood Construction: Reflecting Pools [IMBY]
• Good Times Ahead for the G? [Gothamist]
• Still Life With Chair and Drum on Court Street [PMFA]
• Bay Ridge Pastoral [Right in Bay Ridge]
• Miss Heather’s Holiday Gift Guide: Cat Paw Salt & Pepper Shakers [New York Shitty]
• Dumbo Weekly Links [Dumbo NYC]
• 40th City Council District Election Turnout: 5.1 Percent [Brooklyn Junction]
• Mary Whalen’s Move to the Brooklyn Navy Yard [New Yorker]

Don’t have time to check out every store on Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue in Park Slope? Have no fear. We’re checking out a ton of stores and, when we’re done with our annual holiday gift guide, you will see there is no reason to ever go to Manhattan to shop.–OTBKB

Don’t know where to get a Christmas tree in Brooklyn? Then check out this Brooklyn Tree Buying Guide, which points out a few places you can get one and helps you ID your tree.–About Brooklyn

The subway and Brooklyn Craigslist Missed Connections are perfect together. This week, we noted that there were 56 subway Missed Connections in Brooklyn, so we settled on a Brooklyn post that raises a vital New York City Missed Connection question: How do you talk to a female on the subway? (The same could pertain, we suppose to females talking to men.)

What’s the best way to talk to a girl on the subway? – m4w – 25

Girls, your perspectives please:

On the subway, you make eye contact a couple times, enough so it’s totally clear you’re interested or curious or aware of each other’s existence in the world–that is, enough to make a guy see it as worth the effort of approaching you. So what’s the best thing for him to say?

“What are you listening to/reading?” (obviously only works if you are listening to an iPod or reading a book or whatever…)

“What’s your name?” (argh, so blatant)

“Hey, does this train stop at _____?” (so weak)

“I like your earrings/shirt/boots/whatever.” (again, so blatant)

“Do I know you from somewhere?” (bold, a little strange)

Some witty, random comment about something in the immediate surroundings…

Thoughts?

An interesting dilemma, and to judge by the volume of weekly Missed Connections on the train, a conundrum indeed.

An assortment of random Brooklyn vids from the YouTube for your viewing pleasure.

Ah, the joy that Greenpoint in general and Manhattan Avenue in particular are likely to bring through the holidays. Great store windows. Superb decorations. Interesting things tossed over the telephone wires.–New York Shitty

Once a week, we like to highlight comments that GL readers have left during the previous seven days. Here’s a selection from the last week:

Ikea Using Ripped Out Beard Street Cobblestones in Parking Lot. “I think you are not very far off the mark about them using the cobbles to pave over the graving dock. Having some familiarity with a very early iteration of the plan, Ikea was going to use a band of cobbles to “outline” where the dock is buried under all that fill and asphalt.” [Anonymous]

Grand Army Plaza in Lights. “Argh! What message does this send to everyone in the neighborhoods around the other park entrances? ‘Sorry, but you just don’t matter anymore’? That’s kind of a slap in the face to everyone in South Slope, Windsor Terrace, Crown Heights, Prospect Lefferts, etc. (Even when they did put up lights last year, the non-GAP entrances got lower-quality displays.)” [Anonymous]

Fart Fest #1: Take Your Stop Work Order and Stick It. “MMG demo has been violated in the past. Ms Grasso , you don’t have a permit to do mechanical demolitions. Only manual until you take stuff down until it IS BELOW 8 feet tall. The backhoes were used last week to slam into a 15 foot tall wall. (in the pictures it is the missing wall to the right of the neighbors shed)…It is businesses like yours, that make progress so extra painful, dangerous, and cause tenants to have so much hatred for you.” [Anonymous]

Fart Fest #1: Take Your Stop Work Order and Stick It. “With what I have seen all over Brooklyn, your should be lucky Ms. Grasso was the owner of the demolition company. There are other demo companies that would have done damage to that building, making it inhabitable without a second thought or losing any sleep over it.” [Anonymous]

• Times Critic Tougher on Hudson Yards Than Atlantic Yards Plan [AYR]
• The Road Starts at the Gowanus Asphalt Plant [NYT]
• The Most Interesting Pay Phone in Brooklyn [New York Shitty]
• Why I Appreciate Bed-Stuy [Bed-Stuy Banana]
• Jamaica Bay and Floyd Bennett Field on PBS [GerritsenBeach.Net]
• Volunteer at the Prospect Park Zoo [About Brooklyn]
• 2007 Kindergarten Forum for Parents [A Child Grows in Brooklyn]
• More Detail About Controversial Borough Park Development [NYT]

Icky is pulling together a holiday guide that will feature Brooklyn artists and craftspeople–“Brooklyn weavers, painters, potters, photographers, artists, and craftsfolk of all discipline.” If you are one that wishes to have your fine work noted, then please be in touch so that he can be of service.–Icky in Brooklyn

The “Report Card” for the G Train will launch a dozen snarky headlines and blog posts? How could it not if, as expected, the most maligned train in the entire subway system gets a bunch of F’s?–NYT

Anyway, here’s the 143 Huron Gowanus Lounge Multiple Choice Quiz:

The Department of Buildings inspector reported no holiday work at 143 Huron because…
(A). He visited after the workers had wrapped up their Thanksgiving work.
(B). The workers ran and hid when he showed up.
(C). The workers were having Thanksgiving Dinner when the he swung by.
(D). He didn’t actually go to 143 Huron. He went to 134 Huron.
(E). Those Ray Bans make the world dark, baby, especially after sunset.
(F). He saw it but for some odd reason failed to, you know, see it.
(G). Shut up. It’s a stupid law for whiners. Go post pictures of Gowanus Santa decorations.

Assemblyman Joe Lentol has jumped into the Giant Fart Cloud Building fray. You might recall that the Department of Buildings halted the demolition of 5 Roebling (aka the Giant Fart Cloud Building) last week for being unsafe. The demolition had threatened to destabilize at least one neighboring building. Today, New York Shitty posts a copy of a letter that Assem. Lentol, whose district includes both Williamsburg and Greenpoint, sent to the Department of Buildings. In it, he cites letters from constituents complaining about “dangerous work practices” at the site and says “the Building Department must order frequent inspections” of work at 5 Roebling. A Partial Stop Work Order is still in effect for the site. It allows safety work and debris removal. Proper oversight of the project will be key to ensuring that no one becomes homeless during the completion of demolition and, even more to the point, during the construction of a new building. Sadly, there are dozens of other sites in Brooklyn that require “frequent inspections.”