‘Never Again is Now.’ Germans Mark 85th Anniversary of Kristallnacht at a Fraught Moment

Dense Fog Descends Over Portions of New York City and Long Island

A dense fog that emerged from the East River late Saturday evening, was captured by FBT Cultural Editor Blaise Buckley.
The fog first appeared as our intrepid editor was driving home from having seen the Broadway play, “Purlie Victorious,” at the Music Box Theatre in Manhattan.
It was first visible while motoring up the Hudson River Drive towards the George Washington Bridge and Trans-Manhattan Expressway.  As he headed further east in the …

Felled by Ferragamo, Disgraced Expelled Congressman George Santos Now Seeks Career in River City as Pool Player

     Georgie Porgie sat on a wall
     Georgie Porgie had a great fall
     All the queens’ horses and all the queens’ men
     Couldn’t screw Georgie together again
In the end, it was two names – Hermès and Ferragamo – that led to the undoing of George Santos, assuming that’s his real name.
On Friday, Santos was just the sixth congressman expelled from the House of Representatives and, perhaps …

Coronavirus Morning News Brief – Dec. 2: Preterm Births Fell in 2022 Thanks to Covid Vaccines, Study Suggests; Social Distancing for Dogs

Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,361st day of the pandemic
In news we report today, social distancing for dogs is now a thing, preterm births declined in the United States once inoculations against SARS-CoV-2 took hold, and it’s possible that new tests that will provide an almost definitive diagnosis of Long Covid might be on the …

Briefly Noted: ‘Dracula – A Comedy of Terrors’ at New World Stages – Theater Review

There’s a lot you may not know about Bram Stoker’s legendary vampire, Count Dracula. Did he suck blood and kill people?  Or did he simply blank (using “Match Game” parlance) his way through life thanks to his pumped-up body and charm that no human was immune to.
Much of what we know is, of course, from Bram Stoker’s epistolary novel,  Dracula, told through letters, diary entries, and newspaper clippings. A solicitor, …

Great Moments in Travel History – December 2023

December is the first month of meteorological winter in the Northern Hemisphere as well as the month in which astronomical winter begins. It was the tenth month of the Roman calendar, and derives its name from decem, “ten” in Latin.  Today, it is the 12th and final month of the year, and is associated with multiple holidays including Krampus, Christmas, and Hanukkah as well as  New Year’s Eve.
The Anglo-Saxons called …

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree to Be Lighted, City to Create Pedestrian Zone Around the Complex

It’s beginning to look at least a little like Christmas.

The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, one of the best known and most visited Christmas trees in the world, will be lighted in a public ceremony Wednesday evening.  The ceremony will be broadcast to millions on the NBC network.

The tree, an 80’ (24.4 m) tall, 43’ (13 m) wide Norway Spruce, from Vestal, New York, was put into place in mid-November.

Street closures …

‘Reverse’ Manhattanhenge: Sunrise is Wednesday: Bring Your SLR and Tripod and Park Yourself in the Middle of a Busy Street

The phenomenon known as “Manhattanhenge,” or rather, a reverse Manhattanhenge, will take place early Wednesday morning.
At 6:59 a.m. local time, the sun will rise in the east aligned with the borough’s main street grid.

When Manhattanhenge occurs, it is a most impressive visual spectacle, and one can look down the center line of the street westward toward New Jersey at sunset and see the full solar disk slightly above the horizon …