In the Oct. 10 Post article “$10M suit after rape-rap nix,” Kathianne Boniello reports that Australian businessman Matthew Moorhouse is suing the Standard Hotel for $10 million after being acquitted of raping a maid—”charging that its racy atmosphere contributed to the false charges against him.” In the Olde Tasmanian legal dictionaries used by the Post‘s copywriters, rape-rap = criminal charges, and nix = acquittal. (Commenter “Lou” has suggested “Moorhouse sues the whorehouse” as an alternate title—not bad, but too much sibilance.)

The Post has used “rape rap nix” at least once before—in titling the July 28 news blurb “Cult rape rap nix,” which discusses the Utah Supreme Court’s demand for a retrial of a polygamous Mormon sect leader. In this case, “rape rap” lacks a hyphen, which seems less grammatically correct than the newer, hyphenated form. A sign of improved newspaper quality control efforts, or just a fluke? (Rhetorical question.)

If you nix the “nix” and search for “rape rap” on NYPost.com, you retrieve 79 results. One links to an article about an accused “tot mugger” who said during his trial that cops had threatened him with a “rape rap” if he didn’t confess. The man didn’t, and was eventually cleared of the so-called “tot mug.”

Tot mug + rap nix = “Tot mug rap nix.” Look for it soon.

After surviving a brief scuffle with illegally placed NPA billboards, Conor Harrington’s mural in the Meatpacking District was once again attacked for advertising purposes and this time with paint for some hair loss company. So is the way of the streets, but it’s still kind of irksome when a brand is doing the buffing and not another artist. (Before: left/After: right) |TWBE|

Ever since it opened, the New York Post has derided The Standard hotel in the Meatpacking District as a sex-filled den of hedonism, mainly because it has big windows that hotel guests have been known to occasionally bone each other in front of, as if The Standard is the only hotel in the history of hotels that people go to fuck in and sometimes leave the curtains open while doing it.

Well now one of the hotel’s maids may have been raped by a middle-aged Australian named Matthew Moorhouse, and surely the hotel’s culture of sexing will be blamed for it. The Post reports today that Moorhouse, famous Down Under for dating an Aussie pop star named Kamal, attacked the maid when she came in to clean his room one day last Saturday.

“He just asked me, ‘Where are you from? How long have you been here?’ ” the still-shaken housekeeper told The Post.

He then asked if she had a boyfriend, she said.

“I said, ‘No, why do you ask me that?’ ” the maid said.

“He asked me, ‘Do you think I’m handsome?’ He went to hug me. And then he pushed me onto the bed.

“I said, ‘No!’ And then he continued to kiss my face.”

She let out a shriek heard by another hotel worker, who banged on the locked door.

“I screamed, ‘OK, come in please!’ ” the woman said.

Moorhouse jumped off the maid, who ran away and alerted hotel security, she said. Cops arrested him in his room. Moorhouse is charged with attempted rape, sexual abuse and unlawful imprisonment, and remains locked up in lieu of $20,000 bail.

Get ready for The Post’s resident sex-obsessed menopausal shrew, Andrea Peyser, to launch a jihad against The Standard tomorrow for daring to make a sexy hotel, thus inspiring horny Aussies to rape the staffers.

NPA City Outdoor continues flouting rarely enforced laws, stepping up their illegal advertising assault in the Meatpacking District. Luna Park points out the corner of West 13th Street and Washington Street where the unlawful outdoor ad company recently installed one of their newest illegal billboards. The building at 437 West 13th Street has no permits for the illegal ad display. Considering NPA also covered up a mural by Conor Harrington, the location is a good candidate for a street advertising takeover.

Photos by laverrue and Amolho4

While the High Line park is by no means perfect, the criticisms collected by Oobject are perhaps the weakest and most irrelevant we’ve ever heard. Among their complaints: the new park isn’t lit up with gaudy lights, there are no plants in an area that doesn’t see sunlight, it’s longer than it is wide, and the far-fetched claim that people won’t use it. Skimming the irrational arguments, it becomes pretty apparent that whoever’s behind them hasn’t actually seen the park in person, in part because of repeated speculation that the non-existent pedestrian areas underneath the trestle will harbor crime, danger and other scary things. Whoever came up with them should have their internet ranting privileges revoked.

If you haven’t seen the High Line yet, but are still determined to go, the weekends might not be the best time to swing by, Sunday afternoons at around 2:30PM in particular. This was the scene yesterday at the Gansevoort entrance, with long lines wrapping around the corner. The park was at fireproof capacity, forcing staff to issue wristbands and aggressively police the amount of people entering, effectively transforming the High Line from a “Midair Oasis” into an elevated human zoo.

A decade after Friends of the High Line was founded to advocate for saving the historic structure, the first section of the elevated park opened to the public this week. The railway that once carried cattle to slaughter now bears the weight of visitors comfortably walking and lounging along the pathway between Gansevoort and West 20th Street. While many of the original tracks have been preserved amidst the new walkways, flowers, foliage and LED lighting, it’s sad to see that not just some, but all of the paintings and graffiti that added some depth and character walls along the tracks are gone.

But for a few hints of overspray peeking out from behind the buff, the walls have all been painted gray. See some of our photographs below of the otherwise well designed and interesting new park.