SKATE: Free skating at Bryant Park just got...more free! Now you can get free rental skates every Wednesday provided you are one of the first 100 people to get over to The Pond Exhibit Area. 6 to 7:30pm // Bryant Park // Free MOVIE: If you have 5+ hours to spare, catch the uncut version of Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander, which he called “the sum total of my life as a filmmaker.” The original......

Two hit and run drivers were arrested late this week; one through the actions of a horrified but brave bystander and the other through a successful effort by the Brooklyn Accident Investigation squad. Cops arrived at Sergey Satyr's Mill Basin home Thursday to arrest the 20-year-old for the hit-and-run death of 71-year-old Grace Smith of Sheepshead Bay. The Brooklyn Accident Investigation squad used debris from Satyr's Nissan and a partial license plate number to track......

A woman was robbed in her Staten Island home by a man clad in black on Monday morning but authorities do not think it's the Ninja Burglar. A police source told the Staten Island Advance, "There are burglaries committed every day and everybody is wearing black out there." In the Christmas Eve robbery, a woman, who left her Great Kills home at 5AM, startled the burglar when she returned at 8AM. The burglar, who seemed......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an industrial accident on 10th Ave. near 30th St. in Manhattan, a man down an elevator shaft at 50 West 15th St. in Manhattan, and a homicide at Neck Parkway and 42nd Ave. in Queens. Not only have investigators found hard drives scrubbed clean of potentially damaging e-mail messages related to Troopergate, the Spitzer administration is refusing to even identify the names of the Internet Service Providers that were......

Television producer Matthew Weiner recently shared his holiday gift horror stories with the Times, relating a sad/funny discovery made by his brother while exchanging a Day-Glo orange sweater given to him by their parents; it turned out they spent $1.00 on the item. Which still doesn’t sound as bad as the gift Weiner got: “a crimson suede Nascar jacket covered with sewn-on patches with emblems of Skoal chewing tobacco and Drakkar Noir cologne. On the......

Separate incidents on Christmas Eve leading into Christmas Day across the city have resulted in five murders and six injuries. Early Monday morning at 1AM, a man was fatally shot in the back outside of a Sweet 16 party in the Bronx another 17-year-old man was also injured in the shooting. In the evening, another killing occurred in the Bronx, with a man being shot in his car after pulling into a neighbor's driveway. Around......

Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani spent his Christmas Eve reading Clement Clarke Moore's A Visit from St. Nicholas to children in Harlem and explaining to reporters that's he's cancer-free. Giuliani, whose flu-like symptoms (well, according to his press people) and bad headache have raised questions about the prostate cancer survivor's health, said, "I am perfectly healthy. I don't have cancer." He added that his protein levels have been fine and that the tests he took......

ART: The Met opens its doors on a Monday for a special Christmas Eve event. They suggest stopping by for the 18th-century Neapolitan Nativity scene Christmas tree, along with some of their special exhibits -- the Age of Rembrandt, Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works and their fashion exhibit will stock your stuffing with eye candy. 9:30am to 5:30pm // The Metropolitan Museum of Art [1000 Fifth Ave] // Pay what you want MOVIE: The......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a ceiling collapse at Franklin Ave. and Union St. in Brooklyn, a pedestrian was fatally struck on Queens Blvd. in Woodhaven, Queens, and an unusual rescue on the south bound tower of the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens. An undercover cop forgot to turn off the wire he was wearing while discussing 11 bags of cocaine he seized in a Brooklyn bust that were never turned in. He was......

With Christmas less than two weeks away, the annual holiday light display is raging through the nights in Dyker Heights, home of TV’s Scott Baio. Every year tens of thousands of people from around the world flock to the outer-borough Brooklyn neighborhood to gawk at the private homes decked out with millions of dazzling lights. It’s an epic spectacle that has to be seen to be believed, and it doesn’t stop at the lights......

Writer/director Robert Tinnell has sifted through his fond childhood memories of big Italian Christmas gatherings and emerged with a unique fusion of comic book and cookbook called The Feast of the Seven Fishes. Originally a popular internet comic, the humorously fictional book is inspired by the Italian Christmas Eve tradition involving big seafood dinners and lots of red wine. (The book's boisterous familial storyline will also be adapted into a feature length film of the......

Two sidewalk Christmas tree salesman are accusing the "company" they worked for last year of leaving them out in the cold on Christmas Eve, waiting for thousands of dollars in wages that never appeared. The yuletide stiffing apparently was in retribution for either 1) skimming sales revenue, or 2) talking publicly about the shadowy figure who allegedly is the kingpin of sidewalk Christmas trees. Last year, an experienced tree-seller and longtime employee of Kevin......

With the MTA's vote whether to raise subway and bus fares coming in less than three weeks, speculation is running high about what will happen. Even though Governor Spitzer said that the base subway and bus fare will remain $2, unlimited Metrocard fares - which 85% of riders use - will rise. The MTA has insisted the fare hikes are necessary, given projected deficits and upcoming capital construction, but many elected officials believe that the......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a construction accident on 23rd Ave. in Queens, a child was struck on West Houston and Thompson St. in Manhattan, and shots fired on 29th St. in Brooklyn. Going along with a network-wide environmentally conscious theme at NBC this season, the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center will be decorated with low power-consuming LEDs. The flat rate for a single subway fare will remain $2 until 2009. The fares will......

Yesterday, federal prosecutors began their case against two mobsters for the deaths of Thomas and Rose Marie Uva. The Uvas, who were killed on Christmas Eve 1992 in Queens, were known as "Bonnie & Clyde" to mob families after they brazenly robbed mafia hangouts. The robberies were particularly embarrassing to the mob (Thomas Uva would run in with a machine gun, while Rose Marie Uva was in the getaway car), and the Bonanno and Gambino......

Yesterday's building collapse at an under-renovation building on West 113th Street injured two workers and killed another who was planning on leaving the city on Friday to see his 2 year old son. Richard Joseph, a 33 year old Brooklyn resident, was on 2-month leave from his job as a police officer in the Barbados; he had come to the city in hopes of moving here. Joseph spoken about the safety issues at 280......

Police believe that the man severely beaten on Christmas Day near the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park was part of a string of robberies by the same men. The victim (pictured and still unidentified) in Monday's Christmas attack had been riding his bicycle and is now in critical condition. So far, nine people have been robbed. Two men were attacked on Christmas Eve - one pedestrian and one bicyclist - and the only person not......

Midtown special on the Gothamist Newsmap: an overturned car at 11th and 44th Street, an armed robbery and pursuit on 43rd and 9th, and a hazmat condition at 47th and 9th. Noah Kalina, the oft-photographed everyman hero of Noah K Everyday, has recently expanded his self-portraiture by including a smattering of celebrities. A few days ago he discussed the project with the Washington Post: "I don't know if I would call it a catatonic......

A childhood phobia of escalators requires us to update yesterday's story about the 2 year old whose finger was partially severed by an escalator at Macy's Herald Square. The Post reports that 2 year old Michael Grateraux "underwent surgery Sunday night at Bellevue" in an attempt to keep his thumb. Other reports said that Grateraux stuck his thumb while riding an up escalator, but his mother Sandy Lopez tells a different story. From the Post:......

At Christmas Mass at the Church of St. Mel in Flushing, Queens, robbers stole a money box with $20,000. The money, collected from three Christmas Eve Masses and the 7:30AM Christmas Mass and meant for church expenses and needy children, was kept in a 100 pound money box. The robbers hit around 9:20AM and witnesses saw men putting the box into an SUV with Vermont license plates. A parishioner did take the license plate number......

If you ever thought that military spending was ill-advised, think again. NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command is tracking Santa with the NORAD Tracks Santa 2006 website. There's a live map of Santa's whereabouts, as well as videos at some places he stops. And how do they do this?Detecting Santa all starts with the NORAD radar system called the North Warning System. This powerful radar system has 47 installations strung across the northern......

Happy Holidays! Chances are, you're reading this the day after Christmas, back at your day job after all-too-short a holiday, and the last thing you want from us is stuff about the holidays. But that's just too bad. Because, see, here in the Ist-A-Verse, we do things ahead of time. It might be December 26 for you, but that's what you get for not checking your Favorite Local Blog on Christmas Eve. Austinist is......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery in Coney Island, a Police motorcycle MVA on 54th Street and Park, and a Homicide on Nostrand in Bed-Stuy. The Christmas lights have started going up in Dyker Heights-- and Janelle and Gowanus Lounge have pix. Or go in person: the best lights are on 84th Street between 12th and 11th Avenue. Canadian black squirrels have begun invading Boerum Hill. Soon there won't be any jobs......

- Pirro might not keep her Senate campaign money after all... - Say hello to the newest Jesus Christ. - Nice haircut. - Did the subway seem especially full on Friday? Because it didn't even come close to the record. - Businesses are beginning to tally the money they lost to the strike. - Did you know that NYU had a planning director? We didn't... - The over-saturation of the Baker's Dozen SNL skit......

If there was ever a call to donate money to Sumatran Rhinoceros preservation efforts, then none can be as heartbreaking as the NY Times' Christmas Eve story about Rapunzel the Bronx Zoo rhino who was euthanized earlier this week. Apparently, Rapunzel, whose estimated age was 30, about half of which was spent in the Bronx, had trouble moving and breathing this week. This telling of her life was very sweet: In the summer, she usually......

December 24: Bûche de Noël Tasting at Payard Payard Pâtisserie & Bistro will be hosting a Christmas Eve lunch with a Bûche de Noël tasting. Warm Maine crab with oakwood shiitake, Kalijira rice galette and mushroom broth will begin the meal followed by roasted pheasant breast with leg confit, Hokkaido squash, baby brussel sprouts, apples, sage and black truffle jus. Then, it's on to the Bûches de Noël -- in more than one variety! You......

Marge Kramer, Santa's Elf...

My family is going to be in NYC for Christmas, and I would like to take them to a church service on Christmas Eve, which is tradition in my family (we're Lutheran). Is it insane to try to go to St. Patricks? Any idea where I can find a schedule of Christmas Eve services? - Christina We must admit we're not churchgoers here at Ask Gothamist HQ, but Gothamist's Tien Mao informed us that you......

Uri Zee and Matthew Deters were busy doling out bowls of delicious, hot soup yesterday when Gothamist stopped by their stand, Soup. Temporarily stationed amongst the many shops at the Union Square Holiday Market, head over before the season ends and there's no soup for you. A chalkboard reading “gourmet soup” hangs against the back wall and boards are propped on nearby tables with lists of their daily specials written in multi-colored chalk. Though neither......

Gothamist was thinking that this dog that made its way from Connecticut to Manhattan via the Metro North was our kind of dog, but as it turns out, everyone thinks so. The Post follows up its story of a 35 pound mutt, named Metro, by saying that the animal shelter where he was taken after his Christmas Eve trip has been inundated with calls. Metro, who was not wearing tags, reportedly was hanging around the......