Carroll Gardens painter Nad Wolinska hopes that participating in March’s ArtExpo will make her a household name - or at the very least, will encourage a gallery or two to represent her. The 42-year-old French artist will be exhibiting 16 paintings from her "Divine Reality of Human Illusion" series (pictured) in the SOLO pavilion, which features emerging, independent artists. Comment.

"They also serve who only stand and wait," wrote English poet John Milton. Playwright Paulanne Simmons, of Brooklyn Heights, could not agree more. In fact, she quoted the 17th-century writer on a postcard that advertises the opening of her three-part play about people who wait together, which opens on Feb. 24 at the Theater for the New City in Manhattan. Comment.

"Porgy and Bess" is The American Opera. It’s probably the most well-known American opera throughout the world," says Jerris Cates, who plays Bess in the upcoming Brooklyn Center show. Indeed Cates sees nothing ironic in the fact that George and Ira Gershwin, two Jewish boys from Brooklyn, wrote the score for an opera about the Gullahs, blacks living in small farming and fishing communities in the southern low country. Comment.

Who is Maggie Brown? Is she the unsinkable Molly, a.k.a. "Maggie," who stayed afloat after the Titanic went down? If so, her inimitable spirit is present in this Clinton Hill restaurant that bears her name. Comment.

Given the types of offbeat, sad-sack underdogs he often portrays on the big screen, it seems just his luck that Paul Giamatti would be left off the ballot for a Best Actor Oscar, following months of critical praise for his depiction of a schlubby, down-trodden wine connoisseur in the buddy comedy "Sideways." Comment.

When programming a retrospective devoted to a particular genre, like BAMcinematek’s "Fright Nights: International Horror," one runs immediately into the question of definitions. What exactly is a horror movie? This selection of a dozen films, playing Mondays and Tuesdays from Feb. 21 to March 29, is refreshingly broadminded about the answer. Comment.

It’s raining ravioli and so much more at the new Fratelli Ravioli Shop and Cafe in Carroll Gardens, which opened on Jan. 5. Comment.

If you’re looking for a new way to combine the fun of crafts with a girls’ night out, consider throwing a Bead Spa soiree. Comment.

The rejection by two key City Council committees of a zoning change that would have allowed the construction of a 130,000-square-foot BJ’s Wholesale Club big box store in the Bronx this week may have indicated a coming shift in council consideration of big box stores. Comment.

Atlantic Yards: A neighborhood group that supports developer Bruce Ratner’s efforts to build a basketball arena, housing and office buildings in Prospect Heights has filed a “friend of the court” brief defending the use of eminent domain to condemn private property in a case being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court this week. Comment.

A letter issued last week by the director of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation has seemingly eased tensions with local elected officials, who had planned to push the state authority for a more open and public process in redesigning plans for the 1.3-mile waterfront project. Comment.

Residents of Joralemon Street in Brooklyn Heights have long feared an influx of vehicular and pedestrian traffic from the planned Brooklyn Bridge Park waterfront project. Comment.

Brooklyn Bridge Park, the planned commercial-recreational development along the Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO waterfront, may need even more housing than has already been proposed if it is to remain financially independent. Comment.