R.L. Stine, wondering why this piece took so long.

​Sometimes in the nonstop world of blogging you do something that takes a little more time, and which you're very excited about. But because of the nonstop world of blogging, and because you want to do it right, and because it takes more time to do that, the idea or scoop or interview you were so excited about gets pushed to the side, to do at night or on weekends, or in the rare blogging breaks. And sometimes by the time you get around to it, the peg -- and occasionally, the enthusiasm -- has been lost. Such pieces have been sacrificed for the greater good of "feeding the beast." They never get their day in the sun, and that is sad.

Today is my last day at the Voice (thank you, readers, coworkers, Tony Ortega, who hired me and set the last two crazy/wonderful years in motion, and everyone who supported and/or stayed friends with me throughout). And thank you to everyone I ever spoke to whose words didn't make it onto the published page. This one is for you.

On Thursday, January 13, 2011, I left my blog-shackles and my computer and trekked from Voice HQ to the Upper West Side to meet R.L. Stine at a Mexican restaurant for lunch and, presumably, what would become a published interview. He had been the inspiration, on the basis of a tweet, for my first viral blog post, "50 Reasons to Be Pretty Damn Euphoric You Live in New York City." I wanted to thank him for that (I think/hope I picked up the tab!), and also, I mean, it's R.L. Stine, a name I'd seen on bookshelves since childhood, a writing success story, an inspiration. He had a cranberry juice and his usual choice from the lunch menu; I drank Diet Coke and then coffee and, too nervous to eat, picked at whatever lunch I ordered. Three hours later we parted ways, me with a signed copy of one of his books from the Goosebumps stories; him with my promise to send him the link to the piece, "as soon as it was up."

That promise comes due today. Here is the lost (and, now, found) interview with R.L. Stine.

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Dean Olsher, the former host and creator of The Next Big Thing on public radio, now a grad student in music at Queens College, was at the Atlantic-Pacific Street subway stop in Brooklyn yesterday at about 4:30 p.m. when he saw something strange. A turtle was on the platform, "freaking out and trying to hide underneath the benches." There was a cardboard box nearby. The video above, which he took, shows the turtle wandering about on the platform.

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New mattress technology, not inspired by ancient mattress.

​Archaeologists in South Africa have discovered what they believe is the world's oldest mattress, and they didn't even find it on Craigslist. National Geographic reports a team of researchers at the Sibudu Cave site came across bedding made of reeds and rushes, the most ancient of which is about 77,000-years-old. In addition to being old, the bed would've been "very comfortable," according to the University of Witwatersrand's Lyn Wadley.

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EV Grieve

​On Sunday EV Grieve posted a notice that a sculpture had gone missing in the East Village -- specifically, a clear, pretzel-shaped, acrylic, 6" by 6" sculpture. The artist who created the sculpture, Katie Peyton, lost it somewhere between Avenue C and Heathers bar. We contacted her for the details.

She says, "It started out as a sculpture -- the regular kind. But it was really fun to play with, and it started going out on the town. It went to Performa last week for a gallery owner to see, and ended up on stage. Then it went to Heathers last Friday night for a curator to see. She came back with me to see the rest of the series and we discovered that en route home, the original had fallen out of my messenger bag."

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​The 9-spotted ladybug is a rare, rare thing. Rarer than a four-leaf clover or a rent-stabilized apartment, the 9-spotted ladybug resulted in an entire "citizen science project" being launched nationwide by Cornell University after that ladybug and her 9 spots seemed to have simply disappeared from the state some 29 years ago. But, the ladybug is back, reports NBC NY! She's been found on Long Island, at an organic farm, which is where, we dare say, many a sophisticated ladybug would enjoy shopping for groceries these days.

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Willow.

​Five years ago, a calico cat named Willow went missing from her Rocky Mountain home. She was found yesterday, in New York City, on East 20th Street -- more than 1,600 miles from where she escaped on a day in 2006 or 2007 when contractors left a door to the house she lived in open. It's definitely her, because she was microchipped as a kitten. The Squire family -- "in which two of the three kids (17, 10, and 3) and one of the two dogs (a yellow Lab named Roscoe) may remember her" -- is floored.

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DNAinfo/Leslie Albrecht

​Today in adorable animals in trouble, now not in trouble anymore: The best New York City hurricane story, via DNA Info, has to be the tale of 14-year-old cockatiel Josie, who is a he, and who escaped from a pet carrier along with another bird, Cliffy, while the two were on their way to the vet on the Friday before Irene was set to hit. Their owner, Jim DiGiovanni, has no idea what Josie, who can only say "Pretty bird," was up to during the hurricane, but it was presumably not buying as many bottles of water as he could carry from a nearby bodega. Or much fun.

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"It's like the Crying Game."

​ Remember the lost chicken, found by kind soul Steve Chung on the mean streets of Brooklyn last week? Chung posted a notice on Craigslist in hopes of finding the chicken's owner. Brownstoner wrote about that, and so did we. Then, Chung got in touch to tell us that some crazy stuff had happened. Did we want to hear? A chicken story with a twist? Oh, yes, please!

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​In a story we have been following all too closely (thank you for your industrious reporting, New York Post!), we have learned, despite the world around us seeming to sink and wither under its own weight, that there is hope yet! And what we mean is that Bongo, the Beanie Baby monkey that sent a couple into a tailspin when they discovered him "disappeared" upon their arrival to a restaurant in Park Slope on August 1 -- leading to frighteningly global media attention for the loss -- has been reunited with owners Bonni Marcus, 47, and Jack Zinzi, 58.

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Todd Bieber (no relation) set out two months ago to find the rightful owners of a film roll he found in Brooklyn's Prospect Park after a huge blizzard. He had the photos developed and, conveniently because he's a filmmaker, went to YouTube to start a twee-as-fuck search for the people who dropped them. The original video accumulated over 1,000,000 views, so Bieber (heh) made a second one. The third installment comes today and ends whimsically in Paris, just like Amélie.

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