Is this Dude on the F Train a Hopeless Romantic, or Total Creep?

[VIA GAWKER]

Meet Joe (I'm not actually sure this is his name, but for all intents and purposes, let's just call him that). On Friday morning, Joe was spotted by a Gawker tipster on the F train in Brooklyn. He was wearing a sandwich board with a giant print of him and his ex-girlfriend, and a message that read "I LOVE THIS GIRL! PLEASE HELP ME GET A SECOND CHANCE." Joe then asked F train passengers to sign the board, and to leave messages that would encourage the ex girlfriend to forgive and take him back.

As you can see from the picture, people were clearly doing it (though judging from what I've seen people write on the subway, I can only assume some of those notes just read "cock"). Whether or not this actually lead to Joe getting his ex-girlfriend back, we'll probably never know. But that shouldn't stop us from completely picking Joe apart for his choices, should it?

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COME ON OUT: FIPS And Google New York Happy Hour (And A Free Dinner)!

Let’s not pretend that the holidays aren’t stressful as hell. Gifts to buy, family to see – it’s like a month and a half full of obligations. But if there’s one thing that we here at FIPS have learned, it’s that booze is the best way to cope through all the ho ho hos. So we’ve teamed up with Google New York to throw a pretty kick-ass holiday happy hour. And you’re invited!

Join us on Tuesday, December 6th at Union Hall from 7-9pm for an absolutely free happy hour. That’s right – FREE...until we blaze through Google's budget and get pushed out of the back area by bocce players. Think of it as a great way to celebrate the holidays without the pressures of pretending to like your family. Happy Chrisanukahwanza and all that shit!

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Meet Park Slope's very own plagiarist!

[Rachel Day, The NY Daily News]

Quentin Rowan is not a fan of Jonathan Safran Foer. As a writer himself trying to make it big, Rowan grew "disillusioned" watching "wunderkind writers" like Foer make it big. "Nothing would up happening with anything I'd done," he told The NY Daily News. "There was a bunch of books by people who were technically my peers that felt showy and one-note. Maybe I had to dumb it down."

So Rowan decided to switch it up. While working at The Community Bookstore of Park Slope, he started paying attention to the types of books that customers were snatching up. Like thriller novels. These were doing so well that Rowan started reading them pretty seriously. Eventually, he was writing his own thriller novel between shifts at the bookstore. On Tuesday, November 3, 2011, Quentin Rowan's dream came true: he published his very first spy novel. Written under Rowan's pseudonym, Q. R. Markham, Assassin of Secrets graced the very shelves that surrounded him throughout his research and writing process.

But not for long.

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FiPS Hero: Subway Grope Victim Beats Shit Out Of Attacker

Shyane DeJesus / Photo via NY Post

I’ve never been inappropriately groped on the subway before. Never witnessed some dude touching himself while watching me read The Hunger Games. Never had someone “accidentally” grab on to my crotch instead of the pole when the train stops short. Never had some creep try and take pictures of me with his camera phone. As a dude, these things just don’t tend to happen to me.

But for you ladies out there, I realize that these sorts of things happen to you all the time, which is why we should all take a moment to give 22-year-old Shyane DeJesus a goddamned standing ovation. 

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The sidewalk chalk in Park Slope has stopped being polite and started getting real

PHOTO VIA NINEDAVESI won't pretend to be smart enough to have any idea what the hell the above sidewalk chalk art really means. I spotted it on Sunday between 5th and 6th ave, near the similarly named 5th and 6th streets  (I was fighting a mean hangover by that point. You can't expect me to remember the exact location). Clearly it has something to do with "House Prices." But what is that y-axis supposed to be? Years? Blocks in Park Slope? Number of children living in the house? My god, would it have killed the artist to provide some more information!? Like, you took all the time to color within the lines. At least give me some discription.

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