"Why would you place the widget on your site? I do not know. But perhaps you do." Eliot has done it again. What it is, we're not exactly sure. But go ahead and click the Widget anyway. Then click a photo that intrigues you. If no photo intrigues you, then you are without soul, and you should not play with the Widget any more.

"Yankee Medallion fever continued to grip the city yesterday with the release of the Kenny Lofton collectable coin."
· Murderers Row [NYPost]

Things are getting a wee bit trippy in Bill Keller land. In a parking lot in Queens, the Times apparently has constructed a 4,300 square foot mockup of its new Renzo Piano-designed office tower slated for Hell's Kitchen. The purpose: to test the glass curtain wall that "promises to bathe notoriously cranky reporters and editors in natural light," with the goal of creating a "transparent stage show for its Midtown neighbors." (Memo to future self: This we gotta see.) Regarding the Queens parking lot test, Metropolis magazine reports:

"In order to measure all sun angles, the lighting experiment began on December 21 (the shortest day of the year) and will end on June 21 (the longest). “Solstice to solstice,” Thurm says. “Sounds very pagan.”

Can we milk another day out of Starbucks-to-the-far-East-Village-mania? Why the hell not! Correspondent MD emails:

We can cross the space at 6th Street and Avenue B off of the list of possible Starbucks locations. I live just around the corner and spent an inordinate amount of time at this space when it was La Gould Finch, so I have been waiting to find out what the new incarnation would be with a mix of excitement and dread. I spoke to a guy in there the other day who I believe is one of the new owners. He said it will be an Egyptian restaurant with a hookah bar. He was quite pleasant and was very excited about it. And perhaps since it is a hookah bar we will be able to smoke as well...

It's obvious we're not going to get much done around here today with all this Starbucks buzz in the air. AS emails:

you know...there is an empty storefront on the corner of 13th and B....it's big enough to house a starbucks.....

Trevor of NYCArtCollective emails regarding the rumored Avenue B Starbucks:

Where or where would it even be located? The craiglist post says near Houston but there are no store fronts available that I can think of below 10th... except for the front of 2nd st/ave b, but that's been boarded up for years with no recent activity. This all sounds like a hoax no?

Man, the Avenue B activists just can't catch a break. Props to Ebway, who discover evidence, in the dark underbelly of Craigslist, of the first east-of-1st-Ave/Below 14th Starbucks that's apparently set to move in on Lower Avenue B. (Anyone know the location?) Alors, fear not: once again, them activists have got themselves an adorable little plan to halt the corporate beast right in its tracks:

as some of you may know, a Starbucks will soon be opening up in the Lower East Side on Avenue B near Houston. This seems to be symbolic of the many recent developments which simply do not belong in the community. To fight against this corporate infiltration, we intend to serve free anti-starbucks coffee in front of the store for as long as necessary, in order to divert their business and hopefully convince them to move to a more welcoming location. We are looking for coffee donations, preferably a somewhat large quantity, to be used for this cause.

· The Soxaholix: Get Your War On meets Red Sox Nation ("Some tentative destinies plague us.") [The Soxaholix]
· I Have Been Out and About ("I have seen two people having sex in a bathroom stall at Sway, and been shocked to see that as they came out their faces displayed neither beauty nor shame.") [D-Nasty, doing some of his finest work as of late]
· The definitive Food Blog list [Kiplog]
· Sartorial analysis of next Monday night's NYC Blogger Event (do come see us make fools of ourselves at the Apple Store in manners far beyond the wardrobe) [The Blueprint]

Though the events policy of this Web Presence is generally "No, thanks," we do make the occasional exception. Our sources inform us that the May 12 edition of Amanda Stern's Happy Ending Reading Series (at Broome Street's Happy Ending) will be a tag-team affair including Panio Gianopoulos reading with Ms. Molly Ringwald. (Matthew Derby, author of the quite enjoyable Superflat Times, will read with Shelley Jackson. And there's a surprise music guest promised, too.) And hell, as long as we're plugging LES readings, we're honor bound to remind all comers that tonight is a Ritalin night at Pianos.
· Happy Ending Reading Series [amandastern.com]

We almost overlooked this insane rant about gentrification on the Lower East Side by sometimes-LS.com correspondent Dara Lehon:

Take the Lower East Side's "rediscovery," for example: at first, E. Houston's red-brick art-deco clocktower "quad" full of young people astounded. The impending Blockbuster Video, Kinko's, and then Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robbins stripmall? Less surprising. Then my bargain nail salon changed clientele. Hipsters and wannabes began blabbing about Katz's and Yonah Schimmel's—blogging away about new hangouts and old standbys. Now there's a Pomme Pomme and Turkish Deli to supplement knishes, boutiques in old wholesale underwear shops, not to mention tons of bars, clubs and restaurants.

After passing some time with the once and future Motor City blogger posse this past weekend, we can't help but feel that the LES blog scene is missing a certain je ne sais quoi in the attitude department. But lo, wandering the bowels of NYCBloggers, we come upon a new site with the tagline shadows of my footsteps in the les and this immortal lede: "well it all started on avenue a. b and i were drinkin beers when i go tthe bright idea to call my boy up and do some e." We tip our cap in awe.
· The Road Less Traveled [fuckoffdie.blogspot.com]

After two visits to the Bronx this weekend, including a glorious 12 innings on Saturday 'neath the lazy April sun, we're compelled to check in with our friends at NYYFans.com (Motto: "goj yanikees!") to check the pulse of the local fandom. We dedicate these links to the kindly man seated two rows in front of us Friday night, who informed us—as we cheered the back-to-back Millar/Bellhorn dingers—"Do that again and you're dead. I'm serious. You're dead."
· It's time to stop calling it a bad start, and start calling it what it is [NYYFans]
· Jeter and Bernie getting BOOED today [NYYFans]
· Maybe this rotation just isn't that good? [NYYFans]
· A slow start CAN bury a team [NYYFans]

Do you believe in a loving God? Appearing on our desk, moments ago: two Sox-Yankees tickets for tonight at the Toilet. Huzzah!

Our favorite touch: nestled in the globe in the center of the tickets, underneath "New York Yankees," a thin font proclaims, WORLD-CLASS. Uh, sure. Just keep telling yourself that, Georgie.

A follow-up to yesterday's duo of interesting New York-centric weblogs, we pass along one more: Ma Vraie Vie à New York. All you need to know about this site is its tagline: "Un semestre au FIT de New York vu de l interieur." You can thank us later.
· Ma Vraie Vie à New York [tomygernyc.canalblog.com]

Over at his blog, Nick Denton writes, "I'm glad to see Kinja is breaking out beyond the geeks and Lower East Side hipsters." [Emphasis ours.] Well. Never one to dodge a punch, we've hit back—hard—and crafted a powerful new must-read Kinja digest. Comprised entirely of hip people blogging easterly, rather far down on the isle of Manhattan, we present: LESHipsters.
· Kinja Digest: LESHipsters [Kinja]

Bat-Girl.com, a new Minnesota-centric baseball blog by an old friend of LS.com, re-enacts last night's Twins-Tigers game... with lego.

· Game Recap: Suicide? Twins 6, Detroit 4 [Bat-Girl via JVG]

Greet this fine morn with these unusual New York-centric weblogs:
· Push Fluids ("written by three 3rd year medical students at a New York City school") [PushFluids.com via ToTC]
· Soul Jerky ("dry chunks of soul for you to chew on") [SoulJerky.com]

Reacting to the Li'l U.N. slated for Avenue B, blogger Morland poses the Tompkins Square Riddle:

Q: What's better than conspicuous consumption of incongruent high-rise real-estate?
A: Conspicuous consumption of incongruent high-rise real-estate at the expense of venerable neighborhood community centers!

Has there been a more surreal neighborhood event in recent memory than Moby's Bakesale for Democracy this past weekend? We lost our camera in the throng—along with our sanity—but Scott Stereogum and Jen DailyRefill were there to record the moment for posterity. Meantime, the report from Moby's blog: "i have a great picture of me with a bird on my shoulder standing between al franken and al sharpton."
· Moby Bakes for Democracy [Stereogum]
· Bake Back the Whitehouse [Daily Refill]
· Bakesale [Moby's Journal]

A remarkable day, yesterday was. For the first time since a 626 word "neighborhood report" in September 1998, the New York Times breaks out the LES acronym when writing about the good old Lower East Side. Naturally, the paper feels the need to place periods between the l.e.tter.s, which are used not conversationally by the newspaper's writer, but rather in a quotation plumbed from a Stern survey on Rheingold beer. Regardless, we congratulate the Times on this giant leap forward.

Meantime, "non-blogger" Andrew Krucoff is at it again. To be fair, he hopped on the Reingold Beer bandwagon six days before the Times—though, tellingly, he missed the angle right outside his tenement door. Fie! Today, however, he takes his little game a step too far, dropping the H bomb on The Presence. Loyal readers will be heartened to note that the Resident story ran last month and—after we pulled a few strings in the upper echelons of the publication—Krucoff's commentary ended up where it belonged: glowing, lonely, on the front page of his sad little site. A cautionary tale, to be sure.
· LES Journal: After Brewer Unveils Ads, Mugs Aren't All That's Frosty [NYTimes]
· Steeling Beauty, Part XVI ["The Other Page"]

Proving once again that midtown shouldn't have all the fun—and by "fun," we mean "soul-ruining architecture"—plans are afoot to build a towering 23-story dormitory on Avenue B adjacent to Tompkins Square Park. Good news: it's going to be a dormitory! Even better news: to make room for the superstructure—aptly described as "somewhat resembling a smaller United Nations Secretariat building in shape"—they'll only have to demolish the historic school building that long held the cultural center CHARAS/El Bohio. Worried about the loss of cultural diversity? Not to fear—the new dorm will have a plaza with—yes!—"trees and active recreational uses for the students, such as basketball, handball and rollerblading." Besides, CHARAS was evicted two years ago after the building was sold to the current developer. (CHARAS supporters famously released thousands of crickets at the city-run auction for the site, but the chirping did not halt the proceedings.)

Naturally, the development has East Villagers, including our old friend Anna Sawaryn, up in arms. Protest marches are in the works. Oh, this will be fun. Brace yourselves.
· Towering Dorm is Proposed on former CHARAS Site [The Villager]

John Battelle has the word on Amazon's new search service A9, which launches today. "On first blush it's a very, very good service, and an intriguing move by Amazon. It raises a clear question: How will Google—and more broadly, the entire search-driven world—react?" A9 results are based on Google results but with some twists, like the incorporation of Amazon's "Search Inside the Book" service, and a personal search history feature. Plus, it's beige!
· A9 [A9.com]
· A9 Goes Live, Reverberations Felt in Valley [Searchblog]

Catching up on drinking news in the Good Hood... As ever, tips on everything and anything to do with the Lower East Side—and life Below 14th generally—are welcomed and, sometimes, even read (email link at top of left column)...
· The scoop on Filthy McNasty replacement 12" Bar [Tale of Two Cities]
· New York Press discovers "secret" bar Rivington 151 [NYPress via ebway]
· Bloomberg chastises firemen "spotted drinking in uniform, on-duty, at Karaoke Sing Sing, a Lower East Side bar" (in point of fact, KSS is on Ave. A, acres above Houston) [Newsday]

We've got the music bloggers beat on this one! Phish, with whom we have some history, announces two-night Coney Island stand, June 17-18, at Keyspan Park, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones.
· Phish Announces Summer Tour Dates [phish.com]

Busy behind the scenes here this week at The Presence. In our absence, we suggest your surf JVG's new Kinja digest. According to the man himself, it "demonstrates, surely, the epitome of what Kinja was designed for."
· JVG's Digest [Kinja]

"Welcome to ThisIsADomainAllRight.Com, the coolest place there is to receive the latest information and promotions for the coolest gadgets, clothes, health & fitness products, electronics, and much, much more directly to you across the globe." With a name like that... watch out, DailyCandy!
· This Is A Domain All Right! [thisisadomainallright.com]

· One of life's sublime treats: a new Bill Simmons Vegas column [Page 2]
· Happiness is... opening day at Fenway (and the new right-field roofbox seats) [Yahoo News]
· And lo, like chocolate and peanut butter: Bill Simmons "uncut" interview on the Sox and the season [Weekly Dig]

How soon until all magazine subscriptions are free? In the mail this week, a dire plea from Sports Illustrated: LAST CHANCE TO RENEW! The offer: one year for $1.29 an issue. Cost to you, if you go ahead and check the box: $72.24/year. But hey, this ain't The Economist. A visit to magazines.com, a call to SI customer service, and suuuuure they'll match the $39/year price... but forget the free fleece blanket. Ach! Those promos are the only reason we subscribe to any magazine in the first place!
· Sports Illustrated Subscription [magazines.com]

The horror... Correspondent RK emails regarding the FreshDirect Conspiracy: "I'm still screwed at 82 Rutgers Slip." What fools we were! So blind, so young! The battle continues! (For those unfamiliar with Rutgers Slip, it's adjacent to the glory that is the Lower East Side waterfront, down below East Broadway where all the dead presidents hang out.)
· 82 Rutgers Slip [Yahoo! Maps]
· FreshDirect Conspiracy Update: The Final Delivery? [LS.com]

And at last, all shall be free. Correspondents trapped in the trapezoid near Delancey* (T-Del; see gray region on map at right) have joined the civilized world: FreshDirect delivery trucks now rumble down their narrow streets, carrying produce from the wilds of Queens to apartments across the Lower East Side. Two correspondents report:

· JA: "As I made a right onto Orchard St. from Delancey, I saw the most joyous of sights—a fresh direct truck parked outside my building. Sure enough, I scurried up the stairs and to the PC, entered my address and zip code—and poof! Welcome to 21st century, 96 Orchard St."
· BI: "At 49 Ludlow (b/n grand and hester)... Not sure when they started delivering here, because I've been out of town for the past few weeks.. but they deliver here now. First order is coming on Monday :)"

Anyone still in the dark down here? Or has our long national nightmare at last reached its end?
· FreshDirect Delivery Update: Cower, Mortals! [LS.com]
· FreshDirect Conspiracy Update [LS.com]
· The FreshDirect™ Conspiracy [LS.com]
* We are aware that the shape is not, strictly speaking, a trapezoid, which is in fact a quadrilateral with one pair of parallel sides. Such is life.

MM forwards along a plea from the author of the new and exciting How To Survive series:

Hello! I need very brief stories, not necessarily from experts in their fields, but from everyday people who've "been there, done that," by tomorrow (April 7) noon, MST, on the following topics:

· How To Make Your Move Go Smoothly
· How To Communicate With Your Teen
· How To Resolve Conflicts With Your Spouse/Partner
· Tips To Help You With Your Baby
· How To Survive Your Divorce/Separation
· How To Get Along With Your In-Laws
· How To Survive In The Dating World

It's a Red Sox tradition for Pedro to get rocked on opening day, so last night's outcome came as little surprise to the Blubox/Slower/Steele trio that gathered to usher in the new season. (Yes, Palmeiro jokes were a-flyin'.) Regardless of outcome, it had to make you happy to see this gentleman in the dugout. Says the new manager, "I know that sleep as I knew it is done. That's just the way it goes. You guys may think I'm not looking too good now, but wait until the end of the season." Uh, yeah. Anyhula: one down, 161 to go.
· Francona was into the game early [Boston Globe]

Just in time for Passover, the Times pays a visit to Streit's, the legendary matzoh factory on Rivington Street. Reporter Corey Kilgannon uncovers a timeless tale of love, alcohol, and real estate.

With local real estate prices skyrocketing, the Streit family is sitting on a gold mine. Their factory occupies four adjoining buildings on Rivington, between Suffolk and Clinton Streets, where most of the space is occupied by flour dust...

Walking through the factory the other day, the matzo heiress opened a box and began munching on the wide white wafers. She raved about how she could convert the factory space into a fabulous loft for herself.

If it's spring in New York, it's time for real estate brokers to cook up some new neighborhoods. For your consideration: NoBat, "North of Battery Tunnel." Reports Eric Marx:

The realtor who claims she coined "NoBat," Roberta Benzilio a broker with William B. May, defined the area as "within the financial district just north of Battery Tunnel."

She also extols its charms. "It’s a funky neighborhood where a lot of artists are moving in and there are million-dollar condos alongside a Buddhist temple, a strip joint, a police station and some great restaurants," Benzilio said. "It’s like this little collective enclave that’s really cool; the people who know the neighborhood really appreciate it."

I've been testing Kinja, the new weblog reading tool from Nick and Meg for a few weeks. It launches today. The idea, in 10 words or less: all your favorite blogs on one page. You sign up for an account, paste the URLs of sites you read into a box, and Kinja gathers up all the newest posts and displays them as a blog. Simple. Neat. You can also view a selection of their picks for best blogs in several categories—food or baseball, for instance—and view the digests of other users. (Here's mine.)

In a year, I've gone from RSS ignorance to having RSS neuroses. If you don't have a blog, chances are that you have no idea what RSS is (nor would you be aware that, in a classic Beta/VHS standards war, there's a competing format called Atom). Well, why should you care? This SvN thread is an entertaining attempt to boil down its essence to 10 words or less. (The best: "Makes the Web TiVoable.") If you follow more than a couple dozen websites—news, blogs, or otherwise—it's worth figuring out sooner or later.

While using Kinja, I've noticed that the letters "RSS" appear nowhere on the site (except where it says that one Kinja benefit is "no knowledge of RSS or syndication standards required"). It's a smart approach: the benefits of RSS without the bullshit. And, because Kinja also crawls sites itself, blogs with no RSS feed—Blu, we're looking at you—show up just fine.

Fundamentally, Kinja is something different than a newsreader (the software that displays RSS feeds from websites you've selected). It's looser, less demanding—more like, well, a blog. It's obviously not geared at power users (in announcing the service, Nick admits as much). I can't imagine using Kinja to follow dozens of sites, because you'd have to reload your Kinja homepage every 10 minutes just to keep up. But as an easy way to keep an eye on some friends, and maybe meet some new ones, it's worth every penny I didn't have to spend.
· Kinja [kinja.com]
· Kinja is Live [Nick Denton]