Four Manhattan design students are given nine days to "virtually furnish an empty, hypothetical, 350-square-foot studio on a $2,500 budget for a hypothetical resident who appreciates great design but is aesthetically open." The result: the "Shelter Project." Their designs: here, here, here, and here.
The Shelter Project [Village Voice]

Tim from Traveler's Diagram compares-and-contrasts The Believer and Radar:
idea of a good time...
Blvr: Reading the William T. Vollmann oeuvre
Rdr: Mohitos with Monica
idols...
Blvr: Wes Anderson
Rdr: Kurt Andersen
could be called...
Blvr: Off-the-Radar
Rdr: The Non-Believer
Believer vs. Radar [Traveler's Diagram]
[Disclosure: I'm now writing for Radar. So, uh...yeah. I like it. It's the closest thing I can find to my beloved SPY. Tim, however, disagrees.]

The Observer polls a group of schoolchildren on "Things One Should Know Before Turning Ten":
· "You should know how to yell at your parents. You should try not to yell at them, but if you do, you should tell them what you want, in a deep voice or a loud voice, and say it over and over and over and over again. If you do it too much, they ll get mad. Loud usually gets them more mad than deep."
Sonia, 10 years old, P.S. 234, Manhattan [Ed. note—your last name's Weinstein, right?]
· You should be able to spell 'New York.' I can t spell it yet. I can t spell 'Manhattan,' either. [Ed. note—or you can just attempt to spell them and have your nice readers send you corrections.]"
Anisa, 8 years old, Stephen Gaynor School, Manhattan
· "By the time you're 10, it s good if you know how to be nice, because at school when you're 10, there are a lot of fights—like about being cool. [Ed. note—that won't change much as you get older.] Before I turned 10, my mom taught me how to deal with people."
When you're ten, you should be able to... [Observer]

It's the Gawker version of a Super Bowl party: Tina 'n' tea. Or wine. Or whatever. Any restaurant or bar volunteering to host a Tina Brown talk show watching party tonight (or next week) gets a mention on Gawker. Someone should do it. Send to tips@gawker.com.

Gawker chosen as best of breed by the New York New Media Association. The site will be featured in NYNMA's Movers & Shakers series, as one of the organizations advancing the medium of online news.
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Send sightings to tips@gawker.com
· "Where: Loews 42nd St Theatre Who: Jimmy Fallon JF looked a lot older in person -- maybe because he was so uncharacteristically subdued. My friend thought he was very plain looking. We were, however, impressed by his Yoji Yamamoto Adidas sneakers (they re like $400!!).
· in LA: "Bill Maher smoking dope in his limousine with Dennis Miller in front of the CBS Artist's Entrance on Beverly in LA. Every Wednesday. He leaves the doors open to be cooler."
· "just saw the poser punk rockers from Good Charlotte on 54 Street, they look like they just walked out of a mall."

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A reader reports, "Tina [Brown] was on the Today show this morning interviewed by Katie Couric about the new show. The weird thing was, they were both wearing the same outfit!Powder blue jacket, black slacks, and black heels. One difference: friendly, down-to-earth Katie was wearing a low-cut white blouse (yum) and uptight pretentious Tina wore a more conservative blue number (not helped by a gold necklace*...eww!). All in all, Katie looked much better...but she's used to being on camera. You can tell that TV is not Tina's thing AT ALL. Her show is sure to be a train wreck. This is one reality show I can't miss!" *"It was a thin gold chain necklace like a certain kind of man wears."

1. SNL cast member Amy Poehler hosts "Punk Rock Comedy Clash," a benefit for the currently-homeless Upright Citizen s Brigade Theater, at Tribeca Rock Club.
2. Hear Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Menand discuss Edmund Wilson s newly re-published To The Finland Station, at the Housingworks Used Book Café in Soho.
3. Catch Pearl Gluck and Basya Schechter's "Trance" sound and video installation at the Eldridge Street Project. (Live performance and reception at 6PM.)

Notes from last night's "Timba Loca" benefit for Beth Israel hospital at the Angel Orensanz Foundation, in order of importance:
1. The bar is very well stocked. Mmmmm....mojitos.
2. Oh my god, it's Bob Lessin! Bob Lessin is here! AIEEEEEEEE!!!*
3: Richard Gere: shorter than one would think.
(*Bob Lessin is a venture capitalist. Sorry. Wall Street: just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.)

· The odd couple: "Winona Ryder and Al Pacino have again sparked rumors that they're dating. At a screening of John Malkovich's "The Dancer Upstairs" at the American Museum of the Moving Image Monday night, 'they were arm in arm, and looking very friendly'" [NY Daily News]
· Dave Eggers is now married. Page Six, on the news: "Egger's legions of adoring female fans will no doubt be crushed at the news." [Page Six]
· The piano player at the Monkey Bar has been fired for not telling the owner there were hookers there: "There's been hookers here for eight years. I'm just the piano player. And then he fired me" [Page Six]
· Liz Hurley screamed at British Airways flight attendants the other day when they wouldn't upgrade her married boyfriend to first class. "Don't you know who I am?" she yelled. "I bloody demand that he's upgraded. Don't you know he's a millionaire? I'm always flying on British Airways, so you'd better pull your finger out." [Page Six]
· Designer Rem Koolhas, closing his New York office, says he's fed up with New York and is shifting his focus to Beijing. [Page Six]

The BBC's J-Lo documentary, "Behind the Behind," airs tonight. "It reveals how she really grew up in a posh New York suburb and went to private school." Also: E! "True Hollywood Stories" is airing a special about the Hilton sisters on Sunday at 9PM.
Behind the behind [BBC]
Up next: the Hilton sisters [EOnline]

Tina Brown's new talk show, "Topic A with Tina Brown" debuts tonight at 9PM EST on CNBC. Tonight's guests: Barry Diller, Sony Corporation of America chief Howard Stringer, Hollinger Inc. chairman Conrad Black and Queen Noor of Jordan, writer Malcolm Gladwell, and historian Simon Schama. Tina on her absence from the magazine world: "I miss being a journalist as such, being a journalist in the mix of the news. I keep thinking every day of articles that I would assign. And I keep thinking, why isn't anybody assigning Anthony Swofford, the author of 'Jarhead,' to go to Iraq? It seems to me mad. I would have done that instantly."
Tina Brown: I've always put myself in the hot seat [IWantMedia]
Dialogue with Tina Brown [Hollywood Reporter]
Press release: Topic A with Tina Brown [CNBC]

The smoking ban is now fully in effect, with penalties: "The penalty for a first violation is $200 to $400, for a second, $500 to $1,000, and for a third, $1,000 to $2,000. On the third violation within a year, the owner's license to do business can be revoked. By comparison, violations for rats in the kitchen also range from $200 to $2,000 in fines."
Stiff fines accompany city's smoking ban [NYT]

Jimmy Rodriguez, owner of Jimmy's Downtown (and Uptown) is feuding with Lotus owner David Rabin. Rodriguez charges that Lotus' exclusivity is responsible for it's financial losses and is technically illegal: "When you have a liquor license, you can t choose who comes inside. The law says if you have a liquor license, you can t discriminate. Is a person who wears a suit different than someone who wears a pair of jeans? In a day and age when some businesses are down 40 percent, we have some who are practicing this discrimination."
Rabin v. Rodriguez [Observer]

AIIIEEE! I almost forgot the gossip roundup! How did you survive all day without it?! Dear god—you probably had to actually do work! I'm SO sorry!
· Hustler's Larry Flynt is looking for video footage of First Twin Barbara Bush at one of Yale's notorious naked parties. [Page Six]
· Playwright Neil LaBute: "I think of myself as a misogynist. But maybe I'm not because if I were one really, I'd write shitty parts for women." Documentarian Michael Moore: "In fourth grade, my school newspaper got shut down, the ACLU filed suit when I was 18, and I ratted on my school board to the prosecutor at 19." [Cindy Adams]
· Smoking ban irony: the city of New York will make $20 million this year off of tobacco investments. [NY Daily News]

From The Simon's letter to Mayor Mike regarding the smoking ban: "Have you seen the new advertisement for a popular nicotine patch? I saw one yesterday on a phone booth. It s hilarious. It reads: 'A man walks into a bar...He can t smoke...It s not funny.' Do you know what that is called in the advertising world? It s called geo-targeting. We re the only city in the world that s getting that ad."
A smoker fires back [The Simon]

The Gothamist on the death of Lyric Benson, the Balthazar waiter/aspiring actress who was shot by her ex-boyfriend last week: "While some might say the reason that Lyric Benson's murder is striking a chord in New Yorkers' hearts is because she was young and beautiful, Gothamist argues that the scary thing is that she was on the verge of making it, after all her hard work."
Lyric Benson: almost famous [Gothamist]

I'm extremely fashion-impaired, so I can't really tell, but Linda Evangelista's dress (right) from the Frick ball earlier this year looks very similar to Vogue editor Anna Wintour's dress below. Isn't that supposed to be a big fashion faux pas? And how many St. Bernards had to die for that jacket?
East side stories [Style.com]