To atone for months of neglect, we spent most of our four hour train ride home engrossed(ish) in the fashion magazines that constitute our summer library. In the March (we know, we're behind) issue of Allure we found an article explaining the Junk Food diet. The words were out of order; the Junk Food diet is just diet Junk Food -some of which, we readily admit, makes frequent cameos in our own cupboards (not those 100 calorie packs though--too small and airy). However, while this particular diet may not live up to its promising title, there are plenty that do.

Below, a partial list:

• The Baby Food Diet: but what about all those calories we burn chewing?
• The Mega-Bite Diet: that's more like it. SF art dealer Horace Fletcher called for each mouthful to be chewed no less than 32 times before spitting out the remains. Good dinner party trick, too.
• The Jesus diet: for Christian Scientist raw foodies with above average masochistic inclinations.
• The Breatharian Diet: for all you oxygen fans. cheap, too.
• The Tapeworm Diet: and you thought Nicole Richie went to Mexico for the Mezcal.

More»

[Photo via NY Times]

I didn't know what to think of the Sunday Styles piece yesterday titled "SoHo Meets HoJo in Atlantic City" and, after sleeping on it a night, I still haven't come up with a conclusion. The article outlines the deal that is to be made tomorrow between the Chelsea, the new hotel going up in Atlantic City, and the owners of our beloved Beatrice Inn. AC and Beatrice? Probably the last two things I would imagine hearing in one sentence. Though the developer of the project Curtis Bashaw, insists it would be a match made in heaven.

“It will be SoHo House-y,” Mr. Bashaw said last week. “All on the fifth floor, you’ll have a library, a game room, an oval-shaped bar and a Stephen Starr restaurant, which connect like a big house and spill out onto an enormous pool deck.”

What about when you venture beyond the confides of the hotel? Did you forget that AC is “like Las Vegas got drunk and slept with South Jersey and this is their bastard child.” (SeanKalish). Seriously, will Chloe and her posse really want to bask in the New Jersey sun when they can be in the Hamptons? Then again, true hipsters would jump at this chance to be part of something so "uncool". Also, the one time I've been to AC (stayed in Borgota), it was a surprisingly good escape that made me appreciate all of what I had back home in civilization (Manhattan).

[Steps To Being Cool: The Chloe Playlist]

Thus begins the greatest interview of the year. Steve Lewis grilling Wass Stevens. God Steve your blog is good so far! "What did I do today to deserve this?!" Was the thought going through my head while reading the conversation that played out between these two. I could almost HEAR them saying this shit. You have to obviously go to Steve's blog and read it in it's entirety. The BEST doormen in the WORLD discussing their craft, and a dying one at that. Here are some of the highlights:

Steve stated early on: "As I talk to Wass, he’s dressed impeccably":

Obviously.

However, it was this comment about Wass' style that really made my day:

"While we are doing this interview, Wass is working the door. He’s wearing three hats."

Awesome.

Then there was this from Steve:

More»

[Photo via NY Times]
City Room reported last night that 32 storefronts with counterfeit goods have been shut down in Chinatown today! Mayor Bloomberg has obtained a restraining order to shut down illegal business in "Counterfeit Triangle," that treasure trove of fake designer goodies from "Coach" bags to "Fendi" sunglasses. Worth more than one million dollars in street value, the mayor has decreed that storefronts must be replaced by legitimate businesses. Or else. More»

[Photo from Urban Habitat]

Feel that breeze? Unless you forgot to throw on underwear this morning, it’s probably the collective exhale of a million screenwriters and their overworked spouses. As of this Saturday, the writer’s strike may come to an excruciatingly overdue finale. Well, maybe anyway. What this means for you:

The late night heavyweights can stop writing their own tired monologues and get a decent shave. Gossip Girl can regain its rightful place at the top of my Tivo list (and Holly can stop writing her own show scripts).  Broadway can continue sucking. Most importantly, you may still be able to plan your Oscar parties in all their white-wine-estrogen-overloaded glory. With the threat of the Academy Awards becoming another televised train wreck on par with the pitiful Golden Globes , a resolution may be near, and I can stop watching Project Runway reruns. How many times can you hear Tim Gunn say “Get it done” before your eardrums start bleeding. The answer is seventeen. Plus, without the Vanity Fair soiree, the chance of seeing headlines like “Clooney Drops Trou, World Weeps,” should drop dramatically.

Merriam-Webster announced today that the 2007 word of the year is "w00t"

w00t (interjection). expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word "yay"

Based on reader votes, this commonly used word among techies beat out "facebook" and "conundrum" for word of the year. You may remember our love of the "woot-offs"and all things woot....

[Photo from Racked]

Omg everyone!...the new Apple store on the corner of 14th and 9th will be opening tomorrow!  We will stay far away for awhile, but see this addition as a smart one for the company.  First of all, EVERY other Apple store we've ever been to has been jam packed at all hours, so it makes complete sense that they continue to open especially in the Meatpacking district, home of many the foreign tourist already (you know how much they dig Apple shit).  Maybe this addition will mean that there will be less traffic in some of our favorite boutiques down there as well.  Anyway, here are the details (via Gizmodo):

• Apple's first three-story glass staircase (pictured above)

• 46-foot Genius Bar capable of serving 100 tech-support seekers per hour with 12 stations. It isn't the longest GB in the world though; somewhere there's a 50 footer.

• Pro Labs: Free multi-session classes in Logic, Final Cut and Aperture. Six students sign up for 2hrs, once a week for four weeks. The classes are intense and totally free, starting Jan. 7

• It won't be open 24 hours like the Fifth Avenue store, but it will be open til midnight.

• A Concierge team wearing light blue shirts will be on hand to show off all the shop's wares.

• A total of 175 employees will work the store, mostly veterans from other NYC stores.

• This store will have an entire floor dedicated to service, that's 50% more total space for tech support and education than any other Apple Store.

The nippy weather is not going to have any affect on the line that is, no doubt, already in formation.  Get there early if you want to get in on the fun...or do what we do and continue to make fun of people that wait in lines.

Maybe what I’m about to disclose to you makes me a huge dork in your eyes, or maybe you can relate…I don’t really care what side you take, here are the facts: A CONSIDERABLE amount of my time in high school was spent playing Drug Wars on my TI-86 calculator. By considerable, I’m talking substantial. It all started when I somehow got (mistakenly) placed in the AP Calculus class as a sophomore. There were only a couple other sophomores in this mostly senior class and, well, I didn't have any friends at all. Now I don't want you to feel sorry for me. Once I found my beloved Drug Wars 2.0 I wouldn't have wanted to chit chat with anyone after that anyway. You see, that semester, what started out as me being a timid, shy sophomore dork, morphed into what ended as me being one of the slickest drug lords around. Drug Wars, the highly addictive calculator game made for various Texas Instrument Calcs (ours were mostly TI-86’s), helped me get through those long afternoons in calc class more than Rob, the hot senior quarterback that sat in front of me.

First of all you have to understand that although I’m not ANCIENT or anything, we still didn’t have blackberries or iPhones bouncing around in our uniformed pockets. Even if you did have a cell phone, or the more popular pager, you couldn’t use it in school unless you wanted to risk a demerit. That left us with little else to occupy our brain powers while we should have been using them to figure out derivative functions in calculus. So we turned to the games, and drug wars was my specialty.

Ah Drug Wars….where do I start? If you have ever played the game you know it’s absolutely one of the best things created out of a calculator. Here’s the deal:

OBJECTIVE: To make the most amount of money selling drugs in NYC in 30 days.

PREMISE: The player is a drug dealer living in NYC traveling around the various areas such as the Bronx, the Ghetto, Manhattan, Coney Island, and Brooklyn. Along the way, you buy and sell various drugs including Cocaine, Heroin, Acid, Weed, Speed, and Ludes. You start with $2k and 100 “spaces” in your pocket and no weapons. You have to deal with loan sharks (for your initial capital investments), weapons dealers, and my favorite, “Officer Hardass”. Hardass randomly confronts you during the game and you can either run or fight him (if you have weapons). Also random events like muggings, drug sales, increased drug prices, and the finding of drugs occur.

END: The game ends after 30 days of wheeling and dealing. Final score is calculated by taking the players current amount of cash and multiplying it by two.

STRATEGIES: The basic strategy is to buy a drug in one location at one price and travel to another location to sell it for a higher price (arbitrage). A skilled player must know the standard price of all drugs to realize when it is cheap, and take advantage of fluctuations in the market

You may have come across the game under one of it's other names: Druglord or Dope Wars. All you needed was a TI calculator and one of those cords to get started. What was also great about this game is that you could save it and come back to it later...something that the TI-83 version had previously lacked.

The funny thing about my experience with Drug Wars is that I probably learned more relevant entrepreneurial skills playing that game than any class taught me. Once I found out the "cool kids" were all playing as well, I earned their respect with my high score, reflected after taking advantage of the increased price of Heroin in Coney Island. Who knew that a calculator game could single handedly educate me in all things regarding drug trades in NYC, a place I unknowingly would reside in down the road, as well as win me a date to the prom?