Results tagged “free”

After sitting in jail for five years awaiting his trial, a Bronx man was cleared of all of the charges against him on Tuesday. Michael Ikoli, 22, had been behind bars at Rikers Island since 2004, when he was accused of being involved in the shooting outside a skating rink.

The last dolphin spotting reported was off Staten Island this August, but today, just before 3 p.m., we got word that a dolphin was entangled in Queens — somewhere around Beach 87th and Beach Channel Drive. And some good news followed the original report: he or she is now free! We wonder if this is a straggler left behind from the massive dolphin invasion over the summer, or if all those dolphins are still lurking the New York waters... waiting.

Do you want 14 residential units and 3 commercial units in beautiful Brooklyn for the low low price of: Free? The blogger at Hawthorne Street points to Prospect Lefferts' 205 Parkside Avenue, "an abandoned rathole" that has been vacant since 1979 and is now being advertised as free (though they doubt it's really free). There's even a Craigslist ad backing up the sign on the building. Any takers? UPDATE: The new rumor is that this is a prank. We still bet squatters could get in a few months of free rent, however. [via Curbed]

Just a heads up that tomorrow the new Manhattan location of gelato and crepe chain Melt will be trying to set the world record for the most cups of gelato served in a single day. If you'd like to help the company achieve its goal, head over to Melt at 1053 2nd Avenue, between 55th and 56th Streets, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. tomorrow. The lines for these kinds of giveaways can sometimes make one question whether its worth the time investment, but since Melt is going for the world record, maybe they'll be cranking out the gelato fast enough to keep things moving briskly?

Who doesn't want free cookies from a complete stranger on an inflatable couch? If the idea doesn't freak you out, then bookmark this Twitter feed, where one seemingly good-intentioned fella updates his whereabouts. Why would you want to know where he is? Because he's going to give you a free homemade vegan cookie! He tells us, "I have been going out a couple times a week, inflating a green couch, giving out FREE COOKIES, and making friends. I'll be out today in Union Square around 4:00-6:00 p.m." If you miss him, you know where to find him next. His name is Scott Alexander, and according to this website, he's got a wife at home, is "a doorman by day and a musician by night." Another blogger recently encountered the cookie man, saying, "everyone knows chocolate chip cookies are a sure way to open hearts-even if they’re vegan. (These really were the best vegan treats I’ve had)." Sounds good to us, even if it is, what he calls, "a reverse promotional experiment" to spread his music.

This summer two college kids, Nick and Katharine, were challenged to go see 50 free concerts in 50 days throughout the city. This of course was made more difficult by the never-ending rainy season, but they managed to reach their goal. You can read about the entire experience on their blog. Sounds fun right? Even if it is a rip-off of 100 Bands in 100 Days.

"Superstar rapper 50 Cent is secretly planning to stage a free concert in a schoolyard near the Queens projects where he grew up," reports the NY Post, as they simultaneously destroy any secretive nature of said concert. The performance will be at P.S. 40 in Jamaica (August 30th, 5:30 p.m.), and will be open to anyone—one NYPD officer warning the paper it would be difficult for them to control the area. A worried local added, "Someone's gonna try to make a name for themselves. They're gonna take a shot at him, and they're either gonna hit him or they're gonna miss him and hit some poor, innocent kid or grandmother." But let's be real, grandmas probably won't be front row and center, right?

When Red Hook residents were fighting to stop IKEA from opening up in their neighborhood, one of the deal-sweeteners offered by the Swedish retailer was a promise that locals (and all New Yorkers) would be able to take advantage of free Water Taxi service back and forth to Manhattan, even if they never spent a dime in the store. Well, it's been just over a year since the grand opening, and already the bait has been switched. The Brooklyn Paper reports that on weekdays the Water Taxi will start charging riders $5 each way, unless they spend $10 in IKEA. Manager Mike Baker says, "We have implemented this policy because our customers are using the Water Taxi service, but the cost is such that we cannot continue subsidizing it during the week as a commuter service for those who are not IKEA customers." Compare that with last summer, when an IKEA rep said, "We support mass transit, and if people are using our services and not going to IKEA, that's fine with us as well." Now they tell us the Water Taxi service will still be free on the weekends, but how can anyone ever trust Sweden again?

Last year Patsy's—the one in East Harlem (which some pizza enthusiasts consider to be the only "real" Patsy's)—celebrated its 75th Anniversary by rolling back their prices to 1933 levels, and the result was a total mob scene (heh). So many hungry roustabouts amassed that police were summoned to control the crowd, which turned ugly when the kitchen closed earlier than expected. Well, the restaurant's doing it again this year. An email announcing the 76th Anniversary promises "90¢ steak, 60¢ pizza pies, 1¢ sodas. The NYPD and the FDNY will have a pizza-eating challenge. 118th Street and First Avenue will officially be renamed 'Patsy's Way,' and many other surprises." The email ends with an entreaty to "CALL TODAY (Limited Seating)," leading Slice to speculate that owners are trying to avoid a repeat of last year's pandemonium. But we called the restaurant and were told that's "definitely a mistake. We're not taking reservations. It's going to be the same as last year." [With the discounts for take-out only.] Yes! Notify the riot police; the big day is August 26th, with discounts from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

If you're by Columbus Circle today you can get some free food with Hair! The cast of the hit Broadway revival will be performing at 12:45 to launch NYC's summer Restaurant Week at The Shops at Columbus Circle in the Time Warner Center. And if a stirring rendition of the show's popular "Sodomy" ditty isn't enough to pique your interest, be advised that the free event also includes free lunch: Five NYC Restaurant Week eateries—Tribeca Grill, Porter House New York, Spice Market, Bice Ristorante and DB Bistro Moderne—will be offering free tastings from noon to 2 p.m. (Free Coca-Cola, too, people!) Reservations are now being taken for Restaurant Week, which takes place from July 12th through July 31st, excluding Saturdays. (Some restaurants offer the deal on Sundays.) Prices at participating restaurants are $24.07 for three-course prix-fixe lunches and $35 for three-course prix-fixe dinners (excluding beverage, tax and gratuity). Peruse the full list of restaurants here, and head on over to the Time Warner Center (Broadway at 60th Street) now to crack wise about finding hair in your food. (NYC GO has a handy Twitter feed, too.)

New Yorkers have been taking full advantage of the freebies offered by those friendly Swedes in Red Hook, where the city's first IKEA location opened in 2008. Their free buses and Water Taxi service have long been enjoyed by the locals, many of whom use the services without even stepping foot in the store, just to get from the subway to their homes/methadone clinics. Another popular free service is IKEA's in-store daycare center, where you can unload any minor from 36 inches to 50 inches in height. The catch? You must collect them within 45 minutes on weekdays and 30 minutes on weekends. Staten Island mom Jean Taylor tells the Daily News, "I love it. I wish you could leave them here for two hours." The kids get the use of a ball pit and an arts and crafts station, while the parents get time to lounge around on the furniture in air-conditioned comfort. But those Swedes insist they're not chumps; IKEA spokeswoman Lorna Montalvo says, "The parents who come back over and over again know what's on sale." And surely they'll buy something someday?

Since you subscribe to GothamList, our FREE daily events and deals newsletter, you already know about the two hours of free mojitos that will be poured out tonight at a certain Manhattan restaurant. And you probably also know that since today is National Brisket Day, another restaurant will be serving free Lone Star beer with every order of ultra-smoky brisket. But what about those poor, benighted souls whose inbox is not blessed by the money-saving tips brought by GothamList every weekday morning at cock crow? Should we just leave them for dead, senselessly throwing away their savings on overpriced cocktails and bad brisket? Probably. But as a gesture of good will, those savvy readers who have yet to subscribe to GothamList can do so now and get today's email newsletter (and mojito details) within minutes. Did we mention that it's free, just like Gothamist? Click here to get in the cut.

The Times is tired of giving it up for free, and at a staff meeting yesterday executive editor Bill Keller revealed two possible scenarios that would force website readers to make an honest woman out of the Gray Lady. One scheme is a "meter system" which would kick in after a reader hits a predetermined limit of word-count or page views. At that point, the meter would start running and further content would come at a price. A second scenario could be a "membership" system akin to public television. Readers who pledge money to the site would be invited to join the cool kids in the "New York Times community" and get sweet merch like Times baseball caps, or tote bags, or plush Moose dolls. The Observer, which got the scoop on the announcement, also quotes Keller as saying—and this has got to be a joke, right?—that "he wouldn't even be opposed to offering a donor access to a Page One editorial meeting as long as it doesn't affect the paper competitively." Well, if that actually happens we are so ready to pay to join those meetings and finally get the Hipster Grifter above the fold where she belongs.

Well, we had a good run. Today KFC has made the unsurprising decision to suspend its Oprah-backed grilled chicken giveaway. The overwhelming nationwide demand for free food had depleted KFC's chicken supply to such a degree that the company was actually going to run out of chicken before Mother's Day, which is said to be the chain's most lucrative business day. In this awkwardly upbeat video, KFC president Roger Eaton—who has the weirdest Kentucky accident we've ever heard—explains the crisis, now entering day three:

If the demand for the free grilled chicken combo meal continues at its current pace, KFC could run out of chicken by Saturday. An anonymous source explains why to Business Insider: "The stores cannot cook the product fast enough, sales were up 25-35% BEFORE this. A franchisee today told me KFC is projected to strip their entire supply chain of bird by Saturday. I am not making that up. They are scrambling to source more chicken before Sunday. By Sunday, because it's Mothers Day, one of their busiest days of the year. It's possible they could be out of chicken on Mothers Day."

Who could have predicted that handing out free meals during the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression would be so messy? KFC locations across America were hammered yesterday by an overwhelming demand for free fowl, after Oprah Winfrey promoted a giveaway for two pieces of KFC's new grilled chicken, two sides, and a biscuit. New York City was particularly hard hit; tipsters tell Midtown Lunch that there were about 50 people "crammed into a very tiny space" during lunch hour at the 50th & 7th Avenue KFC.

Jerry Greenfield (of Ben & Jerry) and Julius Walls (CEO of Greyston Bakery) are in town doing a campus tour of NYU and Columbia to talk to tomorrow's business leaders about social entrepreneurship. The Greyston Foundation donates all profits to local charities, including community gardens, affordable housing, job training and childcare programs. Which is all terrific! But let's talk about the sundaes: The idealistic duo will be serving free ice cream and brownie sundaes at the Whole Foods Tribeca TODAY from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m., and then from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Whole Foods Bowery. Later they'll visit the campuses to inspire business students to start socially responsible companies that, hopefully, also give out free ice cream.

If only you'd stayed in school, you'd still be in bed right now. Then, around noon, you'd probably go frolic in today's winter wonderland, your carefree yelps of joy piercing the ears of bitter office drones stumbling through snowdrifts on their harried lunch breaks. And as if an entire day of unbridled freedom from tests and homework isn't enough of a gift, the Parks Department will be sweetening the deal today with "free winter fun" in all five boroughs. Sucks to have a job today!

Meet Courtney Scott, a self-described "vibrant freelance travel journalist and on-air personality," who's blogging about her mission to make it through a week eating nothing but free food culled from supermarket samples and other sources. She's on day four now, and her most recent report finds her stuffing Whole Foods samples into plastic baggies and bringing them home so she can document her little "meal." Scott's definitely got some great self-control (or a weirdly-manifesting eating disorder); yesterday she was hanging in Chelsea Market, alternately blogging and "making frequent laps down the concourse for fresh nibbles," when a stranger offered her the rest of his Pad Thai. After much internal debate, she declined, saying, " 'You can leave the plate but it's against the rules to eat it. I'll just have to throw it out.' So leave the plate he did, with a fresh set of chopsticks and napkins. And throw it away I did; an $8 half-eaten plate of Chelsea Thai Pad Thai in the trash." Victory!

Free chocolates and Atlantic City hotel reservations are being handed out at the corner of 48th Street and Sixth Avenue until 10 a.m. this morning, and then from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. at the Jacques Torres Hudson Store (350 Hudson). The hotel is Harrah's, and we're told they're distributing 5,000 free overnight stays to publicize the Sunday opening of a café called Temptations that will feature most of the Jacques Torres product line. (Torres has been answering NY Times readers' questions this week, and has revealed the secret to his dangerously addictive chocolate chip cookies.) In other V-Day gimmicks, three couples will be competing in the Netflix "Greatest Kiss" contest at Grand Central this morning. On sets built to resemble the movies, they'll be performing kiss-culminating scenes from Titanic, Gone With the Wind, and the incestuous mom/son kiss from Back to the Future. We're told a panel of judges will rate the "amateur kissers," and the awkwardness begins at 11:30.

This ain't your grandfather's rubber: The good old geriatric condom has gotten with the times and joined Facebook here in NYC, where it wants to be your friend (with benefits)! Yesterday the Daily News, in an article headlined "Health Department issues new NYC-branded condoms," mentioned the Facebook page, which went live today. But Celina De Leon, a spokesperson for the NYC Health Department, says the News article (now disappeared) was almost entirely wrong; there are no new condoms being released for Valentine's Day. Welcome to 2007 Daily News; as De Leon tells us, "We did that two years ago."

Early-decision applications to Cooper Union, which does not charge tuition, have skyrocketed this year, the Times reports, surprising no one. The school is experiencing a 70 percent surge in applications so far this year, compared to annual increases of 5 percent to 10 percent over the last decade. Emphasizing the obvious, the dean of admissions tells the Times, "I’m pretty confident that the economy played a big role. You probably had a lot of parents who said: ‘Look, I know you’re looking at Cooper Union. You ought to make it your first choice.' " Overall, the school expects to receive 3,300 applications for 265 spots in the Class of 2013, making the already competitive process even more cutthroat.

Ladies, drag queens, and anyone else who likes to cake on the make-up, it's time to cash in on someone else's settlement. The NY Post is reporting that department stores are handing out big-name brand cosmetics to anyone willing to stand in line, as part of a price-gouging class-action suit that has finally been settled. They suggest hitting up Bergdorf's and Saks for a speedier transaction, though Macy's and Bloomingdale's will also be taking part (Lord & Taylor has already run out of product). The giveaway runs through next Monday, and "customers are only supposed to get one item, but there's an honor system. People have gotten seconds and even thirds." In fact, the Post reporter scored over $300 worth of makeup after visiting five stores. One woman the paper talked to also hit up all the shops, saying she probably spent close to $7,000 on makeup between 1994 and 2003—the years the stores violated antitrust laws by fixing prices.

All nine Manhattan locations of Oren's Daily Roast will be offering free cups of their special Inauguration blend tomorrow from 10:44 a.m. to 12:44 p.m. The new roast is called "Blend 44: Beans You Can Believe In," and we're told it's inspired by Obama’s Kenyan and Hawaiian (Kona) roots, "while paying homage to his lively years at Harvard Law (Ethiopian Harrar beans) and his full-bodied years at Occidental College in Los Angeles (La Minita, Spanish for “Little Gold Mine”)." Whatever, point is it's free. Oren's will also be broadcasting the Inauguration on the radio, which is sort of romantic, but it's worth noting that select Starbucks locations will be have MSNBC's simulcast on one of those newfangled Tee-Vees, according to the Times. (We'll update later with the Starbucks locations; in the meantime here's the list of Oren's locations, for all the caffeine and politics junkies out there.)

Prepare for some extra craziness in Times Square tomorrow, Uniqlo tells us they'll have "giant human vending machines" (which really, just sound creepy) on hand dispensing clothing "made from a blend of high-tech fibers that convert body moisture into heat, warming and insulating without adding unwanted bulk." Whatever, free clothes! If you want in on the action, head over to the Square's Military Island (Broadway & 7th Ave) tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Get ready to strong-arm the tourists, there's only going to be a measly 1,000 ("one-size-fits-all") items dispensed.

If you see some crazy Tylenol-adorned car pass you by, flag it down--that's your free and heated ride home! Environment-schnenvironment, right? No? Okay, for those choosing to save some green over being green, here's what we know: the Tylenol (global?) "Warming Taxis" will take you anywhere in Manhattan, today through Sunday, from noon to 8 p.m. Your best shot of catching one is heading to a CVS at 630 Lexington, 540 Amsterdam, 272 8th or 307 6th Avenues and waiting for a stranger in a white car to offer you a lift and some Tylenol.

Reminder! Now that you've done your civic duty and cashed in with free treats, head over to Babeland to pick up your Maverick sleeve (gentlemen) or Silver Bullet vibrator (ladies). We just talked to the shop, and with the stores only opened for a couple of hours, they've already had well over 200 people stop in asking for the toys. Get yours before it's too late! The three shop locations are at 462 Bergen Street in Brooklyn, and 94 Rivington Street and 43 Mercer Street in Manhattan (they'll each be handing them out through the 11th). So which gender is looking to spice up their election eve? Babeland tells us they're going at a pace of about 4-1, vibes to mavericks.

A new study by the DOT [pdf] has revealed an unprecedented surge in the number of cyclists, increasing an estimated 35% in NYC between 2007 and 2008. In the past six years, cycling levels in the city have doubled, and Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan says the numbers prove the department is "well on the way toward our goal of doubling the number of bike commuters." In particular, the cyclist volume on the Williamsburg Bridge has quadrupled from 2000-2008 to 4,000 cyclists on a typical day. And the study shows that cyclists are riding earlier in the morning and later in the day than previously believed. To that end, DOT reps will be stationed on the Manhattan sides of both the Williamsburg and Brooklyn bridges from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. tonight handing out free bike lights, which cyclists are required by law to use. So race on over there, all you gonzo fixed-gear cyclists from that crazy video!

Well, we had a good run. Brooklyn commuters who've been enjoying a free ride on the IKEA Water Taxi that runs between Red Hook and Wall Street are going to have to make some adjustments: The Swedish retailer will be reducing hours on the service, which since June has been running every 20 minutes from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Starting October 1st, the boat will run every 40 minutes, from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays.

For three precious hours this evening, Cold Stone Creamery will be giving away free 3 oz servings of ice cream at all their locations. It's part of their annual campaign to support the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the servings on offer were designed by two sick children who've been selected by Make-A-Wish. 10-year-old Emily's concoction is made from Nutter Butter ice cream mixed with yellow cake, Kit Kat and white chocolate chips. 9-year-old Jack's creation consists of Marshmallow ice cream mixed with Oreo cookies, chocolate chips and fudge. Both, please! In lieu of payment, Cold Stone is encouraging customers to make a donation to Make-A-Wish. The social runs from 5 to 8 p.m., and if it's anything like Ben & Jerry's free cone day, you may want to get on line now! [Via Midtown Lunch.]