And Then We Trapped Each Other Like Bears, And The Likenesses Of Our Fallen Workout Partners Were Broadcast In The Skies After The Sun Set

The new Hunger Games-themed workout at NYSC:

“The Hunger Games” heroine Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence) makes shooting arrows look like child’s play in trailers for the dystopian flick opening Friday.

But after struggling with a plastic bow in the New York Sports Club workout inspired by Suzanne Collins’ bestselling books, my arms are quivering.

The free “Train Like a Tribute” class launching March 27 gives participants a taste of what entering the deadly Hunger Games arena would be like.

If Goober had a Tumblr he would probably say, “I guess this is better for one’s health than the class I’m taking at Great Jones Cafe, ‘Eat Like an Autist: The Diet of Ignatius J. Reilly.'”

“Run Roughshod Over The Constitution” Is Probably The Biggest Cliche In Civil Liberties Editorial Writing

And yet The Times’ Sunday editorial basically calling on the NYPD not to “run roughshod over the Constitution” could be a turning point in unweirding the atmosphere in New York City:

Since 9/11, courts have broadened the Police Department’s investigative authority in the vital interest of protecting the city from terrorist attack. The department should not interpret that as a license to run roughshod over the Constitution.

Even the Commissioner himself so easily conflates stop and frisk and terrorism. It’s spooky how easy (via):

“Listen, I know we’d all like to go back to a more peaceful time in America. That’s just not the country in which we live, and it’s certainly not the world in which we live. Sometimes I believe there’s this notion that if we don’t have a threat for two months, well, things are getting better. Only they’re not. This is a long-term war we’re in against terrorism, and we are going to continue to do what we’re doing. And we are going to continue to go after guns.”

No wonder people are supposedly “supportive” of NYPD tactics — if you don’t listen closely it sounds like they’re stopping Osama bin Laden and frisking Mullah Omar.

“Oasis Of Calm” Is The Probably Biggest Cliche In Open Space Planning

Maybe DOT officials should be forced to spend an afternoon in a mock-up 37th Road pedestrian plaza in Jackson Heights before deciding to haul over the leftover lawn furniture:

The new pedestrian plaza on 37th Road in Jackson Heights, in the heart of Little India, is an oasis of calm, a much-needed stretch of open space in a traffic-glutted area of Queens. Or, it is a glaring example of disastrous city planning, a blighted, unlovely esplanade that has all but decimated commerce in the neighborhood.

. . .

On a sunny morning in early March, the street was nearly empty. A few men slept at the blue picnic tables, more than one emitting a scent that made sharing a table impossible. The lounging men have become a fixture since the street closed, people who live nearby said.

One man, who gave his name only as Derek, said he began hanging out on the block as soon as the street was closed. “Rather than be on an avenue that is all active and engines flowing here and going there,” said Derek, as he paced back and forth unsteadily, “it’s calm and tranquil.”

Location Scout: 37th Road in Jackson Heights.

Naked Man Has Cheap Rent

Daily Intel is wrong — the coolest part about the New York Post article about the cheapest rent-controlled apartments in the city isn’t the gay marriage angle but rather that one of the two guys profiled, who only pays $71.23 a month for a 500-square-foot one-bedroom apartment in SoHo, can make his monthly rent from less than four hours of nude modeling:

[The 87-year-old retired military meteorologist], a published poet who was friends with William Carlos Williams, currently lives off an Air Force pension of $1,100 a month, according to court papers.

And he told The Post he earns extra money as a nude model for painting students, earning $18.50 an hour.

“They tell me I’m so good at it, I feel I have a duty to do it,” he said. “I have an interesting face.”

You Want Me Frisking That Kid Against That Wall! You Need Me Frisking That Kid Against That Wall!

As the Mayor might put it, Ray Kelly executes a “cute” rhetorical maneuver:

The defensive scowl etched into Mr. Kelly’s face dropped away as he suggested that the Council was notably at a loss to offer ideas — any ideas at all — for how to stop violence among young minority men.

“What I haven’t heard is any solution to the violence problems in these communities — people are upset about being stopped, yet what is the answer?” Mr. Kelly asked Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, who had been asking the commissioner to acknowledge that the department’s practice of street stops in minority communities left many people “feeling under siege.”

“What have you said about how do we stop this violence?” Mr. Kelly asked, asserting that violence among minority youth is “something that the government has an obligation to try to solve.”

Look, no one wants any one of the 51 city councilmembers thinking about how to stop violence — lord knows what they’ll come up with. But just because they’re morons doesn’t make it OK to stop over half a million people (actually, 684,330; if that were a city, it would be the 19th largest in the country, ahead of Baltimore, Boston, Seattle, DC, Denver and Oklahoma City) last year under god knows what pretense.