From the Village to Cairo:
As the world anxiously watches the situation in Egypt unfold, in Washington Square, there’s confidence that opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei will help play a positive role in the outcome. ElBaradei taught as an adjunct law professor at New York University School of Law from 1981 to 1987. He received his Ph.D. in international law from N.Y.U. in 1974, going on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. Washington Square News, N.Y.U.’s undergraduate newspaper, quotes university president John Sexton saying of ElBaradei, “We have great faith in his character, intelligence, integrity and leadership. We all fervently hope for a peaceful conclusion to events now transpiring in Egypt, and we have little doubt that Mohamed ElBaradei will be instrumental in achieving such an outcome.” Sexton was dean of the law school when ElBaradei was an adjunct. W.S.N. quotes Richard Revesz, the law school’s current dean, saying of ElBaradei, “We hope he will now be able to contribute to peaceful democratization in Egypt.”
Almost a witness to history:
Knowing that West Village political and gay activist Allen Roskoff was recently planning to visit Egypt, friends wondered how he was faring there as the popular uprising against Hosni Mubarak broke out last week. It turns out, however, that Roskoff won’t have any epic stories of being caught up in the dramatic events. “I couldn’t get into Egypt,” he told us in an e-mail. “We are in Eilat and have to return home without Egypt.” Eilat, a port city and resort in southern Israel, is right across the border from Egypt.
Feel the burn (getting burned):
Equinox’s takeover of the Printing House gym on Hudson and Leroy Sts. has gone smashingly — though not as in a smashing success — so far. A tipster tells us that during a recent spinning class, a construction crew came bursting right through a wall next to a row of bikes. As if that wasn’t unsettling enough, we’re told members recently had to endure spinning classes “with no water or the ability to get water — without a door on the gym, so everyone could see their breath while they cycled in skimpy workout attire. And of course,” our source added, “we have no bathrooms or changing rooms in the class section of the gym, but our fees are still the same.”
salesale at bookbook: I
t’s been a year since Biography Bookshop closed in the West Village and opened a little farther down Bleecker St. as bookbook. To commemorate the anniversary, bookbook will be offering 20 percent off all store merchandise (including their well-known remainders) for the whole month of February. At 266 Bleecker St. between Sixth and Seventh Aves., bookbook features general literature, art and drama books, New York books, cookbooks, poetry, children’s books and an entire wall of bargain books.
Correction:
Our article last week on the Feast of San Gennaro indicated that one of the conditions the event’s organizers agreed to was to move the sound stage around to different spots during the 11-day street festival. In fact, according to Community Board 2’s resolution, the organizers have agreed to rotate the sound stage’s location each year, so as not to annually inconvenience the same residents with amplified sound.
