FEB 2006 - Local – The Brooklyn Rail

What’s for Dinner

By Marjory Garrison

For the spirited girl, what’s for dinner is usually soy nuggets. She makes her own eggs for breakfast and tries to avoid eating anything green. Her favorite food is macaroni-and-cheese, which is mostly yellow. She prefers rice and peas to rice and beans. And after dinner she’ll bargain with her mother, Rachel, for more Swedish fish.

Confessions of a Child Smuggler

By Gabriel Thompson

At present, my greatest fear is not that I will be mistaken for a kidnapper, or a child molester, or someone set on bringing a two-year-old girl and her three-year-old brother from Mexico to the United States on a diabolical organ transplant scheme. My concern is less fantastic, and more frightening.

Jackie and Juan. Courtesy of Gabriel Thompson.

Santa Claus is on Strike

By Matthew Vaz

“No fuckin’ give backs. No way. Not one,” explains Kevin Murphy as he drives a Manhattan-bound N train through Brooklyn on Saturday December 12th. “There’s no fuckin’ chance.”

Feminists Challenge FDA on Emergency Contraception

By Eleanor J. Bader

Carroll Gardens resident Annie Tummino knows that if you’re going to pick a fight, it’s wise to choose a worthy adversary. So she has. The 26-year-old feminist activist is the lead plaintiff in Tummino v. von Eschenbach, a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s refusal to make Emergency Contraception (EC)—or the Morning After Pill (MAP)—available over-the-counter.

Memory and the Atlantic Yards

In this era of internet, cell phones, and 24-hour news, memory is in a state of rather substantial humiliation. This wasn’t always so. Cicero considered memory one of the sublime qualities of Caesar. Book X of Augustine’s Confessions is dedicated entirely to exploring its nature. Memory’s decline is in direct proportion to the ease with which one can depend on other means to retain information.

Greenpoint's Empty Space

By Sabine Heinlein

Janusz Pukianiec hauls a heavy suitcase down the front stairs of St. Stanislaus Koska Church in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. “Coats and blankets for the homeless people,” he mumbles as he walks to the church annex next door. Like evanescent shadows, two middle-aged men shyly follow him.

Though long abandoned, still a favorite meeting place. Courtesy of Sabine Heinlein

Builders Beware: In Williamsburg, A Community At Work

By Williams Cole

Ever since the rezoning of the Williamsburg-Greenpoint area last spring, the building of luxury McCondos and the real and rumored plans of a neighborhood Supersized run rampant. Lots are being sold, buildings demolished, and immense cranes loom on the Northside and Southside, while familiar views such as the Orthodox Church near McCarren Park will now be paired with the towering presence of new residents.