Just when you thought there was no hope left for Violet and Bobby‘s eggs, a miracle has occurred. This morning, one of the babies hatched! City Room has the screengrab of the event, which you can see above. No word yet on the status of the other two eggs, but we will update if there’s more good news.
Click through for the hawk cam. Today’s a good day to watch it!
UPDATE (5/6): Despite just about everyone throwing in the towel and declaring these eggs unviable, Violet and Bobby persevered — one of their eggs hatched today!
It’s a sad day for fans of Violet and Bobby, the avian couple nesting on top of Bobst. It’s looking like their eggs are not going to hatch, despite recent reports to the contrary. Violet has been taking care of her three eggs since March 24, and the usual gestation time for hawk eggs is 35 days at most. Yesterday marked the 36th day.
As Jeremy Friedman, director of NYU’s Sustainability office, told us, “It is looking like, barring a miracle, Bobby and Violet may be out of luck. They turned out to be very good parents-in-waiting — attentive, reliable and responsible in caring for their eggs.” However, the eggs could have been doomed from the start: “one likely explanation is that they didn’t successfully fertilize the eggs in the first place.”
On a more positive note, there’s always next year. Violet and Bobby will have plenty of opportunities to learn how to fertilize eggs properly and start a whole new family. Our condolences to them in this difficult time.
Happy 4/20, everyone. I hope you’ve been celebrating properly. There are many ways to honor 4/20, and not all of them involve smoking. Have you thought about baking your very own edibles on this special day?
Last summer I developed an excellent butter recipe which resulted in highly (ha!) successful cookies, and after much reflection, I’m going to share that recipe with you. You can use it for any baked good you’d like. However, a word of advice: Don’t bake brownies. They’re a waste of money! You can yield twice as many cookies with the same amount of butter, and get people just as high.
Before we start: future employers? Turn back now. You’ve already learned too much. Also, if you don’t want to hire me just because I wrote about pot butter, you can go fuck yourselves. Let’s just get right into this.
Usually I don’t go to NYU shows due to the high awkwardness quotient of watching people perform in Kimmel. But there was no way I’d miss out on seeing Das Racist, one of my favorite rap groups to get big in the last couple years. And they killed it — but as City Editor Kenny put it, “Boring NYU freshmen predictably kept it alive.” No offense, freshmen, and certainly no offense to the NYU Program Board, who deserve nothing but props and hugs for booking great talent and organizing/promoting the shit out of the thing.
That being said: judging by the crowd, it’s quite possible that 80 percent of the NYU population has no idea how to behave at a rap show. You’re supposed to dance and vibe to it and just have fun. What everyone actually did is stand there and bob their heads (or not even bob their heads!), their arms resolutely glued to their sides like so much dead wood. You’re doing it wrong, bros.
The entire fifth floor of Hayden will definitely be able to get into an ages 19 and up electronic show at Webster Hall tonight, sources say. Floor members will assemble in the room farthest away from the R.A.’s room around 10 p.m. to pregame with Pride and Clarke vodka purchased by Ashley, 18, with her fake California I.D. At roughly midnight, the group of about 30 teenagers will walk to the club on 11th Street and line up outside the doors. Measures are being taken to ensure that those who are not yet 19 will totally not be left behind if they can’t get in; an elaborate passing-back scheme involving Sarah’s “really good” Maryland I.D. is currently in the works.
Floor skeptic David, 18, was one of the few to voice dissent. “I don’t know, man,” he said. “Webster Hall can be tough. I have a friend who knows someone who had their I.D. taken away there.” David told NYU Local he was staying in tonight to “chill and smoke with some of my buddies from Writing the Essay.”
It’s hard for a psych ward to be cheerful. But the one at Tisch Hospital, in its beigeness, in its small craft corner and fluorescent lights, maddens you with its relentless lack of charm. The first and last time I saw it was to visit my friend Ruth*, 21, who was there after her most recent suicide attempt. She was sharing the room with a severely depressed middle-aged shopping addict and offered me Chips Ahoy when I came and sat down on a polyester chair next to her bed. A woman keened audibly down the hall. Ruth was not allowed to keep her computer charger with her. It was the most depressing place I’ve ever been.
But according to Ruth, the psych ward at Tisch Hospital is “pretty chill,” relatively speaking. She would know – she’s been sent there five times in her two years at NYU.
NYU Local pal and former “NYU’s Most Eligible Bachelor” scribe Cait Raft is nowadays in a pretty great improv group called JESSICA. Tomorrow night they’ll be hosting a party at The Suffolk on the Lower East Side, featuring improv performances by the members of JESSICA, DJ On Baton spinning from midnight to 2 a.m., and free pool. Entrance is $5, but as you may have gleaned from the headline, there will be free beer from 10:30 to 11 p.m.
Cait tells us: “If you come to this party, Ryan Seacrest will come, take his clothes off, get into the fetal position, and cry.” I think that’s reason enough for us all. The proceeds will help JESSICA make it to the Skidmore College Comedy Festival, where they will presumably kill it.
Party starts at 10 p.m. at The Suffolk, 107 Suffolk St. between Rivington and Delancey. $5 at the door. And yes, it’s 21+.
Stephen Gillers is a professor of legal ethics at NYU Law. He’s also the adviser to lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, who is the “czar” of a $20 billion fund set up by BP to compensate victims of last year’s oil spill (and who was also in charge of the 9/11 claims fund). Gillers, who is apparently billing $950 an hour, recently vouched for Feinberg’s decision-making independence from BP, which had been questioned. Thing is, how impartial can you be when raking in almost a grand an hour of BP’s money?
Gillers told us that because of his involvement with the fund as a lawyer, he couldn’t speak to the press. NYU Law School hasn’t responded to requests for comment. We did, however, get in touch with Kenneth Feinberg, who told us that “no one is more credible and respected on legal ethics in this country than Professor Gillers.”
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Are we surprised that at NYU, where tuition plus room and board costs well over $50K, the combined student debt is the highest in the country? It’s true: NYU has topped out the list of not-for-profit universities with the highest amount of student debt. The number is an incredible $659 million. More than Oprah Winfrey’s yearly pay, and, as Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan pointed out, more than the GDP of 12 countries.
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Ray Josen's Twitter pic.
Jay Rosen is a professor of journalism at NYU (director of the Studio 20 program), founder of PressThink.org, and prolific tweeter. We recently became aware of the professor’s alter ego, one Ray Josen, whose Twitter account is a hilarious sendup of Rosen’s “mindcasting” (in Josen’s parlance, it’s “mindthinking”).
I managed to get the elusive Ray Josen to agree to an interview, although he wouldn’t do it over the phone because he “had a cold, and so my voice is a little high pitched and nasally at the moment.” What follows is our email conversation. Enjoy, and if you have any leads on Josen’s true identity, get in touch with us. We also contacted the real Jay Rosen, who doesn’t know who’s behind the Ray Josen Twitter, but “wishes it was funnier.”
Note: the links are Josen’s.
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