Or did, until he crashed it, after it launched a surprise attack on two cars the front steps of a Forest Gills synagogue. "I attempted to brake it and it just kept getting faster and faster," Silver told the Daily News.

Now, far be it from me to suggest that an 86-year-old man might be a victim of pedal error. So I'll just observe that it should not come as a surprise, if this massive ongoing recall by the world's second-largest automaker, for pedal problems, becomes an increasingly useful excuse.

"I blame Toyota," Silver said, which is better than blaming the Jews, anyway.

One of the Brooklyn Paper's favorite running storylines is that Bay Ridge smells. While ignoring the problem of the cologne-soaked clubbing set, the paper has reported for years on Brooklyn's southwestern-most neighborhood's other stink-fronts: in the summer, the stench of fish guts wafts from the 69th St. Pier as far as Third Avenue; in the autumn, ginkgo nuts stink up parts of Fifth Ave.; the wastewater treatment plant near Owl's Head Park stinks to high heaven. But the strangest smell in Bay Ridge is the one no one has been able yet to figure out.

Teddy Bear, which plays this afternoon and tonight, was voted the eighth "Most Interesting" Polish movie of the 20th century in a Polityka magazine poll (the Polish equivalent of The Economist or Time). The plot is a bit convoluted, so don't feel too bad if you can't follow along all the twists—I've seen this at least five times and it still loses me there towards the end. (The WRT's synopsis: "the absurd plight of sports club manager Rysiek, aka 'Teddy Bear,' whose efforts to accompany his team to a foreign tournament are thwarted when he discovers his ex-wife has torn pages out of his passport... Rysiek attempts to get to London before his ex has a chance to empty their joint bank account. But hopping the border is easier said than done in a Communist country...") Individual scenes are killer and the dialogues are highly quotable. Focus on lovely Christine Paul, Teddy Bear's secretary—you might remember her from Hammer Studios' Vampire Circus (as a vampire) or Krzysztof Zanussi's Camouflage (as a Canadian exchange student). Her performance here is worth the price of admission, especially if you get the 3 movie series pass with membership. Richard Pena will thank you personally (that's a joke).

A word on the filmmaker, Stanislaw Bareja, Poland's greatest comedy director of the 20th century (that's official, from Polish Academy of Film). Teddy Bear is surely his greatest movie, but his masterpiece is Alternatywy 4,  a nine-part TV series from 1983. It should be available on VHS tapes from under the counter at some shops in Greenpoint (or on torrents, if you play like that). Never mind the lack of subtitles—like one IMDB commenter wrote: "it would be almost worth learning the idiosyncratic and difficult [?!] polish language just to watch this series!” Or this movie? Yes.

Tick tock, tick tock. Anyway, the album is scheduled for an April 6 release, which is also the day the new Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings record drops. Two of my favorite contemporary bands, releasing records on the same day? I haven't been this excited since...last week, when From Paris with Love (awesome!) came out on the same day as the new District 13 sequel (meh). Sharon Jones already released her new song, and it's right up there with her band's best work: you can download it here, or just stream it on their MySpace.

• We Can Haz 59% Off Cat Nap?

The eclectic mix of deals in the past have included 60% off haircuts, 55% off mani/pedi's, 53% off at Jonny Rockets, 47% off improv comedy, 33% off snow tubing and beer tasting, and two for one pole dancing class, so obviously this is something you want to be a part of. The most interesting so far came to my inbox today at 6:17am, offering 59% off a YeloSpa massage and nap. I had a few questions about this deal so I read on.

• Meet the mascots for the Vancouver Games. They're no Hidy and Howdy.

One of the featured guest columns is given over to Michael Ignatieff, the journalist and intellectual turned Liberal Party head, and the probable future Canadian Prime Minister. He has this to say about the Vancouver games:

[Canadians are] proud that we brought in the Games on time and on budget. The venues are ready. Apart from some nail-biting about whether there will be enough real snow for the low-altitude venues, there have been no last-minute panics. The Olympics let us tell the world: Ask us to do a job, and we get it done right.

"Canadians are anxious about the weather, and hopeful that you won't overlook their effective yet modest contributions to your well-being."

Nah Right's got a big gallery of pictures from a going-away party at some lounge in Miami (Drake was there! Wale was there! Birdman was there!), and right before heading to said party Wayne live streamed about an hour of the evening that he spent chilling at the studio with his buddy Lil Twist and other minor Young Money members. Skip ahead to minute 52 (after the jump) for Weezy's heartfelt goodbye to his fans, which is almost inaudible over the loud rumble of what looks like the Audi roadster that he's about to screech off in.

Last seen causing comic confusion in Dumbo, the work of street artist/collective/amorphous entity TrustoCorp was spotted recently in the East Village and Williamsburg, according to the Post. The sign above, which is presumably no longer there at Bedford between North 4th and North 5th, seems especially appropriate given the neighborhood, although "Broke Is the New Black" ain't bad either. (Curbed)

D.C. rapper Wale dropped two new videos yesterday, both of which follow some very tried and true rap video paradigms—the girls-on-colorful-backdrops and house party genres, specifically. The first, for the third single off his album Attention Deficit, "Pretty Girls" (above) with Gucci Mane (who's currently in jail), is completely boring. But the second is actually a really good and brand new song, "My Sweetie" (after the jump), and is especially heavy on the go-go rhythms that were conspicuously absent from so much of his album.

From now on, every blog post about our interactive mobile drinking guide will be accompanied by incontestable evidence from one of our feline users that Cocktail Compass does in fact help you drink more for less, and does so in a manner so clear, legible and user-friendly, that even a soused kitty can find its way to the next drinking hole. Cats agree: Cocktail Compass rulz!

The Dongria Kondh tribe believe their Niyamgiri mountain—along with the surrounding forest—to be a sacred place (which also happens to be the ecosystem they've relied on for centuries), and that disaster will befall them if mining company Vedanta (Hindi for "profit margin") has its way and starts on open-cast bauxite mine on top of the mountain. In an ad placed in Variety, the 8,000-strong Dongria appealed directly to Cameron:

Avatar is fantasy… and real. The Dongria Kondh tribe in India are struggling to defend their land against a mining company hell-bent on destroying their sacred mountain. Please help the Dongria.

No word yet on Cameron's response. But we'll you let you know.

P.S. Avatar sucked, also; if you liked it you're basically a tween.

"Mike seems doomed by his own hubris, and he has doomed Mary Anne as well. She is like a beaten dog, who still loves her master."

Here's the Curious George reading.

FRIDAY
-Paige is grumpy and lame after an exhausting work week and decides to stay in: Age 34
-She and her boyfriend rent I Love You, Man and she laughs hysterically the entire time, Jason Segal elevating her from her grump: Age 15
-Holly and Kristy head to the First Friday's at the Guggenheim to listen to DJ Chromeo while looking at Chagall: Age 30
-Holly finds a 24 oz Bud Light Lime and sips it through a straw while riding train to Upper East Side: Age 20

A Senate proportioned by income? Six senators would represent Americans making more than $100,000 annually; twenty-four senators would represent Americans making $10,000 or less.

A Senate proportioned along gender and racial lines? White women would be the largest bloc, with 37 votes.

By age? 16 for the Olds and 13 for the Youngs.

And so on. In all cases, is the point Lowrey persuasively argues, the result would be a Senate more authentically representative of the nation as a whole. (And, perhaps not coincidentally, a more liberal one.)

We're told it's great—actually, the Times' Charles Isherwood says it's "flawless"—but since we rarely get invited to such glitzy, star-studded shows, so we can't really say for sure.
(photo by Michael Lamont)

My favorite—and this might come as a surprise to some of you—was the car commercial featuring a bunch of life-size toys cavorting in a bachelor-party like manner. I know it wasn't spectacular, but I am choosing it solely for the image of sock monkey jet-skiing. I felt inspired and young again.

The worst was obviously the Kiss soft drink ad featuring midget versions of Kiss playing alongside the old, bloated real Kiss. It was sad and pathetic and awful.

That ad where The Who and the guy from Black Eyed Peas used everything that happened in the last 60 years to sell us some kind of mobile television service was also pretty sweet.

Or you can read this, which is much shorter, so that you arrive much more quickly at a mindset of hostile apathy than you would just by mulling over the implications of Harris's subtle assessment.

It's also interesting, isn't it, that entertainment journalism has, like political reportage, evolved from addressing actual content (or fluff) and moved into horserace pieces, where writers use the word "narrative" a lot, and the public feels savvier than ever about the process and how it's reported, while at the same time paying ever less attention to the actual movies or policies at the center of it.