Drug-and-celebrity-laden downtown nightspot The Box can add to its ongoing problems the fact that an unknown disgruntled person is posting angry fliers around town alleging that the club's doorman is a "DRUG PEDDLER who RAPED TWO WOMEN" last year. The Daily News reported today that the anonymous flier guy has been arrested. But today the "BOX-KILLER" weighed in on the comments section of a blog post to declare that he was NOT arrested because posting such fliers is free speech, and furthermore, he still thinks the doorman is an "animal" and a "criminal!" Anonymous fliers and anonymously sourced gossip items and anonymous blog posts: all the makings of a solid story. [Animal]

The City of New York has always run anti-smoking ads that are pretty great, in the sense that they're disgusting and make smokers jump up and change channels as quickly as possible. The city's newest campaign features "Marie," a 58 year-old who has smoked for 40 years, even as bits of her body were constantly being amputated because of her poor circulation [NY Sun]. This could backfire, though, because it just makes it easy to say "I'll stop after my first amputation." The ad is below—I particularly admire how they slipped in a picture of a bone saw. Something to think about on my smoke break.

Ads like this one got me thinking: Do people really ride outside of subway cars? Do they do it to the extent that the city of New York must spend thousands of dollars on an ad campaign advising mouth breathers not to take their own lives in their hands and screw up commutes for the rest of us? And if you were going to ride outside a train, would you really do it by clinging onto the outside edge of the closed door, terrified face pressed against the window so all inside could see your horror before you inevitably fell onto the tracks and died? The answer to all of the above is, sadly, "yes."

Some people go to New York City to see the landmarks and museums and some go just to stand outside the various morning news show in order to propose to their significant others. And then there are individuals, such as High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens, who just go for the pizza and to live on a New York City diet built entirely around eating slices whenever humanly possible.

Here's something else for you to do this weekend: avoid getting murdered. New York City's murder rate this year is up by 26% compared to last year [NYDN]—and just in time for the NYPD to cut 1,000 officers! Far be it from us to advocate for more cops, but this seems like it might be a problem. The police department argues that regardless of the increase, it's still the second-lowest murder rate in the city's recorded history. Okay fine, but that might not last long with all those Michael Bloomberg-branded firearms for sale now. Below, a handy NYC crime report with weekly, monthly, and yearly perspectives. Now go buy your gun.

Fabulous new idea for a video game: the destruction of New York City! You're just one man with a bunch of guns, and the Nazis are bombing Manhattan. They're blowing up the buildings! They're blowing up the Statue of Liberty! It'll be great. Who doesn't want to see NYC's violent demolition played out in digital graphics? I do! No, seriously, I might buy this one. But I will swear off the "violent demolition of NYC" movies. One medium at a time. After the jump, the full trailer for the new game, "Turning Point: Fall of Liberty," the latest in the disconcerting procession of entertainment based on Gotham's death. See if you can find your home exploding!

NYC residents, an investigation has found, are the only people on earth who are not for sale. Time Out went around offering cash to people on the street to sell their stuff on the spot—t-shirts, do-rags, pins, their own time. The reporter managed to get a do-rag, some pins, and an hour of quality time with some people (for $150-$50), but concluded that 72% of all citizens are "not for sale." Further, "Both athletes and hipsters refused my offer of $100 for their shiny tights," which proves only that athletes and hipsters are not good economists. We're not so sure we trust these results. The offer of a Murray Hill condo, several new suits, a Blackberry, and $140,000 a year seems to convince plenty of New Yorkers to become corporate lawyers. [TONY]

Fundrace's database of political contributions says less about political affiliation than it does about the distribution of wealth in New York. The heaviest concentrations of donors are on the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side, and Wall Street. (Many executives give their work addresses when making political contributions.) But note a few neighborhood variations. Democratic candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama garner support from gayish neighborhoods such as Chelsea and the West Village, and bohemian-bourgeois Park Slope, in Brooklyn. It's a pity that Fundrace doesn't allow a search by candidate: Obama's Brooklyn support must be much more evident than Hillary's. Here's a bet: if Obama loses New York, we'll hear how the endorsements of the cultural elite, and the bohemian vote, actually cost him the election. (Click the thumb for detail of the map.)

A strange sight at Grand Central. A couple of hundred people, indistinguishable from the 500,000 commuters who pass through the midtown station each day, suddenly freeze. They were part of an improv group which has put on this public event before, but never in such a theatrical space. A cop was asked what was going on: "I have no idea! That is the craziest shit I've ever seen in my life, and I'm a cop!" (Click play to start the clip.)

This month will be the first January in 75 years without measurable snow in New York, according to the National Weather Service. Meteorologists say one can't jump to conclusions based on one season's data, but snowfall in New York City has declined in the last one hundred years, as global temperatures have increased. (Upstate, near the Great Lakes, seems to be an exception.) After the jump, a gallery, a photographic reminder of the snowbound city. Piles of slush are so much more romantic in faded black and white.

Part of Heath Ledger's appeal, to a certain breed of cultural snob, was geographic. The Australian actor, who had come to Hollywood at the age of 19, received less attention from the paparazzi and the entertainment media complex when he crossed to New York. But, in exchange, he gained some cultural cachet.

[Full-scale map at Streeter Seidell's personal blog]

An unidentified Google co-founder (Larry or Sergey) bought a dee-luxe apartment in the sky — a penthouse in New York City's forthcoming pre-war-style 15 Central Park West tower, says New York Magazine.

New Yorkers, we need you! Two events need Valleywag correspondents. Volunteers will write a quick (250-words-tops) report of each event or a particularly salient detail. If we like the write-up, they'll also be first in line for future Silicon Alley Valleywag work. To volunteer, e-mail tips@valleywag.com with "Alleywag" in the subject.

• It just goes to show, you can expect just about anything at Doc Holliday's — even bagpipes. [Amish in the City]
• If you're not going to discipline your child, he might do it for you. [The Liam McEneaney Experience]
• A complete list of liquids and other materials not allowed on planes. [Get The F Out Of Here]
• Your boyfriend's roommate knows you're crashing there, so it's best if you stop interrupting his sleep schedule in order to remain "discreet". [The Company Bitch]

• New York-based e-mail startup Daily Candy gets a sweet deal: an investment valuing the company at $130 mil, which lets the company take down its "For Sale" sign and get back to the important business of making urban women feel inadequately shoed. [Gawker, link being fixed]

Here's what happened this weekend, while you were out in San Fran, running Bay to Breakers:

What pleasures await in this pure palace of Apple? This morning, join us to watch Consumerist's coverage of the new 24-hour store in NYC.

Readers of the New York Magazine (ones who don't read Slate, the New York Times Styles, Forbes, the San Francisco Chronicle, or Wired) now know there's a boom on. Writer Kurt Andersen spends three pages (well, the last page is two lines, like the last page of a dictated-length term paper) telling the same story as the other papers, but with the cluelessness with which the New York media glitterati always approach the Internet. It's like seeing USA Today redo a trend piece, but without the humility. So spare yourself the read and use the Valleywag Lazy News Edition.

Oh, they badass. Matt Spangler from thehappycorp sends photos from the WWW Dodgeball Tournament (if you can dodge a VC takeover, you can dodge a ball), mercifully leaving out the action shots.