Where are all the good men hiding?
A good place to check might be your local burger joint. Because whether its Five Guys on Bleecker Street, the Shake Shack on the Upper West Side or Junior’s in Downtown Brooklyn, chances are there will be more men than women.
That’s according to location data parsed by Ratio Finder, a handy map of the city based on the relative number of men and women who use Foursquare to check into museums, coffee shops and hamburger parlors. Gizmodo writes that while most of the data is obvious — women like parks, men like bars — it is fun to play with and a welcome new tool for helping singles decide where to spend a night out.
Information, in this way, can make life better. Because in the absence of information, we’re left to make our best guesses about the facts, and as Wednesday’s collective U.F.O. frenzy demonstrated, those guesses are often wildly off the mark.
The great thing about the term U.F.O. is its ability to be both accurate — those white, weather-balloon-like objects floating over Manhattan really were “unidentified” — and to sound completely bonkers. Pretty much every major news outlet and local blog has weighed in on the sighting, with witnesses providing photographic and video evidence. A crowd gathering in Chelsea, staring up at the sky, is eerily reminiscent of the throngs of soon to be alien-zapped extras from the movie “Independence Day.” (Maybe the aliens meant to come on Columbus Day and were just late?) Jen Doll at Runnin’ Scared wisely compares the low-grade feeling of unease that gripped the city to the feeling of sweet dread many felt during the 2005 maple syrup mystery.
No word whether these are the same U.F.O.’s that paid a mysterious visit to China last month. During one sighting in Inner Mongolia, air traffic controllers apparently even diverted flights from a local airport.
The truth is out there. You can also vote on the truth at the Huffington Post.
And while you’re voting, maybe head over to Crain’s New York Business, where an Internet poll on whether the city should scrap its hundreds of miles of bicycle lanes drew the ire of local riders. So far, the pro-lane crowd is prevailing.
But the real problem with the city, The Grumbler argues, is that there are entirely too many people who think the world revolves around them. Case in point: the “NY Loves Me” signs and T-shirts that have lately been plastered all over our streets and stores. “What depths of self-importance are required to make the statement that you are loved by eight million people,” Jeremiah (of Vanishing New York) wonders.
It’s no mystery. Narcissism is not alien to the city. It’s an object everyone can identify.
Around the Web from link to link; today’s chatter in the New York City blogosphere. Have a tip? E-mail NewYorkOnline@nytimes.com or send a Twitter message to @jdavidgoodman.
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