Arun Venugopal

A new survey shows that the majority of New Yorkers are either satisfied or very satisfied living in New York City. The happiest borough? Staten Island.

Years ago, I was asked by an editor to head to an Apple Core hotel, in midtown, to attend a mix-and-mingle with the reigning Miss Universe, Lara Dutta. Lara was not only beautiful, she was sweet and even though I didn't represent Esquire or Cosmo -- just India Abroad -- she made chit-chat with me for what felt like five to ten minutes. I remember feeling completely at-ease in her company, even grabbing a few of the Swedish meatballs during pauses (very brief pauses) in the conversation. And at some point, when I noticed I was standing on her foot, I thought, "That's pretty amazing -- she just let me stand there without saying anything!"

When he's not chasing down stories for ABC News, Andy Field acts as a media and presentation coach for clients who want to look good on Oprah or 20/20. A little over a week ago, his classroom was a hotel banquet hall in Arlington, Virginia, and his students were several dozen Muslim activists from across the country. The students were of mostly of Arab or South Asian descent, with the men sporting beards and blazers and many of the women wearing hijabs, or headscarves. Their goal: learning how to present themselves and their faith better on-camera.

New Yorkers got not one but two vivid reminders Sunday that they live in the nation's media capital when simultaneous rallies took place in Midtown Manhattan, organized by groups that feel wronged in very different ways.

Just when we were led to believe getting a mosque built in New York was guaranteed to cause controversy, here's an article in the Brooklyn Eagle that says otherwise. This $2 million project in Brighton Beach, meant to serve a community of about 5,000 Turkish-Americans, is set to be Brooklyn's largest mosque, but hasn't generated opposition:

After nearly a decade of fundraising and construction, the four-story American-Turkish Eyup Sultan Cultural Center on Brighton Third Street is scheduled to officially open in early December.

The mosque opened temporarily in August for Ramadan, and unlike the controversial Ground Zero cultural center, received very little attention. The Turkish cultural center also escaped the scrutiny of the Bay People, the Sheepshead Bay organization that has feverishly protested a proposed mosque on Voorhies Avenue.

Did you watch "The View" Thursday morning? Neither did I. But it's certainly worth watching this clip, if only to see two of the hostesses-with-the-mostesses, Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, actually walk off the set of their own show. Is that allowed??

The tete-a-tete-a-tete took place over Park 51/Cordoba House/Ground Zero Monster Mosque. Whoopi and Joy didn't like O'Reilly's opposition to the project, and decided they'd had enough when he said Muslims attacked the Twin Towers (as opposed to saying "extremists" did it).

For extra credit, watch this longer clip at Entertainment Weekly. After the two storm off, Barbara Walters slams them for doing so, then turns to O'Reilly and slams him for equating all Muslims with terrorists. He apologizes, kind of. And Joy and Whoopi return to the sofa after about 90 seconds, suggesting that this was ultimately just a carefully coordinated bathroom break.

Tip-pooling is illegal -- who knew?

When St. Vincent's Hospital closed its emergency room earlier this year, everyone anticipated it would cause problems for patients and hospitals alike, but just how much of a problem? City Limits magazine comes up with some numbers:

Calling sugary drinks the "single largest contributor" to the city's obesity problem, Mayor Bloomberg has launched another public health effort to change how New Yorkers eat: He wants low-income New Yorkers to stop using their food stamps to buy soft drinks and other sweet beverages.

The Supreme Court has declined to take up a case brought by 9/11 family members. The families have been trying for years to get New York City to provide a proper burial for material taken from the World Trade Center site. Their argument is that the material could contain the ashes of victims, and they've long argued the city didn't make enough of an effort to separate the smallest human remains from other debris.

Mayor Bloomberg says he understands the emotions of the family members, but thinks the city did everything it could to locate and honor the deceased.

"But in a practical sense you could not have done any more," he said. "I remember going over a number of times to watch the process, and people really took as much care as you possibly could."

Lower federal courts had dismissed the families' lawsuit against the City, saying it had acted responsibly in moving 1.6 million tons of materials from the site to a landfill on Staten Island.

Prosecutors in the Times Square bombing case have introduced further evidence, prior to sentencing, indicating that Faisal Shahzad saw himself as part of a global campaign against America. This video includes clips from what appears to be a sit-down speech he made in a studio of sorts, prior to the May 1 bombing attempt.

"I have been trying to join my brothers in jihad ever since the 9/11 happened," he says in the video.

You can also see what investigators say the damage would've been, had Shahzad succeeded in exploding his vehicle.

Shahzad pled guilty to all 10 charges against him. He will be sentenced next week.

The developers behind Park51, the Islamic cultural center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, have been conspicuously low-key about the project. But they've finally given us a slightly better sense of what they're planning, with the release of 3 renderings: one exterior shot and two interiors. All in all, the images suggest a highly contemporary visual aesthetic, dominated by an outer shell that could best be termed web-like or exoskeletal. The architectural firm is Soma.

There's something particularly relevant and zeitgeisty about participatory art. Like crowdsourcing, art that requires the involvement of the citizenry -- that is actually for the worse without it -- offers a nice, robust update on the democratic project.

Yesterday, during a press conference held by Muslim leaders, voicing support for Park51, one of the organizers, Zaheer Uddin, noted that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf hadn't attended their one-day summit on the project. Security concerns, according to Uddin, had kept Rauf away. According to CNN, he's now avoiding New York City and is getting protection from the NYPD.

National and local Muslim leaders held a one-day summit on Park 51 Monday, voicing support for the proposed mosque and Islamic community center. The group released a statement, saying its signatories "stand for the constitutional right of Muslims, and Americans of all faiths, to build houses of worship anywhere in our nation as allowed by local laws and regulations."

There was a time when the immigration policies of various European countries might have seemed well outside the purview of a humble blog such as this, but Park 51 has changed all that. After all, the star of the September 11 rally opposing Park 51 was Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician whose Freedom Party has rapidly gained power on the basis of his anti-Islamic proposals, including taxing headscarves and banning the Koran. The prime organizer against Park 51, Pam Geller, also helps run Stop Islamization of America, part of a network of groups that includes Stop Islamization of Europe, Stop Islamization of Denmark (and England, and France, etc.).

So Americans are now participating in a much broader debate on the integration of Muslims into Western society.

Think your train's crowded? Try standing in line for five days just to board a train -- that's how bad the crowds are in the days leading up to the Lunar New Year for the 120 million-odd migrant workers who want to travel home for the holidays each year.

The Anti-Defamation League caused a firestorm when it came out in opposition to the Islamic Center near Ground Zero. It claimed, with a rationale that has become common among critics, that while the developers had the right to build there, it was not right to build there. Many people in the interfaith community felt ADL had betrayed its core values.

Last week, the ADL surprised a few more people by announcing creation of an Interfaith Coalition on Mosques. From the release:

More problems for Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero: He's being sued by Union City, New Jersey, for failing to maintain a 16-unit apartment building he owns there. Union City spokesman Mark Albiez says Rauf would qualify as one of the city's three worst landlords.

I've only recently started eating at Shake Shack, and have fallen hard for their frozen custard (the blueberry, so very creamy). And after generally avoiding beef for years, I've made return trips for their cheeseburgers, which I've concluded are superior to those of Five Guys — certainly less unwieldy.