Week in Pictures for Nov. 29

See the slide show

Here is a slide show of photographs from the past week in New York City and the region. Subjects include autumn leaves, the first book printed in the new world, and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

This weekend on “The New York Times Close Up,” an inside look at the most compelling articles in Sunday’s Times, Sam Roberts will speak with The Times’s A.O. Scott and Clyde Haberman. Also, Nathan Leventhal, a former deputy mayor. Tune in at 10 p.m. Saturday or 10 a.m. Sunday on NY1 News to watch.

A sampling from the City Room blog is featured daily in the main print news section of The Times. You may also browse highlights from the blog and reader comments, read current New York headlines, like New York Metro | The New York Times on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Big Ticket | Outdoor Living, in NoHo for $23 Million

A statement-making condominium that monopolizes the eighth floor at 40 Bond Street, the 11-story emerald-green-glass apparition that brought a dash of Oz downtown to NoHo in 2007, sold for $23.5 million and was the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records.

The most recent asking price was $25 million after a trim from $27 million, and the monthly carrying costs are $14,255. The luxury complex, which was developed by the hotelier Ian Schrager and designed by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, has 27 apartments and five townhouses at street level. At the ever-luminescent 40 Bond, even the external structural elements are coated with molten glass. (Mr. Schrager kept the 8,500-square-foot triplex penthouse for himself.)

The loft-style 12-room, 5,364-square-foot unit, No. 8A, on a quaint cobblestone and cast-iron block off the Bowery, has four bedrooms, four baths, and a grand 140-foot-long south-facing terrace that runs the length of the residence. Every principal room has access to the terrace, which is 20 feet deep and was designed by the landscape architect Jeff Mendoza to offer total privacy. Inside, the equally striking interiors by David Mann have floor-to-ceiling windows, wide-plank floors, north-and-south exposures, and 11-foot ceilings throughout.

The chef’s kitchen is clad in smoked Austrian oak with glacier-white custom Corian counters and lacquer cabinetry. There are two fireplaces, one in the living room and the other in the elaborate master suite overlooking the terrace. The suite has a windowed dressing room and his-and-hers offices, and its master bath is wrapped in custom Corian in the same pattern used on the unusual 22-foot-high sculptural gate that shields the five townhouse gardens from the street. A separate wing contains the loft’s three other bedrooms, each with an en-suite bath.

The apartment was bought as a sponsor unit for $17.9 million in 2007 by William Kriegel, the energy magnate, motorcycle enthusiast and Montana rancher (he owns a training facility for quarter horses) who is the chairman of the K Road Acquisition Corporation, formerly Sithe Energies. Mr. Kriegel built his fortune in renewable energy companies in his native France before relocating in 1984 to the United States, where he repeated his entrepreneurial success. Before “downsizing” to the Bond Street apartment, he developed and owned the 7,452-square-foot duplex penthouse at 158 Mercer Street, which he sold to the musician Jon Bon Jovi for $27 million in 2007. That penthouse is currently on the market for $39.9 million.

Mr. Kriegel was represented in the sale by Leonard Steinberg and Hervé Senequier of Douglas Elliman Real Estate; the team also handled the negotiations for the anonymous buyer, who used a limited-liability company, MINM. Mr. Steinberg, citing confidentiality agreements, declined to elaborate.

The week’s second-costliest transaction involved a six-story Beaux-Arts limestone townhouse on the Upper East Side that sold for $18.5 million. The 19-room residence at 131 East 64th Street, between Park and Lexington Avenues, was built in 1904 by Augustus N. Allen but was recently renovated on both the interior, where the finishes are ultramodern, and the exterior, where a restoration retained front bay windows and the decorative copper anthemion on the roof. The house has northern, southern and eastern exposures; a rooftop gym; a wine cellar; and an indoor pool and spa. In addition to eight bedrooms, it has 11 baths, an elevator, and 1,150 square feet of outdoor space divided among a pair of terraces and a roof garden.

The social spaces, connected by a sweeping staircase, include a music hall, a library and a sitting room, and the ceilings on the parlor floor, home to the dining and living rooms and the kitchen, soar to 12 feet. The fourth-floor master bedroom suite has his-and-her baths and dressing rooms. The upper floors contain four more guest bedrooms with en-suite baths, a playroom, a family room and a staff suite.

Carrie Chiang and Richard Phan of the Corcoran Group represented the seller, David Seldin, a former team president of the National Football League’s Jacksonville Jaguars, who had owned the house since 2004. He used a limited-liability company, 64th Street Associates, with a Florida address, in the sale. The buyer opted for anonymity through a limited-liability company, TH 64. Ms. Chiang declined to comment on the particulars of the sale.

Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, this week ending Tuesday.

The New York Collective

Dear Diary:

It is what tourists pass down in legend and suburbanites fear. The ineffable personality of New Yorkers cannot be handled lightly, as it is too complicated to be forced in one direction.

There is something that makes New Yorkers speed walk down the street, unaware of whom they may hit in a sharp swerve of their leather briefcases, or clear their throats when someone is talking to the post office teller for longer than a minute. Is it the pipes, the same culprit for our superior bagels? Whatever it is, the trait was showcased this past week and saved my dog’s life.

At 76th and York, a stray pit bull attacked our golden retriever. The all-too-clichéd evil preying on pure gold. As soon as the attack began, New Yorkers ran over to help, eventually freeing my dog of the aggressor. One man in particular carried the bleeding 80-pound victim to his car, where he then drove him and my mother to the animal hospital.

This assertiveness, this feeling of justification at every jaywalking crime scene, is our spirit. It feeds our reputation as a population and makes the city the strongest and most unique in the world. But most importantly, it makes us one.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

The New York Collective

Dear Diary:

It is what tourists pass down in legend and suburbanites fear. The ineffable personality of New Yorkers cannot be handled lightly, as it is too complicated to be forced in one direction.

There is something that makes New Yorkers speed walk down the street, unaware of whom they may hit in a sharp swerve of their leather briefcases, or clear their throats when someone is talking to the post office teller for longer than a minute. Is it the pipes, the same culprit for our superior bagels? Whatever it is, the trait was showcased this past week and saved my dog’s life.

At 76th and York, a stray pit bull attacked our golden retriever. The all-too-clichéd evil preying on pure gold. As soon as the attack began, New Yorkers ran over to help, eventually freeing my dog of the aggressor. One man in particular carried the bleeding 80-pound victim to his car, where he then drove him and my mother to the animal hospital.

This assertiveness, this feeling of justification at every jaywalking crime scene, is our spirit. It feeds our reputation as a population and makes the city the strongest and most unique in the world. But most importantly, it makes us one.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

New York Today: Beware of Parking Tickets

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times You may have the day off, but the meter police do not.

Good morning on this Black Friday. We hope that your turkey (or Tofurkey) is digesting well on what is expected to be a mostly sunny day.

Here’s a hot money-saving tip as you do your shopping:

Remember the meter.

The Black Friday parking ticket is a longstanding - and highly aggravating â€" seasonal tradition.

“It looks like a holiday, smells like a holiday, but it’s not a holiday according to New York City parking rules,” said Samuel I. Schwartz, the former traffic commissioner known as Gridlock Sam.

Alternate-side regulations remain in effect, too.

Some years, Black Friday is the most-ticketed day of the year.

Mr. Schwartz recalled one with 45,000 tickets, compared to the daily average of 25,000.

“Every traffic agent had their pencils sharpened,” he said. “We were an army going out there and bringing back our prey.”

Last year, Councilman David G. Greenfield, a Brooklyn Democrat, introduced a bill to make Black Friday a day of rest for parking enforcement.

“You’re in a line for an hour to get a discount on a television, and you come outside and there’s a $115 ticket on your car,” Mr. Greenfield told us. “That’s not a very fun way to spend to your Thanksgiving.”

His bill went nowhere.

Here’s what else you need to know for Friday and the weekend.

WEATHER

Not black. Clouds part to let the sun shine in, but it will be chilly again, with a high of 41.

Tonight will be cold and clear, revealing the moon â€" a waning crescent.

The weekend looks muddled. Starting bright, it may turn cloudy, with rain possible on Saturday night and Sunday.

COMMUTE

Subways: No delays. Check latest status.

Rails: Running smoothly. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: No major problems. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

As noted above, alternate-side parking is very much in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- Walk it off with the After Thanksgiving Hike on Staten Island. 10 a.m. to noon. [Free, registration required]

- Behold the world’s largest gingerbread exhibit, with 164 structures, at the New York Hall of Science in Queens. [$11]

- Peer into the Neapolitan Nativity Scene, with more than 200 18th-century figures, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. [$25 suggested admission]

- Kids can skate in their socks at The Grinch’s Holiday Workshop at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. [$11]

- Make holiday puppets at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, which will also be screening a tribute to the Muppet Rowlf the Dog.  Through Sunday: 1 p.m. film screening, 1:15 and 2:30 p.m. puppet workshop. [$12, plus a materials fee]

- The South Street Seaport opens its rink, and lights its tree at 6 p.m. [The tree is free; the rink is $10 and free for kids]

- The New York African Diaspora International Film Festival kicks off with “Chasing Shakespeare,” starring Danny Glover. 7 p.m. at Symphony Space. [$25, buy tickets here]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

THE WEEKEND

Saturday

- WOTT: That stands for Walk Off The Turkey, a 12-mile walk along the Hudson Shoreline. 10 a.m. [Free, bring lunch]

- A walking tour of Mark Twain-related spots in Lower Manhattan on what would be the writer’s 178th birthday. 10 a.m. [$20]

- Local authors become booksellers in Brooklyn on  Small Business Saturday, part of a national effort to save independent bookstores.

- The Brooklyn Flea and Smorgasburg move into a new winter digs in Williamsburg.

- Designer clothes and accessories made in the five boroughs go on sale in â€" you guessed it -  Brooklyn. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. [Free]

- Meet more makers, these from Staten Island, at the Juried Holiday Craft Fair. 11 to 5 p.m. [Free]

Sunday

- The Hanukkah Walking Tour starts on the Lower East Side at 10:45 a.m. You finish with doughnuts, a tradition for the holiday. [$20 in advance; $22 on the street]

- For a very quiet Sunday, head to the Brooklyn Public Library: the 1927 silent film, “Kid Brother,” a male Cinderella tale, screens at 1 p.m. With live piano. [Free]

- Meet the Dutch inventor of the Water Bench, an urban bench that collects rainwater, and learn more about rainwater harvesting, at the Guggenheim Museum. 6:30 p.m. [$7, free for students who RSVP]

- Last chance to see works inspired by Grand Central Terminal at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn. [$7]

Weekend Travel Hassles: Check subway disruptions or list of street closings.

AND FINALLY…

Wherever people were working on Thanksgiving night, they often had one thing in common: They were not eating turkey.

A police detective: penne alla vodka and chicken parmesan, ordered in.

A worker at Grand Central Terminal customer service: peanut butter and jelly for lunch. Chinese leftovers for dinner.

He said he had not had a Thanksgiving meal in 25 years. It no longer bothered him.

Jonathan Henry, 22, who was answering emergency calls at the Animal Medical Center on the Upper East Side, was newer to the holiday shift.

His family was back in Chicago, enjoying a home-cooked meal together.

He’d ordered Domino’s.

“It has not been easy,” he said.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

A Thanksgivukkah Song

Dear Diary:

With the convergence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, there has been a lot of talk of combining recipes and traditions. Yet, there have been no new Thanksgivukkah songs. I offer the following, to the traditional Thanksgiving melody

We gather together to light the menorah
And toast Mattathias
And brave Maccabees
They got off their tuchus
To fight with Antiochus
Spin dreidels to their names
And forget not the oil.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

The Magic of Witch Hazel

There is something compelling about a plant flowering in autumn’s frosty grip, but our native witch hazel’s magic only begins there. Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is far better known as a bottled astringent than a native shrub. Its medicinal uses date back to the Native Americans, who taught Europeans how to identify the plant and decoct its leaves and stems into the now-familiar tonic.

Dave Taft Witch hazel flowers produce a scent reminiscent of lemon zest.

Few native products have become so popular, or have changed so little over the centuries. It is still working its magic from the bottle, or mixed into myriad skin care potions.

Witch hazel’s magic extends to the very tips of its branches. The plant’s preference for growing in damp woods and stream corridors was noted by early settlers who believed that the plant could lead them to critical and elusive underground springs. “Water witching” dowsers selected forked witch hazel branches growing in a north-south orientation to create their divining rods. Then, holding the forked stick by the tines, they combed the landscape waiting for the telltale tug or bend of the stick, indicating an underground water source. It is likely that the name witch hazel is derived from “wicke hazel,” wicke being the early Anglo-Saxon word for bend.

Yet another of witch hazel’s peculiarities is its explosive means of seed dispersal. Requiring a full year to mature, witch hazel seeds are contained within woody capsules that ripen among this year’s flowers. If your timing is right, hiking through a hazel-filled woods on a warm fall day, you may hear the very audible, very random snapping of these seed capsules bursting open. The seeds are often propelled for yards and make a rustling sound as they hit the leaf litter. The clattering seeds and popping pods fill the woods with vibrancy.

Flowering in the fall and early winter is an interesting strategy for any plant. Pollinators are easier to attract with few other flowers competing, but then there are fewer pollinators.

To assist in the effort to lure late-season moths and flies to their bidding, witch hazel flowers bear four brilliant yellow, ribbonlike petals. The flowers produce an unmistakable, pleasant scent that surrounds the shrubs if the air is still. Not floral or sweet, but clear and piercing, and reminiscent of lemon zest, it is an invigorating addition to the scent of autumn leaves.

Few suspect how tough the spidery and delicate-looking witch hazel flowers are. No strangers to frost, snow and ice, they roll up in response to cold, protecting more sensitive flower parts. But during brief warm spells in autumn, the petals often unfurl, sometimes several times, strangely unharmed.

Look for witch hazel in damp woodlands on Staten Island. Alley Pond Park in Queens and Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx are also good places to stop and smell the witch hazel this time of year.

New York Today: Feeding Stomachs and Souls

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times It’s high season in the city’s soup kitchens.

Updated 12:34 p.m.

This week, the city’s food pantries and soup kitchens do what they do all year - only for a crush of people.

The Bowery Mission, at 227 Bowery, has been serving Thanksgiving dinners day after day.

On Thursday, the mission will dish out 7,000 meals - 1,500 at its chapel and another 5,500 at soup kitchens around the city.

Hannah Vanbiber, who helps manage the holiday banquet, told us how it works.

The mission procured 500 turkeys, 900 pies, 1,000 pounds of potatoes, 800 pounds of stuffing and 260 gallons of gravy.

Then, dinner had to be cooked.

And volunteers delegated to plate it.

“We’ve had V.I.P.’s pulling meat off turkeys in the back,” Ms. Vanbiber said.

(Katie Couric is among them this year.)

Others bring meals to tables arrayed around the mission’s chapel. Or they ladle hot chocolate and coffee in a tent outside, where people wait for seats.

“You know what’s beautiful?” Ms. Vanbiber asked.

“To see people go through the big red doors and know once they’re inside, they’re going to get fed. They come in here and they’re treated as someone valuable.”

Here’s what else you need to know for this Thanksgiving Eve.

WEATHER

Another inch or so of gust-driven rain this morning, tapering off after noon, with temperatures gradually falling through the 40s.

More than 3,000 homes on Long Island are without power because of the storm. Some roads are flooded in New York and New Jersey.

Winds should die down during the day but pick up again at night as temperatures drop into the 20s.

Tomorrow: sunny, cold, high of 35, and, yes, windy, with gusts over 30 miles an hour. Looks dicey for the big balloons.

COMMUTE

Subways: Check latest status.

Rails: Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect today but suspended tomorrow.

Air Travel: There have been weather-related delays at area airports. Check airport status or contact your airline.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio and his wife volunteer at a food pantry in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, at 12:45 p.m.

- Mayor Bloomberg attends the Inflating of the Parade Balloons on 77th Street and Central Park West. 5:30 p.m.

- You, too, can watch the balloons get blown up beside the American Museum of Natural History from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. [Free]

- Or make it a crafts day with the kids at the Poe Park visitor center in the Bronx. 1:30 p.m. [Free]

- Films of Merce Cunningham’s dances will screen at the Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. 1 p.m. [Free]

- Teens can draw, paint and learn from a teaching artist at the Brooklyn Public Library. 4 p.m. [Free; space is limited]

- Two giant 32-foot menorahs - the biggest allowed under Jewish law - will be lit at 6 p.m. One is at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street outside Central Park. The other is at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. [Free]

- The often reclusive Lauryn Hill plays the Bowery Ballroom. 8 p.m. [$106]

- Here’s a helpful map of streets that will close starting today for the big parade. [DNAinfo]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- Nearly two-thirds of New York State voters support Mr. de Blasio’s plan to raise taxes on New York City’s rich to improve public education. [Wall Street Journal]

- Hundreds of photos salvaged from the muck of Hurricane Sandy on Staten Island are posted online for their owners to find. [New York Times]

- Federal authorities confirmed that a burial ground discovered by fourth- and fifth-graders beneath a Bronx park was used to bury slaves. [Daily News]

- William J. Bratton, the former police commissioner, is said to be Mr. de Blasio’s top choice to lead the Police Department. [WPIX-TV]

- A man built a 3,000-pound gingerbread mega-village comprising 164 structures inside his Bronx apartment. [New York Times]

- Smorgasburg, the food market connected to the Brooklyn Flea, is now a year-round thing. [Eater]

- Macy’s parade balloons from the 1930s look impressively creepy in retrospect. [The Wire]

- Scoreboard: Nets snag Raptors, 102-100.

AND FINALLY…

Foul weather has been a foe to the Macy’s parade balloons almost since the parade began.

In 1931, high winds loosed Felix the Cat and a blue hippo near the Empire State Building.

Felix hit a wire and burst into flames.

The hippo was spotted by a fisherman off Rockaway Point.

There have been nearly a dozen other mishaps, including the 1997 Cat in the Hat accident that seriously injured a woman.

Most times, though, only balloons were harmed.

In 1956, gusts “flattened all three of the parade’s helium filled monsters,” The Times reported.

They included Mighty Mouse, who “struggled valiantly until Thirty-Fourth and Herald Square â€" almost to the finish â€" when he became a wee mouse.”

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

A Wiseguy Neighbor in Little Italy

Dear Diary:

Back in 1985, I lived at the top of a shabby, six-floor tenement on Mulberry Street. Across the street, in between a live chicken emporium and a bodega, there was a storefront with the name Members Only scripted on a glass window, with red drapes masking the stories beyond. I guessed it was a hangout belonging to the local wiseguys. Outside, spilling over a bentwood soda fountain chair and balancing an ever-present espresso cup on his knee, was Fat Mike.

“Hey Ange,” he yelled the week I moved in. “Anybody ever bothers you, you see anybody don’t belong here, lemme know. We’ll roll a few heads.”

How he knew my name continues to be a mystery, but I’d laugh and be not so secretly glad he was there.

One bubbling hot July afternoon, my Depression-era Sicilian parents had me chauffeur them from Queens to see my first post-college home. Pulling up, I accidentally ran over the curb. As my mother hissed out Italian slang, Fat Mike bellowed congenially from his perch, “Yo, Ange, where’d ya get ya license - Sears Roe-BUCK?”

My father cracked a crooked smile as my mother glared at Fat Mike, who was jiggling in laughter, waving his empty cup.

“Who is THAT?”

“That’s just Fat Mike, Ma. He’s O.K.”

“I knew guys like that. I hate that bunch. I’d better not find out. … ”

She held on to those memories as tightly as she did her purse.

“I lived in a dump like that. I’m not going up. No thanks.”

So while she convened with her angry reverie, my father (Big Sal) got out and huffed and puffed his way up those six flights. There, he slipped me two 20s.

“You’ll be safe here.” And I was.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

Gary dos Santos, Mayor of Strawberry Fields, Dead at 49

Corey Kilgannon/The New York Times Gary dos Santos

Gary dos Santos, 49, a John Lennon devotee and a fixture in Strawberry Fields in Central Park, died Monday night at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan from complications from leukemia, said his companion, Lisa Page.

Mr. dos Santos - known as the Mayor of Strawberry Fields to park regulars and countless tourists who visited the “Imagine” mosaic just inside the park’s West 72nd Street entrance - was diagnosed with advanced stage leukemia several weeks ago.

For the last 20 years, he welcomed visitors to the memorial by arranging flowers and praising Lennon â€" “the Brother” â€" who lived across the street in the Dakota apartment building and whose spirit Mr. dos Santos long professed to keep alive at the memorial.

Mr. dos Santos, in a recent interview, vowed to return to the memorial on Dec. 8 to memorialize Lennon’s death, which occurred on that date in 1980. But even if he were to succumb before then, he said, “I’m not worried because I have the Brother watching over me.”

CityRoom invites readers who have met Mr. dos Santos to offer their memories in the comments below.

Beautiful Fall, Apathetic Boyfriend

Dear Diary,

On a recent afternoon walk through Columbus Circle I turned to my boyfriend, who was in town visiting for the weekend, and asked him, “Isn’t New York in fall wonderful?” It was the most picturesque Saturday I had witnessed since I moved here in May â€" the colors, the crisp air, the absence of summer street smells.

“I guess,” he replied with a shrug. “I mean it’s slightly more tolerable.”

I was shocked. For seven months his plan was to join me when his job in Cleveland comes to a close next year, which was the impetus behind our decision to do long-distance. I had naïvely never imagined that the man I loved would be so apathetic toward the destination I had waited 12 years to call home.

Sure enough, later that night he told me his doctored plan to move to a small village in France next year instead, and a week later we broke up.

I am relieved I don’t have to divide my attention between two loves anymore. New York can stand a lot of things, but I don’t think she cares much for apathy â€" especially when she’s showing off. And I just won’t tolerate hurting her feelings. Bonne chance en France!

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

New York Today: Holiday Weather Alert

Caleb Ferguson for The New York Times Prepare for major delays.

Updated 7:27 a.m.

Looking for a way out of dreaded holiday travel plans?

Your excuse may arrive this afternoon from the southeast.

Rain should begin by 3 p.m., possibly starting as sleet, and continue on and off through through the evening.

Then it will turn steady, lots of it, with gusts up to 50 miles an hour and sustained winds of up to 25.

Be careful. The storm has already caused several deaths in the rest of the country.

“The wind is the big story for Wednesday, the travel day,” said Lauren Nash, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

All together, more than three inches of rain are expected by Thanksgiving morning.

Fortunately, most rainfall in our area - more than we’ve had in the last 10 weeks combined, if the forecast holds - will go right into the parched ground.

No river or coastal flooding expected. But there may be some “nuisance” ponding on roads, especially where drains are clogged by leaves.

The high today will be in the mid-40s.

It will be warmer Wednesday - near 60 - but Wednesday night the temperature will plunge below freezing, turning the last sprinkles to snow.

Thanksgiving Day will be clear but blustery, with gusts of 35 miles an hour threatening those parade balloons.

The rest of the weekend should be sunny and nice.

But don’t tell your in-laws that.

Here’s what else you need to know for Tuesday.

COMMUTE

Subways: No delays. Check latest status.

Rails: Scattered delays on N.J. Transit. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: Inbound 40-minute delays at G.W.B. upper level, 35 minutes at the Lincoln Tunnel. One-hour delay on Gowanus/B.Q.E. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect today.

COMING UP TODAY

- Elected officials join the City Coalition Against Hunger to release the group’s annual report on the state of hunger in the city and state.

- Food for Thanksgiving: 20,000 pounds of fall produce from City Harvest and 600 pies from the Epicurean Group will be delivered to the Melrose Community Center in the Bronx. 9:30 a.m.

- Camba’s Beyond Hunger Emergency Food Pantry will give out 500 turkeys on Church Avenue in Brooklyn. 10 a.m.

- An illustrated lecture on the design and history of pizza boxes, by the man who holds a world record for the largest collection of them. Mid-Manhattan Public Library. 6:30 p.m.

- The history of ACT UP, the AIDS activist organization, told through archival video and testimonies at the New York Public Library. 7 p.m. [Free]

- It’s “Tasting Tuesday” at the food stalls in Bryant Park’s Winter Village. 4:30 to 6 p.m. [Free]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- Murders of teenagers are down 50 percent since last year. The Police Department credits its anti-gang strategy “Operation Crew Cut.” [CBS]

- Former Mayor David N. Dinkins chided Bill de Blasio for proposing to pay for prekindergarten programs by taxing the rich. [New York Times]

- Police officers have been told that race can be a factor in street stops, but it cannot be the only one. [New York Times]

- The state has lost track of 467 sex offenders. [Newsday]

- The police are investigating another possible “knockout” attack, this one on a 72-year-old Brooklyn woman. [Daily News]

- Mr. de Blasio wants to raise taxes on vacant lots to spur development. [Crain's]

- Governor Cuomo was named of People’s Sexiest Men Alive in the 50-and-over category. [Wall Street Journal]

- The city’s largest solar energy installation will cover 47 acres on Staten Island [Gothamist]

- Scoreboard: Knicks lose sixth straight, to Blazers, 102-91. Lightning strike down Rangers, 5-0. Devils bow to Jets, 3-1.

AND FINALLY…

Today, in 1832, the first streetcar in America made its maiden voyage.

From Prince Street to 14th Street, along the Bowery.

Its inventor, a young Irish immigrant named John Stephenson, traveled the new route with the mayor.

The first streetcar was drawn by horses, but glided on steel rails.

It provided a smoother ride than the horse-drawn omnibuses of the time, which bumped over cobblestones.

By the 1860s, Manhattan had 14 horse-streetcar lines.

Streetcars wouldn’t fall out of fashion for a very long time, but horses would.

By 1917, only one horse-streetcar line operated in the city, and it reportedly collected just 30 cents a day in fares.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

New York Today: The Local Roots of Thanksgivukkah

Yana Paskova for The New York Times The first Thanksgiving sermon preached at the country’s oldest Jewish congregation, Shearith Israel, on display at the synagogue.

You may know by now that Thanksgiving this year falls on the first day of Hanukkah, a once-in-many-lifetimes coincidence.

But the two holidays have more in common than you might think.

And perhaps the best place in the United States to explore their overlap is Shearith Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in the city (and the continent, for that matter).

In 1789, George Washington proclaimed “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer” across the fledgling nation.

At Shearith Israel, the rabbi responded by instructing his congregation to observe this new holiday.

His Thanksgiving sermon is on display at the synagogue, which is now on Central Park West.

So where does Hanukkah come in?

When Congress debated a Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789, supporters likened the holiday to the celebrations after the building of the temple in Jerusalem in ancient times.

Shearith Israel’s new rabbi, Meir Soloveichik, who was installed on Sunday, pointed out that it is the rededication of the temple that forms the basis of Hanukkah.

In other words, way back when, Shearith Israel was embracing a national holiday that already had been connected in some way to Hanukkah.

“The jokes about ‘Thanksgivukkah’ are funny,” said Rabbi Soloveichik, who teaches at Yeshiva University.

“But to truly appreciate the connection between the holidays, you have to understand the history.”

The title of Rabbi Soloveichik’s inaugural sermon on Sunday?

“Thanksgiving: America’s Hanukkah.”

Here’s what else you need to know for Monday.

WEATHER

Still very cold, but better than Sunday, with periwinkle skies and a high of 33.

Clouds tonight. Consider setting out your boots. Rain, even sleet, may fall on Tuesday.

COMMUTE

Subways: Nothing to worry about. Click for latest status.

Rails: Looking fine. Click for L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: No problems. Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio speaks at the Summit on Children at Columbia University. 12:45 p.m.

- City Council members and activists rally at City Hall to support a proposed ban on polystyrene, a.k.a. Styrofoam. Noon.

- Marty Mar Alert: The Brooklyn borough president, Marty Markowitz, gives away turkeys at Borough Hall Plaza. 11 a.m.

- The American Museum of Natural History lights its origami holiday tree, with ornaments in the shape of the snakes, frogs and spiders from its exhibit on poisons. [$22]

- David Byrne brings back his Philippine-themed concert, “Here Lies Love,” for just one night to benefit typhoon victims. 7 p.m at Terminal Five. [Tickets start at $58.80; some are still available]

- Bonhams auctions the Maltese Falcon statuette that appeared in the 1941 film, and other movie memorabilia. 1 p.m.

- Lady Gaga will play the Roseland Ballroom next spring, before that vaunted venue closes down. Tickets go on sale here. 10 a.m.

- The writer and creator of Jezebel.com, Anna Holmes, reads from her new book, “The Book of Jezebel: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Lady Things,” at New York University. 6 p.m. [Free]

- Happy Evacuation Day! Today, 230 years ago, the last British soldiers pushed off from the Battery in a longboat after their seven-year occupation of the city.

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

AND FINALLY…

“Never have I had such a joyous time,” one letter begins. “I don’t think we ever stopped laughing.”

The author: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Her correspondent: Edward I. Koch.

Mr. Koch, who was the city’s mayor from 1978 to 1989, died in February.

His ephemera, including Ms. Onassis’s letter, will be auctioned off today by Doyle New York.

Other letters are from Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, Yitzhak Rabin, the Clintons and Margaret Thatcher.

Ms. Onassis, whose note is expected to go for a modest $200 or $300, praised the famously outspoken mayor.

“Your love of life is contagious and you sent everyone home feeling a joy and insouciance that does not happen every day in dear old N.Y.C.”

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

New York Today: The Local Roots of Thanksgivukkah

Yana Paskova for The New York Times The first Thanksgiving sermon preached at the country’s oldest Jewish congregation, Shearith Israel, on display at the synagogue.

You may know by now that Thanksgiving this year falls on the first day of Hanukkah, a once-in-many-lifetimes coincidence.

But the two holidays have more in common than you might think.

And perhaps the best place in the United States to explore their overlap is Shearith Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in the city (and the continent, for that matter).

In 1789, George Washington proclaimed “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer” across the fledgling nation.

At Shearith Israel, the rabbi responded by instructing his congregation to observe this new holiday.

His Thanksgiving sermon is on display at the synagogue, which is now on Central Park West.

So where does Hanukkah come in?

When Congress debated a Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789, supporters likened the holiday to the celebrations after the building of the temple in Jerusalem in ancient times.

Shearith Israel’s new rabbi, Meir Soloveichik, who was installed on Sunday, pointed out that it is the rededication of the temple that forms the basis of Hanukkah.

In other words, way back when, Shearith Israel was embracing a national holiday that already had been connected in some way to Hanukkah.

“The jokes about ‘Thanksgivukkah’ are funny,” said Rabbi Soloveichik, who teaches at Yeshiva University.

“But to truly appreciate the connection between the holidays, you have to understand the history.”

The title of Rabbi Soloveichik’s inaugural sermon on Sunday?

“Thanksgiving: America’s Hanukkah.”

Here’s what else you need to know for Monday.

WEATHER

Still very cold, but better than Sunday, with periwinkle skies and a high of 33.

Clouds tonight. Consider setting out your boots. Rain, even sleet, may fall on Tuesday.

COMMUTE

Subways: Nothing to worry about. Click for latest status.

Rails: Looking fine. Click for L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: No problems. Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio speaks at the Summit on Children at Columbia University. 12:45 p.m.

- City Council members and activists rally at City Hall to support a proposed ban on polystyrene, a.k.a. Styrofoam. Noon.

- Marty Mar Alert: The Brooklyn borough president, Marty Markowitz, gives away turkeys at Borough Hall Plaza. 11 a.m.

- The American Museum of Natural History lights its origami holiday tree, with ornaments in the shape of the snakes, frogs and spiders from its exhibit on poisons. [$22]

- David Byrne brings back his Philippine-themed concert, “Here Lies Love,” for just one night to benefit typhoon victims. 7 p.m at Terminal Five. [Tickets start at $58.80; some are still available]

- Bonhams auctions the Maltese Falcon statuette that appeared in the 1941 film, and other movie memorabilia. 1 p.m.

- Lady Gaga will play the Roseland Ballroom next spring, before that vaunted venue closes down. Tickets go on sale here. 10 a.m.

- The writer and creator of Jezebel.com, Anna Holmes, reads from her new book, “The Book of Jezebel: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Lady Things,” at New York University. 6 p.m. [Free]

- Happy Evacuation Day! Today, 230 years ago, the last British soldiers pushed off from the Battery in a longboat after their seven-year occupation of the city.

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

AND FINALLY…

“Never have I had such a joyous time,” one letter begins. “I don’t think we ever stopped laughing.”

The author: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Her correspondent: Edward I. Koch.

Mr. Koch, who was the city’s mayor from 1978 to 1989, died in February.

His ephemera, including Ms. Onassis’s letter, will be auctioned off today by Doyle New York.

Other letters are from Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, Yitzhak Rabin, the Clintons and Margaret Thatcher.

Ms. Onassis, whose note is expected to go for a modest $200 or $300, praised the famously outspoken mayor.

“Your love of life is contagious and you sent everyone home feeling a joy and insouciance that does not happen every day in dear old N.Y.C.”

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

Ode to a New York Dawn

Victor Kerlow

Dear Diary:

Night dies swiftly in the clear autumn dawn. I watch the sun ignite cold and lipstick red
over the buildings in the east; while night hides low near the pavement just outside the
burnt-orange glow of the lampposts.
Later, when I leave the apartment for work, morning has captured the street and night’s
last refuge lies in the ground shadow of a low-hanging tree.
It dies before I reach my bus.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via e-mail diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

Week in Pictures for Nov. 22

See the slide show

Here is a slide show of photographs from the past week in New York City and the region. Subjects include the real mayors of New York, the whitewashing of 5Pointz in Long Island City and the opening of an ice rink at McCarren Park.

This weekend on “The New York Times Close Up,” an inside look at the most compelling articles in Sunday’s Times, Sam Roberts will speak with The Times’s Jill Abramson, Mark Bittman, Gay Talese, Philip Shenon and Eleanor Randolph. Tune in at 10 p.m. Saturday or 10 a.m. Sunday on NY1 News to watch.

A sampling from the City Room blog is featured daily in the main print news section of The Times. You may also browse highlights from the blog and reader comments, read current New York headlines, like New York Metro | The New York Times on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Big Ticket | Luxury Lodging for $17.3 Million

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times 18 Gramercy Park South

With just a few full-floor units and the distinctive maisonette remaining at the luxury condominium reinvention of a historic Salvation Army lodging house for women at 18 Gramercy Park South, the sale for $17,300,067.50 of the 4,207-square-foot residence that commands the entire eighth floor was the most expensive of the week, according to city records.

The unit, No. 8, has four bedrooms, five and a half baths, and a corner living room with 40 feet of frontage on private Gramercy Park. The monthly carrying costs are $11,225.31, and as a customary closing gift, the sponsors, Zeckendorf Development and Global Holdings, bestowed a key to the park. The condo, with interiors designed by Robert A. M. Stern Architects, who also renovated the Georgian-style brick exterior, sold for its asking price, $16.99 million, plus transfer taxes.

As they did with their previous project, 15 Central Park West, the development team created a prewar ambience enhanced by modern amenities, a combination that proved irresistible to qualified globe-trotters with a fondness for park views. The buyer, identified as the Suyeon Kim Trust, did not use a broker; Zeckendorf Marketing represented the sponsor.

The second-priciest sale also involved park views but required the purchase of two units to create a 5,000-square-foot, 14-room duplex. At the Beresford, an Emery Roth-designed co-op at 211 Central Park West, between 81st and 82nd Streets, Nos. 17/18C and 18B traded for an aggregate $16.1 million, roughly $1 million above their respective asking prices. The buyers, Edward Lavin and Jennifer M. Bruder, were represented by Brad Webb of Douglas Elliman Real Estate. Lorraine Dauber of Stribling & Associates was the listing broker for No. 17/18C, sold by Coke Anne M. Wilcox for $10,196,130, and for No. 18B, sold by Walter S. Tomenson Jr. for $5,903,870.

Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.

Silent Fellow Travelers

Dear Diary:

Something small but wonderful happened to me recently.

Around 2 p.m., after a photo shoot near Union Square, I boarded the L train. An older gentleman, clad in khaki and holding a cane, quietly offered me his seat. He had kind eyes. I simply smiled and took the seat. He smiled back.

We rode together and switched trains together, this time to the A express. Again, he caught my eye and saved me a seat. We rode all the way to 181st together, and parted ways with smiles. Never said a word.

Around 9 p.m., as I was walking back from dinner in darkness, I saw a glimmer of light from a building’s basement door, a few blocks from my building. Out of the door stumbled the same older gentleman, still wearing his khakis, leaning on his cane, taking trash to the curb.

We both stopped in our tracks, me holding my takeout bag, him holding his trash bag. Our eyes locked. We both gleamed. And never said a word.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

New York Today: Losers

Barton Silverman/The New York Times That kind of year: the Knicks guard Iman Shumpert (No. 21) fouling Paul George of the Indiana Pacers en route to an overtime loss on Wednesday.

Even if you don’t follow sports closely, you might have noticed something odd about the local pro teams lately.

They’re not very good. All of them.

The area’s seven pro basketball, football and hockey squads have amassed a collective record of 65 losses and 41 wins.

Not one has a winning record.

The fall highlight reel features blown leads, last-minute interceptions and infuriatingly timed fouls.

There have been a few bright spots.

The Giants lost their first six games, but have now won four straight.

Still, the Knicks, Rangers, Nets, Jets and Islanders are bringing their fans to tears.

Jay Schreiber, a Queens-born deputy sports editor at The Times who has followed local teams for more than 50 years, said he could not recall anything like it.

Whatever the cause, it’s not underfunding.

The Nets’ owner, a Russian tycoon, is “spending an enormous amount of money, and the team right now is a disaster,” Mr. Schreiber said.

Maybe it’s just coincidence, he said.

“Turn the clock back three years, maybe four of the seven teams had good shots at the playoffs.”

This year, not so much.

Here’s what else you need to know for Friday and the weekend.

WEATHER

Kind of blah. Showers this morning, clouds all day, high of 56.

Sunny and cooler tomorrow. Sunday: ice cold, with a chance of snow.

COMMUTE

Subways: Click for latest status.

Rails: Click for L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor Bloomberg unveils a new Amur leopard habitat at the Staten Island Zoo.

- What do Dick Cheney, Raymond W. Kelly, Tommy Lasorda and Dr. Mehmet Oz have in common? All will be honored at the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation’s annual luncheon.

- You can skirmish over vinyl at the WFMU Record Fair in the Flatiron District. [$7, $25 for early admission to get a chance at the best stuff]

- Or ponder the state of German film at a two-day conference about the Berliner Schule at New York University’s Deutsches Haus. 7 p.m. [Free]

- See the play that landed Mae West in court for obscenity, “Diamond Lil,” performed at the Jefferson Market library in the West Village. 7 p.m. [Free]

- A German piano-cello duo, Sarah Hiller and Lucas Sieber, make their New York recital debut at a New York Chamber Music Festival show at Christ and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on the Upper West Side. 8. p.m [Free]

- Many observances of the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. They include a show of photographs surrounding the event at the International Center of Photography in Midtown. [$14]

- An art and memorabilia exhibition, “‘Dearest Jackie’: On the Death of JFK,” at the main New York Public Library. [Free]

- And a panel of conspiracy theorists at the Cornelia Street Cafe. [$20]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

Weekend Travel Hassles: Click for subway disruptions or list of street closings.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

As a Specialty Care Hospital Prepares to Close, Patients Wonder What’s Next

Michael Appleton for The New York Times The Goldwater campus of Coler-Goldwater Hospital, a rehabilitation facility on Roosevelt Island where many patients rely on wheelchairs. It is slated to close to make way for a new graduate school of technology.

Michael Appleton for The New York Times Tjader Fogle, 71, a paraplegic, is among the patients who have been transferred from the Goldwater building to the Coler building in anticipation of Goldwater’s closing.

Frantz Lys enjoys sitting by the water gazing across the East River toward the Manhattan skyline. For the past 21 years, Mr. Lys has been a patient at Coler-Goldwater Memorial Hospital, a specialty care hospital and nursing facility on Roosevelt Island that offers long-term rehabilitation.

Mr. Lys, 38, moved into Goldwater in 1992, after a car accident fractured his spinal cord and left him paralyzed below the neck. “Here on the island you can go out and not worry about cars in the streets,’’ he said. “It’s safe.”

Over the years Roosevelt Island has proved to be a sanctuary for many disabled people. Not only is Coler-Goldwater Hospital home to one of the state’s largest population of disabled people, but the island also has limited traffic and offers easy access by public transportation to Queens and Manhattan.

The hospital consists of two separate campuses - Goldwater on the southern end of the island and Coler on the northern end. Together, the facilities house 1065 patients, with about 320 living at Goldwater.

But soon Goldwater will have to be emptied because it is scheduled to close in December to make way for the construction of Cornell University’s new graduate school of technology. The closing has left many residents anxious, especially longtime residents who have relished their ability to move about their neighborhood with relative ease.

Over the last two years about 200 Goldwater patients have already moved to private homes.

Many remaining patients will move either to the Coler campus or to a facility expected to open soon in East Harlem named after Henry J. Carter, the founder and chairman of Wheelchair Charities, an organization that has been supporting Coler-Goldwater for decades.

“We have a sufficient number of beds between the Coler campus and the new facility, Henry J. Carter, to accommodate all of the remaining patients,” said Robert K. Hughes, executive director of Coler-Goldwater Hospital.

But Mr. Lys, who was moved to the Coler campus in September, said the transition had been difficult because he believes Goldwater is better equipped to meet the needs of patients in wheelchairs.

He has taken to spending more time outdoors since his relocation. “It’s a sort of a therapy for me,” he said. “It helps me release my frustration, helps me release my anger, my depression.”

Another patient, who was transferred to Coler in July after spending five years at Goldwater, shares Mr. Lys’s view. “Coler is not as handicapped-equipped,” said the patient, who asked not to be identified because he feared retribution from the hospital. “The bathrooms are small; it’s hard to get the wheelchair to the showers.”

Goldwater Hospital was built in 1939 on the site of a demolished prison and was designed to treat patients with chronic illnesses, mostly people with tuberculosis. Over the years, however, its focus shifted to long-term care for people with disabilities. Coler Hospital opened in 1952, and also provided care to disabled patients. The two facilities merged in the 1990s with a combined capacity of 2,000 patients.

The hospital offers a variety of recreation activities, including movies and bingo nights, as well as art and creative writing classes. The facility also has a gym, which helps patients with their rehabilitation, a church and even its own Subway sandwich restaurant.

Unlike the residents of many similar facilities, Coler-Goldwater patients are provided with motorized wheelchairs through a program sponsored by Wheelchair Charities.

“You can imagine if you go to another facility where they don’t have motorized wheelchairs, you’d be forced to stay in bed,’’ Mr. Lys said. “Especially for someone like me who can’t use a manual chair.”

Armand Xama, who became a paraplegic after a diving accident six years ago, lived in different facilities in Queens and on Staten Island before moving to Goldwater in 2011.

“I’ve been to other places and I know what it is not to be in Goldwater,’’ Mr. Xama, 31, said. “In Staten Island you couldn’t go out at all - it’s like going to prison yourself.”

Some Goldwater residents are set to be transferred to a low-cost development in East Harlem that, when it is completed next year, will have studio and one-bedroom apartments for disabled people.

Mr. Xama hopes that’s where he will end up so that then he can try to find a job. “I want to work because I want to feel that I’m doing something, that I’m fulfilled,” he said. “Being more active and in working condition, will keep me even healthier.”

Video: What New Yorkers Think About New Limits on Tobacco Purchases

Shortly after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg came to office, he passed what he considers one of his signature achievements, the banning of smoking in restaurants and bars in New York City. Now, on the eve of the end of the Bloomberg era, the mayor has signed a law banning the sale of tobacco products to anyone under 21 within the five boroughs.

The law, which Mr. Bloomberg signed on Tuesday, will take effect six months later, in mid-May, long after Mr. Bloomberg has handed his office over to Bill de Blasio, a liberal Democrat who has pledged to reverse many of Mr. Bloomberg’s policies that, Mr. de Blasio said, favored the moneyed class in the city. Mr. Bloomberg’s health initiatives seem secure.

A Boxer With an Unfriendly Owner

Dear Diary:

I love dogs, so it’s not unusual for me to stop while walking my 60-pound mutt â€" or when I’m just headed somewhere â€" to reach over and pet one on the street. I always ask the owner first if it’s O.K., and usually, they’re as accommodating as I am because, after all, they understand!

While out at lunchtime on a recent Thursday, a beautiful boxer caught my eye, and, as usual, I walked over to get a few minutes of dog time during my workday.

“Is she friendly?” I asked the owner, getting ready to bend down and get a slobbery kiss.

“She is, but I’m not,” the lanky, well-dressed man said, as he yanked on the leash and pulled her away.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

New York Today: Hiring Time at City Hall

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times The mayor-elect awaits your resume.

Want to apply for a job in the Bill de Blasio administration?

It’s easy.

Go to the Transition NYC website. Click “apply for jobs.” Fill out the form.

But you might have to wait a while for a callback.

For the first time in more than a decade, the city’s leadership is turning over.

Thousands of resumes have arrived, via every possible method, at the de Blasio transition office.

“The response has been overwhelming,” the office said in a statement.

A new mayor also means new opportunities for patronage.

Most city jobs are civil service positions.

But City Hall still controls hundreds of upper and mid-level jobs: commissioners, deputy and assistant commissioners, and managers at dozens of agencies.

Democratic politicians, mindful that a Democrat has not occupied City Hall in 20 years, will undoubtedly push preferred candidates.

Mr. de Blasio’s defenders contend that he won the election without much support from the political establishment, and so has relatively few favors to repay.

Nathan Leventhal, the transition chairman for Mayors Bloomberg and Dinkins, said the knocks will come at the door nevertheless.

“There always are people submitting names for political reasons in any administration,” he said.

Here’s what else you need to know for Thursday.

WEATHER

Would you trade warmer temperatures for less sunshine? You have no choice. Near 50, mostly cloudy.

Up ahead: rain likely tomorrow, freeze Saturday night, maybe snow Sunday.

COMMUTE

Subways: Click for latest status.

Rails: Click for L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect today and Friday.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor Bloomberg makes an announcement at City Hall at 11:30 a.m. (Details to come.)

- The New York Hispanic Clergy Organization prays that Alex Rodriguez beats his steroid suspension, outside the offices of Major League Baseball at 11:30 a.m.

- Why did no one think of this before? The first ever Pro Wrestling Film Festival kicks off in the East Village. [$10]

- The Williamsburg Independent Film Festival gets under way, too. [$13]

- Two benefits for Philippine typhoon victims: the Gin Blossoms (remember “Hey Jealousy”?) at Stage 48 in Midtown at 8 p.m. [$25] and a Lou Reed tribute lineup at Jalopy Theater in Brooklyn at 9 p.m. [$10]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- A 34-year-old man was arrested in a string of gropings of preteen girls in Park Slope. [Gothamist]

- Not only did John F. Kennedy once live in the Bronx, so did Lee Harvey Oswald. [New York Times]

- The Upper West Side has the dirtiest air in the city. [DNAinfo]

- Barneys and Macy’s did not show at a City Council hearing on racial profiling of shoppers. [New York Times]

- Happy now? After public outrage at the idea of renaming NY1 “TWC News,” Time Warner has decided to rename it Time Warner Cable News NY1. [Observer]

- A new one-day subway ridership record was set four Thursdays ago: 5,985,311 rides. [New York Times]

- A subway robber has mugged five riders in three days, in Manhattan and Brooklyn. [WABC-TV Eyewitness News]

- Alex Rodriguez walked out of an arbitration hearing on his suspension for steroid use, declaring himself “disgusted with this abusive process.” [New York Times]

- Scoreboard: Pacers roar past Knicks, 103-96 in overtime. Bobcats nip Nets, 95-91. Devils roast Ducks, 4-3 in overtime.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytoday.com.

Giving a Subway Hog the Business

Dear Diary:

One morning a couple of weeks ago, the A train pulled into 168th bulging with people. As I stepped up to the doors, it was pretty clear I was the last person who was going to squeeze in … until a businessman behind me grabbed my shoulder and pulled me off the car so he could take my place before the doors shut.

The doors hesitated and stayed open just long enough for me to LIGHT HIM UP! My friends say I’m too nice. Well, there was no Midwestern charm coming out of my mouth. Just verbal diarrhea. Then several other riders starting digging into him, and loudly.

The doors closed, the train pulled away, taking him with it, and the platform speakers announced that another A train was pulling into the station. I stepped onto a mostly empty car and took a seat beaming with pride.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

New York Today: J.F.K. in the Bronx

Riverdale Country School John F. Kennedy, front row center, at Riverdale Country School circa 1927.

Let us now visit the house where a 10-year-old John F. Kennedy lived.

It’s in the Bronx.

And it’s a bit creepy.

We stopped by in recognition of the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination, on Friday.

The Kennedys lived in the upscale Riverdale section of the Bronx in the late 1920’s.

At the Riverdale Country School, Kennedy was not a star student.

One year, he got a D in French.

In a 1960 campaign appearance at a Bronx hotel, he boasted of his local roots.

“I said up the street that I was a former resident of the Bronx. Nobody believes that, but it is true,” he declared. “No other candidate for the presidency can make that statement.”

About that house, though.

It’s enormous, 20 rooms of Georgian splendor, set on two acres fringed by pines.

But it’s been empty for a long time, neighbors said. (We’ve been trying to track down the owners through property records. We’ll let you know what we find out.)

The front doorway is sealed over with cement.

No historic plaque is visible.

A few houses down, a man named Ian Kirby, who grew up in the neighborhood, was raking leaves.

“It’s always looked to be in some sort of disrepair,” he said of the house.

Here’s what else you need to know for Wednesday.

WEATHER

Brrr. A high of only 45, with a ruffling breeze. Stay in the sunshine.

COMMUTE

Subways: O.K. Click for latest status.

Rails: No delays. Click for L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect all week.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor-elect de Blasio visits the Talking Transition Tent, on Canal Street, where New Yorkers can offer opinions on policies for his administration, at 2:30 p.m.

- The City Council holds a hearing on allegations of racial profiling at department stores, at 11 a.m.

- Cab drivers will protest a new 6-cent-per-fare tax outside Taxi and Limousine Commission headquarters.

- Opening: “ ‘Dearest Jackie’: On the Death of JFK,” with art by Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, and a condolence letter to the first lady from Arthur Schlesinger Jr., at the main New York Public Library. [Free]

- A fancy food court, Gotham West Market, opens on 11th Avenue and 44th Street, with stalls from name chefs.

- More foodie news: Mission Cantina, the new offering from Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese Food, opens on Orchard Street.

- A tribute concert for the 109-year-old pianist Alice Herz-Sommer, believed to be the oldest Holocaust survivor, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. (She will not be there.) 7 p.m. [$10]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

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An Underground Drink Cast as a Film Star

A tall plastic soup container is filled with ice, rum, cheap liqueurs and fruit juices and stashed in a brown paper bag. Some money changes hands. What happens after that, at least for the buyer, can get blurry.

The potent street cocktail is called a nutcracker. It is best known in uptown Manhattan neighborhoods like Inwood and Washington Heights and it is unlikely to be confused with the ballet that is a Christmas season tradition.

Now, it is having its story told. The drink is the subject of a planned documentary, still in its early stages, that aims to cast the underground mix not as an illicit scourge but as an entrepreneurial success.

The film is to focus on Washington Heights, where the nutcracker rose to popularity early in the millennium among the Manhattan neighborhood’s Dominican diaspora. The filmmakers plan to touch on the ire stirred by the drink’s unregulated sales, but the emphasis will be on the go-getter immigrant attitude epitomized in the marketplace that arose for this fruity concoction, called by some “Dominican moonshine.”

Especially bountiful during the summer, nutcrackers are sold in barbershops, bodegas and under the shade of a park tree, the sellers sometimes operating out of a shopping cart loaded with spirits. The standard price is $10.

At a small, crowded bookstore called Word Up, on West 165th Street, last week, the filmmakers, Leo Fuentes, whose pen name is Led Black, and Jonathan Ullman, showed some of the footage accumulated since they began recording two summers ago and spoke about the experience.

“When we started this was the story of the drink,” Mr. Ullman told the crowd. “But it turned into a story about paying rent, food for the family, and about how not all of these people have the same opportunity.”

At a table beside the stage, free nutcrackers were served in small plastic cups. “True to fame, it goes quick,” remarked a guest, noticing the supply starting to run low, as he accepted a cup of the bright red liquid.

Mr. Black, 39, who grew up in Washington Heights, runs UptownCollective.com, a hyper-local blog about Northern Manhattan. Mr. Ullman, 46, has worked on other projects about urban life. They need more funding to finish and release the film, and the event was an attempt to spread awareness.

Over a beat-laden soundtrack, one clip shows a nutcracker sale playing out on a sidewalk. “It seemed like the perfect New York drink,” a voice muses later. “All we know was to hustle for anything,” says a heavyset man wearing sunglasses and a cap. “Whether it’s pastelitos on the block, to learning how to make nutcrackers.”

In other footage, several pedestrians answer the question what the word conjures for them - “Happy magical fun times?” “I think of ballerinas.” Eventually, a construction worker smiles knowingly. “Washington Heights,” he says. “Uptown.”

There’s a segment about the drink’s invention. A Peruvian-Chinese restaurant on the Upper West Side, Flor de Mayo, is widely credited with its creation in the early 1990s. The story goes that after the drink became popular, the restaurant started selling it to go, and entrepreneurial individuals from Washington Heights eventually decoded the recipe, and took it a few miles north.

For the documentary, the filmmakers interviewed five sellers, who were filmed with their faces obscured.

“Not everybody agreed to talk to us,” Mr. Ullman said of some “bigger nutcracker purveyors.”

The biggest day for nutcracker sales, they discovered, might be the annual Dominican Day Parade in August. Mr. Black spoke of a man who takes in more than $60,000 over the course of the weekend, and said some that nutcracker businesses are family run.

At the bookstore, Desi K. Robinson, 41, tried her first nutcracker. “I would say it’s a kind of hood rum punch,” she said. “It’s sweet and sassy.”

Others at the event shared their nutcracker memories.

Jason Paulino, an author, recalled consuming a large quantity of banana-flavored nutcrackers one summer with friends when he was 19. They visited Rockaway Beach, drinking on the train ride there. Once in the water Mr. Paulino swam out too far, and struggled to stay afloat. “I honestly have never been more scared for my life,” he said.

Robert Bohan, who appears in the some of the footage shot for the film, said he benefited from the drink’s underground economy in a remarkable way. In the early 1990s, he said, he was working for a gang involved in the crack trade and in 1993, he was arrested in connection with a homicide.

“My family started selling nutcrackers and the money paid for the lawyers,: he said. “I owe a lot to the nutcracker.”

Mr. Bohan, 39, who was convicted in 1995 of second-degree murder, was released from prison in 2005

He never tasted a nutcracker until soon after his release. But he can still recall its cherry flavor, and speculated that his was prepared extra strong for the occasion.

“The first day I drank one?” he said. “That was a ride”