Photo Of The Day

A grand piano has mysteriously appeared on a sandbar in the middle of Miami's Biscayne Bay. It's been there for a week and no prankster or PR wonk has yet to claim credit. The Coast Guard says they have no plan to remove it and that with the next big storm, the piano will likely join hundreds of boats as just another sunken habitat for bay creatures.

Morning View - Bird Thing

Whatever this bird thing is, it's freekin' 7AM so shut up shut up SHUT UP.

Urban Legend Confirmed: Alligator Found In New York City Sewer

OK, so it was only 18 inches long. But still!

At least one alligator really does live in New York City's sewers. Cops apprehended an 18-inch gator that crawled out of an overflowing Astoria storm drain and hunkered down beneath a parked car this afternoon, delighting onlookers and giving fresh meat to the urban myth that the carnivorous critters are living below the Big Apple. The scaly spectacle began just after 3 p.m., when a passersby spotted the reptile on Newtown Avenue near 29th Street and yelled "Crocodile!" "That's the craziest thing I've ever seen," marvelled Elizabeth Ferguson, 25, who has lived on the block for three years. "He was really small, but mean looking."

RELATED: Gothamist recaps the start of the legend in this 2009 post.

Rabid Raccoon Attack In Central Park

A woman was bitten by a presumably rabid raccoon in Central Park and today she tells New York Magazine her story.

I live on the Upper East Side. I was doing a little shopping on the Upper West Side and when I was done, decided to walk back through the park. But it was so gorgeous out, I stopped to enjoy it and read my book. So I'm sitting on a bench right on the 72nd Street Transverse, near the Mall and Bethesda Fountain. I was sitting there maybe 30 minutes ... and suddenly I felt something around my feet, and a sharp pang in my left ankle. I think I felt the presence of something first, because I remember thinking maybe it was a leaf or something, but then I felt the bite. My first thought was: Someone's dog. I looked down at my ankle and it was dripping blood.

When I got bit, it startled me, obviously, so I jumped — which caused two ladies walking by to turn and look. (I still wish I would have gotten their numbers or e-mails or something to thank them for their kindness. They were the ones that made me call 911; I was ready to slap a Band-Aid on it and be on my merry way.) One of them turned as they walked past and said, "Oh, it was a raccoon." She paused for a second and then said, "It didn't bite you, did it?" I stood up and showed them my ankle. Then I turned back to the bench, and sure enough there was the raccoon — sitting behind the bench near a bush.

She was treated with four rounds of rabies shots and is OK. But ZOMG I think she was sitting right where Dr. Jeff and I took a heat-stroke break on Monday. And then we walked home through the Ramble because our Seattle friend Jerry had never seen it. We barely escaped with our lives!

Photo Of The Day

Hit the Boston Globe's series of photos of doomed sea birds along Louisiana's oil-soaked coast, if you can bear it.