New York Today: How to Be Good at SantaCon
Updated, 8:26 a.m.
Good morning on this frosty Friday.
This weekend, thousands of red-suited revelers will be riding their sleighs pedal-to-the-metal into New York City for SantaCon, an enormous pub-crawl.
The city has a love-hate relationship with the booze-infused day. So do local bars, where we were told that the SantaCon shenanigans often surpass even those of St. Patrick’s Day and New Year’s Eve.
While the event’s organizers do offer rules of conduct for participants — “Santa spreads joy. Not terror. Not vomit. Not trash.” — your neighborhood bartenders have some requests, too.
“Don’t do it,” said Scott Ackerman of the Grafton, suggesting you give the event a miss.
But if you do attend, he said: “Don’t get arrested. Pace yourself. Stick to beer. No shots.”
Kay Day, a bartender at Coyote Ugly Saloon, gave this advice: “If you spill a beer, it’s on you. Don’t ask us for another free beer.”
And, in a plea to respect the dancers, she added: “Don’t pet the Coyotes.”
“Bring cash,” said Brendan Clinkscales, who pours drinks at the Copper Still, where there will be security guards outside. “Expect to wait in line.”
The Lions Beer Store, a bar, restaurant and beer vendor, is putting up a sign telling Santas to stay away. “Behave like the other days when you’re normally dressed and you come to a bar for a drink,” said Sakis Pitsionas, a bartender there, “and don’t use the Santa Claus uniform to do crazy things.”
Santas will also be turned away at Phebe’s.
“People get sick or do things they shouldn’t be doing indoors,” said Eleni Angeles, a bartender there.
“Hold onto your stuff, because so much gets stolen,” said Melissa Gratto, who has worked SantaCon at Feile and Stout.
Above all, here’s what we heard over and over again: Please, be respectful.
“Be kind to your bartenders,” Ms. Gratto said. “And tip your bartenders, because if you don’t, they will ignore you.”
Here’s what else is happening:
Frigid, even.
It will feel as if it were below freezing (as low as 20 degrees), and the gusts will probably be enough to make you gasp.
We haven’t tired of snow yet, so the chance of scattered flurries is making us feel warm and fuzzy. But that’s only on the inside.
Winter coat watch: No doubt.
In the News
• Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said he had met with federal prosecutors about the corruption case against some of his former associates. [New York Times]
• Mayor Bill de Blasio called the deaths of two toddlers from steam burns from a radiator a “freak accident.” [New York Times] ...
• ... And just how risky are steam radiators? [New York Times]
• Two former Chinese diplomats brought in workers on diplomatic visas, ostensibly to work on Chinese government buildings, then forced them to work on private homes, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said. [New York Times]
• Hate crimes are on the rise in the city, but the figures are not as high as in 2012, the year of the last presidential election. [Politico]
• Sea levels around the metropolitan area could rise a foot by 2030, according to a new report. [Gothamist]
• Chivalry on the subway is not dead, according to a study by Hunter College students. [CBS]
• A police commissioner promised taping of questioning in serious cases. Three years later, too few sessions are being recorded. [New York Times]
• After moving into a shelter, Natasha Bell has a home, but she still has debts to pay. [New York Times]
• Today’s Metropolitan Diary: “Advice From an Unexpected Source”
• For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Friday Briefing.
Coming Up Today
• See a movie — complete with cocktails, snacks, blankets and pillows — at the iPic Theater in the South Street Seaport. Show times and prices vary.
• Listen to Christmas carols and 18th-century music at the Holiday Jubileeconcert at King Manor Museum in Queens. 6 p.m. [Tickets start at $20]
• The Christmas Show — with dancers, aerialists and an excerpt from “The Nutcracker” — is at St. George Theatre on Staten Island. 7 p.m. [Ticketsstart at $15]
• A screening of “Beatbox Boom Bap Around the World,” a film about top vocal percussionists, is at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. 7:30 p.m. [$15]
• Enjoy a night at the opera with Richard Strauss’s “Salome,” a sensual, Oscar Wilde-inspired drama, at the Metropolitan Opera in Manhattan. 8 p.m. [Tickets start at $25]
• Devils host Blues, 7:30 p.m. (MSG). Rangers at Blackhawks, 8:30 p.m. (MSG+). Knicks at Kings, 10:30 p.m. (MSG).
The Weekend
Saturday
• Zoom in to the New York Motorcycle Show at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. [$20, tickets here]
• Thinking of sending the children to camp, but not sure where? Learn more at a family camp fair at St. Jean Baptiste High School on the Upper East Side. Noon. [Free]
• Travel back to the Victorian era on a 19th-century trolley tour through Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. 1 p.m. [$25]
• The Manhattan Brass Quintet performs holiday classics at the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum in the Bronx. 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. [$5, registration required]
• The Great Northeast Cheese and Dairy Fest is at Flushing Town Hall in Queens. 6 p.m. [Tickets start at $60]
• Islanders at Blue Jackets, 7 p.m. (MSG+). Nets at Spurs, 8:30 p.m. (YES).
• Watch “The New York Times Close Up,” featuring The Times’s senior correspondent and editor on gender issues, Susan Chira, and other guests. Saturday at 10 p.m. and Sunday at 10 a.m. on NY1.
Sunday
• Model trains zip through recreations of city landmarks in the Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. [Prices vary]
• See “the Taylor Swift Experience,” an exhibition about the pop star, at Seaport District in the South Street Seaport. 11 a.m. [$9]
• Merry Tuba Christmas, a holiday performance with hundreds of the brass instruments, on the Rink at Rockefeller Center. 3:30 p.m. [Free to watch]
• Fox-trot over to the Jazz Age Tea Dance, featuring exotic teas, cocktails and dancing, in the Grand Ballroom at Webster Hall in the East Village. 4 p.m. [$80]
• Looking ahead: The New York Philharmonic plays Handel’s “Messiah”this Tuesday through Saturday at Lincoln Center. [Tickets start at $29]
• Jets at 49ers, 4:05 p.m. (CBS). Rangers host Devils, 7 p.m. (MSG). Giants host Cowboys, 8:30 p.m. (NBC). Knicks at Lakers, 9:30 p.m. (MSG).
• For more events, see The New York Times’s Arts & Entertainment guide.
Commute
• Alternate-side parking: in effect until Dec. 25.
And Finally...
We might see snow this weekend, and temperatures won’t make it out of the 30s. But in one part of the city, it’s summertime.
If you can be coaxed out of your chrysalis of winter clothing, you’ll find 500 butterflies floating through tropical, 80-degree weather, a rain forest canopy and simulated sunlight on the Upper West Side.
The fluttering visitors — including zebra longwings, owl butterflies, paper kites and monarchs — have arrived at the American Museum of Natural History’s Butterfly Conservatory, which opens tomorrow, from as far away as Australia, Kenya, Malaysia and Thailand.
You can visit the exhibition to learn more, not only about these exotic butterflies but also about some that are native New Yorkers.
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P.C: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/nyregion/new-york-today-santacon-bars-bartenders-advice.html
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