In The Annals Of Bad Business Plans . . .

. . . this should rank high:

In the great Reese’s tradition of putting together two seemingly mismatched things, a new chess and gaming emporium on Flatbush Avenue has turned Thursdays into Ladies’ Night, where everyone from Bobby Fischer brainiacs to Bobbie Fischer rook-ies can get free chess games all night long.

Nothing But Net(s)

Right into the wastebasket:

In yet another slap against developer Forest City Ratner, architect Frank Gehry has axed nearly every employee working on the stalled Atlantic Yards project, sources told the Daily News.

“Almost all the people working on the Brooklyn project got laid off,” said a source familiar with the cuts who claimed the developer had refused to pay Gehry additional costs for design revisions. “Basically, he’s not willing to pay.”

Gehry’s Los Angeles-based firm laid off two dozen employes working on the Atlantic Yards projects the day before Thanksgiving, according to sources.

Location Scout: Atlantic Yards.

The Zhirinovskization Of The Local Bodega

I understand what is meant by the caricature. What I don’t get is why sunflower seeds:

A hateful image excavated from the annals of an unfortunate history has found its way on a package of sunflower seeds, of all places.

And the ‘seeds of hate’ were being sold right here in Brooklyn.

On Nov. 21, attorney Jeffrey Meyers got the shock of his shopping life after an otherwise uneventful trip to Net Cost Market, an import food shop located near the Department of Motor Vehicles on West 8th Street.

With a purchase of over $50, the store often gives away a free item. When Meyers returned home, he took a close look at the freebie, which while inside the shop, he assumed was simply an innocuous bag of sunflower seeds.

The package appears to be from another age.

It depicts a bearded, hunched over man with a skullcap, hands clasped, beady eyes, and an oversized nose–the classic, hateful stereotype of a Jew.

Cyrillic letters on one side of the caricature, reminiscent of Shylock from Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice,” reads “Shalom, from Israel,” while the other side uses a slang phrase roughly translated to mean, “spit them out everywhere.”

. . .

The seeds are produced in the former Soviet Union by a company called Kremlin Kitchen.

Net Cost Market has four locations in Brooklyn, one on Staten Island, and one in Philadelphia. The company promotes itself as the Costco of the ethnic Eastern European market, offering a wide range of imported delicacies.

Everyone Always Says That They’d Never Get On That Rickety Old Thing . . .

. . . and then they see the sign saying that there’s never been a death on the Cyclone. And yet, you still “assume risk”:

A California musician who died days after riding the Cyclone should have known that riding the rickety 80-year-old Coney Island coaster is dangerous, the city says in new court papers.

Keith Shirasawa, 53, died in August 2007, five days after he snapped his neck and fractured several bones in his neck during a downhill plunge on the wooden roller coaster.

His family sued the city and the Cyclone’s operators last month.

In court papers filed yesterday in Manhattan Federal Court, city attorney Cynthia Goldman said Shirasawa should have known the risks involved.

“Any and all risks, hazards, defects and dangers to the extent alleged are of an open, obvious, apparent and inherent nature known and should have been known to [Shirasawa],” Goldman wrote.

This basically ensures that your mother will never get on there with you. Thanks.

Location Scout: The Cyclone.

No Quip, No Pun, No Smirky Comment . . .

. . . instead, just where the fuck is all this money coming from? I thought there was a huge fiscal crisis:

The Bloomberg administration is in serious negotiations to buy 10.5 acres of real estate in Coney Island that once appeared unobtainable — a move that would save both Astroland Park and the mayor’s plans to revive the slumping seaside amusement district, The Post has learned.

Developer Joe Sitt is ready to give up his controversial plan to build a $1.5 billion Vegas-style entertainment complex, which the mayor wants no part of, and instead sell all of the beachfront land he’s purchased to the city.

“God willing, we will get this done soon,” said Councilman Domenic Recchia Jr., who convinced both Sitt’s company, Thor Equities, and the city to go to the bargaining table and is helping broker the deal.

While a price is still being negotiated, it is expected that the city would have to shell out $200 million to $250 million for the land, sources close to the negotiations said.

Recchia said the mayor wants the deal done quickly so the city can finally get going on Bloomberg’s 47-acre rezoning plan for Coney Island, which includes building a nine-acre amusement park.

By purchasing Sitt’s land, the city would become owner of 3.1-acre Astroland Park, which is the process of closing because Sitt failed to renew its lease.

Recchia said the mayor “is committed to bringing back Astroland,” at least for next summer.