Finally, Something Useful

Now where will we be able to buy our copy of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, er, I mean EPL? Oh right, we have Amazon Prime . . . in that case, bring it the fuck on:

A loss for booklovers became a plus for clotheshorses on Wednesday when Century 21 revealed it will take over the space being vacated by Barnes & Noble near Lincoln Center.

Most Of The Time Having 51 Councilmembers Is An Unwieldy Mess . . .

. . . and yet sometimes it comes in very handy:

Councilman [Dan Halloran] was on his way to hid district office in Whitestone Monday when he says he saw Officer Daniel Chu zoom by, talking on a cell phone with his lights blazing.

“I know the traffic agents have no emergency they have to run to,” Halloran said. “It immediately set my radar off.”

He said he followed the car as it blasted through two stop signs while weaving in and out of traffic before illegally parking in front of a Dunkin’ Donuts, where the officer went to get coffee.

Halloran says he pulled over and began snapping pictures of the officer’s vehicle parked at the corner of Clintonville St. and 11th Ave.

“[Chu] comes walking out with his iced coffee in his hand,” Halloran said. “He then sees me taking pictures and starts yelling at me.”

Halloran said he told the surly officer that he was a city councilman.

“He said, ‘Oh yeah? You want to take pictures of me? I’m going to give you a ticket,'” Halloran recalled.

Another argument for term limits, by the way . . . more eyes on the street!

See Something, Say Something, Sell Something!

But I hope he’s not selling fake Prada bags or anything like that, lest the mayor’s great copyright infringement squad goes and picks on him, what with all this awesome attention he’s getting:

The handbag vendor who alerted cops to Faisal Shahzad’s car bomb is back at work, basking in attention, gratitude and a healthy jump in sales.

Duane Jackson, 58, says revenues are up 30% since he returned to work at 45th St. and Broadway Sunday — a day after he spotted the smoking Nissan Pathfinder.

There’s a constant crowd around his booth. Tourists request autographs and snapshots. New Yorkers — and even some cops — offer hugs, handshakes and thanks.

Queens Crush!

Where Staten Island has moved too slowly, Queens picks up the slack:

The Queens County Farm Museum in Floral Park is poised to uncork the inaugural bottles of its own wine, believed to be the first to feature city-grown grapes, next month.

Farm Museum Director of Operations Gary Mitchell and staff have been growing Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet Franc grapes since 2004 on a tiny, 1-1/2-acre plot on their Floral Park property.

. . .

Now New Yorkers can finally get a sip. The Farm Museum will debut the first of the 900 cases it has yielded so far at a wine auction inside their barn on May 18. They’ll unveil their 2006 Adriance Blend, a mix of Cabernet Franc and other grapes, as well as a 2006 Merlot and a 2007 Chardonnay.

“What we do really well is Merlot,” boasted Mitchell, 49.

. . .

“It’s not Chateau de Fil, but it’s not swill, either,” said Amy Fischetti-Boncardo, director of the farm.

Location Scout: Queens County Farm Museum.

Don’t Know How You Do The Voodoo That You Do So Well It’s A Spell, Hell, Makes Me Wanna Stoop Stoop Stoop

Keep following the dyslexics down to the OTB, because it can really pay off:

For the past 10 years, Jesus Leonardo has been cleaning up at an OTB parlor in Midtown Manhattan, cashing in, by his own count, nearly half a million dollars’ worth of winning tickets from wagers on thoroughbred races across the country.

During his glorious run, Mr. Leonardo, 57, has not placed a single bet.

“It is literally found money,” he said on a recent night from his private winner’s circle. He spends more than 10 hours a day there, feeding thousands of discarded betting slips through a ticket scanner in a never-ending search for someone else’s lost treasure.

“This has become my job, my life,” he said. “This is how I feed my family.”

Leonardo, who favors track suits and wears his graying hair and bushy beard in long ponytails, is what’s known in horse racing parlance as a stooper — a person who hangs around racetracks and betting parlors picking up tickets thrown away by others. Most tickets are losers, but enough are winners to make it worth his while.

To his stable of OTB buddies, Mr. Leonardo is the Secretariat of stoopers.

. . .

Mr. Leonardo, who is married with two teenagers, is hardly living on the fringes. He said that stooping brings him $100 to $300 a day, and more than $45,000 a year. Last month, he cashed in a winning ticket from bets made on races at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., for $8,040. His largest purse came in 2006, when he received $9,500 from a Pick 4 wager (choosing the winners of four consecutive races) at Retama Park Race Track in Selma, Tex.

. . .

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Mr. Leonardo, who had been supporting his family and his dream of writing songs by working odd jobs, including painting homes and cleaning windows. “I started thinking, there’s probably winning tickets thrown in the garbage every day.”