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In general, though, the crowds know something. Dominique Ansel Bakery is a wonderland, and Maison Premiere’s happy hour is such an amazing bargain that I am afraid that simply mentioning it may spook the owners into charging more than a dollar for each pristine oyster.

There are exceptions to this rule. It does not apply to lines formed by tourists who trade their vacation days for a handful of cake crumbs under a waxy helmet of frosting on Bleecker Street. Nor does it apply to lines for brunch. Be wary of the opinions of people who will endure hunger and hangovers for a free mimosa.

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“So, for many art forms, it is indeed true that “anyone could do that”, in the sense that anyone has the technology or technique to hand to execute the idea. It has become possible for more and more people, often untrained, to express their creative imagination as doing so has become less and less dependent on technical expertise. However, not everyone can have the ideas, the eye or the ear to come up with something worth making real. That core of invention remains elusive, beyond most of us most of the time. The best answer to the moan “I could have done that” remains “but you didn’t”. No one else came up with the geometric lines and block colours of Mondrian before he did, not because they lacked the skill, but because they lacked the vision. Technology and trends in art have not, therefore, made really good art more democratic, they have simply widened the membership of the elite.”

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“Jersey City welcomes Super Bowl XLVIII,” declares the mural in tall, silvery letters and Roman numerals between outsize images of the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which is given to the winning team. The mural also has two images that originally looked like the National Football League’s logo, a blue shield with a football and stars at the top and red letters in the center — an N, an F and an L.

But the center of the shield has been painted over, obscuring the letters. Abdul Gonsalves, perhaps better known as the graffiti artist Paws21, said he had painted the letters when he painted the mural. So why did they disappear?

“You would have to get in contact with City Hall,” Mr. Gonsalves said.

Jennifer Morrill, a spokeswoman for the city government, said the letters were painted over because of concerns about using the N.F.L. logo without the league’s permission.

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Can you really have your cake and eat it? According to Michael Pollan, you can. In this fun RSA Short, Pollan explains how to eat well by following one simple rule without the need for fad diets or deprivation.

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“What Villard Michel Richard’s $28 fried chicken does to Southern cooking, its $40 veal cheek blanquette does to French. A classic blanquette is a gentle, reassuring white stew of sublimely tender veal. In this version, the veal cheeks had the dense, rubbery consistency of overcooked liver. Slithering around the meat was a terrifying sauce the color of jarred turkey gravy mixed with cigar ashes. If soldiers had killed Escoffier’s family in front of him and then forced him to make dinner, this is what he would have cooked.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/15/dining/restaurant-review-the-bistro-at-villard-michel-richard-in-midtown.html?ref=todayspaper

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Perhaps the weirdest factor of all pertains to Norfolk, Va., and points nearby. What is now the Tidewater region of Virginia was slammed by a meteor about 35 million years ago — a collision so violent it may have killed nearly everything on the East Coast and sent tsunami waves crashing against the Blue Ridge Mountains. The meteor impact disturbed and weakened the sediments across a 50-mile zone. Norfolk is at the edge of that zone, and some scientists think the ancient cataclysm may be one reason it is sinking especially fast, though others doubt it is much of a factor.

Coastal flooding has already become such a severe problem that Norfolk is spending millions to raise streets and improve drainage. Truly protecting the city could cost as much as $1 billion, money that Norfolk officials say they do not have. Norfolk’s mayor, Paul Fraim, made headlines a couple of years ago by acknowledging that some areas might eventually have to be abandoned.

Up and down the Eastern Seaboard, municipal planners want to know: How bad are things going to get, and how fast?

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Today, Sunday is handily the most-watched night of the week, with an average of 124.2 million viewers using their televisions during prime time, according to Nielsen. That figure gradually declines with each successive night of the week, bottoming out on Friday and Saturday before rebounding again on Sunday.

Of course, in the digital era, not every show that is aired on Sunday night is watched in real time. According to data from TiVo, five of the 15 most time-shifted shows of the week are on Sunday nights; for series like “Mad Men,” “Girls” and “Nurse Jackie,” as much as 90 percent of their viewership occurs in a time-shifted mode.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/arts/television/for-tv-fans-cramming-in-sundays-best.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

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