So, It Turns Out That Copper Scavengers Torched Greenpoint Terminal Market....

No, we did not cease posting today. Some sort of major blogger.com meltdown kept Gowanus Lounge--and everyone else--from posting for most of the day. So, we missed our chance to relate or opine upon a number of stories, among them the arrest of the alleged Greenpoint Terminal Market arsonist, Kuczera Leszek. Described as “a homeless man,” Leszek apparently confessed to starting the fire that torched the Greenpoint Terminal Market on May 2-3. The cops say he is "not connected to any group" and that he started one of New York's biggest fires in history while trying to burn insulation from copper cable he was going to sell for scrap. (It's worth twice as much without the insulation. You learn something every day.) The cops say he piled up eight truck tires, putting the cable on top and started the fire with an accelerant. For you fans of Watergate history, it sounds vaguely like the strange explanation of how Rosemary Woods “accidentally” erased the White House tapes to produce the 17-minute gap, only with a building fire that would have taken part of the neighborhood with it if not for favorable wind direction.

The cops say the fire burned "stronger than expected" and that it "seemed to get away from him…It wasn’t his intent to burn the building down." (Jeez. Did the guy understand his right to remain silent when it was read to him?)

Of course, GMT owner and Bad Brooklyn Landlord Posterboy Josh Guttman, who was all but tried and convicted in the press and blogosphere (oops, our bad) didn't walk away from the deal emptyhanded. He was served with more than 400 violations for the shape the GMT was in (misdemeanors, each of which carries a fine of up to $5,000).

And so, it turns out the person who may have altered the built environment of Greenpoint for future generations wasn't an evil landlord or greedy developer, but, probably, somebody trying to hustle a few bucks for a buzz.

Magnificent.

We await the details about this person and the conflagration as much as we await an accurate rendition of the high rises proposed for the former site of the historic Terminal Market buildings that burned.

Suggestion Du Jour: Download Somehow obtain an advance copy of the new Thom Yorke CD, The Eraser, put it on your on your iThing and meander over to look at the ruins to ponder how they got that way and what the spot will look like in, say, five years and how cool it is to have the music a month before the release date.