There are a lot of good stories out there, and besides, I expect to have some Santa Rosalia Feast pictures on Friday, so I’m kicking of the weekly wrap a day early this week.

• Two years ago, fall leaves were still on the trees deep into November. So why are we looking at our second consecutive summer with fall leaves on the ground in August?
• Sheepshead Bay is for cool Russians; Brighton Beach is for babuskas. [Sheepshead Bites]
• There was some amazing weather last weekend. Sheepshead Bites got the video of last Friday’s storm, and Found In Brooklyn took some incredible photos as it passed Brighton Beach. And from its perch with the Best View In Brooklyn comes the fiery sunset afterward.
• I mentioned the closing of Dreamland Amusement Park at Coney Island last week, but here’s a Very Important Point I failed to mention: Coney Island itself is still open. It seemed obvious to be at the time, because I’m fairly familiar with the decentralized nature of land and business ownership there. But people who do not live six subway stops away sometimes get confused. The beach is still open through Labor Day. The circus is still thumbing its nose at PETA. The most-decidedly unrelated Dreamland Roller Rink is still open. And most importantly, the Wonder Wheel, Cyclone, and 41 other rides are still open.

And besides, Dreamland Park may get a court order allowing it to reopen anyway. [Amusing The Zillion]

• After a large federal grant secured by Representative Mike McMahon, the Federation of Italian American Organizations has almost finished fundraising for its planned community center at the corner of 18th Avenue and Benson Avenue. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]
• It has recently been suggested to me that the reason young Democrats opted to support Obama in last year’s primaries against Clinton were the beer parties for college-age grassroots supporters. (Funny, I got an e-mail every ten days asking for campaign contributions, but I never got the beer memo.) If so, then Republican candidate for City Council Gene Beradelli is angling for the Gerritsen Beach youth vote with a meet-n-drink at the Tamaqua Marina tonight. [GerritsenBeach.net]
• Two more burlesque game shows at Coney Island this summer (another thing that isn’t closed) – the next one is tomorrow night, and the last one is a week from tomorrow. [Kinetic Carnival]
• I’m a sucker for any lead for a place that sells tortas. [Village Voice]
• And it’s a slightly older story, but still interesting: 89-year old Guss’ Pickles is moving from the Lower East Side to Borough Park. I should go find them and get some pickles. [Jerusalem Post]

Wow. That sure was a lot this week. But I’m not quite done – it isn’t Brooklyn related, perhaps more of a general Angry Blogger Rant.

A favorite blogger of mine recently revealed her super-secret identity. She had been keeping it a secret, because the people and groups she regularly skewered – Pittsburgh’s 12-year-old mayor and his staff, the city’s unstoppable hospital mega-system, etc – were people and groups she and her non-profit employer routinely dealt with. And so, when she finally revealed her identity because she was tired of the effort of keeping it super-secret, she was promptly fired. Well, I understand the reasoning (so does she, for that matter), but I still think it sucks. And in this thread, commenter #157 had this to say:

It’s interesting that there are several “protected statuses” in this country yet, you can still get fired for expressing your basic, first amendment rights.. Food for thought.

Food for thought, indeed.