Cool or Not Cool: Curbside Composting

Photo credit: NATALIE MUSUMECI/NEW YORK DAILY NEWSSo if you’re anything like me, you trudged home from work last week and found a little leaflet from The City in the mailbox. And, if you’re also like me, you tossed it on a pile of other mail, poured yourself a finger or two of something brown and checked out what Danaerys and her dragons have been up to. If you later took a sly glance at the leaflet before sticking it in the recycling, you may have experienced a frisson of delight at noting that New York’s compost collecting pilot program is being rolled out in Park Slope! This on the face of it would seem unequivocally cool, because hoarding rotting trash in your kitchen for a week, hauling it to the farmer’s market every Saturday regardless of the weather and heaving the wet steaming lump into a bin has gotten pretty old (those heroes who stir the glistening and frozen bricks of shit in those bins with a shovel and a smile deserve a fucking medal).

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FIPS JUICY: BEST STORIES OF THE WEEK

In case you spent all week debating whose worse, Donald Sterling for his casual racism or his girlfriend for secretly recording him saying super-shitty racist shit, here's a round-up of juicy FIPS news that graced the pages of our blog this week:

* Park Slope Racoons Ride Again

* NYC Basics for n00bs (with Drawings)

* [What I Will Order At] Berg'n: Future Fatty Edition

* Pussy Claims To Be "The Queen of Park Slope"

* Zoned Kids End Up On Wait List for Kindergarten at PS321

* That Road in the Park We Call The Loop? Apparently, It's A Bike Track

[FIPS Was There...] Running Late with Scott Rogowsky

Comedy is tough. I mean...I've been unsuccessfully attempting it on & off here in this space for over five years now.

Late night TV is tough. These days, late night TV is a rapidly-shifting area with six-to-ten hilarious white males competing for dominance over the landscape. Yeah yeah yeah...I know that Arsenio is back. C'mon now though...nobody's really noticed.

In the past year, we've seen Jimmy Fallon replace Jay Leno. Seth Meyers slid into Jimmy Fallon's spot. David Letterman announced his retirement. Stephen Colbert leapt from Comedy Central to claim his chair. Just yesterday, Craig Ferguson announced his imminent departure from the Late Late Show. Who will replace him? It most definitely won't be Chelsea Handler, who recently left her late night show on E! & is now heading to Netflix. Maybe Ferguson's replacement will be a woman. Maybe said woman will be black. As such, the A.V. Club ran a speculative article complete with Aisha Tyler's photo.

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PARK SLOPE RACCOONS RIDE AGAIN

In all of my years documenting the crazy shit that goes down in Park Slope, the one story that sticks with me like no other is Raccoongate of 2010. To refresh your memories, this was the harrowing tale of a woman who innocently woke up one summer morning, made her way to her kitchen in her 3rd floor apartment, and was greeted with a raccoon that had been self DECAPITATED in her silverware drawer. The story and photos were so crazy, I was convinced they had been photoshopped. Alas, they were not...and yes: it was the stuff that nightmares are made of. Well today we bring you an equally terrifying raccoon video sent in by FIPS reader William Levin. 

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NYC Basics For n00bs (with Drawings)

Remember when you first moved to New York and, as you got off the train, you saw the most beautiful person in the world get into the express as the doors closed? You probably went home that night to your cold, lonely bed, blaming yourself for not acting quicker. After the 214th time, though, you finally learned it was never your fault, that's just what NYC does to everyone.

How long did it take you to learn how to know what pants to wear to a restaurant? When did you finally realize the angry looks every time you walked into a restaurant during the winter where actually directed at you for holding the damn door open? Have you even realized the way parking meters affect the flow of pedestrians creates a perfect area for you to stop and chill? 

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