Despite rising numbers of local participants running in its races, the New York Road Runners announced that will put caps on how many entrants they allow starting next year. The races in Central Park will now have a ceiling of 5,000 runners--a number surpassed by over a third of 27 its races this past year. The change is being made to enhance the overall experience of runners, not for any specific health or safety concerns. The 5,000 cap will not apply to the two biggest races--the New York City Marathon and NYC Half-Marathon, much bigger affairs--but those will now see...
Just for fun. There’s nothing hypocritical about it. And yes, it’s real. On October 31, 2001, Billy Crystal and Robert De Niro filmed a Thanksgiving-themed “I Love New York” commercial in New York City’s Central Park. I imagine the conversation between takes went something like: “I’ve seen worse … It just so happens that this turkey is mostly dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.” “Hey turkey! You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin’ to? You talkin’ to me? Well I’m the only one here.” Here’s to...
Tomorrow is the 82nd Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The parade begins at 9 a.m., up at West 77th Street and Central Park West and then makes it way down CPW to Broadway, continuing down Broadway until Herald Square. Macy's says the best place to view the parade is along CPW between 61st and 72nd Streets and simply says to arrive early for good viewing. Besides balloons like SuperCute Hello Kitty and Kermit the Frog, there are many floats (Care Bears' Winter Wonderland, Meaning of Thanksgiving), marching bands and performers, like Idina Menzel, Miley Cyrus, Darius Rucker, Kristen Chenoweth,...
Tomorrow is the day before Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade which means it's the day to see the parade balloons get inflated! The parade blow-up action is along 77th Street and 81st Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue, around the American of Natural History, starting at around 3PM and ending at 10PM. The crowds can be very intense, so be patient. New giant balloons this year are Horton, Smurf, and Buzz Lightyear; returning giant balloons are Abby Cadabby, Beethoven, Dora the Explorer, Flying Ace Snoopy, Kermit the Frog, Pikachu, Ronald McDonald, Shrek® SpongeBob SquarePants™and Supercute Hello Kitty. There...
Get shut out of the big inaugural party? PolitickerNY is reporting that "City Councilman Eric Gioia wants Jumbotrons erected in Central Park for all those New Yorkers who can’t score a ticket or get to Washington D.C. to celebrate Barack Obama’s inauguration in January." In order to make the party happen, private funding would need to come in to play, but Gioia seems determined, saying that “New York has a history of celebrating great human achievement." He also added a comment about his venue choice, saying, “If it’s good enough for Bon Jovi, it should be good enough for the...
There’s something about the shock of red in a forest that makes it ethereal and otherworldly. That’s part of Finnish artist Lea Turto’s point. In 2005, she covered a series of tree stumps in Helsinki’s central park with red felt in order to highlight and celebrate their natural forms. The piece is called The Sacred Realm of the Forest Elf, in deference to an old Finnish word and spirit: Hiisi. The word Hiisi has meant a variety of things: a scared grove of trees, a place between worlds, a guardian spirit or goblin. In all of its incarnations, however,...
This week, we've started to feature another layer in the Google Earth Gallery, showing several thousand panoramic views provided by 360cities.net. This layer contains exciting 360 degree panoramas from a variety of great photographs taken all over the world!Do you want to explore some beautiful spots in Central Park, or be impressed by the beautifully illuminated Kremlin at night as seen from the Red Square in Moscow?These amazing panoramas from 360cities.net will provide you another way to browse user contributed pictures and information in addition to our Panoramio and Wikipedia layers. Are you also an enthusiast taking panoramic views? It's...
There's enough weather on tap this week for us to hold on to our hats, both literally and figuratively. An Alberta Clipper will pass south of the city today, transforming into a coastal storm overnight before returning tomorrow. Arctic air will quickly follow the coastal storm and another Alberta Clipper is expected to zip through the area on Thursday. Early sun today will give way to increasing clouds this afternoon. The high will be about 45. Brisk tonight with a slight chance of rain or snow after midnight. The precipitation is the gasping last breath of lake effect snow...
Two years ago, we mentioned how Columbia students were being suckered by a scam artist couple into giving up cash. The "broken bottle" scam involved the couple bumping into a stranger and dropping a bottle--and then asking the stranger to pay them for the bottle's contents (vitamins for the "pregnant" wife). This is apparently based on the "You Broke My Glasses" scam, which follows a similar script, culminating in a pair of broken glasses and insistence that the stranger hand over cash. (The New Yorker's Talk of the Town also investigated the scam that was preying "on the liberal guilt...
Royal Carribbean is having the world's largest cruise ship built for them, and it's gonna be ready to set sail next November. The Oasis of the Seas is being billed as a traveling city, and will include not one but TWO 24-hour buffets. The liner will span 16 decks, encompass 220,000 gross registered tons (GRT), carry 5,400 guests and feature 2,700 staterooms. Almost 1200 feet long, 154 foot wide and rising 213 feet above the water line, the Oasis of the Seas will be able to host 3,000 crew to service every passenger's need. Oasis of the Seas will...
Photograph of Paula Radcliffe running on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, followed by Kara Goucher, by Jason DeCrow/AP On a very windy day, Paula Radcliffe, last year's ING NYC Marathon winner, won the women's race today with a time of 2:23:556. Radcliffe had looked to the NYC Marathon as her redemption, after a stress fracture earlier this year and a 23rd place finish at the Beijing Olympics. Second place winner was 40-year-old Ludmila Petrova, the 2000 winner, at 2:25:43 Kara Goucher finished third (2:25:53), the first American woman in 14 years to place in the marathon--and this was her very...
Photo of marathon runners last year by sgoralnick on flickr This Sunday, 39,000 runners from around the world will take part in a November tradition, the New York City Marathon. The 26.2 mile course will take participants on a winding course through all five boroughs of the city. The runners start in Staten Island at the base of the Verrazano Bridge before crossing into Brooklyn, where runners will run their most miles of the race. After Brooklyn, runners will head into Queens for a brief moment before going over the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan, where they will be welcomed...
