Just how well do you know your morning snack? [Cue ominous music] Find out tonight at KGB Bar when Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, reads from his book. Koeppel’s dedication to unpeeling the history of the fruit (turns out it’s actually a berry) admirably resists puns like the one found at the beginning of this sentence, and what seems at first to be another “single item......

Over three years after Maria Cruz's death, Dean Faiello finally pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in her death. Faiello had posed as a doctor and was removing a growth from Cruz's tongue in April 2003. It's hard to decide what's more reprehensible: That Faiello was on cocaine while performing surgery or that after he realized Cruz had a reaction to lidocaine, he deliberately didn't take her to the hospital because he was already being investigated......

Comedian Doug Stanhope is making a rare NYC appearance at Pianos on Friday, September 8th. In this interview, he discusses comedy, his forthcoming presidential campaign, and his love of Costa Rica. What sort of role did comedy play in your life growing up? My childhood is vague snapshots of memories that cannot be trusted. I remember trying to repeat some Bill Cosby bits back to my dad that I didn't even understand. I remember him......

It is the most watched sporting event in the world and while the US has participated the last four times, they are still viewed as novices in the sport the everyone else refers to as football. Friday was the drawing for the 2006 World Cup, which will be played in Germany, and if the US team does well this time around, they will eliminate any doubts about their soccer prowess. The US team will be......

Over a year after the body of analyst Maria Cruz was uncovered in a Newark, NJ home, the fake plastic surgeon whose botched operation killed her was finally extradited back to New York City. Dean Faiello had fled to Costa Rica after the fatal 2003 operation on Cruz's tongue. Cruz had a reaction to the anesthesia and went into convulsions, and instead of heeding the advice of a doctor friend he called, Faiello decided not......

Argentina is on a mission in the Olympic soccer tournament, Gold Medal or bust. However, no one in the world would have pegged Iraq s the favorite for the Silver medal. Okay, maybe that is getting a little crazy, but right now Iraq is 2-0 with a win over Costa Rica and a major upset over Portugal. Gothamist doesn't want to get in trouble here (one of us is marrying a Portuguese woman in October),......

Speaking of great photographs, the NY Post has had some beauties the past two days. First, in Stuyvesant Town pet battle where landlords are offering employees $150 to snitch on tenants illegally harboring pets, the Post talks to a pet owner but goes to lengths to hide their identities (above left). But now, the CEO of Meow Mix, Richard Thompson is offering employees $160 NOT to rat out the tenants, plus free Meow Mix......

Last weekend, an American Airlines pilot used the PA system to discuss Christianity, namely, asking Christians on the LA-NY flight to raise their hands and suggesting that non-Christians aboard could ask them about their faith. This monologue, given right before takeoff, caused many passengers to call their families in fear and flight attendants had to reassure passengers that ground control knew what was said. An American spokesperson said, "It falls along the lines of a......

Bridgette Francis...