A good method to scare the impressionable youth of Brooklyn away from the library is to treat them like wanted criminals. Is an overdue book something that should go on your permanent record? The city’s public libraries don’t think so: they launched a new program yesterday that will give amnesty on fines for overdue or lost books and dvds for all patrons under 18, WNYC reports.The idea is to lure back the 35,000 young people whose accounts have been blocked due to fines of $15 or more. “Those folks were not coming to the library because their fines were keeping them away,” president of the New York Public Library, Anthony Marx, said according to WNYC. This “New Chapter” program runs through Oct. 31 at Brooklyn, Queens and New York public libraries, giving you kids plenty of time to stock up on some fo the best library reading of all time before Halloween. As for you adults: return your books! What kind of example are you setting?
Who slept with your apartment before you?
Are you savvy to your building's history?
The most curious aspect of my Bushwick apartment, after the painstakingly hand-painted portrait of Capt. Jack Sparrow on one wall, is the one room that’s about six inches off the ground. A drunken neighbor explained the history of 308: previous tenants turned that room into a grow room and needed floor space for the hardware (the painting, however, remains a mystery). If you don’t have a neighbor with a deep well of hyperlocal history, the New York Public Library is ready to help, as long as you’re ready to dig. Gothamist tells us the library has laid out step-by-step instructions on how to find out who lived in your building, why it was built, what changes were made and other neat things about the ghosts of the city’s past. Read the rest of this entry »
No-questions-asked amnesty for kids’ library fines
A good method to scare the impressionable youth of Brooklyn away from the library is to treat them like wanted criminals. Is an overdue book something that should go on your permanent record? The city’s public libraries don’t think so: they launched a new program yesterday that will give amnesty on fines for overdue or lost books and dvds for all patrons under 18, WNYC reports.The idea is to lure back the 35,000 young people whose accounts have been blocked due to fines of $15 or more. “Those folks were not coming to the library because their fines were keeping them away,” president of the New York Public Library, Anthony Marx, said according to WNYC. This “New Chapter” program runs through Oct. 31 at Brooklyn, Queens and New York public libraries, giving you kids plenty of time to stock up on some fo the best library reading of all time before Halloween. As for you adults: return your books! What kind of example are you setting?
TV junkie’s guide to giving up cable
Life before cable. Photo by Getty Images.
I canceled my cable a few months ago. It had to be done—my Cablevision bill was $124.67 a month. But you can’t expect a girl to live without TV: If you prick me, do I not bleed? Yes, I can stream many, many things on my laptop, but I have a lovely—and massive—32” Sony Trinitron across from my couch. Also, I have the bad habit of checking my email while I’m watching things, and that’s hard to do when everything is happening on one screen.
With a little maneuvering, however, I’m getting most of my favorite programs and an almost unlimited trove of films for roughly $18 a month, which means I’m saving around $1,250 a year. Read on for my easy three-step-no-cable survival strategy. Read the rest of this entry »
