How Cute!

Thanks, Sara!

Staten Island, Borough of Amusement Parks

Here is what David Hayes says about his home borough:

"Staten Island is like an amusement park. You have to pay admission to get in.”

The toll to Staten Island on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge is currently $10 (but it's free to leave). The cost is about half that if you have a Staten Island Resident EZ Pass, and less still if you carpool.

She Knows What "Pliooshka" Means

Kai Bolay is a Google software engineer; Natasha Sarkisian is a sociology professor. (Though she has a recognizeable Armenian name -- it's Cher's last name -- Natasha is Russian.) Her field of study, very broadly, is extended families.

Kai, who's from Germany, doesn't think it fair that rental brokers get paid only upon renting a place to someone. Their agent, Brian Dusseau of City Connections Realty, spent the better part of a month shepherding these two around.

"There is a conflict of interest," Kai said. "It is in Brian's interest to get us as quickly as possible into the most expensive apartment. I would rather pay by the hour, and if we make him work long he will be paid more.”

The couple had trouble deciding what features were most important to them. Natasha wanted to do a multivariate regression analysis to find the best place, but didn't have enough data points. When their one-month temporary rental came to an end, they were forced to make a move.

Her own extended family -- her brother, Sergei, a medical student in Russia -- was visiting. They have no guest room in their rental in the Atlas, one of the Gotham Organization's buildings near the Garment District, so Sergei slept on the living-room futon.

Chez Bushwick

Zeb Stewart is a partner in two Williamsburg Bars, Union Pool and Hotel Delmano. So it's appropriate that his remarkable new home/studio in Bushwick was, way back when, the office for the William Ulmer Brewery.

In the spring of 1914, Ulmer Weber, son of the Brewery's president, eloped. An item in the NYTimes from June 14, 1914, provides salient details:

Ulmer Weber Secretly Married to Miss Anna Meurer.

Brooklyn society received a surprise yesterday when it became known that Miss Anna Meurer of 266 Lincoln Place had become the bride of Ulmer Weber of 101 Eighth Avenue in Jersey City on May 27. It was only within the last week that even the parents of the young couple learned of the wedding.

Anna was 19 and Ulmer was 21. His father, John W. Weber, was president of the Ulmer Brewing Company, financier and former Bridge Commissioner. The two had been "friends for several years." On their wedding day, they went to Jersey City in an automobile, after which they honeymooned at the Hotel Biltmore.

Here's the living room and the workshop of Zeb's place. On the table in the foreground, he was casting balls of cement.

It Means "Cinnamon Bun"

In honor of today's Gawker appearance, we present another photo of Loki (the Norse God of Mischief) and Pliooshka (Russian for "cinnamon bun." Or, at least, "bun.")

Pliooshka is the black and white cat. Both are now free of ringworm. 

A Park Slope Find

There are bunches of little independent brokerages around. One of them, James DiPrima, rented a one-bedroom in Park Slope to my Hunt subjects this week, Kaitlin Andrews and Ryan Morgan.


James DiPrima Real Estate is at 64 Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. He has the basement level.
"There are people who walk by me for years and say, 'I've never seen this,' " he told me. "You need a trip wire outside."

Talk to the Goss Boss

It's been a busy news week so far, but there's something far more interesting going on than the machinations of Eliot Spitzer (who lives at 985 Fifth Ave., on the north side of 79th Street).

My boss, Goss, is doing Talk to the Newsroom this week. He's fielding real-estate related questions at askthenewsroom @ nytimes.com. So ask away.