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Dave's Picks | Animal experts warn against the ...

Put down the phone, please.

Dave's Picks | Animal experts warn against the dangers of multi-tasking dog walks
Dave Speaks, Dave's Picks
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Dave's Picks | Many Personal Care Products ...

Are your hygiene and beauty regimes helping or harming you?

Dave's Picks | Many Personal Care Products Contain Harmful Chemicals. Here's What To Do About It.
Dave Speaks
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Dave's Picks | How To Get Absolutely No Sun ...

Are you sun savvy? You’re about to be!

Dave's Picks | How To Get Absolutely No Sun This Summer.
Dave Speaks, Dave's Picks
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Dave's Picks | A TikTok user's rehabbed curb ...

File Under: Sometimes you luck out, and other times, curb scores just might not be worth the hassle…

Dave's Picks | A TikTok user's rehabbed curb couch stirs debate over bedbug risk : NPR
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Dave's Picks | They built the digital world. ...

How tech workers are discovering that woodworking and other hands-on activities offer a change of pace and an opportunity to tap into a rich history of craftsmanship.

Dave's Picks | They built the digital world. Now they just want to sew and make chairs.
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Dave's Picks | NYTMag | ‘I Voted’ Stickers for Everyone Who Needs One

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Dave's Picks | NYTMag | ‘I Voted’ Stickers for Everyone Who Needs One

A New York Magazine collab with 48 artists.

Hey kids look: Stickers! Super cool VOTING Edition!! And please, I know you know but DON’T SIT THIS ELECTION OUT. We need all hands ON DECK.

From NY Mag:

Perhaps you’re voting by mail this year. Millions of Americans are doing so, more than ever before, and many of them for the first time. What these voters need is I VOTED stickers. And so New York, in partnership with I am a voter., asked 48 artists to design them. The cover of the October 26 issue of the magazine will be converted to a sticker sheet, featuring contributions from Shepard Fairey, KAWS, Barbara Kruger, David Hammons, Laurie Simmons, Amy Sherald, Baron Von Fancy, Marilyn Minter, Lorna Simpson, Tawny Chatmon, Rico Gatson, Zipeng Zhu, Adam Pendleton, Adam J. Kurtz, Zaria Forman, and many more. There will be four different covers, each with 12 stickers — enough that each reader can wear a different one daily, from publication through to Election Day.

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Dave's Picks | ICYMI — Banksy's London Tube Artwork

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Dave's Picks | ICYMI — Banksy's London Tube Artwork

In the ongoing saga of whether to mask or unmask in the age of a raging pandemic. We found this Banksy video post capturing the work in progress (and ensuing development) fascinating to say the least.

So you know, all of us in Speak to Dave Land falls squarely in the former camp. Wear your masks, people. Stay safe, be kind, be smart and remember, the name of the game is staying alive!

BEATSTRO⁠ | The Bronx’s first hip-hop restaurant

BEATSTRO⁠ | The Bronx’s first hip-hop restaurant

Beatstro is a Bronx restaurant that reaches deep into the heart of Speak to Dave — check it out and hope to see you there sometime! Pro Tip: Don’t read this piece while hungry. Or do. RACE YA THERE!

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Dave's Picks | NYT | New Loses Iconic Graphic Designer Milton Glaser

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Dave's Picks | NYT | New Loses Iconic Graphic Designer Milton Glaser

Remembering Milton Glaser, Master Designer of ‘I ♥ NY’ Logo

He was also a founder of New York magazine, created a memorable Bob Dylan poster and produced designs for everything from supermarkets to restaurants to “Mad Men.”

Gothamist | Bed-Stuy Gets Its Own Gigantic "Black Lives Matter" Street Painting

Gothamist | Bed-Stuy Gets Its Own Gigantic "Black Lives Matter" Street Painting

By Sophia Chang June 14, 2020

YES. Bed Stuy represent!

Taking inspiration from the gigantic Black Lives Matter street painting near the White House in Washington D.C., community leaders and volunteers painted a street in the heart of Bed-Stuy with the same message Saturday.

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Dave's Picks | NYT | Take One Last Look at the (Many) Plastic Bags of New York

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Dave's Picks | NYT | Take One Last Look at the (Many) Plastic Bags of New York

Alright kids, today — MARCH 1 — marks the first day of the new ban on plastic bags in NYC and all of NYS. Let’s a have a look back in this fun, rather beautiful at times, Ode to a Plastic Bag photo essay and commentary. Ohhhh BAGS. We hardly knew ya.

WSJ | How Huey Lewis Found ‘The Power of Love’

WSJ | How Huey Lewis Found ‘The Power of Love’

Hey kids, fun piece about how Back to the Future's theme song came to be, and how it almost didn’t. A powerful reminder to check your gut instincts when creative or career choices arise. Ya never know what’s gonna stick, man. Follow your gut!

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A Twist in California’s Homeless Crisis: Evictions by the Evicted

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A Twist in California’s Homeless Crisis: Evictions by the Evicted

Not to bring anyone down, but a surprising, ironic trend is developing in the very sad area of homelessness in California, in which the homeless are hired to deliver eviction notices in order to survive.

We found this think piece very Speak to Dave worthy and hope one day to be past the devastating reality of far too many unhoused Americans.

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Dave's Picks | NYT | ‘High Maintenance’ and the New TV Fantasy of New York

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Dave's Picks | NYT | ‘High Maintenance’ and the New TV Fantasy of New York

Well now. In which we discuss the merits of television (“It’s not TV, Dave. It’s HBO”.) portraying our fair city . . . Do they get it right or nah?

By Willy Staley | Jan. 30, 2020

It was probably during the fourth episode of the second season of HBO’s “High Maintenance” when I finally noticed what it was up to. The show follows a weed dealer known only as The Guy while he bikes around Brooklyn, leading the viewer into his customers’ homes and lives, where the cameras remain long after he’s gone, letting us peer into their problems, quirks, traumas and anxieties. Like many representations of New York on TV, it’s loosely predicated on the notion that people who live here are inherently more interesting than people who live in, say, Milwaukee. This particular episode centers on a man named Baruch who has just left one of Brooklyn’s ultra-­Orthodox sects. His hair is still twisted into payos, and he’s crashing with a friend in a squalid railroad apartment, looking for whatever work he can find by plugging search terms like “kosher jobs” into Craigslist. He tells his friend that he’s going on a date with a shiksa, one who has been asking him penetrating questions. “Wait a minute,” the friend responds. “Is she a writer?”

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Dave's Picks | Gothamist | Can You Get Evicted For Cursing Out Your Landlord? It Depends

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Dave's Picks | Gothamist | Can You Get Evicted For Cursing Out Your Landlord? It Depends

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.

— 👀 —

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Dave's Picks The Yum Edition | NYT | The Perfect Cake for Your Coffee Break

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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

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.

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NPR | 'The Best Thing You Can Do Is Not Buy More Stuff,' Says 'Secondhand' Expert

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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

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Dave's Picks | NYT | 90,000 Packages Disappear Daily in N.Y.C. Is Help on the Way?

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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.

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CNN | Who's winning the thermostat wars in your home?

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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."

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Dave Speaks | NPR Interactive | Plastics

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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.

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Dave's Picks | NYT | Cities Worldwide Are Reimagining Their Relationship With Cars

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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.

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Dave's Picks | Coca-Cola Officially Named the World’s Biggest Plastic Polluter

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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.

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CNN | Microsoft tried a 4-day workweek in Japan. Productivity jumped 40%

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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.

You’re almost home!