Let’s just file this one under OKAY WOW and It Takes Two To Tango — and as far as we here in Speak to DaveLandia goes — everybody keep cool and nobody's gonna hurt anybody. We're just gonna be like a bunch of little Fonzies up in here.
Dave's Picks The Yum Edition | NYT | The Perfect Cake for Your Coffee Break
Meet fika, the Swedish cake whose word is a flip on the word kaffe and is a widely beloved cultural staple, multi-purpose sweet treat break with no set rules. A seriously delicious treat to learn about and love, GET YOU SOME!
Originally published By Dorie Greenspan | Jan. 8, 2020
“Coffee and” was an expression I heard all the time as a kid. From early morning until late in the afternoon, the aroma that filled the kitchen, wafted through the living room and wisped its way up the stairs was coffee, Chock Full o’ Nuts specifically. The coffeepot burbled steadily in our house, always ready for the next cup, and at least once a day, one or another of my mom’s friends would knock on the unlocked door, push it open and head for the kitchen, knowing that the percolator would be on the stove and that on the counter there would be cake — the “and” in “coffee and.”
Dave's Picks | WSJ | For the New Year, Say No to Negativity
Bad experiences affect us much more powerfully than good ones, but there are ways to deal with this destructive bias and overcome it
Note: This piece contains too many countless gems, so we've published it in whole for those without subscriptions. Read on for solid tips on overcoming negativity bias, how to go on a "low bad diet" — and improve your outlook in the year(s) to come. Fantastic life advice here folks, get you some! And let's all do our best to make 2020 a positive and joyful experience.
By John Tierney and Roy F. Baumeister | Dec. 27, 2019 11:33 am ET | Reprinted in whole from WSJ (source)
The new year is supposed to bring hope, but too often it feels grim. We resolve to be virtuous—to lose weight, to exercise, to unplug from social media—but we recall past failures and fear another losing struggle. We toast to a better, happier world in 2020, but we know there will be endless bad news and vitriol, especially this election year.
NPR | 'The Best Thing You Can Do Is Not Buy More Stuff,' Says 'Secondhand' Expert
Terry Gross' fascinating NPR podcast on the past lives of secondhand treasures prompted a shout out to a slew of awesome Brooklyn thrifting resources. Below, a list of incredible spots you can shop or donate to, some fave thrift shops near our properties you may not know about, and even some coat drives to comfort the less fortunate. All you recent movers or Mari Kondo closet cleaners — check 'em out:
• Always a solid choice, Beacon's Closet (Greenpoint location)
• Great vintage, even better name: Harold and Maude's Vintage (Bed Stuy) — peep their Yelp page. Solid.
• Worship (Bushwick) @ Willoughby Ave & Starr — Rad Insta! — totes follow-worthy.
• Dig furry four legged critters? Le Point boasts a shop kitty (Flatbush), a massive inventory, and several locations. Speak to Dave's 296 Linden Street tenants — there’s a location down the block at 397.
• Last but not least: Urban Jungle | East Williamsburg @ 118 Knickerbocker Ave | Brooklyn, NY 11237
Dave's Picks | NYT | 90,000 Packages Disappear Daily in N.Y.C. Is Help on the Way?
We’re posting this piece in whole for NYT non-subscribers. With package theft on the rise, Speak to Dave is here to help you — just contact Jeff or Asa for a solution. But first, read on for tips and options to avoid theft in the first place.
Originally published By By Winnie Hu and Matthew Haag | Dec. 2, 2019 Updated Dec. 3, 2019, 8:25 a.m. ET
Package theft has also soared in cities like Denver and Washington. The increase has frustrated shoppers and led to creative measures for thwarting thieves.
Online deliveries to an apartment building in northern Manhattan are left with a retired woman in 2H who watches over her neighbors’ packages to make sure nothing gets stolen.
Corporate mailrooms in New York and other cities are overwhelmed by employees shipping personal packages to work for safekeeping, leading companies to ban packages and issue warnings that boxes will be intercepted and returned to the senders.
CNN | Who's winning the thermostat wars in your home?
The answer to that depends on whether you are the man or the woman of the house, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS.
"It seems like in some cases there's a dynamic where one person is responsible or takes ownership over the thermostat and other people don't get to have input into that," said lead author Nicole Sintov, assistant professor of behavior, decision-making and sustainability at Ohio State University.
"We had roommates in the study, we had spouses, we had couples who were not spouses," said Sintov, who studies how people make decisions that affect the environment, a field called conservation psychology. "And we do see that gender plays a significant role here."
The study found men thought any discussion about setting the home's temperature lower or higher was a "compromise" or an "agreement."
Dave Speaks | NPR Interactive | Plastics
Fascinating piece on how cities around the world are addressing pollution caused by automobiles, at a time when climate change remains a battle to be fought and won.
Just for fun, we’re trying something a little different for this post — Click comment to chime in on worldwide automobile bans and regulations.
Every year, the average American goes through more than 250 pounds of plastic waste, and much of that comes from packaging. So what do we do with it all?
Your recycling bin is part of the solution, but many of us are confused about what we should be putting in there. What’s recyclable in one community could be trash in another.
This interactive explores some of the plastics the recycling system was designed to handle and explains why other plastic packaging shouldn’t go in your recycling bin.
Let’s take a look at some items you might pick up at the grocery store.
Dave's Picks | NYT | Cities Worldwide Are Reimagining Their Relationship With Cars
Originally published By Somini Sengupta and Nadja Popovich | Illustrations by Tim Peacock for NYT | Nov. 14, 2019
At a time when most of humanity lives in cities, where do cars belong — especially the old, polluting ones that make city air foul for people to breathe?
That question has vexed city officials across the world. Many are trying a variety of measures to reimagine the role of automobiles, the machines that forever changed how people move.
The immediate motivation is clear: City dwellers want cleaner, healthier air and less traffic. The long-term payoffs can be big: Curbing transportation emissions, which account for nearly a fourth of all greenhouse gases, is vital to staving off climate catastrophes.
Dave's Picks | Coca-Cola Officially Named the World’s Biggest Plastic Polluter
Originally published on High Snob Society by By Ian Servantes in Life 04 November 2019
Coca-Cola has emerged as the world’s biggest polluter of plastics, according to a new audit from Break Free From Plastics. 72,000 volunteers from across the world dug through streets, beaches, and waterways in search of plastic waste and found a staggering amount originating from the soda company. Of the 75,000 total pieces of waste collected, 11,732 belonged to Coke. That’s more than three times the next three biggest polluters combined.
Nestle, PepsiCo, and Mondelez International (the company behind Sour Patch, Toblerone, and other snacks) were the next biggest polluters. Coca-Cola led the pollution in most regions, coming in first in Africa and Europe and second in Asia and South America. Nestle and the Solo Company were the top two polluters in America.
CNN | Microsoft tried a 4-day workweek in Japan. Productivity jumped 40%
A growing number of smaller companies are adopting a four-day workweek. Now the results of a recent trial at Microsoft (MSFT) suggest it could work even for the biggest businesses.
The company introduced a program this summer in Japan called the "Work Life Choice Challenge," which shut down its offices every Friday in August and gave all employees an extra day off each week.
The results were promising: While the amount of time spent at work was cut dramatically, productivity — measured by sales per employee — went up by almost 40% compared to the same period the previous year, the company said in a statement last week.
NYT Photo Essay | Your Tales of Subway Escalator Hell
Okay folks, time to discuss the dire Metro subway escalator situation. Peep this photo essay and don’t hesitate to tag @NYTMetro on social media to get their attention.
Out of 472 subway stations, only about 25 percent are accessible to riders in wheelchairs. Some stations are so deep beneath the city that your impromptu cardio session could mean walking up 100 steps to the street.
Subway riders already have to deal with a variety of daily indignities: unexpected delays, sweltering cars with no air conditioning and broken ticket machines. But as service on New York City’s subway slowly improves, the escalators are getting worse.
NYT | How a Band of Surfer Dudes Pulled Off the Biggest Jewel Heist in N.Y. History
Into NYC folklore? Check out this NYT piece.
For a few months in 1964, “Murph the Surf” and his crew became folk heroes when they looted the Hall of Gems from the American Museum of Natural History.
This excerpt is from a piece originally published By Corey Kilgannon | Oct. 17, 2019 | Updated Oct. 18, 2019, 3:47 a.m. ET
For its 150th anniversary, the American Museum of Natural History is celebrating its many historic moments, from its 1869 founding, to the 1902 discovery of the first T-Rex skeleton, to the creation of the Teddy Roosevelt statue erected out front in 1940.
One milestone not on that list: the biggest jewel heist in New York history, when the Star of India, a 563-carat sapphire the size of a golf ball, was snatched from its display case, along with the rare Eagle Diamond, the DeLong Star Ruby and some 20 other precious gems from a collection donated to the museum by J.P. Morgan.
For several months beginning in October 1964, the city was transfixed by the brazen robbery that the tabloids immediately labeled the heist of the century.
NYT | The Bar That Has Fed SoHo for Almost a Century
Fanelli’s, on the corner of Mercer and Prince Streets, is a bastion of old New York beloved by artists and tourists alike.
In this series for T, the author Reggie Nadelson revisits New York institutions that have defined cool for decades, from time-honored restaurants to unsung dives.
Seven years ago this fall, when Superstorm Sandy hit New York and there was no power downtown, SoHo was deserted, dark and cold. At Fanelli’s, the neighborhood cafe, though, there were candles on the bar, plenty of booze and, for as long as it lasted, food. Most important, there was company and conversation. “I was here the whole time,” says Sasha Noe, Fanelli’s owner. “Where else could I be?”
Brownstoner | Williamsburg Bank Exhibits Striking Style and Rare Dash of Viennese Influence
Editor’s note: This story is an update of one that ran in 2013. Read the original here.
The Public National Bank was founded by Joseph S. Marcus, a German-born clothing manufacturer on the Lower East Side, in 1908. By 1930, there were 30 branches in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. It was the one of the largest banks in the entire United States with a predominantly Jewish clientele.
In February of 1921, The New York Times and other publications noted the bank had purchased a plot on the corner of Graham Avenue and Varet Street with the intention of building a new Williamsburg branch. Public National already had a branch in Williamsburg, just two blocks away, but business had grown to the point that they needed to build a larger bank in order to accommodate their customers. Later that same year the architect of the new building at 47-49 Graham Avenue was announced: Eugene Schoen.
NYT | The Heir to a Tofu Dynasty Finally Learns to Make Tofu
Two years ago, Paul Eng decided to confront a reality he had been facing most of his life: He was the heir to a tofu tradition who had no idea how to make tofu.
Mr. Eng’s grandfather learned the trade in the 1930s from fellow immigrants shortly after he arrived in Chinatown. He went on to open up a small tofu shop on Mott Street, called Fong Inn Too, and developed recipes that would become well loved in Chinatown for more than eighty years. When Mr. Eng’s parents closed the shop in 2017, the recipes, never written down, disappeared with it.
Forbes | Former Teacher, Foreign Service Officer, Campaign Manager: What Enticed This Mid-Career Woman Back To School
Originally published September 3, 2019 by Forbes | Sheila Callaham Contributor | Diversity & Inclusion
I write about combatting ageism in the workplace.
First in the series: Mid-Career and Beyond–Transforming Personal and Professional Life Through Education
For kids and young adults, September means heading back to a regimen of classes, homework and exams. When it comes to college, young adults are not the only ones looking for degrees and certifications; mature students are also turning to university programs to increase employment opportunities and seek new career experiences.
Julian Phillippi’s decision to go back to school to earn a Masters in Human Resource Management is a path forged to meet her new career interests. A former teacher, foreign service officer and campaign manager, Phillippi is not afraid of change. Now in her second year at New York University (NYU), a private nonprofit research university based in New York City, Phillippi is honing her specialization and already applying her learnings to real world challenges.
NYT | Welcome to the party. The New York City block party
New Yorkers, we live on top of one another, so it’s only natural that sometimes we spill out onto the concrete. It happens especially during the sweltering summer spells, when even the apartment walls seem to sweat.
There are very few backyards in the city, so to avoid walking up flights, a steamy basement or balmy bedrooms, we hug the block.
Across all five boroughs New Yorkers set out on their streets with lawn chairs, pools, bouncy castles and tables full of food, to enjoy the summer together. Throughout the day there is a cacophony of familiar music, the laughter of children playing and the sizzling sound of meat on a grill. No cars are allowed.
Gothamist | Toxic, Hallucinogenic 'Zombie' Plant Growing On Upper West Side
By Jen Carlson | Sept. 9, 2019 10:57 a.m.
If you've heard of the Datura stramonium plant (it has many names, including the commonly used "jimson weed"), you've likely heard about its hallucinogenic effects, or, perhaps, how it may be used to manufacture the undead. In Wade Davis's book The Serpent and the Rainbow, he notes that in Haiti the plant is called "zombie cucumber" and is used "as a central ingredient of the concoction voodoo priests use to create zombies." It's also a popular hexing herb amongst those practicing witchcraft; was allegedly used by Josef Mengele, the Nazi physician known as the Angel of Death, during interrogations; and it has been at the center of many crimes, given its ability to "turn victims into 'zombies' devoid of free will," making them easier to manipulate or rob.
NYT | The Shifting City: Shadows of New York
Dave's Picks | NYT Essay — What Beyoncé Taught Veronica Chambers, Past Tense Editor, About Self-Motivation
As you may have heard, we’ve been avoiding the office this week. Which means our Elevator Interview — the weekly chats we’ve been conducting with Times writers and editors to get inside their heads about how they do their jobs — took place over email.
That was no problem for Veronica Chambers, who has an early morning writing ritual that, at times, has involved her sleeping on her kitchen floor to ensure that she would be so uncomfortable that she wakes up early. It appears to have worked: She is the author of more than a dozen books, including her most recent, “Queen Bey: A Celebration of the Power and Creativity of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter,” and is editor of the Times archival storytelling project, Past Tense.