Kellogg’s Diner photo via Yelp.

How is it that in this era of the foodie, the simple diner survives? Is it the booth seating? Maybe. Reasonable prices also help the cause, as do simple, non-involved options across the food spectrum. A diner also lacks pretension and any illusion that you, the customer, are always right, no matter how much of a jerk you are. If the waitress needs to tell your drunk table to shut up because she can’t hear the order she’s trying to take, she’ll do that, and you’ll shut up. So if you happen to find yourself in Brooklyn on Turkey Day, why not sit at the formica counter of one of these eight diners offering Thanksgiving meals? (more…)

Help them clean and they’ll help you scream

Coney Island’s clean-up effort in the wake of Hurricane Sandy has been intense, but there’s still more to do.  This weekend, staff from Luna Park, the Scream Zone and the Cyclone will lead a massive cleanup of debris and sand from the boardwalk and streets, and are looking for people to help. (more…)

Jessie Streich-Kest and Jacob Vogelman. via the Observer

Since the tragic deaths of Ditmas Park’s Jessie Streich-Kest and Jacob Vogelman on Monday night, we’ve read many moving tributes honoring the memory of the young friends by people who knew and loved them.

New York City Council Member Brad Lander, who knew them both through their parents, remembered Jessie and Jacob as ‘young people of extraordinary values and bright promise’, and expressed their respective passions and personalities in a tribute letter on his website last night. (more…)

We can all do better than this. Via PartyCity

Halloween is coming up and you’re too uninspired by sexy zombie costumes to make a real effort to dress up. Help has arrived though. For a truly game-changing costume this year, get to the new Dusty Rose Vintage Warehouse in Greenpoint, where they’re opening up to the public three days a week in October. The warehouse at 233 Norman Avenue is generally only open to commercial clients, but will be open to anyone who wants to give their costume a final perfect touch on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from Oct. 9 through 31. (more…)

Book Festival 2011 via Flickr’s Navdeep Dhillon

This year’s Brooklyn Book Festival is poised to take over our fair lit-loving borough on Sept. 23, with more than 280 national and international authors presenting over a hundred events over fourteen stages around Brooklyn. And this year is particularly star-studded: Our picks of the best of the fest include a discussion about the future of marriage and monogamy with sex columnist Dan Savage and The Atlantic‘s infamous spinster Kate Bolick, contemplating the artisanal-everything trend in Brooklyn with David Rees, who wrote a book on artisanal pencil sharpening, and, of course, Brooklyn’s own Tony Danza in conversation with everyone’s favorite Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.  A full schedule is available at the site but here are our top ten picks for the 2012 Festival (and don’t forget our book swap after party with drink specials  too!) (more…)

Scary latte photo courtesy of Examiner.com.

Since quitting my museum job a month ago and starting a job at a coffee shop, my life has simplified considerably. No more getting screamed at by crowds of people in foreign languages, no more answering the same question 873 times a day, and no more hour-long peak-time commutes. The only down side: customers who require very special attention and behave badly when they don’t receive it. Trust me, we’re here for you soy macchiato drinkers; nobody sets out to be a bitchy barista. So how about you don’t do any of these things on your next coffee run? (more…)

I am ... car parts. At the Guggenheim.

Between the Cindy Sherman retrospective and the Diego Rivera murals at the MOMA, John Chamberlain’s car parts at the Guggenheim, the Whitney Biennial and the incomparable Stein Family’s treasures at the Met, there is a veritable cacophony of culture on show at New York’s best museums this spring. But we’re Brokelyn, so we’re going to show you how to do it all on the cheap/free. We have covered NYC’s free or pay what you wish museum viewing times, but these are usually very busy, especially during popular exhibits. There are other ways you may not know about to get a good deal on some soul-expanding art experiences, so read on. (more…)

With reproductive rights in the news this week, we decided to take a look at abortions in Brooklyn — namely where they’re offered, how much they cost, and what online reviewers have said about the borough’s providers. It’s not our usual light fare here on Brokelyn, but we hope those who need this information will find it useful if and when. The following was culled from online sources, clinic calls and, in some cases, site visits. As always, if you have more to add, such as reviews of the clinics mentioned as well as those we missed, please pipe up in the comments.  (more…)

Grant on the job. Photo by Lilly Frances.

Late last year a friend of mine moved to Alaska, leaving behind her well-loved bicycle. Both tires were flat, the chain was rusted and the brakes were worn down to nubs, but the body was in good condition and the price was right. After a near-disastrous test drive of my brake-less bicycle into oncoming traffic, I realized I first had some essential repairs to make. I spoke to the ever-helpful Grant Harding at Ride Brooklyn in Park Slope about the best and cheapest way to get my bike ready — and which repairs I could reasonably do myself. (more…)

Dr. Bronner: Budget hero or guy who tricked you into putting soap in your mouth?

According to the wacky, cultish 3,000-word rant on the label, when combined with adequate sleep, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap has the power to “clean body-mind-soul-spirit instantly uniting one! All-One!” I’m not sure exactly what that means, but the soap boasts more than 18 uses: a toothpaste and a household cleaner; a pet wash and a cure for lice. With eight varieties (one of which is only $8.99 at Trader Joe’s), this “magical multi-tasker” could be the solution to many of our financial freak-outs at the pharmacy register. So with a bottle each of peppermint and rose soap in hand, I set out to find out which of “Doctor” Emanuel Bronner’s loftiest claims to embrace, and which to avoid. (more…)