This morning our neighbor cautioned us that tonight the Bloods gang will be conducting initiation rites, and are singling out women for attack. Her concern was nice, but immediately I started thinking, this sounds familiar ...

A quick Google later, and we find that this rumor has been around since at least 1993, and before that it was attributed to the Hell's Angels. The Web is alive with chatter, mostly school kids fanning the flames of paranoia, as post after post confirms the validity of the warning. Their claims are 'backed up' by mentions of girls already killed in Newark (with no further citation needed apparently). One girl mentioned that she has friends in the NYPD and they've confirmed the validity of female targeting by Bloods' pledges, although her claim seems a bit suspect when she mentions that each person must kill 31 women each. Hmmm.

This sucks, if only because it makes people worry needlessly. Worse, there is the outside possibility that some dickhead kid will see the rumor and take it upon himself to make his bones. But I guess there's no point in blaming the urban legend. We're all spooked by everything these days, and ready to believe the absolute worst. Think about it, I know gangs are scum, but what would it prove to anyone to specifically attack women? I know standards have dropped a lot over the years, but the whole thing smacks of fabrication designed to elicit the greatest hysterical reaction.

Meanwhile, parents will be searching their kids' candy for nonexistent razor blades, and cat adopters will be refraining from adopting out any black cats. Frankly people, if you were gonna adopt out "Midnight" to the kind of person who's going to crucify him, you probably shouldn't be adopting out anything to anybody; you're a lousy judge of character.

A friend of mine got mugged last night, but his attackers made no mention of gangs or initiations. They took his iPod and his phone, then returned his phone "because it was so shitty." Now that's something to worry about.

Labels: Bad Stuff, Holidays

I've been paranoid about the election for a variety of reasons. But the only one I had any control over was where I'm voting. I never changed my registration from my old address, so I mailed in the form a few months ago. But I never received confirmation of any kind, which wouldn't have bugged me if my girlfriend hadn't received 2 separate confirmations of her registration. So for many moons now I've been mildly concerned that properly voting would entail dragging myself halfway across town back to the old neighborhood.

Just when I was about to break down and call the Board of Elections, the Internet comes through like a champ with an online form that allows me to find out where I'm voting without having to really do anything strenuous. Like, you know, talking to someone on the phone.

Anyway, if anybody else is out there suffering in silence, here's a link to the voter lookup in New York (also here's a poll locator). Now I can go back to worrying about the possible results of this election, and whether or not America is still as dumb as it has been for the last decade or so. *shudder*

Labels: Vote or Die mofos

Does anybody remember the mall-store Merry-Go-Round? When I think of it, I still see green spandex, mesh-front shirts and headbands. To me, it was the apogee of 80s fashion, jumping on every ridiculous leg-warming trend and running it directly into the ground. But nobody seems to remember it now. I can't even remember if my local mall had one; I don't remember shopping there, but I do remember how much I associated it with my pubescent days. You don't see stores like that anymore; but what happened to it?

My theory: like so many icons of the 80's, I think Merry-Go-Round was killed by grunge rock. It killed a lot of things: hair-metal, knit ties, Kurt Cobain. And Merry-Go-Round (not to mention pretenders to the throne like Chess King, who, it may interest you to know, was bought out by MGR at some point. I don't know why I feel bad about this, but considering how ingrained 80's nostalgia is in our stupid culture (largely now by people who were not even remotely in existence during the aforementioned decade), you'd think there'd be some kind of monument to it. Surely, if it weren't for Merry-Go-Round, 80's culture as we currently regard it would not exist.

Info on the store is a bit scant, but I did find this bizarre, press-release style company history, that oddly doesn't mention that the company went bankrupt (had to find that elsewhere). But it notes the kind of forward-thinking that should have given it immortal icon status:

When pop star Michael Jackson appeared on MTV wearing a red leather jacket with 27 zippers, Merry-Go-Round sold more than 50,000 similar jackets at $29 each. Similarly, when the lead singer in the rock band Def Leppard performed in a video sporting a Union Jack sweatshirt with cut-off sleeves, a new fad was born. Merry-Go-Round sold over 40,000 copies of the sweatshirt at $15 each.

Merry-Go-Round managed to eke into the 1990's, but by 94 it was pretty much over. I'm not exactly sad about it, but I guess I feel the company doesn't get its due in pop-culture history. I'm also hopeful that I won't be spending any more time in malls so these admittedly dorky notions don't obsess me further. Though I do have some lingering questions about Orange Julius ...

Labels: Cleveland, Funny to Me, History, Shopping

Empty Cages Collective is having another adoption event at Muddy Paws in Greenpoint. When these guys started doing TNR work around the city, I'm not sure they knew they would end up with so many adorable, adoptable kittens on their hands. While many of these kittens were born on the street, they were trapped while young enough to be properly socialized to humans so they grow up to be totally normal house cats. Because of this, ECC couldn't bear to drop these kittens back on the street, so they put themselves in the adoption business!

So if you're in the market for a kitten, swing by and pick up a few. If you're in the market for some adult cats who have had the benefit of socialization in my home, check out these 4 charming cats!

Labels: Adoption, Cats

Bushwick was graced with another walking tour from the good folks at bcue.org, and as usual I nearly missed it. I got all confused about the dates and realized it was happening this past Sunday with some 20 minutes to spare. I made it to the Myrtle-Wyckoff station a little late, but hey, the walking tour is pretty easy to pick out of a crowd.

Apparently this tour was written up in Time Out: New York but I didn't catch the article (did anybody see it?) So besides the usual gaggle of old-timers and locals there were a few tourists. Though who can really tell these days.

This tour focused on Bushwick's most commonly-associated aspects, namely the blackout, the fires, the drugs, the mob influence, the crooked landlords, the specter of gentrification. Yet it was a lovely fall day and tour leader Adam Schwartz is great as an educator and raconteur, so he made sure it wasn't a total bummer. Some highlights included visiting St. Barbara's a Spanish Baroque style Catholic church built in 1909. Regardless your feelings on religion, you gotta admit this is a kick-ass building. You can't believe you're in Bushwick when you're inside it looking up at the insane level of detail on every available surface. Bushwick historian John Dereszewski was on hand and mentioned that he remembers an even stranger sight: St. Barbara's during Bushwick's nadir, pristine while surrounded by rubble and neglect.

We also covered the Hope Gardens housing project, which may bore some, but I find fascinating. It was the last housing project created before Reagan ended the whole 'experiment,' but has proven to be the most successful. Instead of monstrous high-rise buildings, Hope Gardens is mostly 3-story buildings, some set up like apartment complexes and some more like townhouses, complete with garden apartments. You see Hope Gardens in many locations throughout the neighborhood; its sprawling footprint was determined largely by which blocks were most decimated by fire. It's sort of too bad they weren't able to reproduce this model elsewhere.

The tour culminated with a stroll through Maria Hernandez Park (where people were playing volleyball, which kind of blew my mind until Adam explained its popularity in Ecuador and Mexico). We ended things at "The Well," a block of Knickerbocker that previously contained a seemingly-bottomless supply of drugs in the 80s. Say what you will about the neighborhood now, we're already a long way from that now.

Some photos from the tour are here.

Labels: BCUE, Bushwick, Walking Tours

Today is apparently National Feral Cat Day. I haven't kept up the advocacy end of this cat business, so I was unaware that it was today or, indeed, that it existed at all. I guess I don't know if I'd done anything anyway, I'm always busy at work and busy with cats once I get home. I am finishing a couple of new winter shelters for the outdoor crew, I found one of those huge Rubbermaid bins in the neighbor's trash which I am converting into a cat condo, it's pretty common elsewhere, but normally I am limited to the bins half the size, since anything bigger is too hard to carry home (see photo by Lisacat of ECC's PJ with a similar shelter).

I went to Home Depot for supplies and miraculously they had mini bales of hay for $7 apiece. I got 3 of them, which left straw all over the store. I also got some Styrofoam insulation and, of course, more Great Stuff expanding foam. I love that stuff. Of course, our ferals seem to prefer the abandoned house down the street to the storage tub shelters, but perhaps laziness will win out and they'll stay with us, if only so they don't have to walk more than 20 feet for food.

It sounds like a friend will help put together the materials to turn the Empty Cages Collective into a true non-profit group! I have been hoping for this for a long time, as it helps legitimize their activities, plus will save them some dough on taxes. I don't know what sort of grants are out there for cat groups, but they will be able to apply for them. Plus people who donate money can deduct it from their taxes. All this time they've been basically scraping by on their own money and the favors of kindred spirits. Now, how do you explain tax-exempt status to a livery cab driver?

Labels: Feral

The other day I heard the whining of a cat. This is obviously not that unusual around my house, but it was coming from outside. Which okay is also not all that unusual. But anyway this whining was more pained or forlorn or whatever, so it got my attention. I looked out and saw a black and white cat on a stoop across the street, crying at the door. The cat looked suspiciously like Marbles, who also used to sit on various stoops before we took her inside. It seemed pretty clear it lived in the house and wanted back in.

As I watched the cat, the neighbor next door to the cat emerged with their enormous Rottweiler. The dog is a fairly docile female, obviously not one of the 'bad' Rotts. But still, she's a big, big dog. The guy brought her down and started walking her down the sidewalk, oblivious to the cat. The dog immediately snapped to attention, pulling on the leash to try to get closer to the cat. The guy, skinny and generally unhealthy-looking, was having a lot of trouble controlling her; he pulled with all his strength and still the dog inched forward.

I don't even think the dog had an malicious intent, she just wanted to get up closer. It yanked the guy right over to the stoop, within a few feet of the cat. Now here's the funny part, the cat stood its ground and fought back!

You shoulda seen this little cat, all arched-back and puffed-out tail, hissing and growling at this enormous dog, rearing up and spitting. This was either one tough cookie or one stupid feline. The dog still leaned on the leash, the guy still struggled to pull her back to the sidewalk. Eventually he got the dog to walk further down the street. I figured the encounter was over, but a minute later they were heading back, but now the guy had a tree branch in his hand.

The cat was still on the stoop, and so the dog was still straining to get at it. So with one hand trying to hold back the dog, the guy starts swatting at the cat with the stick! The cat growls at him but doesn't run away, it just stays out of arm's (stick's) reach. The guy keeps swinging the stick, forcing the cat over to the areaway. Now he's trying to hit the cat by sticking the stick through the bars of the fence. The cat is hiding under some patio furniture, but keeps coming out as if to taunt the doofus. It would have been hilarious if he hadn't been serious.

By this point he's really trying to hurt the cat. At first I thought he was trying to shoo it away so the dog wouldn't be distracted, but now it's pretty obvious he's locked in a battle of wits, and he's unarmed. Except for that stick. He's swearing at the cat as his blows hit nothing but the neighbor's grill; the cat may actually think this is all a game. This guy is the same brain surgeon who got into an argument with the mailman a couple weeks before, resulting in a block-long shouting match as he questioned the mailman's manhood the further he got down the street.

So I'm trying to figure what to do. I want to go out and hit the guy in the head with a brick. I decide to try a passive method, then escalate if necessary. I go out on my stoop with a broom and start sweeping up the leaves (needed to be done anyhow). The Brave One shuts up right quick, drops the stick and disappears inside with the dog. What a douchebag. Did it even occur to him that his neighbors might not like it if he were to bash in the head of their pet? It's assholes like this that give the neighborhood a bad name. The guy's on my shitlist from now on; I've got a tree branch with his name on it.

I'm pretty sure everybody on the block knows about me and our cats, so I'm sure the guy got the message just from me coming outside. I went to check on the cat, it turned out to be a female kitten about 6 months old! What a little sparkplug! She kept on whining, so I brought her over to my stoop and gave her some food. She sunned herself for a while and then left. I didn't see, but I'm hoping she got back in her house. If not, she at least knows where to go if she gets locked out again.

Labels: Bad Stuff, Bushwick, Cats, kittens

I bought my first blazer since my bar mitzvah days today. What Century 21 could not provide, I found at TJ Maxx. What a store! Actually it was a minor miracle, they only had one in my size and it was just the sort of discounted, innocuous design I was looking for. I take a 38-long, which apparently is rare in these venues. They let me keep the hanger so I'm just gonna leave it in my office all the time in case I need it.

Next: pocket squares?

Labels: Job, Tedium