••• New York City Horror Film Festival starts tomorrow at Tribeca Cinemas with a screening of All About Steve Must Love Death. It runs through Sunday, unless it gets hacked with a machete.

••• By the Ounce opens this week: “The elegant [Really? —Ed.] corner room at Bouley Bakery where people snack during the day becomes this wine bar from 6 p.m. to midnight. Wines are sold by the ounce, the half-glass, and glass. Food by Shea Gallante, like charcuterie, cheeses, and caviar, is also sold by the ounce.” (The New York Times)

••• The Broadsheet Daily has a fascinating item, via the New York Post, about how a Subway sandwich shop will rise along with the Freedom Tower: “The shop, expected to be in place by the end of the month, will be fitted into a shipping container-like structure fixed to one of the tower cranes, alongside a bathroom and construction offices for the project managers. The concession stand will rise with the tower, eventually stopping near the 105th floor….” Will it serve beer?

••• The Mama Doni Band plays the Museum of Jewish Heritage this Sunday at 1 p.m. The band, which New Jersey’s Star-Ledger called “wacky Jewish indie-rock for kids,” is celebrating its new record, Chanukah Fever, with dancing and giveaways. Tickets are $15 or $7 for kids 12 and under; they can be purchased here or by calling 646-437-4202.

••• I confess that I’m more intrigued by the appearance of the original sexpert, Dr. Ruth Westheimer—she’s like the Energizer Bunny!—at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on Wednesday, Dec. 9, at 7 p.m. ($15). She’ll be serving up dating and relationship advice. In fact, you can ask her a question yourself, either in person that night or in advance at mjhnyc.org. (One that has already been submitted—not by me!—is this: “The Wall Street Journal cited a study that doing housework leads to better sex. In theory this is a great idea, but how can a wife actually encourage a husband to understand the need to do housework in the first place?”)

••• I hereby endorse the Cookie of the Month, chocolate hazelnut ($1), at Tribeca Treats.

••• At Barnes & Noble today: Randall and Peter deSeve, authors of children’s book The Duchess of Whimsy (11 a.m.), and James McManus, author of Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker (7 p.m.). The latter is sure to be a popular gift this holiday—you might want to stop by and get a signed copy, because that way it’s much harder to regift.

••• Tribeca Film’s newsletter interviews Jason Schwartzman (of Fantastic Mr. Fox and HBO’s Bored to Death) and Joseph Gordon-Leavitt (of 500 Days of Summer current release Uncertainty).

••• I posted yesterday’s item about The Great Recession at the Flea Theater even though I hadn’t heard back about some questions I was hoping to get answers to, and then, of course, I heard back. (Patience is for other people.) So, Carol Ostrow, producing director, how did the idea to commission recession-specific plays come about? “In the spring of 2009, in the midst of economic woe, [artistic director] Jim Simpson and I were talking about our fall slate of plays. All anyone was talking about was Bernie Madoff and that scandal and their own economic worth in the new economy. It was and is an uneasy time. Jim thought well why not address that? But instead of looking at the economic situation from our own point of view, we decided to have it be from the next generation’s vantage point. We have a young company of actors here at The Flea, The Bats, and we asked what’s it going to be like for them to come out of college and training programs and start out as adults.” Interesting! Any discounts for the unemployed? “We’re selling beer for a buck during intermission.”

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