expunge  Definition: (verb) Remove by erasing or crossing out or as if by drawing a line. Synonyms: excise, scratch, strike Usage: She forced herself to expunge most of her beloved descriptions, though it took three re-writings before the story could be pruned down to please the fastidious Mr. Harrison. Discuss.

Tuesday night New York City public schools Chancellor Richard Carranza came to the Community District Education Council 11 meeting at 3710 Barnes Avenue to speak and answer questions from the audience. This building is home to two schools – The […]

Hetty Green (1834) Green was an American financier and reputedly the wealthiest American woman of her time. In 1865, her father and aunt both died, leaving her an estate valued at $10 million. She invested her inheritance so shrewdly that she came to be regarded as the greatest woman financier in the world, amassing an estate valued at $100-200 million. An extremely miserly woman, the “Witch of Wall Street” allegedly refused a hernia operation because it cost $150. What are some other examples of her stinginess? More…

One likes to be respected as highly as his neighbors are. L. Frank Baum (1856-1919)

bestride  Definition: (verb) Get up on the back of. Synonyms: climb on, hop on, jump on, mount Usage: A man who bestrides a horse must be essentially different from a man who cowers in a canoe. Discuss. Play

Just a few weeks after the New Loretta Hatch Democratic Club debuted there is another new Democratic club nearby called the Northwest Bronx Democrats for Change. While the Loretta Hatch Democratic Club is based primarily in the 86th Assembly District, the […]

Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1866) Landis was a US federal judge and the first commissioner of professional baseball. Named for a Georgia mountain where his father had been wounded during the Civil War, he practiced law in Illinois before serving as a US district judge. In 1907, he presided over a famous case in which the Standard Oil Company was found guilty of granting unlawful freight rebates and fined $29 million, but his decision was later reversed. He was named baseball commissioner in 1920 in the aftermath of what scandal? More…

A man dies as often as he loses his friends. Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

overtop  Definition: (verb) Look down on. Synonyms: command, overlook, dominate Usage: The brow of the upland overtops the square tower of the Colebrook Church. Discuss. 

MAJOR DRUG TRAFFICKER SENTENCED TO 12 YEARS IN PRISON Defendant Trafficked Large Amounts Of Cocaine; 176 Lbs. Were Seized During Joint Investigation With NYPD, HSI and DEA            Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Brooklyn man has been […]

FORMER RIKERS ISLAND INMATE SENTENCED FOR ASSAULTING NYC DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION OFFICER WITH WALKING CANE          Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced a former Rikers Island inmate has been sentenced to two to four years in prison for beating […]

Anna Seghers (1900) Born Netty Reiling, Seghers was a German novelist. She won fame with her first novel of social protest, The Revolt of the Fishermen, but in 1933 she was forced to leave Germany. In Mexico, she wrote The Seventh Cross, a poignant story of escape from a concentration camp. Other works include Transit and a study of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. After World War II she settled in East Berlin. Who starred in the film version of The Seventh Cross in 1944? More…

Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five. W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)