Parade Your Pup at the HOWL-O-WEEN Costume Bash

Finally, a costume bash for dogs in Prospect Park! I spent my entire 20s and early 30s living in the East Village but as the law states, after I procreated, I had to move to Park Slope. While I do not miss my leaky roof and walk up, I really, really, really miss the Halloween Dog Parade and Costume Contest (now approaching it’s 23^rd year) at the Tompkins Square dog run. I’m hoping, hoping, hoping the Park Slope version will be even one iota as creative and fun. No pressure. OK, so there is pressure. The winner of last year’s E. Village event went to a beagle mix named Maddie who was an amazing E.T. along with her owners Bennet Leak as Elliot and Bret England as the Moon.

Come on peeps, if you have ever been to Park Slope’s Annual Halloween Parade you know there are some Martha Stewart’s out there making impressive original costumes for their crib lizards as well as themselves. This year’s theme is literary characters. Why not do the same for your pup next Sunday? Paint your pug Fifty Shades of Grey. Put a leash and some nipple clamps on yourself (hey, it’s legal to go topless in NYC) and you are Anastasia Steele to your dog’s Christian Grey. At least strap a scarlet A on your Hester Prynne of a pup for god’s sake!

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Hurry up and Relax…Spa Week Ends Sunday

Image via foundshit.comAll you cheap pampered Brooklynites already know about Spa Week. It’s that twice a year event where you head into Manhattan to purchase $50 spa treatments that usually go for big bucks. Well, did you know you don’t have to swipe your MetroCard or die biking over the Brooklyn Bridge to take care of those sore muscles and blackheads? There are eleven Brooklyn spas participating and two are right in Park Slope. 

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[FIPS WAS THERE...] Cringing at Freddy’s on 5th

Last Thursday night, I stood up on a small stage at Freddy’s Backroom and read a super-secret “YM” (your man) quiz that I wrote in high school for my BFF, whom I called Little Snow Foot. I also read poems about slamming the door to my bedroom, the end of the world, secret love, really deep stuff. The audience was cringing and laughing at me, well, the 16 year old me that wrote them. Why would I do this? For Cringe, of course.

Park Slope is full of nightly events from trivia nights to bocce ball to listening to your neighbors colicky baby set a new six-hour wailing record. My favorite night, by far is Cringe, where people read from their adolescent writings. The result is deliciously cringe-worthy. It makes you squirm, gasp and sometimes want to hug the teenager that was and tell them it’s going to be all right…probably. Comedy is tragedy plus time and that’s what makes Cringe so, well so freakin’ hysterically gut wrenching.

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South Slope Sidewalk Memorial Trees

A bunch of trees dotting 8th Avenue in front of the Park Slope Armory, and some more on 15^th street off Prospect Park West, are dedicated to soldiers from Brooklyn who died in recent wars. I don’t know how official staple-gunned, wrinkly, laminated signs are, but they are a lovely thought. I gently touch the trees or nod in respect as I walk by in a moment of tribute for these Brooklyn guys who gave their lives.

While it’s traditional to place flowers on a soldier's grave, or fly an American flag outside of your house, a lot of us here in Park Slope don’t hang out in cemeteries on a regular basis and most of us don’t have houses on which to hang a flag so the tree notices suffice. Folks who want to go the official route have a tree registered in Prospect Park through the Prospect Park Alliance. 

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Former Park Slope Kid Will Shoot For His Supper

Image via iamachild.wordpress.comFormer Park Slope mom, now upstate New Yorker, Larissa Phillips likes her food locally sourced, as in it’s a neighborhood deer that her 14-year-old son shot. He just got his hunting license. Bang! Dinner is served. You probably just hit speed dial to order your family’s dinner. Lazy!

She cleverly titled a recent piece in Motherlode, The New York Times parenting blog, “A Park Slope Mom Raises A Hunter.” The title of the article is intriguing but, just for fun, let’s see if we can fill in “Hunter,” the last word of the title, with an equally startling noun:

Park Slope Mom Raises A _____.

1)    Republican

2)    Litterbug

3)    Professional Football Player

See? It’s a fun game. Now, let’s get back to the article in question, “A Park Slope Mom Raises A Hunter.”

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