PARK SLOPE PROFILES IN COURAGE: Una LaMarche of Sassy Curmudgeon

The Cover of Una LaMarche's 9th Grade Diary

JDZ Photography

I can name only one blog other than FIPS that I seriously lurve: Una LaMarche's hilarious and spot-on Sassy Curmudgeon. When she's not writing about the indignities of her pregnancy (this morning: Splendor in the Gas), Una's trying to guilt somebody into giving her a subway seat on the way to The New York Observer, where she's Managing Editor.

Oh, and she likes low-brow TV. In one of her 50 or so gigs, Una reviews Pregnant In Heels & other shitty shows for Huffy Post.

Anyway, she's destined to be the greatest BR-ALLER ever to descend on this hood. She could very well be the BREEDERS' key to getting our good names back. I can feel the tide turning already. 

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Park Slope Profiles In Courage: Gavin Purcell of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

Okay, I don't have all that much to say in the way of introduction about Gavin Purcell except... HOW did he escape Amy Sohn's DILF list? I mean, look at that head of hair alone.

As Emmy-award winning Co-Executive Producer of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, Purcell has a very cool job. The show is on a roll--it's up 16% in ratings in the last year, just got renewed, and they're regularly giving viewers some seriously laugh out loud moments (the Charlie Sheen cologne ad). And let's not forget about the groundbreaking interviews (beer pong with Betty White), one-of-a-kind musical interludes (Yo Gabba Gabba jamming to Kool and the Gang), and a daily dose of the Roots as house band.

For all this we have to thank Gavin Purcell and his colleagues who have the awesome (& possibly overwhelming) task of putting it all together every week night.

And when Gavin's not there, he's here in ours truly, hanging with his loving wife and daughters in Park Slope. And gathering material, of course.

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Profiles In Courage: Anna Klinger of Al Di La

Anna Klinger is my nomination for Park Slope's most beautiful woman. If we had such a contest—and thank god we do not—she'd be in it to win it. She can cook like nobody's bidness. She's purty. And she even has almost six pack abs from her ridonculous park bench bootie camp.  I'd hate her but she's so genuine and nice, it's impossible.

Anna is Executive Chef and Co-Owner of the wildly popular Al Di La Trattoria: the only restaurant in Brooklyn that former NY Times critic Mimi Sheraton said "might" be worth a schlep out to the borough except that you always have to wait for a table. Anna runs the kitchen; and her urbane Italian husband Emiliano runs the front.

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Profiles In Courage: Linda The Dog Walker

I love Linda, the dog walker.

As I’ve previously noted, she’s in my pantheon of dwindling Park Slope characters (even though it turns out she lives in Bay Ridge). And no, it's not because she's a whack job--she has a big, singular personality. I consider her a character in only the nicest way. Although nothing would make me happier than to see her walking arm in arm with long lost Norma. 

I especially love the way Linda can be heard across the meadow bellowing. Specifically, I thrill at how she yells to Dude, one of her charges...and a girl, if you can believe that. Seems oddly fitting. 

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PROFILES IN COURAGE: Alice Bradley of Finslippy

She had me at the title of her new book: Let's Panic About Babies! How to Endure and Possibly Triumph Over the Adorable Tyrant Who Will Ruin Your Body, Destroy Your Life, Liquefy Your Brain, and Finally Turn You into a Worthwhile Human Being. 

Voted the funniest and second best (the nerve of them!) mama blogger by Babble and sundry others, Alice Bradley is a BR-ALLER! And she lives in Park Slope. She used to live in New Jersey, and so she has the dubious honor of being New Jersey's top mom blogger too.

And even though she makes her biz laughing about parenting on her blog Finslippy with topics like "someone get my inlaws/parents/siblings out of my house/apartment/lean to" and "your body is changing; it's worse than you think," she doesn't read Park Slope Parents! For that alone, we love her best of all.

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