If you live in NYC, you know of or have seen Joe Ades sitting in Union Square peeling carrots or potatoes.

His was a particular kind of street theater in a city that delights in in-your-face characters who are, and are not, what they seem. For he was the sidewalk pitchman with the Upper East Side apartment. The sidewalk pitchman who was a regular at expensive East Side restaurants, where no one believed his answer to the “So what do you do?” question: “I sell potato peelers on the street.” Mr. Ades (pronounced AH-dess) died on Sunday at 75, said his daughter, Ruth Ades Laurent of Manhattan. She said he never talked about how many peelers he sold in a year, or how many carrots he had sliced up during demonstrations. She said he stashed his inventory in what had been the maid’s room of the apartment.

There were those at the Greenmarket who had heard the spiel, and heard the whispers. “Supposedly his wife is mega-mega-rich — we’ve done fashion shoots in that building,” said Rose-Marie Swift, a makeup artist, as she shopped at the Greenmarket on Monday.

The facts? He was a widower. The apartment had been his wife’s — his fourth wife’s. And besides Ms. Laurent, he is survived by two sons, Sam, of Sydney, Australia, and David, of Byron Bay, Australia; two brothers, Dennis, of Toronto, and Andre, of Sydney; a sister, Vida, of Toronto; and three granddaughters.

He had been selling things during his fourth marriage, and his third, his second and his first. David Hughes, the operations manager at the Greenmarket, said that Mr. Ades had been a fixture on the edges of the market for years. (He stayed on the fringes because he never obtained a permit to do business there, and if he staked out a spot too close to the vendors, someone would complain and security guards would be alerted.)

First he sold children’s books, Mr. Hughes said. “Then he moved into potato peelers,” he said. “He told me books were too heavy to carry around.” The Greenmarket was not his only open-air stage; he had places near Radio City Music Hall and in Brooklyn that he liked, Ms. Laurent said.

Rest in peace.....

You would think that the current Pope, who was a member of the Nazi Youth, would be smarter than to reinstate an excommunicated Bishop who denies the holocaust ever happened.

The reaction worldwide has been fast and furious:

Germany's four-year love affair with its own Bavarian-born Pope was in tatters yesterday after Chancellor Angela Merkel accused the pontiff of giving the impression that Holocaust denial was "permissible" through his decision to pardon the British-born bishop, Richard Williamson.

Ms Merkel's extraordinary decision to wade in to a worsening row between the Vatican and Jewish and Catholic leaders worldwide came just over a week after the Pope formally rehabilitated Bishop Williamson, who said in a recent interview: "Not a single Jew died in a gas chamber."

The German conservative leader said it was not her custom to intervene in church affairs, but added: "This is different when it comes to matters of principle, and I believe it is a matter of principle when... the impression is created that denying the Holocaust could be permissible."

Bishop Williamson, a 68-year-old Cambridge graduate, made the comments on Swedish television a fortnight ago. He was pardoned as part of a move by the Pope in late January to overturn the excommunication of four bishops ordained by the arch-conservative Society of Saint Pius X. The decision has been interpreted as a clear demonstration of the shift to the right that was already under way in the Vatican.

Mr. Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, was born on February 12, 1809. Sadly, some people still don't believe him., they're called Republicans....

Um. Seriously? What the fuck?

Nuclear-armed submarines from Britain and France collided in the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month, authorities acknowledged Monday — touching off new concerns about the safety of the world's deep sea missile fleets.

The HMS Vanguard, the oldest vessel in Britain's nuclear-armed submarine fleet, and the French Le Triomphant submarine, which was also carrying nuclear missiles, both suffered minor damage in the collision. No crew members were reported injured.

Britain's most senior sailor, First Sea Lord, Adm. Jonathon Band, said the underwater crash posed no risk to the safety of the submarines' nuclear reactors and nuclear missiles. But he offered no explanation of how the rare incident might have occurred.

No date given? No explanation given? This whole acknowledgment reeks of bullshit. Is the public supposed to buy that two armed nuclear submarines accidently hit each other at such slow speeds and that it was a fluke and no damage or injuries occurred. Someone seriously fucked up.

Maybe if Sarah Palin believed that sexually active teenagers should learn something other than abstinence-only education, they wouldn't have 18-year old kids like Bristol Palin having babies. And even young mother, Bristol Palin thinks abstinence is unrealistic.

Sarah Palin's 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, who told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren Monday night that the abstinence her mom preaches is "not realistic at all."

Bristol Palin's pregnancy, revealed shortly after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate, shook up the last presidential campaign.

Bristol Palin, who gave birth in late December, described the rigors of being a teen mom, and while she wouldn't go into detail why it isn't realistic for guys and gals her age not to have sex, she did say it isn't smart to get knocked up.

I don't get parents, especially those in politics, who push a conservative-religious agenda that obviously works against their own children. You got Palin with her ant-abortion rights and pro-abstinence-only education and then you had Vice President Dick Cheney, who pushed for homophobic legislation, like banning gay marriage and removing foster children from gay parents, even though his own daughter is a lesbian who just had a baby with her partner.

In the last two days, I've heard a ton of shocking statements about the stimulus bill that President Obama just signed into law. Among the things i've heard are:

>> $30 billion to protect mice in San Francisco, which happens to be Nancy Pelosi’s district.

>> $8 billion to build a levitating train from Disneyland to Las Vegas, a pet project of Nevada Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

>> $5.23 billion "payoff" to ACORN from Obama for assisting him in registering voters. Also, ACORN is now under investigation by the Federal Government

>> $300,000 for a sculpture garden in Miami.

>> There is a provision in the economic stimulus plan that means that "students cannot meet together in their dorms, if that dorm has been repaired with this federal money, and have a prayer group or a Bible study."

Guess what? All of these are lies. Here's some truth, the stimulus is likely to create around 396,000 jobs in California, 109,000 jobs in Michigan, 215,000 jobs in New York, 70,000 jobs in Wisconsin, 206,000 in Florida and on and on. Here's the breakdown.

Of course, Republicans and all of Fox News are calling this the beginning of socialism in America. Check out wacko Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann going totally crazy after the jump......

The popular NPR radio program "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" has just announced it will be bringing their hilarous political news quiz show to New York City on October 22nd. Full details, including panel guests, are expected to be announced shortly.

The 2008 Peabody Award-winning "Wait Wait" is usually taped at Chicago's Chase Auditorium with hosts Carl Kasell and Peter Sagel on Thursday evenings. Since they began the show in 1998, they have performed about eight of their nearly fifty shows a year on the road, but, to my recollection, they have yet to bring it to New York City.

The original queen of erotica has passed away.

Marilyn Chambers, the pretty Ivory Snow girl who helped bring hard-core adult films into the mainstream consciousness when she starred in the explicit 1972 movie "Behind the Green Door," has died at 56.

But "Behind the Green Door" brought something more in Chambers, an attractive young woman who had begun her career as a legitimate actress and model.

While the film was still in theaters, the public learned that its star was the same young blonde smiling and holding a freshly diapered baby on boxes of Ivory Snow laundry soap (which the company touted as "99 and 44/100 percent pure"). The manufacturer quickly replaced her, but it was later discovered that she also had a small role in the 1970 Barbra Streisand film "The Owl and the Pussycat."

"She was the first crossover adult star. She was the Ivory Snow girl and when she decided to make an adult movie that was big news," Steven Hirsch, co-CEO of adult filmmaker Vivid Entertainment Group, told The Associated Press on Monday.

"It was the first adult movie that was more than just a bunch of sex scenes," Hirsch said of her breakthrough film. "She was an actress and she brought that ability to the set of 'Behind the Green Door.' That's part of what made that movie so successful."

Although Chambers was quick to point out in 2000 that she had done more R-rated films that X-rated ones, she made no apologies for the latter.

Chambers, born Marilyn Ann Briggs, on April 22, 1952, grew up in Westport, Conn. She got her start in adult films after answering an ad placed in a San Francisco newspaper by pioneering adult filmmakers Jim and Artie Mitchell.

Married and divorced three times, she is survived by her daughter, McKenna Marie Taylor; her brother, Bill Briggs; and her sister, Jann Smith.

As I was posting the below item, I thought about how Marilyn Manson was inappropriately linked to the Columbine massacre. It turns out that horrible incident happened ten years ago, on Tuesday, April 20, 1999.

What happened at Columbine High School was an absolute tragedy and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were clearly mentally ill, but I still don't think educational institutions have properly addressed the serious issues that plague teenager's who are picked on for a wide variety of reasons. Teenage depression, angst and anxiety are still not being properly dealt with and if a teenager is emtionally fragile, they shouldn't be put on a warning list. Any teenager who has been labeled an outsider, freak, geek or loser has probably said they hate school, hate their teachers, hate their life and wish everyone dead. I know I did. It doesn't mean they're a threat. I know I really wasn't. What it does mean is that teenagers need better teachers and better resources, not some quick fix pills or being monitered as a potential murderer. Ritalin/Zoloft and a suicide-prevention hotline ain't going to stop bullying and the mental anguish that comes along with it.

I don't have the answers of what education institutes should do to better the situation, but it seems like schools are still not doing what needs to be done to ensure that another Columbine doesn't happen.

And this is why she ended up losing the Miss USA competition...

Time has released their annual list of the 100 most influential people. Among those featured on this year's list are President Barack Obama, Senator Ted Kennedy, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, First Lady Michelle Obama, 30 Rock's Tina Fey, Glastonbury Festival founder and organizer Michael Eavis, tennis star Rafael Nadal, Sarah Palin (really?) and M.I.A.

M.I.A. By Spike Jonze

It's funny to think of M.I.A. as influential, because I don't think she ever set out to be influential. The great thing about her is that she doesn't have some global plan. She just has things she cares about and is interested in, from all over the world. She hears huge beats from Angola. She finds a DJ doing amazing stuff in Baltimore. She hears about Aboriginal kids rapping in Australia and thinks nothing of getting on a plane to convince them to do a verse on her song. She reacts to whatever's in front of her: "Those are booming Indian drums," "That is a dope producer," "Those kids are making sick beats."

And she has great taste. Anyone can hear all this stuff, but to be able to curate it, you have to have taste, and Maya Arulpragasam, 33, has it.

I met her right before she put out her first record, in 2005, and she insisted she wasn't a musician. To this day, she doesn't consider herself a musician. She has this wide range of talents and influences — she's a Sri Lankan refugee who didn't speak a word of English before she was 10, yet she's also a child of Chuck D and the Pixies and Fight Club and MySpace. There are no borders for her. She made me realize that you don't have to be from the West to have a favorite Biggie song. We are all listening to the same music.

Last summer she was performing in Philadelphia, and she showed up at the venue, and it was an armory building. She felt kind of weird about it and decided she wasn't going to perform there unless she acknowledged that, so she found a group of Army veterans against the Iraq war and had them come and speak as her opening act. That's her mission — it's personal and evolving, focused but totally spontaneous.

She's always for the underdog. And no matter how many times she's on the Grammys, she'll always see herself as the underdog.

Thank you to the FBI!

That’s what Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said about last night’s attempted bombings at Riverdale Temple and Riverdale Jewish Center. Four men planted what they believed was active C-4 explosive in two parked cars, one for each Independence Avenue institution.

The explosives were inert, Mr. Kelly said; an FBI informant had sold it to the alleged would-be bombers, along with an inoperable Stinger missile launcher they planned to use to shoot down planes at a New York Air National Guard base near their homes in Newburgh, N.Y.

Mr. Kelly said the institutions’ proximity to the Henry Hudson Parkway may have made them “convenient” targets for James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, the men accused of attempting the bombings.

With the exception of Mr. Payen, who is Haitian, the men are all American citizens. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the men believed they were receiving their supplies from Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terrorist organization based in Pakistan. Mr. Kelly said the men wished to retaliate against the United States for its involvement there and Afghanistan.

A little more than a wmonth after the department of homeland security issued a warning about right-wing extremists plotting acts of domestic terrorism, a right-wing fanatic shot and killed Dr. George Tiller, one of only three doctors in America that openly perform second or third-term abortions.

For years, Tiller has been a target of anti-choice lunatics and Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, who called the brave surgeon "Tiller the Baby Killer" and often incited his audience.

Regardless of what the religious lunatics and conservative pundits wanted you to beleve, Dr. Tiller was a true hero to the vast number of women he assisted. He was one of the only people brave enough to stand up to constant death threats from right-wing fanatics and he never backed away from performing the abortions that helped saved many a woman's life. If you don't believe that Dr. Tiller was a true hero, you should head to Feminste, where they have collected a number of the touching tributes that his former patients have posted around the net. The stories from Dr. Tiller's patients are touching and heartbreaking and will make you understand why this man was such a special individual.

Dr Tiller should be remember for all he has done for women's health. He was a great man who did great (and thankfully legal) work. His murder is a tragedy.

The Network has also received many requests from women who received care from Dr. Tiller and from activists in the reproductive justice community to set up a Fund in Dr. Tiller’s name. In response, we have established the George Tiller Memorial Abortion Fund to assist the women to whom George Tiller dedicated his life. The Fund will assist women in the second trimester to pay for abortion care, as well as pay for travel and lodging en route to providers. To donate to the Fund in Dr. Tiller’s name, please send contributions to:

George Tiller Memorial Abortion Fund
c/o National Network of Abortion Funds
42 Seaverns Ave.
Boston, MA 02130

You may also donate online at http://www.nnaf.org/tiller.html

When Homeland Security warned of a sharp increase in right-wing groups partaking in domestic terrorism, they may have been, sadly, correct. The Holocaust Museum in DC has just become a crime scene where a supposedly 89 year-old man went on a shooting rampage.

At least two people were shot Wednesday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, authorities said.

D.C. police spokeswoman Traci Hughes said a person walked into the museum at about 1 p.m. with a rifle and shot a guard. Hughes says the shooter was also shot.

Hughes said the conditions of those shot were not known. Both were being rushed to a hospital.

U.S. Park Police gave slightly different information, saying three people had been shot. Fire department spokesman Alan Etter told CNN a third person was hurt after being cut by broken glass.

The museum normally has a heavy security presence with guards positioned both inside and outside. All visitors are required to pass through metal detectors at the entrance, and bags are screened.

This is the third act of domestic terrorism, following the assissination of Dr Tiller by a right-wing lunatic and the attempted Temple bombing in Riverdale.

Tel Aviv has one of the most progressive gay communities in the world. It surprised some that the typically conservative nation is - for the most part - very welcoming and embraces GLBT community, including letting them openly serve in their army. Unfortunately, that community came under attack this weekend with a tragic shooting at a gay community center for youths.

Two people were killed on Saturday night and several others were wounded when a gunman burst into a gay community center in the heart of Tel Aviv and opened fire with a machine gun.

The dead were identified by Israel Radio as a 17-year-old girl from Holon and a 24-year-old guide from Givatayim.

Hundreds of local residents gathered around police lines, and tearful members of the local gay community wandered around the scene looking traumatized.

Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said police had stepped up security around other gay centers and potential targets.

"This is a most severe incident. The police are investing major resources and means to capture this murderer and his accomplices," Police Commissioner Insp.-Gen. David Cohen said, speaking from the murder scene.

"These were teenagers," Yaniv Weisman, chairman of the Israeli Gay Youth organization, told The Jerusalem Post.

With tears in his eyes, Weisman added, "They came to this center from across the country to talk to one another and receive help. This was supposed to be a safe place for them. Someone knew what they were doing when they came here. This is not a pub or a club."

Still no word when actual tickets will go on sale to the public, but premium tickets are now available for Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me's highly-anticipated debut New York City appearance.

Sure, Frank Sinatra says that if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere, but how do you know? Has anybody ever tested that premise?

Being contrarians, we at Wait Wait decided to take the road less traveled. We've spent the last eleven years travelling around the country doing weekly news quizzes in theaters from Chicago to Honololu to Seattle to Witchita to Sioux Falls, ND, until -- well, frankly, the fact is, we have no place left to go.

We've made it everywhere.

Except New York.

If we can make it there... well, we really won't have proved anything, by that point, but we'll be even more satisfied with ourselves than we are now, which is saying something.

Wait Wait will make its New York City debut on Oct. 22nd at -- where else? -- Carnegie Hall. Tickets are not yet on sale and are sure to sell out -- I mentioned our self-regard, right? -- but we've reserved a few premium seats for the loyal supporters of WNYC. WNYC will reward anyone who donates $300 or more with a pair of tickets. To get your tickets call 1-888-376-9692.

See you at Carnegie Hall, on October 22nd.

Peter Sagal

Family members say the founder of a major Hispanic food company has died in his South Florida home. He was 79.

Jose Antonio Ortega Bonet, founder of the Sazon Goya Food Company, died Saturday morning.

His wife of 55 years, Lucila, told The Associated Press he had lung cancer. She described her husband as a good person and philanthropist.

Ortega grew his business and began a partnership with New Jersey-based food giant Goya Foods in the 1960s.

Sazon Goya is a special mix of seasonings that adds flavor and color to food.

An e-mail was left Sunday for Goya's press office.

Ortega was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1929. He moved his family to Puerto Rico in 1963, where he started a successful career in the food business that eventually became Sazon Goya.

Miep Gies is a saint.

The office secretary who defied the Nazi occupiers of the Netherlands to help hide Anne Frank and her family for two years has died, the Anne Frank Museum announced today.

Miep Gies, who was 100, saved the teenager's diary. Her website reported that she died on Monday after a brief illness. Maatje Mostar, an Anne Frank Museum spokeswoman, confirmed the report but gave no further details.

Gies was the last survivor of the few non-Jews who supplied food, books and company at the secret annexe, above an Amsterdam canal warehouse, where Anne, her parents, her sister and four other Jews hid for 25 months during the second world war.

After the annexe was raided by the German police, Gies gathered Anne's notebooks and papers and locked them in a drawer.

The teenager's diary, which she was given on her 13th birthday, chronicles her life in hiding from 12 June 1942 until 1 August 1944.

Gies refused to read the books and papers, saying that Anne's privacy was sacred.

Later, she said that if she had read them she would have had to burn them because they incriminated those who had helped the family.

Anne died of typhus, aged 15, in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945, two weeks before it was liberated.

Gies gave the diary to the teenager's father, Otto – the only one of those who hid in the annexe to survive the war – and he published it in 1947.

After the publication, Gies worked to promote tolerance.

The following is a statement by Wyclef Jean on Tuesday's magnitude 7.0 earthquake outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti:

“Haiti yesterday faced a natural disaster of unprecedented proportion, an earthquake unlike anything the country has ever experienced.

The magnitude 7.0 earthquake – and several very strong aftershocks – struck only 10 miles from Port-au-Prince.

I cannot stress enough what a human disaster this is, and idle hands will only make this tragedy worse. The over 2 million people in Port-au-Prince tonight face catastrophe alone. We must act now.

President Obama has already said that the U.S. stands ‘ready to assist’ the Haitian people. The U.S. Military is the only group trained and prepared to offer that assistance immediately. They must do so as soon as possible. The international community must also rise to the occasion and help the Haitian people in every way possible.”

Many people have already reached out to see what they can do right now. We are asking those interested to please do one of two things: Either you can use your cell phone to text “Yele” to 501501, which will automatically donate $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund (it will be charged to your cell phone bill), or you can visit www.yele.org and click on DONATE.

This just horrifying news...

The Army said 24 soldiers are believed to have committed suicide in January alone -- six times as many as killed themselves in January 2008, according to statistics released Thursday.

The Army said it already has confirmed seven suicides, with 17 additional cases pending that it believes investigators will confirm as suicides for January.

If those prove true, more soldiers will have killed themselves than died in combat last month. According to Pentagon statistics, there were 16 U.S. combat deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq in January.

I feel like I know this man very well....

It was for decades the most enduring piece of ephemera in New York City and is still among the most recognizable. Trim, blue and white, it fits neatly in the hand, sized so its contents can be downed in a New York minute. It is as vivid an emblem of the city as the Statue of Liberty, beloved of property masters who need to evoke Gotham at a glance in films and on television.

It is, of course, the Anthora, the cardboard cup of Grecian design that has held New Yorkers’ coffee securely for nearly half a century. Introduced in the 1960s, the Anthora was long made by the hundreds of millions annually, nearly every cup destined for the New York area.

A pop-cultural totem, the Anthora has been enshrined in museums; its likeness has adorned tourist memorabilia like T-shirts and ceramic mugs. Like many once-celebrated artifacts, though, the cup may now be endangered, the victim of urban gentrification.

The Anthora seems to have been here forever, as if bestowed by the gods at the city’s creation. But in fact, it was created by man — one man in particular, a refugee from Nazi Europe named Leslie Buck.

Mr. Buck, a retired paper-cup company executive, died on Monday, at 87, at his home on Long Island, in Glen Cove. The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, his son Robert said. Mr. Buck, previously a longtime resident of Syosset, N.Y., also had a home in Delray Beach, Fla.

The Anthora has spawned a flock of imitations by competitors over the years, but it was first designed by Mr. Buck for the Sherri Cup Company in Kensington, Conn.

Mr. Buck’s cup was blue, with a white meander ringing the top and bottom; down each side was a drawing of the Greek vase known as an amphora. (“Anthora” comes from “amphora,” as filtered through Mr. Buck’s Eastern European accent, his son said.) Some later imitators depict fluted white columns; others show a discus thrower.

On front and back, Mr. Buck emblazoned the Anthora with three steaming golden coffee cups. Above them, in lettering that suggests a Classical inscription, was the Anthora’s very soul — the motto. It has appeared in many variant texts since then; Mr. Buck’s original, with its welcome intimations of tenderness, succor and humility, was simply this:

We Are Happy

To Serve You.

This video is just stunning.

Gawker has a surprisingly smart round-up of the idiots responsible for the BP oil spill.

It's been one month since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up, and oil is still leaking at an astonishing rate. Entire state economies might be crushed, and whole ecosystems wiped out. So whose fault is it?

Do you remember the Gulf of Mexico? It used to be a pretty nice stretch of water, down near Louisiana. Now it is the "The Official Deepwater Horizon Oil Leak Family Fun Park." BP, which was leasing the exploded rig from TransOcean, won't even let scientists down near the leak to figure out exactly how much Gulf of Mexico is screwed. (Our unofficial estimate: "a lot.")

So who's at fault?

Another sad milestone has been hit. Today, June 7, 2010, marks the 104th month of U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan and, consequently, America's longest war in history.

The war in Vietnam lasted 103 months.

And with no real end in sight....