You Forgot Leather, Bristles, No Survivors And Sick Boys As Well

“[The hot dog cart owner], 60, ranted that his cart is opposed by ‘homosexuals,’ ‘Jewish people,’ ignorant bureaucrats, ‘rich people’ and freebie-seeking doormen.”

Economic Slumpwatch: College-Educated Brooklynites Resembling Hillbillies

Making bathtub hooch:

Lance is not a hillbilly. He’s a quiet-natured young professor at a local college. Rousseau, Diderot, Hume, and Kant inhabit his bookshelves. Predictably, he’s erudite on even the topic of moonshine, explaining that Brooklyn hooch differs from that produced in, say, Tennessee because the mineral content of the water used for distilling alters the spirit’s flavor.

Lance isn’t the only local expert. New York City moonshiners are giving the spirit a new identity. Today’s urban moonshiners are sophisticated. But some of their palaver still has that country flavor. Take Tim. He describes his moonshine as “slightly sweet” with a “vanilla nose” and “a light taste of corn.” His final verdict is as country as cornpone: “It’s pretty smooth going down, but then you get a sunburn from the inside out.”

And You Thought This Guy Might Run For Mayor Next Time

No seriously, that’s what people were saying a long time (well, 14 months) back before he pulled a Jay Walder and suddenly left:

Stephen Goldsmith, who oversaw operations as a deputy to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, announced on Thursday that he would resign after just 14 months in the position.

He will be replaced by the guy who has been the commissioner of DEP for the last 16 months or so, the thirty-something person who had zero DEP experience before taking that position.

Just So You Know As You Take The Bus Through The Lincoln Tunnel Into The Port Authority Before Heading Up To The Yankees Game . . .

. . . it’s all probably just fine:

A major testing lab and its top execs have been indicted on charges they faked concrete-strength tests at hundreds of city building sites, including Yankee Stadium and the Lincoln Tunnel.

Officials of American Standard Testing and Consulting Laboratories Inc. “regularly skipped vital safety tests and created false reports to create the impression that the tests were performed,” an indictment unsealed in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday charged.

Prosecutors said projects involved in the 12-year scam also included Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Javits Center, the Port Authority Bus Terminal and the control tower at LaGuardia Airport.

Get This Guy The Fuck Out Of Here Not Soon Enough

It doesn’t matter whether it’s a positive program — I’m sure it could be a positive program, but I don’t really care whether it’s a positive program. The key thing is that somehow in a time of severe fiscal austerity the city is paying $70 million for a program that all of the sudden happens just because the mayor himself gives $30 million to do it. Am I missing something? Isn’t this kind of insane? Is it kind of like now that there’s apparently no chance to be president he just wants to shoot the moon in terms of making the city his own philanthropic blank slate? Doesn’t anyone care? Oh well whatever nevermind:

To pay for the [$130 million] endeavor in a time of fiscal austerity, the city is relying on an unusual source: Mr. Bloomberg himself, who intends to use his personal fortune to cover about a quarter of the cost, city officials said. A $30 million contribution from Mr. Bloomberg’s foundation would be matched by that of a fellow billionaire, George Soros, a hedge fund manager, with the remainder being paid for by the city.