• Marvel comics legend Stan Lee, who died on Monday at age 95, grew up in Washington Heights, living for a time on Fort Washington Avenue. "On Saturdays I could walk...to the Loews theater on 175th Street and Broadway," he once reminisced to the New York Times. The neighborhood's landmarks clearly left a lasting impression. Many years later in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker’s girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, gets thrown off a bridge that Lee, as editor of the comic, mistakenly labeled the George Washington Bridge. The text was later changed to reflect the span that was actually depicted in the art, the Brooklyn Bridge. [NY Times]
• Oprah's annual Favorite Things list is out, and Lee Lee's Rugelach is on it. [O the Oprah Magazine]
• The Schomburg just acquired the archive of actors and activists Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis–mushy letters included. "Precious Lover and Beloved,” wrote Dee to Davis two years after they got married. “Relaxation and contentment came to me after our talk last night. I was almost happy, and shortly after I went into the soundest sleep since our separation.” [NY Times]
• A very colorful "vertical village" is coming to Washington Heights, courtesy of Dutch firm MVRDV. [Curbed NY]
• Brooklyn developer Hello Living is making its first foray into Manhattan with a glassy residential building at 4650 Broadway in Inwood right opposite Fort Tryon Park. [New York YIMBY]
• Benny Golson, one of only two men from the iconic "A Great Day in Harlem" photo who are still alive today, remembers a lot from that morning. "There was a bar on the corner, and [photographer Art Kane] had a hard time getting everyone back from the bar at the same time. Art was such a patient guy, he was trying to get that all together. It took over an hour to get that picture." [Vulture]
• Robert Bailey, the 67-year-old retired government worker from Harlem who won the Powerball in late October, says he's going to use the $125 million lump sum payment to buy a house, go on vacation, and give to charity. [Patch]
• Does Columbia University's new Manhattanville campus do a good job of welcoming the neighborhood? [New York Magazine]
• Basketball players and threatened birds are the subjects of new art installations in two uptown parks courtesy of the Park Department's Art in the Parks program. [Patch]
