Happy Friday the 13th! It’s hot as hell out there… Yesterday, in Syracuse, a temperature of 119.84 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded! Don’t worry though, it was Syracuse in Sicily, Italy that hit that high — a new European temperature record.
Meanwhile, at the crossroads of the world, New Yorkers were asked to limit their use of electricity — and Times Square Alliance made a special request for billboards to be dimmed — after a second straight day of excessive heat in the city. More here…
How’s your Excelsior Vaccination Pass experience been? Mine has been a little tortuous. I put the continued rejection down to me rushing to getting my first vaccination in the Bronx, and then transferring for my second jab to a Walgreens in midtown. Even though I tried every name combination — Phil or Philip, O’Brien with and without the apostrophe and zipcodes old and new — I was not going to get a pass.
However, discovering the zero-dollar invoice from Walgreens buried in a pile of papers on my desk has solved the problem. I am now the only PHILLLIP in the world with three L’s!
What next? Should I change my name or go into battle with the Excelsior folks?
What we’ve been reading
Fake vaccination card sales are ramping up online. (Eye Witness News)
Grubhub (known as Seamless in NYC) is trying to repair its relationship with restaurants — good luck with that! (Business Insider)
Bands are canceling shows “out of an abundance of caution.” (Bowery Boogie)
Only 28 percent of young black New Yorkers are vaccinated — “more worried about the prospect of being stopped by the police than about getting COVID-19.” (New York Times)
Mountain Dew is going “hard”. (Grub Street)
Freeze Frame
W51st Street is becoming popular with film and TV crews. You might remember when Second Wave made their home on the street for several months during the pandemic. Yesterday, Blues Clues took up residence in the Hell’s Kitchen brownstone that we featured recently after artist Gwyneth Leech recorded its restoration. Thanks to Catie Savage for the pic!
Happy birthday to Nancy McGoff and Marcos Salazar.