After reports of the Waverly Diner’s gutting for renovation, the place suddenly looked shut down and abandoned, with the neon sign gone from the front and ominous plywood in the windows–some decorated with “Yuppies go home” graffiti.

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Saturday: Occupy Tompkins Square Park with John Penley. [EVG]

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On the Bowery: “generic glass-and-steel towers, trendy hotels, art galleries and chains like Whole Foods have been chipping away at the streets character, threatening to make some blocks resemble the sleeker stretches of Avenue of the Americas or Third Avenue in Midtown.” [NYT]

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If its wet-hopped, very. Not to mention intensely seasonal and in limited supply. In other words: Drink it now.

Wall Streeters seek psychic help.

“The lambs of historic preservation,” wrote Christopher Gray in the Times last week, “fought the lions of John Portman and his hotel juggernaut at the Battle of the Helen Hayes Theater in 1982. The lions won, and the theater was destroyed, like Carthage. Later this month, anyone who wants a very substantial battlefield souvenir may bid on a truckload of 300-pound pieces of glazed terra cotta.”

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Steve Jobs turned on, tuned in, and created a new archetype for the American businessman.

When a framing shop shuttered on 2nd Ave. and 52nd St., workers tore down the awning and uncovered a ghost sign, complete with an old telephone exchange–PL3–which I’m assuming stood for “PLaza.” Thanks to reader Sean for sending in this photo of Louis Mattia’s lamp shop.

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