Letters: Our mailbag is filled with missives about Barclays, pigeons, two old sisters and restaurateur Nick Monte. Comment.

Parenting: All the action for you and your kids! Comment.

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

Carroll Gardens: City workers removed historic cobblestones from Beard Street in front of the new Ikea store this week. Comment.

Downtown: Gentlemen, start your drooling. That’s about all you can do right now, given that no one is willing to positively ID the “national chain” with close to a century of experience in the food trade that will be coming to the corner of State and Court streets. Comment.

Downtown: The city is seeking an artist to put a mural on a DUMBO eyesore. Comment.

Park Slope: Three would-be robbers ignited a popular Fifth Avenue religious store early last Thursday after the owner refused to give them any money — and luckily, no one was injured in a fire that consumed the 25-year-old botanica and the apartments upstairs. Comments (4).

Dance: The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s “Next Wave” festival has always been a welcoming harbor for choreographers with big ideas — and that’s certainly true of Pappa Tarahumara’s dance-theater piece, “Ship in a View,” which opens on Wednesday, Nov. 28.  Comments (1).

Williamsburg: Greenpointers skeptical about a claim by ExxonMobil that its cleanup of the massive underground oil spill under Greenpoint will speed up later this year are demanding an outside consultant be hired to make sure the oil giant keeps its promises. Comment.

Williamsburg: Two absent-minded motorists who parked their cars in Williamsburg on Nov. 16 and left the keys inside returned (surprise!) to find their cars gone. Plus all the crime news from the 90th Precinct. Comment.

Bay Ridge: Nearly $6,000 in perfume was stolen from an 86th Street shop. Plus all the other crime news from Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge’s 68th Precinct. Comment.

Fort Greene: An ex-con took his revenge on his old corrections officer on Nov. 16 — or at least her luxury car — and left a semi-literate note as a souvenir. Plus all the other crime news from Fort Greene and Clinton Hill’s 88th Precinct. Comment.

Downtown: A couple’s Nov. 18 shopping spree ended just about as badly as it could have, when five men attacked them in a Fulton Street store and made of with nearly $13,000 in valuables. Plus all the other crime news from Downtown, Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO’s 84th Precinct. Comment.

Park Slope: A man shot off at least six rounds in what appears to be a random act of mayhem early on Nov. 17 in front of a Flatbush Avenue social club, cops said. Plus all the other crime news from Park Slope’s 78th Precinct. Comment.

Dining: Plenty of pizza places are named for their owner — Joe’s in Park Slope and Carmine’s in Greenpoint come to mind — but none have gone so far as Vinny Vella’s, the newest slice shop in Williamsburg. Comment.

Books: Where’s the best place to hold a reading from the new murder mystery, “Graving Dock”? An actual graving dock, of course. Comment.

Smartmom: The Oh So Feisty One gets sick but Smartmom is the one who needs medication! Comments (1).

Fort Greene: The man behind Brownstoner — the go-to site for Brooklynites obsessed with buying real estate — now wants to help you furnish those apartments. Comments (5).

Art: ”Coney Island is still an exciting place,” Patrick Amsellem, curator of the Brooklyn Museum’s upcoming show, “Goodbye, Coney Island,” told GO Brooklyn. The Museum is celebrating the best stretch of beach we know with a photo show opening on Nov. 28. Comment.

Dining: The first thing you should do after entering Brooklyn Label is head straight to the U-shaped bar. If owner-chef Cody Utzman is there (he’s the young, sandy-haired guy with a Brooklyn Label tattoo beneath his ear), say, “hi,” and ask if they’re serving pineapple upside-down cake. Comments (1).

Downtown: A string of vandalism targeting religious groups continued this week, as banners hanging at synagogues and churches in Brooklyn Heights were torn down by some not-so-merry pranksters. Comment.

Theater: When actor-writer Michael Buscemi was ready to stage his play “Mercury in Retrograde” for the first time, he could think of no better place than amongst a community of his friends at Park Slope’s Barbes. Comment.

The former principal of the city’s first Arabic-language school — who was forced to resign in a controversy over an “Intifada NYC” T-shirt — sued Mayor Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott on Monday, saying that their “punitive, extreme and outrageous” actions “recklessly caused severe emotional distress” from a resignation that was demanded so that the mayor could announce it on his radio show. Comment.

Frank Viola, the Bath Beach pioneer of pigeon racing passed away last month at age 87 — and his death has left a void in the sport. Comment.

Downtown plan: Tyler Hospitality, the firm building a 32-story Staybridge Suites motel in Times Square, will bring a Holiday Inn to Schermerhorn Street, a thoroughfare that has recently seen a wave of new investment. Comment.

The city’s new school ratings system — which sullied the reputations of some of Brooklyn’s star educational institutions — spread like celebrity gossip through the linoleum-floored hallways of Brooklyn schools, into Brooklyn brownstones, and even into the very worldviews of Brownstone Brooklyn parents. Comment.

Editorial: Some elected officials have come out against the mayor’s plan for Coney Island. Where were they when the mayor was making the same mistake at Atlantic Yards? Comment.

Atlantic Yards: Barclays Bank — the $800-billion company that will pay Bruce Ratner $400 million for the naming rights at the Atlantic Yards arena — has co-founded a non-profit that will dole out $1 million a year in grants to Brooklyn organizations, but critics called the sum patronizing. Comments (4).

Bay Ridge: Here’s one way to fight litter: A Bay Ridge superintendent has posted signs calling his tenants “stupid” and “retarded” because of the sloppy way they put out their garbage. Comments (2).

Brooklyn Brewery co-founder Steve Hindy, whose son Sam died in a horrific bike crash on the Manhattan Bridge last week, is using the tragedy to demand more bicycle safety. Comments (4).

Theater: To say that the stars of the latest production of “Hamlet” are dummies is not offensive. Comment.

The city has suddenly started taking a hard-line against a crime that Brooklyn businesses have committed with impunity for decades — putting signs in front of their stores. Comments (2).

Park Slope: The G train will be permanently extended to Church Avenue and the dour Fourth Avenue station will get a complete overhaul as part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $250-million work along the elevated portion of the F train between Carroll Gardens and Park Slope. Comments (3).

Fort Greene: The owner of one of Brooklyn’s most forward-thinking eateries is raising money with a decidedly old-fashioned — some would say retrograde — strategy: he’s hawking a sexy pin-up calendar featuring his waitresses. Comments (3).