Welcome to Big Apple Blog Festival (BABF), a representative roundup of this week’s posts by NYC bloggers.

• The Kitchen Review has a funny post … “Corporate Potluck” … with a link to “one of the greatest bad cookbooks ever – The Company Cookbook. Snarky comments and nausea inducing photos abound!” … hilarious … we don’t eat company potluck anymore after we noticed that a few women never joined in .. and when we asked why, they asked us if all the men who brought in dishes washed their hands after using the toilet … uh, “No thanks, we’re not hungry.” or “Not today, I’ve got the flu / diarrhea / a cold.” …
• Alarming News has a summary … and many links to other blogger’s posts … of the Autumn NYC Blogger Party … “‘Bout last night” … Clareified also has a good summary … “Boobs, Blogs, and Bloomberg” …
• one of Cinema Strikes Back “all time favorite actors (is) Giuliano Gemma” … [IMDb | Brian’s Drive-In Theater]
• Third Avenue reviews “La Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera” … “Following the feast for the ears given by Falstaff last week, I must admit to being a bit underwhelmed musically by this Bohème. The cast was good, but by no means exceptional, and Philippe Auguin conducted the Met orchestra with more speed than insight. Indeed, there was a moment during the more complex choral scene in Act II when I feared the whole thing was going to unravel. Luckily, catastrophe was averted.” … “Nevertheless, even a mediocre Bohème, and the Met’s is way better than mediocre, is a magically moving experience.” … Metropolitan Opera …
• An Unamplified Voice reviews Ariadne auf Naxos at the Met … “Notes on an Ariadne” … “That the Met’s revived Ariadne auf Naxos fails is no surprise: the house hasn’t succeeded with the piece since at least the Norman days” …
• Kesher Talk had one last beach trip … “Beach Haven” … “The water was warmer than the air, the seagulls were aggressive (they really like Smartfood cheddar popcorn), and the waves were pleasant but not of bodysurfing quality” … “These waves were too nice. If they had been people they would be sitting in a circle passing a talking stick and singing kumbaya.” …
• Englishman in New York, in “Ignorance is Blind,” discusses … “a thoughtless article which appeared in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine about a blind or partially-sighted applicant for a chef’s job at a city restaurant. The article is one of 40 essays which appear in a new book by Bloomsbury called Don’t Try This at Home: Culinary Catastrophes from the World’s Greatest Chefs. It was written by Gabrielle Hamilton the chef and owner of Prune in the East Village.” …
• forgotten NY has a new page … “tough Shell: Shell Road and West Brighton” … Google map …
• Dead Programmer’s Cafe asks: “Would a real pirate drive a Honda?” … maybe if it was a “Pirate”, er, Pilot … and links to an article about a preliminary test of a robot designed to crawl a cable … eventually into space [NASA: space elevator] …
• Letters from NYC says … “I just made a mental note – order lunch in the next time I have an eye twitch.” …
• Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars bumped into Paul Teutle of Orange County Choppers on a flight to Phoenix … “He really does have huge biceps, tattoos and a big moustache.” …
• rion.nu has 6 pics of chess in bryant park …
• Sexless in the City would rather help married friends watch their baby than go out to a bar to meet up with friends for a party … “Beer baths vs. babysitting” …
• Daily Refill has a roundup of “the bands that would play on The OC” … and links to a touching reminiscence on the anniversary of her mother’s death (click “a bad anniversary”) …
• NYC Stories wants to know … “What’s with those bags that are for sale everywhere in the city right now? You know the ones that look like a flapper threw up in technocolor. Some in frightful pink, others in ghastly yellow, and even others in multi-color atrocities.” … “Make sure you get a good deal, because this fad won’t last long. When it ends, maybe you can chop yours up and make a sexy dress for your Barbie.” … with pic …
• Autoblog has pics of a Rolls Royce concept car … “Rolls Royce 100EX tours Big Apple” … “RR has just released these pictures of the 100EX rolling around the isle of Manhattan increasing property value wherever it roamed.” …
• Dave Friedman reminds us Wikipedia entries are … not always reliable … “Wikipedia’s Odd Take on the World” …
• insignificant thoughts has an interesting post … “Wal-Mart is a bunch of greedy bastards…” …
• Gotham Gal says “Charmin is out and Scott is in. Who would have known?” … Charmin is 2-ply, Scott is 1-ply … but did she consider the impact of that decision “on the next seven generations”? … we wonder why she doesn’t follow her own advice and use Second Generation …
• Corante New York summarizes a WSJ article by Alan Murray in “Technology is making real estate’s business model obsolete” … “How is it still possible, asks Murray, that real estate middlemen are able to pocket 5% on every transaction?” …
• Theater of My Mind has a picture of “Pumpkins behind bars” …
• Asymmetrical Information posted “Guzzling gas” … does every blog post mentioning gas prices, SUVs and hybrids generate so many comments? ….
• gothamist has a “A Modest Dog Poop-rosal” … and a roundup about the “4 Year Old Abandoned on Queens Street” … and an update: the girl’s mom’s “live-in boyfriend was charged with her murder” …
• Buzz Machine posts on “Needless exaggeration” … “in the case of Katrina — and in spite of very good reporting and commentary across media — it’s still true that everybody messed up, everybody (myself included; Goldberg includes himself as well) bought the exaggerations as news.” …
• Stay Free! Daily has a post and a pic at a U-Haul Moving Center … “30 days free storage for Katrina victims” …
• the dawn patrol … has “For Better or for Verse, A Guest Post by Robert N. Going” … a judge with a sense of humor …
• Express Train has a good pic … “this is the kind of scene you only catch if you ride the train every day. So there you are minding your own business when this guy decides to lay down a few tracks during your morning commute.” …
• Downtown Lad has a post and pic … “the most important news of the day. Scientists have taken the first pictures of a live, Giant Squid. That’s a lot of Calamari . . .” … yummmm, calamari, salt and pepper squid …
• A Guy In New York says the best roti canai in NYC is at Sanur … and posted his weekly “This Week in Reviews (TWIR)” …
• our favorite this week from Overheard in New York … “Ticket lady: I’m sorry, no pets allowed. Woman: But even if the dog is in a bag? –Central Park, Overheard by: armur” … our second favorite is a classic … “Wait for It…Wait for It…” … “Girl #1: I like to surround myself with ugly people because it makes me look prettier by comparison. Girl #2: I know what you mean. –F train, Overheard by: Daile” …
• our favorite from Sweet Blog o’ Mine … “Overheard at the 53rd Street subway stop: ‘Queens-bound E train now approaching the station.’ Pause. (same voice, singing) ‘To find I’m king of the hill . . . top of the heap.’ Pause. ‘It’s up to you, New York, Neeeeeeeeeew, Yooooooooork!’ Smiles all around.” … makes us smile, too … is this a great town, or what ….
• Mister Snitch! has 3 tips on how to appear informed, projecting “worldly savvy without many hours of tedious research“… and links to a story about … “Genetically altered mice discovered accidentally at the Wistar Institute in Pennsylvania have the seemingly miraculous ability to regenerate like a salamander, and even regrow vital organs.”
• A Small Victory says “Things are going to be baseball heavy around here today and this weekend as the Yankees and the Red Sox face off in a season-ending series that will determine which team gets the division title.” … “Let’s Play Three! Yanks, Sox and a Green Monster memory” … we know how that turned out … “‘That’s got to be a first, huh?’ New York general manager Brian Cashman said. ‘Two teams playing each other, clinching in the same stadium.’ The Red Sox and Yankees each finished the year 95-67, though the Fenway scoreboard listed them alphabetically, with Boston ahead of New York. But the Yankees actually took the division title because they beat the Red Sox 10-9 in the season series.” …
• dailyheights.com reports that “Now you can use your multifunction “ABC” library card (with PIN) to download audiobooks and eBooks from digitalbooks.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.” …

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The Big Apple Blog Festival is listed on the ÜberCarnival page and in Carnival News.
If you have a NYC blog and want to see something in the next BABF … or you have a NYC blog and would like to host an upcoming BABF … send us a short write up and a permalink to aguyinnewyork [at] gmail … see you next week …
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