23 skiddoo; Roastmaster; Communiversity; Nigella Bites; TONY 2003

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23 SKIDDOO

   As I posted here several years ago, it was entertainer Billy Vann who put
together the independent slang terms "23" and "skiddoo."  "23" has existed
since at least 1899--before the Flatiron Building.  The New York Times and
the New-York Historical Society both should have known this.  Tell them both
that I live here and give my work out for free.

MORE NYHS:
   As of September, the NYPL has suffered budget cuts and has been closed
Mondays.  It's open Tuesday-Saturday.  The NYHS library is also open
Tuesday-Saturday.  So I came up with a brainstorm--why doesn't the NYHS
library open Monday (say, Monday-Friday)?  Wouldn't that make sense?
   So, I e-mailed the NYHS about it.  I also told them that their web page
information on "the Big Apple" was wrong.
   No one replied.

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ROASTMASTER

   There are about 1,500 Google hits for "roastmaster."
   From DAN'S PAPERS, 27 September 2002, pg. 10, col. 3:

   "Late Show with David Letterman" bandleader _Paul Shaffer_ will serve as
"Roastmaster" and lead the charge in directing "THe New York Friars Club
Celebrity Roast for _Chevy Chase_" on Saturday, September 28th at the New
York Hilton Hotel.

(Is the OXFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN FOOD interested in this definition of
"roast"?--ed.)

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COMMUNIVERSITY

   From RENSSELAER (alumni magazine), September 2002, pg. 12, col. 1:

   ...President Jackson's vision of "communiversity," a term to describe
Rensselaer's working relationship with Troy and the Capital Region.

(Communiversity=community + university.  Sometime, commune + university.  It
goes way back on Google to at least the early 1980s--ed.)

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TIME OUT NEW YORK
EATING & DRINKING GUIDE 2003
Edition 4
344 pages, paperback, $11.95

   It's the same large size as last year, despite the fact that NYC
restaurants are fewer.
   It's neatly divided into ethnic restaurants.  For those who miss Tibet and
have gotta have momos, for example, Pg. 203 shows you the restaurants Dokpa,
Lhasa, Shangrila, Tibetan Yak, and Tsampa.
   As usual, the book has a Manhattan bias, unfortunately.
   There are three categories for American:  American, American Creative, and
American Regional
   There is a TONY 100 "Best in Chow."
   I'd appreciate if they'd add just a page on new stuff, about how this
edition differs from last year's.  Maybe an "In/Out" list.  It would save me
time.
   I'll report on this week's monster "Best of New York" VILLAGE VOICE
perhaps a little later.

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O.T.:  NIGELLA BITES

   Nigella Lawson is a new food columnist for THE NEW YORK TIMES.
   She's British.  She reports today, for example: "So if you think British
food is bad, it's because you don't really know British food."  We'll get
week after week of this.  Wonderful.
   I couldn't help thinking of Bonnie Slotnick, the owner of a cookbook store
in Greenwish Village.  (Attention to NEW YORK TIMES:  Greenwich Village is in
New York.)  I remembered our discussion after reading in the NEW YORK TIMES
about the Brownstone food collection "donation" to NYU.  "Donation?" she told
me.  "NYU _bought_ it!"  Bonnie Slotnick knows stuff like that.
   And I thought that somewhere, in this world of Martha Stewarts and Paul
Shaffer Drives and Oprah Winfrey Humanitarian Awards and Enron and Worldcom
and Qwest, wouldn't it be great if the NEW YORK TIMES turned down Nigella
Lawson and gave the same space to Bonnie Slotnick?  I mean, maybe just once,
in a million, gazillion years...
   Ah, forget it.  Never happen.