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Nocturnalist at the Super Bowl | A Near-Cigar With Mike Ditka
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times Mike Ditka on ESPN’s Mike and Mike show. Mr. Ditka signed autographs and footballs for fans after the event.
The air pooled with machine-generated smoke, wisps rising into the rafters of the cabaret bar, where the presently chic tropes of such places - taxidermy creatures like a fox and a crow - peered down into the audience. But on stage, flanked by velvet curtains, in place of a sultry singer was a very different sort of star: the septuagenarian former football coach, Mike Ditka.
Mr. Ditka, who has three Super Bowl rings to his name, including one as head coach of the Chicago Bears, bemoaned the open-air cold weather Super Bowl. “When we played, you got to go to Miami or New Orleans,†he said. “New Jersey? And you get stuck in the bridge on the way?â€
Mr. Ditka held a Q. and A. with an audience of devotees at “Citi Presents Evenings With Legends,†an event series put on by Citibank. The tickets were $79 and available only to cardholders. The unlikely venue was The Heath, a restaurant at The McKittrick Hotel, home of the immersive theater production “Sleep No More†â€" all facts a slew of publicists repeatedly reminded Nocturnalist throughout the night to mention.
The discussion was called “Mike, Mike and Mike†and was led by the ESPN sports talk show hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic. But the former football coach, with his somewhat crotchety opinions of football these days â€" “those pretty boys,†he said â€" stole the show. Questions from the audience, who all addressed him as “Coach†with such reverence it might as well been “Your Honor,†were frequently about what it felt like to be tackled by various players. Some landed blows that “just about undressed me,†Mr. Ditka said.
Backstage, Mr. Ditka spoke about choosing which of his three jewel-encrusted Super Bowl rings to wear - his favorite is the diamond dazzler won coaching the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX - and offered Nocturnalist a Ditka brand cigar that was secreted in his jacket pocket. “You got a man?†he asked, proffering the cigar, before tucking it away. (Nocturnalist never knew that only men were capable of smoking cigars. Party reporting is so edifying.)
We headed out with him, warmed by his respect for his fans, for whom he nearly always stops to give signatures, no matter the downsides. “When the fans quit coming to the game, the game is over,†he said. “You get a stalker here and there - that’s O.K.â€
Outside, his words were put to the test. Two young men, Jake Fleece, 22, and Jimmy Brooks, 26, had waited in the cold. They rushed at the coach on 27th Street. “I can’t feel my feet!†said Mr. Brooks plaintively, shoving several deflated footballs at Mr. Ditka, who dutifully signed them before fleeing in a van.
They were no superfans. “I just said that because the coach was there,†Mr. Brooks said, revealing they were in the business of selling sports memorabilia, and had spent the week trolling the streets for football players. Since arriving in New York City from California three days earlier, Mr. Fleece said he had already accrued over 90 signatures.
In the dark street, he carefully wrapped the football in plastic. He unzipped his duffel bag. Inside were 20 more.
At a Concert Full of Musical Stars, a Spotlight on Their Teacher
It’ll be 70 years this spring since a 17-year-old Gabriel Kosakoff shouldered his trombone and marched out of the High School of Music and Art, dreaming of fame and fortune in the world’s top concert halls.
But soon it was a rifle he was shouldering â€" it was 1944 â€" and by the time the war was over, the would-be virtuoso was on a different career track that would put him in front of an orchestra, conducting promising young students in what today might be called Mr. Kosakoff’s Opus.
Which is to say he became a passionate teacher, inspiring generations of future classical and jazz headliners set to salute him at a gala concert next week.
“I felt I could make a better contribution to music teaching than behind a trombone,†Mr. Kosakoff, a gangly 87-year-old six-footer, said this week in the alumni office where he shows up regularly to assist in events.
Passionate he certainly still is. “No child left behind? Are you kidding?†he snorted. “Without the arts, all children are left behind.â€
Many of his former students speak of him with reverence. “You could really feel the love in him,†said Kim Laskowski, associate principal bassoon at the New York Philharmonic, a 1972 graduate of the high school and a teacher herself now at Juilliard. “He loved the job. He loved the kids. He loved the music.â€
Mark Sherman, a 1975 alumnus, award-winning vibraphonist and percussionist now also teaching at Juilliard, called Mr. Kosakoff “always a positive force.â€
“Everyone ended up with careers,†he said.
So when a constellation of jazz stars takes the stage Monday night for the second annual jazzfest at the LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and the Performing Arts on Amsterdam Avenue at 65th Street, near Lincoln Center, the spotlight will fall on Mr. Kosakoff as honoree, the first school graduate to win a permanent appointment to the school’s teaching staff.
That was in 1956, when the school, founded 20 years earlier by Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia as “my most hopeful achievement,†occupied Gothic towers at 135th Street and Convent Avenue. Mr. Kosakoff went on to become chairman of the instrumental music department starting in 1969, and he retired in 1991.
He forged the city’s top student instrumentalists into the All-City High School Band and recruited a leading jazz educator, Justin DiCioccio, to run the school’s jazz program.
While continuing to take part in school functions, Mr. Kosakoff also became a board member and consultant on the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, which raises money to distribute instruments to poor schools across the country. The foundation was organized in 1996 by another of his students, Michael Kamen, from the class of 1965, who composed the score for the 1995 movie “Mr. Holland’s Opus.â€
Mr. Kosakoff was born into a musical family. His father, Reuven, was a prolific American composer of Jewish liturgical music who studied with the Austrian classical pianist Artur Schnabel in Berlin and returned to New York where Gabriel and his twin brother, Raphael, were born on Dec. 24, 1926.
Both boys were admitted to the fledgling Music and Art school in 1940. Apart from the piano, Gabe chose to study the trombone. “They always seemed to march first in the parade.â€
He was struck by the school spirit. “Every student wore a pin,†he remembered. “You were so proud.†The principal was Benjamin Steigman, a Swedish-born teacher who wore cuff links and a boutonniere. “When he walked into the classroom, you stood up,†Mr. Kosakoff recalled. “He left me his cuff links. I’ll wear them Monday night.â€
Two weeks after getting his diploma, with soldiers storming the beaches of Normandy, he enlisted. The Army tried to make him an engineer. “They figured out pretty soon that was not what I was good at,†he recalled. So he was assigned to Paris â€" Paris, Tex. â€" for heavy weapons training. “I fired bazookas, cannons,†he said. “It was fun.â€
Landing in Manilla after the Japanese surrender, he was made fourth trombone in the 396th Army Ground Forces Band. Unfortunately, they needed only three trombones. So, as he recalled, “The colonel decided, ‘You’ll be the band leader â€" you’re tall.’â€
“Who said you can’t learn a trade in the Army?†Mr. Kosakoff said.
“I want you to know,†he confided, “my presence in the Army didn’t make the war any shorter.â€
Back home he studied music education at New York University and with his brother worked as house managers of the Kaufman Concert Hall at the 92nd Street Y where he met one of the music ushers working for $1 a night. That was Carol Lenhoff of North Adams, Mass. “She decided she liked the music,†Mr. Kosakoff recalled. “I came with it.â€
Sixty one years later, they have a son and a daughter and five grandchildren.
His students kept him young, he said. Year after year, they were always the same age, so he had to be. “I’m on whatever level they’re on,†he said.
Week in Pictures for Jan. 31
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 frozen Hudson River, a giant crane on its way to New York and scenes from Super Bowl Boulevard.
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 Dan Barry, Mike Hale, Javier Hernández, Eleanor Randolph and Clyde Haberman; and the author Jennifer Senior. Tune in at 10 p.m. Saturday or 10 a.m. Sunday on NY1 News to watch.
Read current New York headlines and follow us on Twitter.
New York Today: Halftime Show, Locally Grown
Tannen Maury/European Pressphoto Agency The Super Bowl halftime show will feature, among others, Bruno Mars. Updated, 10:36 a.m.
Good Friday morning and welcome to the slush bowl. With the warming weather, beware of pools of salt and ice.
It’s two days before the Super Bowl across the Hudson.
We heard a local was producing the halftime show, so we gave him a call.
Ricky Kirshner, who has seven halftime Super Bowl shows already under his belt, grew up in South Orange, N.J.
Mr. Kirshner, 53, lives with his wife and kids in Manhattan.
Is it thrilling to produce this year’s show, which stars Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, on his home turf?
“You could be anywhere,†he said with the whimsy of a true New Jerseyan. “You’re between your office and the stadium.â€
Anything make this Super Bowl stand out?
“The weather.â€
“Growing up here, I knew what it was like in February,†he said. “I was like, why is everyone freaking out?â€
“I was totally wrong because this week was really cold.â€
Rehearsals required his team of 1,700 to be outside for three hours at a time.
Only last night could performers peel off their coats and rehearse in full wardrobe.
Spoiler alert: Sunday’s 12-minute halftime show includes five high school marching bands from New Jersey â€" South Brunswick, Nutley, Bergenfield, Morris Knolls and Roxbury.
Here’s what else you need to know.
WEATHER
Return of the big four-oh, if not today (forecast high: 39 degrees), then definitely Saturday (44) and Sunday (48).
Cloudy throughout, but good football weather if you’re into that kind of thing.
COMMUTE
Subways: Check latest status.
Rails: Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or N.J. Transit status.
Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.
Alternate-side parking is suspended for Asian Lunar New Year. Meters are in effect.
Remember: Broadway is Super-closed to traffic from 47th Street to 34th Street through Sunday. Side streets in the area are also to be avoided.
Other Weekend Travel Hassles: Check subway disruptions or list of street closings.
COMING UP TODAY
- Daytime fireworks for Lunar New Year, at Sara Roosevelt Park on Chrystie Street. 11 a.m. [Free]
- Here’s a guide to Lunar New Year events across the city today and throughout the weekend.
- Mayor de Blasio is on Al Sharpton’s MSNBC show at 6 p.m.
- Modern portraits of the 12th-century warlord Prince Igor go on display in the gallery at the Metropolitan Opera, in honor of next week’s opening of “Prince Igor†the Borodin opera. [Free]
- “Dance on Camera,†a five-day festival of films of dancing, opens at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. [Some free, others not]
- Learn about apple-stuffed upside-down French toast and other landmarks of Alabamian cuisine at the Art of Alabama Food exhibit at Chelsea Market, through Sunday. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. [Free]
- An open-mike throwdown for teenagers and young adults at Von King Park cultural center in Bedford-Stuyesant. 6 p.m. [Free]
- The percussionist Steven Schick leads a panel talk on percussion in the 21st century, at Columbia. 3 p.m. [Free] (He also plays a concert on Saturday at 8 p.m. [$25-$35])
- Walt Frazier tells a neuroscientist what it’s like inside the mind of a basketball player, at the Rubin Museum. 7 p.m. [$40]
- Last two days to see the Puppy Bowl in Times Square. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. [Free, reservations required]
- If you seek more Super Bowl-related fun, SocialEyesNYC.com has a big list of things to do. And here’s a guide from The Times.
- If, on the other hand, you seek to avoid the whole extravaganza, DNAinfo has a guide to non-Super events.
- For even more listings, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.
IN THE NEWS
- The de Blasio administration will settle lawsuits over stop-and-frisk tactics by agreeing to reforms ordered by a federal judge… [New York Times]
- … and will stop assigning rookie officers to high-crime precincts. [New York Times]
- A subway fare increase to $2.75 next year is possible. [Daily News]
- Hammer-wielding masked robbers smashed display cases at Cartier on Fifth Avenue and made off with $700,000 in watches. [New York Times]
- An artist calls attention to violent movie posters that dot the subways by posing, bloodied, in front of the guns pointed at him. [Gothamist]
- Authors will appear in person at your book club, for a fairly hefty price. [New York Times]
- And the city’s first professional cuddle therapist charges $60 a snuggle. [Daily News via Gothamist]
- Scoreboard: Knicks slay Cavaliers, 117-86. Devils extinguish Stars, 3-2 in overtime.
THE WEEKEND
Saturday
- Free coffee and other treats for humans and their dogs at a Coffee Bark in Prospect Park. 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.
- The Wonderful Wizard of Odd, in which six clowns interpret scenes from “The Wizard of Oz,†at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center. 11 a.m. [Free, limited seating]
- Make a Victorian-style valentine for a nursing home resident, and one for someone else, at a workshop at Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island. 1 p.m. [Free]
- Worship the so-called talk-radio “sports pope†Mike Francesa at the FrancescaCon, starting at Saloon on York Avenue at noon.
- Last weekend for the “War/Photography†show at the Brooklyn Museum. [$12]
- Who knew their audiences overlapped? “Girls†temporarily moves to Saturday to avoid the Super Bowl. As does “Looking.†10 p.m., 10:30 p.m.
Sunday
- Worship Chuck the almighty groundhog at the Staten Island Zoo as he issues his annual augury. Doors open at 6:30 a.m., augury at 7:30 a.m. [Free]
- Last day for the stunning Mike Kelley show at MoMA PS1. Noon to 6 p.m. [$10]
- A lecture, “German Expressionism on the Eve of the Great War: The Artist as Mystic Vessel,†at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Times Square. 10 a.m. [Free]
- Learn about the history of black barber shops in America at a lecture by Quincy Mills, author of a book on the subject, at the main Brooklyn Public Library. 1 p.m. [Free]
- Lunar New Year festivities, continued: a parade, with the usual cast of dragons, starting at Hester and Mott Streets. 1 p.m. [Free]
- If you’re looking for something fun outside New York City, The Times’s Metropolitan section has suggestions for Westchester, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut.
AND FINALLY …
This week in 1860, the head of a Manhattan synagogue, Morris Raphall, became the first rabbi to deliver the opening prayer in Congress.
Reviews were mixed.
According to a 2010 article in The Forward, one newspaper called the rabbi’s appearance “the triumph of an enlightened religious opinion over the vulgar prejudices of the world.â€
But an Episcopal publication, The Churchman, wrote that it produced a sense of “extreme sorrow, and almost disgust.†The rabbi’s prayer, the publication wrote, amounted to “no less than the official rejection of Christianity by the Legislature of the country.â€
Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.
New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning.
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A Jerk in the Subway
Dear Diary:
I was walking up a flight of stairs at the Times Square subway station behind a woman in a black leather jacket, who looked fairly young from behind. She moved, however, painfully slow. I wrung my hands a bit dramatically behind her, then moved over to the stairway on the other side of the handrail and passed her.
At the top of the stairs, I heard a man behind her bleat, “You need to go to the gym.â€
“I have a broken leg,†she replied.
The man huffed and puffed past her. He was built like Humpty Dumpty and wearing a little nylon backpack.
I waited for him to apologize or, at the very least, look a little taken aback.
But instead he said, as he turned toward Sixth Avenue: “Yeah, well you should still go to the gym. Work out your other leg.â€
With my jaw dropped, I turned back to the woman, expecting her to really lay into the guy. Instead she just continued to go slowly up the stairs with a pathetic hangdog expression. I turned away and trailed behind the mean man for half a block before I lost him in the Midtown commuter shuffle.
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.
Nocturnalist at the Super Bowl | When Food, Not Football, Is the Star
It was billed as an evening fusing football with flavors of New York, but the pastrami on rye could have been a monarch’s take on that city signature - a jewel-like gobbet of meat with caraway-scented brown butter - the kegs were filled with wine, and the hot dogs (brace yourself, oh true New Yorkers) were of a variety from Puerto Rico.
That did not stop guests and staff members from devouring every delicious morsel on Wednesday evening at the 50 Yard Lounge, a somewhat inexplicable concept-party space in a tent wedged between two restaurants on 33rd Street and Eighth Avenue. The purpose-built venue was devised by Lonny Sweet, a sports agent turned agent to culinary stars like Marc Forgione, a winner of “Iron Chef.â€
The weeklong event, for which tickets originally cost from $400 for one day to $2,200 for a five-day package, was intended to bring together the worlds of food and sports, in the vein of Mr. Sweet’s unusual career path. Every few hours new foods will be sampled, and different celebrity chefs will make appearances: On Saturday, for example, there will be a demo by the meat maven Pat LaFrieda. He will carve a pig onstage with Matt Light, a former offensive lineman for the New England Patriots.
“Sports and food are starting to become a really cool intersection,†said Mr. Sweet, describing the concept before asking Nocturnalist to shill for the event’s many sponsors by mentioning them in print. Sure: Beautiful women stalked around with seemingly more drink samples than there were customers; tables were festooned with pizza-flavored almonds with signs indicating their manufacturer.
There were rum cocktails from a company bearing the name of an island that is a United States commonwealth and a booth advertising a cruise line with ice sculptures of Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower. They barely melted: The tent had no heat while Nocturnalist visited because, the staff said, the generator was down. All the sponsorship lent the gathering the feeling of a trade show. The interesting concept seemed to still be ironing out some kinks on the first day of its inaugural run. (A return visit the next day showed the heat is now up and running.)
There was a table to play nonmonetary blackjack, sponsored by an Internet gambling site, but no croupier any time Nocturnalist passed by. “He’s getting a beer,†a publicist for the event said.
The food, however, was flawless, even if the New York angle was tenuous. “It’s a chefy version of pastrami on rye†Mr. Forgione said, when Nocturnalist took him to task for trying to pass off his delicious dish as something akin to our childhood Second Avenue Deli staple. “It’s like smoking a joint and saying, ‘What can I get out of pastrami on rye?’†he said. “This is it.â€
Fredrik Berselius, chef of Aska restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, struggled to defend the New Yorkness of his astoundingly tasty dish of sunchokes with elderflower vinegar, chanterelles and oil infused with spruce (from Maine, he admitted). His assistant interjected, “It’s the future of New York food!†The men high-fived.
Boris Lutsenko, 27, who works in finance, stood eating a Puerto Rican hot dog. Coincidentally, he had won tickets to the 50 Yard Lounge in a raffle at an East Village hot dog restaurant. “It’s like the circle of life,†he said.
He was enjoying himself, and the free drinks. “By midnight I’ll be eight or nine drinks in,†he said. “By that point, I’ll probably have the time of my life.â€
A Passenger, a Cabdriver and a Missing $10 Bill
Dear Diary:
On New Year’s Day evening, I shared a taxi with a friend who lives close by. She gave me a $10 bill as she exited the cab, and I went on to my apartment building a few blocks away. I read the meter as $13, so I gave the driver the $10 and six singles. The driver then began to argue with me that I had only given him $6.
I had a vague recollection that when I handed over the money, one of the bills had wafted out of my hand and on to the front seat. The driver insisted that there was no $10 bill on the front seat. As the conversation became more acrimonious â€" I accused him of pulling some sort of scam, for one thing â€" I finally gave him $14 (by then the meter had turned over), I got out of the cab, shaking my fist at him and yelling “I’ve got your number!,†implying that I would report him to the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
Fast forward to the next evening. My doorman buzzed up. “Did you take a cab here last night?â€
“Yes,†I replied.
“Well, a driver just pulled up and gave me a $10 bill. Said it was for the lady he dropped off last night.â€
Thank you, Mr. Cabdriver, wherever you are.
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New York City Council Gets a New Speaker
Karsten Moran for The New York Times Melissa Mark-Viverito was sworn in as New York City Council speaker on Wednesday at Hostos Community College in the Bronx.
Get Your Hot Chocolate Here!
Dear Diary:
Walking east along 82nd Street toward York Avenue with the weather well below 20 degrees, my thoughts were on the hot drink I would soon make for myself when I got home. Suddenly, as I neared a large apartment house at the corner, I heard a young girl’s voice cry out: “Get your hot chocolate here, hot chocolate here!â€
As I got closer to the building entrance, ahead of me was a folding table with a large thermos dispenser, stacks of plastic cups, a can of whipped cream, miniature marshmallows and a hand-lettered sign announcing the offering. Behind the table stood a delightful little girl about 7 years old and her mother.
“How creative,†I thought. “A new take on the summer lemonade stand.†As I came up to the table, the little girl asked, “How do you like it, with whipped cream or marshmallows?â€
Surprised by her question, I responded, “How much are you charging?†Laughing, she replied, “it’s free.â€
In disbelief, I turned to the girl’s mother. “You’re giving it away?†I asked.
“Yes, it’s free,†she said with a smile. Then she explained, “My daughter got so many gifts for the holidays, we wanted her to learn to give back to the community, and we thought this might be a good way. So enjoy.â€
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New York Today: Will Super Bowl Blvd. Clog Midtown?
Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times Traffic officers maintain control on 34th Street. Good morning on this slightly warmer Wednesday.
Today is the opening of Super Bowl Boulevard, formerly known as Broadway.
Through Sunday, 13 blocks of Broadway - from 34th to 47th Streets â€" will be closed to traffic and converted into a so-called fan zone.
Will this affect your commute?
Do you dare venture into Midtown?
It turns out that the onslaught of pedestrians, rather than the closed street, might cause the biggest problems.
Many drivers already avoid Broadway, parts of which have been blocked to cars since 2009, when pedestrian plazas opened at Times Square and Herald Square.
But many thousands of people are expected to descend on the fan zone.
As Seventh Avenue clogs, taxis and other savvy drivers may head over to Fifth and Ninth Avenues, creating delays.
Today will also offer the usual Wednesday afternoon matinee shows the theater district, further complicating matters.
As for subways, everything should be fine, the transportation reporter for The Times, Matt Flegenheimer, told us.
But the Broadway Line (N,Q, R) and the Sixth Avenue Line (B, D, F, M) could get busier than usual.
“They all go to Herald Square, which is at the foot of the mayhem,†Mr. Flegenheimer said.
Here’s what else you need to know for Wednesday.
WEATHER
Fingers, rejoice. It will get up to 24 degrees today. It starts out cloudy, then clears.
Good weather for walking around, blocking traffic.
Tomorrow we may even hit 30. Slightly warmer, right?
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 or the 8s.
Alternate-side parking is in effect today.
COMING UP TODAY
- Jeh Johnson, the federal homeland security secretary, visits MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., to tour security operations for Sunday’s Super Bowl. Then he meets with the N.F.L.’s chief security officer at the Sheraton in Times Square for a news conference on safety. 12:30 p.m.
- The City Council speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, holds her inauguration ceremony at Hostos Community College in the Bronx. 6 p.m.
- Assistant secretary for what? The U.S. Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing, Daniel L. Glaser, sits on a panel about the Role of Financial Power in National Security, hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations on the Upper East Side. 1 p.m. [Watch live]
- A PepsiCo pop-up park, #Pepcity, opens in Bryant Park at 2 p.m., complete with food, art and a 10,000-foot dome, which you can barely glimpse here. [Free].
- Transit Trivia Night returns to the New York Transit Museum. 6:30 p.m. [$15]
- The Islanders play the Rangers at Yankee Stadium, which has been converted into an outdoor rink for a series of pro hockey games. (See how, in 60 seconds). 7 p.m. [Tickets are still available.]
- Lottery number readers visit the C & C discount store in the Bronx, which sold a winning $1 million Powerball ticket that expires this Sunday and still hasn’t been claimed. 11 a.m.
- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.
AND FINALLY …
The Empire State Building is having a very busy day.
This morning, it dons red and gold in honor of the Chinese New Year.
China’s consul general in New York, Sun Guoxiang, flips the switch at 10 a.m.
Then, at night, it succumbs to an hourlong Super Bowl XLVIII Social Media-Driven Light Show.
Fans have been tweeting answers to Super Bowl-related questions to Verizon with #WhosGonnaWin.
If more Broncos fans tweeted answers, the lights shine orange and blue at 7 p.m.
If Seahawks fans triumphed, the lights will be blue and bright green.
Track their progress, live.
Joseph Burgess 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.
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Nocturnalist at the Super Bowl | First Stop, the Barker Bowl
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times At the Barker Bowl, a dog football match held Tuesday morning, few of the dogs seemed to know the rules of the game. It’s been a while since we dusted off the gowns and hit a party in the name of journalism; too long, 760 days too long in fact â€" not that we’ve been counting every agonizingly boring night since we last assumed our alter ego Nocturnalist and hit the town, notebook in hand.
With the sports spectacle of the year invading our environs, a bowl super enough to close off Times Square for a purpose-built sled ride (last time we checked toboggans were not used in football, but what do we, a humble party reporter, know of the finer points of an athletic franchise?) and magnetic enough to induce hundreds of thousands to - willingly - head to New Jersey, we thought it was time. With a party a day until kickoff, Nocturnalist is back.
First stop, the Garden State, which is - despite much slight of hand to the contrary - actually hosting the Super Bowl, to an athletic spectacle rivaling the game itself: Barker Bowl, a dog football match held Tuesday morning at the resplendent Morris Animal Inn, an ultra luxury pet boardinghouse in Morristown.
Through a chandeliered waiting room, past cat suites where felines lounged on four-poster mini-beds watching must-see TV of flitting songbirds on individual tiny televisions, Nocturnalist was led to a sparkling case packed with trophies of which the Seahawks or Broncos could only dream. Cups upon chalices of silver dog show awards were in the case, including Best in Show from the 1943 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, won by Pitter Patter of Piperscroft, a toy poodle shown by Walter Morris Sr., whose descendants run the inn.
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times The event raised money for the Animal Welfare Federation of New Jersey. The 54 dogs in doggie day care that day (rates are from $29.95 to $99.95 for a day, which includes hand-baked treats like multigrain pup pretzels) played in two heats: Little dogs played inside, in a room festooned with pompoms and signs cheering them on (“Ra-Ra Arf!†for example). There were referees in black-and-white-striped shirts and “Bowser Beer,†a chicken-broth-flavored dog beverage to enjoy afterward. For the pint-size players, the gridiron was a green mat laid across what normally is a heated canine exercise pool. The big dogs played outside in the snow.
Yet few of the dogs seemed to know the rules of the game. (The event did raise $540 for the Animal Welfare Federation of New Jersey.)
Puck, a West Highland white terrier, however, earned his “quarterbark†moniker. He scored almost every touchdown, doggedly toting a squeezey orange football back and forth between miniature goal posts. There was only one foul: an unscheduled bathroom break by a mutt on the sidelines.
Though each dog had participated in a photo shoot that morning, their pictures then featured on a personalized Most Valuable Pooch, or M.V.P., player card for their owners, few were in fact “most valuable.†They were, with few exceptions, terrible at football. Remmy the Rhodesian Ridgeback stood in the end zone snow, eating it. When Ellie the standard poodle was thrown a Hail Mary pass, she just stared at the ball. But Gialla the lab had a linebacker’s strength to rival Ray Lewis - we know, she used it to tackle Nocturnalist.
Freezing With the Giants in ’62
Dear Diary:
The last time the National Football League held its championship game in New York City was Dec. 30, 1962. The defending champion Green Bay Packers defeated the New York Giants, 16-7. It was a cold, blustery day, pretty much the forecast for February’s Super Bowl XLVIII in the New Jersey Meadowlands. There, however, most comparisons cease. Things were a little different 51 years ago.
First of all, tickets were easy to obtain. The president of my mother’s company was a season-ticket holder who also had two end zone tickets to the game. No one wanted them, so he gave them to his secretary, my mother. She, in turn, passed them on to me (two weeks shy of my 12th birthday) and my uncle.
Dressed in our warmest wool coats (only ducks had down then), gloves and scarves (called “mufflers†if memory serves), we arrived at the old, Ruthian Yankee Stadium, and found our seats adjacent to the left field bullpen.
We did not know about wind chill in those days, but I had never ever been so cold. From the 1 o’clock kickoff, the wind howled and the cold increased as the pale, heatless sun fell below the stadium facade. No one sat. We all stood, stamping our feet and clapping our hands, not to rally the team but to avoid frostbite. Fifths of whiskey were being passed up and down the rows. I had my first drink that day, but it did no good. The wind chilled us to the bone.
Halftime at Super Bowl XLVIII promises to be a big show featuring Bruno Mars. Halftime at the 1962 equivalent was â€" and I am serious â€" a high school marching band from New Jersey.
In February, I will watch the Super Bowl from the warmth of my living room. But, truth be told, the 11-year-old in me wishes that I could be there, too.
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Cherished Beams of Sunlight, as Captured by Readers
View the slide showOct. 22, 2013, 42nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues: I walk down 42nd Street every day as part of my commute and the light is always changing. For a few weeks each year, walking east on 42nd Street is like walking directly into the sun. â€" Ross Margelefsky As New York City grows ever more vertical, sprouting fresh batches of breathtakingly high towers by the year, one of the casualties has been natural sunlight. Streets, stoops and parks are growing darker, and people’s apartments are too, which we explored in an article last month. We asked readers to submit their experiences of light and shadow in New York City, and discovered anew how deeply personal light, and its absence, is for people living in this space-deprived town.
One man (Jackson Taylor, Prospect Park South, Brooklyn) wrote about “a cherished beam†that fell midmorning across his living room. Another reader (Steve Gournay, Washington Heights) wrote about his determination to move into a bright apartment after leaving a sunless one - and a marriage. And another (Elizabeth Grainger, Upper West Side) told of her quiet joy in watching her rabbit, Rudi, eat his afternoon lettuce snack in a pool of sunlight, which he moved with as the light shifted through the year.
View the slide showDec. 8, 2013, Bedford-Stuyvesant: The sun’s winter rays are special in a different way compared to its summer rays. They don’t shine from above but from afar, stretching shadows. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch that long light buncing off your son while he plays with Legos in the most angelic scene ever. â€" Milton Washington Several readers (Ed Grazda and Colin Welford among them) bitterly lamented the steady loss of light - along Elizabeth Street in SoHo, and in a West Village apartment adjoining the former St. Vincent Hospital site, which will house $3,500-per-square foot luxury condos. Others disclosed the healing, even transcendent power they drew from pockets of sunlight that spilled into their homes - making a cramped studio apartment seem bigger and less lonely (Danielle Levoit, Fort Greene, Brooklyn), or a nondescript building staircase spring to life (Victoria Bush, Park Slope, Brooklyn). “Shafts of light,†wrote one sun-deprived reader (Andrew Segreti, Brooklyn), who works nights, “are beams from the gods.â€
More Readers’ Photos of Light in the City »
New York Today: It’s Freezing (Déjà Vu)
Todd Heisler/The New York Times Brrrr. Updated 6:51 a.m.
Good freezing Tuesday morning to you. Please do not hog the covers.
With Groundhog Day around the corner, it is a good time to remember that weather patterns tend to repeat themselves.
And so, after a 44-degree yesterday, we awake in the depths of the third cold wave of this roller-coaster month.
It is around 15 degrees with a wind chill of near zero. It will get up to only around 19 this sunny afternoon.
Tomorrow will be much like today, with the addition of a few snowflakes. Bill Murray will not yet get the girl.
But it will warm up a bit for Thursday and the weekend, with highs in the upper 30s.
That’s normal for this time of year, which means it’s abnormal for this crazy month. By our count there have been only four January days with roughly average temperatures.
By January’s end, if the forecast holds, there will have been 15 days where the temperature hit the teens or lower.
That’s the most since 2004, according to Steve Fybish, a weather-statistics obsessive whom we consult on such things.
What weather wonders will February hold, we wonder. Stay tuned.
Here’s what else you need to know today.
COMMUTE
Subways: No delays. Check latest status.
Rails: O.K. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.
Roads: Avoid the West Village - there’s a water main break near Greenwich Street. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.
Alternate-side parking makes its triumphant return. Move your car.
Remember: Broadway is closed to traffic from 47th Street to 34th Street for Super Bowl festivities all week.
COMING UP TODAY
- Borough presidents discuss their priorities at a breakfast forum at the Yale Club. [Sorry, sold out]
- Training the next generation of weather obsessives: observation stations will be installed at two parochial schools on Staten Island so that their students can compare weather data.
- Giants cornerback Prince Amukamara signs autographs for students at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, where a football-themed exhibition is running. [$11]
- Cruel P.R. joke of the day: bikini-clad models and flight attendants host a beach party at Grand Central to promote traveling to Fort Lauderdale on JetBlue. 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. [Free]
- Christie’s Renaissance Week (the auction house, not the governor) begins with the sale of works by Goya (the painter, not the bean purveyor). 2 p.m. [Free]
- Hear what it was like to follow the trail of the investigative reporter Seymour Hersh from his first-ever biographer, at the Mid-Manhattan Library. 6:30 p.m. [Free]
- Anna Quindlen talks about her new book, “Still Life with Bread Crumbs,†with Katie Couric at the Barnes & Noble at Union Square. 7 p.m. but get there early. [Free, but book buyers get the best seats]
- A comedy show that promises to be “actually good†although it’s called “Back Fat.†At 61 Local in Cobble Hill in Brooklyn. 8:15 p.m. [Free, R.S.V.P.]
- VH1’s citywide Super Bowl warm-up continues with a show by Janelle Monáe at Lehman College in the Bronx. [Sold out, but live-streamed and telecast around 11 p.m.]
IN THE NEWS
- Mayor de Blasio pleaded his case in Albany for a tax increase to pay for pre-K, saying it would provide “predictable and consistent†revenue, unlike a competing pre-K proposal put forth by the governor. [New York Times]
- Despite crashes, derailments and equipment woes, Metro-North’s ridership reached a record high last year. [Daily News]
- You can still get Super Bowl tickets, for as little as $1,150. [Daily News]
- Someone dumped a duffel bag of live boa constrictors outside an auto body shop in Brooklyn. [New York Post]
- Scoreboard: Raptors nip Nets, 104-103. Bruins maul Islanders, 6-3.
AND FINALLY…
Pete Seeger, who died on Monday at 94, was not exactly secretive about his left-wing leanings.
But when Communist-hunters in Congress asked him about a 1947 show in the Bronx, Mr. Seeger clammed up.
The concert had been listed in the Daily Worker, a Communist paper: “Tonightâ€"Bronx, hear Peter Seeger and his guitar, at Allerton Section housewarming.â€
(The Allerton neighborhood in the Bronx was home to several Communist groups.)
The listing was mentioned when Mr. Seeger was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955.
“May I ask you whether or not the Allerton Section was a section of the Communist Party?†said his interrogator.
“Sir, I refuse to answer that question, whether it was a quote from The New York Times or The Vegetarian Journal.â€
He was found in contempt of Congress.
Joseph Burgess 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: Signing On
Joshua Bright for The New York Times You know you’re really the mayor when your name is on the sign. This one is near the Williamsburg Bridge. Updated 6:41 a.m.
Good morning on this strangely seasonable Monday. Enjoy your one-day respite from the cold.
Now, come along for a brief ride in our rickety time machine.
There’s a corner of the city where Michael R. Bloomberg is still the mayor.
But not for much longer.
The piece of real estate in question is actually a big green sign, near the Outerbridge Crossing, the city’s southernmost entry point.
“Welcome to Staten Island,†it says. “Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Boro Pres. James P. Molinaro.â€
It is the last of the 53 entrance signs in the city that still carries the old guard’s names.
Today, it is to be replaced with one honoring Mayor Bill de Blasio and Borough President James Oddo - nearly a month into their respective terms.
For the last few weeks, the city Department of Transportation has been busy cranking out new signs at its signage plant in Maspeth, Queens.
The semiotic transition is being performed at a total cost of $27,000.
In Brooklyn, the former borough president, Marty Markowitz, adorned the signs with eye-catchingly corny slogans like “Entering Brooklyn - How Sweet It Is†and “Leaving Brooklyn, Fuhggedaboudit.â€
Mr. Markowitz was replaced by Eric Adams at the end of last year. But his legacy lives on: the new signs with his successor’s name still bear Mr. Markowitz’s slogans.
Here’s what else you need to know today.
WEATHER
Disorienting. The temperature should get near the average high for this date of 39 degrees.
A little rain could fall (rain is like melted snow that drops from the sky).
But tonight, bam: Back down to 12.
COMMUTE
Subways: Northbound Q rerouted to N line in Brooklyn. Northbound E and M running on the F line in parts of Manhattan and Queens. Check latest status.
Rails: Scattered delays on L.I.R.R. and North Jersey Coast Line. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.
Roads: No unusual delays. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.
Note: The Super Bowl, being played across the river in New Jersey on Sunday, will bring changes and traffic havoc to the city all week.
Broadway is closed to traffic from 47th Street to 34th Street as it gets turned into one long pedestrian mall / field-goal practice field / toboggan run. Do not go near Midtown in a car unless you must.
Alternate-side parking is suspended yet again.
COMING UP TODAY
- Mayor de Blasio is in Albany trying to sell state lawmakers on his universal pre-K plan and the tax increase on the rich that would pay for it. He’ll be back to attend a Super Bowl shindig in Jersey City tonight.
- The city and thousands of volunteers conduct the annual street count of homeless New Yorkers tonight.
- J. Crew’s chief executive, Millard Drexler, talks with the Parsons professor and architecture critic Paul Goldberger at Parsons. 6 p.m. [Free]
- Super Bowl madness: an exhibition on the video game Madden NFL at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens…
- … Vintage football cards at the Metropolitan Museum of Art [$25 suggested admission] …
- … and J. Cole raps at Queens College as part of VH1’s Super Bowl Blitz. 10:50 p.m. [Sold out, but telecast and live-streamed]
- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.
IN THE NEWS
- Water towers, those icons of the New York City roofscape that supply drinking water to millions, turn out to be full of E. coli and other gross stuff. [New York Times]
- A drunken driver struck and killed a 67-year-old man in Staten Island, the police said. [New York Times]
- One more time, at least: Representative Charles B. Rangel, at 83, is staffing up for his re-election campaign. [Capital New York]
- Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is urging President Obama to let college graduates refinance their student loans. [Daily News]
- Senator Charles E. Schumer has proposed “Avonte’s law,†which would pay for optional electronic tracking devices for autistic children. [New York Times]
- A Russian Orthodox priest in Brooklyn declared plans for Pussy Riot to play at Barclays Center “satanic.†[Brooklyn Paper]
- Scoreboard: After 40-minute sun delay(!) at Yankee Stadium, Rangers stomp Devils, 7-3. Knicks lick Lakers, 110-103.
Joseph Burgess and Annie Correal 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.
My First Bagel
Dear Diary:
Hotel Edison Delicatessen. A cold night in 1981.
Having grown weary of the university’s cafeteria in the few months since arriving in Manhattan, I was suddenly seized with an intense homesickness. I thought of the college friends I’d left behind in Kentucky and how we’d spent many boisterous hours in the deli’s booths after “Sweeney Todd†and other performances on our visit in January 1980.
That short week was enough to convince me that the city was my home and where I would make a life. Now I wasn’t sure I could stay. But I took the subway up to a nearly deserted Times Square. (Yes, it was often empty in those days.) I was surprised to find “our†waitress still leaning against the grill and she remembered me â€" or, kindly, said she did. She asked if I’d come back for good. I told her I thought so.
She took away my menu when she discovered I’d never eaten a New York bagel and brought me one toasted with butter. At first, she didn’t notice as I folded a napkin in my lap, but she watched with growing incredulity as I picked up my knife and fork. After I cut the first careful bite, she shook her head, removed the utensils from my hands and placed them on the counter.
Without saying a word, she picked up my bagel and took a tear out of it with her teeth, looking at me as she chewed. She dropped it back on the plate and, without missing a beat, said: “You’re gonna live here? Ya need to know how to eat a bagel. That’s how ya eat a bagel.â€
I decided to stay.
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A Scene to Warm a Penguin’s Heart
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times The high temperature of 23 degrees in New York City on Friday left no chance that the ice floes in the Hudson River would melt. The forecast for Saturday includes snowfall of up to one inch.
A Spilled Cup on the No. 1 Train
Dear Diary:
It was a busy Monday morning, that kind of day where you’re half-awake and half-asleep, and you feel kind of numb, and every movement feels tingly and annoying, and you’re lucky that you’re able to push your way into the No. 1 train car.
I yawned. I wasn’t fully awake, as an early school schedule does not allow for dawdling and snooze buttons. I noticed steam beginning to form on the window in a circle. The air smelled of coffee and sweat. Suddenly, a woman let out a small shriek, but most in the car were too busy fumbling with their iPhones to notice.
“My dress, my dress, my dress, my dress!†she repeated, grabbing on to the ends of her expensive-looking, body-hugging white dress. A thick, brownish liquid formed an egg-shaped stain, dripping off the end of the cloth. A pool formed there, the liquid encompassing her white high-heeled shoes, staining them likewise. Next to her stood a tall man, unmoving man, holding a tilted cup, empty but still dripping with the last of his beverage.
Then, the woman turned into a tornado of fury and brown stain.
“WHY THE [expletive deleted] WEREN’T YOU CAREFUL WITH YOUR [expletive deleted] COFFEE? THIS IS A [expletive deleted] TRAIN! YOU KNOW TO HOLD IT BETTER THAN THAT! I HAVE A [expletive deleted] INTERVIEW, YOU [expletive deleted] KNOW!†she wails.
As the brakes started to squeal and the train entered 79th Street, the tall man smugly motioned to get off the train.
“It’s tea, not coffee, you know.â€
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.
Week in Pictures for Jan. 24
Here is a slide show of photographs from the past week in New York City and the region. Subjects include carriage horses in Central Park, the swearing-in ceremony for Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and sledding in a Queens 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 Amy Chozick, Lorne Manly, Kate Taylor and Tom Kaplan. Also, Anna Quindlen, an author, and Jason Robert Brown, a composer. Tune in at 10 p.m. Saturday or 10 a.m. Sunday on NY1 News to watch.
Read current New York headlines and follow us on Twitter.
Big Ticket | At $14 Million, Two Are Better Than One
Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times The Century condominium building. Two condominiums high in the north tower of the venerable Century at 25 Central Park West that were marketed as a single entity â€" to assemble a full-floor residence with panoramic views â€" sold for $14 million, the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records.
The unusual opportunity for an outsider to buy a lofty floor in its entirety at the Century, and to acquire 2,962 square feet of interior space and spectacular park frontage, inspired a bidding war that quickly eclipsed the asking price of $12.5 million.
The aggregate monthly carrying charges for the 29th-floor units, which will be combined by the buyer into a nine-room residence, No. 29QR, are $7,707. Among the Century’s outdoor amenities are a common roof deck, a courtyard and a garden.
Previously known as No. 29O+Q, the larger unit, at 2,106 square feet, sold for $10.08 million. It has three bedrooms, two and a half baths, beamed ceilings, period molding and expansive windows. The grand living room faces the park, as do the eat-in kitchen and the corner master. The other unit, No. 29R, a recently renovated one-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath, 856-square-foot apartment with views of the western and southern cityscape from its corner bedroom, sold for $3.92 million. As the small but coveted piece necessary to complete a two-part jigsaw puzzle, it garnered a premium price for its seller, Tomas Lajous, in a brokerage firm-concocted combination in which each apartment enhanced the value of the other.
Amy Katcher of the Corcoran Group represented the sale of the larger unit for Living Investments, a limited-liability company in Southport, Conn. Robby Browne and Chris Kann of Corcoran had the listing for the smaller unit, and Mr. Browne also brought the buyer, identified as CPW2 L.L.C., to the two-pronged deal.
The Century, an Art Deco landmark between 62nd and 63rd Streets, was designed by Irwin Chanin and built on the site of a performance space, the Century Theater, in 1931. The building is one of just three condominiums among the fortress of co-ops that dominate Central Park West below 88th Street.
Ms. Katcher said the twin attractions of a combination unit on a preferred floor at the Century had driven the deal. “The intention behind it was to create a single, full-floor residence,†she said. “And it is just really rare to get a full-floor condo in a tower in a prewar, full-service building in a hot area. It was a bargain compared to what it would cost anyplace else, and the unobstructed views are actually superior to what you’d get elsewhere: There are views from every room in this apartment.â€
With several rooms providing views in multiple directions, and not a neighbor in sight, the potential residence promised a level of privacy and gracious living rare in this crowded city, she said.
Big Ticket includes closed residential sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.
Opossums Are Unloved, Yet Hard to Resist
Cody Pope, via Wikimedia Commons Opossums might be on the list of New York’s least loved animals, but it is hard to resist their appeal.
The Virginia opossum is more closely related to kangaroos and koalas than to the rats and rodents with which it is frequently compared. North America’s only native marsupial, the opossum is probably more frequently observed in New York City trash cans than in New York City parks.
And though their unsanitary services might place opossums on the list of New York’s least loved animals, it is hard to resist their appeal. Perhaps it is that pointy white face, or the wide, toothy grin of 50 undifferentiated teeth (a primitive marsupial characteristic), but the smile looking up from the bottom of the trash can is like a mischievous child’s. It is easy to anthropomorphize, but an opossum wants an approval it will probably never get from us.
Staring at a Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) is like collapsing the history of mammalian evolution into a single moment. Mammals like these were scampering through the underbrush while dinosaurs ruled the earth, and with hard-won perseverance, they maintain several very primitive characteristics.
Baby opossums are born naked and blind, about the size of honeybees, after a gestation of just under two weeks. They face their first challenge immediately: a climb to their mother’s marsupial pouch. An opossum may bear up to 24 joeys at a time, but she has only 13 nipples.
Life is hard for these animals, and a 3-year-old opossum is an old opossum. To make up for this brief life span, opossums begin to bear young at 10 months and never stop, producing multiple broods annually if conditions permit.
The animal’s most famous talent, “playing possum,†is not a voluntary response to a threat. If hissing, lunging or baring its teeth does not ward off a problem, an opossum actually faints from stress. Physiologically, the opossum shuts down, balls up its front feet and goes limp. It may even drool from its open mouth.
If this drama fails to dissuade a predator, it can exude an ill-scented, greenish mucus from its anal glands to heighten the impression that it has died.
If it is hard to imagine a predator fooled into believing an animal who was snarling and fighting just moments ago is actually a rotting carcass, consider that there is no shortage of opossums in North America. The subterfuge must work at least some of the time.
It is interesting to note that the drooling, drunken behavior of a bluffing opossum often fools humans into believing it is rabid. For reasons that are poorly understood, opossums are highly resistant to rabies, and are far less of a threat than raccoons or skunks. Of course, it is never wise to be close enough to any wild animal to find out. It is also wise to seek medical attention for any scratch or bite from an opossum.
Because these marsupials have a range that extends from Mexico to Canada, it is not surprising that all five boroughs of New York City and its surrounding suburbs are home to them. Opossums do not hibernate and can be observed at bird feeders, parks and your garbage pails through all four seasons.
New York Today: Waiting Out the Cold
Karsten Moran for The New York Times Updated, 6:54 a.m.
Good Friday morning to you.
Behold the miracle of the double-digit wake-up temperature.
- It’s not quite a heat wave, though: 12 degrees as of 6 a.m., with a wind chill feeling like minus 7, and a high temperature of 17 today.
- Tomorrow, for a change of pace, it will snow, probably an inch or two.
- Though we will see 30 degrees tomorrow and might break the freezing mark on Monday for the first time in a week, normal temperatures will continue to elude us.
- As far as forecasters can see â€" two weeks â€" below-average temperatures are predicted. “When we say ‘warm-ups’, we’re talking about mid to upper 20s,†said Joey Picca, a National Weather Service meteorologist. Normal high this time of year is 38.
- All this means more of the same woes that have plagued commuters all week. See details in the “Commute†section below.
- On the subways, that means a late start to express trains, because express tracks become makeshift indoor train yards when overnight temperatures drops to 10.
- On city buses, it means delays and detours.
- On commuter rails, particularly Metro-North, with its ancient overhead wiring system, it means periodic stoppages. During yesterday’s morning rush, a snapped wire interrupted service.
- “The wire gave out,†explained a spokeswoman, Marjorie Anders. “It failed. It got fatigue. It died and it broke. It’s 100 years old. It’s brittle.â€
- There was an interruption last night on Metro-North that halted the whole railroad for two hours. But it was caused by computer problems, not weather.
- So far this morning, the railroad has mostly normal service. Knock wood and enjoy the weekend. Here’s what else is happening.
COMMUTE
Subways: Delays on the R. The C train is skipping some local stops in Manhattan. Check latest status.
Rails: Scattered delays on L.I.R.R. and North Jersey Coast Line. Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.
Roads: No unusual delays. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.
Alternate-side parking is suspended yet again for snow removal.
Weekend Travel Hassles: Check subway disruptions or list of street closings.
COMING UP TODAY
- Mayor de Blasio makes an announcement at City Hall at 11:15 a.m. (Live-streamed on nyc.gov.)
- Representative Carolyn Maloney and other officials attend a ceremony commemorating the 69th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz at the Museum of Jewish Heritage downtown. 11 a.m.
- City Council members call for Asian Lunar New Year to be made a legal holiday. 2 p.m. at the Queens library branch in Flushing.
- Last weekend for the Edgar Allan Poe exhibition at the Morgan Museum and Library. [$18, free tonight from 7 to 9 p.m.] …
- … While an exhibition on “The Little Prince†opens at the Morgan.
- The last weekend, too, for the “American Modern†show of paintings at the Museum of Modern Art. $20, free today from 4 to 8 p.m.
- Wholesome fun: a Brooklyn contra dance party at Camp Friendship in Park Slope. 7:30 p.m. [$15]
- The weekend-long One Act Play Festival begins in Long Island City. 8 p.m. [$15, $18 at door]
IN THE NEWS
- The 1978 jewel heist at Kennedy Airport immortalized in “Goodfellas†produced its first real-life arrest: a 78-year-old man linked by the authorities to the Bonanno crime family. [New York Times]
- Federal prosecutors in New Jersey issued subpoenas to Gov. Chris Christie’s re-election campaign. [New York Times]
- The Bronx is getting a new brewery. [Daily News]
- Scoreboard: Rangers fall to Blues, 2-1. Penguins top Islanders, 6-4.
THE WEEKEND
Saturday
- The Winter Jam sports festival in Central Park. Snow blowers will be on hand, as if that’s necessary. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. [Free]
- The annual Idiotarod race, in which dogs and sleds are replaced by humans and shopping carts. Location to be announced. Noon. [Free]
- Bring your snow rhino to a snow sculpture contest in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Noon to 2 p.m. [Free]
- The traveling show for kids about the Museum of Modern Art’s collection of African-American art comes to the Red Hook Recreation Center. 1 p.m. [Free]
Sunday
Sunday
- Make animal masks and hear tales of hibernating creatures at Wave Hill garden in the Bronx. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. [Free]
- Of all the strange things: Pro hockey outdoors in the winter. Rangers vs. Devils at Yankee Stadium. 12:30 p.m. [$93 and up]
- The Times’s Weekend Miser recommends the free tour of the Afrofuturism show at the Studio Museum in Harlem. 1 p.m.
- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.
Joseph Burgess and Annie Correal 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.
Whom to Follow, Mr. Commissioner? Don’t Mind if We Do!
Welcome to Twitter, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton â€" or shall we say @CommissBratton. Soon you’ll forget how you ever wasted time without it.
But first, sit down for a moment. Let’s chat. And let’s start with your third tweet:
We agree! Police officers are increasingly using Twitter to communicate to journalists and the rest of the public. But what kind of relationship is it when you’re not following a single account, as was the case as of 3 p.m., hours and hours after you first hit this social media world? Twitter users aren’t feeling very loved.
We get it, it can be hard to know whom to follow when you’re brand-new to this platform. So we thought we’d help you with a few suggestions. It’s not too hard to, ahem, follow along:
@rikkijklieman
Always a good idea to start with your wife. Period.
@SeattlePD
Just because you’re in law enforcement doesn’t mean you can’t loosen your collar a little. After police officers handed out bags of Doritos at a marijuana festival in Seattle, they marked the occasion with a tweet that hit every spot: a pun, a pop culture reference, a meme. A lot to learn from here.
@DPDChief
In the mood for some gossip? David O. Brown, the Dallas police chief, chooses to announce which officers he’s fired through Twitter. And look at this nice thing he said about you:
@MiamiBeachPD
The Miami Beach Police Department knows how to take advantage of a big moment. See this tweet it sent earlier Thursday:
@changethenypd
You don’t want to follow only people who agree with you, do you? That would be boring. This account would be glad to lend you suggestions:
@BronxZoosCobra
Get to know the local flora and fauna â€" You have heard about the cobra, right? It’s still out there, wreaking havoc throughout New York Twitter. Better keep an eye on it.
@RedSox
You may not be able to wear a Red Sox jacket in the Big Apple, but you’re a fan! Follow on Twitter:
Keeping Tabs on Your Performance
May we modestly suggest that you follow @nytmetro and @nytimes? If you haven’t already, you’ll get to know our reporters @jdavidgoodman, @JoeKGoldstein and @mschwirtz well.
So it’s a small list, but this will get you started. Maybe our readers below can offer their own suggestions.
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