Welcome to the Big Apple Blog Festival (BABF), a representative roundup of this week’s posts by NYC bloggers.
Last week’s Big Apple Blog Festival was hosted by Dave Friedman’s Soul of Wit.
Next week’s BABF will be hosted again by mister snitch! … if you have a NYC blog or you blog about NYC and would like to host an upcoming BABF, let us know …

Food

• Walker New York : Eats was at the NY Chocolate Show and it “convinced me that the world would indeed be a better place if we all had our daily dose of chocolate, right along with the vitamins” … mmmmmmmmmmmmm, chocolate …
• A Guy In New York had its weekly roundup of restaurant reviews from the previous week … “This Week In Reviews” … and also a post with pics of Vendy Awards finalist Tony Dragones at 62nd Street and Madison Avenue … and his brother John Dragones at 64th and Madison …
• Manhattan Transfer asks, “Now who in their right mind gets up, dresses and goes out for breakfast at 8 am on a set day, every week with anyone, anywhere?” …
• Slashfood wants to know “When you go out to eat, do you tuck in to your meal as soon as it is placed in front of you or do you wait until everyone has their food before eating?” … we usually eat family style so that’s not an issue for us …
  

  Clothing

• NYC Metblog has some choice words for parents who spend “$25 on your bullshit Mao boutique shirt” for their toddler … “buying your children a Ramones shirt will not make them any cooler or you any cooler.” … Ah, fashion …
• Amy’s New York Notebook says these are the “Ugliest Boots Ever” …
  

  Shelter

• Englishman in New York explains “How to Make a House out of One Red Paperclip” …
  

  Health

• mister snitch! has a good post on avian flu … “Charlie Rose interviews the Avian Flu, or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the pandemic” … let’s all take a deep breath … and some 5-star anise …
  

  Staying in Touch

• Dorian Davis has an interview with Dawn Eden, whose blog The Dawn Patrol is “in hibernation” …
• BuzzMachine supports the idea that in a hurricane or flood “drowned numbers terminate in voice mail. Those looking for family members generally know their phone numbers. Numbers are much more precise than names in the chaos of a disaster.” … and don’t forget to add ICE (In Case of Emergency) numbers in your cell phone … and get the Charge2Go to use a single AA battery to power your cell phone …
• mister snitch! has “Some advice on corporate blogging” …
• Dave Friedman says, “I Don’t Understand This Web Site…” and we agree …
• spinachdip nyc is taking a blog break … “will go on hiatus and I have no idea if/when/how it will return.” …
  

  Planes, Trains, Automobiles …

• New York Hack has “a picture of the trash left behind on McGuiness Blvd in Brooklyn after the big NYC Marathon” and “two cop cars blocking both lanes of the street, and one is facing the wrong direction, so their driver’s sides were closer, making for a better conversation” …
• BuzzMachine answers the question … Why do you blog when flying across the Atlantic? …
• The People’s Cube reports that “Taking their lead from the frustrated youth of France, the Pennsylvania Dutch have ‘found their voice’ by burning hundreds of cars in Lancaster PA over the last few nights.” … “Jehovah’s Witnesses rage, in fact, has spread via its missionary channels to other countries. Well-dressed missionaries have been attacking citizens from Togo to Japan, usually with sharp knives. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Saudi Arabia has been encouraging students to saw the heads off local citizens.” …
• Theater of My Mind has a pic of “The 7 pulling out of Courthouse Square late on Thursday night.” …
• The Politburo Diktat has two reminders about November 9 …
• Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars says it’s time to “pack up the bike for the winter. Next weekend, I’ll pull off all the leather, fill the tank with gas stabilizer and put the battery on a trickle charger.” …
• gridskipper NY does not like the PartyBike … “Something about them suggests an octopoid tarantula mutant, and it’s jarring to see people pedaling in a direction at odds with the way their bicycle seat faces. Plus, it just looks wrong and unsettling, like something out of a medical abnormalities textbook.” … octopoid tarantula mutant works for us …
  

  Family

• Dead Programmer’s Cafe writes that “My paternal grandmother, the matriarch of the family, a mechanical engineer and a workaholic, was the main driving force behind our move to America.” …
• opinionistas and her mother had a little disagreement … look at all the comments … and reminds us of a few of the many reasons why we never worked in a big law firm … as a lawyer who no longer practices, my advice is simple: get a life …
• gothamist says in “Something Quirky in the Science High School Test” … “Nothing, except maybe college admissions, seems to get New York parents panties into a twist like the city’s specialized high schools. Parent have, since the inception of “the Test,” been complaining about how unfair it is that admission into the city’s math and science schools is decided completely by a test that is taken only once in eighth grade.” …
  

  Song & Dance … and Other Entertainment

• Cafe Aman is standing by her “statement that the CSO [Chicago Symphony Orchestra] schooled New Yorkers in what a real first-class orchestra actually sounds like.” …
• stereogum reports that “Sony’s QRIO robot can dance, react to people, and get up when it falls on its ass. Sony’s goal: a personal entertainer.” … so THAT’S why they bought those music and movie companies … robot talent …
• gothamist has a post about dogs in bee costumes “Time for Some Bee-Dogs!” … also check out Tubcats!
• Modern Fabulousity has 2 of the “10 Worst Album Covers Of All Time” …
• BounceFM reports that the next 718 Session will be Sunday, Nov. 20th, with Danny Krivit on The Turntables The Entire Night! …
• Clublife explains why you don’t want to mess with the bouncer …
• Amazin’ Avenue writes that “There are rumblings all across this great land of this guy or that potentially donning a Mets uni in 2006, so stay tuned to AA for the latest news and rumors.” …
• Mets Geek hosts “The Ramon Hernandez Debate” … 4 years/$24 million or four years, $40 million …
• NYC Stories posts about his recent Dracula Tour of Transylvania …
• An Unamplified Voice called the Barbara Bonney recital at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall “a very enjoyable success.” … and called “Canadian soprano Shannon Mercer, the find of the evening” … also saw Così Fan Tutte at the Met … “a coherent, detailed revival that — at least in the first-cast performances that ran through Tuesday [Nov. 1, 2005] — outshone all of its previous incarnations.” …
• listen. has a “a brief list of music appropriate to” Veterans Day …
• About Last Night has a great piece about “about how blogging is affecting arts journalism” … and says he is: “I’m a regular-guy aesthete. I like fancy sets, but I like bare stages, too. I like Stephen Sondheim and pretty girls. In fact, there’s only two things I never, ever like: pretentiousness and being bored.” … we believe that statement does justice to his writing, which we like …
  

  Politics

• Quixotic Optimism writing about the national debt: “We take in X dollars per year and spend 3X. I used to do that. That is, until the stubbled jowly bounty hunters that smelled like Wendy’s came and took all my stuff as restitution for my frivolous spending habits. Yeah, that worked out well.” …
• Alarming News says “I’m a conservative but I’m also a realist. Wake up, New York conservatives. A pro-lifer is unlikely to get elected to the City Council, despite the fact that the Council has zero to do with abortion policy. No one that runs against gay marriage, or rent control is getting elected in NY (and, please, spare me the Staten Island examples, that borough has near zero in common with the other four).” … she’s also “looking for a ‘real’ job.” …
• Ragged Thots has “Two views on the French crisis” …
• The Politicker links to “what is surely the Godliest piece of political literature in New York City this year.” …
• Asymmetrical Information suggests that “If you don’t want to stop engaging in risky behaviour, then vote libertarian and buy yourself a gun.” …
  

  New York, New York

• NewYorkology reports how to sing “Goin’ to the Empire State Building and we’re Gonna get married” … but you have to apply by November 30 …
• dailyheights.com asks, are “NIMBY Yuppies Stealthily ‘Disappearing’ Tacky Public Trash Cans?” …
• Corante New York links to National Geographic’s “New York Underground” … “a fantastic cut-away look at what happens 800 feet below the surface of a typical New York City street” … and reports that “Donald Trump still hates the New York Times” …
• forgotten NY has a new page … “Broadway Bulletin” that looks at Broadway in Williamsburg …
• rion.nu has pics of autumn in Central Park …
• Our favorite from Overheard in NY this week: “What About People Who Misuse ‘Subtlety’?” …

___________________________________
The Big Apple Blog Festival is listed on the ÜberCarnival page and in Carnival News.
To nominate your favorite blog post about NYC, or if you have a NYC blog and want to see something in the next BABF … or you have a NYC-related blog and would like to host an upcoming BABF … send us a short write up and a permalink to aguyinnewyork [at] gmail.com … or use the Carnival Submit Form … see you next week …
You are free to repost the Big Apple Blog Festival so long as you leave this URL attached: BigAppleBlogFestival.com.