Seems like 4:41

10th Street along Tompkins Square Park. And I'll keep making that Daylight Savings joke.

"He possessed knowledge that most people don't even come across today"

Las week, we passed along that sad news that Howard O'Brien, a longtime bartender at Sophie's, had died after an eight-month battle with cancer.

Patrick Hedlund has a lovely feature on Howard at DNAinfo:

When friends came to clean out the apartment of Howard O'Brien, the longtime neighborhood bartender who passed away last week, they found his Yale University master's degree diploma still rolled up in its original packaging.

Friends said that was typical for a man who, despite his extensive education and vast accomplishments, chose to spend nearly 25 years behind the bar at Sophie's on East 5th Street, one of the last true local haunts left in the East Village.

"Maybe he took it out to look at it once and then put it back in the tube. That's how nonchalant he was about something like that," said Bob Corton, 57, the founder and former owner of Sophie's, who grew up with O'Brien in Westchester and helped empty his East 3rd Street apartment last week.

"He possessed knowledge that most people don't even come across today."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Howard O'Brien, 1954-2010

Lost and Found

I found a pair of men's Hanes underwear on Avenue C near 10th Street. I tried them on, but they didn't fit. So if these are yours, just let me know!

9:02 a.m. or 10:02 a.m., Second Avenue, Nov. 7

Booze beat for the LES?

The Post has this "exclusive" item today:

Fed up with drunken antics on the Lower East Side, a neighborhood business association hopes to get off-duty cops to walk what would essentially be the city's first booze beat.

If approved by the NYPD, the moonlighting crime fighters -- in uniform -- would patrol the beer-soaked lanes between Houston and Delancey streets Thursday nights and on weekends.

They wouldn't be permitted to work inside or at the front doors of the many local gin mills, but they could lasso sidewalk lushes.

"We think having a cop on the beat . . . would really help nightlife establishments be quieter and safer," said Lower East Side Business Improvement District Executive Director Bob Zuckerman.

The Post also managed to speak to one person opposed to this idea.

And barflies voiced concern that the off-duty cops could become the fun police.

"This is a noisy city," music writer Nicole Wasilewicz, 25, said outside Pianos on Ludlow Street. "You come here to make some noise."

[Image via]

5C Cultural Center and Cafe needs support

The owners of 5C Cultural Center & Cafe at Avenue C and Fifth Street are back in court Wednesday to battle being evicted by their landlord... they can use some support...Willie Mack will be playing some Harlem-based jazz there tonight at 8. $5 cover.

Noted

Second Avenue at St. Mark's Place. Somehow, I still find this confusing.

One Fall day

Noted

Earlier today.. I really don't know what was happening. But I was taught early on that you always take a photo of large tow trucks going the wrong way. Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place.

Roastown Coffee opens Tuesday

If you walked by the corner of Second Avenue and St. Mark's Place, then you saw the Roastown Coffee all dandied up and ready for action... the signs out front say the place opens Tuesday...

Get the lead out

Uh, how did I miss this story? From the Journal:

A test of dozens of New York City homes with older pipes found that at least 14% of the collected samples contained elevated levels of lead, New York City's Department of Environmental Protection reported Tuesday.

So you're suposed to run the water for 30 seconds before drinking it and stuff.

I have not done this... Yet, with all this extra lead, I still can't finish the Times crossword puzzle! [BOOOOOOOOOOOO!]

Anyway. Get the Led out.

You're a... hexbreaker (dream maker? love taker?)

A tweet earlier today by our friend Bryan Waterman put us in the mood for The Fleshtones. From 1983.

Noted

16 Handles on Second Avenue now delivering FroYo. What about the people living east of Avenue B?

Photo of the week

I love this shot that appears in The East Villager this week by J.B. Nicholas. The caption: "Rosario Dawson, standing next to Speaker Sheldon Silver, couldn’t restrain her enthusiasm at the groundbreaking for the new Lower Eastside Girls Club headquarters."

I was trying to think of a funny headline for it, but, well, ended up with Photo of the Week. D-