Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou

Bright

Homemade music, homegrown fun and more family time

I host a childrens music website and I’ve noticed that more parents who attend my shows and visit my websites are using my “make your own instrument” directions. Instead of buying a first guitar or drum kit for a young child they are doing homemade music jams building their own didgeridoos, box drums, shekeres, etc. They come up with some pretty amazing stuff and it leads to more quality family time together.

I have step-by-step directions on my website at www.dariamusic.com and get lots of e-mails from parents who are using this as quality time.

Homemade music, homegrown fun and more family time – perhaps that’s one good aspect of the economic downturn!

Robert Prowse

Commerce

Jumping through insurance hoops

I have found that insurance companies are trying to raise rates or cut benefits any way they can. My homeowners insurance is making me verify that I have a current subscription for my alarm system. If I can't prove it, they will raise my rates. My health insurance wants a copy of my marriage certificate and first page of my latest income tax return (with financial information blacked out) or they will drop my wife's coverage. There was a time when all this would have consumed too many man hours for the insurance companies, but now computers do it all. Unfortunately, the consumer has to jump through more and more hoops.

Ann

Commerce

Fairway coupon not a first

Fairway coupon deal-$10 off a $75 order- is not a first. Fairway has been sending out $10 off coupons in those valu-pak envelope of coupons for years. What does seem to be a first is this was a separate, stand alone mailing.

Upper West Side

Marc Heineman

Employment

Worry for youth prospects and health care reform

I hope that the public will get a plan that provides choices at competitive prices that benefit’s the public rather than special interest corporations in the insurance, hospital and health insurance fields.
Many people outside of Pennsylvania Ave and K street are struggling and need to see a path to better times. I for one see the future for most of my nieces and nephews riddled with economic challenges that I do not envy. I see my co-workers' children go to fine colleges and emerge to a dismal job market. A health bill that benefits the citizens of this country by providing sufficient and affordable coverage would be a step in the right direction. Denying citizens in certain states sufficient health insurance choices promotes higher costs for the general public. Catering to Senator Nelson will prevent citizens from shopping for a good affordable and dependable plan.

Bayside NY

David Garfunkel

Behavior

baby bust?

Yesterday, I was the anesthesiologist assigned to labor and delivery for the day at my hospital. Whereas a typical Monday would normally be composed of 2-3 C/Sections and several vaginal deliveries, yesterday was quiet, with only 1 delivery during the 5 hours I was there. The nurses told me it has been very quiet the past several weeks, and suspects that fewer babies were conceived after November, 2008. We'll see how long it lasts.

Mary Grunmeier

Housing

Home Buyers' Tax Credit Backlash

The $8,000 tax credit for first time homebuyers was set to expire on Nov. 30. Last week, it was both extended and expanded. As a result, two of my listings, which were under contract have become fall-throughs. In other words, the buyers backed out of the deals. The extension/expansion convinced them that there would be a better deal for them...either a better house or a better price. So frustrating!

24 Midway Court, Rockaway, NJ, 225 Richard Mine Road, Wharton, NJ

Jennifer Melick

Commerce

Ice cream

Last winter (2008-09) the Cold Stone Creamery closed for a "winter break" with a sign on the window that they would reopen in March. They didn't reopen in the spring, and soon an eviction notice appeared on the door. I figured if Americans can't keep an ice cream shop open, we're doomed. But then this fall, a new coffee/lunch place, Cafe Luna, is announced to be opening soon at the same spot. So... things may be looking up!

32 Main Street, Millburn, NJ

Nancy Sheldon

Commerce

Fairway Freebee

Received a flyer in the mail yesterday from Fairway offering $10 off any purchase over $75. In over 20 years on the westside I think this is a first.

Broadway and 74th Street

Dimitri Liakhovitski

Employment

Babysitters looking for jobs

I am a member of a Yahoo club for Russian-speaking parents (mostly NY Metro area). I am seeing more and more ads on our forum whose gist is "Good Babysitter available ASAP: Due to my family situation, I had to let go of a good babysitter...etc." Looks like people are loosing jobs and are letting babysitters go. Before Spring-Summer 2008 we had virtually no such posts. Most of the babysitter-related posts back then discussed "arrogant babysitters who are requesting too much in pay/vacation/perks". Situation clearly changed since then.

424 Center Street, Fort Lee, NJ 07024

Jax

Bright

Unemployment Blogging Indicator

I've noticed a significant drop in blogging volume on unemployment-related sites.
Even my favorite, unemploymentality.com,now urges the unemployed to find work.

Giuseppe Castellacci

Behavior

Ticker-Tape--Ticker-Scrape

Toilet paper and shredded office paper replace good old ticker tape in today's Yankee's Parade
(http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/11/06/sports/20091106SPTSPARADE_2.html)
Why not? It saves even disposal costs!

Canyon of Heroes

Frances White

Commerce

Pens Get Downsized

I noticed the uncommon economic indicators when my bank changed its free pens from its groovy turquoise and white "click" roller ball type pen imprinted with its logo and website to a basic off-the-shelf (with NO imprinting) garden variety basic pen with a cap.

Albuquerque, NM

Kirsten Rohrs

Employment

Freelance drying up

I was a freelance editor in magazine publishing for 16 years. Over the past year, ALL of my jobs have disappeared, with publications folding and advertising pages down. I have now taken a full-time writing position at a university, making 40% less than I was bringing in last year. I feel lucky to have a job at an organization that is not in danger of closing. However, the economic hit will be hard on me and my family.

Jerry

Behavior

bottom feeder

Was at Jack's 99 pennies at 32nd st., an older lady came out with her shpping bags and stepped in a new Mercedes Benz 500 cabriolet waiting for her.

Virginia

Behavior

Recession Forces Us to "Funsize"

For the first time since we moved into our home in northern Westchester county 14 years ago, we will not be giving out full-size Hershey bars this Halloween.

Our little 'hood is an increasingly popular trick-or-treating destination for our and neighboring towns, and we will easily get 600 visitors on our porch Saturday night. WIth me laid off from my publishing job several months ago, and my husband's design firm experiencing the expected revenue falloff, we could no longer justify our confectionary largesse. We'll be handing out puny little candy pieces just like everyone else.

We'll miss the large-eyed astonishment of the little kids who've seemingly never laid eyes on an actual, honest-to-goodness candy bar. And the whoops and calls and thank-you-thank-you-thanks-you's of the early teens who are jarred from their feigned worldliness when they see that big honkin' brown wrapper.

But we're sure that our Halloweeners will understand our cutback, and remember that the real point of Halloween is to venture out into the crisp fall night, see one's friends and neighbors, and have some good, clean, fun. Oh, jeez; I hope we don't get egged.

Katonah NY

Dank C. Linkhart

Behavior

Don't throw it out!

You know those disposable salt and pepper grinders one can now purchase at the supermarket ?
I have found out that with a pair of wide pliers one can open them and refill them.

10th St. Brooklyn, 11215

Gaye Leslie

Commerce

More shops closed

Two stores I've seen recently are closed, in the busiest part of 7th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. A deli-grocery which included an organic section, and a frozen yogurt store, both closed within the past 2 weeks.
(a) 2 doors from Union Sreet, the deli-grocery, don't remember the name;
(b) a TastiDelite right on Union St, just around the corner from the deli above.

106 Seventh Avenue, 11215, 806 Union St 11215

Christopher Johnson

Behavior

Skateboard mafia

The local skateboard mafia--twenty or so boys ranging in age from eight to fifteen, I'd guess--has taken over the empty planters outside the glossy new Richard Meier building on Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn. No one from the building chases them away, or appears to pay the slightest attention to them. The boys are very polite and make every effort to accommodate passersby, but what a comedown for this much-ballyhooed luxury building!

1 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn NY 11238

Anu Prestonia

Commerce

Banks coming to me

I'm starting a new business and recently registered for a corporate license. A week later a Business Banker showed up at my current place of business to introduce himself and to see if I would consider opening my new business account with his bank (Chase Bank). He went on to say that his bank is not the big, impersonal bank I may think that it is (really now). Not to mention his bank is right across the way from my business.

Well this is a first for me. In all the years I've been in business (19 yrs), I've never had a banker show up and ask me to open an account with his bank. This is an uncommon economic indicator.

327 Gold Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Naomi Cohn

Employment

City and State Recruiting Volunteer Attorneys

Did you know that the city and state are recruiting attorneys to work on a volunteer basis?

Overwhelmed by the needs of unrepresented litigants in the recession, the state courts are looking for volunteer attorneys to provide free legal advice in proceedings involving foreclosure, consumer debt, landlord/tenant, and other areas.

But the city and state are also recruiting volunteer attorneys to actually do the everyday legal work of their regular lawyers. The website of the city's law department advertises that volunteer attorneys who have recently been laid off are needed to conduct depositions. The state is recruiting volunteer attorneys to serve as law clerks for state judges. Volunteer attorneys are also working in various state and city agencies.

I don't have anything against these programs. I have already participated in four of them since being laid off in January, 2009. I am, however, wondering what people would say if the city and state were to begin recruiting people to work as volunteer teachers, firefighters, and police officers.

In the meantime, the volunteer work I have been doing has provided me the opportunity to help other New Yorkers who have been hit by the recession. I have gained experience in landlord/tenant law and employment law to add to my background in real estate, collections, and commercial litigation. Would anyone like to offer me a paying job?