Week in Pictures for Dec. 13

See the slide show

Here is a slide show of photographs from the past week in New York City and the region. Subjects include record snowfall, a chicken in Central Park and a change of address for the de Blasios.

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 Andrea Elliott and the subjects of her Invisible Child series, Dasani and Chanel; Book Review editor Pamela Paul; and Dr. Ruth Westheimer. 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.

A Night Swim for Atlantic Herring

On a windless December evening, sunset faded to shimmering violet over Jamaica Bay. Icy Atlantic waters pushed past Canarsie Pier, filling the bay for the second time that day. Now, two hours from high tide and almost dark, overhead lamps cast shadows deep into Brooklyn’s watery depths. It takes a great leap of faith to believe anything survives in the frigid dark below, but thousands of Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) are hidden there.

H. Gervais & R. Boulart Herring are wonderful eating, and myriad recipes exist for preparing them.

Herring are a reminder of New York Harbor’s abundance. Biologically and commercially speaking, the herring family includes some of the most significant fish on earth. At home on both North American and European shorelines, the Atlantic herring, or sea herring, has been harvested by humans for centuries. It is a critical link in the food chain, connecting tiny plankton to predators bearing every sort of tooth, fin, spine, tentacle, fang or feather. Seals, larger fish, sea birds, whales and humans all feed upon these fish. Though bony, herring are wonderful eating, and myriad recipes exist for preparing them.

Herring are cold-water fish, and their runs into New York City’s shallower bays and shorelines coincide with the onset of winter and lower water temperatures along the coast. This allows their schools to move freely in pursuit of prey.

The easiest way to see a herring is to catch one, and fortunately, with the right equipment, this is not difficult. One can fish for herring effectively during the day, but the best fishing often occurs after dark, as plankton are attracted to the pier lights and the herring follow. The greatest challenge is leaving a warm home after dinner to stand at the end of a cold, wind-swept pier, grasping a fishing rod. You will not be alone in the endeavor; herring fishing is a winter institution for many New Yorkers. When the herring are running, fishermen from Jamaica, Russia, China and Eastern Europe line the piers, united under the banner of the five boroughs.

Using a lightweight spin-fishing pole, a small fishing weight and a rig composed of six or seven tiny hooks dressed with glittery feathers, a hopeful fisher drops the whole rig down to the bay’s bottom and jigs it up and down only slightly. Passing herring take the bait.

Atlantic herring are quite beautiful. They are streamlined, torpedo shape and about a foot long. Their silvery green scales glisten with purple flecks when wet and are easily dislodged if touched. The fish’s large eyes are precision tools for hunting tiny prey in the murky deep, but they give the fish a wistful appearance on shore â€" for some, enough to reconsider the fishing.

A visit to Canarsie Pier or the wooden crosswalk over Sheepshead Bay (both in Brooklyn), or the Cross Bay Bridge in Queens, is often enough for a close look at the fish, as dozens of fishermen sometimes haul as many as five at a time over the railings. If your timing is right, and your luck is good, you should have no trouble seeing a herring on your visit. If your timing is off, you may see only herring scales, dislodged the night before, now frozen to the walkways.

Big Ticket | Gardens in the Backyard for $32 Million

Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times 41 East 70th Street

Ripe for restoration, the mansion at 41 East 70th Street, a 28-foot-wide neighbor of the Frick museum that was built in 1929 for Walter N. Rothschild, a department store magnate, and his wife, Carola Warburg Rothschild, sold for $32 million and was the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records. The asking price for the mansion, whose backyard is part of the private gardens known as the Lehman Gardens, was $40 million.

The brick-and-limestone house has 11,256 square feet of interior space and a staircase that rises to a skylight. It had been owned from 1958 to 2012 by the Century Foundation, which used the top floors for offices. The garden and parlor levels retain the reception gallery, libraries and a kitchen.

The seller, Leroy Schecter, the steel magnate who is asking $85 million for his 35th-floor aerie at 15 Central Park West, bought the mansion for $25 million in November 2012 but did not undertake renovations. The anonymous buyer used the limited-liability company Brightstar Renovations.

Paula Del Nunzio of Brown Harris Stevens, the listing broker, called the house “unique,” citing its width, garden and abundance of windows.

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

Big Ticket | Gardens in the Backyard for $32 Million

Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times 41 East 70th Street

Ripe for restoration, the mansion at 41 East 70th Street, a 28-foot-wide neighbor of the Frick museum that was built in 1929 for Walter N. Rothschild, a department store magnate, and his wife, Carola Warburg Rothschild, sold for $32 million and was the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records. The asking price for the mansion, whose backyard is part of the private gardens known as the Lehman Gardens, was $40 million.

The brick-and-limestone house has 11,256 square feet of interior space and a staircase that rises to a skylight. It had been owned from 1958 to 2012 by the Century Foundation, which used the top floors for offices. The garden and parlor levels retain the reception gallery, libraries and a kitchen.

The seller, Leroy Schecter, the steel magnate who is asking $85 million for his 35th-floor aerie at 15 Central Park West, bought the mansion for $25 million in November 2012 but did not undertake renovations. The anonymous buyer used the limited-liability company Brightstar Renovations.

Paula Del Nunzio of Brown Harris Stevens, the listing broker, called the house “unique,” citing its width, garden and abundance of windows.

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

Trapped by a Subway Door

Dear Diary:

Heading to work, I changed trains at the 96th Street station for one more stop to 103rd Street. As I waited for the No. 1 train, passengers from four express trains disgorged their passengers onto an overloaded platform. When the No. 1 train finally arrived I pushed and squeezed my lean, slim body into the last remaining space on that overcrowded car, just before the doors closed, making me the last man on.

Then I realized that my rather loose-fitting shirt was caught in the door and I was being held captive.

Being a cool, calm and collected New Yorker, I remained in place, not wanting to extract myself by tugging and possibly ripping a shirt that I really liked and not wanting to draw any attention to my amusing predicament.

So, there I stood, patiently, waiting for the next stop, knowing that the doors would open and I would soon be set free. But open they did not. Not at the 103rd Street station, or the 110th Street station … not for 15 more stops. At each and every stop I watched the doors open, on the opposite side of the car, as it emptied and I stood in place, as if this were my preferred place to stand on the No. 1 train.

I was finally released at the 242nd Street station, when the doors opened on my side of the platform, and I walked away cool, calm and collected, with my shirt intact, the last man off.

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: Weekend Snow

James Estrin/The New York Times Prepare to sing “Let It Snow.”

Good morning on this Friday the 13th.

Guess what: It’s cold out. And we know you’ve heard this one before, but it’s going to snow tomorrow, quite a bit. They promise.

Today will be mostly gray with a high of 31 and a nasty wind gusting to 25 miles an hour.

Then tomorrow morning, the snow begins and falls all day â€" four to six inches in the city, more north and west.

To skeptics who recall Tuesday’s fizzle of a snowstorm, a weather service meteorologist, Mike Silva, said, “This storm looks like it’s going to be a more significant snow event.”

The snow will change to sleet and then rain overnight, at least in the city.

Then clearing and warming on Sunday. Perfect for a slushball fight.

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

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.

It is a Gridlock Alert Day.

Alternate-side parking is in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor-elect de Blasio and 15 other new mayors talk with President Obama about urban issues at the White House.

- Mayor Bloomberg’s Friday morning radio spot on WOR-AM (710) at 8:05 a.m.

- The Democratic State Senate co-leader, Jeffrey Klein, unveils his billion-dollar “Affordable New York” proposal of housing aid and paid leave, at odds with the governor’s proposed tax cuts.

- Look up downtown: six F/A-18 Hornet combat jets will fly in formation over the Hudson, posing for photos featuring 1 World Trade Center. Around 1:15 p.m.

- Take in some late-night Motherwell collages at the Guggenheim’s “Art After Dark” program, which includes a bar and live music. 9 p.m. to midnight. [$18 admission]

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

HOLIDAY HARMONY

Snow notwithstanding, there’s music in the air. Listen:

- Tonight, serious musicians crouch over seriously baby grands as the UnCaged Toy Piano Festival begins at, where else, Pianos on the Lower East Side.

- Meanwhile, in Queens, actual children play appropriately sized orchestra instruments as the Corona Youth Music Project’s 150-student orchestra and chorus perform at the Queens Museum.

- On Saturday, a composer hands out cassettes of his twinkling electronic processional “Unsilent Night.” A march of boomboxes ensues, from Washington Square to Tompkins Square.

- For a prosier sort of Christmas music, writers read “A Christmas Carol” at Housing Works. (Will Adam Gopnik be Ebenezer Scrooge?)

- Carolers in their Victorian best croon by candlelight at a mansion in the Bronx.

- An a capella group doo-wops at BAMcafe in Brooklyn.

- And “Bark! The Herald Angels Sing” at Prospect Park. Yes, that’s a caroling session for dogs.

- Sunday offers a drum workshop for teens led by a globe-trotting session drummer.

- And for tuba and euphonium players, it’s TubaChristmas at Rockefeller Center.
Looking for subtler holiday sounds?

Head to Central Park for the annual Christmas Bird Count.

Close your eyes, and listen for owls.

Hoo, hoo, hoo, Merry Christmas!

Joseph Burgess and Andy Newman contributed reporting.

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

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: Weekend Snow

James Estrin/The New York Times Prepare to sing “Let It Snow.”

Good morning on this Friday the 13th.

Guess what: It’s cold out. And we know you’ve heard this one before, but it’s going to snow tomorrow, quite a bit. They promise.

Today will be mostly gray with a high of 31 and a nasty wind gusting to 25 miles an hour.

Then tomorrow morning, the snow begins and falls all day â€" four to six inches in the city, more north and west.

To skeptics who recall Tuesday’s fizzle of a snowstorm, a weather service meteorologist, Mike Silva, said, “This storm looks like it’s going to be a more significant snow event.”

The snow will change to sleet and then rain overnight, at least in the city.

Then clearing and warming on Sunday. Perfect for a slushball fight.

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

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.

It is a Gridlock Alert Day.

Alternate-side parking is in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor-elect de Blasio and 15 other new mayors talk with President Obama about urban issues at the White House.

- Mayor Bloomberg’s Friday morning radio spot on WOR-AM (710) at 8:05 a.m.

- The Democratic State Senate co-leader, Jeffrey Klein, unveils his billion-dollar “Affordable New York” proposal of housing aid and paid leave, at odds with the governor’s proposed tax cuts.

- Look up downtown: six F/A-18 Hornet combat jets will fly in formation over the Hudson, posing for photos featuring 1 World Trade Center. Around 1:15 p.m.

- Take in some late-night Motherwell collages at the Guggenheim’s “Art After Dark” program, which includes a bar and live music. 9 p.m. to midnight. [$18 admission]

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

HOLIDAY HARMONY

Snow notwithstanding, there’s music in the air. Listen:

- Tonight, serious musicians crouch over seriously baby grands as the UnCaged Toy Piano Festival begins at, where else, Pianos on the Lower East Side.

- Meanwhile, in Queens, actual children play appropriately sized orchestra instruments as the Corona Youth Music Project’s 150-student orchestra and chorus perform at the Queens Museum.

- On Saturday, a composer hands out cassettes of his twinkling electronic processional “Unsilent Night.” A march of boomboxes ensues, from Washington Square to Tompkins Square.

- For a prosier sort of Christmas music, writers read “A Christmas Carol” at Housing Works. (Will Adam Gopnik be Ebenezer Scrooge?)

- Carolers in their Victorian best croon by candlelight at a mansion in the Bronx.

- An a capella group doo-wops at BAMcafe in Brooklyn.

- And “Bark! The Herald Angels Sing” at Prospect Park. Yes, that’s a caroling session for dogs.

- Sunday offers a drum workshop for teens led by a globe-trotting session drummer.

- And for tuba and euphonium players, it’s TubaChristmas at Rockefeller Center.
Looking for subtler holiday sounds?

Head to Central Park for the annual Christmas Bird Count.

Close your eyes, and listen for owls.

Hoo, hoo, hoo, Merry Christmas!

Joseph Burgess and Andy Newman contributed reporting.

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

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.