Open Thread Wednesday 3/21/12

By on March 21, 2012 1:01 am in open thread

March 21 is World Puppetry Day! It’s also the 50th birthday of New Yorker Matthew Broderick, who won a Tony Award for 1983’s “Brighton Beach Memoiors,” set in Brooklyn in 1937.

Now that we have that straight… What’s on your mind? Fire away! (Photo: Chuck Taylor)

Share this Story:

,

←  Older Comments
Newer Comments  →
  • ColumbiaHeightster

    @Hicks St Guy, let’s not blame the dogs. It’s nature, and not their fault that their owners are gross.

  • PierrepontSkin

    @NY2BK, hats off, my neighbor. I’m not sure if anyone remembers the rants I went on 2 winters ago, but I caught many dog owners in the act after their respective dogs did their business in the melting snow. I almost went as vigilante as you did. Many thanks.

  • Hicks St Guy

    @ColumbiaHeightser, it’s the small, nervous, inbred breeds that have the “accidents” all the time. I had a hound, and he could wait a few blocks, at least, before he’d go. what I think is really pathetic are some of the posts from owners that refer to their mutts having ‘to go to the bathroom.”

  • Raisincat

    @Cranberry I used thumbtack.com to find Jon Kopczyn – NYC Handyman on Demand (212-729-6582). I had a great experience with him and his crew.

    I attended last nights 84th Precinct meeting. It was my first time attending and even with starting 30 minutes late it was a great meeting. Crime is down ~10% in the neighborhood and the police are doing a fantastic job!

  • WillowSt.Neighbor

    NY2BK,
    Well done.
    I have also noticed alot more poop on our sidewalks.
    I was on Court St. the other day walking behind a woman with two dogs. The big dog started to squat in the middle of the sidewalk but the woman (clueless and not paying any attention) tugged on his leash and just kept on walking. The poor dog squatted yet again and again she just tugged on the leash and kept walking. We rounded the corner to Montague St. and the poor dog could not help itself as the poop started shooting out his backside. I ran after the woman and said “your dog needs to poop” and it’s shooting out his backside. All of a sudden I hear alot of yelling. The guys who were cleaning up the street saw what happened and started screaming at her to clean up the dogs mess.
    I sped away as she went back to the scene of the crime to clean up the mess!
    Hopefully she got the message!

  • columbiaplace

    They are filming the lotto commercial at the laundromat on Columbia place and what they did to the place is amazing. They tore the laundromat up. It’s worth a look!

  • Knight

    @NY2BK: it’s nice to see real Brooklyn chutzpah in action. Thanks!

  • JustANeighbor

    Can anyone recommend (or deter me from) the following dermatologists in the area:

    Tobechi Ebedi
    Patrick Hennessy
    Alan Shalita
    Philip Feldman
    Hilary Baldwin
    Sourab Choudurry
    Ahmet Altiner
    Kiersten Rickenbach
    David Avram
    Rella Hartman
    Abraham Freilich

    This list came from my new health plan so I’m not familiar with any of the names.

    Thanks!

  • columbiaplace

    david Avram is great!

  • http://www.tksmall.com T.K. Small

    I went to Sourab Choudurry five or six per years back and he seemed quite good. Fortunately, I haven’t needed that type of doctor since, but would go back if needed.

  • Elmer Fudd

    Claude, being a lawyer, we need some advice. If a dog owner doesn’t pickup after his dog, and a neighbor picks up the poop and throws it at the owner, has a crime been permitted? How about if a neighbor smears the poop on the owner’s clothes? After all, they should take the mess home with them.

  • WillowSt.Neighbor

    I have seen both David Avram and Rella Hartman. I was very impressed with both of them. They were highly recommended by my internist who is in the Castle Connolly Guide of best doctors.
    I believe Dr. Avram was also in the quide.

  • She’s Crafty

    @JustANeighbor, I second the recommendation for Avram, although I see Marc, not David. I’ve seen both though, and they are both great. Very balanced (ie don’t yell at me for sunbathing once a year when I go to Florida) but suitably attentive to immediately biopsy something I felt foolish going in for (it was benign). So they are great, and personally I have not found it difficult to get an appointment. Bring reading material though, because the waiting room magazines are not dependable.

  • She’s Crafty

    NY2BK, thanks for posting this. Every day when I walk my kid to school with another mom on the Promenade we have to deal with dog poop smeared all over and it’s so gross. There is no excuse for not coming prepared to clean up after your dog, also disgusting to bring your dog when you go to lunch – why can’t they stay home? Ridiculous!!

  • She’s Crafty

    @HSG, hysterical. The dog obviously went to the bathroom before being brought into the pet store for ‘grooming’ or something equally ridiculous, perhaps “doggy day care” or something else. Why have a dog anyway!

  • JustANeighbor

    My thanks to you all for the recommendations, and She’s Crafty – NEVER feel foolish where potential skin issues are concerned. Much better to be safe than sorry.

  • Columbiaplaceres

    Dr. Avrams office give lots of free samples away They leave it in a basket right in the waiting room. I never had problems scheduling appointments. And the wait is never to bad.

  • KT

    ColumbiaHeightster – My thoughts exactly! That poor dog. I do hope the dog had a good time breaking into the cheese stash or whatever it got into, because it sure seems to be having some trouble now! I do feel sorry for anyone who is walking down the block now, in the dark. They will never know what hit them.

  • sonny

    I like the idea of taking photos of people who don’t clean up after their dogs. I had the same idea about doing the same for some nannies I’ve seen in the neighborhood. I’ve witnessed some egregious behavior by some nannies and it’s really heartbreaking. These little kids (and in some cases, babies) are so defenseless. I once approached a nanny who was too busy shopping at the Ann Taylor Loft to pay attention to the tiny baby in her stroller, screaming at the top of his lungs (screams of pain, not misbehavior). She yelled at me and said “what are you looking at, mind your own business.” I wished I had a camera phone to snap a picture and post it on this blog. I probably should have followed her home to find out where the parents lived. As a mother of an infant, I worry about the childcare we will soon need to arrange for our baby when I go back to work. I would want to know if my child was being mistreated. Thoughts? Is this a bad idea?

  • mommy

    I have also noticed more dog poop on the streets. It is a disgusting and unsanitary. It only takes a few lazy people to really create a filthy sidewalk. I feel sorry for the dogs and the people who step in the mess.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com Claude Scales

    Elmer: I’m not an expert in criminal law, so this off-the-cuff “advice” is worth just what it’s costing you (putting on my economist hat, that’s the opportunity cost of the time it takes you to read it). I can safely say that someone who throws dog poop at someone else could be charged with a crime; most likely a simple assault but perhaps, given the nature of the “weapon”, an aggravated one. A really ambitious, creative, and slightly crazy prosecutor might even, given the fact that dog feces may contain microrganisms that cause fatal diseases, go for attempted murder (our D.A. isn’t crazy). The same would go for smearing the poop on clothes. At the least this might be charged as something like malicious destruction or defacement of property, or vandalism. Willowtown Cop, I’m sure, has a better take on this than I do.

    That someone was provoked by the victim of the poop throwing or smearing having failed to clean up isn’t relevant to the fact that a crime was committed. A sympathetic judge might consider it extenuation, and give a lighter sentence than usual.

  • Jorale-man

    To raise a dissenting voice on the doggy thread: I find the posting of photos of people accused of some infraction rather troubling. We don’t have all the facts, just a couple of incomplete photos, and it vaguely suggests of vigilante behavior.

    Yes, people need to clean up after their dogs and perhaps the community needs to consider to get existing laws better enforced. And this woman may have been in the wrong. But I would want to hear the other side of the story first before coming to any judgments.

  • Matthew Parker

    @Chuck Taylor: A correction to your lede up top. Matthew Broderick was born March 21, 1962, making him 50 years old, not 49. I heard Sara Jessica threw him a surprise party.

  • MonroeOrange

    Totally agree Jorale-man, people should clean up after their dogs, but posting photos is way too vigilante. We have presumed this person as guilty in the court of public opinion on a unverified account. While it sounds like this lady is a horrible dog owner and neighbor, this isn’t the place to prosecute her.

    Im surprised there were so many comments supporting this behavior. The person who took the picture should have confronted the lady and asked why she hasn’t cleaned it up. That would have been alot easier than going home and posting online to complain. You could have shamed her and hopefully taught her a lesson that such behavior is not neighborly.

  • David on Middagh

    Looks like NY2BK’s posts are gone. Wouldn’t it have been better to redact only the link to the Flickr photo’s? Frankly, I’m glad I saw the pics. If I happen to encounter this person violating the pooper scooper law, I will be able to assume it’s not an oversight or first offense, and approach her accordingly. Unless I chicken out.

  • AL

    JustANeighbor

    Bad experience w Avrams and Hartman.

    Hilary Baldwin wonderful but impossible to get appointment w her years ago – perhaps that has changed. I’d give her office a call.

  • Elmer Fudd

    Thanks, Claude. I’ll be sure to wear my hoodie while on poop patrol.

  • WillowSt.Neighbor

    AL,
    I tried many times to make an appointment with Dr. Baldwin but I never got a call back.
    I would think that if a doctor was not taking any new patients, they would have the decency to have someone in their office call you back and tell you.

  • JustANeighbor

    Al, what was your bad experience?

  • WillowtownCop

    @ Elmer – I believe that would be Harassment 2, which is a violation, not a crime. Meaning the police officer would have to witness it personally in order to be able to write a ticket. It would be SUCH a shame if that happened to someone, and the hands of the police were tied.

←  Older Comments
Newer Comments  →