Evelyn Kanter’s NYC Guidebook  Need tickets? Top Sports Events, Concerts, Theater | 
The eagerly awaited twice-yearly Barneys Warehouse Sale begins on February 16th in the Chelsea store, and runs for ten days, through February 26th. Discounts of 50% to 75% will draw devoted hordes, especially on the first day, when the TV cameras join the madness. Hours haven’t been announced yet, but last year, opening day hours started at 8 a.m., and for the rest of the sale days, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays and until 7 p.m. on wekends. As always, the best selection is at the beginning of the sale, and the biggest markdowns at the end. Tough choices.  Celebrate the most popular Chinese holiday with gravity-defying acrobatics, festive musical ensembles, costumed folk dancers, and of course the lion dance in a free performance at the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center, on Saturday, January 28th. In addition to the dance performance, this family friendly event includes learning traditional techniques of paper cutting, dough figurines, face painting, and calligraphy. The arts & crafts workshop is 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and the dancers are 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Check the World Financial Center website for more details.
 January is Learn to Ski or Snowboard Month at mountain resorts across the US, but the best deal is here in the Northeast, in Vermont. Through January 31st, first-timers get full day equipment rental, a full day lift pass and a lesson with a professional ski instructor for just $29. So, after the lesson, you can continue to practice the skills you learn until the lifts close or until you wear yourself out, whichever happens first. This is an insanely good deal. Depending on the area, the $29 Learn to Ski/Snowboard deal is good for children as young as four-years-old, at 13 Vermont resorts including biggies Killington, Mt. Snow, Stratton and Stowe, and the ones I recommend for beginners and families because they are generally less crowded. Those include Okemo, Jay Peak, Bolton Valley and Pico. New skiers and riders can sign up by emailing info@skivermont.com. Provide the following information: Name, phone number, zip code; preferred ski resort and number of people signing up for the lesson. No more excuses — get out there and learn how to play in the snow.
 Furs, cashmere coats and raincoats, gowns and handbags for women, shearlings for men and other items are up to 85% off retail at this special sample sale and warehouse sale, all from designer Dennis Basso. The sale is Saturday, Jan. 28th through Wednesday, Feb. 1st,n9:00am to 6:30pm daily, at Soiffer Haskin, 317 West 33rd Street, just west of Eighth Avenue. Credit cards only, and all sales final. As always with sales at this location, strollers and children under age 12 not permitted. For more information, call: (718) 747-1656, Monday through Friday, 9am to 6pm.
 IHOP’s seventh annual National Pancake Day will be back on Tuesday, February 28, 2012. All day long, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., IHOP restaurants will serve you a free short stack of the chain’s signature buttermilk pancakes in the hope you will donate what the meal would have cost, or more, to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals or another local charity. Since launching the program in 2008, IHOP has raised nearly $8 million for the charity, to purchase equipment and fund a variety of life-saving procedures and treatments for seriously ill or injured children. Some IHOP restaurants will also raise funds for Children’s Miracle, and hopes to bring that total to $10 million with the 2012 National Pancake Day giveaway and fund-raising program.Also, during February, participating IHOP locations are selling “Miracle Balloons” for $1 and $5 each. Guests who purchase a $5 Miracle Balloon will receive a coupon good for $5 off their next visit with a $20 purchase.
Here’s a selection of daily deals from the NYC OTC Daily Deals page. Click here to find 100 more money saving deals from Groupon, Living Social, Saveology, Plum District and more – - Spend $20 for $40 worth of beauty products online at Bloom.com. Deal includes free shipping.
- Pay $30 for $60 to spend online at Little Pim, for products that make learning language fun and easy for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.
- Pay $17.50 for a $25 gift card to Macy’s, good to use on any purchase at any Macy’s store.
- Receive 30 FREE Valentine’s Day notecards from Vistaprint with this special code.
It’s already time to start thinking about summer camp for the kids. There are FREE camp fairs coming up, sponsored by the American Camp Assocation and New York Family magazine. Meet directors of both day camps and sleepaway camps from camps in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania at these fairs, and get your questions answered. The fairs are free, but pre-registration is required. Click here to register. All the fairs are noon to 3PM.The upcoming fair schedule is – - Saturday, Jan 28 — Grace Church School, 86 Fourth Avenue, East Village
- Sunday, January 29 — Union Temple, 17 Eastern Parkway, Park Slope
- Saturday, Feb 4 — Bank Street School, 610 West 112th St., Upper West Side
 Brooklyn Magazine is a full-sized, glossy quarterly that celebrates the borough’s charm, opportunity, great restaurants and shopping.. Click here to get a FREE subscription and keep up everything that makes Brooklyn great, including recipes, interviews with local celebrities and community leaders, and more.
Find more great deals on magazines and other great goods on the NYC OTC Daily Deals page. Click here or on the tab at the top of the page. Is there a funny side of crime? Find out at a free lecture by the New York Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, at the NY Public Library. It’s a panel discussion on The Funny Side of Crime. The panelists include authors Nancy Martin, Tom Straw and Lois Winston. The free panel is Thursday, January 26th, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at the NYPL Mid-Manhattan Library, at Fifth Avenue and 40th Street, across from the main branch of the library, the one guarded by the two lions out front.  File your 1040EZ form FREE with H&R Block, through February 29th. File a free 1040EZ federal tax return at participating retail tax offices or online with H&R Block At Home. Or, for the first time ever, you can download the H&R Block 1040EZ app on your for iPhone, Android and the iPad tablet. Generally, a 1040EZ filer is a single or married filing jointly taxpayer who does not pay mortgage interest, has no dependents and earned less than $100,000 last year. Also new this year is a live video and web chat tax preparation service called Block LiveSM, but this is not free.
 The Housing Works warehouse sale always draws a crowd for its incredible Buy the Bag deal of $25 to fill a giant shopping bag with clothing, accessories, books, CDs, etc. The next warehouse sale is Saturday, January 28th at the Housing Works warehouse in Long Island City — and 100 lucky shoppers can get VIP access to the goodies and good deals for one entire hour before the Buy the Bag sale opens to the general public. There are just 100 Power Hour tickets, good for access from 10 AM to 11 AM, for just $5 Power Hour ticket sales for the Jan. 21st sale go on sale at noon today . Click here to buy a ticket to get first dibs. The Housing Works Warehouse is at 48-49 35gth St. in Long Island City. Closest subway stops are the Q or 7 to Queensboro Plaza.
Start the new year by saving as much as half off your prescription medicines with the FREE Big Apple Rx prescription discount card. This just may be the best cheap deal in NYC, since it’s open to everybody — it is not limited to low-income New Yorkers or the elderly, and there is no limit how often you can use the card to save money. Since this prescription discount card is available to anybody and everybody, that includes to NYC visitors and tourists. Savings average 15% on brand name prescriptions, and a whopping 53% on generics. Download the Big Apple RX prescription discount card here, and use it at any of thousands of chains like Walgreen’s, Duane Reade and CVS, and many local, family owned pharmacies. | |
