Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:40:18 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Lauren Mechling :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Lauren+Mechling istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/playground-perverts-gravediggers-rats-its/21887/ Fri, 21 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST Timothy Haskell is a horror snob. He has no patience for fangs and fake blood, no taste for ghosts and mummies jumping out of closets. "I'm not a fan of monster-type stuff. I'm more into creative thinking," the goateed creator of "Nightmare," a Lower East Side haunted house, said. "Usually at haunted houses it's wall, wall, wall, hallway, hallway, hallway, and then a bogeyman jumps out at you. They're not creative." "Haunted," which is open in a theater space on the Lower East Side until... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/no-question-is-too-inane-obscure-odd/21740/ Wed, 19 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST The New York Public Library's telephone reference department works out of a room at the mid-Manhattan branch, a boxy-looking structure across the street from its more famous, lion-guarded sibling.The librarians and information assistants, 10 in total, sit around the perimeter of the room with their backs facing out. They break regularly to consult the 2,000 reference books in the room's center. The telephone reference line, 212-340-0849, is open for business 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Saturday... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/tale-of-two-parks-in-cities-struck-by-tragedy/21607/ Mon, 17 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST Doug Blonsky is an old hand at starting over. Back in 1980, when he became president of the Central Park Conservancy, the park was in shambles, and people avoided setting foot on its soil for fear of being mugged. "Central Park was in its worst condition," he said, "and so was the city. When the park was a wreck, people didn't want to bring their families." Two decades' worth of fund raising and redevelopment later, the park teems with children and counts as the city's second most popular... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/new-power-suit-for-the-look-at-me-set/21487/ Fri, 14 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST Boutiques have a funny way of letting you know they're not just Any Old Store. Some make you ring a bell and wait forever before buzzing you in. Others choose to occupy lofts the size of eight Gaps and use them to carry, at most, three items per season. But perhaps the ultimate signifier that you have happened upon very hallowed shopping ground is when a clerk greets you with the question: "Have you shopped with us before?" Make no mistake. Salespeople don't say this because they think they... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/paris-review-editor-goes-public/21191/ Fri, 7 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST Back when the Paris Review was still run out of George Plimpton's apartment, the office was a jumble of antique typewriters, smudged-up manuscripts, and bicycles that hung upside down from the ceiling. The Paris Review was a literary magazine, but it was also Plimpton's clubhouse, a place where young bookish types sought refuge from the conventions of the real world. Salaries were nil to meager, but such is the payoff for a workday that involves reading Rick Moody stories and joking around with... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/picklers-are-entering-phase-of-intense/20885/ Mon, 3 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST Some people think of biting into a pickle as a way to taste tradition, but the experience doesn't always leave the most familiar taste in the mouth. The pickle industry has been moving away from the historical and into hypothetical ground. In an attempt to rev up sales and appeal to gourmands, it has been downplaying its warty green cucumbers and promoting pretty much anything that fits inside a jar. The old-fashioned sour and dill pickles have been moved to the bottom of the barrel in favor of... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/city-council-turf-war-fought-on-lawns/20819/ Fri, 30 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST The fight for the 43rd District's City Council seat is playing out on thousands of little battlefields. Nearly every lawn in the Brooklyn district, which covers Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, and Bath Beach, is marked with a sign for either Democratic incumbent Vincent Gentile or Pat Russo, his Republican challenger. By last count, Mr. Russo, 37, has been pulling ahead on the lawn front. "It's kind of like going to the moon," Mr. Russo said as he strolled down one of his district's... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/oxonian-for-princesses-politicos-perhaps-oxford/20651/ Wed, 28 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST It must be Harry Potter's fault. The Oxonian Society's mixers have always been open to the public, but attendance had been getting so out of hand lately that, after four years of relative laxness, the group's organizers have resorted to charging non-members a $15 cover fee. The Oxonian Society is not to be confused with its frumpy stepsister, the Oxford Alumni Association of New York. While the OAANY is known for putting together earnest outings to see plays or taste Caribbean food in Harlem... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/one-photo-she-wont-want-in-her-portfolio/20400/ Thu, 22 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST Fashion industry insiders told The New York Sun that they were not terribly shocked to learn that Kate Moss, the model who epitomized "heroin chic" in the early 1990s, was photographed doing lines of cocaine. What surprised them was that she got caught in the act. Drug abuse has long played a part in the fashion world, but with the spread of camera phones and the rising fierceness of paparazzi photography, it's become harder to keep secrets from the world. Meanwhile, as the fashion world... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/owner-of-a-katrina-ravaged-pizzeria-seeks-ny/20317/ Wed, 21 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST When Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans, Todd Duvio's 7-month-old pizzeria was as good as gone. Four feet of water filled the restaurant and lay waste to everything from the wooden pizza paddles to the 60-quart mixer. Thick clumps of mold now cling to every remaining surface, and most everything at Brooklyn Pizza needs to be replaced. Mr. Duvio, who left a hotel in Dallas to return to his restaurant last weekend, has tried to reach FEMA and the Red Cross but says he's had trouble... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/style/bobbi-brown-returns-to-the-tents/20245/ Tue, 20 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST Bobbi Brown tilted her tanned face as she sized up the girl seated before her. The model was a long-necked woman with freckles and wide eyes that had been rimmed in navy. "You know what?" Ms. Brown asked at last, prompting the smattering of underlings hovering by her side to lean in closer. "She's wearing too much foundation. And you know why?" Ms. Brown grinned. "She's 14! She doesn't need it. All this foundation makes her look dead." After dousing a sponge triangle in makeup remover and... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/inevitable-this-week-dearth-of-taxis/20071/ Thu, 15 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST This year, the hottest seat at Fashion Week is turning out to be the backseat of a Ford Crown Victoria. The common yellow cab has become almost impossible to come by. With Fashion Week and the World Summit at the United Nations playing out in tandem, the wait for a cab can be half an hour long. "It's pretty rough," a man J.C. Penney hired to stand by the tents in Bryant Park and assist people into and out of taxis, Lawrence Jay Annunziata, said. "Demand is definitely greater than supply." The... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/cars-for-those-who-may-not-want-to-drive/19802/ Fri, 9 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST Car lovers who will toss away a year's salary on a speedy little convertible are a dime a dozen, but it takes the most die-hard of fanatics to spring for a luxury car that isn't meant to be driven. No fewer than 252 of the finest collector cars go on auction this weekend at the Fine Motor Auction and Luxury Lifestyle Expo at Pier 94. Valued between $100,000 and $5 million, they tend to be delicate creatures that couldn't be counted on to weather a road trip. The collection, from all points of... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/blogging-a-hot-new-after-school-activity/19604/ Tue, 6 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST Two years ago, a 26-year-old showed up for his first day as an English-as-a-second-language teacher at a high school in the Bronx. He had been warned plenty about how challenging his new job was going to be, but no number of summer orientation meetings could have prepared him fully for what lay in store. The school's lackluster graduation rates and pathetic test scores weren't what left the greatest impression on him. He was stirred by the little things, the sticky Kool-Aid spills on the... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/symbiotic-snubbing-at-the-otter-exhibit-on-coney/19540/ Fri, 2 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST Back-to-school fever has yet to strike Coney Island, where it's summer still, summer forever. The clam shacks on Riegelmann Boardwalk are open for business, bathers polka-dot the warm ocean, and the salt in the air clings to everything as if life were one big pretzel. The New York Aquarium's indigo lighted chambers teem with people who've come to pack in a last-chance summer visit. The place has a frenzied feel, as parents and nannies negotiate the double-file lines of day campers to chase... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/terraforming-a-scrap-of-land-in-queens/19425/ Wed, 31 Aug 2005 00:00:00 EST Harry's Bar, not the one in Venice but the one in Long Island City, is named for its founder, Harry Hawk. Though he occasionally takes drink orders behind the bar's bamboo counter, he spends most of his time beetling around the manmade Water Taxi Beach, a dot of land at the lip of the East River. Mr. Hawk is in charge of just about everything, and rare is the moment when the stereo system doesn't need to be fiddled with, or the hot dogs couldn't use flipping, or the people sitting at the picnic... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/shrek-producer-out-to-alter-formula-he-helped/18963/ Mon, 22 Aug 2005 00:00:00 EST Heidi Fleiss has nothing on computer-generated animation, where the cast-iron rule has been that a million dollars will buy you a minute. A feature-length film typically costs $90 million to produce, and the costs of a few productions, such as "Shrek" and "The Incredibles," have exceeded $100 million. The producer of "Shrek" and "Shrek 2," John Williams, is tired of playing by the rules he helped establish. Thanks to a financing plan he crafted with two veteran New York show business players... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/emporiums-of-elegance-here-and-there/18832/ Thu, 18 Aug 2005 00:00:00 EST It would be natural to assume that the press conference announcing the arrival of the Las Vegas branch of Scores would be held at Las Vegas, but natural doesn't count for everything at the gentlemen's club that counts Howard Stern, Christina Aguilera, and Pamela Anderson as its greatest fans. An event that was held at the chain's dark and smoky outpost on West 28th Street at 2 p.m. yesterday afternoon was only a "press conference" in the loosest of terms. It had no press releases, no windy... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/ferrer-from-the-grass-crown-toward-citys/18619/ Mon, 15 Aug 2005 00:00:00 EST Let's just get the mustache out of the way. He won't. It's been there since Fernando Ferrer's freshman year at NYU, and it's not going anywhere. The one time he shaved it off, more than 20 years ago, his wife, Aramina, had a fit. "I love mustaches," she said in a telephone interview. "My father had a mustache. My brother, who is deceased, had a mustache. Even our daughter told him to grow it back." Mr. Ferrer, front-runner in this, his third race for the Democratic mayoral nomination, is not... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/welcome-shoppers-but-please-dont-paw/18208/ Mon, 8 Aug 2005 00:00:00 EST The Park Slope Food Co-Op is thought by many to be a terrifying place, a netherworld of rules and suspensions and withering stares if you forget to bring your own biodegradable shopping bag. The one time I'd gone there, as somebody's guest, when I reached out to pick up a persimmon only to be scolded by a dutiful member, who must have been following me through the aisles the whole time. "Excuse me," she said. "Guests aren't allowed to handle the produce." Richard, leader of a recent Sunday... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/under-an-arch-and-dancing-through-rain-sleet-snow/17876/ Mon, 1 Aug 2005 00:00:00 EST No one reacts to the changes in weather with greater hysteria than the people who frequent Prospect Park's Great Lawn. A tiny spike in temperature will bring a rush of picnic packers and soccer players. Should a chill shoot through the air, the crowd covering the grass will thin out, leaving behind only the most intrepid dog walkers and tai chi practitioners. And then there are the days when the rain comes down in sheets, or the days it's so cold that icicles form in your nostrils and the Great... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/maura-moynihan-out-to-make-fathers-station-dream/17581/ Tue, 26 Jul 2005 00:00:00 EST "I think about him all the time," Maura Moynihan said, before taking another tiny sip from her glass of pinot noir. "He was an amazing New Yorker." The man she was talking about wasn't her father, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the late senator. Ms. Moynihan was having an Alexander Hamilton moment, and she put a $10 bill face up on the table for easy ogling. "We'll do an Alexander Hamilton session sometime," she said. "I have to sit you down and give you my whole presentation about why he's the only... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/when-it-looks-like-a-duck-wait-for-quacks/17502/ Mon, 25 Jul 2005 00:00:00 EST Accompanying an article on happily married husbands who end up falling in love with men, Woman's World magazine ran a 1956 photograph of a happy-looking bride and groom. Running up the wedding picture was a ragged line meant to illustrate the destruction wrought by the husband's jarring revelation. Friends and relatives of Michael and Agnes Grieco, the newlyweds in the picture, were shocked. So were the Griecos. This was the first anyone had heard of Mr. Grieco's secret life - Mr. Grieco... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/national/connecticut-town-weeps-for-fallen-hero/16746/ Mon, 11 Jul 2005 00:00:00 EST WASHINGTON, Conn. - The town wept yesterday. A beloved son of this Litchfield County community, Major Stephen Reich, was one of the 16 soldiers in the helicopter that was hit June 29 by a rocket-propelled grenade in the mountains of Afghanistan. The MH-47 Chinook helicopter was dispatched to bring reinforcements to a special operations team fighting a group of suspected Al Qaeda fighters. No one survived the helicopter's fall in the mountains. It is believed Reich, 34, was at the craft's... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/nyc2012-brave-face-on-a-soggy-loss/16596/ Thu, 7 Jul 2005 00:00:00 EST The weather was gray and dreary, with spells of rain followed by the squish of mud underfoot. In other words, a party planner's nightmare, but at least it jibed with the crowd's damp expectations. Nobody really thought New York was going to be awarded the 2012 Olympics, not with the odds pointing to Paris and London and New York's last-minute stadium kerfuffle. And yet the unflaggingly optimistic NYC2012 bid committee put on a brave face and invited all of us unfortunate enough not to be over... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/thomas-ognibene-drives-himself-toward-gracie/16531/ Wed, 6 Jul 2005 00:00:00 EST Thomas Ognibene drives himself everywhere in his big, white Land Rover. Of all the differences between his campaign and those of the more prominent mayoral candidates, that might not be the most glaring, but its effects are deeply felt. "You find it hard to park, and you can never get there," the former City Council member from Middle Village, Queens, said. "The mayor, the speaker, the borough president, the congressman - they all get a driver and a car, so it's easier for them. You pull up... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/very-special-olympian/15564/ Thu, 16 Jun 2005 00:00:00 EST At 71, George Bowden is the oldest of the nearly 3,000 athletes in this year's New York Special Olympics Summer Games. This weekend he competes in the volleyball skills competition, which he entered for the first time nine years ago. So far he's done pretty well for himself, coming home with one silver medal and eight gold medals. "I have a lot of them," the trim Staten Island resident said the other day over a cup of sugar-free vanilla ice cream. He also competes in the golf and floor-hockey... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/guaranteed-personality-becomes-harder-to-find/15379/ Tue, 14 Jun 2005 00:00:00 EST This spring, the grocery store of my childhood and yours, the D'Agostino in Brooklyn Heights, cleared out, to be replaced by a CVS drug store. The D'Agostino company said the reason for closing had to do with occupying a landmark-designated building, which prohibited the chain from putting up flashy signs or, say, painting the doors hot pink. The people at D'Agostino suggested the problem was that passers-by did not realize what they were passing by. Last time I looked, visibility hardly seemed... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/regular-guyness-is-a-hidden-trait-of-gifford/15129/ Thu, 9 Jun 2005 00:00:00 EST The speaker of the City Council, Gifford Miller, wakes up early a few mornings each week to stand outside schools and hand out fliers calling for reduced class sizes. On one such occasion last month, on a crisp and sunny Tuesday, the actress Cynthia Nixon joined him by the playground of the Upper West Side's P.S. 87. Parents, eager to get to their cubicles or their spinning classes on time, brushed past Mr. Miller. A few less harried individuals gravitated toward Ms. Nixon, who played Miranda... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/slow-day-at-the-races-with-the-philosopher/15003/ Tue, 7 Jun 2005 00:00:00 EST The Belmont racetrack is like your local public library in that not very many people show up, and those who do tend to come alone and hide behind their newspapers until the day is over and done with. The fans who watch from the grandstands spread out in a borderline-paranoid arrangement, with several rows of empty seats separating the closest of neighbors. The rest of the enthusiasts stand inside and watch the action overhead on television monitors. Risk of conversation is minimal, as everyone... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/avons-growing-army-sees-beauty-in-almighty-dollar/14530/ Fri, 27 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Legend has it an Avon lady named Miki Crowl who hails from Ottumwa, Iowa, convinced enough acquaintances to become Avon representatives that she could earn a fortune without moving a finger. As the story goes - and everyone who sells Avon seems to know this story - Ms. Crowl fell into a coma and woke up three weeks later to find herself $15,000 richer, thanks only to her underlings' sales. It costs only $10 to join the sales program and instantly "become the C.E.O. of your own business," as the... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/stepping-along-with-anthony-weiner/14445/ Thu, 26 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Anthony Weiner came out of La Guardia Airport at an aggressive clip, his steps tight and agitated. Earlier that afternoon, after a single-engine plane nosed its way toward Washington, the Capitol was evacuated, setting the congressman back two hours. He had three stops on his mayoral campaign schedule that night, and chances were he wouldn't make them all. Once in the shotgun seat of his Ford Hybrid, he tore into the McDonald's bag the aide who was driving the car had picked up for him. Another... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/with-c-virginia-fields-nice-is-but-part-of/13844/ Mon, 16 May 2005 00:00:00 EST If there's one thing everyone seems to agree on about C. Virginia Fields, it's that she's good-natured. "She's soft and warm," an old friend of hers, Charles Rangel, says. "She's very personable" is how a would-be successor, Stanley Michels, who served alongside Ms. Fields on the City Council for eight years, puts it. Even a critic, Bruce Ehrmann, a member of Community Board 1 who says the Manhattan borough president "ripped the heart out" of the board by replacing Madelyn Wils as its... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/bulgarian-at-the-gates/8097/ Mon, 24 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST These projects cannot be bought. People cannot charge tickets for them. They cannot become commercialized. They cannot be "owned." Possession equals permanence. But freedom is the enemy of possession. - Christo, the Toronto Star, January 16 Except, mind you, when the possessed is an invitation to one of the Bulgarian wrap artist's parties. On a subzero night last week, a crowd of Christo-philes waited outside the Hermes boutique on Madison Avenue, hoping in vain to slip into a cocktail party... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/he-tells-the-story-of-the-story-prize/7955/ Wed, 19 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST Twenty-thousand dollars is no longer enough to change anyone's life, or even to finance a kitchen renovation, but in the modest world of fiction awards, it's quite a rich jackpot. Next Wednesday, the winner of the Story Prize, an upstart literary award for a published collection of short stories, will be awarded $20,000, along with an engraved silver bowl. That's more than the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, or the PEN/Faulkner Award takes home. The new prize was created... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/partying-among-spitzerheads/7833/ Tue, 18 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST The Young Professionals for Spitzer may be guilty of interpreting the word "young" a little loosely, but when they say "professional" they mean it. A money-raising event last week was packed with under-50-somethings decked out in their job-interview best. To scan the crowd was to see 540 variations on the black suit/leather satchel/nametag ensemble. Most of the Spitzer supporters merged into big social clusters, though a few loners lingered by the bar, sipping at their cocktails and fiddling... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/one-day-in-new-york-at-the-supermodel-contest/7548/ Wed, 12 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST At Daylight Studios in North Chelsea on Monday afternoon, 11 of the 44 entrants of this year's Ford Supermodel of the World Contest were waiting their turns to have their test photos taken. They'd settled around a ring of squishy brown couches, hip bones and clavicles poking every which way. A considerable number of the girls were chatting animatedly about their conspiracy theories on Viktor Yushchenko's dioxin poisoning. A pair of Nordic-looking lasses were killing time playing spirited... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/its-not-only-for-billy-bob/7359/ Fri, 7 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST Jason Reynolds doesn't have a million-dollar cruiser or a hopped-up engine in his booth at the New York National Boat Show, but that hasn't tamped down his popularity. The professional bass fisherman leads freshwater-fishing demonstrations from a sawed-off boat tip that's perched over a 41-foot-long, see-through fish tank. When he starts out he'll usually be talking to a handful of people, but by the end of one of his high-charged talks he can look down to see he's drawn more than a hundred... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/giving-the-heave-ho-to-the-2004-ug-ho/7069/ Mon, 3 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST The drive up to the Kripalu yoga center in Lenox, Mass., passes by some of the Berkshires' loveliest properties: big, cream-colored manor houses, quaint country inns, and homes straight out of Norman Rockwell desk calendars, with red porches and mailboxes that poke out onto the road. Drive a little farther and looming in the distance is an overgrown brick structure that could pass for a 1960s insane asylum. Did Zelda Fitzgerald end her days in a place like this? Closer up, it appears that the... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/holiday-card-with-bite/6779/ Fri, 24 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST Unwilling to get lost in the shuffle, members of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation braved Monday's blistering cold and personally delivered their holiday card for Mayor Bloomberg to City Hall. At first blush, the 8-foot-by-5-foot card looked friendly enough. What's not to like about a big red ribbon looped over a flurry of Magic Marker scribbling? Upon closer inspection, however, the card revealed itself to be less a bearer of good tidings than a cranky instrument of... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/food-drink/thought-for-food/6673/ Wed, 22 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST Find me somebody who believes drinking is an entirely honorable pursuit and I'll find you a drunk. This is an age of self-improvement and self damnation, and there's no such thing as a guiltless drinker. Cocktail hour is the sum of everything wrong we're doing: wasted time, wasted opportunities, empty promises, and empty calories. Bless the clever people who figure out a way around that. Some of them got together last week for "Punch: A Brief History of the Monarch of Mixed Drinks," an... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/hair-apparent-in-midtown-doll-mania/6206/ Mon, 13 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST The hair on the plastic heads of the American Girl dolls is made of Kanekelon, a synthetic fiber that is widely used for wigs and hairpieces for African-American women. The substance fares best when it is left alone. In the event of a tangle it can be combed through, ever so gently. Bristle brushes, steam, and heat are best avoided. The wig purveyor deviouswig.com even counsels Kanekelon customers against wearing their wigs in the kitchen, telling home cooks who are dead set on keeping their... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/this-big-apple-circus-juggler-is-full-of-hot-air/6154/ Fri, 10 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST Francisco Tebar Honrubia likes to be called "Paco," except when he's juggling five ping-pong balls with his mouth, at which times he goes by "Picaso Jr." (And no, that's not a typo - his paternal grandfather was named Picaso.) Mr. Honrubia could be a matador in an old Warner Brothers cartoon. He lays it all on thick - the eyebrow raises, the hip shakes, the razzle-dazzle knee-drops. Of all the performers in the Big Apple Circus, he's unparalleled in flamboyance, sometimes even topping it off... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/tis-the-season-ho-ho-ho-means-high-anxiety/5834/ Mon, 6 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST The point of parties is they're supposed to be good fun, but when you toss the word "holiday" in there they take on an entirely different shape. There are several elements unique to the holiday party-the mayonnaise-thick hot beverages, the jingly background music, the sight of otherwise elegant people wearing clothing made out of crimson velveteen. And then there's an even greater beast: the social anxiety that kicks in the second you take off your coat and realize there's a sea of strangers to... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/it-usually-isnt-parents-theyre-running-from/5443/ Mon, 29 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST They're always on the lookout for someone. Last month the missing children came in a pair. They were a couple of friends, 13-year-old girls from Oklahoma who jumped into a parent's Nissan and disappeared, with nothing between them but $2 and a tank full of gas. For the families, it must have felt like a lifetime as the hours ticked by, though it was only a matter of days before the girls were found. They'd gone to New York to rendezvous with a 19-year-old man who met them on the Internet and... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/trouble-with-writing-about-islam/5417/ Fri, 26 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST It's to be expected that an author with a book on the verge of publication will lose her cool over a last-minute detail or two. Some might get nervous that their facts won't hold up and run a paranoid, final check. Others might worry about what to wear to their book party. When Irshad Manji's book was about to hit the stands, her concern was a bit different. She feared for her life. Certain her incendiary book "The Trouble with Islam" would set off outrage in the Muslim community, she called... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/quiet-americans/4776/ Mon, 15 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST In London, George W. Bush's popularity could be measured with a teaspoon, and it's a commonly held assumption that no American living on these shores could possibly have supported his re-election. For the most part, that belief does hold up. But it's not watertight. Hidden throughout the capital, tucked away in the offices of the City and the townhouses of St. John's Wood, are a few loyal Republicans. They've just chosen to be circumspect about it. Following the invasion of Iraq, anti-Bush... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/waking-up-to-the-field-of-dreams/4473/ Mon, 8 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST The great thing about sleep studies is that they never fail to relay uplifting news. I have yet to come across a sleep study that suggests we should work harder and make do with four hours of unconsciousness. Time and again, the studies come as different variations on the same tune: Sleep is good for you, and you'd better do yourself a favor and start getting more of it - unless you want to lose your hair or aggravate a personality disorder. While other strains of medical research always seem... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/new-york/its-ka-ching-for-hillary/4185/ Wed, 3 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. - It was a small-town strain of quiet at Douglas G. Grafflin Elementary School yesterday. Pony tailed soccer moms milled about the hallway, discussing their children's private music lessons. One of the two voting booths had a massive pumpkin drooping at its foot like a manatee. The sense of tranquility gave way when the Clintons pulled up, in the kind of vast vehicle that is typical of this Westchester community. Stepping into the cafeteria eight weeks after undergoing... LAUREN MECHLING http://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/once-the-dust-settles/4039/ Mon, 1 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Election Day is staring us down like a schoolyard bully who means business, and it's clear we've got major upheaval coming our way. This is not about recounts or riots or chartered jets full of attorneys. Assuming that a messy aftermath is a matter of course, what's of concern here is what happens once the dust settles and the other national pastime becomes a thing of the past. The presidential race has been our bread and butter for the better part of the past year, furnishing us with a...