Can we avoid our local McDonald’s, too?

Recharger — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 21:40:37 +0000

New York parents are so hungry to get their kids into good public schools, they bend residency rules with increasing blatancy, blaming crummy schools for their lawlessness. “My kids are entitled to the same education as a kid two subway stops away,” insists a mom who lives in the Elliott-Chelsea Houses in Chelsea. She gives the Department of Education a false address so that her youngest son can attend a better school. “The difference between one school and another school in the same damn neighborhood is so clear. So parents are taking things into their own hands.”

Some parents take berserker measures.

A Brooklyn parent rents a one-bedroom basement apartment for $620 a month so that her child can attend Park Slope’s tony PS 321, where more than 85 percent of the kids meet reading and math requirements. “It’s cheaper than private school,” shrugged the mom, an attorney who actually lives in Williamsburg. “None of the schools near me are up to par. So I did what I needed to do.” The ghost apartment--which she uses as a proof of the address--is furnished with a single lamp to generate an electric bill.

Compared to our hovel, sounds like the Trump Tower.

-- Aleksandr Shusterman

Condoms in a Jelly-bean Jar?

Recharger — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 01:18:35 +0000

Sheesh. Till now, Recharger pictured Columbia University students pulling all-nighters for Professor Jackson, napping in the library, and argueing existentialism in the malt shop. Turns out the school where tuition costs $33,000 is a breeding ground for sexual deviancer that would turn a white man grey. According to the Daily News, Columbia students spend every spare minute going to strip parties, broadcasting porn on campus, and playing an increasingly popular game called “Guess the Number of Condoms in the Jelly-Bean Jar.”

A Daily News reporter who witnessed an event in a campus classroom, wrote that “As a female student volunteer stood facing the blackboard, and two dozen Columbians watched, a lecturer who identified himself only as Dov flogged her repeatedly with leather whips, rubber hoses -- and a cat-o’-nine-tails. ‘I’m Dov, and these are my toys,’ he said, and for the next 14 minutes he demonstrated lashing techniques. The activity was consensual, but the squeals of delight mingled with the occasional yelps of pain.”

And we thought cat tails were for chasing.

-- Aleksandr Shusterman

Recharger The Dog » Aleksandr Shusterman

Can we avoid our local McDonald’s, too?

Condoms in a Jelly-bean Jar?