Controversy's been a-brewin' around Andrew W.K. and his "true" identity. Though it seems the man may be the *NSYNC of partycore, the end is valuable enough... so forget about the means!

Meadows Field airport in Bakersfield, CA was shut down for much of the morning when a passenger's luggage tested positive for TNT. And there was "suspicious material" in it! Turns out the tests were bogus; the material was just four bottles of Gatorade filled with honey. A sheriff told the AP ominously, "It could be honey... it could be honey mixed with something else." Like, Greek yogurt? Yum! [AP]

Penelope Trunk knows about her co-workers' quiet conversations; Nick Douglas' super knows what he does near his computer; and Alex Payne knows he's got a hot property on his hands. The Twitterati can teach you a thing or two.

• A federal judge has yet to decide whether the city or the LeRoy family controls the "Tavern on the Green" name. In the meantime, the city's plan to use "Tavern in the Park" as a possible backup has been given the kibosh. [NYT]
• Café Gitane's Jane Hotel outpost is now serving dinner. [Gothamist]
• A roundup of a few closings around town in recent days. [Eater]
• Doughnut Plant's second NYC location will be at the Chelsea Hotel. [TONY]
• Bowling is booming, apparently. Leisure Time Bowl, the alley inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal, is changing its name and opening a "swank restaurant" and club shortly. It will soon face some competition in the hood, since Bowlmor is opening a $20 million venue on West 43rd Street this fall. [NYT]
• Looking for a few recipes inspired by Jersey Shore? You're in luck. [F&W]

[People check out the lights of Manhattan while riding the Roosevelt Island tramway this evening. Image via Getty]

Bristol Palin has formed BSMP, LLC to provide "lobbying, public relations, and political consulting services." The 19-year-old would-be power broker's first client, revealed by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, is the pro-abstinence Candie's Foundation. The firm is named for the initials of Bristol Sharon Marie Palin, which makes it distinctly less exciting-sounding than mother Sarah Palin's Pie Spy LLC.

We get lots of suggestions of what to post on Gawker every day. Let's take a look at what came in through the #tips page today: Sarah Palin talks dirty, famous people are getting married, and supermarket cocaine is bananas!

NBC is making a record 18 pilots for next season. Jay Leno should be nervous.

New York's wonderful old mechanical lever voting machines are now officially dead. And you probably missed your last chance to use them, when you forgot to vote against Bloomberg. Now we will use terrible electronic vote-stealing machines.

Let's face it. We are in something of an innovation rut.

Every year to get through the winter in New York (or presumably everywhere cold like Boston, Chicago, Wasilla) we have to go through a mass delusion that there is nowhere better. It sounds something like this.

Tonight we're tuned in to Teen Mom, One Big Happy Family, Biggest Loser and more! What are you watching tonight? Let us know in the comments.

Though an American institution, the Peanuts crew is not exempt from inexplicable appearances in Japanese advertising. Here, Snoopy and the gang's girls hawk hot pepper sauce with a song catchier than anything Schroeder ever played.

Very, very tanned conservative pundit guy Tucker Carlson will launch his "Conservative HuffPo," to be called "Daily Caller," on January 11. Here is the party invite!

The "God Hates Fags" people, Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, have turned their soul-eating hatred on Lady Gaga, to hilarious effect. Their parody of the bisexual glam-pop star's megahit "Poker Face" goes like this: "You pissed off God, you'll see what he's got... You ain't God... God hates you... You got a whorish face, it's a whorish face."

The next mayor of New York City won't take office until four years from now. But Bill Thompson, who came pretty close to beating Mike Bloomberg last fall, isn't wasting any time. He's already decided to throw his hat into the ring in 2013. [NYT]

Infomercial experts have spent decades educating you, the consumer, on the benefits of "exercise." Now, scientists are jumping on the "exercise" bandwagon. Could "exercise" be good for you? What role does cereal play? And, will leaving your couch kill you?

Every day we come across so many great things on the internet. These are our favorite news stories, links, pictures, clips, and whatever else that we couldn't get to ourselves. Have something to share? Add it here.

[Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson, people who still exist, brave the cold in New York today; image via Bauer-Griffin]

Working out in the open is one of the joys of working at Gawker. So — if just to head off those annoying "you'll do anything for the pageviews" comments — I thought I'd pass along this morning's memo from overlord Nick Denton to all of Gawker Media. In a nutshell, Nick's changing all of that for 2010 to a new bonus system that's going to be based on each site's monthly U.S. uniques instead of pageviews.