A Newspaper Love Affair

I have a giant crush on the NY/Region section of The New York Times. Perhaps because it reports mainly on New York (duh), which already takes up substantial real estate in my heart. Or maybe because it often seeks out all the fascinating and neglected corners and people of the city that everyone should wonder about, but very few do. Either way, here are a few examples of the good stuff that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Make sure you check out all the related pictures. 

Have Camera, Will Trespass, on Brooklyn’s Waterfront

The Domino sugar refinery has been on the East River for more than a century. Part of the plant is now a landmark, but the windows in this view will be demolished. (Photo: Nathan Kensinger)

The Curious World of the Last Stop

(Excerpt from article, by Andy Newman) Beyond the station gates, a priest dreams of a vineyard. A car bursts into flame. An ancient sign in a boarded-up window opposite the platform reads “Wrestling Weight.” A stuffed bear mans a betting window in a struggling OTB parlor. The dead lie in rows uncounted, and the living mourn and wait and work and love and strum guitars on the front stoop, annoying the neighbors.

There are 24 stops on the New York City subway system past which you can ride no farther. For those who get off somewhere else — almost everyone — the end is just a sign on the train. New Lots: wonder what that’s like. Dyre Avenue? Sounds kind of grim. Middle Village — what is that, a jousting park? As it turns out, the end of the line, like most ends, is a place of abiding mystery.

Heaven's Angels

A companion in the hands of Rescue Ink member Desi Calderon. Photo by Librado Romero/The New York Times

These are a few of my favorite things

Whiskers on four-earred, extremely photogenic kittens.


And skateboarding turtles seeking love.

You're not so special

But this little guy is!

From Reuters: It had been thought only chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants shared the human ability to recognize their own bodies in a mirror.

But German scientists reported on Tuesday that magpies -- a species with a brain structure very different from mammals -- could also identify themselves.

"It shows that the line leading to humans is not as special as many thought," lead researcher Helmut Prior of the Institute of Psychology atGoethe University in Frankfurt told Reuters.

He is probably also smart enough to not eat lunch at his desk, reducing the risk of getting lentils all up in his keyboard. Like I just did. Dammit. 

Holy Egyptol-awesome!

Tiny mummy DNA testing to find out if fetuses in King Tut's tomb are his kids. This is part of a wider mummy DNA testing project, which leads me to the question - If we can extract DNA from mummies, does that mean we can clone them?? If so, can they please come back with the knowledge of how they built those damn pyramids? I really need to know. 

P.S. King Tut, if your cloned self is reading this, I'm still angry about the 2005 LACMA exhibit with the false title: "King Tut Returns." Neither you, nor your flashy sarcophagus, was there! Returns my ass. Email me if you want to make good on that promise. We'll get coffee - you'll love it.