City's Statues Get Caped

Tom Coughlin Lets His Critics Know Where They Can Kiss Him
We all know that Tom Coughlin is a man who sometimes lets his emotions get the best of him. Thanks to the cameras that NFL broadcasters keep trained on him for 60 Minutes every Sunday, the world has seen Coughlin overreacting like a madman to everything that happens on the field of play. Arms wave, cheeks get red and the occasional punter gets reamed out by a man who rarely seems to be anything short of apoplectic. When he's standing in front of the media, however, Coughlin is a very different c...

How to Crochet a Cozy for a Charging Bull
Your post-lunchtime, pre-supper distraction has arrived. The charging bull on Wall Street was covered from horns to tail with a technicolor crocheted cozy on Christmas Eve. The video shows how the intrepid knitter and artist completed the task with a matching step-ladder also covered in the same crocheted material. [Chinashop] What does the future hold for our favorite borough, Brooklyn? Two psychics read the tea leaves to see into 2011. [Brokelyn and Brooklyn Based] Keep your noses clean and y...

Bill Daley Was Sad When Democratic Rep. Who Voted Against The White House Agenda Continually Switched Parties
Wonkette's Jack Stuef points us to this Dec. 24, 2009 op-ed authored by new White House Chief of Staff William Daley: The announcement by Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith that he is switching to the Republican Party is just the latest warning sign that the Democratic Party -- my lifelong political home -- has a critical decision to make: Either we plot a more moderate, Centrist course or risk electoral disaster not just in the upcoming midterms but in many Elections to come. Ah, yes! Parker Griff...

Location: Don't buy all the hype. Yet.
Ask the experts, and they'll tell you over and over: the future of Social Media rests within the data servers of Location-Based Services like Facebook Places, Google Latitude, and Foursquare. And if visionaries like Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley are to be believed, "location" -- even more so than Facebook and Twitter -- will connect users and improve the way they interact with the real world. In reality though, we spend more time talking about Location-Based Services than actually using the...

ARTINFO: As Oscar Approaches, Swiss Filmmaker Wants His Name on Banksy's Movie Too
There has been much debate of late as to whether "Exit Through the Gift Shop," the Oscar-shortlisted documentary by British street artist Banksy, is a Hoax or searingly accurate commentary on a smug art world glutted by its own economic successes. But Banksy and his crew have stopped bickering with the disbelieving public about factuality for a moment, as they are now embroiled in another dispute, this time with Joachim Levy. The 34-year-old Swiss filmmaker is speaking up about what he sees as...

Location: Don't buy all the hype. Yet.
Ask the experts, and they'll tell you over and over: the future of Social Media rests within the data servers of Location-Based Services like Facebook Places, Google Latitude, and Foursquare. And if visionaries like Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley are to be believed, "location" -- even more so than Facebook and Twitter -- will connect users and improve the way they interact with the real world. In reality though, we spend more time talking about Location-Based Services than actually using the...

Ted Williams, 'Golden-Voiced' Homeless Man, Reunites With Mother After 20 Years
The last couple days have been emotional for Ted Williams, the 'golden-voiced' Homeless man from Ohio who's won the country over with his story -- and vocal talents. But the most momentous part of the transition from Homeless to YouTube darling came when Williams reunited with his mother Thursday in New York, after 20 years of separation. NBC's "The Today Show" captured the tearful reunion. WATCH: Visit MSNBC.com for breaking news, world news, and news about The Economy Read more about how t...

NBC: Obama picks Daley as next chief of staff
WASHINGTON — NBC News has confirmed that William Daley will be the next White House Chief of Staff. Two administration officials also confirmed his selection to The Associated Press. President Barack Obama has chosen Daley, a former commerce secretary, to replace interim chief of staff Pete Rouse. Rouse, who did not want to stay in the job and recommended Daley for it, will remain at the White House in a senior position as counselor to Obama. The officials spoke to AP on condition ...

BULLETIN: BILL DALEY ANNOUNCEMENT AS CHIEF OF STAFF EXPECTED SOON -- Gibbs to give speeches, consult to reelect Karen Finney, J
THE 20 CORRESPONDENTS with the most minutes on the dinnertime newscasts in 2010, per the Tyndall Report: ABC’s Jake Tapper … ABC’s David Muir … ABC’s Jonathan Karl … CBS’ Chip Reid … NBC’s Anne Thompson … CBS’ Mark Strassmann … NBC’s Tom Costello … CBS’ Nancy Cordes … NBC’s Chuck Todd … ABC’s Sharyn Alfonsi … NBC’s Pete Williams … CBS’ Anthony Mason...

Tony Dungy On The Fan
The former Indianapolis Colts coach and current NBC analyst joined Mike Francesa to preview the NFL’s Wild Card weekend. WFAN and Mike Francesa will host a very special “Breakfast with a Champion” with Yankees GM Brian Cashman! The Boomer and Carton Football Challenge is over, check the results to see how you did. Can your competition keep pace? Every NFL game, every week: All you have to do is Pick ‘Em to win! Enter now to win a wake up call from Boomer & Carton a...

War in the Mideast On Christians
Wednesday, January 05, 2011 By L. Brent Bozell III Our national media elite reviewed 2010 with great sorrow for how America has besmirched itself in the eyes of the world with its “seething hatred” of Muslims. CBS anchor Katie Couric announced on her Internet show that there wasn't enough evaluation of “this Bigotry toward 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide” which was “so misdirected, and so wrong -- and so disappointing.” Couric even embarrassed herself by suggesting "Ma

First Thoughts: Now what?
So now what? … Our NBC/WSJ poll provides one answer why House Republicans will read the Constitution beginning at 10:30 am ET… NBC’s Brian Williams to interview Boehner for tonight's "Nightly News"… Could today (or tomorrow) be the day we hear if Bill …...

Broadcast news, the last bastion of male supremacy
Are the three national broadcast news networks preserves for male supremacy? Judging by which correspondents got the most air time in 2010, it would seem so, according to figures compiled by the Tyndall Report. "ABC's Jake Tapper ... ABC's David Muir ... ABC's Jonathan Karl ... CBS' Chip Reid ... NBC's Anne Thompson ... CBS' Mark Strassmann ... NBC's Tom Costello ... CBS' Nancy Cordes ... NBC's Chuck Todd ... ABC's Sharyn Alfonsi ... NBC's Pete Williams ... CBS' Anthony Mason ... CBS' Ben Tracy ...

Willy Decker Reinvents La Traviata at the Met
Sometime in the fall of 1852, the composer Giuseppe Verdi decided that his next opera would be based on Alexandre Dumas' play The Lady of the Camellias. The play, which had been a hit in Paris earlier that year, was a semi-autobiographical story about a high-end Prostitute, her love for a young bourgeois gentleman and her eventual death from tuberculosis. With its sympathetic but unsentimental depiction of a "kept" woman, its harsh critique of social hypocrisy and its contemporary setting, the...

Ex-French resister's call to action a best-seller
PARIS - A 93-year-old former French Resistance spy who was once tortured by the Nazis says his runaway best-seller is a call to action to protect Human Rights and combat the yawning gap between rich and poor. Stephane Hessel has hit a nerve in France with his 32-page book "Indignez-Vous!" that banks on his experiences as a Concentration Camp survivor and former diplomat to call for a new form of resistance today. The aim of Hessel's succinct book is to convince adrift or discouraged young ...

Liveblogging World War II: January 4, 1941
Eleanor Roosevelt: My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, January 4, 1941: WASHINGTON, Friday—Last night Miss LeHand and I found ourselves at dinner surrounded by gentlemen. I couldn't help remarking how really unimportant it is to have our tables so carefully balanced as to an even number of ladies and gentlemen. We were certainly not evenly divided last night and yet everybody seemed to have a perfectly good time. Conversation flowed easily around the table. It looks as though the gentlemen coul...

Advice To GLBT Kids Coping With Bullies
"How unfortunate that hatred and prejudice continues to exist in some people's minds." Play Dumb On the television program, Colombo , the main character was a seemingly inept police detective that showed up to crime scenes in a rumpled trench coat with the stub of a cigar. He would convince suspects that he was completely incompetent by playing dumb, but then would solve the case, usually by asking one last question as he made for the door. He wasn't afraid to appear as if he were a bungling ...

Body Talk: Gypsy Rose Lee and the Art of Strip-Down Comedy
The burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee May have been the first modern celebrity: the first to be famous for being famous, and the first to admit to a total lack of talent. "If you're Gypsy Rose Lee," Lee herself liked to say, "all you have to do is keep your strength up so you can carry your money to the bank." She wasn't a gifted singer or dancer, or even especially beautiful. All she did was take her clothes off—everything but a few strategically placed ribbons and rhinestones—bu...

Art Shay: That Was Then, Part Two
When I was on assignment - like, eight days a week, my eye was ever the hunter in employ of my mission. Good example: my early Time picture of Sen. McCarthy at the Stockyards Inn. I "covered" his Speech - but also got a great image of him juxtaposed with a circular ceiling lamp - giving him an unearned halo, underlying how little fit he was to wear one. Most of my pictures were taken in off moments of great event assignments, or just wandering around with one or another of my five kids. Parade...

Waldorf Astoria Bedbugs Drove Woman to Madness
Unlike the last two people who have filed suit against the Waldorf Astoria hotel, claiming they were attacked by Bedbugs in their sleep, Svetlana Tendler did not bring the critters back to her home in Michigan. Her fate was worse. Not only did she suffer a "fungal face infection" and — good god — severe facial folliculitis related to the bites, but it ruined her Vacation to Bermuda. And it also drove her insane. "For the last 3 years I tried to recover from the bed bugs incident an...

Svetlana Tendler Sues Waldorf-Astoria For Bedbug Trauma
AOL Travel News: In a story that just won't go away, the famed Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City is facing a third Lawsuit over Bedbugs, according to The Gothamist. Svetlana Tendler is the latest guest to sue the historic hotel. The doctor, who is currently stay-at-home mom, claims she was bitten in 2007, but was hoping the hotel would settle out of court. She is now seeking $10 million in compensation, citing "prominent" scarring and a fear of going to hotels. Read the whole...

Park Slope Adderall Ring Busted
Gothamist: Over the holidays, feds busted a Park Slope Adderall-trafficking ring, arresting at least one of the people who allegedly sold thousands of pills online which they had gotten from New York Methodist Hospital. And oh the colorful cast of characters involved: a gambling anesthesiologist, a stripper-turned-med Student, a lawyer from Tennessee, and a greek chorus of mercurial hospital residents. It's basically Avenue Q come to life! Read the whole story: Gothamist Get Huff...

Facebook's Goldman Deal Is Another Sign of a Comatose IPO Market
A few months ago, I had lunch with a prominent technology Venture Capitalist. Like many other VC leaders, he was focused on businesses growing in China, but he was adamant that his Chinese portfolio companies not list in the U.S. -- and with good reason. For small-cap technology companies, he explained, the U.S. has become an undesirable and difficult place to list. Sarbox regulations are costly to fulfill. Institutional investors are gun-shy. And analyst coverage has contracted enormously, m...

Social Media Agency Dachis Group Gets $30 M. to Help Companies Tweet
Dachis Group is the largest Social Media consultancy in the world, according to VentureBeat. The company, which has an office in New York, is planning to grow even more. Dachis Group just raised $30 million. Dachis Group sells research and software that helps companies manage their Social Media presence using something it calls "social business design." "By redesigning customer participation, Workforce collaboration, and business partner optimization from the perspective of the four core arche...

For the record, we apologize for these errors, too
"I will alert school divisions to the factual errors found in the reviewed history textbooks," State Superintendent Patricia Wright said in a statement. "I also will direct Virginia Department of Education staff to provide guidance to educators in the field on how to ensure that classroom instruction is not distorted by the misinformation found in these textbooks." Upon further review, a number of previously undiscovered errors have been found in Virginia's fourth-grade histo...