The recession is such a bummer. Wouldn't it be nice to time travel to a simpler era the 1950s when money was plentiful, appliances were shiny, and rock was just beginning to roll? A carefree time, when wiggling a Hula Hoop rather than watching the Dow plummet was the favored pastime, and love could be found at a sock hop. Happily, a DeLorean time machine a la "Back to the Future" isn't necessary. Doo-wop shows, record hops, and soda fountains are all here. As it turns out, happier days can be had again.
This Upper East Side dining room, a one-time neighborhood joint for Bernie Madoff, hasn't changed its mood since it opened in the '50s.
Mr. Ziprin, a brilliant, baffling, beguiling voice of the Lower East Side and the East Village in all its phases — Jewish, hipster and hippie — died last Sunday in Manhattan. He was 84. The cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his daughter Zia Ziprin said.
For decades, Mr. Ziprin, a self-created planet, exerted a powerful gravitational attraction for poets, artists, experimental filmmakers, would-be philosophers and spiritual seekers.
He ran his apartment, on Seventh Street in the East Village, as a bohemian salon, attracting a loose collective that included the ethnomusicologist Harry Smith, the photographer Robert Frank and the jazz musician Thelonious Monk, who would drop by for meals between sets at the Five Spot. Bob Dylan paid the occasional visit.
Distressed that Starbucks has become the "poster child for excess," CEO Howard Schultz said the coffee company plans to run an ad campaign proving its coffee isn't expensive.
"There's a myth out there that there's this $4 cup of coffee at Starbucks," Mr. Schultz told shareholders at the company's annual investor meeting earlier today. "For whatever reason, Starbucks Coffee Co. has become the poster child for excess, and if you want to be really smart, you should cut out that $4 cup of coffee."
“This is new, a real deviation from the average,” said New York City’s chief demographer, Joseph J. Salvo. “Whether it’s a trend is another thing.”
The latest census estimate did not reflect the decline in private-sector jobs in the city late last year.
Dr. Salvo, the director of the Department of City Planning’s population division, said, “When you take a look at the conditions in the rest of the country and what has happened to the housing and economic market in a lot of places our migrants have gone to, it’s very tempting to conclude that perhaps people are staying put more because the opportunities that were afforded there are not there any longer or are no longer attractive.”
Urbain J. Ledoux -- better known as "Mr. Zero" -- introduced a novelty in the form of a 5-cent turkey dinner. He fed turkey dinners at "The Tub" in the basement of 33 St. Marks Place, on the basis of "All you can eat for a nickel," and said that he was able to break even financially. Dealers furnished the turkey and trimmings at cost, the cooks volunteered, the diners waited on themselves, there was no overhead and and at the end of the day the ledger showed no red ink marks, according to Zero, who claims credit for the world's greatest achievement with the 5-cent piece.
Homeless and Unemployed Men Eating at Relief Center
Mr. Zero A Real Santa To Them. Nearly 5,000 homeless and unemployed men were the guest of Urbain Ledoux (Mr. Zero), at a Christmas Day dinner served by him in his haven for the needy, called the Tub at 33 St. Mark's Place, New York City. The principal item was Mulligan stew, made of turkey, chicken, goose and squabs, and how they enjoyed it. Here are some of the needy "digging in" at the savory meal prepared for them.
