Set your clocks ahead one hour tonight at 2 AM

Daylight Savings time begins tonight at 2 am. Set clocks forward and according to the battery lobby change the batteries in your smoke alarms, handheld gaming systems and adult accoutrements. After you make sure you are on time tomorrow for your fire and brimstone churchin', on Monday be on the lookout for sleepy drivers. One of Johnny's favorite reads, the journal Sleep Medicine, says there is an increase in auto accidents the Monday morning after Daylight Savings Time kicks in.

Might we suggest an extra helping?

Quite a few New York City taxi drivers have been taking us for a ride....monetarily

The town with all the big buildings, subways stops and great food has an issue they're probably not crazy about people like us telling you, the NYC taxi pool has been overcharging passengers by $8.3 million over the past two years by setting their meters at a rate that was supposed to be used for trips to the suburbs.

Isn't that kind of them? We're sure none of these cabbies ever told riders they were setting the fare at the higher rate which makes this an el grande ripoff. According to our good friends at the Associated Press:

The city has about 48,300 licensed cabbies, and data shows that 35,558 have illegally charged a rider at least once, the city said.

Super, that's soooo very nice of these slimy bastards. The city has taken one step to rectify this problem and it seems like a good one, now when you get in the NYC taxi and the Taxi TV comes on in the back it will alert passengers; In a few weeks, taxi riders will see an alert on the television screen in the back seat when the higher rate code has been activated.

Mayor Bloomberg is promising hefty fines and other penalties for the over 35,558 offending drivers who pulled this scam. The average overcharge to passengers was $4.45 per trip.

Late night open thread

Holy Man is it coming down to beat the band. This is some rainstorm.

Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS!

OK, you know Johnny never takes ad money or steers you to ads to feed that online monster that swallows all in it's path. In the spirit of the new Alice in Wonderland movie we're going to run one of the ten best videos ever made, the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers video for 'Don't Come Around Here No More'. It needs to be seen in high definition and there may be a short ad you'll sit through to get to the video. We suppose it'll be OK this one time for the quality of the art.

Johnny could tell you about the first time her ever saw this video but it's a long story and he'd have to admit to some lawbreaking in both the United States and Canada but if you ever bump into him feel free to ask.

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with PAUL SIMON!

'50 Ways to Leave Your Lover', a terrific song from way back in the day but honestly Johnny only thinks he lists 20 or 25 actual ways to leave your lover. Sing along at home.

Friday night MULTIMEDIA EXTRAVAGANZA with NO DOUBT!

Gwen Stefani as one sexy black widow in this video remake of the Talk Talk song.

Fine looking weekend on tap, if you're a duck

2-4 inches of rain are expected over the Jersey City Desk reading area, with some areas getting close to 5 inches of rain. But what's a deluge of rain without high winds? Yep, winds in the range of 25-30 mph with guts up to 45 mph are probable and there is a flood warning in effect until Sunday afternoon. As always if your streets are flooded and it's difficult to get around head to city hall where you can pick up free canoes under Mayor Healy's 'free canoes when it floods bad' program.

You may have heard from the powers-that-be in Hoboken their St. Patrick's revelry was well contained this year--you heard WRONG

The reports from city officials in Hoboken last weekend was that everything surrounding their annual drink off aka the St. Patrick's Day parade was demure and well behaved. Think again. In fact, Hoboken broke last year's totals of summonses handed out for bad behavior. The Hoboken PD along with the Hudson County sheriff's office handed out some 555 summonses, only 5 short of the 2007 record of 560 and an increase from 476 in 2008. According to the Jersey Journal the numbers break out like this:

The city’s heightened zero tolerance policy this year raised the maximum fine amount to $2,000. The bulk of the violations came from open container (154), jaywalking (85), drinking in the street (77), disorderly house parties (51) and public urination (41). There were 25 arrests and 727 calls for service, according to the mayor's office.

For all the complaining the city powers-that-be in Hoboken complain about the cost and the other issues you do the math. $2000 tickets at the top end of the scale and other very expensive tickets multiplied by 555 makes this a pretty good cash cow for Hoboken.

"We hate the troubles that come with this parade and day in general........When do we get paid?"

Late night open thread

Tonight before bed, a clip from Charlie Chaplin's 'The Lion's Cage'. A classic and exactly the kind of high brow humor you've come to expect here.


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Why is there a huge pile of phone books in the Jersey City Desk lobby?

Who uses these dinosaurs anymore? Are phone books not a thing of the past yet? Think of the waste these things are creating. Nobody has touched the pile in the lobby, nobody is going to touch the pile in the lobby so off to recycle (we hope) or into the landfill they go.

What's the point of giving these things out anymore?