snow job

If you haven’t heard of UBER, no worries, you will.

It’s a taxi app in 50 cities around the world quoting price by demand, so more people who want a ride at any given moment, the more your ride is gonna cost.

Sounds fair, right? Capitalism. 

UBER says this gives drivers incentive in snowstorms to make rides more available at a price.

High prices have left some consumers unhappy with the service.

oops. 

But isn’t this how supply and demand works in the first place?

If you can’t afford a premium ride, don’t buy it. 

And take the bus. Right?

I think we should probably start growing accustomed to real-time, demand-driven purchase-pricing through applications on our mobile phones.

Or soon, be left behind in the storm.

trudat

reddit

angry birds

politicker.com

Melissa Mark-Viverito is City Council representative for East Harlem, the ClockTower and our Mott Haven neighbors in District 8.

You might want to remember her name.

catholicorner.com

Many New York Puerto Ricans practice Santeria, a version of Catholicism with voodoo ceremonies and chicken sacrifices.

This particular City Council member is about to be sued for a cool one million dollars for putting a Caribbean curse upon another woman.

etsy.com

It seems Ms. Mark-Viverito was head of a Latino Urban Art Campaign last Summer and quietly arranged to have a 5-story decapitated chicken painted across from her political rival’s apartment building.

nydaily news

That ex-rival is now suing her for this.

Mayor de Blasio had better hope Ms. Mark-Viverito 

can make this go away quietly.

She’s his choice for Council Speaker in the voting this Wednesday, the position recently vacated by Christine Quinn. 

nydailynews

Speaker of the New York City Council is the second most powerful office in New York City politics and this is no time for fowl play.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Mark-Viverito

mentalfloss.com

it’s time to go home

faniq.com

Phil Everly, on the left, died on Friday at 74 and with him passed another social more.

He sang and played guitar with his older brother Don at about the same time as Elvis Presley in a 1950’s era when even a whisper of impropriety would get you “banned in Boston.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banned_in_Boston

Their recording of “Wake Up Little Susie” was on the radio in the autumn of my first grade year, and it was controversial for these suggestive lyrics:

It told the story of a high school boy and girl with a 10pm curfew who fell asleep at a drive in movie.

1957

RIP, Phil. 

We’re a long way from the drive-in.

drop.ndtv.com

as dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly

A Dominican tradition is the decorating of the “Charamicos” which in Dominican slang refers to dry tree leaves, and branches.

Calientito’s Christmas tree is in this tradition, a tree fashioned from the dried leaves of the yagrumo. (Yah-groo-mo)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecropia

Yagrumo is a Caribbean term meaning any of a wide range of broadleafed, rainforest trees.

 paraquesirve.net

When dried the leaves turn white, “snow” when the average yearly temperature hovers around 80 degrees fahrenheit.

The Poinsettia or Flor de Pascua is also common on the island, thriving in the warm humidity. It’s known locally as the “Star of the birth of Christ.”

Today is the 12th and final day of Christmas and this yagrumo tree won’t be up again ‘til next year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Days_of_Christmas

But the food is there right now. 

Come hungry and you'll never leaf. 

et tu?

We like leftovers around here and what leftover doesn’t benefit from a fried egg? 

Or two.

I had some shallots and two halves of roasted winter squash on hand; half an acorn and half a butternut. 

So I whipped up some linguini and put the shallots into the oven.

This is easy to remember, it uses two of just about everything. Start the pasta water now.

Take about a pound of shallots, peel them and sauté them brown in two tablespoons of olive oil mixed with two tablespoons of brown sugar. 

When they brown and the sugar caramelizes dump in two tablespoons of sherry, two more of balsamic vinegar, two more of chopped fresh thyme.

Salt a little, grate some pepper, mix it about and put them into a hot 375℉ oven to soften further.

Now make your pasta, then peel, cube and nuke the leftover squash, slip a soft fried egg on top. 

Oh yeah. :-)

Place your roasted shallots around the perimeter and grate more pepper and good reggiano or padano over the whole thing.

Quick winter supper with a glass of cabernet, too good!

uncivil servant

Mayor de Blasio campaigned on the promise of a more inclusive City Hall and then went on to publicly core Mayor Bloomberg a new asshole at his swearing in.

NYPost

Speakers invited and vetted by de Blasio’s team referred to our city’s justice system as “Dickensian” and prayed we were "set free from the shackles of partisan politics.”

How's that again?

De Blasio is every bit as partisan 

as any mayor before him. 

Brooklyn Democratic district leader Betty Ann Canizio tweeted: 

Every speaker had something denigrative to say. 

thenation.com

Only President Clinton had the simple grace to thank ex-Mayor Bloomberg for 12 years of no-salary service that proved central to bringing our city back from the brink of near-depression.

nytimes

I voted for Bill de Blasio.

But I’ll vote against him if this exemplifies his leadership. 

Even the Israeli press took notice.