Explosive Yippie article: For Tribeca activist Julie Nadel, last week’s Villager article on the new Yippie Museum planned at 9 Bleecker St., with its mention and photo of museum director Dana Beal, brought back memories of 1980 when Nadel — a recent transplant from Vermont — was doing sales for the Soho Weekly News and Beal tossed what Nadel remembers as a “small explosive” into the office from Broadway. “It exploded next to my desk,” she said. “I had a bloody wound in my arm and leg and it blew a hole in my skirt. I couldn’t hear well for about a week.” Nadel says Beal was upset over an article and because editor Josh Friedman wouldn’t talk to him. William Kunstler defended Beal at a trial at which Nadel, then Spiegelbeger, testified and got him off with 35 days in jail. Beal vouches it was just a firecracker, he was aiming for a garbage can, was angry about a “Heroin Chic” article and that “people on the fringes of the Soho Weekly News” who were into heroin were engaged in a “firecracker war” with marijuana activists. On the other hand, he said, a real bomb was detonated in front of the Yippies’ building and that this door has been “enshrined” on the wall of the new museum. “She got a paper cut, it’s true,” Beal said. “And for that I’m deeply sorry.”
Nixon’s missing: Richard Nixon is still missing and unaccounted for. “There’s been no sightings,” said Detective Mike Singer, Sixth Police Precinct community affairs officer. Nixon, who used to hang around the subway station at 14th St. and Eighth Ave., has not been seen since early November, but Singer said there are no records of his death in New York City. It’s possible, though, he may have flown the coop. “He went down to Florida once before, so we don’t know,” Singer said. “He’s one of our problem homeless people. He’s been summonsed, arrested numerous times. He drinks, he blocks the sidewalks, that type of thing.” Singer added, “This isn’t exactly our priority.”
Giff’s real deal: The buzz we’re hearing from his former staffers and others is that former City Council Speaker and mayoral candidate Gifford Miller will go into real estate since his family is in the business.
Wils she stay or wils she go? Word is new Borough President Scott Stringer is going to pull the trigger and not reappoint Madelyn Wils to the Hudson River Park Trust’s board of directors. However, Stringer was sitting on the fence for a while, afraid of seeming “vindictive” if he did it, since it’s believed that Wils had privately supported Eva Moskowitz for B.P.
Eyewitness readers: Has Channel 7 Eyewitness News been boning up on The Villager? Last Saturday we saw a segment by one of their reporters on the “mercury building” at 55 W. Eighth St., and some of the information sounded a lot like what has been reported in The Villager. But the TV reporter credited Carol Wilson — the beleaguered tenant in whose apartment the mercury was found — not us with finding out that two famous sculptors who might have used mercury lived in the building years ago. Villager Reporter Jefferson Siegel checked with Wilson, who told him she was told the Eyewitness News assignment editor read The Villager article to the news reporter, then told the reporter to cover the story.
Water war: Warner Johnston, Parks Department spokesperson, quashed rumors that the rebuilt Washington Square fountain will contain three instead of the present four interior steps. “The fountain is going to be rebuilt exactly the way it is now,” Johnston said. No contract has been awarded yet for the fountain restoration work, he said. “It’s a public bid, it goes out as a bid,” he explained. Meanwhile, Councilmember Alan Gerson says he’s confident Parks will yield to his demand that children still be allowed to play in the fountain after the renovation — as they have done since the Great Depression when the fountain was converted into a water-play feature. Yet, asked last week by The Villager if Parks will respect Gerson’s water-access wishes, Johnston just said, “I have no comment on that at this time.” Hmm. Anyone willing to take bets on whether kids will ever be allowed to play in the fountain again — or if Gerson will really pull his funds as he threatened to do if Parks makes the fountain a no-play zone?
Oops: In the photo in the article “Fitting in ‘Candida,’ between shifts,” in the Feb. 1 issue, the actor standing on stage with Kate Holland is Danaher Dempsey, not Seth Duerr. Dempsey’s name is also misspelled in the article. We apologize to the Jean Cocteau Repertory for both errors.
Greek meal plan: Gus Theodoro, who had to close his Greek-style restaurant Gus’s Place on Waverly Pl. because of a rent increase, has narrowed a spot for a new Village restaurant to two locations, one on Carmine St. and the other, the home of the current Pescadou restaurant at Sixth Ave. and King St. Theodoro is pitching a plan under which his loyal following of former customers would give him $500 to help start up the place, in return for which they’d get that value in meals, plus a discount. “I’m giving people by March 14 to send the money in, the restaurant will open in May,” said Theodoro. In response to our asking what happens if the restaurant doesn’t open, he said the money would be held in an escrow account and returned to the “investors.”
Temple rocks: We were walking down W. 14th St. last Saturday night when we noticed a huge line of people stretching west toward Seventh Ave. Was it for some new DVD game at one of the video stores on the block or maybe Pratt students signing up for a course? “What’s going on over there?” someone shouted from a passing car. It turns out it was just a crowd of wild-and-crazy Christian rock fans waiting to get into a sold-out concert by Jeremy Camp at the Salvation Army Centennial Memorial Temple.
Teany scoop: Well, The Villager got the scoop on what’s going on at Teany at 90 Rivington St. “Moby’s not going to have such a hands-on role. He’s going to come in here and have tea and a turkey club and let me run things,” said co-owner Kelly Tisdale. “He just wants a simpler life,” she added. Teany is doing some remodeling but Tisdale said it’s still open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until the spring. “If you could put that in it would be great,” Tisdale told us. “Everyone thinks we’re closed.”…. Tisdale said when the First Roumanian-American Congregation synagogue’s roof collapsed across the street a few weeks ago, they didn’t even hear it, but that firefighters told them they might consider asking their customers sitting at outdoor tables to come inside because of the dust.
