The climate's right for making connections

August 12, 2007

I guess it rained last week.

Recent columns

• Newark teen a victim in shooting, a hero to city

  August 10, 2007

  Here's the unexpected part: In Newark yesterday, there was actually some glimmer of hope.

• 'American Taliban' an American scapegoat?

  August 8, 2007

  By the time he got the nickname, John Walker Lindh was already cooked.

• Boss' fading health hits home

  August 5, 2007

  Everyone's getting older, and it's rarely a pretty sight. But few of us get the startling eyeful that Franz Lidz did.

• After bridge collapse, maybe we'll learn lesson

  August 3, 2007

  The divers searched for bodies.

• Dealing with home invasion requires calm

  August 1, 2007

  Honestly, what could be scarier than this?

• Spitzer, still acting like a prosecutor?

  July 29, 2007

  Is there something about prosecutors, something that makes them different when they go on to other jobs?

• Great late expectations for Alfonse D'Amato

  July 27, 2007

  'Congratulations on your mathematical acumen."

• Excuses for Lindsay Lohan are inexcusable

  July 25, 2007

  Now here's what really matters: In the post-midnight hours, after an allegedly booze-and-coke-fueled car chase, Lindsay Lohan actually looked pretty good in the mug shot.

• Blast opened up unseen world below ground

  July 22, 2007

  Even in a city as unpredictable as New York, most of the dangers arrive at eye-level - or from above.

• The plan: Don't be driven to distraction

  July 18, 2007

  Don't confuse Carl Marcellino with some stuck-in-the-past anti-technology zealot.

• Nassau politicians join golf course cart debate

  July 15, 2007

  Maybe Mark Twain had it right.

• What war on terror?

  July 13, 2007

  Oh, great.

• Iraq is Bloomberg's presidential litmus test

  July 11, 2007

  He has a policy on traffic. He has a policy on guns. He's famous all around the world for his policy on the trans fats that hide inside our food, turning us into a big, fat nation of human blimps.

• Boys in Albany won't behave

  July 8, 2007

  They are children.

• Midweek holiday underrated

  July 1, 2007

  It's an argument as old as the five-day workweek: What's the best day for a holiday?

• Bush's judicial legacy

  June 29, 2007

  It's tough going on the legacy front for George W. Bush.

• Pro wrestling sowed seeds of disaster

  June 27, 2007

  Was it 'roid rage?

• Love thy neighbor's noise, too?

  June 24, 2007

  We had Mr. Reams, the meanest neighbor in the history of childhood. To this very day, I am still frightened of Mr. Reams.

• Cuomo dialogues ask hard questions

  June 21, 2007

  Slogans instead of principles.

• Billionaire mayor never needed a party anyway

  June 20, 2007

  What have they ever done for him?

• Return from battle is start of new fight

  June 15, 2007

  Here's an early distress call, as our soldiers slowly return home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

• When prosecutor is the accused

  June 13, 2007

  Finally, turnaround time.

• Her new life slipping away

  June 10, 2007

  Here's the sad part.

• Special accommodations, Hilton-style

  June 8, 2007

  It was three days, not 45 or 23.

• At Belmont Park, there's another type of winner

  June 6, 2007

  It's just a wall of photographs in the massive second-floor clubhouse at Belmont Park. But horse-racing honors don't get much higher than this.

• Media wishes on falling stars

  June 3, 2007

  It's something Alex Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Naomi Campbell and Britney Spears all share - and I don't mean an excessive appreciation for the charms of glitzy strip joints.

• The looking glass: Alex-in-Wonderland

  June 1, 2007

  The rich and amorous athlete, I understand.

• Pals through 'Crazy Love'

  May 30, 2007

  "I like Burt," Bob Janoff once famously said about his oldest friend in the world. "I really like Burt. Listen, they say even Hitler has friends. What are you gonna do?"

• Weathering holiday travel

  May 27, 2007

  I never understood the whole Florida thing.

• A time for compassion for baby - and mother

  May 23, 2007

  First things first on the baby in the bushes.

• THE SUNDAY COLUMN: Immigration: No easy answers

  May 20, 2007

  Bemoaning the problem, demanding solutions - that's always been the easy part of immigration reform. As the U.S. Senate went and proved again, the legislative rat trap is constructed from the details.

• Giuliani knows the pain and profit of Sept. 11

  May 18, 2007

  The presidency isn't the priesthood, and I'll tell you how I know: None of the current candidates has taken a vow of poverty.

• Bloomberg blooming?

  May 16, 2007

  America's mayor?

• Gun woes call for more guns?

  April 18, 2007

  The debate was raging before the sun came up.

• Death feels hollow

  December 31, 2006

  They danced over the body.

• Win was just a bit too easy

  November 8, 2006

  Well, that part was easy.

• Hillary has eyes on White House

  November 7, 2006

  Well, that part was easy.

• THE SUNDAY COLUMN

  September 3, 2006

  Does the camera lie? Sure, sometimes the camera lies. But not nearly as often or as boldly as the computer does.

• Stripping away any sense of security

  August 11, 2006

  They threaten, we think. They threaten again, we think harder. Always, our thinking chases their threats, then must elbow ahead of them.

• Some telling facts but no real rationale

  May 31, 2006

  Tell me again why we're there.

• Listen up! Uncle Sam has your number

  May 12, 2006

  As usual, Earl Long got it right, a good 50 years ahead of his time.

• As players on both sides wait it out, Clinton is quiet about '08

  May 5, 2006

  Hillary is still being coy.

• Big men on campus, cut to size

  April 19, 2006

  Ah, college life!

• Their sacrifice to find the truth

  March 19, 2006

  Reporters got killed in World War II. Reporters were killed in Vietnam.

• A Big Easy family's comeback story

  March 15, 2006

  Mardi Gras must have made a difference. Or else people just got tired of replacing Sheetrock and scrubbing mold.

• Pols part over port security

  February 26, 2006

  Oh, this is getting fun. All my usual opponents are slashing each other now.

• Spitzer looks like Rudy redux

  January 25, 2006

  Same prosecutorial personality.

• He's not a guy to scoot easily to any prison

  October 30, 2005

  The new man on a cellblock should never have to introduce himself like this:

• Two thousand dead - and for what?

  October 26, 2005

  Two thousand is too many names already. Elaine Brower is certain about that.

• The Bloomberg factor

  September 14, 2005

  His name was nowhere on Tuesday's ballot. He isn't even officially a Democrat.

• Don't get too excited over Downing Street memos

  June 19, 2005

  Is the Downing Street memo an interesting historical document? You bet it is.

• Dance to freedom in fame's shoes

  June 14, 2005

  Alert to parents everywhere: Michael Jackson is free to baby-sit again.

• No more gentility at The Plaza

  April 6, 2005

  Yitzhak Tshuva isn't actually threatening to use a wrecking ball on one of the city's grandest landmarks. But he might as well be.

• A well-heeled icon of fashion

  September 10, 2004

  I was over at the Gap yesterday where, of course, I ran into Sarah Jessica Parker.

• From the middle, we can't see the right

  August 30, 2004

  It was a long city block and about a million miles from center stage at Madison Square Garden.

• Star power dim at the Garden

  August 29, 2004

  It's not the trade deficit that ought to be worrying Republicans.

• Sex Assault Case More than Hijinks

  September 14, 2003

  They are known as the Pirates, the high-spirited football players at Mepham High School on Long Island's South Shore.

• Simply Delaying the Inevitable

  January 12, 2003

  The U.S. is still likely to go to war against Iraq, although a little less likely than we were a week ago.

• Love Among The Ruins

  September 10, 2002

  “It’ll be an outdoor wedding,” Ellen Leichert said. “Upstate.”

• Transition Is Tough

  June 14, 2002

  His brother's wake was still two hours off.

• The Fragile State of Priesthood

  June 11, 2002

  When I got the call Monday about Jim McCarthy, I have to say my first reaction was relief.

• Prisoner of His Own Lie

  June 2, 2002

  It's easy to blame the hotel security guard.

• Still in Step With Holiday

  October 9, 2001

  Lockdown?

• Lost Jobs Are Echo of Tragedy

  October 5, 2001

  "You want to see my resume?" William Pierson was asking yesterday.

• Beauty Gives Way to the Beast

  September 30, 2001

  Like all great human struggles, this one pits good against bad. Only this time, good and bad both reside in a single man.

• Thoughts of Kin, Talk of War

  September 23, 2001

  The terrorists have struck. The president has spoken. America is rushing toward war. And all Kevin Farrell can think about is his brother and his son.

• 'I Don't Know the Man'

  September 20, 2001

  The evidence is said to be growing. The case seems to be tightening. Federal authorities have pretty much decided: Osama bin Laden's bloody fingerprints are all over last week's terror attacks.

• The Tragedy Is Hitting Us in Waves

  September 19, 2001

  We're coming back to life around here, or so we keep telling ourselves. That's what the mayor has been asking us to do, isn't it? And the governor. And just about everyone else straight up to the president. God knows the restaurants, the theaters and the airlines are desperately praying we come back to life and quick - before their businesses all go broke.

• One Miracle Short on Wall Street

  September 18, 2001

  It was going to be a "patriot's rally."

• The Little Things Count, Too

  September 17, 2001

  When the big guys on Wall Street decide to do something - well, they do have the wherewithal to bring a proper grandeur to the job.

• Gone Missing In America

  September 15, 2001

  "My little brother is Robert Chin," Suk Tan Chin was saying as she stood in the drizzle on East 26th Street, clutching a single, moist piece of paper. "We are desperately looking for him. He is missing."

• Showing Up Is the First Step

  September 14, 2001

  Now that's more like it.

• Our President Shows That He's No Giuliani

  September 13, 2001

  Where's Bush?

• Worst Brings Out NY's Best

  September 12, 2001

  "A man ran up to us," Stephen Craver said. "His whole face was peeling off. That's how badly burned he was."