Yesterday Was A Jumper, But What About Today?

Yesterday morning, every Brooklynite living on the F/G line was diverted and delayed because a man jumped in front of the G train at the 7th Ave stop in Park Slope. When you find out that the reason the trains are srewed up is a death, and not the result of the MTA's ineptitude, it kind of makes you feel like a dick for complaining.

That said, does anyone know what the hell happened this morning? B train re-routed to the M, F train moving at a crawl until sitting at Jay St for 10 min, and the C/E running express from Canal St in Manhattan? Commuting week from hell. Maybe we'll get lucky this weekend and we'll have trains again instead of shuttle buses!

A Big "F-U" to the MTA

When I was a kid, Z100 used to have a morning segment where callers could give a big "F-U" to who/whatever pissed them off that morning.

Today, I'd like to give a big F-- Y-- to the MTA on behalf of the 200 people standing on the platform at 15th St/Prospect Park for 15 minutes this morning before the station attendant announced that there would be NO MANHATTAN-BOUND TRAINS at this station. Are you F***ing kidding me???

The Double Windsor Opens on Prospect Park West

Mystery solved: the new bar/restaurant on the corner of 16th St/PPW is called The Double Windsor. It doesn't look like they're serving food yet, rumor is they will. That block needs another option - hope it's good! In any case, they have an extensive beer menu.

Best Burger in Park Slope?

For years, New Yorkers have argued about what is the 'best burger' in Manhattan (Corner Bistro, Shake Shack, burger joint at Parker Meridian, JG Melon, blah blah blah take your pick). But what's the best burger in Park Slope?

I vote for the Dram Shop

What do you think?

Restaurant/Bar Opening on Prospect Park West/16th St?

A new business (restaurant/bar, presumably) has been under construction for months on Prospect Park West at 16th St. Does anyone know what it's going to be? I wonder how Farrell's feels about this...

Dr. OZ and Bonnie Raitt, together at last

What do Mehmet Oz (aka Dr. Oz) and Bonnie Raitt have in common? Absolutely nothing. But I did spend my day and night listening to both of them, so I thought I'd share:

Dr. Oz, made famous by his frequent appearances on Oprah, has a new daytime talk show that just started taping episodes today. I thought it would be fun to drag the fam out to Rock Center for a taping, not realizing the shit-show we were about to experience. After showing up at 10:30am for a 2:15 taping, we waited until about Noon to receive our tickets - I was #5. The pages told everyone to go to the mezzanine at 1pm, after which time they'd bring us into the studio by ticket number.

Here's how it actually went: the 'mezzanine level' is a stairwell with no air conditioning. As of 1:45, we were still standing out there and the fatties, the Long Island Ladies Who Lunch, and what seemed like every loudmouth in the tri-state area began to get really pissed. They started yelling at the college-age pages, who just stood there wide-eyed with an air of nervous annoyance and said "I don't know" over and over again. After some old lady fainted from the heat, I guess NBC got nervous and started letting everyone in (of course, without bothering to look at the numbers on the tickets). In the elevator, some whack-job and one of the L.I.L.W.L. got into a verbal catfight and both said they were having panic attacks. Unfortunately, that was not true. Once we got up to the 7th floor, we realized that half the studio was already filled by people the producers had grabbed off the fucking street, so we had to mill around looking for seats, accompanied by nasty 'those seats are reserved' comments from the pages. Once we all found seats, some chubby comic tried to get the crowd psyched up by asking if there were any Jersey people in the house. And of course, the entire row of cougars in front of us was from Jersey - high-pitched squeals of delight ensued.

By the time the taping started, I wanted to take a machine gun to the whole place. Do I have anger issues, Dr. Oz? He himself is delightful, but please - spare yourself the eight hours of hell that is a studio taping and watch him from your couch.

After that crapfest, the evening ended on a positive note. Back in the Slope after a much-needed bottle of wine, my husband and I took the pup to Prospect Park, where Bonnie Raitt was performing. Laying in the grass listening to great music makes everything better, doesn't it?

The G Train Now Stops in Park Slope. Great.

For years, Central and South Slope residents have had to rely soly on the F train for subway transportation. Weekend closures, re-routes along the A line and random switches to 'express stops only' have been frequent occurrences that we've had to learn to live with. I didn't think it was possible for a subway line to suck any worse than the F train. But the G train has surpassed it!

The MTA, in their infinite wisdom, has added the G train to the 7th Avenue and 15th St/PPW stops. Not the V train, which would simply have had to continue along the F line as it does throughout Manhattan, but the friggan G train. A line that doesn't even make Manhattan stops, but instead meanders through Brooklyn and Queens. A train with only four or five cars that doesn't even reach half of the platform, yet seems to now run more frequently than the F each morning. Thanks MTA for making absolutely no improvement to the transportation options of Park Slope commuters.

Park Slope Moms

Still annoyed that a Park Slope Mom cut me in line at the Farmer's Market near 15th St this morning. They really think they own the neighborhood, don't they?

Tonight in Prospect Park

The NY Philharmonic performed in Prospect Park's version of the 'Great Lawn' tonight, complete with a fireworks display.

Off-leash in Prospect Park

Living in Park Slope has many advantages - for dog owners, the biggest advantage is the 'off-leash' rule in Prospect Park. Every morning (before 9am) pups can chase each other senseless in the open expanse of the park adjacent to the baseball fields. The shitty thing is, no one seems to be on clean-up duty in this park. Yesterday (and pretty much all last week) there was a huge pile of trash in the middle of the field.

But hey, dogs wouldn't go near dozens of bags of leftover food... right?