Category: Lifestyle

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Stop making cents

When you walk into the long narrow hallway of my NY shoebox apartment, I have set up a large rack for all my shoes (I might have more pairs than E), a large vase for all my umbrellas I haven’t lost, a few softball bats, a coat rack which acts as storage in the summer, also a small shelve for my sunglasses, mirror, flowers, and a very old Japanese bowl my Uncle brought back before the 2nd world war. In that bowl holds my keys and the left over change of the day, collected and sifted later for laundry quarters.

That bowl needs a consistent turn over every four weeks, not because I’m a heavy cash users but the over abundance of the useless copper coins that fill it to the rim each month. I, like most people leave my left over copper in convenience store “take-a-penny-drop-a-penny” bins and praise those clerks that have them available when I don’t have a few extra pennies.

Increasingly there’s a push to eliminate the penny in today’s commerce. We manufacture them at a loss and according to the Washington Post, they’re a cost center for business and no longer a way to round up the revenue with a few cents:

Quote from the Washington post:

In this great country, not even the most obscure subject escapes scrutiny, so I am able to report that the National Association of Convenience Stores and the Walgreens drugstore chain have estimated that handling pennies adds 2 to 2.5 seconds per cash transaction. Assume that the average citizen makes one such transaction every day, and so wastes (to be conservative) 730 seconds a year. The median worker earns just over $36,000 a year, or about 0.5 cents per second, so futzing with pennies costs him $3.65 annually.

From Hey Norton blog:
The anti-penny contingent has been unsuccessful to date, largely due to the strong opposition of the Zinc lobby (really). Perhaps the specter of recession and the pragmatic support of the Treasury secretary will give the de-coining effort new mettle.

I’d go on to make my case but this post isn’t worth the pennies of advertizing I won’t even make for viewing this… Feel free to read on though.

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Vesuvio Bakery is finally getting reoccupied

I’ve seen Vesuvio closed for almost a year now, noting earlier this year that it was up for sale. I just read this NYMag post that it’s finally getting reoccupied by City Bakery’s newest launch of Birdbath. I just hope its not all vegan!

Here’s the rest of the post:

When the City Bakery’s Maury Rubin launched his first Birdbath, he coined a catchphrase for the ecofriendly enterprise: Build a Green Bakery. In the case of his third branch, though, slated to open in October in Soho, there was no building involved. He only had to lease it. The bakery in question was already one of New York’s most famous—the 89-year-old Vesuvio, a cherished remnant of a pre-Soho Soho. Even though in recent times it was known more for its iconic façade than for its coal-oven-baked loaves, Vesuvio’s passing struck a chord with urban nostalgists, guidebook-toting tourists, and especially, it seems, with Rubin, who immediately engaged in “very intense, very personal jockeying for it.” Rubin ultimately triumphed, in large part thanks to his commitment to leave the shell virtually untouched. “It’s an heirloom, it’s a treasure, it means the world,” he says. “That I have a chance to have my bakery be in it is a gift.” Ironically, Rubin’s retiring the ancient ovens for now, mostly because of the owners’ fire-hazard fears. Even so, the deal makes sense: Birdbath was originally conceived as the next-generation iteration of the neighborhood bakeries that were disappearing from New York. And by keeping the structure intact (save a new reclaimed-wood banquette and LED lights), Rubin is perpetrating what he calls “the ultimate bakery recycling.” To suit the sixteen-seat setting, there will be a made-to-order menu, a first for Birdbath, with cinnamon toast, microwaved eggs (“Low energy!” says Rubin), and “neighborhood mozzarella” pressed with tomato and basil, plus new pastries like rice-milk-raisin scones. Also, for the first time in Birdbath history, espresso. This is one place, says Rubin, preservationist pâtissier, that “really requires espresso.”

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Hipster style is the worst of the 80’s gone bad

Look at this fucking hipster is a photo blog of the “best” of the worst of hipster gear. Check the gear!

The term hipster has become synonymous with with ridiculous clashing 80’s style. Skinny jeans that make your butt look saggy, clash colored checkered button up, sweater vest 2 sizes too small, and any other fashion attire promotes laziness including unkempt facial hair. I just chilled in LES and you can’t go 5 minutes with out spotting the looks snapped up from the site.