It’s Tuesday morning in New York City and good luck to those of you who live in a place with a celebrity connection.
If it’s not the Swifties flocking to Cornelia Street to see their idol’s old house, it’s “Sex and the City” fans gushing over Carrie Bradshaw’s fictional brownstone. And fans are bugging the current dwellers of such famed residences for more than just a photo.
Here’s what else is happening:
- It’s Halloween in August this year at the International Puppet Fringe Festival in NYC. The event, which drives home the message that puppetry is an art, not just child’s play, will honor Ralph Lee, master puppeteer and creator of the Village Halloween Parade.
- We are a city that embraces all sports, no matter how niche, curling included. Despite not having a physical space to call their own, the Brooklyn Curling Center brings its mobile curling contraption all around NYC for people to give the sport a try.
- Campbell Soup is buying Rao’s, the tomato sauce brand derived from a New York Italian restaurant that is pricier than most others on supermarket shelves, but loved by many for its superior taste. Fans are hoping the quality doesn’t decline with the canned soup maker’s purchase.
- The American Red Cross has adopted a universal waiting period for blood donations if you recently had sex with a new partner, ending a 40-year restriction that singled out gay and bisexual men.
- Restaurants are doing away with telephone access for customers, which means eager diners are using other forms of communication to reach out, like DMs and employees’ personal numbers.
- If you’re worried about hungry customers finding your phone number, the good news is that Google is going to start notifying you if your contact information shows up in search results so you can get it removed more easily.
- Noodle, the late pug whose TikTok videos brought immense joy to people during the height of the pandemic, will be remembered at City Winery this week with a memorial service.
- And finally, get well soon, Lightning: