EL CHAPO CAUSES BROOKLYN BRIDGE GRIDLOCK; WIGSTOCK RETURNS, THIS TIME TO PIER 17; PIZZA BAGEL GETS FIVE STARS 

 

"Gridlock on the Brooklyn Bridge? Blame El Chapo," New York Times, 8/14/18. "For more than a year now, an only-in-New York transportation nightmare has been caused by the case of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the Mexican drug lord best known as El Chapo," says The New York Times. "In a highly unusual move, Mr. Guzmán is facing trial in Brooklyn, but, because of his proclivity for breaking out of prison, he is being held in a high-security federal jail in Lower Manhattan. Every few months or so, whenever he is called to go to court, something awful happens: The police must close the entire Brooklyn Bridge, stranding hundreds of motorists as the world's biggest drug lord is swept across the East River in a speeding motorcade of heavily armored cars. And when the trial begins in November, the traffic could get worse because Mr. Guzmán will need to be escorted over the span twice a day, for up to four months. These closures would happen, inconveniently enough, precisely during the morning and evening rush hours." For the complete article, click here.  

 

"Wigstock Returns From the Dead," New York Times,8/15/18. "Sometime around 1984, a group of inebriated drag queens left the Pyramid Club in the East Village in Manhattan and wound up at Tompkins Square Park, where a spontaneous performance before a bunch of homeless people turned into a festival called Wigstock," says The New York Times. "For a decade and a half, it was an annual rite on New York City's L.G.B.T. calendar, a 'circuit party' for people who wouldn't normally be caught dead on the circuit. It outgrew the park and moved to the piers along the West Side Highway. Then something happened, according to its founder, Lady Bunny. "'It rained,' she said. Not once, but two years in a row....Now Wigstock is coming back to life this Labor Day weekend, on Sept. 1 at the newly rebranded Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport. And it's easy to see why it's happening. The audience for drag is ballooning." For the complete article, click here.  

 

"Infant boy's lifeless body washes up in waters off Brooklyn Bridge in lower Manhattan," Daily News, 8/5/18. "An 8-month-old boy's lifeless body washed up under the Brooklyn Bridge in lower Manhattan Sunday afternoon - his parents nowhere to be found," the Daily News reported. "Police and a nearby tourist tried desperately to revive the tot just after 4 p.m., but their efforts couldn't save the little boy's life." For the complete article, click here.  

 

"Father of Baby Found Dead in East River Is Jailed in New York," New York Times, 8/10/18. "Five days after the body of his 7-month-old son was found floating in the East River, James Currie stood in a Manhattan courtroom, charged with concealment of a human corpse," says The New York Times. "Mr. Currie flew to Thailand the day after the body of his son, Mason Saldana, was discovered - but he was quickly returned to the United States. On Friday, he was brought before Judge Suzanne Adams of Manhattan Criminal Court. A prosecutor, Shawn McMahon, told the judge that there was 'essentially irrefutable proof the defendant threw his infant son into the East River,' adding that Mr. Currie fled the country shortly afterward." For the complete article, click here.

"A Hundred Years Ago, High Tech Was a Paint Job," New York Times, 8/5/18. "In June, the artist Tauba Auerbach dressed a relic from one era as if it were almost a relic from another," says The New York Times. "The relic in question is the John J. Harvey, a 130-foot-long ship that was once the largest and most powerful fireboat in the world. That was 87 years ago, deep in the Depression, when it joined the Fire Department's fleet in New York City. Ms. Auerbach gave it a splashy red-and-white paint job in a nod to a time when the United States was desperate in a different way than it was when the John J. Harvey was christened in 1931. In World War I, before radar and before satellite navigation, the best technology to help ships elude German U-boats was paint. The technique that a British artist developed was called dazzle painting - putting colors from stem to stern with patterns that Ms. Auerbach said were typically 'sharp-edged, high contrast, graphic and stripy, with mostly straight lines.'" For the complete article, click here.

"Robert Silman, Engineer Who Saved Fallingwater, Dies at 83," New York Times, 8/7/18. "Robert Silman, a structural engineer who rescued Frank Lloyd Wright's cantilevered Fallingwater in Pennsylvania from the edge of collapse, and preserved dozens of other landmarks besides, died on July 31 at his home in Great Barrington, Mass. He was 83," says The New York Times. "He had multiple myeloma, a form of cancer, his wife, Roberta Silman, said. Mr. Silman was the president emeritus of the engineering firm Silman, headquartered in Manhattan, which he founded in 1966. Though he came of age when engineers were expected to perform feats of awe-inducing bravura, Mr. Silman largely contented himself with the invisible, ingenious stitchery that protected the work of other engineers and architects. 'Any time we faced any intractable problem in trying to save a building, we called Bob,' Peg Breen, the president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, said on Friday. Among the best-known projects he helped engineer were the creation of the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration, the restoration and expansion of Carnegie Hall and the preservation of the Survivors' Stairs from the World Trade Center." For the complete article, click here.

"Seaport District's Outdoor Bar Serves a 'Ridiculously Good' Pizza Bagel, Critic Says," Eater.com, 8/8/18. "Embracing the season, the Post's Steve Cuozzo recommends two new outdoor restaurants in the city for open-air revelry: the Garment District's Elsie Roof and Pier 17's Heineken Riverdeck. Named after the 20th century NYC actress Elsie de Wolfe, Elsie Roof has small dishes by David Burke like a grilled cheese with caviar. It overlooks Times Square and the rising Hudson Yards development, and cocktails are $18. Over on the waterfront, Heineken Riverdeck has snacks like a pizza bagel that Cuozzo calls 'ridiculously good' and cocktails by Saxon + Parole alum Mark Murphy. Cuozzo recommends the bourbon punch, made with Jim Beam, citrus, and bitters." For the complete article, click here.