Sightings are sent in by our discerning-eyed readers; send yours to tips@gawker.com.

In that case, you'd think they'd put 'em in separate cells.

In the mailbag:

• Bid on the charity auction to win a tour of CNN and VIP tickets to Anderson Cooper's show. It's your big chance to show your dream man just how charitable of a stalker you are. [Charity Buzz]
• Cathy Rigby retires from Peter Pan, leaving only one sure bet as her replacement: Clay Aiken in the tights he was always born to wear. [Manolo the Shoeblogger]
• Why were we all completely unaware that Glamour had entered film production? [OAN]
• Just like the city itself, the New York Public Library's "I Heart NY" snowglobe is dirty as hell. [Consumerist]

• The DJs from Digable Planets perform tonight at the Canal Room as a part of Giant Step's Annual Toy Drive, this year benefiting the children affected by Hurricane Katrina. A list of banned toys includes Super Soakers and Slip'n'Slides, but classic Water Wings will be accepted. [flavorpill]
• Remember the first time you read Song of Myself as an angsty 15-year-old? Uh, no, of course, we don't either! But apparently people adore Walt Whitman, what with his yawps and his multitudes, and so Harold Bloom, Michael Cunningham and poet J.D. McClatchy convene to read and discuss Leaves of Grass on its 150th birthday. 92nd St. Y, tonight at 8. [Paper]
• As though it's a new thing to hate, loathe, and despise Wal-mart, the good folks at DCTV offer a screening of Wal-mart: The High Cost of Low Price and a follow-up discussion with Liza Featherstone, "leading Wal-mart critic." Wish we'd known that was a career option. [Upcoming]

Sightings are sent in by your brothers and sisters in stalking; send yours to tips@gawker.com.

Click to enlarge.

So much for the hallucinating Columbia kid. When we received a report yesterday that the mysterious maple syrup smell had returned to Manhattan, and when that first report emanated from Amsterdam and 114th, we hypothesized that some undergrad was merely overcome with finals stress and imaging happy breakfasts of yore. Commenters, however, quickly seconded the tipster's emotion, and we realized he was probably not hallucinating. And now the mainstream media confirms his — and all those emailers' — sanity.

We know it's particularly easy to say this when you work from home and can spend all day inside, and when it's early and calm and just starting to get bright, and when there are those big, fluffy flakes. But, still: New York is awfully pretty when it's snowing.

In any horror movie worthy the of name, the unexplained, unexplainable, force-of-nature evildoer is never really gone when all the innocent victims first think it's gone. So when the inexplicable Syrupy Smell That Swallowed New York came and went about a month ago, why did we all assume it was gone for good?

• Marina Abramovic's Balkan Erotic Epica features, among other images meant to illustrate the role of sexuality in Balkan culture, "a young girl in peasant garb caught in the throes of self-induced passion." We're pretty sure that's just code for "amateur chick masturbating on tape," but if you need artsy language to justify your hobby, then we're not judging. [flavorpill]
• If you can actually breathe through the cloud of depression and self-indulgence that results when 20 authors gather in one room, perhaps you can make a purchase or two tonight at The Powerhouse Annual Book Signing Extravanganza. [Paper]
• As nothing does, in fact, compare to an Irish, bisexual Rastafarian with a shaved head and piercing blue eyes, Sin ad O'Connor takes the stage herself tonight at Webster Hall. Bring a photo of your most treasured icon for the after-party. [Upcoming]

Yesterday we briefly made mention of the bust of the Cartoon Network, one of New York's lovely marijuana delivery services. The Smoking Gun has pictures of the seized goods, which are predictably fresh and and amiably presented.

We hate those MTA vigilante signs all over the subways (at right). Seriously, we "see something" all the fucking time, but it's not like we're going to go hunt down some listless MTA employees just to tell them that Al Qaeda planted an unattended package of rotting KFC under the benches.

• Depeche Mode hops on the "Bands that Are More Relevant in a Comeback Setting Than They Ever Originally Were" train with a concert tonight at Madison Square Garden. BYO Personal Blackface Jesus. [Upcoming]
• Fresh from their stint at the Bait Shop, The Subways perform at Stuff mag's "It Issue" party at North Six in Brooklyn. The festivities stretch from 8-1, which might be the longest stretch of time you've ever spent with anything associated with Stuff.
• Confounding Expectations 2: Art Photography Now, the humbly titled collection of 80 top photographers' "unconventional portraiture," features bejeweled fashion models, sterile supermarket panoramas, and other equally random and thus artistic images. Ponder the meaning of it all tonight at the New School. [flavorpill]

While former Women's Wear Daily reporter and "allegedly suspected" sexual predator Peter Braunstein is believed to be traipsing about the wilds of the upper midwest, his victim has been doing her best to go on with her life. The woman, a former W employee who Braunstein is believed to have molested for 12 hours on Halloween, has hired lawyer Lynda Goldman to "to encourage the media to behave in a responsible manner so that this victim isn t victimized further." Ooooh — a personal watchdog. Totes smooth. Says Goldman:

We're not mocking the matching covers of our local tabs — the shooting death of NYPD officer Dillon Stewart certainly merits a synergistic show of respect. But while the Daily News is strong and silent, the Post just couldn't resist the power hed, could they? Way to ruin a moment, dicks.

• Oh, now we understand: Lindsay Lohan missed her appearance on Regis & Kelly because her head got eaten by Kong. Right. Thankfully, that's not so serious as to keep her off of TRL right about now. [Popsugar & OAN]
• Christopher Hitchens predicts the death of the journalist protagonist in modern fiction, suggesting that, god forbid, such characters are replaced with bloggers — a development which could really just be the death of modern fiction altogether. [Guardian]
• Fake David Cross is alive, well, and banned from a bar for being a total boozehound. [Felber Frolics]
• How to do your holiday shopping, with helpful, implicitly violent tips from the Gap. [You Can't Make It Up]
• In a piece on "suspected" firefighting sex fiend Peter Braunstein, Dateline interviews blogger Steve Huff as an "expert" on the case. Hey, if New York's Vanessa Grigoriadis counts, we suppose a blogger can, too. [B&C Beat]
• Now you can pay the very supplies AP staffers have been stealing for years. [AP Essentials]
• It's a tourist's dream: Getting wasted in Manhattan, but not lost. [NY on Tap]
• iPorn for your iPod isn't novel, but A-list Playboy porn ups the ante just a bit. But can you get it in braille? [MDN]

Sightings are sent in by bored and nosy readers like you. Send yours to tips@gawker.com.

• Same people, new but equally affected name: Islands, or the ex-Unicorns, rock out tonight at the Knitting Factory. Preciousness TK. [flavorpill]
• Because wild parties, drugs, and loose women shouldn't just be for rock stars, the funny guys from Invite Them Up spit out a recording and now plan to party accordingly. Tonight's record release at the Bowery Ballroom features Eugene Mirman, Jon Benjamin & Jon Glaser, Michael Showalter, Demetri Martin, Leo Allen, and Bobby Tisdale, among others. [Upcoming]
• Loose women of a different variety will be in abundance at Happy Valley tonight, as Miss Amanda Lepore, tranny extraordinaire, celebrates her birthday with David LaChappelle and Richie Rich. Alas, we doubt there'll be a literal happy valley in the room. [Paper]

More details are emerging about former Women's Wear Daily reporter Peter Braunstein's quality time spent in Ohio, where he allegedly fled after being suspected of sexually assaulting a former co-worker. Apparently Braunstein, while posing as a Hollywood location scout, had dinner on November 7 with a Cleveland bar owner: