Paper Wealth
Thinking they had a shot at a DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN keeper, eBay collectors lunged for rushed-to-judgment Election Night newspapers (the Post’s BUSH WINS!, the Chicago Sun-Times’ BUSH!) last week. Bids were up in the hundreds of dollars on Wednesday night. But buyers, like editors, turned out to be too trigger-happy. By Thursday afternoon, a glut of more than 1,000 new listings overwhelmed demand. Copies listed late in the week were running about $15.
Fishing for Readers
Before Melissa Bank wrote The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, she worked in advertising. So Francis Ford Coppola’s pet literary magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story, had her compose a promotional letter to the 10,000 people who’d received free subscriptions but hadn’t renewed: “You know the expression, ‘Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?’ I’ve never wanted to believe it. But you tell me … Maybe you’ve gotten serious about another magazine. Or you’re just reading around … Of course, you can still see other magazines – not that we want to hear about them.”
That New-Store Smell
That 2,000-square-foot stylized chemistry lab on Greene Street is in fact the new Helmut Lang Perfumery. Only five products are for sale. All on one shelf. So why the whole separate store? A spokesperson for Lang faxed this helpful explanation: “The Perfumery is analogous with actual Helmut Lang scent. Very pure. It is reminiscent of a cultural notion that has vanished: the esthetics of scents, oils and perfumes… . For his perfume, Helmut Lang uses the most essential of essences, those that one does not usually smell.”
City Ordnance
The Upper West Side isn’t known for its militiamen, but police recently found a military rocket launcher (unloaded) in a Dumpster on West 91st Street. According to the Marine Corps Website, the AT4 can plow through fourteen-inch tank armor at 400 yards. Ultimate effects: “Projectile fragments and incendiary effects produce blinding light and destroy the interior of the target.” An Army spokesman added that it’s also used to destroy bunkers (so prewar construction won’t help) but declined to offer what it could do to, say, Trump World Tower, explaining, “I don’t want to alarm the public.”