My BPL Experience: The Good and The Meh

Image via businessinsider.comRecently, the Brooklyn Public Library put out their mobile app and I decided to give it a spin. Of course, nothing beats a trip over to the library itself, but no one wants to rush there to renew their copy of Moonlit Love Affair or whatever you guys are reading these days during a busy work week.

Overall the look and feel are decent, not the most beautiful app I’ve ever seen, but it’s certainly passable for the simple functionality and purpose.

THE GOOD:

Image Via the Brooklyn Public Library-Holds + Renews: Not only can you put a hold on a book you’ve been dying to read, but you can also renew through the app when you realize that you’ve been putting off that reading because you’ve made personal goals to plug through 14 seasons of SVU by April.

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I Survived the Fung-Wah (More Like Dung-Wah) Bus to Boston

Four years ago, in mid-July, I felt myself getting progressively stir crazy within the confines of the city so a first time trip to Boston seemed like an inspired idea during the oppressively hot summer. Having moved from Texas just two years before, I had no concept of bus travel beyond the occasional luxury charter bus rides to and from fraternity lingerie parties and other terrible events I’d cinched my boobs together in a spandex vice, for. So when my friend Allison suggested taking the ol’ Fung Wah bus for a mere $15 dollars, I, of course, was thrilled.

I met Allison for an afternoon bus, and as I crossed the threshold of the waiting area, my heart sank. THESE are the people taking the bus? SHITBALLS. I promptly told myself to stop being so damn judgy and prepare myself for a restful trip. Think of it as a moving nap, Chinae. It’s only 4 hours, Chinae. You’re gonna catch up on some reading, Chinae. Maybe they have a bar area, Chinae.

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Brooklyn By The Book: Get Your Read On

Image via: savetheslope@blogspot.com

Two long-standing Park Slope mainstays are joining efforts to bring literary enlightenment to our fair hood. The Community Bookstore and Congregation Beth Elohim have been hosting a monthly series appropriately named, Brooklyn By the Book. This all came about when both parties shared a mutual passion for providing an organized program that would serve the Park Slope and greater Brooklyn community through learning and sharing in the literary space and starting a dialogue with folks in the neighborhood.

It all started with a bang last fall, hosting writers like Paul Auster and Don DeLillo in the Congregation’s space. Michele Filgate, Community Bookstore’s events coordinator explained to the Brooklyn Eagle, “Both Congregation Beth Elohim and Community Bookstore wanted to create a series that was very specific to the neighborhood. Our goal is to host a mix of nonfiction and fiction events.”

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5th Ave. Cat Clinic Serving Up Major Cattitude

Image Via Jezebel

Just a disclaimer, cats are my least favorite animal...right behind star-nosed moles and blob fish (you should immediately Google these things). I guess you could say that I'm a "dog person."

And yes, I know that YOUR cat is JUST like a dog and LOOOOOOVES people. My main question is...why didn't you just get a dog then? There is a very low chance of a dog not being "dog-like"...and a very high chance of a cat not being "dog-like."

Anyway...

One of our FIPS readers tipped us off about her experience with 5th Avenue Cat Clinic and let's just say...she has some less-than-flattering things to say about them. I will note that this place (from the outside) totally creeps me out.

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"The Allure of Brooklyn" Creates Hipster Criminals and Idiot Girlfriends

Image Via Gothamist

Gothamist reports that during last year's Memorial Day weekend festivities, self-proclaimed "hipster" Sophia Anderson and her "hipster" boyfriend Dan Sajewski, drunkenly drove Dan's parents' Benz through an old lady's (not a hipster) house in Long Island. Attempting to be the "cool girlfriend", Sophia swapped seats with Sajewski and took the blame for the crash to protect him from violating his probation. 

NOTE: Ladies, don't do this shit...it rarely works out in your favor. 

Surprise, Dan didn't pull through on a promised Hamptons vacay OR paying all Sophia's legal fees...but we saw that coming, didn't we?

Here's the clincher: Sophia's lawyer, John LoTurco, blames her relationship with Sajewski a little, but mostly he blames our fair borough for Anderson's problems. He states, “She’s doing great...without the negative influences of Daniel and the allure of Brooklyn." He continues, “The allure of Brooklyn was her boyfriend’s circle of friends and the hipster lifestyle that was going on at that period of time — the drinking, the drugging". 

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