Princes Street from Calton Hill.

Originally uploaded by stonefaction.

First Lew on League took to the blogosphere. Now, a contribution from my mother-in-law Vivien on Edinburgh’s new £3 million obstacle course:

Now this may not seem funny to any of my co-citizens, and particularly not to city-centre traders, bus users, drivers wishing either to enter the city, or to get to the train station or even to cross it to get out.

But it is true. The city fathers have spent £3 million on planning and implementing an obstacle course in and around the City of Edinburgh, making it so difficult to navigate that the police have refused to charge drivers who fail to obey all the new ‘no entry’, ‘no left’, or ‘no right turn’ signs, because they say (and for a change we all agree with them) that you don’t see the signs until it is too late to turn around. Or that they are downright dangerous, forcing drivers into left side lanes when they want to turn right. You can’t drive along the main road through town (Princes Street); the one looking onto the Castle. You can’t drive all along its parallel (George Street) ; wonderful wide street, with beautiful shops and cafes and plenty of room for parking in the middle and on the sides. Well, you can, before 10.30 and after 23.00. Neither can you any more enter either of the two beautiful squares at either end, Charlotte Square and St Andrews Square. The core of the world-famous 18th century ‘New Town’ has been chopped up into bite-size pieces. If by any chance you should wish to show a visitor around, you’ll have to walk the distance or take them on a night-time tour.

Which brings me to the inevitable subject of tourists. Most of arguments for these restrictions mention creating a more pleasant environment for tourists. But I guess they will soon be the only ones left to enjoy it. The residents have fled to the out-of-town retail parks or internet shopping, and former residents refuse to take up the maze challenge, most notably the city’s most famous son, Sean Connery. He gave the Edinburgh Festivals a miss this year, stating that he could no longer find his way around.

Edinburgh is a city built on rocks. It is also a world heritage city which would not allow for neat overhead ring-roads. We could tunnel our way through to ease the problem, and we could have improved public transport. But in the absence of either, the least we could expect for the £3 million would be some common-sense traffic planners.

New York Guest Season is upon us and blogging may be infrequent over the coming days.

EiNY survived last week’s Hurricane “father-in-law” Finn largely unscathed, but Hurricane Dave crossed the Atlantic yesterday and hurricanes Adam and parent storm Rodney are due to make landfall this evening.

New York Guest Season is one of the greatest threats to peace and tranquility for immigrants to New York, having transplanted themselves to one of the most popular destinations in the world. However contingency plans are already well underway. An air mattress has been airlifted from neighbors, my wife is being evacuated to Boston and provisions, including beer, crisps and nachos have been bought in.

There is no doubt that these hurricanes will affect this weblog and its author’s waistline over the coming days.

There’s a new blogger in town and he means business. Nick, who guest blogged here in my absence during the summer, has launched the Old Brain Pan.

The basics of the scientific method are not difficult to understand and knowledge of it armours you against hucksters and circus barkers of all kinds, be they in the religion, government or advertising business. No one culture or race owns the scientific method; it’s universally available to all. It’s also transformed human lives, for better or worse, more than any other creed or social theory ever has or ever could, which is why fundamentalists of all stripes hate it and why we could all do with knowing what it is. Link here.

Last night we watched Inside Deep Throat an excellent documentary about the aftermath of the 1972 porn film Deep Throat. The documentary is engrossing, if for no other reason than watching all of the interviewees who look and act as though they have just stepped out of a movie themselves. You could not cast a better set of sympathetic low lives, losers, freaks, mobsters and wackos, if you tried—a kind of Goodfellas without Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill character.

The man pictured here is the film’s co-star Harry Reems, who was convicted of obscenity charges in 1976 and faced a potential five-year prison term. His conviction was overturned on appeal one year later.

One of the things I found most interesting about the documentary was its recounting of the political climate at the time Deep Throat was released—the early 1970s—when, according to the documantary filmmakers, President Nixon stacked the Supreme Court with FOUR conservative judges and presided over an administration which wielded censorship laws like they were tax breaks. It made today’s arguments over Harriet Miers pale by comparison.

Oh, and before we Brits get too smug about the prudish Yanks, according to Wikipedia, Deep Throat was banned upon its release in the UK and the ban was upheld by the courts 10 years later. The movie was finally allowed to be sold in sex shops in 2000.

Welcome to the first EiNY-hosted Big Apple Blog Festival—a round-up of the best New York bloggers had to offer during the wettest week in 102 years when broken $3 umbrellas clogged city sewer gates. A dark, damp seven days during which:

Tessa at NYC Metblogs got mugged by a Fresh Direct [food] delivery man.

A seven-inch vibrator went up for sale on Craigslist, New York…for the discreet woman…only used once. Meanwhile Manhattan Transfer may have found the most hopeful and hopeless Missed Connections advertisement on Craigslist from a woman who wants to rekindle an old weight room relationship from 1992!

Jossip took a break, leaving us with the tantalizing tidbit that L is for love on the New York subway.

Opinionistas warned us that it was only a matter of time before her cover is blown. Don’t miss the denouement.

Two teens found a healthier place to eat than McDonalds at Overheard in New York. I won’t spoil the punchline for you.

The Corsair took away some valuable life lessons from Boy George’s run-in with the law: “It’s best not to involve the local constabulary when fucked up on “Vitamin C” with a hooker in the crib.”

Jeff at the Tin Man won his office celebrity death pool with Peter Jennings, Simon Wiesenthal and Shelby Foote among others.

Yanks fan and Sox fan provide a list of excuses after their dismal showing.

Baby frustration spilled over in the messageboards at Dailyslope. “It all started innocently enough, with Carnivore suggesting that aggressive baby-pushers install “cow catchers” on the front of their monster-strollers before they begin plowing down 7th Avenue [in Brooklyn].” Meanwhile, Dailyheights noted that although Prospect Heights is a great place to live, whatever your color, you might want to think twice before sending your white kids to school there.

In other news, the zany Lowercase L hunter found that his signage plague had spread to Massachusetts.

Despite her best efforts, Karol at Alarming News got sucked into the gay marriage debate again.

Rion snagged some excellent storm photos.

Amy’s New York Notebook found the safest toy on the market.

Slant Point said that the New York Daily News’ “Terror tip for rich” angle to the New York subway scare (that turned out to be a hoax) was “wrong and dangerous.”

With Italy starting a project to build the world’s longest suspension bridge—a double six-lane-highwayed, four-railway-tracked goliath that will finally connect Sicily to the mainland—Ace of Spades has lots of links to pictures of suspension bridges. Don’t miss France’s Millau Viaduct.

Jane Galt, of Asymmetrical Information, asked for $430 million to buy her own desert island but said she won’t be taking any Walker’s whole wheat (wholemeal) shortbread with her. (Possibly a case of having your cake but not eating it?)

Rather than attend the Asia Society’s pricey dim sum talk A Guy in New York went to Chinatown to put his taste buds to the test in a more economical way. Maybe he bumped into A Brooklyn Life, who decided to take advantage of the neighborhood’s biannual Taste of Chinatown to do some eating.

And celebrations for a couple of NYC food blogs. Congratulations to Josh Friedland at The Food Section, who was listed among the culinary notables in the Food & Wines annual Tastemaker Awards. And to Slice who turned two this week.

And what of the Englishman in New York? Well he got out of bed before sunrise to explore the soon-to-be-gone delights of Fulton Fish Market.

The Big Apple Blog Festival is listed on the ÃœberCarnival page and in Carnival News.

To nominate your favorite blog post about NYC, or if you have a NYC blog and want to see something in the next BABF … or you have a NYC blog and would like to host an upcoming BABF … send us a short write up and a permalink to aguyinnewyork [at] gmail.com … or use the Carnival Submit Form

You are free to repost the Big Apple Blog Festival so long as you leave this URL attached: BigAppleBlogFestival.com

I have a story in the City Section of the New York Times today about the rogue anagrammers messing with the Flatbush Pavilion marquee that I mentioned last week. By a stroke of luck I ran into the first anagrammer, David Collins, on my way home from a friend’s house last week.

Mr Collins may have started the anagramming but there is at least one other person who seems to be trying to outanagram him! I think the culprit may be a regular on the Dailyheights messageboards.

The anagramers can only use the 38 letters in the film titles “Van Helsing” and “Man on Fire” displayed on two sides of the marquee plus one extra letter “R” that Mr Collins found tucked into the side of the hoarding near the wall.

The anagrams have gradually become better and more topical as the weeks have gone on, from “Hanna Have Snail Venom From Ginseng Firm” (Mr Collins) to “Nine Vain Men Form a Gavel of Lies” (Mr Collins) “Sinning Men in Hell Vanish From a Grave” (Mystery Anagrammer) to Mr Collins’ latest “Hens N Men Fear Avian Viral Gloom.”

I’ve attached a few pics below. And thanks to Mr Collins for sending me the latest photo (pictured above).

Film titles to date:
Hanna Have Snail Venom From Ginseng Firm
Gene Sang of a Virile Man’s Infirm Love
Revel in Fish in Non-Glaring Semen From Havana
Nine Vain Men Form a Gavel of Lies
Van Helsing’s AWOL in Iran (Front)
Hangmen on Fire (Reverse)
Sinning Men in Hell Vanish From a Grave (Front)
No Fear (Reverse)
Hens N Men Fear Avian Viral Gloom (Front)
Fine Sign (Reverse)
UPDATE:
(Sun, Oct 16) Reigning Villains have no Fear of News Men
(Fri, Oct 21) Forlorn Fenian Man Heaves Virgin Englishman

I notice that I have been added to a list of right-wing political blogs in New York.

Links for Thursday:
The Writer’s Revenge A writer confronts his blog nemesis (Salon, no subscription required, you just have to watch an ad).
The Playmobil security checkpoint. (I kid yee not.)
Why is Pootergeek blogging in his underpants?
Alan Bennet (from my home town of Leeds) reading excerpts from his latest book (via Broke in Berlin).