"Wit," now on stage at Long Island University’s Downtown Brooklyn campus, is ostensibly about Vivian Bearing, a 50-year-old professor of 17th-century poetry who is dying of ovarian cancer; the doctors and nurses who care for her; and the two major influences in her life, her distant, intellectual father and the professor who directed her thesis, E.M. Ashford. Comment

The Impact Theatre’s newest production is Henrik Ibsen’s "The Wild Duck," directed by David Greenwood. Comment

Finding a cafe with small-town flavor has become increasingly difficult with megagrinders like Starbucks nudging out the competition. Comment

"Your husband called ... he said to buy anything you want." Comment

The National Theater of the United States of America has extended its run of "What’s That on My Head!?!" at DUMBO’s NEST Arts complex until Feb. 29. Comment

Whether you’re looking for a last-minute Valentine’s Day gift for that special guy, or just looking for a few laughs, actor Steve Schirripa’s latest book, "A Goomba’s Book of Love" fits the bill. Comment

After winning the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Michael Cunningham’s novel "The Hours" became the basis for 2002’s acclaimed movie version, which not only starred Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Ed Harris, but also won Nicole Kidman a Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf. Comment

On Smith Street, where moderately priced bistros are the norm, Chestnut, which opened in November, stands out as an original. Comment

Time to dust off grandma’s old pasties, darling. That bawdy and ribald men’s entertainment called burlesque is back in Brooklyn. Comment

Development: Skyscrapers that could top 60 stories would line Flatbush Avenue Extension (at left, looking south from Tillary Street). Dwarfing the Williamsburgh […] Comment

Atlantic Yards: During his State of the Borough address Sunday Borough President Marty Markowitz touted Brooklyn’s cultural renaissance and future as a tourism hotspot while reminding an audience of about 500 that its schools are among the city’s most crowded and its auto-insurance rates among the nation’s highest. Comment

Forget Bloomindales and the Empire State Building. Comment

Atlantic Yards: As the controversy heats up over the construction of a Frank Gehry-designed village and professional basketball arena in Prospect Heights, there is one group that apparently stands to benefit — property owners. Comment

Atlantic Yards: Call it the “dribble-down” theory, the foundation of “Ratneromics.” Comment

Atlantic Yards: A group of Prospect Heights residents fighting to save their homes from condemnations that would make way for Bruce Ratner’s Nets arena development have interviewed a noted civil liberties attorney to take up their cause. Comment

Atlantic Yards: Developer Bruce Ratner may have some competition for his planned Nets arena site, a city councilwoman told Prospect Heights property owners this week. Comment

Letters: I am writing in response to Borough President Marty Markowitz’s Jan. 31 letter to the editor published in The Brooklyn Papers. Comment

Letters: [Brooklyn Papers Editor Neil Sloane] was right to ask what Brooklynites get out of this massive stadium and adjoining towers [“Brooklyn’s identity safe without the ‘Jersey Nets,” Jan. 31]. None of the people who worked on the plan have any connection to the existing communities, so the only agenda is money, money, money. It’s time to set an agenda that Brooklyn citizens in adjoining neighborhoods can get behind. Personally, I’d like to see: Comment

Letters: I can assure your readers that just about all the development now under discussion for Downtown Brooklyn and the vicinity will be built. The only question is whether it will be built in Downtown Brooklyn and the vicinity — accessible by mass transit to tens of thousands of working people in need of employment, with any tax revenues going to New York City’s schools and other services — or on a greenfield site on the suburban fringe. Comment

Letters: I loved your editorial on Brooklyn’s identity [“Brooklyn’s identity safe without the ‘Jersey Nets,” Jan. 31]. I love Brooklyn for what it is and what it’s not (i.e. Manhattan). I don’t want to see it become Midtown Manhattan — filled with cars, pollution, and high-rises buildings. At the same time, I realize the need to improve some parts of Brooklyn. The questions is, ‘Who gets to decide what is best for Brooklyn?’ Comment

Letters: I am writing to thank you for your Jan. 31 issue that clearly lays out the massive changes taking place in Brooklyn. I work with an organization named Brooklyn Vision, founded to facilitate communication between community organizations and increase the input that residents have in planning developments that will directly impact their lives, and the lives of their children and grandchildren. Comment

Letters: Thank you for your coverage of the Downtown Brooklyn Plan. Your map clearly shows how much is going on in such a small area of our borough. As a member of the Traffic & Transportation committee of Community Board 2, I was saddened to see the Draft EIS for Downtown Brooklyn, submitted by the Economic Development Corporation. Comment

Letters: Perfectly timed for the winter holiday season, EDC and co-sponsors sent to this board a prettily packaged cluster bomb of 22 complex proposals. To their surprise, this board swept aside much other business, both personal and civic, to render its study. Comment

Letters: I find the inability of Community Board 2 to make an effective statement on the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning proposals [“Mum’s the word,” Feb. 7] to be an appalling betrayal of the public trust. Comment

Letters: The Feb. 7 article headlined “Mum’s The Word” rightly notes that the Downtown Brooklyn Plan is “the most complex rezoning plan in city history.” Unfortunately, the lead agencies, City Planning and the Economic Development Corporation, selected the plan’s submission date just prior to Christmas and New Year’s, effectively abbreviating the already scant 60 days available for community board evaluation. Comment

Letters: This letter is in response to Editor Neil Sloane’s column, “CB2 blows it bigtime.” Comment

Letters: We were shocked to read your paper’s alleged “coverage” of the recent vote of Community Board 2 on the proposed plans for Downtown Brooklyn and, in particular, the severe criticism of board member Rachel Foster. Comment

Letters: In the last issue, I read your editorial account of the Community Board 2 vote on the proposed plans for Downtown Brooklyn. I was deeply disturbed at your overly personal and vitriolic attack on board member Rachel Foster. Not only were your remarks intentionally defamatory (i.e., calling for Ms. Foster’s resignation), much of what you reported was unsubstantiated. Comment

Letters: The type of character assassination you have engaged in without checking your facts or the reliability of your “source” makes it difficult to take The Brooklyn Papers seriously. The Community Board 2 member, Rachel Foster, who you describe as “intimidated” and “cowering” [“CB2 blows it bigtime,” Feb. 7] is not the same Community Board 2 member Rachel Foster whom I have known both personally and professionally for 17 years. Comment

Letters: Your Feb. 7 editorial [“Neil Sloane/CB2 blows it bigtime”] and Deborah Kolben’s article [“Mum’s the word”] grossly mischaracterize the circumstances of my participation in the Community Board 2 vote on the Brooklyn development Plan. Comment

Letters: It is unfortunate and a disservice to the members of Community Board 2 (CB2) and your readers that you were so ill prepared to write the editorial, “Neil Sloane/ CB2 blows it bigtime,” that appeared in the Feb. 7 edition of The Brooklyn Papers. Your fact-less and irresponsible reporting further adds to the misinformation disseminated by other ill-informed individuals. Comment