On Sunday afternoon, the fourth day of the Lunar Year, the streets and restaurants of Flushing's Chinatown were packed with families celebrating the Year of the Rat. In case you're wondering, that headline – like many of the Chinese people in Flushing – is Mandarin. It translates roughly to "Congratulations and best wishes for a prosperous New Year." Even though it was already 1:30 p.m., the urge for dim sum was all-powerful, so we're......

graffiti internet, by Rob Hoey at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an aircraft fire at JFK terminal 4 in Queens, a robbery on Central Park West in Manhattan, and a missing child on Pennsylvania Ave. in Brooklyn. Surf cams (permanently installed cameras monitoring surf conditions) are a great way to notify surfers of conditions, until one realizes that surfers don't want conditions notified for fear of crowds. No matter what you've ever seen......

A 22-year old Manhattan deli clerk that took the late shift on New Year's Eve lucked out when he bought himself a winning scratch-off ticket. While everyone else was welcoming 2008 with friends and family, the Yemen native's wife and baby were still living a world away, so Waleed Alsaidi bought himself a little present at his family's deli in Harlem to pass time on the lonely shift. The NY Post reports on the feel-good......

Have you made a resolution for 2008 to eat better and healthier this year? If you have, Whole Foods Market New York City and Gothamist want to help you keep it by offering a fully stocked pantry (worth $350) to four lucky readers. And it's easy - just tell us in 50 words or less what your resolution is and how a fully stocked pantry from Whole Foods Market can help you start your......

As Gothamist recently noted, New Year's and the following week or so are a particularly festive occasion for the Japanese. Which is no doubt why Haru decided to celebrate the grand opening of its newest location on Wall Street last Wednesday. Hordes of sushi-crazed suits crowded the restaurant located in the historic Beaver Building for the gala event, which was also a benefit for the Downtown Alliance. Although the sushi bar teemed with platters......

With many people trying to keep up that perennial New Year's resolution to lose weight/work out/get in shape, they're hitting their computers (or CDs!) to create the perfect soundtracks for their workouts. The other day, the NY Times chatted with a number of experts - physicians, life coaches, workout music producers - to figure out what makes a good work out song. Of course, different music rhythms work better for different levels of activity.......

A week and a half ago, hundreds of headstones at the Poile Zedek Cemetery in New Brunswick, NJ were toppled over, raising concerns that the Jewish cemetery had been targeted in a possible hate crime. Yesterday, when four teens, a 15-year-old, two 16-year-olds, and a 17-year-old, were arrested, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said that the investigation so far did not suggest this "was an attempt to intimidate, target or harm the Jewish community." The......

After Page Six alluded to The Gansevoort Hotel staff as being just a tad anti-semitic, the hotel retorted saying that the incident on New Year's Eve that led to the allegation was a misunderstanding. Their side of the story includes having to kick out a yarmulke-less (and apparently racist) "ill-behaved boyfriend of a member of Kid ['I love Jewish people'] Rock's PR team." Today Grub Street asked "which member of Kid Rock’s PR team brought......

Thank goodness WCBS 880 updated its story about a stray cat who was seen in NJ with a bottle stuck on its head. Raritan Township Animal Control and ASPCA helped save the cat! The cat had been without water or food for at least 10 days, because it was first seen with the bottle on its head on New Year's Eve. The cat was "near death" when it was rescued; the rescue took so......

Just a month after a Columbia grad student was hassled by the NYPD for photographing subways for a school project, another young man armed with camera has been taken down by the long arm of the law. The NY Post is reporting that "a Brooklyn teen says he was busted and beaten for taking a picture of a uniformed cop while he was asleep." Tyshawn McDonald, 18, took this photo in a laundromat on New......

Page Six has reports of some nasty antisemitism that went down at the Hotel Gansevoort’s regrettably named G-Spa lounge. A witness tells the Post that a Jewish guest – who had paid for a ticket to the festivities – was insulted by the club’s staff for wearing a yarmulke. When the man tried to enter the party with his friend, the doorman reportedly asked a fellow staffer, “What kind of people do you want in......

New Year's resolutions probably started out as some sort of gym propaganda to up membership. Every new year, fitness centers worldwide bulk up their ad campaigns, promote "deals" and promise a better body in just months. With so many options, how does one choose a suitable establishment in which to "get physical"? The Post points to Consumer Reports' new list of gym ratings...and it's slim pickins! Bally Total Fitness scored the lowest with a......

MTV's Un-credible New Years The Time Warner on-screen guide simply said "Tila Tequila" on MTV when the clock struck midnight last Monday, leading a casual observer to assume they were blowing through a marathon of her depressing reality show. But oh no! The oddly shaped, elfish face of the network apparently gets sole, top billing over the biggest night of the year as the host of MTV's annual New Years Eve party. She was mostly......

Ever since we read about osechi-ryori in the Times last week we’ve become a tad obsessed with this traditional cuisine that the Japanese whip up for the New Year. Stacked jubako, a more elegant take on the bento box, are filled with delicacies deriving from an age-old taboo forbidding women from cooking during the first three days of the New Year. In addition to sweet potato and burdock root and bits of grilled meat or......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on 20th Ave. and 37th St. in Queens, a hate crime on East 9th St. and Ave. H in Brooklyn, and a missing child on Decatur Ave. in the Bronx. Hyperactive performer Robin Williams is David Letterman's guest tonight, in his first new show in weeks. Letterman, as well as Craig Ferguson, have worked out pacts with the Writers Guild of America, allowing writers to come......

When it came to New Year's Eve countdown broadcasts, we were traditional and stuck with Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve. Which means we missed out on $275-million man Alex Rodriguez counting down with Carson Daly on Daly's New Year's Eve program. New York sports talk radio was discussing the Yankee's appearance, jokingly calling him "Mr. New York." Well, not only is A-Rod loving NYC these days, he's also being managed by Guy Oseary......

For New Year's Eve this year, we served a multi-course meal, full of complex and labor-intensive dishes. What had our guests raving and demanding seconds and thirds, though? These simple little flans, which we threw together on a whim the day before. This basic flan recipe has only 5 ingredients, and takes just about no effort whatsoever. Add some cocoa nibs and infuse the cream before mixing everything together, though, and you have a......

New Year's Eve wasn't all confetti, LED-lit crystal balls and...diapers; despite the impression Dick Clark gives to the world at large, there's always just as much excess, overcrowding and diminished expectations to be found outside of Times Square on Amateur Night. Last night we received a tip from Gawker containing this link about post-NYE detritus in one of those sleek Williamsburg condos. There was spilled wine, a hole in the wall and an unused tampon......

And then there were three. The “Couch Potato” publicity stunt going on over at ESPN Zone – the favorite restaurant of Yo La Tengo’s James McNew – took a dramatic turn when one of the four contestants abruptly dropped out of the butt-numbing competition. The quitter was Rutgers student Lindsay Wagenblast, the only female participant, who had “emerged as the favorite” in the contest, which started New Year's Day and involves sitting in a recliner......

With news that Mayor Bloomberg is planning to attend a meeting about a possible third party bid for the White House, the mayor's possible presidential aspirations finally enter 2008. If he does plan on running, he's lucky he has his billions to get the hundreds of thousands of petition signatures to get onto ballots across the country. The NY Times looked at the petition quest. Naturally, the states' petition requirements (and deadlines) are all different:......

This is a bad trend: Days after an 11-year-old boy was shot in the chest after opening the door of his Queens home and a 3-year-old girl, in a car, was hit by a stray bullet in the Bronx, an 11-year-old girl's head was grazed by a bullet in the Bronx yesterday. Destiny Rosario, who had attended a New Year's party with her family, had been walking home with relatives after their van broke down.......

For some people, celebrating New Year's didn't mean drinking champagne and wearing whimsical hats: It meant trying to deliver a baby! New York City's first 2008 newborns are from Queens: Kamiyah Alina Barrow was born at midnight at New York Hospital Medical Center in Queens while Isabella Sophia Sears was born about a minute later at Elmhurst Hospital Center. Baby Kamiyah, 8 pounds and 4 ounces, was born less than an hour after her parents......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person struck by a train at 14th St. and 8th Ave. in Manhattan, a shooting on Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn, and a shooting on Houston St. in Manhattan. Yet another reason to celebrate: today is the 110th anniversary of Richmond County joining us as the 5th borough of NYC. The Staten Island Advance features a picture of a general store with a wooden Indian in front of it......

Was your New Year's Eve a recipe for a hangover? Luckily there are a few recipes to cure what ails you, too. Last year we found some facts about hangovers, but learning isn't going to make that first headache of '08 go away. From the undoubtedly reputable site called RUPissed? come these hangover cures, and except for the Vegemite you can probably find most of these things in your apartment (or within a one block......

Many hearty souls joined the Welcome to Coney Island Polar Bear Club for the annual New Year's Day dip into the Atlantic. Lucky for us, some Gothamist readers were on the scene and have taken some great photographs. Here are a few. The Coney Island Polar Bear Club's Q&A; answers the question, "Are you folks nuts?" with:Not particularly. We're just a group of people from all walks of life who deeply enjoy the activity......

A sparkling new 700-pound ball, tons of confetti, and over a million people helped ring in the New Year from Times Square last night/early today. Mayor Bloomberg and police Police Academy valedictorian Karolina Wierzchowska, who also served in the Iraq War, hit the switch that brought the famous Times Square New Year's ball down. The Daily News called it a "shimmering pole dance," and it was the 100th time Times Square has had a......

Islanders 4, Hurricanes 1: New Year's revelers that had to leave the game early in Raleigh didn't miss much last night, because all the scoring in the Islanders victory over the Hurricanes came in the 2nd period. When the Islanders scored, they did most of it in a flurry and on the power play. Three goals came in a 3:39 stretch (on four shots!) and three of their four goals came on the power......

Tonight at 11:59 pm, all eyes will be on the illuminated Waterford crystal ball that takes sixty seconds to descend, announcing a new year. It's an annual ritual shared by more people than could possibly pack into Times Square since the advent of television, and what is often overlooked or unnoticed is the building that the illuminated sphere is perched upon. 1 Times Square was the eponymous address of the crossroads of the world. The......

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! Are you at work today, or lucky enough to have the day off? There's only about half a day left in 2007, how will you be ringing in 2008 tonight? Here are some ideas if you're still looking for a place to toast champagne at midnight. Photograph of Petronio Hernandez organizing balloons that will be given out in Times Square by Tina Fineberg/AP.......

You'll have to excuse Gothamist if we seem a little disoriented this morning. No, we didn't mistake last night for New Year's Eve, it's just that the weather forecast has been changing back and forth so rapidly the past few days that we've gotten a little dizzy. The forecast have finally settled down and 2007's weather should end on an uneventful note. Clear skies for the rest of the day and a high in......