Yesterday, the city was filled with parades and events paying tribute to the members of military who have given their lives or continue to fight on our behalf. At a wreath laying ceremony at the Soliders' and Sailors' Monument in Riverside Park, Mayor Bloomberg said, "These brave soldiers and so many others will be lovingly remembered and deeply missed by family and friends. Today their losses echo throughout our entire city." There were protesters present......

Today is Memorial Day, the federal holiday where U.S. men and women who have died in military service are remembered. Federal and state offices are closed, as well as post offices, schools, financial markets, and banks. Alternate side of the street parking rules are suspended and mass transit is running on weekend schedules (though there's additional weekend service on some lines) Mayor Bloomberg will be speaking at Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Riverside Park at......

On your faces, maggots. Iraqi war vet (and former SLC punk) Jason Christopher Hartley (pictured) has collaborated with The International WOW Company to create one hell of an interactive theatrical experience. Called SURRENDER, audience members sign up as active participants in simulations of counterinsurgency operations. Upon arriving at the Sanford Meisner Theater, you’ll be issued boots, a uniform and a replica M-4 assault rifle. You’ll train with Hartley for 100 minutes in basic combat techniques,......

Like an elementary school kid who sees his teacher at a movie theater or in the grocery store, and is shocked that he or she doesn't sleep in the school's gym at night and requires food to survive, the media occasionally will note that librarians are not uniformly dour spinsters intent on shushing you and collecting late fines. The New York Sun ran an article Thursday regarding the growing number of librarians who live and......

Even though a Sunni insurgent group claimed yesterday that two captured U.S. soldiers had been killed, one of the soldiers' mothers hoping that her son is still alive. Maria Rosario Duran spoke to reporters outside her Corona, Queens home. She said, "I can't even imagine that he's not going to return alive, that I will never see him again." The insurgents, who have been linked to Al Qaeda, allegedly captured Duran's son, Specialist Alex Jimenez,......

The Coupon Clipper scours the specials for the best deals in New York's big grocery stores. Memorial Day usually conjures up some kind of natural reactions. Beyond the real reason-for-the-season aspect of the holiday, what usually comes next is food. Though hot dogs, chicken wings, and many other things could and should be used, what hits the paper plates more often than not are hamburgers. Which is all well and good, except that Memorial Day......

Mayor Bloomberg spent Memorial Day at a number of different events in Queens and spoke about a number of issues: The City Council proposal to name a street after Sonny Carson He called it "probably the worst idea the City Council, anybody in the City Council, has had in recent memory." City Councilman Charles Barron, who supports part of Gates Avenue in Brooklyn to be named after the black activist, told the Daily News, "Tell......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a carjacking on 130th St. and 15th Ave. in Queens, an overturned auto on Spring St. and West Broadway in Manhattan, and a stabbing on Caton Ave. in Brooklyn. Remember when Paris Hilton forgot that she'd left her Tinkerbell with her grandma and papered her neighborhood with Lost Dog flyers? New Yorkers hire private detectives and publicists to get the job done right. A tiny dauchsund is missing. New......

With Memorial Day weekend coming to a close, there's a long, hot summer ahead of us. For those who enjoy spending the season fishing, The NY Times has some tips for catching a big one at Prospect Park Lake: Prospect Park Lake in Brooklyn is a terrific fishing spot. It has the highest concentration of largemouth bass in the state, aided by the Parks Department’s no-kill policy, which means that you may only catch and......

Why is Memorial Day often referred to as the "unofficial start of summer"? As far as we know there is no official start of summer. Astronomically, there's the summer solstice, and for bookkeeping reasons climatological summer is considered June, July and August, the three warmest months, but there's no official start to summer. Whether official or not, the weather has certainly been summerlike this weekend. Today is no exception. We should have warm and humid......

Today is Memorial Day, the federal holiday where U.S. men and women who have died in military service are remembered. Federal and state offices are closed, as well as post offices, schools, financial markets, and banks. The subways and buses are running on a Sunday schedule; Metro-North is on a Sunday schedule while the LIRR is on a holiday schedule; and the PATH is on weekend schedule. Mayor Bloomberg marched in two parades in......

This Memorial Day weekend offers the most 2007 weddings so far in the NY Times' Weddings & Celebrations section: A whopping 43 weddings! But, of all the announcements, our favorite is the one of Thea Spyer and Edith Windsor. Spyer, a 75-year-old psychologist in Manhattan, and Windsor, a 77-year-old retired computer systems analyst for IBM, were married in Toronto earlier this week, but actually met decades ago.Dr. Spyer and Ms. Windsor met in 1965 in......

Yesterday we pointed out WCBS tip-sheet that reminded vacationers that the beach is a deadly minefield of hazards, potentially littered with actual explosives. Now, local ABC affiliate WABC has a piece pointing out the dangers of Memorial Day grilling. Salmonella, e. coli bacteria, and other causes of food poisoning tend to proliferate when people get relaxed about cooking cleanliness while grilling. The CDC reports that food-poisoning illnesses necessitate 300,000 hospitalizations a year and cause 5,000......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

The recent recommdendation by the NTSB for banning flights over the East River notwithstanding, a New York Times reporter and photographer were treated to flights in an F-16 that raced from Manhattan to the Hamptons in 12 minutes and an aerobatic plane, respectively, in a preview of Memorial Day flight shows to occur this weekend. The reporter blacked out in the middle of a 9G turn, to the amusement of the Air Force pilot, Major......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a water rescue at Liberty Island between Manhattan and NJ, a pedestrian was struck on 13th St. and 2nd Ave. in Manhattan, and there was a check cashing robbery on Francis Lewis and Jamaica Aves. in Queens. NYC Snapshot: Daily historic photos of NYC from someone who knows what we like. A drunk driver in Rockland County ran into an off-duty NYPD cop, whose injuries include bleeding in the......

THEATER: Breedingground Theater Company continues their three week Spring Fever Festival of work by self-producing artists. (We suggest perusing the full lineup on the company’s website, though we caution that it's quite an eyesore.) Nevertheless, one that happily caught our eye is Chess’d, about a ninja and a man in a white tux playing a game of life-sized chess. The game escalates into a no-holds-barred life-or-death struggle, which reviewer Daniel Kelly declares “hilarious from start......

Ick. The National Weather Service has issued an Air Stagnation Advisory for the city and points northward. The advisory, which is in effect from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., is in response to high ozone levels. Ozone in the stratosphere is great for blocking skin-damaging ultraviolet radiation, but it can damage lungs and get into our bloodstream when close to the ground. When ozone levels are high it is best to limit strenuous outdoor activity.......

A Bourne, a Cloon and a pirate, oh my...with the Memorial Day holiday this weekend, we're entering the prime summer movie season and it's time to get psyched. Psyched! Here's just some Hollywood flicks we're awaiting between now and Labor Day. With all of these things to see, it's probably time to spring for the econo tub of popcorn and a bucket of soda to get through it all. May The summer gets underway as......

The Navy's ship has come in - as well as the ships for the Marine Corps and other military aircraft - today is the start of Fleet Week! It's a great time of the year, when people get to visit various ships and aircraft AND admire men and women in uniform. Ships are docked at Pier 90 in Manhattan and at Stapleton Pier in Staten Island and are open to the public. Here's a......

It is hard for Gothamist to imagine a nicer weather day than today. Mostly sunny skies, a slight breeze and a high around 74. With winds out of the south coastal areas will be a few degrees cooler. A big high pressure system is dominating the weather scene over the eastern half of the country. There will be fewer clouds tomorrow and the high will reach into the low-80s. Warmer still on Friday. Friday's......

Irving Plaza is Officially (and Inexplicably) Rebranded On the night Lily Allen played her first post-bloghype show in New York, the ad wizards at Live Nation decided to officially rename the place The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza and drop some fake pseudo-hippie nostalgia to an already otherwise storied venue. It's an embarrassing and senseless stunt thought up by past their prime marketers in an attempt to make a consistent nationwide brand under the......

When Snack Dragon, Josephine Jansen's taco shack on Avenue B between 2nd & 3rd doled out its final taco this past Memorial Day, late-night devotees and locals alike mourned the loss of the cheap eats joint with tasty, always fresh tacos. Officials claimed the shack was built without a permit and Jansen, the taco-loving East Village veteran, had no choice but to leave. Thanks to a coffee shop that closed literally around the corner,......

With all this global climate chaos, it almost seemed weird that summer arrived perfectly on schedule this year. The first truly hot, sticky, muggy days of the year came over Memorial Day weekend the way the lord intended when He created barbeques, day games, and ice cream trucks. And while summer means boiling apartments and gushing fire hydrants in the more densely populated parts of New York, it means sun tan lotion, body surfing, and......

Who to believe? WCBS 2 reported last night that police are downplaying attacks in Prospect Park, after yesterday's Post story that "wolf packs" of teenagers were responsible for muggings in recent weeks. WCBS 2 did mention that parkgoers are aware of the attacks, but gets a statement from Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne: “Robberies in Prospect Park year to date remain flat,. Eight this year compared to eight in the same period last year." Hmm,......

- Burger tips for the summer, posted pre-Memorial Day by A Hamburger Today - Some Fresca love over on Slashfood. And yes, they do make Tab – it's an energy drink now. - Bruni Digest on the big Frank road trip fast food sprint from last week. - And this digest is sure to be a must-read, irregular read for those of us up to our eyeballs in this food thing. (Times Select is required,......

The NY State Democratic Convention is taking place in Buffalo today and tomorrow (the NY State Republican Convention is in Long Island on Wednesday and Thursday), and the gloves are coming off as the Democrats are looking to grab the Governor's house. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic frontrunner for the gubernatorial nomination, called the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation "an abject failure". Well, of course he would say that - didn't recently resigned LMDC......

- Two CBS News crew members were killed and one was injured while in Iraq, covering soldiers on Memorial Day - The NYPD says the feds are wrong about their masks - Hot photographs from the GLBT Cowboy Convention Hoedown! - The father of the 8 year old who released the parking brake of the bus that killed another child says he finally received a letter from ACS agreeing to give him help -......

BBQ: The BBQ season has officially begun. Luckily, there's always an option for the non-carnivores in town. Today that option is the Annual Summer Vegan BBQ Extravaganza run by Books Through Bars. This organization is a volunteer group that donates reading material to prisoners all over the country. Not an organization geared towards drinking and reading in bars. 4pm // ABC No Rio [156 Rivington St between Clinton and Suffolk] // $5 MUSIC: German death......

As you wolf down your Boca Burgers, Tofu Pups, and PBR on this beautiful Memorial Day, take a moment to think about the soldiers lost over the centuries so you could do so without having to speak British English or German. And as you wearily head back to work this week, think about another fallen group – the 15 million that have died of AIDS since 2001. While world leaders gather at the UN this......