••• “Northeastern Republicans, long outnumbered and overshadowed in their own party nationally, erupted in fury on Wednesday after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives blocked a measure that sought to provide billions of dollars in aid to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and other states pummeled by Hurricane Sandy. The depth of the anger was extraordinary and exceedingly personal, with one Republican after another venting their outrage at one man in particular, Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, who quietly moved to keep the bill from coming to the floor early Wednesday morning.” —New York Times

••• That Christmas tree bonfire was evidently right by 93 Worth. Stay away from my advertisers, man! —New York Daily News

••• “HarperCollins Publishers, one of the nation’s largest book publishers, is in negotiations to take a roughly 200,000-square-foot lease at 195 Broadway, between Dey and Fulton streets, the 29-story, block-long building built as the headquarters for American Telephone and Telegraph.” In the same article: GfK USA is rumored to be looking at the World Financial Center, and “office suite company” Regus has taken the 24th floor of 3WFC. —Crain’s

••• Bari Studio is opening pop-up studios in Soho and Murray Hill, which I hear is somewhere to the northeast. “We’ll be at these spaces for one year (at least) until we find the right spaces to build out in those neighborhoods,” explains [founder Alexandra] Pérez,” pictured at right. —Well + Good

••• “New Yorkers’ beloved bagel is facing some new competition from something called a simit, a flat, round, sesame-seed encrusted baked good popular in Turkey and Romania, which is similar to the bagel. Simit + Smith, a brand new would-be restaurant chain that specializes in simits, recently opened its first location on the Upper West Side.” Two more locations are opening by April: 100 Williams and 111 Worth. —Crain’s