Con-Edison Supplier Now Performing Charitable, Pre-Emptive Boiler Repair

This is why I still love Park Slope.

What other neighborhood would have its local Con-Ed supplier going door-to-door to help maintain neighborhood hardware for FREE, before it even breaks.

The sweetest guy just rang our doorbell - he doesn't work for Con-Edison proper, but he owns a company that supplies Con-Edison with material - no small task I'm sure.

Anyway, he told me over the intercom that he had to needed to have a look at our boiler. I told him that nothing was wrong with the boiler, and asked him who had called him and how he got our address. At that point he became highly animated and said he needed to see me immediately. It sounded serious, so of course I put the baby in front of the TV and ran right down in my bathrobe.

He was extremely considerate and told me that boilers generally start to malfunction at the first coldspell of the season - unless they're given a special pre-emptive treatment that of course, fucking Con-Ed CHARGES you for. Instead, as a courtesy, HE was willing to go down to our basement and fix the boiler so that that wouldn't happen.

Yeah, like I wanna pay Con-Ed the $300 or whatever those assholes charge. Anyway, this guy's the man; he's like the pizza plus lady all over again. Tell me another neighborhood where people do that for each other?

He's down there now doing his thing- Any quick advice on what to give him? I know he'll never take money but maybe Kumbucha? brb, doorbell

BREAKING: Pan Asian Transitions Rock Tenth Street

Quite a morning for Pan Asian Restaurants on Tenth Street.

Hey, Kiku forgot to close their gate all the way! Lemme see if I can help them out.

Lemme just get my head under- Hey what's this?

Hmmm...What the...

mmmm, Raw Fish and Healthfood violations....

On the bright side though - the tealounge is opening up- It's...

I wonder what's going on behind all that paper...

Okay, not too much yet, just construction.

I love Vietnamese sandwhiches!

FIPS Weekend ToDo's

Sure its cold as shit, and yeah, we're all poor, but there is a lot of stuff goin on this weekend in the BK and beyond. Check it:

*Sounds Like Brooklyn Music Festival at Brooklyn Academy of Muzak Music (BAM).

*Bring your pooch to the annual FIDO Holiday Gathering in Prospect Park on Saturday morn from 8-10am (Gowanus Lounge).

*If dogz aren't your jam and you're more into kitties, head on over to NYC Pet (218 Fifth Avenue btwn Union & President) for a rad cat/kitten pet adoption event with Empty Cages. They'll be there from 1-6pm (Empty Cages).

*There's always Santa Con (NY Times).

*Or Better yet, the Stache Bash 2008 (TONY).

*If you wanna get your shop awn, you can try Bust's Holiday Craftacular (Bust).

*OR the awesome Gifted Brooklyn Flea/TONY holiday market (where FIPS fave Pop Judaica will be) (Brooklyn Flea).

*Get ready for the BAGEL OFF. It's on, motherfuckers! Monday the results will be revealed and this weekend, many, many bagels will be consumed by yours truly and our Jewssip buds (FIPS!).

Yo, Jonathan Safran Foer: We LIKE You!

Holy Christ, people hate the shit out of this Jonathan Safran Foer author dude.

I haven't done a proper scientific analysis, but at first blush it seems like the list of the most hated motherfuckers in Park Slope goes something like this: "Natalie" from this post on Brooklynian, Mice and then Jonathan Safran Foer.

The Guardian even coined a new word: "Schadenfoer," i.e. the hatred of rich, young, successful Park Slope authors like JSF?

It's all a bit mind mending for me.

I mean, I read Everything is Illuminated and liked it a lot. I've never read anything else the dude has written, but I'm sure its mostly pretty good. I'm jealous that he has lots of money and I don't, but its not like he stole it from an elderly immigrant woman who had been saving pennies in a jar since the Nixon administration. What is it?? Why is the haterade flowin so freely?

Cause, you know we like to go out on a limb here at FIPS and go our own way...march to the beat of our own drum, etc. You go right, we go left. You say Yamato, we say JPan. As such, we think its only fair that we pipe up and pipe up loudly regarding this whole Jonathan Safran Foer ish. So here it is:

TEAM JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER, MOTHERFUCKERS!!

Fuck all y'all haters.

JSF rulez, and you're all suckez....how you like us now?

Effed on the F: Superjews

Some commuters read novels, some read the New Yorker, computer manuals, highlighted textbooks, medical journals - and some sketch, dick around with their iPhones, PSPs, Treos - but not the F train Superjew!

Nope, the Superjews on the F train do one thing and one thing only:

Superjews on the F train, whether they're older men with yamakas or hot little 20-something chicks with long skirts, they all sit with hebrew texts and (?)

What are they doing? Does anyone know? You can't really google this, and I don't want to give my mom the satisfaction of letting her know I'm interested.

Here's a hint: The males, like my man pictured above, all have large books and seem to be studying silently (pop quiz with Yahweh?) - whereas females:

...all seem to have tiny books and move their lips while the read. My guess is that they're praying while the men are studying. Correct?

One other interesting point - look how none of the hebrew letters came out in the crappy cellphone pictures I snuck... It's almost like g-d is defending the holy text from my prying electronic eye.

I took "Jewish Mysticism" in College - it was Kabbalah pre-Madonna's interest. Extremely interesting stuff - really drew me more to judiasm than anything I studied for my Bar Mitzvah. Anyway, there's a passage at the beginning of one of the textbooks that always spooked me out:

This book contains divine names. Do not take it into the bathroom or any other unclean place.

Ah Jesus, look at my pics - there's no text on the books! It was right there, I swear. It's like the movie The Ring - all that shows up in my photos is a ball of glowing light. Kinda scary!

Maybe I shouldn't post this at all. Ok, I'll post it- but if Yahweh leaves a comment I'm definitely taking it down.

Shabbat Shalom!