new york

It's probably futile to do so, but here's my partial history of New York City in video games. The difficult part is actually figuring out, in fact, if a game takes place in New York. For instance, Frogger could take place in New York, if the West Side Highway straddled a Hudson River full of logs and turtles. Pac-Man is certainly a metaphoric representation of the Financial District. If Donkey Kong is an homage to King Kong, wouldn't that mean he's throwing barrels from the Empire State Building?

Everybody knows what the Empire State Building looks like. That's why Rick Bell, the head of the Center for Architecture, didn't put the famous skyscraper on his list of 10 great buildings to see in New York.

But the list from the Center for Architecture, which is the American Institute for Architects chapter in New York, does include the Conde Nast Building in Times Square, which is considered the first green skyscraper; the Apple store in Soho, noted for its glass bridge and staircase; and the Seagram Building, the only design in New York by famed architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Crazy High Old Photos from New York

The New York Public Library’s venerable lion-guarded building on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street is to be renamed for the Wall Street financier Stephen A. Schwarzman, who has agreed to jump-start a $1 billion expansion of the library system with a guaranteed $100 million of his own.

The project, to be announced on Tuesday, aims to transform the Central Library into a destination for book borrowing as well as research. The Mid-Manhattan branch, on the east side of Fifth Avenue at 40th Street, will be sold and its circulating collection absorbed into the new space.

The unforgetable 70 decades in New York. Do you remember? Have a look at that.

Through the magic of the tilt-shift photography technique, New York City turns into a miniature toyland...

Many many photos from retro New York City.

New York City police say a father whose daughter's burned body was found stuffed in the boiler of his apartment building killed the girl because he was upset with her for text-messaging a boy.

In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.

"We had decided that money is money and we'll take it and just do the exchange whenever we can with our bank," Robert Chu, owner of East Village Wines, told Reuters television.

The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn and looking to take advantage of hugely favorable exchange rates.

Wanted: rich older women interested in hot younger guys. Applicants must be over 35, earn at least $500,000 a year or have a minimum of $4 million in liquid assets, entrusted assets or divorce settlement.

That's the basis of a speed-dating event organized by a New York entrepreneur bringing together 20 "sugar mamas" and 20 "boy toys" vetted by an elite New York matchmaker.

"Symbiosis has allowed ugly rich men to attract young, gorgeous, money-hungry women for centuries; it's now the women's turn," proclaims pocketchangenyc.com, the Web site that Jeremy Abelson is using to promote the event.

Thanks Greggo

This summer, four giant waterfalls will be erected in New York as part of a public art project city officials hope will create $55 million in extra tourism revenue for the Big Apple.

The waterfalls, including one that will fall from the famed Brooklyn Bridge, will be viewable for three months (mid-July to mid-October) in New York and are the brainchild of Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. Installation will cost $15 million, funded by private donations to New York's Public Art Fund.

Studio 54 was a New York City disco located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan. It opened on April 26, 1977 and closed in March 1986. It briefly reopened in 1994 after a multi-million dollar renovation. It currently serves as a venue for the Roundabout Theatre Company, with a 900 seat theatre equipped with two full service bars. The original doors with the Studio 54 logo still remain.

A bar in New York has decided to reward its heavier drinkers by passing out prizes ranging from a novelty beer to round-trip airfare to California.

Regulars of the Pacific Standard bar say the prospect of winning prizes simply by drinking has its allure, at least more than your usual supermarket rewards program, the New York Daily News reported Sunday.

"There's more chance I'd use this rewards card than a supermarket loyalty card," regular Colin Cheney said.

My first day in NYC, stop in Union Square, and THIS is what I see. Unusually appealing. I'm often asked: no, I didn't stage it. And I saw no other cameras around...

Of course, riding the subway to work every morning can be a dull thing. But there's a way to spice up that ride together with your girlfriends. In New York these girls took up subway pole dancing and it's a huge success.

The Court of Appeals, New York State’s highest court, threw out the conviction yesterday of a man who was arrested for standing and not moving on a Times Square corner in 2004.

The man, Matthew Jones, was on the corner of 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue in the early morning of June 12, 2004, chatting with friends as other pedestrians tried to get by.

As a result of Mr. Jones’s behavior, “numerous pedestrians in the area had to walk around” him and his friends, the arresting officer, Momen Attia, wrote. Mr. Jones refused to move when asked, Officer Attia later wrote, then tried to run away. Mr. Jones was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

An abstract masterpiece by a Mexican artist that was found in the trash by a woman who knew little about modern art has been sold for more than $1 million.

The painting "Tres Personajes" by Rufino Tamayo was discovered in 2003 by Elizabeth Gibson, who spotted it on her morning walk on Manhattan's Upper West Side. She said she took it home because "even though I didn't understand it, I knew it had power."

The brightly colored abstract work was purchased for $1,049,000 by an unidentified private American collector bidding by phone at Sotheby's Latin American Art sale Tuesday night.

Crews used a handsaw Wednesday to cut down a 60-year-old Norway spruce that will be this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

The 84-foot-tall tree in Joseph and Judy Rivnyak's backyard is being prepared to make the trip to the Big Apple.

The Rivnyaks have lived at the home on Soundview Avenue for 32 years and say the tree was planted in 1947 by the home's first owner.

The tree lighting ceremony will be held Nov. 28 in New York City.

New York City will have its very own Extreme Makeover moment next spring when John Varvatos, a high-end men's clothing brand, opens a boutique in the space once occupied by CBGB. That's right, the dingy, pungent and hallowed birthplace of American punk rock -- renowned both for the talent on the stage and the fungus in the men's room -- will be home to a store full of flat-front dress trousers and hydrating facial moisturizer.

Never mind the bollocks, here's a leather hooded jacket for $1,695.

Manhattan has been upscaling for years, so the news, which surfaced on blogs last week, managed to seem both mind-blowing and inevitable at the same time. Still, this has the feel of a Moment, and a good time to ponder what the city is gaining and losing as it sprouts Best Buys and seven-figure one-bedroom condos.

It started as a joke.

Race car driver Alex Zanardi was chatting with a manager at a pasta manufacturer he endorses about getting involved with the New York City Marathon, for which the company, Barilla, sponsors a prerace dinner. Zanardi, who lost both legs in a horrific crash during a 2001 race, quipped that he could compete in the marathon.

The slowest bus in New York City travels at an average speed of 4 mph at noon on a weekday - not much faster than the average speed of a person walking.

So says the Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives, a public transit advocacy group that has awarded the M23 in Manhattan a "Pokey" award for slowest bus route.

The group also awarded the "Schleppie" to the city's least reliable bus: The M1, which runs across Fifth, Madison and Park avenues. The group says that one in three of the M1 route buses are off schedule or have big gaps in service.

Call it the Misadventure of Captain Underpants and the Peeved Principal.

A suburban Long Island high school has banned all Halloween costumes after three senior girls showed up last year dressed as the underwear-baring subject of a series of best-selling children's books.

Long Beach High School Principal Nicholas Restivo, who sent the three seniors home to change last year, said the episode solidified his sense that the school's costume tradition was disruptive.

Click read more to see the Captain Underpants Girls

A self-proclaimed ghost-hunter says New York City has some of the most haunted places in the world. Kate Davey - who does research for an Internet company - says places where people hang out everyday of the week, have a lot of paranormal activity.

She says Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village was a public hanging square in the 18th century - and a lot of spirits roam among the college students, tourists and New Yorkers who hang out there.

Davey adds that New York City's history dating back to the 1600s makes it a perfect environment for unrested souls. She says dozens of restaurants and other public places have paranormal activity, including one Greenwich Village restaurant - where the maitre D' quit because he was pushed down the stairs by something he couldn't see.

Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo's "Tres Personajes," a 1970 painting vibrating with reds, yellows and purples, may fetch as much as $1 million at a Sotheby's auction on Nov. 20, the work's first public viewing since Elizabeth Gibson spied it in a mound of garbage on a Manhattan sidewalk.

Gibson, a tall, blond 53-year-old resident of the Upper West Side, went out for a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning in 2003. She spotted a large painting poking out from among the garbage bags left on the sidewalk on West 72nd Street. In her pre-caffeinated haze, she kept walking.

A 21-year-old man was killed playing the dangerous game of "surfing" atop a moving subway train, from which he was thrown to his death, local media reported Tuesday.

After his feat of daring, the man slipped and fell onto the tracks where he was killed Monday, media said quoting police.

In 2003, three people including a 14-year-old were killed trying similar stunts.

After emerging from the labyrinth of New York City's subway system, riders often feel they could use a compass to navigate the world above.

Now transit officials are providing one, in the form of large stickers pointing out north, south, east and west and the nearest streets in each direction. The city is testing the decals at four midtown stations, with the idea of installing permanent ones in various places if the response is good.

Subway stations often have multiple exits, with signs specifying the cross streets at which a given exit is located. But even experienced riders sometimes have trouble figuring out which way they're facing once they get to the street.

The wedding was lovely, except for the flowers: They were the wrong color.

So says the bride, Elana Glatt, who was so upset that she sued the florist and alleged breach of contract.

She says Posy Floral Design in Manhattan substituted pastel pink and green hydrangeas for the dark rust and green ones she had specified for 22 centerpieces.

New York's iconic Empire State Building is to be lit up green from Friday in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid, the biggest festival in the Muslim calendar marking the end of Ramadan, officials said.

"This is the first time that the Empire State Building will be illuminated for Eid, and the lighting will become an annual event in the same tradition of the yearly lightings for Christmas and Hannukah," according to a statement.

Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month, is expected to be celebrated in New York from Friday, depending on when the new moon is sighted, and the city's tallest skyscraper will remain green until Sunday.

Gordon Ramsay at last has something to celebrate from his venture into New York, with the news that he has been awarded two Michelin stars for his Manhattan restaurant, the London.

The chef with golden touch but dirty tongue has had a rough time of it since exporting his craft across the Atlantic. First, the London was hit by a withering review from the arbiter of culinary good taste, the New York Times food critic, Frank Bruni. Then there were reports of dissension among the restaurant's staff over tips, and neighbours to the midtown venue in 54th street complained about noise and other irritations.

Seventeen-ton retirees, some 600 of them, will soon be living out their golden years on the Jersey Shore, where they will see plenty of scuba diving and fishing.

They are part of more than 1,600 stainless-steel passenger and work-crew subway cars that will head to their new homes off the Garden State and farther down the Eastern Seaboard starting in the late fall. Some have zipped down the track since the early 1960s and will continue to work in retirement -- as artificial reefs housing schools of fish while providing divers with an underwater glimpse of New York icons.