Discrimination Cause of Gallery Arrest, Lawyer SaysWhen Hamptons Gallery owner Ruth Vered was arrested over the weekend, they said it was for serving alcohol without a permit. But was that the real reason?
Are the Other Ivy League Colleges Cooler Than Columbia?Today a Dartmouth student blog took a peek at the numbers of alcohol-related infractions per thousand students in each of the Ivy League schools. Unsurprisingly, Dartmouth itself came out on top. There’s not a lot going on off-campus in terms of nightlife, and since the popular fraternities are in and around school grounds, it makes sense that the university would be busting people with high regularity. But what we find more telling is that Columbia University is the Ivy League school with the second-lowest percentage of drinking infractions. Below Brown. Is that possible? There are plenty of reasons kids at Columbia wouldn’t get busted as much (they can drink anywhere in the city, they are too cool to get drunk), but the laws of physics imply that there would be a high level of obvious partying up there in Morningside Heights. We’re talking:
Hundreds of Freshman + Dozens of Places to get IDs x Thousands of Delis Where Owners Don’t Care If You Are Underage / Limited Entrances And Exits To Dorms That Are Monitored For Safety = Easily Detectable Drunkenness
This makes us worry. Surely our proud Manhattan Ivy Leaguers should be getting busted more frequently. Clearly the school is not working hard enough. Or is it possible that our best and brightest are the second-lamest in all the Ivy League*? That would be pretty devastating.
How Do the Ivies Stack Up on Alcohol Enforcement? [Joe’s DartBlog via IvyGate]
*Daily Intel does not advocate underage drinking. As to whether or not we think it is “cool,” we plead the Fifth.
the morning line
What a Bargain!
• Thanks to the limp dollar, New York is now only the fifteenth most expensive city in the world. Moscow (where a luxury bedroom is $4,000 a month), London, and Seoul are the top three. [amNY]
• The Post is up in arms over Bloomberg’s pay-to-the-poor incentive program, with experts warning it may cost the city “hundreds of millions.” Those poor get all the breaks. [NYP]
• In the wake of the Sean Bell case, NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly wants to institute sobriety testing for every cop who shoots someone. (One of Bell’s killers had two beers before the shooting.) [NYDN]
• The city has paid a $29,000 settlement to Jill Coccaro, a woman erroneously arrested for going topless. In New York, of course, women have a full, if woefully rarely exercised, right to take off their shirts in public. And yet we can’t dance in bars. [CNN]
• And, you think Bush v. Gore was bad? Residents of Potter, an upstate town, accidentally voted to ban alcohol in a ballot mix-up and might soon be forced to go dry. [NYT]
the morning line
The Best of Times Is Now
• Mayor Bloomberg is seeking to boost his proposed property-tax cut to as much as 8.5 percent, says the Post. The goal is to roll back a bit of 2003’s infamous 18.5 percent hike, something the City Hall promised to do “in better times.” [NYP]
• Ad firm Saatchi & Saatchi got the $16 million account to overhaul the 30-year-old “I Love New York” campaign. (Spitzer says, a bit haughtily, that he won’t appear in the ads.) Let’s hope they do better than Saatchi’s recent Kurt Cobain fiasco. [Crain’s NY]
• Mistaking her for an intruder, a New Haven cop opened fire on his own daughter, who was sneaking into the house after a late date. The girl, 18, has a bullet in her thigh. [NYDN]
• Railway boozers, rejoice! The proposal to curb the oh-so-European practice of selling alcohol on Metro-North is pretty much kaput in the face of a commuter outcry. [NYT]
• That outcry, however? Could have been just drunken babbling. Almost a thousand LIRR and Metro-North passengers got so trashed on the trains last year they needed medical attention; some 287 were ticketed for booze-fueled shenanigans. [Newsday]
cultural capital
Whiskey, You’re the Devil
Pop quiz: Do you remember being interviewed by a New York camera crew outside of McSorley’s or Bull McCabe’s on Saturday night? No? We asked you how many drinks you had, if you knew who Saint Patrick was, and what “Erin Go Bragh” meant. Then you told us that you used to hate the Irish, that your knowledge of the holiday comes entirely from The Simpsons, and something else we couldn’t quite catch. It was late, and you were pretty drunk. So watch the video to see what might come up at your future intervention. And remember: We’re just here to help.
Video: Overheard: Saint Patrick’s Day [NYM]
grub street
Show Me the Way to the Next Liquor Bar
For as long as there have been bars, there have been bartenders, and for as long as there have been bartenders, there have been liquored-up customers talking to them. What do they say to you when you’re the bartender at Schiller’s Liquor Bar? Well, the girls give you their numbers, the guys tell you about the urinary exploits, and a middle-aged guy likes to ask about sex clubs. There’s a lot more in this week’s Ask a Waiter, at Grub Street.
Boyfriend Cheating? Corey Lima of Schiller’s Is There for You [Grub Street]
grub street
CB3 Loves Petraske, Hates His PlansOne thing was clear at the Community Board 3 meeting last night: The East Village board loves Milk and Honey proprietor Sasha Petraske. “He is probably the only owner in nine years who has run [his bar] according to his representations,” said committee chair Alexandra Militano, who also noted he’s received no complaints in nine years, as Daniel Maurer reports on Grub Street. So does all that good behavior and good will mean they’ll allow him to open his planned Mighty Ocelot wine and beer bar on East 5th Street? Of course not. Noisily angry neighbors flooded the meeting, complaining that Petraske’s establishment would create too much noise. And the board voted to recommend the State Liquor Authority deny his application. The full tale is at Grub Street.
Neighbors Tell Milk & Honey’s Sasha Petraske, ‘Welcome to the East Village, Now Leave [Grub Street]
in other news
From Bottle Service to Butler Service?Think bottle service isn’t bad enough? Get ready for, well, bottle-service service. The City Council is chewing over a plan that would ban “unattended” pouring in clubs, which means your $900 bottle of Blue Label could soon come with a chaperone attached. Considering that the bottle service itself began as an unsubtle method of weeding out the riffraff, the new rule would launch the practice into truly stratospheric levels of snootiness. Why is the City Council getting into this? Well, apparently, the current form of bottle service makes it hard to keep underage drinkers from imbibing the sweet liquor. Or, perhaps, it’s a job-creation issue. After all, the amendment would result in the city’s crappiest new position: that of a chaperone-butler-concierge-nanny stationed at a single booth all night, waiting to personally refresh a reveler’s drink. Oh, fun.
Plan Would Ban Pouring Your Own [Newsday]
Bottle Service: A Brief History [NYM]
the morning line
No Justice, No Peace, as They Say
• Several hundreds of people took over Wall Street to protest the police’s killing of Sean Bell and what they see as the NYPD’s failure to punish the guilty. They were met with almost as many police officers, some undercover; for a march that called for a “war on the NYPD,” the protest went without an incident. [amNY]
• The State Liquor Authority is cracking down on all-night New Year’s Eve parties, nixing dozens of bars’ requests to stay open late on December 31. (The permit is usually easily granted.) [NYP]
• In a similar crypto-Prohibitionist vein, the proposed alcohol ban on Metro-North and LIRR is about to deny suburban commuters one of their few remaining joys in life. Or is it? Meet Commuters Aligned for Responsible Enjoyment, or CARE, a quickly assembled opposition group. Vive la Resistance! [NYDN]
• It’s a bit unexpected after all those mayoral pronouncements about the coming population boom, but NYC’s birth rate is way down, at a 25-year low, in fact. Officials call it a quality-of-life achievement, however, since the most rapidly declining subset is teenage births. [NYS]
• And the Times tut-tuts the “phantasmagoric, Disney-esque experience” sweeping the suburbs: giant inflatable lawn figures causing an “intramural disagreement among the Christmas crazed.” [NYT]
obit
Flintstones Creator Was a New Yorker, a Booze PropagatorWhen Joe Barbera died at 95 earlier this week — you know, of Hanna-him and yabba-dabba-do — you probably thought of him, because he worked in TV, as an L.A. guy. Well, yes, that’s where he died. But he grew up in Flatbush and started his career as an animator first at soon-defunct Van Beuren Studio in Manhattan and then Terrytoon in New Rochelle before moving west to work for MGM in 1938. But more than just co-creating Tom and Jerry, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo, the Flintstones, and so many others, he also changed Los Angeles in another way. In his 1994 memoir, My Life in ‘Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock, he argued that he introduced the Rob Roy cocktail to the West. “[It’s] essentially a Manhattan made with scotch instead of Bourbon,” he explains in his book, “and my destiny was to transport this drink to the West Coast, where, before my arrival, it had been unknown.” So multitalented! —Wren Abbott
Joseph Barbera, Half of Cartoon Duo, Dies at 95 [NYT]
intel
The ‘Times’ Wants to Get You Drunk
December 5, as you may or may not know, is Repeal Day, the day on which Prohibition ended in the United States. To celebrate the 73rd anniversary of that milestone, men dressed as thirties-style newsboys were handing out free copies of the Times at Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street today, sponsored by Dewar’s scotch. Which seems about right: When the Daily News celebrates Repeal Day, no doubt the workingman’s paper does it with a six-pack of Bud. Whereas the Journal would insist on a single malt.
gossipmonger
Andy Bugs Bill?Andrew Cuomo appointed a former foe of Bill Clinton’s to his transition committee, and “Page Six” insists the Clintons aren’t thrilled. Casey Johnson threw a designer a Fashion Week party in exchange for a fur coat, didn’t get the fur coat, and then complained about it. Nas cheated on, beat his ex-wife, according to the ex-wife. An unnamed New York Met may have fallen for a blonde stripper. Jessica Simpson lost out on a Vanity Fair cover and a Miu Miu campaign because of her hairdresser. Anderson Cooper went to Brazil, chatted up a good-looking man. Walter Cronkite’s summertime chef is trying to write a tell-all book about him. Dan Aykroyd asked Jay McInerney to taste-test a bunch of wines he is producing. L.A. Clipper Elton Brand produced a Werner Herzog film. Liv Tyler likes South Carolina because she can smoke anywhere. Yahoo!’s Terry Semel could battle Jeff Zucker for NBC’s top slot, says Cindy Adams. Looking for Christmas gifts for your PETA-member friend? Adopt a chimp! (Related: Boycott Pom brand pomegranate juice.)
the morning line
Crimes and Misdemeanors
• Yesterday’s already depressing story — a Brooklyn mother leaped in front of the F train, and survived, shortly after her son was found dead in their apartment — continues in the maximally depressing way possible. The woman has admitted to killing the boy, saying “demons overtook” her. [NYP]
• On the lighter side of the police blotter, Naomi Campbell’s arrest warrant kicks in today, should she fail to appear at Manhattan Criminal Court for a hearing about her latest alleged phone-throwing ways. Campbell has already missed the previous hearing; her lawyer says he’s considering a plea bargain. [ITV]
• This one could have ended badly. A pilot landed his Cessna in the middle of a city park. Paul Dudley was heading to New Jersey’s Linden airport when he heard the engine sputter and decided to land in Brooklyn, coming to a leisurely stop in a field near the Verrazano Bridge. [amNY]
• NBC is cutting costs and cleaning house, laying off about twenty people across its flagship news programs (Today, Dateline, and Nightly News) and reportedly readying to shed twenty more. Dateline, which has been faring worst in the ratings, took the deepest hit. [NYT]
• And the City Council is proposing a law that could send parents to jail on a misdemeanor charge for kids’ drinking. One wouldn’t have to actually serve alcohol to a minor to be liable; turning a blind eye would suffice. Hey, kids — another way to get even with Dad: Rat him out with one drunken phone call! [NYDN]
party lines
On Delta Airlines’ Secret Service
You can’t bring water on your flight anymore, but that doesn’t mean you can’t wet your beak. At least if you’re flying Delta, where efforts to ease passenger tension in this age of check-in delays and cavity searches have turned to that time-tested panacea: designer booze. Well aware that a buzzed flier is likely a happier one, the airline enlisted nightlife mogul Rande Gerber to create a special cocktail list, which will be available on Delta flights starting next year. To promote this, and for reasons we don’t begin to comprehend, last night the airline gathered a trio of former James Bond girls (Delta is adding a direct New York-to-London flight later this month, and yes, Bond is British, but that’s a tenuous connection at best) and a gaggle of guests — mostly men, most old enough to prefer Pussy Galore to Christmas Jones — at Gerber’s Stone Rose, which is in the Time Warner Center and thus far from any airport, to drink to drunk flying.
Grace Jones — perhaps you know her as May Day from A View to a Kill — was clad in a shimmering vintage Issey Miyake number replete with a hood and definitely could use that drink. “I actually have to fly back to London tomorrow at 8 a.m.,” she said. “Not on Delta, though. I need me a sleeper bed, so I’m flying British Airways.”
Awkward pause.
party lines
Drinking Vodka With Teetotaling Trump
There’s comedy, there’s high comedy, and then there’s a level of transcendent comedy achieved only by, say, watching a bunch of middle-aged, slightly overweight white guys attempt to respond to the verbal exhortations of a Top-40 rap star while drinking chocolate martinis. And yet that is the very scene that came to pass about halfway through the launch party of Trump Vodka, held last night at, as anyone even vaguely familiar with the branding practices of the man whose name the label bears might guess, Trump Tower.
in other news
Staten Island Is Marlboro Country; Manhattan Too Soused to NoticeThe city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has a new blockbuster report out, ratting on our fair city’s vices. As expected, smoking is on decline throughout NYC — treating it like Murder One can do that to a habit — with the citywide percentage of smokers at 18. The nationwide average is 21 percent.
The trend holds true for all boroughs except one. That proud, black-lunged holdout is Staten Island — the borough that probably shouldn’t smoke at all, given its proximity to highly flammable toxic waste. Almost one in three Staten Islanders lights up, compared to less than one in five in Manhattan. Fresh Kills, indeed.
grub street
Beer, Glorious Beer
Over at Grub Street, Josh Ozersky, Grubber-in-chief, has pointed us to what might be the single best thing going on in New York this weekend — or, for that matter, ever. It’s the Brewtopia Great World Beer Festival, and it’s at the Javits Center today and tomorrow. It costs $60 to get in, as we understand it, and then it’s all you can drink. And, hell, that’s cheaper than our average weekend-night bar tab, which is certainly not all you can drink. (Well, at least not de jure, anyway.) Grub’s got the full info.
Beer-Fueled Madness at Javits Center This Weekend [Grub Street]
