Outings
Park Slope/ Prospect Heights
How much do you really know about Black History Month? Photo via Flickr's Eric Schwartz.
It’s a sad state of affairs that lots of school children never get deeper into Black History Month than the usual stories of Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington Carver and Rosa Parks. Fans of more in-depth historical knowledge should head over to Bar Sepia on Feb. 15 for the 2012 Black History Bowl. You shouldn’t expect five rounds of questions about the stuff in your public school catalog (pamphlet?) of black figures, because this goes beyond the poster on your school wall. The winners will lay claim to an engraved Black History Cup, perfect for toasting to Haiti, the only Caribbean island to successfully win their independence from their colonizers (some free trivia for you!). So grab three friends, and celebrate BHM in style. It also wouldn’t hurt to show that your brain isn’t just used to store knowledge of 90s hair bands and European flags.
Bar Sepia, 234 Underhill Ave., Prospect Heights. Trivia starts 8:30pm on Feb. 15.
Shopping
Boerum Hill/ Gowanus,
Park Slope/ Prospect Heights
It’s been a while since I’ve shared a frugal food find here, and there’s a reason. Even The Brokavore doesn’t live by day-old bread alone, and a pesky need for shelter recently led me to become a first-time homeowner. Which means I’ve been spending a lot of time battling basement leaks and sucking on plaster dust instead of searching out dollar tacos.
Buy a home and like it or not, before long you’re going to find yourself darkening the automatic doors at Lowe’s or Home Depot. With one of each within a mile of my South Slope home, I’ve made many a grudging trip to both. And given my natural gift for parsimony (though gift is maybe not the word Mrs. Brokavore would use), having two competing big-box behemoths within easy reach led me to wonder: which is cheaper? 
Food & Drink,
Shopping
Park Slope/ Prospect Heights
This is fun. If you buy something at a Fifth Avenue merchant through Feb. 14, you get a free raffle ticket to win a spending spree of up to $1,000 on the Slope’s best shopping strip. That sounds like a mighty fine way to spend an afternoon, maybe even two. Participating places include a whole bunch of shops, restaurants and bars we really like, with the noteworthy absence of Bierkraft. Here’s the list of Fifth Ave. venues where you can pick up a ticket, and All About Fifth has the details on the giveaway.
Outings
Park Slope/ Prospect Heights
Jodi Kantor, Timeswoman, Obama profiler and journalistic dreamboat.
Have you ever seen those “Reasons to Love New York” year-end issues of New York Magazine, where they distill the year’s happenings into truths about the city and everyone feels warm, fuzzy and smart at the same time? Stay with us — here’s a “Reason to Love Brooklyn” (not this one.): When the local synagogue has an author’s night, the speakers are the novelist behind a Best Picture-nominated movie and the writer of a scandalicious White House tome. Yep, Jonathan Safran Foer (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) will grill Jodi Kantor (The Obamas) about her buzzy new book in Park Slope next week, and it’s totally free. Should be interesting.
Food & Drink
Park Slope/ Prospect Heights
Hot Toddy for your cold body.
Fun fact: January and February are so devoid of joy that it’s perfectly acceptable to make up holidays. Case in point: Wednesday is National Hot Toddy Day, something clearly invented a few years ago so people had another reason to drink the best cocktail of the season (as if you needed a reason). The hot toddy is also the perfect cure to the winter cold: containing tea, lemon, honey and enough whiskey to burn out all viruses. In celebration, our friends at Google Places want to buy you a one at High Dive on Wednesday!
Outings
Park Slope/ Prospect Heights
One of the features of the free weekly Tuesdays at the Tea Lounge series is always the I Like You, Maude story slam, featuring five-minute tales from anyone willing to throw their name into a hat. But how do you get to the point where you can actually tell a good story in public without sending your crowd into a bored Words With Friends diversion? Try another one of the free events: the Tea Lounge and Brooklyn Skillshare will host a workshop on “How to Be a Great Storyteller and Other Useful and Humorous Public Speaking Techniques” next week. Then come back later in the month to try your storytelling chops. See the full schedule below.
Sales & Deals
Park Slope/ Prospect Heights
Reader Whitney sent in this tip about a new sale for the new year: Housing Works in Park Slope is taking 40 percent off all apparel on Wednesdays and Thursdays through Jan. 26. Housing Works, if you don’t know, is a great organization that raises money through its thrift stores to support its AIDS advocacy and research work. And with that kind of mission, they get some pretty sweet donations (read: not bleach-splashed jeans or promotional T shirts from NASCARMAGGEDON 2005).
Housing Works, 266 Fifth Ave., open Mon-Sat: 12pm-7pm, Sun: 12pm-5pm.
Outings
Park Slope/ Prospect Heights
Step 1: Please wash the box before repeat use.
this is probably the one. The last week of the year is the time to download all those albums on top 10 lists to pretend like you’ve been into them all year long and to skim the best books of the year for conversation fodder so you can seem lit savvy, so why not get caught up on all that’s new in sex in 2011? If you missed Babeland’s more than 100 workshops this year (tips on HJs, BJs, bondage, you know, your usual Park Slope chit chat), get a crash course at the shop’s free Top 10 Sex Tips of 2011 event Dec. 31 at 12:30pm. Babeland will “let you in on the best positions and oral sex techniques of 2011,” which makes us wonder: does that much in sex change from year to year? Ah gad, this is what I miss by staying home downloading albums and reading all year.
Outings
Park Slope/ Prospect Heights
Tuesdays can also mean booze clues
This month’s lineup of free Tuesday nights at The Tea Lounge features a special holiday guest star: Steve Burns, the original host of Nickelodeon’s Blues Clues! Burns will be appearing as part of the I Like You, Maude story slam Dec. 20. If you’re not sure of why to be excited to hear a story from the former host of a show for toddlers, familiarize yourself with this Burns appearance on The Moth: it’s a tale rich with fake boobs, awkward dates, surprise birthdays and the fickle fame of Nickelodeon. Also this month: a skillshare that follows a collective as it opens a free store, offers free Dumpster diver dinners and answers the question: Can garbage be used to foster community?
