Celebrating Community
On October 21st, almost 150 (mostly Ukrainian) intellectuals signed an open letter to Unesco encouraging the international organization to ask President Zelensky to defer some decisions about Odessa’s World Heritage sites until the end of the war. Odessa, in southern Ukraine, is a multicultural city with a strong Russian-speaking component. There has been pressure to remove historical sites connected to […]
On Sept. 15, a driver in Brooklyn was stopped by the New York Police Department after running a red light. In an unexpected turn of events, the officers found 29 Chinese mitten crabs, a crustacean considered one of the world’s most invasive species (it’s number 34 on the Global Invasive Species Database), while searching the vehicle. Environmental Conservation Police Officers […]
Sweden is a place of plenty of holiday celebrations. My American friends usually say midsummer with the fertility pole and the wacky dances when I tell them about Swedish holidays, but to me — and I’d wager few Swedes would argue against this — no holiday is as anticipated as Christmas. Further, I would argue that Swedish Christmas is unlike […]
My son, Baker, was born on October 17th, 2024 at 4:02 am. He cried for the first hour and a half of his life, clearing his lungs, held firmly and safely against my chest. When I first saw him, I recognized him immediately. I’d dreamed of being a mother since I turned thirty, and five years later, becoming a parent […]
According to the Pew Research Center, 97% of Americans own a cellphone. In 2024, nine-in-ten Americans are smartphone users, which is up from 35% in Pew Research Center’s first survey of smartphone ownership from 2011. My own relationship with technology is a standard story for someone born in 1989. I enjoyed my childhood with the most aggressive form of technological […]
A chopped cheese, bread swapped for a Jamaican beef patty. Bacon egg and cheese, but coddled between raspberry Pop-Tarts instead of a roll. Halal chicken with Salsalito turkey and spicy Doritos, all sandwiched between pancakes. Ingenuity is alive at the TikTok-famous Red Hook Food Corp (603 Clinton Street), where Rahim Mohamed has grown a following for his wild off-menu creations. […]
April 30, 1789. Our first President is sworn in and announces: “I exchanged more letters again with King George, a very fine monarch, one of the best in my opinion and I agreed with him that we were very unfair to the British in how we fought, like guerillas in a jungle. To be honest, we should have fought more […]
A BOOMER-TO-BOOMER DIALOGUE with JOE FORD After several columns talking with millennials I’m switching it up this month and talking with a fellow boomer Joe Ford. Joe is a recording engineer and music producer, and full disclosure I grew up with him in Sunset Park Brooklyn. This change is sparked by a comment in a previous column describing boomers as “too old […]
Patricia Wirth Sweeney, affectionately called “Patsy” and “Pat” passed away in Red Hook at the age of 93 on Oct. 15. She was born on June 27, 1931. “She always said she was born in Red Hook and that she was going to die in Red Hook,” said her son, Thomas Wirth. “She loved Red Hook and she took a […]
The ninth annual Red Hook Open Studios took place the first weekend of October with a kickoff Scrappy Reading event. Artists and makers throughout the neighborhood open their studios and give the public a chance to see (and buy) their work. The Scrappy Reading event took place on Van Brunt Street and featured Jax Preyer, Dean Haspiel, Lilly Dancyger, Niguel […]