AllupInyourBiz

Gossip Girl is back on the air for another season. NYC’s own “ Poster Boy” has expressed his sentiments about the show, in this lovely piece. Poster Boy, we are with you 100% on this one, buddy.

Today, Merrill Lynch announced a hiring freeze that will be in place until the end of the year. The news came written in a formal memorandum from the ML’s President, Gregory J. Fleming. The reason for the freeze, if it is not already obvious, is stated to be a mitigation tactic for the billions in writedowns that the firm has recently suffered. Not to worry, says DealBook, the majority of ML’s hiring generally takes place during first and second quarters. Any bets on who will be next, with the formal hiring freeze?

Tats crew painted this “Stop Snitchin’” mural under permission from the owner of the building at the time. According to Animalnewyork, Tats crew now plans to sue the city, who issued a summons to the building owner, causing the mural to be buffed, because the City deemed it to be graffiti. As Animalnewyork points out, the cru doesn’t really have a case, since the city had permission from the new building owner to buff out the art. I have to say that I can’t really blame the City in this instance. The whole “stop snitchin’” campaign is ridiculous. It is just another example of organized crime trying to instill fear in those who aid law enforcement. How about, stop breakin’ the law. Then there would be nothing to snitch about.

According to The NY Post, the NYPD had a little run in last night with a stolen car suspect, that sounds worth of a movie script. Apparently the NYPD had run the plates of the mustang, discovering that it had been stolen from a NJ dealership. An officer stopped the car and had back-up called. The driver refused to get out, and tried to drive away. The stolen mustang made a U-turn and struck one of the officers, whose gun was drawn. As the officer was struck by the car, his gun “accidentally” discharged, fatally shooting the suspect. Holy crap!

Wednesday at the AA Terminal in JFK

American Airlines was one of the first airlines to begin charging an extra fee for checking baggage. On Wednesday, hundreds of pieces of luggage were left behind as computer glitch at American, prevented the bags from being loaded onto the proper flights. Apparently the fee is non-refundable, even if the baggage is lost. Not exactly a lot of bang for your buck, going on here.

Update: According to Gothamist, AA waived the bag checking fee for domestic travelers, checking 3 bags or less.

As a part of the speech that Patterson gave yesterday during an emergency session of the NY State Legislature, he alluded the fact that NY may have to sell it’s bridges and tunnels. The session was called primarily to address the State’s enormous budget deficit. Selling state owned roads, bridges and tunnels would be a measure to hopefully help close the deficit.

Oh no! Does that mean that the entities manging the bridges and tunnels would have to actually follow GAAP, when accounting for the tolls they charge? Does that mean that someone might actually be held accountable for poorly managing income, allowing disrepair and misappropriating earnings? Please, no! Don’t let the bridges and tunnels fall under the control of the private sector!

The Village Voice posted the winners from its tortilla debate. The entrants submitted which of corn or flour tortillas are better, in 25 words or less. Although the submissions are fairly witty and mildly entertaining, the real attention grabber is the question posed by the Voice, to those who didn’t enter. The intro asks: “Don’t like the winner? Then why didn’t you enter, you lazy Mexican?”Oof! Way to shamelessly promulgate social stereotypes.

No, I’m actually a lazy Danish-American. But my pedigree did directly influence my decision not to participate in the contest. I can only guess that since Gustavo Arellano, the author of the tortilla article, is actually Mexican, he feels like it is ok to write phrases like the one he wrote, above. Kind of like, if you are black, it’s ok to use the N word. Or something. I guess. A long those same lines of logic, I suppose that I could say stuff like, “you freakishly tall scandinavian!” and get away with it.

The NY Post ran a story today about a woman who was thrown from an exercise machine while working out at a gym in Harlem. After being thrown from the machine, she became pinned between some exercise equipment where she was later rescued. The article refers to her as “very large.” It also emphasises the fact that because of her size, she had to be rescued using a rescue basket, instead of a convention stretcher.

Is it because the story is funnier, knowing that the victim was a bit chubby? Or is it because TOM LIDDY, PILAR CONCI and JAMIE SCHRAM, the authors, are all slobs themselves, and it makes them feel better to point the finger at someone who has a more severe weight problem? I’m not sure. But at least the poor lady was trying to do something about her condition. Give her a little credit, man!

NYC MTA approved the ad below for posting in subway cars.

I personally am going to hold out on purchasing, until there are some more creative color options.

Naked Cowboy in cuffs

The guitar strokin’ jackass, Times Square regular, known as the Naked Cowboy, was arrested in San Francisco last Friday. According to the NY Post, Mr. Cowboy was performing in a “restricted area.” It is a bit ironic, that he was arrested in San Francisco, the place notorious for coddling fringe movements and for touting a self-awarded “progressive” title. I’m sure that this isn’t the first time that a guitar playing long-hair in his underwear has been thrown in cuffs, in San Fran.