Cocaine

Times reporter Melena Ryzik has spent the last five months interviewing young New Yorkers about how, in spite of the fact that drugs are widely known to be bad, "cocaine is a prominent part of a night out." Using evidence gleaned from Craigslist, blogs, and quotes from cokeheads, Melena does a good job of showing that coke is so hot right now, but the question remains: why is this the case? Don't get me wrong: I am not trying to be all D.A.R.E. on you, because there are some substances I support wholeheartedly. But I've never really gotten the appeal of a drug that limpens dicks, promotes nasty-tasting postnasal drip, and turns ordinary sick hangovers into scenes from some cliché drug movie. I decided to get to the bottom of the mystery of what the appeal of blow is, besides getting to say all those incredibly cool-sounding euphemisms like "skiing" and "Bolivian Marching Powder." So I asked a wide array of—okay, I asked some professional blog-types—what they see in cocaine. more »

As is their wont, the folks at The Smoking Gun have obtained the police interview that occurred after Mike Tyson's most recent arrest. It makes for rather depressing reading: Here's a man who has obviously never been in control of his own emotions, whose early success has left him the victim of sycophants determined to drain him of what few funds he has left, and whose internal pain is so great that not only is he on prescription medication for depression, but who frequently resorts to self-medication. We're particularly concerned about the above excerpt: Does that really work? Because we've got a really bad cold right now and we hate to feel like we're wasting anything. Seriously, we'd love to know.

Tyson To Cops: "I Am Fucked Up" [TSG]

In response to the crashing price of heroin versus the increasing luxurification of grass, we asked the few of you bothering to read (or sober enough to understand) what you're paying these days for your junk. A few scattered answers after the jump, ranging from depressing social commentary to unfair aspersions on British character actors. more »

We've long wondered about some of the special services that some of the city's best hotels might provide "off the menu," if you catch our drift, wink wink nudge nudge. We'd always assumed that the menu consisted of happy endings and the like, but at Leona Helmsley's Park Lane Hotel--where rooms cost up to $480 per night--the options got much more creative. The night manager and another staffer were allegedly supplying special guests (and undercover cops) with guns and cocaine:

The news shocked guests yesterday at the world-renowned getaway, which claims on its Web site to offer "classical ambience [sic] and service . . . coupled with new-world comfort and convenience."

"It's totally crazy. You wouldn't think it would happen [here]," said Jake Arnold, 22, a salesman from Long Island visiting a friend at the hotel.

Howard Rubenstein, the spokesman for Leona Helmsley and the Helmsley hotel chain, said management "acted promptly to turn in these people. They are appalled at the thought that their employees would stoop to this terrible level."

In New York's roundup of what luxury goods rich people who can afford eight of them want for Xmas, recently-rehabbed designer Donatella Versace's strikes us as telling. White sand, eh? Well, tropical vacations are fine and good, but nothing beats skiing.

What the Fashion World Wants for the Holidays [NYMag]

In more pre-Thanksgiving cocaine-themed news (seriously, wtf) the Daily Intel reports that dissolute drug den (and hangout of the high-living) 205 is actually in danger of being shut down by clever vice cops, who have been posing as cab drivers and asking departing patrons if they've been offered drugs. Tricky, tricky! But owner Guy Jacobsen denies that the city's wacky suspicions have any merit. "I have a license to sell one drug; it's the one behind the bar." Ah, so that's where he keeps it.

205 To Be Eighty-Sixed? [NYMag]
Earlier: New Yorkers Are The World's Biggest Cokeheads

In case you needed scientific proof that all those skiing ads on Craigslist weren't really about the, er, slopes, there's now scientific (!) proof that New Yorkers are, in fact, the biggest cokeheads in the world. We won't go into the boring scientific process (besides, we don't really understand it, except that it seems to have something to do with examining "by-products"), but we will let the English version of Der Spiegel magazine tell us what's what:

Unless the appetite of the average American is considerably greater, present estimates of overall consumption are likely to be too low. Either there are more coke-heads than reflected by the official statistics, or they snort far more Charlie per year than yet realized.

So it turns out that the lovely Charmin installation in Times Square isn't for pooping, as we'd wondered, or for bulimia, as the Times had suggested. No, as the Daily Intelligencer reveals, these toilets are clearly for one thing only:

Coke-fueled disco orgies!! Not that they'd know anything about those.

Daily Intel Exclusive: Charmin Restroom, Perfect for Partying [NYMag]
Earlier: Charmin=Cuddly Soft. NYT = Rexy

• A celebrity is openly doing lines while wearing a dirty brown shirt. Fine. But smelling like drugs? That's just tacky. [Hotel Chatter]
• Lance Bass goes on a gay date with his gay boyfriend. Because he is gay. [TMZ]
• Literary journal n+1 successfully raises $3,000 to give to thief. [NY Sun]
• Comedian earns spot in NY Post's list of "25 Sexiest New Yorkers." Which makes sense, as he has been running through our mind of Mencia all day. [The Apiary]
• Hurricane Ernesto leaves devastating puddle in its wake. [One Park Reality]
• The originator of the Valerie Plame leak steps forward. Not Karl Rove or Dick Cheney, yet still very, very ugly. [NYT]
• Elizabeth Spiers' racy tell-all about the founding of Gawker omits the sexy scene where she and Nick Denton meet at a Metafilter party. [BeE Magazine]