Plum Crazy

In Your Own Backyard

Sometimes you forget where 30 minutes on a subway can bring you.

It's a funny thing living in a big city. Mostly you don't take advantage of all the things it offers. You think "Oh, I'll do that next weekend," but next weekend doesn't come. Life gets in the way.

I've been meaning to go to the Cloisters for years. Literally. Since I was in my 20s. Finally, today, thanks to A, I went. Very lovely.

And because you're on a hill in northern Manhattan, you get a wonderful view of the beautiful Hudson River.

Oh Joe Bruno

I find this a little bit hard to swallow from the third most powerful man in New York State*:

“Nobody wants to hear it, but my being in office has cost me a fortune — millions, literally millions,� he said. “I’m worth a hell of a lot less today than I was 30 years ago. That’s kind of sad. I’m worth a hell of a lot less now than I was 10 years ago.�

You're absolutely right, Joe. Nobody does want to hear it. You wield a tremendous amount of power in New York State. You could have chosen not to run for re-election any number of times. You made your choice, and it was power over (more) money. Stop whining.

Bruno is under investigation by the FBI right now for possible conflicts of interest surrounding his consulting business. I suspect this is the cause of his whining about his monetary situation, even though he's still pretty well-off by any standards.

It will be interesting to see how this investigation turns out. Right now, the Republicans have only a four-seat majority in the State Senate. The Democrats have a 59-seat majority in the State Assembly. If Bruno, the state's top-ranking Republican since Spitzer won the gubernatorial election, is indicted, it's likely that lead will shrink to three seats (I assume Spitzer will appoint a Democrat to hold Bruno's seat until the next election). New York State's last Democratic governor, Mario Cuomo, was not particularly willing to campaign heavily to bring the State Senate under Democratic control. Spitzer has indicated he's far more willing to do so. The play of politics in New York State may be about to get much more interesting.

*I'm giving the edge now to Sheldon Silver, the Democratic Speaker of the Assembly, since Spitzer became governor. A few months ago, when Pataki was still governor, I'd have said Bruno was the second most powerful man in New York State.

Dear Alan

Don't worry about paying for the legal advice. I told you there was no charge. But thanks for taking my advice and giving up the ghost. Better for all parties concerned.

Sincerely,

Jon

Dear Alan

Allow me to offer you some free legal advice. Cop a plea and resign your position. Better to have done it six weeks ago, but better late than never.

Sincerely,

Jon

Dicey Times

Life is growing bleaker for Alan Hevesi. Elliot Spitzer has determined that Hevesi owes another $90,000 in the Driving Mrs. Hevesi scandal, the independent prosecutor George Pataki appointed to investigate the case has wrapped up his investigation, and the nose is tightening in the polls (4 to 12 points). Honestly, I'm getting a bit nervous that Hevesi may lose this election. IMO, Chris Callaghan is in no way qualified to be NYS Comptroller, and I'm afraid we may get stuck with him for four years. The best scenario, as repulsive as it seems, is for Hevesi to win the election and then get replaced once he's tossed from office. Still, I cannot bring myself to vote for him and will abstain from the Comptroller balloting.

New Yorkers' Dilemma

Vote for Alan Hevesi and you support a thief of public funds and the public trust. Elect Chris Callaghan, and you have installed a man utterly unqualified to be NYS Comptroller. Do you elect Hevesi to ensure that the NYS Legislature can choose a more qualified replacement? It's a question that I will wrestle with over the next week and a half. Most likely I will wind up abstaining from the election.

Fatal Flaw

In classic tragedy, the tragic figure has a fatal flaw that leads to his or her demise. In King Lear, for example, Lear's fatal flaw is hubris, as is often the case in tragedies.

Alan Hevesi seems to suffer from the same problem. The correct course of action for Hevesi is to resign from office, withdraw from the election, and when indicted, which no doubt he will be, to strike a plea agreement. Instead, he insists on fighting to the bitter end and enduring continued public humiliation that will only get worse as the days pass.

It's hard to fathom why, but I suspect that it's hubris, plain and simple. He felt that the law didn't apply to him, and in the words of the NYS Ethics Commission, that he could substitute his own judgment for theirs. Now he insists one mistake, no matter how criminal, should not erase 35 years of public service. Yes, it should. You break the law and abuse your authority and the public trust, especially as New York's chief auditor, and you don't deserve to be in office. He is pathologically unable to understand this fundamental truism. He is the big bad Alan Hevesi, the trusted public servant and steward. New Yorkers should be allowed to choose their own Comptroller, independent of what he feels are partisan machinations. True they do, but he has forfeited the right to earn anyone's trust, and I suspect he will find that New Yorkers will choose Chris Callaghan over him.

One way in which Hevesi does differ from classic tragic figures. He doesn't recognize his flaw. As a result, he deserves no sympathy or absolution. He will suffer a well deserved public humiliation.

My Faith in Eliot Spitzer is Vindicated

Eliot Spitzer has withdrawn his support for Alan Hevesi in the upcoming New York State's Comptroller's race.

And my lack of faith in Shelly Silver has also been vindicated. I don't know what he thinks is the possible excuse for this lapse on Hevesi's part, but I don't know what Shelly Silver's thinking most of the time anyway. "I forgot" or "I made a mistake" are no excuses for the top financial watchdog of the State of New York, and these seem to be the only excuses Hevesi's offered. If he's got a better one, I'd be curious to hear what it is. However, as he is responsible for making sure the State has strong financial controls in the first place, I cannot envision an excuse that would be acceptable.

The Steve Martin Defense

Alan Hevesi: "I forgot."

Moderator: "You forgot?"

Hevesi: "Well, excu-u-u-u-se me!"

Note: the last line is made up. The rest is not.

Scary Stuff

Last night on the subway - we were riding in the 10 pm hour - I read the NY Post's story about the chainsaw-wielding maniac who decided to carve up a man waiting on the platform. That brought to mind other recent incidents on the subways, including the serial stabber last month, who attacked a Texas man without any warning signs. Now comes news that terrorists were plotting to bomb the PATH tubes in an effort to flood lower Manhattan. It all makes you realize how vulnerable you whenever you're on public transportation or out in the public for that matter. Someone could strike you down anytime, anywhere for any reason or no reason. It's just something I'll have to put out of my mind when I ride. I can't live my life like a hermit, but perhaps I can be more vigilent of my surroundings.

The Kindness of Strangers

We tend to focus on the negative in life, and there's a lot of negative for me to focus on right now. With NYC Transit workers on strike, as a manager for the Long Island Rail Road, I have to be at the Forest Hills Station from 1-9 pm to assist customers who want to talk the Rail Road into Manhattan. That means 8 hours outsdie in the cold dealing with unhappy customers. Yesterday, however, two people saw my running nose and offered me a pack of tissues and wad of napkins, respectively.* For their compassion and kindness, I thank them.

*Yes, Mom, I did have tissues of my own, but not always the opportunity to use them right away.

Almost Oops

I nearly sent a co-worker on a wild goose chase tonight. He asked me how to get to the Met from Penn Station. I told him to take the E train to 53 Street/3 Avenue, transfer to the uptown 6 to 77 Street, and then walk from 77 and Lexington over to 82 and Fifth. Then, because by a fluke I happened to know what exhibit is there now, I asked him if he is going to see the Van Gogh exhibit. At which point, he informed me he is going to the opera. At which point I realized the horrendous mistake I almost made. I promptly gave him the correct directions. Afterwards, I called Lesley with the exact same question Arnie had asked me. She had the awareness to ask whether I meant the Museum or Opera. Lesson learned.

A Pure Canard

From today’s Newsday article on opposition to Mayor Mike’s proposal to restore the commuter tax:

There is only so much the commuters can stand, said Gerry Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuter's Council, an advocacy group. The commuter tax might be the straw that broke the camel's back and makes people decide they can't afford to work in the city anymore.

Having once worked for the Council, I highly respect the organization, but that comment is blatantly stupid. The commuter tax would be 0.45%. Say you earn $100,000 a year, a relatively decent salary for the region. Your tax would be $450 a year. That’s not exactly a pittance and would force people to make some sacrifices, but come on, you’re not going to give up a high-paying job over $450 a year. Mr. Bringmann's sentiment, while well meant, is nothing but a red herring.

Don't Take People With You

A man is on trial in Long Island for a traffic accident in which he killed two people. According to the prosecutor, he deliberately drove into the other car because he wanted to kill himself. Next time drive into a tree.

Dear Anne

Yeah, like you could last a fucking day on the streets of New York. And I'm not talking about the nice, pretty shops on Fifth or Madison. Put your platinum card away, girlie, and visit the real New York.

Don't wear your 3 1/2" stilettos either. You won't be able to run fast enough.

As Republicans were saying repeatedly – captured on Lexis-Nexis for a year before it showed up in a Frank Luntz talking-points memo in 2004 – the savages have declared war, and it's far preferable to fight them in the streets of Baghdad than in the streets of New York (where the residents would immediately surrender). That strategy appears to be working. Then again, maybe it's just that it's so damnably hard to find parking in New York ...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure it was meant as a joke. But, you know? Not funny, bitch. Oh, I'm sorry. Was that not effete enough of me?

What *You* Should Do

Some helpful hints passed on by Londoners who lived through 30+ years of IRA terrorism. A lot of common sense stuff, really.

• Make sure you keep your bags and packages with you at all times.
  
• Look around when you're leaving a public area to be sure you have taken all your bags and packages.
  
• Throw away your garbage, instead of leaving it on the seat or floor. [Which, really, we should all be doing anyway, because it's just good manners.]
  
• If you see an unattended bag or package, ask the people around it if it belongs to them. If it does not, leave the area and notify someone in authority of its presence.

Something Must Be Done

This is something. Therefore, we must do it.

Of course, any would-be terrorist will just refuse the search (which they have the right to do according to the policy), leave that subway station, and walk to the next subway station instead. Net effect? Average New Yorker, inconvenienced. Increase to subway safety, nil.

Inspired by CGHill. And one of my favorite Britcoms - "Yes, Minister".

Dear Weather

I'd just like to point out to you that it's now MAY!

Thanks for your kind attention to this matter.

AIG = Vote for Spitzer

Can you say, "Conflict of interest?"

Via Leaning Towards the Dark Side (ignore their bias against the Yankees).

Not Going Your Way

The MTA's slogan is The MTA: Going Your Way. Not these days. In the latest in an alarming string of major service disruptions, a smoke condition forced the evacuation of hundreds of A, C, B, and D riders this evening morning. The incident is the fourth such delay in the last few weeks, coming on the heels of a shutdown of Lexington Avenue service for the better part of a day, a smoke condition that left 7 train riders trapped under the East River for an hour, and a fire that stopped service near Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. At first, I wanted to believe NYC Transit's line that these problems are merely a fluke rather than a trend, but I'm not so sure anymore.

West Side Story Continued

In a development that surprised. . . no one, the owners of Madison Sqaure Garden have filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the MTA's decision to award the air rights over the West Side rail yards to the Jets. This saga could run longer than the original West Side Story when it came to Broadway in 1957.

The Mystery Is Solved!

Finally we find out what the nearly invisible George Pataki has been doing for the last 10 years. I did once see him in a restaurant in Manhattan too. So presumably he also eats, at least once in a while.

A Walk & Lunch

One of the fabulous things about life here in the Big Apple is the range of ethnic foods. It's actually easy to become jaded because there are so many choices. If you want Asian food, you can choose not only from Chinese and Japanese, but also Vietnamese, Korean, Thai, and Malaysian. Yet, there are times I have passed on one of these choices because I am tired of Asian food, even though there are notable differences between these foods.

Alas, I digress. This afternoon, I walked from my apartment in Forest Hills to Shea Stadium, obviously not because there was a game, but because it was a nice afternoon for a walk. Instead of walking home, I hopped on the 7 train to Jackson Heights to transfer to a train back to Forest Hills. As I was descending to the Queens Boulevard line, I remembered that Jackson Heights is home of the wonderful Jackson Diner, an Indian restaurant. On the spur of the moment, I decided to get some take out, which turned out to be goat curry, rice, and Nan. I just polished it off a few minutes ago. Delicious and well worth the side trip.

Now, if I want to do some work the rest of the evening, I won't feel I am missing out, having spent an excellent few hours this afternoon. Nor will I feel bad about being cooped up tomorrow when bad weather hits. I even have some goat curry left over for lunch.

Tme for a Second Helping

No more persuasive argument can be made for building the Second Avenue subway in New York than Wednesday's stand still on the Lexington Avenue subway. When signal outages shut down the 4, 5, and 6 lines for much of the day, hundreds of thousands of commuters were left scrambling for alternatives in an area bereft of them. Above 23 Street, there is only one subway corridor on Manhattan's east side. On the west side, commuters can choose from 4 separate north-south trunk lines. With the federal government seemingly on board to help fund the Second Avenue subway, it is up to Governor Pataki to join the game and show us the money. Hopefully, he will play and not punt.

Take My Seat. Please.

A Daily News reporter used his pregnant wife to test how long it would take for subway riders on SRO trains to offer a pregnant woman a seat. This little experiment strikes me as a sham. If she's able to traipse about from subway line to subway line, then she doesn't need a seat, does she?

Flush This Plan Already

This obsession with building a new stadium for the Jets on the West Side of Manhattan has got to stop. They're even considering slating it for the 2010 Super Bowl, even though the stadium doesn't exist, and there's no guarantee it will ever exist.

Any Jets stadium in New York City belongs in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, adjacent to Shea Stadium and the National Tennis Center. There's ample room for a stadium there, the site is easily accessible by car and train (the subway and the LIRR), and isn't located smack dab in the middle of one of the world's most congested areas. It's got to be cheaper since you don't first have to put a platform over existing rail yards.

When Philadelphia built new stadiums for all three of their pro teams, they put them all in the same place. Ditto when Seattle built separate stadiums for the Seahawks and Mariners. Besides, aren't most Jets fans from Long Island anyway and would have a much easier time traveling to games in Queens than Manhattan.

Have I convinced the world now? Say yes.

Moonlightening Things Up

A couple of views of last week's full moon over Manhattan.

Toddler Saves the Day

Lesley may not be able to read a map, but it's a good thing this woman's three-yeard old daughter can read rudimentary sign language. The precocious tot saved her mother's life.

Brilliant

So, I'm on the LIRR heading home to Forest Hills from work tonight. I'm riding with a co-worker who's continuing on to Penn Station. (For the non-New Yorkers, Forest Hills is in Queens, east of Penn Station, but west of where we work.) We pass by a part of Forest Hills where I used to live. I comment, "I used to live here." Which sounded patently stupid because I still live in Forest Hills. Of course, I tried to clarify what I meant, but the moment was gone. It was too late to save myself from sounding like a space cadet.

Coming Distractions

I dislike all the ads and previews before movies these days as much as the next person. They add a good 15 minutes to the actual start time of a movie. But the NYC Council's proposed bill to require movie theaters to advertise the true starting time of movies, adjusted for the "pre-feature entertainment", strikes me as hurting matters, not helping.

People already know that features don't start as promised. Yet, they arrive early to get good seats and to avoid fumbling around in the dark. Now tell them that the movie starts at 3:40 instead of 3:20, and you'll have people showing up in the middle of ads and previews. When the lights are down.

If the Council really wants to help, figure out a way to restrict the number of previews and eliminate ads. That I can go for.

West Side Story

The battle for the air rights over the Long Island Rail Road’s west side rail yard in Manhattan is heating up. Where New York City and the New York Jets are pushing hard to build a multi-use stadium in the area, neighborhood activists and Cablevision, which owns Madison Square Garden, are striving equally as forcefully to derail the stadium.

Last week, Cablevision made things a lot more interesting when it offered the MTA $600 million to the development rights for the yard. Instead of the stadium, which Cablevision fears would lure business from the Garden, the company is proposing to put up residential and commercial buildings. The offer gained legs today when Cablevision met an MTA deadline to answer 46 questions about its proposal.

Naturally, New York City hasn’t reacted kindly to the bid, dismissing it as essentially fantasy and last-ditch desperation by Cablevision to protect its flank. Yet, what is most interesting about the city’s response is the positively hysterical allegations being hurled by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. You see, the stadium is the lynchpin to Bloomberg’s efforts to land the 2012 Summer Olympics, which he presumably sees as his legacy, never mind that he’s built a billion-dollar, world-renowned business empire.

In a truly choice quote, Bloomberg said, "It is just an outrage. It is more than a public relations gimmick; they want to take away the Olympics. They want to take away the future of this city. I've just never seen a company behave this way, and hopefully they won't get away with it."

He sounds like a kid who’s been sent to his room without his ice cream. Cablevision doesn’t want to take away the Olympics. Nor is it trying to take away the future of the city. Essentially, Bloomberg is saying that the city he is mayor of has no future, no hope, unless it hosts the Olympics. Nice thought.

He went on to say that Cablevision isn’t acting in the best interests of the city. Granted, Cablevision is motivated by its own needs, yet who is to say that the city needs a stadium more than it needs residential and commercial space. Or that a stadium is a better use of the land.

My own take is that dropping this mammoth facility smack in the middle of a mixed-use neighborhood will cut the community in two and destroy the community like the Gowanus Expressway marginalized Red Hook. In places where they have put new stadiums – Philadelphia and Seattle, for example – the stadiums were placed in areas off the beaten path. Close enough to be easily accessible, but not so central as to get in the way of everyday life.

Let’s hear Cablevision out. Let’s hear others such as the RPA (link to large PDF file) out. Let’s have a legitimate dialogue on the best use of the land before rushing to a decision. And Mayor Mike, grow up.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Get Ready, Go!

I coined a new phrase tonight: the Continental Dash.

A popular move for Queens Boulevard subway riders living at the 67 Avenue and 63 Drive stations is to ride the express train through to Continental Avenue and transfer to the opposite tracks for a local train back one or two stops rather than ride the local all the way from Roosevelt Avenue. For me, the decision hinges on whether there's a local train or promise of a local train at Roosevelt.

Often, when the express pulls into Continental, there is a Manhattan-bound train waiting across the tracks. Thus, anyone looking to pull this maneuver off successfully moves to a door by the stairs, crowds by the door, and is off like a shot when the door opens. A mad dash up the stairs, across the mezzanine, and back down the stairs to the waiting train. Too slow? You might as well have just waited at Roosevelt. You make it? Sweet, as you've shaved precious minutes of your commute.

p.s. I am quite good at ascertaining whether there will be a local train waiting at Roosevelt Avenue. As we are passing the local stop before Roosevelt, I scan the platform first to see if a train is there. If not, my next sign is the number of people on the platform. Few people waiting or a bunch of people heading up the stairs is a good sign that a local just pulled out. Last sign is the signals on the local track. Still red or turning orange? Thumbs up on a local train plodding its way toward Roosevelt. Ah, we sophisticated (and modest) New York subway riders.

Bummer

Seems that I was wrong that the V train would run on weekends as long as it was replacing the C. No sir, the C will be replaced by the A on weekends, which is somewhat perplexing. Are they running extra A trains to make up for the loss of C or is service just going to be sliced on weekends until the mess is sorted out. With the capacity constraints caused by last week's signal fire, I assume it's the later.

So rather than funnel the money saved by not running the C into alternative service, NYCT is simply going to pocket the spare change. Something's not right about that.

For Me The Question Is Why, Not How

Wouldn't it have been easier to swap the properties instead?

Running Weather

The sidewalks are reasonably clear, the skies are clear and sunny, and it's not absurdly cold. A run doesn't promise to be an exercise in hypothermia this morning. Unfortunately, my hands will be cold, since I lost my glove liners. Obviously, I neglected to stuff them in my hat.

Uodate: like I thought, a glorious and basically perfect day to go running, though my building super did look at me cross-eyed and ask, "Heat wave?"

Did We Say 3 To 5 Years?

Instead of the original three to five years that NYC Transit was saying it would take to restore full A/C train service after a signal room fire, the agency is estimating service will be restored within six to nine months. Sounds much more reasonable. In the meantime, while C train riders suffer, I will enjoy having the V train on weekends.

On The Bright Side

A small but extremely damaging fire has caused such extensive signal problems that service on the A and C subway lines in NYC could be disrupted for as much as five years. Right now, service on the A is running at one-third of its usual level, while the C is suspended indefinitely. There is, however, one silver lining in this if you are a Queens denizen.

At the risk of being selfish, because I am also seeing this through my eyes, the resulting service plan will actually benefit me and all other residents along the Queens Boulevard subway corridor. The V will replace the C train, which means that for the first time since NYC Transit rerouted the F train several years back, there will be two weekend trains operating through the 53rd Street tunnel and along Queens Boulevard (ok, under Queens Boulevard). That also means two local trains operating along this corridor on weekends, where right now there is often only one because the G train generally is cut short for track work. Of course, it will suck for G train riders because their trains will terminate in Long Island City for the duration rather than run through to Forest Hills. They will have to transfer to E or V service, which makes for a mighty long underground walk.

Is this what people mean by the "butterfly flapping its wings" theory?

When Will We Ever Learn?

By we, I mean my employer, the Long Island Rail Road. In the teeth of this weekend's blizzard, the Rail Road ran regular service, which may seem ok on the face it of it, but is actually an uncessary risk.

As electric trains run through snow and ice, their motors get wet and can short, leading to a shortage of functioning cars. It happened to Metro-North in a blizzard about 10 years, prompting changes in its procedures for operating during snow (basically they don't), and has happened to us in the past.

Well, guess what? It happened again, with service disruptions likely for the rest of the week. As the saying goes, those who don't learn from history are fated to repeat it.

New York's Finest

This is why New Yorkers know that our police are the best in the world: No Police State.

Courtesy of Imshin

Big Apple Bloggers Bash!

Well all right!

January 23rd. I'm there.

Bwahahaha!

There's nothing like the sales pitch of a real estate broker. A broker from Cushman & Wakefield had the following to say about potential tenants for the new Freedom Tower:

"I think there's a huge desire, not just by leaders of companies but also by individuals, to overcome" fears of terrorism, said Bruce Mosler, president of U.S. operations at Cushman & Wakefield in Manhattan.

I think you're nuts, Mosler. Speaking as someone who worked at the World Trade Center up until the very day that my office was destroyed by a 757, I'm telling you that I feel no need to overcome my fear of terrorism by going back to work in a stupidly tall tower. How Freudian can you get, anyway? "Ooh, look, my tower's bigger than your tower! I'm so mighty!" The very fact that people still live and work in New York City is indicative of having overcome fears of terrorism. Working in a tall, ugly building proves nothing. Although I can imagine the rental ads: "The Freedom Tower. Rent space now, or The Terrorists Will Win^TM."

Besides, the real reason companies will rent space in the Freedom Tower was summed up by a businessman, not a real estate broker:

Some survivors agree. Anthony Schirripa, chief executive of Mancini Duffy, an engineering firm, was in the south tower Sept. 11, 2001, but none of his employees were hurt. Schirripa said he would return to the trade center if the numbers worked.

"I don't think anybody would be squeamish about it," said Schirripa, an East Northport resident. "It's an economic decision."

That's right. It won't be about overcoming fears of terrorism. It'll be about the bottom-line. Just like it always is.

A Victory for Party Politics

But a loss for those of us who feel our two-party system needs an overhaul. The quote that best sums up why I think our current system needs some major changes.

Democrat Norma Hart, a 73-year-old retired schools psychiatrist, said, "Some people think the party system is evil, but I don't. If there are no primaries, how would we know who was good?"

Yes, that's right, in what signals a death knell for critical thinking all over New York City, apparently we need to be told who's good. Heaven forfend we should have to actually research candidates' stances on issues and their backgrounds and, gasp, come to a decision for ourselves. It's so much easier when someone else can tell you who's good.

The trust in the parties to tell us who is good is naive, at best. Most primaries are reflections of who the power brokers in the parties want to see in office for their own reasons, not who is the best candidate.

It's seldom that I agree with Mikey on anything, but I'm right behind him on this one. The stranglehold that the two major parties have on this country is detrimental to it. They have become voices for special interest groups, bought by whomever can offer them the best deal. They'll sell out their base if they believe that another group can get them elected. These are not people out to represent our best interests, but to represent their own best interests. Doing away with party affiliations would be one way to at least make politics accessible to people who otherwise don't have a hope of getting on the ballot, because no party will support them.

What the Hell Did They Think Would Happen?

I'm sorry, but sometimes a reaction to a product is so obvious that the store should foresee it. Like with this Monolopolyesque game Ghettopoly.

The game replicates Monopoly but replaces the game pieces with "ghetto" characters including "playas," crack houses and pimps.

In a news release promoting the game's release, the objective is described.

"If a playa owns all the stolen property in da same color pattern, da playa can buy crack houses from da Loan Shark and set 'em up on da property," it reads. "If da playa has four crack houses on each of the stolen properties of da same color pattern, he can buy projects from da Loan Shark."

Yeah, it takes a genius to figure out that this game, using racist stereotypes, is going to cause outrage. Whatever useless M.B.A.s* in their marketing department decided stocking this would be a good idea should be axed. Leading me, yet again, to ponder when we might break down and impose criminal charges on monumental stupidity.

*Yes, I do have an M.B.A. I maintain it is a degree useful only for making your resume look good and helping you find jobs. In other words, it is useful to me individually, but not so much to my job.

A Nobel Day for New York City

It was a good day for New York City. The Nobel Prize for Chemistry went to two professors - Roderick MacKinnon, a professor at Rockefeller University in NYC; and Peter Agre, a professor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. The Nobel Prize for Economics went to Robert Engle, a professor at my own alma mater, New York University. Sadly I never had a class with Professor Engle. Although I did study bankruptcy with Edward Altman. I doubt most people know who he is, but he is the man when it comes to bankruptcy. Back in the late 1960s he developed a little bankruptcy predictor model which has come to be known as Altman's Z Score. So prevalent is the use of the Z score for bankruptcy prediction that Bloomberg terminals automatically calculate it for public companies.

Random Thoughts

I'm going to post thoughts that stray my mind today about 9/11. This post will be updated as the day goes on.

My office at the WTC was always a mess, with stacks of papers all over. Frank used to joke with me that the only way to clean my office was to throw a match in it. In a fit of black humor on 9/11, I remember thinking "Well, that's a bit of overkill, wouldn't you say?" [Note: Mercifully, although I didn't think so on the day he told me, Frank, who worked for me, had resigned in June, 2001. On 9/11 and thereafter, I was grateful he had. Frank always got in around 7:30 a.m. If he hadn't resigned, he'd have been killed.]

9 months was the hardest time for me. I was freaking out so badly, I was seriously considering leaving the country. By the one-year anniversary, that terrible fear had passed.

I'm glad my company moved us to Hoboken. I'm glad I moved to Hoboken. At the end of every day, I would feel "Another day passed without a terrorist attack." And I never knew which would be worse - that I would be killed in the next attack or that I would survive again but more people I knew would be killed. I don't worry so much about the former, although I do still fear the latter. How do people in Israel live with that fear all the time? How do they get through their lives? It's amazing.

9/11/01 started off as such a beautiful day. After the attack, I remember thinking how wrong it was for such a horrible day to be so sunny and beautiful. It should have been gray.

In retrospect, I'm glad it was sunny. The grayness would have reflected my mood, but the sunshine was like a tribute to the people who were killed. That is much more important.

Today

Here we are. The second anniversary of 9/11. A terrible day for this country. The worst day of my life.

What a difference two years makes. 17,520 little hours.

I still think about 9/11 every day. Maybe a day will come where I don't think about it for an entire day. I don't know, but I don't think so. It was just too big.

But I can think about it now without tears immediately springing to my eyes. I can talk about it now without my eyes welling up, without the choking lump in my throat. Usually. Well, at least sometimes.

There are still the sudden reminders. One of the guys I knew who was killed was named Joe Sisolak. Not a particularly common name, I would think. Two months ago, I get a prescription filled in a pharmacy in my new hometown of Hoboken. The pharmacist's name? Joe Sisolak. That one really caught me by surprise. It was a flashback to 9/11.

My tribute to the victims and survivors of 9/11 this year was to help Michele with the Voices project. I think it's such a good thing she is doing. It's a testimony to the impact 9/11 had on real people. 9/11 happened to America; it happened to New York; it happened to D.C.; but most of all, it happened to us. Thinking of it as something that happened to a place makes it too abstract. But I dare anyone to see it as an abstraction after reading all the entries there.

I remember two years ago, going back to work on the afternoon of Thursday, 9/13/01. They needed people to go through the lists of names of people to confirm who was safe and who was not. I spent two weeks, including weekends, looking at the names of people I had known for years. I had to learn to put aside the pain while doing that in order to get through it. I knew that the work was important. I knew I could do it. So I did.

I took some time off from work on Saturday, 9/15/01, to volunteer in the crisis center our company had set up. By that time, I had accepted that anyone we hadn't confirmed as safe was dead. I just did not believe that many people could have survived in the rubble that long.

We had lost so many of the senior managers in the technology department that they needed anyone who knew the victims to talk with their families. As I was speaking to them and hearing the desperate hope in their voice that their loved one was still alive, out there somewhere, I felt so badly. What could I say? What could I say to the mother who was convinced that her son had been on the subway at the time of the attack and was still alive in the subway tunnels; that it was only a matter of time before he was rescued? Soon enough, she would have to accept the truth. But I wouldn't take away her hope. Not then.

I still have never seen footage of the towers collapsing. I have consciously avoided it. One day I may be ready to see it, but today is not that day. We worked in the North Tower. The plane only hit the corner of the North Tower. We know that some of our colleagues survived the impact. There were text messages and cell phone calls. That is still what bothers me most. People I knew were still alive when the towers collapsed. I am not ready to see that.

I know a lot of people are angry, and I understand why. They have every right to feel angry. Even two years later. But I don't feel much anger. I can't be angry at a faceless enemy, a group enemy. I can be angry at a specific person, like Osama bin Laden, and I am. I just can't be angry at an abstraction. I don't think I'm wired that way.

But I can be sad. Sad for the people I once knew. Sad for all the victims, for the families of the victims.

I can be happy. Happy for the people who survived. Happy that I survived. Happy for the memories I have of the people I once knew.

Today will be bittersweet. I will remember my friends and colleagues. The happy memories I have of them will be laced with the sadness that there will be no more happy memories made of them.

Today I will remember that I am lucky to be alive. That I can still make happy memories of other people; other things. That life goes on.

One Year Ago Today

I started a poem not long after the attack as a way to verbalize my emotions. I also decided to make it an alphabetic acrostic as a challenge to myself and because many prayers in Judaism are alphabetic acrostics. I didn't finish it at the time. I revisited it one year later and finished it. I have never written a poem before. I probably never will again. It is what it is. Not a great work of art. But it is mine. Read it if you like.

Another Day Came

Another day came,
But I barely noticed.
Consumed as I was by petty things.
'Do I wear grey or red?'
'Eat now or at work?'
For how could I know that in an instant the whole world would change?
Gone in a moment - friends, work, safety.
Here to replace them - grief, anxiety.
If I could only have gone back one day earlier,
Jealousy, envy, pride I would have erased.
Kept only finer emotions.
Lost the unimportant, the petty, the vain.
Madness consumes the world.
Now the unity, so fleeting in the aftermath, is gone.
Our nation yet again torn apart by internal strife.
People still hate each other for nonsensical reasons.
Questioning why are you not the same as me?
Robbing ourselves of joy.
Seeing only the minor differences.
Taking no note of our similarities.
Using others to bolster our identities.
Vesting ourselves in one group; excluding the others.
What a waste.
eXclusion is our modus operandi.
Yet on and on it goes.
Zealous in our self-enforced isolation.

Two Years Ago Today

Following are two posts I wrote for a politics forum at the time of the attack. One I wrote on 9/11 itself, after I finally got home. My phone didn't work that day, but my cable modem never went down. The other I wrote two days later.

Written on 9/11/01

I'm still in shock. Nothing I ever saw compares to the sight of the two buildings on fire with gaping holes in them. I am just grateful to be alive. I just pray that many of my colleagues are also alive. I'm also glad I was not downtown when the towers collapsed. I'm not sure I could have handled seeing that. Hearing it on the radio was bad enough. People were crying on the buses. I was crying on the bus and while walking on the street trying to get home. It took me two hours to get home, but at least I made it.

Written on 9/13/01

I was on a bus on the FDR Drive approaching the Brooklyn Bridge exit, on my way to work at the World Trade Center Tower 1. Suddenly, people on the near side of the bus start looking out the window, shocked. Someone said "A plane just hit the World Trade Center." I couldn't even believe it, it really didn't register. The bus driver pulled off at the Brooklyn Bridge exit, stopped the bus, and told us we had to get off and "Good luck getting home." I got off the bus and looked up. Only now did this start to sink in, as there was a gaping black hole in the building, flames rising, and chunks of the building falling off. I couldn't figure out which tower it was, though, as I was in too much shock to remember which had the radio antenna. I tried to get on my cellphone, but it was not working. I walked about a quarter of a block, found a payphone to call my parents to let them know I was not in the building when it happened and to ask them to tell me which tower it was. I suppose at this time I still had some stupid idea that I would try to get to work if Tower 1 was not the one that was hit. Of course, at this point, we all thought it was an accident. Anyway, after I called my father, who hadn't even heard yet, I walked back down to look at the building. By that time, the second tower was on fire, with an even worse gaping hole. I started to cry even harder at that point, because I realized that this could not possibly have been an accident. People all around me were just staring up at the building in shock, some in tears, some unable to do more than stare.

Eventually, I started to walk uptown again, with some vague idea of getting on a subway home. I had a portable MP3 player with an FM radio with me, so I decided to listen to the news while I was walking. Unsurprisingly, and if I had been thinking clearly I would have realized this, the subways were not running. I did see that local bus service was still running, so I walked a ways to a bus stop and got on the First Avenue bus. I was sitting on the bus listening to the radio. Since no one else on the bus had a radio, I was telling the other passengers what I was hearing. I told them that the Pentagon had been hit also, and everybody's faces went even whiter at that. Somewhere around 34th Street, the news came on that Tower 2 had collapsed. At that news, the bus got very quiet. Around 50th Street, traffic was so bad that most of us got out to walk. I walked up a bit, still listening to the news, when I heard that Tower 1 had also collapsed. At that, I started crying again. Some very nice man stopped to reassure me, and then I went to find another payphone to call my parents again. Took me a while to find one, but eventually I did and called them. Then I walked a little ways further until traffic had cleared up and got back on a bus the rest of the way home. All told, it took me two hours to get home that morning.

The rest of the day was spent trying to let people know I was okay. I couldn't make outgoing calls for hours, but I was able to get some ingoing calls and so got some news about some of my coworkers who had not been upstairs at the time of the plane crash. I sent an e-mail to a guy who used to work for me who had moved to Chicago a couple of months earlier to let him know I was okay and to find out if he had heard from anyone else. He had not, at the time, but that got me on an e-mail list wherein we would all report when we contacted someone, so we had a list of people who were okay. I basically spent the rest of the day in shock on the Internet and phone, waiting for news of my coworkers, combing the survivors lists, crying off and on. I have not, to this time, seen actual footage of the towers collapsing, and I'm not sure when I will be able to watch that. It's enough for me to know that my office is completely obliterated and that hundreds of people I know are dead. I don't think I can bear to see it on tape.

If I Can Make It There

I have a meeting in Manhattan tomorrow afternoon. Since relocating to Hoboken, I have made the trip many times, on PATH and subway, without second thought. Now I'm freaking out about it. I am sure it's related to the upcoming anniversary of 9/11. Maybe I'll get a bus schedule.

That's the Night that the Lights Went Out

I imagine that a regular topic of discussion among Northeasterners for the next few weeks will be "Where were you when the lights went out?" (Gee, that sounds like a great title for a movie, maybe starring Doris Day.) Fortunately people took the blackout in stride. I have heard from those not affected by it that they expected New Yorkers to be really freaked out. Based upon my own experience, those of my friends, and news reports, that simply didn't happen. I was discussing that with a colleague, and I attributed it to the fact that after 9/11, this seemed like a mild annoyance and even slightly comical. A friend in Manhattan tells me that NYC was one big block party last night. Far from freaking out, people were partying down. Here in Hoboken, things were quiet, but calm.

Meanwhile, I'll share my story of "Where I was when the lights went out". Why don't others affected by the blackout share theirs too?

It was about 4:15 pm. I was having a discussion with one of my colleagues in his office when the lights started to flicker. They went off. They went back on. They went off. They went back on. Then they went off, and this time you could tell that the power was just out and it wasn't coming back on real quick. However, the building I work in is a brand-new building (just finished July 1 of this year), so it has a backup generator. So we were switched to emergency power, meaning that not all the overhead lights were working, and the air conditioning wasn't running on high anymore, but there was still power.

We had lights, we had phones, we had computer access (although the servers were going to be shut down in an orderly fashion so we knew that wouldn't last long), we had circulating semi-cool air. Our vending machines still worked, so we stocked up on cold sodas, water, and junk food to be prepared for when they were shut down to conserve the emergency power. I told the member of my staff who drives to work (he lives in New Jersey) just to head on home and give a ride to one of the other members of my staff who doesn't live too far away. The last member of my staff lives in Long Island, so he was S.O.L. I figured I'd hang out for a while, myself, since I knew the office had power, but my apartment wouldn't.

I made a few phone calls, and was actually on the phone with my mother when the phones went dead. My cell phone was working only spottily, but after about 5 tries, I was able to make a phone call to let her know what had happened, albeit the reception was lousy. Shortly thereafter, facilities management told us that if we wanted to remain in the building, we had to go down to the cafeteria. So down we went.

Once we settled in at a table by the window (with a lovely view of the Hudson and a nearly completely dark Manhattan), I played a game of chess with the guy from Long Island. He keeps a board at the office. Amazingly, despite not having played in years, I won. Sure, it had something to do with a stupid move he made early on in which he lost his queen, but hey, I'm not fussy.

The company decided not to risk all the food in the cafeteria going bad, so they brought out all the dairy products, cookies, bags of cheddar cheese popcorn, fruit juice, and water. I ate a cookie and then decided I would see how bad my apartment was. I asked the guy from Long Island (henceforth to be known as John) if he wanted to join me, but he declined. I walked the 8 blocks home, forgetting how amazingly dark my lobby and the stairwell would be. Fortunately my keychain has one of those little red lights on the end, so I was able to use that to give me enough light not to kill myself while getting up to my apartment. It was still somewhat light outside, so once in my apartment, I was able to get around fine. My apartment was sweltering hot. And, lucky me, my windows don't open. I actually had ordered new windows just two nights earlier, but alas, not in time.

I pulled out my taplight from the closet and went into the kitchen to retrieve my hand-crank flashlight with radio. Sadly the hand crank didn't work, so I was stuck with just the taplight. I changed my clothes and decided to head on back to the office, since they had power. I grabbed Trivial Pursuit before heading back down, taplight in hand while navigating the stairwell and lobby, and walked back.

Once at the office, I located John. We settled back in the cafeteria and played a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit. I won that too. I frequently win at Trivial Pursuit. But both of us still had fun.

After the game was finished, it was around 9 pm. John mentioned that Mars was very close to the Earth, so we went outside by the water, figuring that a blackout would be our only chance to see Mars above New York City. And there it was, hovering very brightly to the side of the moon. It was a weird sight, to see Manhattan almost completely blacked out, though. I'm so used to seeing the bright lights of the big city. But, since the temperature had cooled off a fair amount, we sat by the water for about a half-hour, seeing if our cell phones would work. Eventually both did, so we each made calls to friends and family.

We then decided to head back in and roust up some of that food in the cafeteria. We dined off of Cookies & Twix bars, cheddar cheese popcorn, and orange juice. Around 10:15 pm, we decided to try to get some sleep. He snuck back up to his office, but I opted for a booth in the cafeteria. I had brought a book from home and had my iPod, so I lay there listening to music and reading. Eventually I nodded off.

At first I woke up every hour until 2:00 am. During the 2:00 am awakening, the security guard told me that the building would be closed Friday except to essential personnel (and anyone stranded in Hoboken). Then I was able to sleep until 4:00 am, at which time I noticed, for the first time, that street lights were on outside the building. Hoboken had power back (or so I thought). However, it was 4:00 am and dark, so I decided to wait un