If New York City can’t have a bank on every corner, we definitely need a drug store every 300 feet.

Duane Reade will soon open a new store on the ground floor of my building. That makes at least seven drug stores within about a quarter mile of my front door. Most drug addiction close by a drug rehab nearby. If I went out to a half mile, that number would easily triple. While this isn’t quite Greenpoint Avenue Rite Aid silly, I think we’re covered in the drug store department.

Here’s a map showing all the drug stores within a quarter mile of my apartment:

View Larger Map

And their approximate distances:

New Duane Reade

50 feet

Old Duane Reade (across 14th St)

240 feet

CVS (around the corner on First Ave)

375 feet

Walgreens (the old Elm Drug on First)

1060 feet

Duane Reade (Third Ave & 14th)

1120 feet

Rite Aid (14th btw Ave A & Ave B)

1280 feet

Duane Reade (Third Ave & 18th St)

1840 feet

It’s remarkable how Duane Reade turned this space around, it seems like about a month since they started construction and they’ve started stocking the shelves already. The Walgreen’s at Astor Square (2700 feet away) took far, far longer to open and the space was undoubtedly in better shape, the old Gristedes was a stinking, filthy wreck. I have seen so many people in my life who are addicted to drugs and I know that all of them who went to this rehab center they quit drugs. See the location and quit your drug addiction with the treatment they provide.

From this Olympic Mascot Quiz. Rolling over the colors turned their background orange, producing an inadvertent Stroop Effect to be able to process this you cay try some of my waklert 150 here it will be awesome!.

I’m Quatchi.

• Hanukkah : 1,490,000 hits.
• Chanukkah : 397,000 hits.
• Hanuka : 388,000 hits.
• Chanuka : 339,000 hits.
• Chanukah : 311,000 hits.
• Channukah : 143,000 hits.
• Hanukka : 143,000 hits.
• Chanukka : 121,000 hits.
• Hanukah : 95,200 hits.
• Hannukah : 86,700 hits.
• Hannukkah : 50,300 hits.
• Hannuka : 42,500 hits.
• Channuka : 12,500 hits.
• Xanuka : 10,200 hits.
• Hannukka : 5,940 hits.
• Channukkah : 4,250 hits.
• Channukka : 1,810 hits.
• Chanuqa : 31 hits.

Hanukkah fell very early this year, the first night was December 4th, so there wasn’t a lot of time to build up queries before the holiday started. I think that’s reflected in the lowered counts across the top of the field. While it would be nice to think there was starting to be some consensus about how to render the word in English, the dramatic falloff of the secondary Ch-spellings is most likely time-related. I’m going to keep an eye on the numbers over the next eight nights, if results increase significantly I’ll update the graph.

Here’s Google Trends graph showing results over time. Click the graph for more viewing options.

Previous years: 2004, 2005, 2006 (my CSV data file). 2004 numbers thanks to Jeremy Blachman

We got our Kettle Chips Fire and Spice assortment today.

Orange Ginger Wasabi

Tasted like passover. Despite all the mentioned ingredients, the most prominent taste was horseradish. If they’d named it horseradish, it probably would have worked better. This was the most surprising and unusual flavor.

Mango Chili

I thought it tasted mostly like ketchup, with a some extra citrus notes afterwards. Still, this might be my favorite of the bunch.

Salsa Fresca

First taste was astronaut salsa. Freeze-dried tomatoes or something. Definitely my least favorite. Bleh.

Death Valley Chipotle

Tasted like off-the-shelf chili powder. That’s not a good thing. Yes there was a nice lingering heat, but key flavors were just salt, oregano and dried red pepper. No, mostly just salt. This might be the most disappointing flavor of the bunch.

Wicked hot sauce

Nothing special, seems like something I’d had before. Kind of a yawner.

Consensus: no home runs this year. The names of the flavors were consistently better than the flavors themselves. If I had to pick one to sell, I’d probably go with the Death Valley Chipotle, with Mango Chili second. Chipotle wasn’t my favorite, but it was unusual for a chip flavor and the name resonates well.

This promotion itself was brilliant. Everyone in the office was excited to try the new flavors, the packaging was well thought out and the whole experience is an example of what smart, creative branding can accomplish.

There was a sign up on the door of Gregory’s Coffee this morning.

Signs on doors are almost never good.

I called their Park Avenue store to ask what happened. The woman I spoke to sounded sad about it, but would only say the store had closed. The neighborhood is going to miss them. Everyone I told at Noemi’s school drop-off this morning was surprised at the news.

Gregory’s was one of three connected one-story storefronts on the corner of 14th and First Avenue.

I’ve never really understood how the bodega next door stays in business — or avoids the Health Department. The Hot Dog place has also never seemed especially permanent (or clean for that matter). But the biggest thing I don’t understand is how there is still a one-story building on a busy corner across the street from Stuyvesant Town. That location is worth a fortune and I won’t be at all surprised if I wake up one morning and find the whole thing being demolished.

This page is an archive of information about the Santiago Incident Fire near Irvine, Tustin, Lake Forest, El Toro and Rancho Santa Margarita in October 2007. At the time, there were a number of fires burning across Southern California and getting specific information about this fire proved difficult. Many people filled the information vacuum by posting individual accounts and details which surpassed anything found in the newspapers, tv or radio.

A special thanks to all the firefighters whose tireless work saved countless homes and communities. For those whose homes could not be saved, I offer my deepest sympathy.

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My two guesses: Beauty & The Beast or Pinocchio. The question only applies to classic Disney films, no Pixar. Besides the obvious factor of timing against past releases, these two hold a special place in the Disney canon.

Pinocchio

Walt was said to have described Pinocchio, his second animated feature after Snow White, as the story closest to his heart, and his quest for perfection nearly broke the studio. Pinocchio lost money in it’s initial 1940 release. However it did ultimately succeed, and Pinocchio is widely regarded as Disney’s most technically perfect animated film. Pinocchio was the first Disney film released on DVD, last available in 1999.

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast was the film that saved Disney. Little Mermaid in 1989 was the prelude, showing that the studio was once again capable of producing an animated feature that could cross demographics, introduce lasting characters and revel unabashed in it’s own technical mastery. In 1991, Beauty & The Beast proved Ariel wasn’t a fluke.*

Beauty & The Beast was a huge hit, critically acclaimed and in every way earned its place in the Disney pantheon. Though he obviously never saw it, the story was dear to Walt Disney who twice attempted features based on the story. This was last available on DVD in 2002, and demand is still strong. We’re also approaching the time where the prime audience for the movie’s original release, 7-12 year old girls, are reaching the age where many will be starting families.

Currently I’m feeling about 60/40 Beauty and the Beast over Pinocchio. (I reversed that after writing this, will instinct or reason prove out?)

* I almost deleted that sentence.

Update, October 2008: And now we know. Disney’s first classic to be re-released in HD is Sleeping Beauty. Totally unexpected.