Todd Heisler/The New York Times Santa takes many forms this time of year.Good morning, New York. Temperatures will drop today, with rain forecast, and by late Sunday, we may see snow.
Meanwhile, holiday season is in full swing in the city. The likelihood of catching a Christmas carol hovers at around 100 percent, should you leave your Grinchy lair.
Here’s a guide:
- Lights on the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree: 45,000.
- Number of tourists who will take tour buses to Brooklyn to see the over-the-top Christmas displays of Dyker Heights: 6,000.
- Linear feet of icicles in Bergdorf’s Fifth Avenue windows: 1,000.
- Christmas trees harvested in New York State: 1 million.
- Christmas trees sold in the city that were grown in New York: weirdly, very few. Most city trees come from Canada and North Carolina, though upstate growers hope to squeeze in next year.
- Number of ice rinks up and Zambonied: eight, soon to be nine. Prospect Park reopens its rink on Dec. 20th.
- Holiday cards sent to Brooklyn residents by Borough President Marty Markowitz, at his own expense: 7,000. (Save this year’s - he’s leaving office).
- Weight of the New Year’s Eve Ball, in pounds: 11,875.
- Millions estimated in Times Square to see it drop: one.
Here’s what else you need to know for Friday and the weekend.
WEATHER
Messy. Fog, then thick clouds as temperatures fall through the day to 43 by afternoon.
Then a soaking rain â€" as much as an inch, perhaps changing to sleet overnight.
Clearing on Saturday, and cold, with a high of 42 and lows in the 20s.
Stuff falls from the sky again Sunday evening. If it remains snow, it might stick for a while.
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.
Beware: it is a Gridlock Alert Day.
Alternate-side parking is in effect.
COMING UP TODAY
- Mayor Bloomberg’s weekly spot on the John Gambling radio show. Only four of these left. WOR-AM 710 at 8:05 a.m.
- A state Assembly hearing on a bill to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 18, at 250 Broadway downtown. 10 a.m.
- Graduation for 162 Fire Department paramedics and medical technicians, in Brooklyn.
- A candlelight vigil for Nelson Mandela outside the South African Consulate, at 333 East 38th St. 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- A preservationist denounces the plan to remove old metal stacks from the New York Public Library along with millions of books, at the Neighborhood Preservation Center in the East Village. 6 p.m. [Free]
- An a cappella carol concert by the Metropolitones, plus free trolley rides to City Island, at Bartow-Pell mansion in Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. 5:30 p.m. [$12]
- An Illumination Celebration at Conference House Park at the south tip of Staten Island. 7 p.m. [Free]
- Steve Earle, Bettye LaVette, Joan Osborne and others pay tribute to John Lennon at Symphony Space. 8 p.m. [$65 and up]
- Either you’re having another paranoid hallucination or there really is a Philip K. Dick film festival at IndieScreen in Williamsburg opening tonight and running through the weekend. [$11 and up]
- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.
IN THE NEWS
- After two decades elsewhere, William J. Bratton will return as the city’s police commissioner under Mayor-elect de Blasio. [New York Times]
- The famously undemonstrative Mayor Bloomberg choked up during a farewell speech. [New York Times] [Video via NBC New York]
- Scoreboard: Knicks nix Nets, 113-83. Rangers beat Sabres, 3-1. Blues dog Islanders, 5-1.
Joseph Burgess and Andy Newman contributed reporting.
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