Not As Stupid As Those Boxes In Bryant Park . . . Which Isn’t Saying Much

There was a reason I ignored David Blaine all week:

Water-bubble boy David Blaine, wrinkly as a raisin and dangerously dehydrated, was pulled out of his fishbowl at Lincoln Center last night after holding his breath under water for seven minutes and eight seconds — well short of his nine-minute goal.

It was a glitzy failure for the Houdini wannabe, who didn’t even match the world record of eight minutes and 58 seconds.

He also failed in an escape stunt.

Blaine managed to wiggle out of chains holding his wrists, but blacked out and was pulled to the surface before he could get out of leg shackles.

The stunts, televised live by ABC, followed a 177-hour endurance challenge underwater — aided by breathing and feeding tubes — during which he was visited by thousands of New Yorkers, tourists and celebrity pals.

“He said over and over again that he failed,” said diver Mandy-Rae Cruickshank, who helped haul the waterlogged Blaine out of his water bubble.

A Smoking Ban Even The Croats Can Abide

The Post reports that the three-year-old citywide smoking ban has only seemed to affect ashtray manufacturers:

Cafe Scorpio was a smokers’ paradise during a Post visit last week, with 13 of the 15 people present smoking. The sleek, dimly lit bar was lined up with packs of cigarettes and cigarette lighters. People also smoked at lounge tables or while playing billiards, watching ballgames or viewing the Croatian news channel.

Defying the smoking ban was so accepted that the barmaid even lit up behind the bar — despite two signs conspicuously posted above the cash register that read “No Smoking” and “Smoke Free.”

Scorpio also handed out small juice bottles — for smokers to deposit their ashes.

When a reporter walked in, two young boys were playing at the pool table. Smokers were all around them.

Scorpio manager Denis Lisica put up his hands in disgust when confronted by The Post and insisted he’s in a no-win situation.

“My clientele are all smokers. It’s a European crowd,” said Lisica, during an interview in which a patron handed him a pack of cigarettes.

Lisica said the controversy will continue — unless the city either allows certain bars to become legal smoking establishments or blitzes individual smokers with steep fines for breaking the law. Currently, the merchant pays the fines.

The smoking ban also was ignored two blocks away at Cafe Valentino, where inspectors previously issued seven violations.

“Do you need an ashtray?” the barmaid asked a Post reporter who stood at the bar.

Most people at the bar or sitting in lounge chairs smoked. Shortly thereafter, the barmaid lit up her own cigarette.

A Post reporter and photographer went to Valentino a second time, acting as a couple from out of town. Asked whether smoking was allowed, the bartender said yes and handed over a cup filled halfway with water for the ashes.

“Everyone’s tired. They want to relax. It’s Friday,” a barmaid said the following day, after the Post reporter identified himself.

Arson: So Out Of Character!

This is not the kind of story you want to read if you’re suspected of being complicit in arson:

There have been at least four deliberately set fires at properties linked to Joshua Guttman, the owner of a warehouse complex on the Brooklyn waterfront that burned to the ground this week in what Fire Department officials have called suspicious circumstances, according to records collected by fire marshals.

Details of the other fires, which date back to 1991, were not immediately available. It is not known if any of those crimes have been prosecuted. Mr. Guttman has never been charged with any arson-related crimes, his lawyer, Israel Goldberg, said.

“If you look at the kinds of buildings he owns, many of them are suited for rehabilitation,” Mr. Goldberg said of his client, a real estate developer. “Many of them have people residing there, or homeless people and vagrants — people who are more prone to starting fires than other people,” he said.

. . .

Two fires took place within two months of each other in the summer of 1991, in a building at 627 Gates Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, according to Fire Department records. Residents vaguely recalled those fires, but said the building — which they believed was a church — had since been replaced by a two-story residential building.

In 1992, there was an arson fire in another of Mr. Guttman’s buildings, at 1381 Myrtle Avenue in Bushwick, and in 1996, another at 140-142 Plymouth Street, a commercial building just a block from the East River in Dumbo.

Another Brooklyn property owned by Mr. Guttman, at 247 Water Street, burned in a four-alarm fire in 2004. While firefighters initially thought it was suspicious, the final cause was listed as “not ascertained,” and officials said that workers using acetylene torches might have been responsible.

Mr. Goldberg, Mr. Guttman’s lawyer, said that arson “would be out of character for him.”

What’s In A Name? Not Much, Says The Daily News

The Daily News reports that some city schools fell short of what was advertised:

At six out of the 11 middle schools that have the word “science” in their official name, the majority of eighth-graders failed last year’s state science exam, new data reveal.

“Maybe those kids weren’t concentrating,” said a seventh-grader at the Academy of Environmental Science in East Harlem, where only 15% of students met the state standards.

At the Math, Science and Technology Through the Arts Intermediate School in West Farms, the Bronx, kids fared even worse: 13% of eighth-graders passed the exam last year, down from 18% in 2004.

. . .

The science schools weren’t the only ones not living up to their billing. At the Bronx Writing Academy, more than 80% of eighth-graders failed the English Language Arts exam.

TWU Fined $2.5 Million For Its Illegal Strike

And professional grandstander Jesse Jackson was there!

Oh, and about that talk about how this will “cripple the union”:

The rulings by Justice Jones on the $2.5 million fine and the dues checkoff came after days of court argument over detailed financial records, in which union lawyers argued that financial penalties would cripple Local 100. In his comments from the bench, Justice Jones joked more than once that the cascade of financial records and conflicting balance sheet interpretations made the labor dispute seem like the case against the Enron Corporation.

. . .

Terry Meginniss, a lawyer for Local 100, told the court in closing arguments yesterday that the elimination of dues deductions from members’ paychecks was the harshest penalty confronting the union, since it would severely limit its ability to collect money and pay its bills and would force it to cut staff.

But Neil H. Abramson, a lawyer for the transit authority, argued that the union had ample assets to draw on, including its headquarters at 80 West End Avenue in Manhattan, which the union has had appraised at $39 million. Ed Watt, Local 100’s secretary treasurer, testified last week that it had a contract to sell the building for $60 million that was contingent on the buyer obtaining bank financing and that it had received other offers of $40 million.

In other words, they’re denying us the joy of seeing them go bankrupt . . .