BENCH BANDIT STRIKES AGAIN?
Who doesn’t love a good whodunit? In this case, who put out these (pretty ugly) blue benches alongside Stuy on the highway? The property belongs to Battery Park City Authority, but the spokesman says they were not put there by the authority nor Hudson River Park Trust, who managed that strip of land along the bikeway till recently. Must have been the school? Add this to the mysterious appearance of the Finn Square bench on Franklin and West Broadway. Same bench bandit? Sonia??

FRANKLY, MORE WINES
Frankly Wines’ Liz Nicholson writes to announce that she is expanding into the space next door at West Broadway between Murray and Warren, having taken over the lease on the old massage parlor (sorry, H.). The state liquor authority just approved the move, and after some more permitting, they will get started on construction. The hope is to be finished by late summer.

INDIVIDUALISM TOPIC DU JOUR FOR PEN PARENTIS
Pen Parentis – the local literary group for authors who are also parents – will host a bigger-than-usual salon on the topic of individualism on Tuesday, April 9, 7 to 9p, at LMHQ, 150 Broadway, 20th Floor. The question: Follow the Instagram crowd or go it alone? Is trailblazing a brilliant move or does it just slow you down? Co-hosts M. M. De Voe and Christina Chiu will interview three eminent authors who have thriving literary careers – and children at home: Hillary Reyl, Tim Fitts and Wendy Chin-Tanner. For more info or to RSVP, click here. (The group won a grant from ConEd in order to host this particular salon at LMHQ, the Downtown Alliance’s workshare space.)

BACH AT LUNCHTIME
This is one of these things you should do just because we live in New York and not in [insert suburb of your choice]. And sure, maybe you go just to say you said you went, but maybe – just maybe — you will relax long enough to enjoy it. The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra perform Mondays at 1p through April 30. St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway and Fulton.

JACK THE RIPPER AT MYSTERIOUS BOOKSHOP
The Mysterious Bookshop will host Hallie Rubenhold on April 9, 6:30p, here to discuss her excellent new nonfiction book, The Five, which examines, in detail, the lives of the five women murdered by Jack the Ripper. Through extensive research, Rubenhold has uncovered more information about these women than ever thought possible. Beyond just telling the stories of these particular characters, though, the author uses their lives to examine the greater hardships that faced women, and especially poor women, in Victorian England.