Lie Down With Dogs, Wake Up With Fleas

And narsty Hep A:

Madonna and Ashton Kutcher are among the more than 700 patrons of the ultra-hip bar Socialista who are being urged by heath officials to get vaccinated for Hepatitis A after a bartender was discovered to be carrying the infection.

The barkeep, who recently returned from a South American vacation, was likely putting limes in mojitos and preparing other garnishes with bare hands — a not-uncommon shortcut of Health Code protocol in New York’s night spots. But the Health Department found another violation when they inspected Socialista this week: no soap for hand washing.

Hepatitis A is spread by putting something in one’s mouth that has been contaminated with traces of fecal matter from an infected person. Health officials issued a warning Thursday, asking anyone who visited the bar on Feb. 7, 8 or 11 to get a vaccination as a precaution. No additional cases of illness have been identified.

Socialista is the epitome of exclusivity: There’s a $600 minimum to sit down at one of its tables. Former Bungalow 8 doorman Armin Amiri spent an estimated $2 million to open the 1940s-Cuba-flavored West Village Café last May with a group of investors led by Giuseppe Cipriani and Sting’s wife, Trudie Styler.

Fear: Less Beer!

Say it ain’t so:

Passengers looking to grab a cold one aboard the Guy V. Molinari and the Spirit of America ferry boats have been out of luck lately.

Instead of Budweiser tall boys, brew-seekers have found “no beer” signs since Thursday, said a cashier for the Liberty Cafe, the onboard snack shop which usually sells the beer. The problem may be a liquor license issue, according to the cashier who declined to give his name.

Beer has not been banned from the Staten Island Ferry, said city Department of Transportation spokesman Seth Solomonow. Each class of boats obtains its own liquor license from the State Liquor Authority (SLA), he said.

If the problem is with the liquor license, it would only affect the Molinari-class of boats, not the entire fleet. Only the Molinari and the Spirit of America would be affected because the John J. Marchi is out of service.

The SLA and the Liberty Cafe could not be reached for comment last night.

Reservations At Blue Fin In Times Square Suddenly Easy To Come By

Sushi is just not the same without the ubiquitous tuna roll:

Recent laboratory tests found so much mercury in tuna sushi from 20 Manhattan stores and restaurants that at most of them, a regular diet of six pieces a week would exceed the levels considered acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Sushi from 5 of the 20 places had mercury levels so high that the Food and Drug Administration could take legal action to remove the fish from the market. The sushi was bought by The New York Times in October.

“No one should eat a meal of tuna with mercury levels like those found in the restaurant samples more than about once every three weeks,” said Dr. Michael Gochfeld, professor of environmental and occupational medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, N.J.

Dr. Gochfeld analyzed the sushi for The Times with Dr. Joanna Burger, professor of life sciences at Rutgers University. He is a former chairman of the New Jersey Mercury Task Force and also treats patients with mercury poisoning.

The owner of a restaurant whose tuna sushi had particularly high mercury concentrations said he was shocked by the findings. “I’m startled by this,” said the owner, Drew Nieporent, a managing partner of Nobu Next Door. “Anything that might endanger any customer of ours, we’d be inclined to take off the menu immediately and get to the bottom of it.”

Although the samples were gathered in New York City, experts believe similar results would be observed elsewhere.

“Mercury levels in bluefin are likely to be very high regardless of location,” said Tim Fitzgerald, a marine scientist for Environmental Defense, an advocacy group that works to protect the environment and improve human health.

Most of the restaurants in the survey said the tuna The Times had sampled was bluefin.

Good tables available tonight at Bluefin Times Square! (Assignment desk: interview patrons for 6 o’clock newscast.)

We Come To Prop Him Up In Search Of A Resonant Human Interest Story, Not To Bury Him

The corpse used in a social security check cashing scheme was finally laid to rest — this despite Andrea Peyser’s best efforts to revive the body:

Monday was [Virgilio] Cintron’s wake. Monday he was wearing a suit. And for the few dozen people in the world to whom Mr. Cintron was not a punch line or a future bar trivia question, it was a chance to say goodbye.

A handwritten sign taped to the door of the R. G. Ortiz Funeral Home on West 72nd Street read, “This is a private viewing for family and close friends only!”

The word “only” was underlined and was strictly enforced. Andrea Peyser of The New York Post got a quick glimpse of Mr. Cintron before she was ushered out. “He’s looking dead,” she reported. A reporter from The Associated Press was shooed away from the door like a dog.

On the sidewalk, a small, frostbitten press pack hovered, begging for scraps with all the respect it could muster. Most of the mourners demurred. A dapper man with a white mustache shook his head. A woman with long hair waved her hand.

A younger woman with short hair said, “Unfortunately, we can’t talk to the press because they made a mockery of this.”

Cash Bernie’s Social Security Check Before The Weekend

Because it’s not like anyone would notice you wheeling a dead man over to the check cashing place:

Two men used an office chair to wheel a dead man to a Midtown check-cashing establishment yesterday and attempted to cash his Social Security check, police said. The men were detained by police after onlookers noticed the dead body falling from side to side as the men pushed him along Ninth Avenue near 52nd street — but not before they entered the Pay-O-Matic check-cashing store and attempted to cash his check. The dead man, identified by police as Virgilio Cintron, 66, was the roommate of one of the suspects. He apparently died of natural causes, police said. The suspects lived around the corner from the Pay-O-Matic, and were known to the employees there.

The roommate and a third man, who was a friend of the deceased, reportedly left Cintron outside as they entered the establishment, pointing to him through the window when the cashier told them that Cintron would have to be present to cash the check, according to the police account. When the cashier asked them to bring Cintron inside, they exited the building, where they were confronted by an on-duty Real Time Crime Center detective who had been in the building next door when he noticed the commotion.