Olga’s is a shop on Nostrand Avenue and Avenue N in Brooklyn which has been selling custom-fitted bras, corsets and other items in hard-to-fit sizes for over 30 years. Olga Anhalt is the owner, opening her first store more than 40 years ago. She is an immigrant from Russia, with stops first in Poland and…
Monthly Archives: December 2010
A Little About Jane Austen
Today is the 235th birthday of Jane Austen, one of the biggest novelists in English literature. Her realism and witty but harsh social interpretation solidified her historical importance among both critics and scholars. Very little is known about Austen’s life. She lived with her close-knit family on the lower end of English nobility, with her…
Living at the Apthorpe is Not What You Might Have Thought
Sometimes the grass is just as brown on the other side of the fence, too. New York apartments are famous for their lack of services; too little heat; broken doorbells; mice and roaches. But us regular folk always assumed this was due to rent control and us being the plebeians in a city full of…
New Auto Elevators Made in NYC
Manhattan condominium 200 Eleventh Avenue features a new and improved parking system- the auto elevator! The condos include what developer Urban Muse Management calls “en-suite sky garages,” which are located on every floor of the building. Now, apartment dwellers will still be able to park their cars right outside their doors. Annabelle Selldorf, the architect,…
After Almost 40 Years OTB Closes It’s Doors for Good
Off Track Betting, better known as OTB, began its existence back in 1971 in order to bring in much needed revenues as well as weaken the many “bookies” roaming the land, bringing in income and not declaring their hard earned dollars to the IRS. In its heyday OTB was a popular hangout for many. Today,…
Sugar Plumb Fairy Too Plump for Her Part?
In his review of the New York City Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker, leading ballet critic Alastair MaCaulay stated that Jenifer Ringer, the Sugar Plum Fairy, “looked as if she’d eaten one sugar plum too many.” Ringer, 37, has battled various eating disorders in the past, including anorexia and compulsive eating. After reading his review,…
Kosher Culinary Arts Sponsors Search for “The Next Great Kosher Chef”
Labeling itself as “the only all-kosher culinary academy outside of Israel,” the Center of Kosher Culinary Arts sponsored a kosher-only kosher chefs’ cook-off last Sunday. The competition is hailed as the search for the “Next Great Kosher Chef” and was filmed at a commercial kitchen in Long Island City, Queens. The sponsor is a three-year-old…
Olfactory Art Center Opens at New York’s MAD
Next fall New York’s Museum of Arts and Design will open a wing dedicated purely to the art of scent. It will become the first museum or foundation with such a wing. Holly Hotchner, the museum director, explained that the Scent Center will be laid out as sensory experience, where visitors will be able to…
FDNY Will Begin Charging for Services Rendered
In what some are calling “crude,” “inhumane” and “an abrogation of the social contract,” the New York Fire Department has announced that beginning in the summer of 2011 drivers in accidents which need an emergency response will be charged a fee. This highly controversial “crash tax” will work in the following way: A vehicle accident…
The Nutcracker Wows New York Once Again
This past Saturday, the New York City Ballet performed its greatest hit The Nutcracker at Lincoln Center. Choreographed by George Balanchine, founder of the New York City Ballet, The Nutcracker transformed the David H. Koch Theater into a thrilling winter wonderland, complete with toy soldiers, mice, waltzing snowflakes and stunning dancing. The two-hour performance also…
