So any fans of labor unions would be proud of some local Brooklyn news coming in this week. This week Brooklyn Cablevision workers have voted to unionize. 282 workers mostly  technicians and dispatchers voted on Thursday to join the union the Communications Workers of America. The union is the largest telecommunications union in the world and includes 700,000 other workers. Cablevision of course released a statement that they were “disappointed” about the results of the vote.

The effort to unionize apparently began on December 2nd 2011 when more than 70% of the company’s workers submitted union registration cards. The results of this vote could reverberate throughout the cable industry and have an affect on customers prices. For the workers the results will be a leg up in contract negotiations.

More significantly though is the new New Yorker’s disrespect of bagel culture. It is not that they do not appreciate the greatest carbohydrate New York and Brooklyn have to offer, it’s that they do so all wrong. Some of these people do something that would have any self respecting Brooklynite feeling defeated and angry. They have the nerve to toast perfectly good bagels ruining their doughy softness and making them into just some regular old toasted bread.

A Brooklyn bagel is not the same as those dumb things you get in a frozen bag at your local supermarket and to toast one is a crime against culinary justice. A nefarious and vile act that should be grounds for sending people to some Brooklyn salt mine deep in East New York.

This might not be Brooklyn news but apparently it is to some.

There are about 100 members divided into eight teams, four guys and four girls on each team. The league lasts seven weeks, giving you plenty of time to potentially find a mate, or at least some people who know how to handle large balls. But don’t feel ashamed if you need bumpers. No one is expecting you to be that great. Actually, the worse you are, the more adorable you look to others. Or at least that works to a woman’s advantage. Even if you don’t find your soulmate, the fee is only $100 which is much cheaper than going to Brooklyn Bowl on your own.

Get a cute pair of bowling shoes, because those ugly shoes are totally in, and see if you can manage a love strike –dorky pun intended.

Here's Leighton Meister sitting in a hallway.

Just before 9/11 many writers had contemplated what they called “The End of History.” We lived in relative peace and prosperity and progress be it technological or sociological had sped up so much that keeping track of it was no longer tenable. Of course now we know that those who predict the death of history are doomed to be rocked to the core by it.

Then there are slow news days. Lately, post #OccupyWallStreet, I’m feeling a bit of a lack of history locally. Of course am I asking for trouble simply by mentioning this dearth of eventfulness? Probably.

Brooklyn news these days can be tragic on a hyper local scale(a man was shot by the police in his own home last night) or almost about the fact that nothing is happening(have your heard the Nets are a thing that will eventually happen here). What it is not in the last few weeks is world changing important cultural, political and economic shifts. Where are those stories?

The last decade Brooklyn has played a big role in the collective consciousness. Perhaps we have now entered into a period of cultural insignificance. More likely though the sky will cave in in some way or maybe something huge and good will happen.

On Saturday the 14th, Habitat for Humanity is celebrating at  Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church with a reciting of  the famous “I Have a Dream” speech. A  commemorative poem will also be performed  by the NYCHA Youth Chorus. The event is free and is  happening at 2 pm.

The Brooklyn Children Museum will be celebrating from 2:30 to 3:30 where kids 6 and up can explore the ideas that Martin Luther King Jr spoke about and fought for. They’ll also be teaching the values of celebrating and joining together cultures and living in peace with each other.

On the holiday itself on Monday, the Brooklyn Art Museum (BAM)  with celebrate its 26th annual tribute to Martin Luther King Jr with keynote speakers  and musical performances. It all starts at 10:30 am  and tickets must be purchased. It’s first come, first seated so get there early!

The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens will be offering free admission in honor of the holiday as well, so take that day off from work to go enjoy the winter flora!

“We don’t go crazy with sequins or appliqué like competitive performers,” said Sciarrillo. “They’re intimidating and smiling too hard.” (Kudos to that!) The duo were inspired back in 2010 after meeting a Parisian ballerina and suddenly become nostalgic for dancing in the water. The girls teach a class at the Dodge YMCA in Boerum Hill and have also appeared in art festivals in the Rockaways. But the two have no intention of competing. They want to keep it fun, for those brave enough to show up to a class. Roy Auty, the only male in the class, said he’s always dreamed of doing this. I can’t say the same, but a job well done for finding your flair underwater…with black bathing suits and mesh gloves.

Good! I know it can get a little bland to keep getting the same beer at spots with upwards of 7 beers on tap and yet there I was. I think the reason I kept returning to it is the flavor felt full without ever feeling overwhelming and the beer was just heavy enough to allow for long sustained drinking. It may not seem like Brooklyn news at this point since the line started showing up in well stocked delis around October but I think they’ve hit a stride with this particular brew and I thought it seemed worth letting everyone know that now is the time to dive in.

Of course if you aren’t a fan of winter ales or Brooklyn Brewery in general I don’t know that we should even be talking to each other at this point.

The arena is even looking to steal the “4-D” technology from Disney theme parks. In case you’re wondering, this so-called “4-D experience” just means including touch, taste, and smell to sight and sound. Because everyone, except those at Disney, knows that it’s impossible for a three-dimensional world to experience the fourth dimension. But now I’m just getting snarky.

But back to the Nets…the employees will be trained with the Disney attitude in mind. For example, the staff doesn’t wear a uniform. They wear costumes. So you can expect an over-the-top experience when the arena open up in September 2012.

Check back soon for more Brooklyn news and we’ll keep you posted if the workers go insane from happiness.

The view of Manhattan from Brooklyn, always an iconic reminder that we live in one of the most exciting and vital places on the planet, was changed forever. So too was the view from our collective psyche. The last ten years have been a series of culture shocks and cultural breakthroughs. The technology we once feared would drive a wedge between humanity has instead become a hyper connective network. In a way that reaction could have something to do with the events of 9/11. The fear of being suddenly torn from someone you love or something familiar now has us forever connecting to one another. It is safe to say that on that day Brooklyn and the world got a whole lot smaller.

Harsh toke, dude.

Following two months of undercover investigation, NYC police raided six Crown Heights businesses on Tuesday for selling marijuana alongside products such as jerk chicken, t-shirts, and CDs.

The offending businesses are all within a ten-block radius – four are on Nostrand Avenue alone – but police say that the drug dealings were not part of a coordinated effort. But coordinated or not, the area saw 170 pounds of drug traffic every week, NYT reports.

Aside from the facts, The Times’ coverage includes two quotes worth repeating:

• Raymond W. Kelly, the NYC police commissioner, described a “veritable pot-luck event” occurring every day at lunch, when marijuana was available in back rooms, over the counter, and even in the food.
• Letitia James, a Crown Heights councilwoman, called the busted scene “an open drug bazaar on Nostrand Avenue.”

Whether or not any of the businesses will be able to stay above ground by actually selling jerk chicken and the like is anybody’s guess. For now, though, they remain closed.