SUBWAY AIN’T JUST A SANDWICH SHOP I stopped by the reopened uptown platform of the Cortlandt Street R/W station, which had been closed for four years while part of the Fulton Street Transit Center was being built. It was so clean! Even the tracks! And it smelled new. There was no distinctive mosaic-work or artwork, though. Nonetheless, I took many photos, managing not to get arrested or have my camera confiscated.

FLAKY Broadsheet Daily beat me to the punch in welcoming Little Pie Company (295 Greenwich, just south of Chambers, in what was most recently Pane Peppe). I confess to being somewhat pied out.

THIS WEEKEND The ice-skating rink at Battery Park City—atop the ball fields—is scheduled to open today, though the rainy weather forecast may put a damper on the good times. ••• South Street Seaport’s tree lighting is tonight at 6 p.m. ••• “Chuck Prophet’s brand of riffing folk-rock sits somewhere between Tom Petty and Elvis Costello, and his songs—about living in America, having a beer, being a hometown guy—are almost always rousing, hip-swaying affairs.” —The New York Times. Tonight at 8 p.m., 92Y Tribeca, $20. ••• Museum of Chinese in America has a walking tour about the evolution of Chinatown restaurants, “From Coffeehouses to Banquet Halls,” Saturday at 1 p.m. ($15, reserve at 212-619-4785 or education@mocanyc.org). ••• The first-ever New York Harbor Lighted Boat Parade is Saturday from 6 :30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tour and charter boats will be as lit up as the clientele at Biddy Early’s and, as the map indicates (click to enlarge), visible from pretty much all over the Lower Manhattan waterfront.

AROUND THE WEB Jeff Zimmerman’s “Drawings in Glass” has opened at R 20th Century (82 Franklin, Broadway/Church), notes the New York Times. (He made most of the pieces at Urban Glass in Brooklyn; during a glassblowing workshop there I learned that the place you heat your blowpipe is called a “glory hole.” How’s that for a digression?) ••• More fires at Stuyvesant High School, reports the Broadsheet Daily. ••• Tribeca Trib recaps the Biddy Early’s brouhaha.

COMING UP I recently announced that I could happily never go anywhere near a certain Charles Dickens work, or variations thereof. I so take it back. “A Christmas Carol is perhaps my absolute favorite piece of literature,” says Pinchbottom co-producer Nasty Canas. “But there has always been one thing missing from the classic tale—sexy Victorian-era vixens lasciviously removing their knickers.” Pinchbottom’s Filthy Lucre: A Burlesque Christmas Carol (right) runs Dec. 2–13 at Walkerspace with an ever-changing cast of ecdysiasts, including Vikki Likkerish, Jo Boobs, and Clams Casino ($20, 866-411-8111, ovationtix.com/trs/pr/697245). ••• Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order will lead a whirling workshop—I once saw dervishes at Carnegie Hall and they were breathtaking—on the afternoon of Sunday, Dec. 6, ($20, 245 W. Broadway).

STEALS AND DEALS The Tribeca Performing Arts Center at BMCC is offering a Friends and Neighbors Discount—of 40-to-60-percent off tickets $25 and up—to Lower Manhattan businesses and organizations. Krista Saunders has the details; she’s at 212-220-1459, ksaunders@bmcc.cuny.edu.

AW, SHUCKS “I just have to say how well-written Tribeca Citizen is. I live in the Financial District (close enough) and look forward to this newsletter in my inbox. Keep up the great work.
” —Patricia Grande
, Liberty St.