Politics: Councilman James Oddo — hot-headed, expletive-spewing Neanderthal or a great defender of America’s cherished bipartisan traditions? You decide. See the whole f-ing thing on YouTube! Comments (3).

Park Slope: It’s covered with oil. It’s laced with heavy metals. It receives millions of gallons of raw sewage every year. It even had cholera. And now the Gowanus Canal, that corpse of water between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, has been diagnosed with gonorrhea. Comments (2).

Atlantic Yards: The climactic legal battle against the Atlantic Yards mega-project began in a Manhattan courtroom this week, where lawyers argued over one of the oldest issues in American jurisprudence: When can the government seize a person’s home and give it to someone else to tear down and redevelop? Comments (3).

Dining: One Brooklynite gets hardcore about harvesting apples. Comments (3).

Editorial: A federal appeals court must reject Atlantic Yards unless it wants to defy the Supreme Court’s landmark Kelo ruling from just two years ago. Comments (2).

Atlantic Yards: Borough President Markowitz has declined a gay Democratic club’s invitation to herald the positives of the Atlantic Yards project at a forum later this month, and, while he’s there, explain why he supported a notoriously homophobic Borough Park politician in his race for a Civil Court seat. “I have little interest in becoming someone’s punching bag,” the Beep told the group. Comments (3).

Dining: Apple trees can thrive in the borough. Comment.

Williamsburg Waterfront: The Apple Store and a Barneys Co-op are reportedly in talks to lease retail space in the ground floor of the Williamsburg Edge, the mammoth, 1,350-unit development rising on the Kent Avenue waterfront. Comments (1).

Atlantic Yards: Brooklyn’s representative on the Planning Commission — whose business dealings with Bruce Ratner forced her to recuse herself from discussions on the largest development in Brooklyn’s history — will not be appointed to a second term. Comments (3).

Dining: GO’s favorite spots for nearby apple picking. Comment.

After more than a year in hiding, the Williamsburgh Bank clocktower finally began to shed its veil of black netting and blue plywood last week. The changes won’t just be on the outside. Comments (1).

Theater: St. Ann’s Warehouse wanted to stage a play with buzz, but at the Oct. 7 premiere of Dutch playwright Adelheid Roosen’s “Is.Man,” the buzz wasn’t about how great the show was when the star abruptly walked off stage. Comment.

Jonathan Lethem talks to GO about his BAM film series. Comment.

Dining: Less is more at this Park Slope wine bar. Comment.

Bloomy in the ’Hood: Mayor Bloomberg waltzed into the Polonaise Terrace ballroom last Thursday night for a bureaucrat’s version of a polish wedding: Hizzoner’s first town hall meeting in Greenpoint. And he heard an earful from locals. A “Stoop” special edition! Comment.

Bloomy in the ’Hood: At least one resident attended the town hall meeting to complain about something that the mayor can’t directly fix: the G train. Comment.

Bay Ridge: Politically fractured Bay Ridge is united in opposition to a toll increase on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Comments (5).

Bloomy in the ’Hood: Bloomberg leapt at a chance to discuss housing when Community Board 1 Land-Use Committee Chairman Ward Dennis complained about a lack of communication between city agencies and the community. Comment.

Bloomy in the ’Hood: Bloomberg certainly heard plenty of complaints about the 2005 rezoning that unleashed the wave of high-rise development on the neighborhood. Comment.

Red Hook: The operators of Brooklyn’s last working cargo port came under fire this week after they reportedly funneled tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to elected officials who oppose the Bloomberg Administration’s plan to evict them to create a tourist haven in Red Hook. Comment.

Dining: Brooklyn’s up-to-the-minute food news. Comment.

Cartoon: Our cartoonist’s take. Comments (1).

Greene Acres: A community meeting shows the danger of greed. Comment.

The Explainer: A city plan to evict the operators of Red Hook’s working cargo port from Port Authority-owned piers ran into opposition last week when 21 officials sent a letter urging the bi-state agency to give the dockworkers a new 10-year lease. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Council Speaker Chris Quinn and Councilman David Yassky were among the signatories of the letter. Comment.

Yellow Hooker: Congressional candidate Steve Harrison, who is anti-war, stands up when a group of anti-war activists go too far. Comments (5).

Park Slope: There were at least three violent muggings last week in usually quiet Park Slope, though overall this year, crimes in that category are way down, according to NYPD stats. Comment.

Williamsburg: A woman and her boyfriend were beaten and robbed by three men while walking home on Oct. 6 — but the robbery was foiled when the boyfriend chased down one of the thugs, who was later arrested. Plus all the other crime news from Williamsburg and Bushwick’s 90th Precinct. Comment.

Beside the Point: Our columnist reminds us all that Brooklyn was once the center of the baseball universe. Comments (2).

Downtown: A man robbed a State Street bodega on Oct. 5 by using the old trick of pretending the hand in his pocket was a gun. Plus all the other crime news from DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights and Downtown’s 84th Precinct. Comment.

Art: Prospect-Lefferts Gardens boasts a unique arts and crafts fair. Comment.

Fort Greene: A 14-year-old was ganged up on by four other girls on Oct. 1. Plus all the other crime news from Fort Greene and Clinton Hill’s 88th Precinct. Comments (1).

Bay Ridge: Don’t drink and drive — but don’t hand your keys to a thief, either. Plus all the crime news from Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst. Comment.

Smartmom: Smartmom and Hepcat are fighting again — but this time, it’s for their health! Comment.

Fort Greene: The Parks Department can’t find more than $300,000 that had been pledged towards the restoration of historic Fort Greene Park. Comment.

Carroll Gardens: A gunman with a tattoo of a teardrop under his left eye is wanted for the armed robbery of two Red Hook bars, police said. Plus all the other crime news from Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Red Hook and Boerum Hill. Comments (1).

PS … I Love You: Our columnist revisits the site of a horrific 1960 plane crash and finds…condos! Comments (7).

Spa: Spa Week is back with pampering on the cheap. Comment.

Theater: A seriously funny play comes to Brooklyn Heights. Comment.

Bay Ridge: More than 1,400 people have now signed Heather McCown’s petition demanding the long-dreamed-about ferry from the 69th Street pier to Lower Manhattan, and now she wants to hand the petitions directly to Mayor Bloomberg. Comment.

Music: The CMJ Music Marathon returns to town this week. Comment.

Williamsburg: A notorious, half-built tower on North Eighth Street — which locals call “the Finger Building” because of how it resembles a middle digit flipping the bird — should get cut off at the middle knuckle at a public hearing next week, members of Community Board 1 say. Comment.

Letters: The mailbag is full with comments about our recent coverage of Fulton Mall, an alleged “cat-napping” case, the possible sale of the Slave Theater, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, and a plan for a seven-story apartment building in Carroll Gardens. Comment.

Brooklyn South: A graffiti artist wants to create a football-field-sized gallery in Red Hook. Comments (3).

Fort Greene: A community garden on Washington Avenue has just installed an environmentally sound, composting toilet! Imagine, guilt-free flushing! Comment.

Park Slope: The 116-year-old pipe organ at the Old First Reformed Church needs a miracle. Comment.

Fort Greene: Two green-thinking Brooklyn architects have encountered an unexpected hiccup in their plan to make a Clinton Hill rooftop more environmentally sound: the mighty preservationist. Comments (1).

Downtown: The Landmarks Preservation Commission has cleared the way for a four-story Greek-revival-style mansion at the corner of Hicks and State streets — on the last empty lot in the notoriously snooty Brooklyn Heights Historic District. Comment.

Carroll Gardens: A former Pacific Street flophouse and murder site can be yours thanks to a city auction announced this week. Comments (2).

Downtown: The creation of a DUMBO historic district moved closer to reality this week when the Landmarks Preservation Commission agreed to discuss the topic later this month, the first step in a process to protect the waterfront warehouse district from the wrecking ball of redevelopment. Comments (2).

Bloomy in the ’Hood: Mayor Bloomberg joined the joyous Simchat Torah festivities last Thursday night in front of two Remsen Street synagogues that were among a score of sites targeted by swastika-painting vandals. Comment.

Heights Lowdown: Brooklyn Heights is full of holes — sinkholes and potholes, that is. Comment.

Bay Ridge: Two local Republicans are going pumpkin to pumpkin to see who can host the most Halloween celebrations during this scary season. Comments (1).

All the important meetings you should be going to. Comment.

Parenting: All the fun you could be having with your kids — right now! Comment.

In the spirit of encouraging a free exchange of ideas, The Brooklyn Paper makes this space available to our readers. Comment.