Notes from Downunder

(apologies to Dostoyevsky!) Newsflash: Xavi graduates to open division on the swing

he's also having lots of fun hanging out with Maxi and doing boy stuff like pouring water and sticking pebbles into small spaces.

this woman who fell through sidewalk in our neighborhood says being fat saved her life!

By ERIN CALABRESE, REBECCA HARSHBARGER and FRANK ROSARIO, NEW YORK POST. Last Updated: 1:04 PM, January 13, 2013 Posted: 2:04 AM, January 13, 2013 Size does matter! The 400-pound Queens pedestrian who crashed through an Upper East Side sidewalk said yesterday that a thinner woman might have died from that fall. “Thank God, they said that my size was the only thing that saved me,” Ulanda Williams, 32, told The Post as she was discharged from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. (did it ever occur to her that her size may have been the thing that caused the footpath to collapse??) Williams, of Springfield Gardens, was waiting for a bus at about 9:10 p.m. Friday when she tried to hide from the rain under an awning. The ground suddenly disappeared beneath her — and she was swallowed whole by the cavernous space adjacent to the cellar of The Blue Room on Second Avenue. “It was horrible, absolutely horrible,” said Williams, who broke her arm in two places in the 6-foot fall. The social worker, who wore an arm brace as she left the hospital, had bruises and cuts all over her face and neck from the fall. She said there were no warning signs indicating that any possible sidewalk danger. “Nothing, nothing,” she said. “It happened so instantly that I didn’t even recognize anything. Cement was all over me, debris. They had a bed frame down there, broken pipes and wood pieces. It was a hollow place.” “I was standing there approximately 10 seconds and when that occurred, I just fell right through,” said Williams, who stands about 6-foot-5. The FDNY had to use a crane and cargo net to get her out. City Department of Buildings inspectors found that a 4-by-6-foot section of sidewalk had collapsed into a vault cellar in front of the building. Further investigation revealed defective steel doors leading to the vault, and a first-floor staircase was loose. The building at 301 E. 60th St., at the corner of Second Avenue near a ramp to the 59th Street Bridge, has several open violations, according to the DOB Web site, including a 2011 complaint that the facade was coming loose. After the collapse, DOB issued another violation to building owner Forward Realty, for failing to maintain the building. Forward owner Remo Salta, 52, of Ridgewood, NJ, said his property has no violations. “I didn’t hear anything about this,” he said of Williams’ fall. Salta, who bought the residential and commercial building in 1995 as an investment, said he has a management company taking care of the property. “The city, I know, is constantly doing work in that area. I don’t know if they excavated anything next to my property,” he said. “I know they’re always working on Second Avenue.” Neighborhood resident Bobby Robertson, 56, said the building could use some work. “When I’m standing here waiting for the bus, I take a look around once in a while and notice how decrepit the street and buildings look,” he said. “You can see cracks in the walls and in the concrete, too. The owners don’t do any upkeep.” Frank Lupo, 47, a maintenance worker who lives in the building next door to the sidewalk collapse, said the fall could easily have been fatal. “It doesn’t look it from street level, but that’s one hell of a drop,” he said. “I’m glad she’s alive.”

Southwest Airlines commercial

For followers who have a similar menatlity to Paul and enjoyed the Liberty insurance commercial (i.e 10 year old boys), here's another good one!

Priest and rabbi: Giants need an act of God (courtesy of New York Post)

THE ODDS COUPLE: Father Peter Colapietro (left) and Rabbi Dovid Cohen pray for a Big Blue win. The two Manhattan holy men believe prayer can help lead this team to the promised land. ("Football 'pray'-offs" was their other corny tag) By BRAD HAMILTON Last Updated: 7:05 AM, December 30, 2012 Posted: 12:22 AM, December 30, 2012 Keep the faith, Giants fans. With the team needing a win today and help from above to make the playoffs, Father Peter Colapietro and Rabbi Dovid Cohen are praying for a holiday miracle: Another postseason for Big Blue. “That’s why we’ve got Saint Jude,” said Father Pete, referring to the patron saint of lost causes. “It’s for this specific situation. Hey, it worked for Mickey Rourke,” he said, noting the deeply depressed actor prayed to Saint Jude in 1995 before resurrecting his career. Cohen was similarly confident in a higher authority. “In the Talmud, it’s forbidden to give up hope. Even when they have a sword on your neck, God can still save you.” “When things are dire, one speaks to God in his own words,” said Cohen, who, as rabbi at Young Israel of the West Side on West 91st Street, serves a congregation packed with fans of the defending Super Bowl champs. “If you’re a Giants fan, I can imagine saying something like: ‘Please, God, let the Giants make the playoffs. I will be so thankful.’ ” Or you could strike a deal with the Almighty. “Some people will make an offer, like a promise to attend services more often, if their team wins,” Cohen said. Father Pete, pastor at the Holy Cross Church in Times Square, knows the gridiron like he knows the scriptures. He’s attended 17 Super Bowls, two of them won by the G-men. His game-day ritual? “Simple sign of the cross,” he said. But he acknowledges that this team — which lately has stunk to high heaven — could use divine intervention. “It’s not only a win” they need, the priest noted. “It’s three other things.” At 8-7, the Giants can only make the playoffs if they beat the Eagles today at home (1 p.m. kickoff, Ch. 5) — and if Dallas, Chicago and Minnesota all lose. If all those stars do not align, they’ll miss the chance for the team’s first back-to-back Super Bowl titles — and to move into a tie with the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys for second-most Vince Lombardi trophies. “Now is the time to pray,” said Cohen.

Additional reporting by Gary Buiso and Cynthia Fagen

Not a good day to be homeless on the streets of NYC...

Only 26F (-3C) today and at lunch time there was an hour of this wet snow/ice, which set in more steadily later in the afternoon. Xavi will be very disappointed he missed it, although not much accumulation except on surfaces like car windshields.

I'd be moving to Florida this time of year if I was her (yes, her. Very sad. Same problem with community-based mental illness here as in Sydney {Tale of 2 cities, chapter 3} and in fact according to the NY Post, one thrid of the 33,000 homeless on the streets of NYC have a mental illness and many are capable of acts of violence, including the crazy schizophrenic woman who pushed an innocent Indian man under a subway train in Queens last week as an act of "revenge" for 9/11)

Xavi not having any trouble adapting to driving on the wrong side of the road

Tale of Two Cities version 1.2: the white whale & the brown berry

in NYC this hour its 0 deg C, -6C in the wind, with a wintry mix of rain, ice and snow. They chose the right time to leave. Glad they arrived safely.