The Schubin Chronicles -- December 2001

Sat 12/1/2001 8:06 PM     I have hope

A colleague of mine often says, "I make television; I don't watch it." I'm not so absolute. I don't get to watch MUCH television, but I do watch some.

I don't often get to see commercials. That's not because I restrict my viewing to public television. It's more that I like to watch cable channels that are commercial free, like Turner Classic Movies and HBO and public access.

Recently, however, I've come across an American Express commercial that I adore. It really captures some of the spirit of New York, and it's very low key about the sponsor -- just a small logo at the end. It's one of the nicer tributes to our city.

American Express has just given us another tribute. Yesterday they announced that next spring they plan to return to their headquarters in lower Manhattan. When last I saw it, there was a big piece of one of the World Trade Center towers embedded in it.

One of American Express's major competitors in the credit-card business is Visa, the name we now use for the old BankAmericard, issued by the Bank of America. The Bank of America is donating three fire trucks to New York City, to replace some of the dozens that were lost on September 11.

Others are being paid for by "Pennies for Fire Trucks" campaigns being conducted at schools across the country. And today's New York Times has a story about the company that makes New York's fire trucks, Seagrave in Clintonville, Wisconsin. Not only are they racing to replace our lost vehicles, but their employees also offered a week's free labor if the company would donate the parts for a fire truck. Thanks, all.

Today's Times is full of heartwarming stories. One is about evangelical pastors wandering around downtown, asking businesses what they've lost, and writing out checks on the spot to cover them. Each check has a little, handwritten "Jesus loves you" at the lower left, but otherwise there doesn't seem to be any preaching involved -- just an occasional hug. And they declined to contribute to a tavern owner.

Another story covers one small aspect of the story of the million daffodil bulbs that were donated to us by a Dutch businessperson. We've received tulip bulbs, too.

Then there's a story about 12-year-old Thomas Panevino, displaced from his home in Battery Park City and living in a hotel on Manhattan's East Side. When he has to do computer-based homework, he goes to a Kinko's where the staff has decided he is one of their most important responsibilities. He's been submitting reports with full-color professional-looking graphics and garnering praise. His mother brings his report cards to the shop to share with the employees.

In a benevolent gesture, the Times today even credits its competitor, the Daily News, with breaking the story of our fire department's deciding that, from September 11 to September 29, its missing firefighters must have still been at work, and, therefore, earning lots of overtime (320 hours). The families will receive the full salaries plus the overtime pay. The police department is doing the same, and the mayor is asking the state legislature to allow the payments to be used in the calculation of pensions (normally based on the last year's earnings).

Those were the heartwarming stories in today's Times. Tomorrow's paper has a story about resentments resulting from inequities in the charity process. Some police families don't like the extra charity going to firefighter families. Some firehouses are receiving more charity than others, and it's not proportional to firefighters lost. Families of financial workers killed in the September 11 attacks complain about both the charity and the access to the site that the families of the uniformed service members are getting.

The story doesn't even go into the feelings of other bereaved families, such as those on American Airlines flight 587. The fact that they are not beneficiaries of great largess may have nothing to do with it, but they were largely from a specific ethnic group.

There was a story in today's Times about how Afghanistan, like Yugoslavia, might be split into different countries, each with a different dominant ethnic group. What was odd about that story was not so much its ideas as its location; it was in the "Arts" section. Is it a story about the "art" of war?

Nearby was a photo of a swarthy, turbaned man with a long beard. That photo had nothing to do with the Afghanistan story. It was, instead, a review of an organ concert at Alice Tully Hall in New York.

There's a beautiful pipe organ in Tully Hall, but that isn't what Dr. Lonnie Smith, the bearded, turbaned man (born in Buffalo), was playing. "The Turbanator," as Dr. Smith is sometimes called, was instead playing "soul jazz" on a Hammond B-3 electric organ.

Alice Tully Hall is one of the theaters at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The Metropolitan Opera House is another.

At dawn today, I started work on the first Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast of the season; this evening, I'm working on a television recording from the same venue. We're shooting "Die Meistersinger." As Cookie Monster said in "Don't Eat the Pictures," a Sesame Street special I worked on at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "It going to be long night."

Across the street and slightly down the block from the TV truck is the Fiorello La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, successor to the school of "Fame" fame. Lori Berenson went to La Guardia high school. Remember her?

On January 11, 1996, after she was sentenced to life imprisonment in Peru at the end of her trial for terrorism by a secret military tribunal, our State Department protested that she hadn't been "tried in an open civilian court with full rights of legal defense, in accordance with international juridical norms." There was more:

"The United States remains concerned that Ms. Berenson receive due process. We have repeatedly expressed these concerns to the Government of Peru. We call upon the Peruvian Government to take the necessary steps in the appeals process to accord Ms. Berenson an open judicial proceeding in a civilian court."

Why was it unacceptable to us for Peru to try an accused foreign terrorist in a secret military tribunal but acceptable for us to do the same -- or worse? Peru offered several levels of appeal (even before our complaints); the executive order calling for our secret military trials of accused terrorists allows none.

The Times conservative commentator William Safire had a second column on the subject on Monday. He noted that the administration says the proposed secret tribunals are "'implementations' of the lawful Uniform Code of Military Justice.

"Military attorneys are silently seething because they know that to be untrue. The U.C.M.J. demands a public trial, proof beyond reasonable doubt, an accused's voice in the selection of juries and right to choose counsel, unanimity in death sentencing and above all appellate review by civilians confirmed by the Senate. Not one of those fundamental rights can be found in Bush's military order setting up kangaroo courts for people he designates before 'trial' to be terrorists."

It's the old totalitarian refrain: "First we will give you a fair trial. Then we will execute you."

It would be bad enough if that were all we were up to. But it's not. This is the opening paragraph of Anthony Lewis's commentary in today's Times:

"On the basis of secret evidence, the government accuses a non-citizen of connections to terrorism, and holds him in prison for three years. Then a judge conducts a full trial and rejects the terrorism charges. He releases the prisoner. A year later government agents rearrest the man, hold him in solitary confinement and state as facts the terrorism charges that the judge found untrue.

"Could that happen in America? In John Ashcroft's America it has happened."

In a column titled "It Can Happen Here," he tells of the case of Mazen al-Najjar, who, after reportedly being exonerated and released, "is not only back in prison, he is being treated with exceptional severity, indeed cruelty. He is in solitary confinement 23 hours a day. He is not allowed to make telephone calls, and he may not see his family."

Today's New York Times reported that John Ashcroft is thinking about allowing the FBI to spy on political and religious groups in the United Stares. One might think the Bureau's agents and officials would be happy to have the additional flexibility, but, according to the article, they're not.

They were also reportedly not happy about the announcements on October 12 and 29 of "vague but credible threats of a possible second terrorist attack." And there's more that we're doing.

This is the beginning of an article in the Los Angeles Times by Eric Lichtblau: "The document seemed innocuous enough: a survey of government data on reservoirs and dams on CD-ROM. But then came last month's federal directive to U.S. libraries: 'Destroy the report.'

"So a Syracuse University library clerk broke the disc into pieces, saving a single shard to prove that the deed was done.

"The unusual order from the Government Printing Office reflects one of the hidden casualties of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: the public's shrinking access to information that many once took for granted. Want to find out whether there are any hazardous waste sites near the local day-care center? What safety controls are in place at nuclear power plants? Or how many people are incarcerated in terrorist-related probes?"

According to the article, "The Government Printing Office has begun ordering about 1,300 libraries nationwide that serve as federal depositories to destroy government records that federal agencies say could be too sensitive for public consumption." And, in Freedom of Information Act requests, "officials no longer have to show that disclosure would cause 'substantial harm' before rejecting a request."

Francis Buckley, the government's superintendent of documents, said this is the first time documents in public libraries have ever been ordered destroyed for security reasons. Julia Wallace, who heads the government-publications library at the University of Minnesota, asked, "Do you pull all the Rand McNally atlases from the libraries? I mean, how far do you go?"

Lewis concludes today's commentary thus: "With all the extreme measures taken by the administration in recent days -- detaining hundreds of people, ordering thousands questioned, establishing military tribunals -- Mr. Ashcroft and President Bush have assured the country that they will enforce the measures with care, and with concern for civil liberties. Their motto is, 'Trust us.'

"The Al-Najjar case shows that there is no basis for trust."

Our freedoms are threatened, and not just by terrorists. Nevertheless, I draw hope from the results of a poll conducted by International Communications Research on behalf of National Public Radio, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government on Americans' opinions about the military tribunals. These were the first two questions:

"When it comes to non-citizens who are legally in the United States, should they have the same legal rights if they are arrested as U.S. citizens arrested for the same thing, or should they have fewer rights?" Of the respondents, 70% said the same and 25% said fewer.

"Would you still feel the same way if they were charged with being terrorists, or would you think they should have fewer rights?" This time, only 35% of the total felt the accused deserved the same rights.

It's only in contrast to another poll that I can draw hope from those figures. The Gallup Poll found George W. Bush's approval ratings continually dropping and disapproval continually increasing from his inauguration through a poll conducted between September 7 and 10. At that time, 51% approved of the job he was doing and 39% disapproved.

In the next survey, his approval rating shot up. In the poll conducted September 21 and 22, it stood at 90% approval and only 6% disapproval. Those are the highest ratings Gallup has ever measured. They are higher than Mr. Bush's father's at the end of the Gulf War, the previous record. They are higher than any ever received by Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, or Kennedy. And the levels of approval and disapproval have not changed appreciably since September 22.

So I am encouraged. Roughly six times as many Americans disapprove of Mr. Bush's plans for military tribunals as disapprove of the overall job he is doing.

There is hope.

TTFN, Mark

Tue 12/4/2001 5:19 PM     Fickle fate

According to next week's New Yorker cover (by Maira Kalman and Rick Meyerowitz), the place where I rode my bike today is Central Parkistan. It's south of Notsobad, northwest of Kvetchnya, west of al-Zheimers, and north of Mooshuhadeen. The cover is called "New Yorkistan"

As I was coasting the Great Hill, I passed three young women jogging down and three young men jogging up towards them. We were all in tee-shirts and shorts. Ah, spring!

Okay, so it's December 4. It was sunny, with a temperature in the mid-60s here. On some parts of the planet, such as Chile, it's GENUINELY late spring.

When we flew to Santiago a few years ago, as U.S. citizens we had to pay an extra fee to enter the country. We were told it was a reciprocal action.

The U.S. was involved in some unsavory action in Chile, especially a kidnapping intended to destabilize the Allende government. The Pinochet regime followed.

Something like kidnapping was common under Pinochet. People were arrested and never heard from again.

Here in the United States, many hundreds of people have been "detained" since September 11. Most of their names have not been released.

Ali and Muhammad are common names in Muslim countries. Today, in Atlanta, Muhammad Ali, a beloved American, started the Olympic torch on its journey to Salt Lake City.

After Yasir Arafat, perhaps the Palestinian name most recognizable to Americans is that of Hanan Ashrawi. She's a Christian.

The John Walker in today's news is an American. He was raised a Catholic but was captured as one of the Taliban soldiers in the tunnels of the fortress prison in Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan. He calls himself Abdoul Hamid.

Then there's Hadidjatou Karamoko Traore, a New Yorker and a Muslim. She lost her husband, Abdoul Karim Traore, in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. He worked at the Windows on the World restaurant.

For several days, the toll of dead and missing at the World Trade Center has stood at 3300. But that's just a number. Numbers didn't die in the attack. People did. Traore was one of them.

He moved to New York in 1993 after his food shop in the Ivory Coast failed. The Times called him an illegal immigrant. So was my father.

Traore's boss, Michael Lomonaco, the executive chef at Windows on the World, said, "He was a fine, upstanding, affable, very intelligent guy. He was one of my best banquet cooks. I thought highly of him as a cook and as a man." He was also a union member.

In 1997, he asked his wife to come join him. She was given a three-month tourist visa on condition that she leave her young daughter as assurance that she would return home to the Ivory Coast.

She overstayed her visa and moved in with her husband, giving birth to two more children. She now has a one-year-old and a three-year-old in New York and an eight-year-old in Africa living with her in-laws.

The State Department will not grant a visa for her daughter to visit her. Not surprisingly, they think the daughter would overstay her visa, too. But they DID grant visas to three children of another illegal immigrant killed in the World Trade Center. He and his wife were from Ecuador. They were probably not Muslim.

Ghiyath al-Din Abu'l-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami was a Muslim. He died today.

That is, he died on this date exactly 870 years ago. We know with precision how long it's been in part because he calculated the exact length of a year. The first nine significant digits of his calculation are still used today, and beyond those the duration has been changing.

As he was born in what is now Iran and worked in what is now Uzbekistan, it's very likely he passed through what is now Afghanistan. He wore a turban.

He was a mathematician and an astronomer, among other things. He was a calendar reformer, he discovered a geometrical method of solving cubic equations by intersecting a parabola with a circle, and he wrote books, scientific and otherwise.

It's for one of the last that he's best known here -- by a shortened form of his name, Omar Khayyam (Omar the tentmaker). The book was famous enough to inspire six episodes of "The Adventures of Bullwinkle and Rocky," some of which take place in Lower North Pakistan and involve a trial of non-citizens.

The six cartoon episodes are known as the "Ruby Yacht" story. Omar Khayyam's well-known book of poetry is called the "Rubaiyat."

Here is perhaps the best known of his quatrains, as translated by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859:

"The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

TTFN, Mark

Thu 12/6/2001 8:01 PM     The search for intelligent life in the universe

"The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe" is a theatrical wonder. Not only is it a great play (written by Jane Wagner), but it allows Lily Tomlin -- alone but for some sound effects -- to fill the stage with virtual scenery, props, and characters. In one scene, you could almost swear you saw five people in a car, some conversing with the denizens of Times Square streets; in reality, it's only Tomlin.

This is probably the most famous line of the play: "No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up." We were supposed to shoot the return engagement, but the project fell through.

I don't know if cynicism is the right word, but just when I thought I couldn't be amazed anymore, I was. I might as well start with the weather.

Today is December 6. Today, at Newark Airport, the temperature reached 74 degrees Fahrenheit, beating the old record by two degrees. People in the park were dragging their doffed jackets through the fallen leaves beneath the barren trees. This is weird.

So is the mayor. With just 25 days left in office, he has announced some priorities. First, after slashing the budgets of most city agencies by 15% and cutting programs for children and the elderly, he will still be handing our next mayor a $1.2 billion budget deficit. So, what is our current mayor's plan? Before he leaves, he wants to arrange for the city to agree to pay for new stadiums for our two major-league baseball teams. The incoming mayor says he thinks there might just be some other priorities.

Then there's the Twin Towers Fund the city established to help the families of police and firefighters who died on September 11. It has, thus far, distributed $46 million -- well over $100,000 per family -- and has another $67 million to give out. The mayor wants to turn it into a private charitable institution, and he wants to head it. And, in his father-knows-best style, he says he's thinking about investing the remaining money. The incoming mayor had no comment.

The incoming mayor HAS expressed concern about another issue relating to our police, this time the ones who weren't hurt on September 11. As many as 30 a day are retiring on pensions increased by tremendous recent overtime. Many are going to work for private security firms.

Pensions aren't the only things being calculated. An accounting of the recent election has been done. The incoming mayor spent close to $69 million, more than was spent on any other non-presidential campaign. That comes to $92.60 per vote, a record for ANY campaign (excluding bids for the Olympics, of course).

Neither mayor marched in the new parade on Sunday. It was the Capitalism Day Parade. There were, reportedly, about 50 participants, six of them carrying strange signs to try to make the ideology look bad. The parade was covered in the New York Times only by a columnist.

Times commentator William Safire had a third column today opposing the executive order calling for military commissions instead of regular courts to try some non-citizens. The column came out just in time to be denounced by John Ashcroft as aiding terrorists. I don't think Safire will be stung by the criticism. Here's a section of his second column on the subject on November 26:

"We in the tiny minority of editorialists on left and right who dare to point out such constitutional, moral and practical antiterrorist considerations are derided as 'professional hysterics' akin to 'antebellum Southern belles suffering the vapors.' Buncha weepy sissies, we are. (Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn - I've always been pro-bellum.)"

The more-amazing Ashcroft story in today's Times involved the Justice Department refusing to allow the FBI to check records to determine if any of the detainees illegally purchased a gun in the United States. Here's a portion of the story, by Fox Butterfield:

"Until now, F.B.I. officials said, it was permissible to check the records if someone who had been approved to buy a gun should not have been allowed to. The prohibited categories include foreigners of several different statuses, like an illegal immigrant or someone in the country for less than 90 days. Investigators believed that many detainees fell into those groups and sought clearance to check whether they had bought guns.

"But in what several officials called a reversal of existing procedure, Mr. [Viet] Dinh [assistant attorney general for legal policy] ruled that these checks were improper, reasoning that they would violate the privacy of these foreigners. F.B.I. officials said foreigners normally did not have privacy rights unless they have achieved permanent resident status."

It's hard to fathom why the Justice Department would come up with such a policy reversal -- especially one so solicitous of the privacy rights of non-citizens suspected of being involved in or knowing about terrorist activity. Of course, Ashcroft has been opposed to gun control. The story said the Justice Department was expected to announce that it would soon destroy the records (now held for 90 days) after 24 hours. By the way, before the policy was reversed, the FBI did find two illegal gun sales associated with the detainees.

I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe cynicism IS the right word.

TTFN, Mark

Fri 12/7/2001 7:58 PM    Vexillology

Today, on the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, American survivors of that attack literally embraced some of the Japanese pilots who tried to kill them. Adjectives of "evil" and "inhuman" weren't used. No one seemed to care what allegiances were sworn back in 1941.

On October 19, Mayor Giuliani said "Pledge of Allegiance Week" would begin the following day. That was on October 19 of LAST year. "Today, I am calling on all New Yorkers, Mets and Yankees fans alike, to pledge their allegiance, and show their support for their favorite team, by wearing their team's garb for the remainder of the World Series."

The garb of our national sport was important in World War II, too. Japanese Americans whom we interned a few months after the Pearl Harbor attack were not permitted to leave their desert camps. There was an exception, however. If they were wearing their baseball uniforms, they could ride buses to other internment camps for games.

More recently, our mayor supported an effort to make another Pledge of Allegiance mandatory in New York schools -- or, rather, to enforce a state law already requiring it (although no student need recite it). After all, "The times demand a patriotic citizenship, patriotic schools, a patriotic pulpit, a patriotic press."

That statement wasn't made by the mayor. It wasn't made by George W. Bush or John Ashcroft. It was made in 1893 James Bailey Upham, head of the Premium Department (and nephew of the boss) of The Youth's Companion, a well-read magazine, just before the Pledge of Allegiance was recited at the National Liberty Pole and Flag Raising Ceremony.

Upham is the person who commissioned and promoted the Pledge. Perhaps it was a patriotic impulse. Or perhaps it had something to do with his selling flags and related paraphernalia. Upham not only pushed through laws requiring the display of the flag in all schools but also urged girls to form "Mending the Flag" societies, which would buy from him an appropriate kit to repair the flags he sold. Alternatively, he'd send the sewing supplies free with enough paid magazine subscriptions.

The Pledge was written in August 1892, in preparation for the 400th anniversary of the first voyage of Columbus to the New World. It was composed by Francis Bellamy, a minister who had been thrown out of his church for socialist preaching.

The first Pledge, as published in the September 8, 1892 issue of The Youth's Companion, was a lot simpler than the current one. "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Bellamy's heart was in the last six words. He considered adding "equality," too. In his later years, he refused even to go to church because of what he found to be racial discrimination.

The American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution got "my flag" changed to "the Flag of the United States" in 1923 ("of America" was added the following year). The Knights of Columbus got "under God" added after "nation" in 1954. There is currently a campaign to add "born and unborn" at the end.

Congress officially recognized the Pledge in 1942. The reason no student can be forced to recite it is that the U.S. Supreme Court so ruled in 1943 -- in the middle of our participation in World War II.

We recited the Pledge in my high school, where the school colors were blue and white. My college's colors were red and gray. And those are the colors of many of the flags I now pass daily in New York: red, grayish-white, and blue. Three months of diesel exhaust, power-plant smoke, and incinerator and oil-burner emissions are not ideal for keeping whites their very whitest.

I did a quick survey today of the retail establishments between home and work displaying the flag. Old Glory appears to be a good indicator of the heritage of the shop owner: Irish bar, Italian restaurant, Israeli-run hardware store - no flag; Chinese restaurant, Korean deli, Pakistani-owned newsstand - flags galore and many God Bless Americas.

As I went for a bicycle ride the other day, I passed a black Mercedes sedan sporting flags on its rear window. It was parked directly in front of a fire hydrant.

In Central Park, the red, white, and blue pavement stripes from the New York City marathon have not yet worn off. Of course, those wouldn't necessarily have to relate to the American flag. Cuba's flag, for example, is also red, white, and blue.

Thirty countries have red, white, and blue flags -- the largest group; the next most popular color combination is used in only 16 countries. And some of the other red-white-and-blue countries even have red and white stripes and a white-on-blue star field.

In the National Colors used ceremonially by our military forces, the Army and the Air Force have a yellow fringe around their flags. Data Summary Sheet No. 1 of the Flag Research Center, in March of 1995, discusses that fourth color.

"It has been claimed that such fringe is without proper authorization; that it is symbolic of the end of the gold standard as the basis for United States currency; or that it indicates the substitution of admiralty courts and martial law for common law courts and procedures, as part of a conspiracy supposedly instigated by Communists, Jews, Masons, liberals, feminists, homosexuals, or other 'un-American' groups." Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson blamed the September 11 attacks on a similar coalition.

The Flag Research Center refutes each point. Here is one of their conclusions. "Available evidence seems to suggest that the claims made about fringe on the United States flag are intended to promote the political ends -- including elimination of income taxes, re-establishment of the gold standard, and denial of legal rights to women, non-Christians, and non-Caucasians -- of those who spread those rumors." Maybe the yellow just indicates that it's okay to be scared.

In addition to red, white, and blue, New York streets now have a lot of added green. The Christmas-tree sellers have set up their sidewalk stands, where one can buy anything from a potted rosemary bush to a tall Douglas fir.

I like the look and smell of those stands, and I appreciate their being open all night. No matter how early I leave for a job or return, I get to see someone else working in the cold.

Alas, they're somewhat unpatriotic. Roughly half of the Christmas trees sold on our sidewalks come from Canada, even though New York produces almost two million a year locally.

Today's New York Times, in the "Weekend Leisure" section, has a story by two half-Jewish New Yorkers about their trip to a local Christmas tree farm to cut their own. They paid just $25 for it, not counting their transit fares.

In true New Yorker fashion, they insisted on a Christmas tree farm accessible by public transportation. The tree, of course, had its own seat on the train.

There might even be a white Christmas in New York. Yesterday, the temperature hit 74 degrees; snow is predicted for Sunday. Tomorrow, when we have to load two TV trucks after a show, it's supposed to rain.

TTFN, Mark

Tue 12/11/2001 3:23 PM    The most important person on earth

There has been an ongoing story in the local news. It has nothing to do with September 11, anthrax, non-citizen rights, Islam, the Middle East, firefighters, Afghanistan, or our mayor. It doesn't even have anything to do with New York, which is why you're unlikely to have heard of it unless you avail yourself of our local news media. It is a teachers' strike in Middletown, New Jersey.

More accurately, it WAS a teachers' strike. The teachers went back to work yesterday after 228 of them were freed from jail. I haven't been paying much attention to the story, but it seems the issue is a $600 health-insurance premium.

What struck me about the news is that several stories in several different media outlets have mentioned death threats. People in the United States are threatening murder over a $600 insurance premium, and the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, founded by Lynne Cheney and Joseph Lieberman, has decided that "Stop the violence; stop the hate" is anti-American speech.

Perhaps "un-American" is more like it. We certainly have a long history of violence and hate in our country.

My wife and I have a tradition. Every day, one of us reads to the other -- even when we're separated by half a planet. We're currently reading "1831, Year of Eclipse," by Louis Masur, a professor of history at the City College of New York. In the United States of 170 years ago, there were also religious and racial bigotry, violence, Presidential power grabs, and many other portents of America today.

We just finished the part where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state of Georgia had no right to evict someone from Cherokee land if the Cherokee did not agree. Andrew Jackson, instead of enforcing the decision, said it "has fell still born," because the Court lacked its own army. The events led to the "Trail of Tears," the forced marches west in which more people died of exposure than were killed in the September 11 attacks.

Commemorating the third month since the attacks, George W. Bush today said, "Every one of the innocents who died on September the 11th was the most important person on earth to somebody. Every death extinguished a world." The words are beautiful, but I wonder if he heard what he said.

Yesterday, at Bagh-i-Shirkat, the site of a refugee camp in northern Afghanistan, the first food shipment since our bombardment began finally made it through. There was not enough to go around. Since our military action cut off access to the camp, 175 people have died there -- in just one of many such sites -- and hundreds more are gravely ill.

Were none of them "the most important person on earth to somebody"? Did none of their deaths extinguish a world? We are still refusing British and French requests to allow them to establish the security needed to speed aid deliveries and stop looting and destruction of food warehouses by fighters on both sides of the conflict.

Then there are the prisoners of war. They are being moved in sealed shipping containers. Some of the prisoners say hundreds have suffocated enroute. The Northern Alliance commander in charge of one group of prisoners disputes the figures. He says that "only" 43 died in the sealed containers, from either injuries or asphyxiation.

At his Nobel Peace Prize lecture yesterday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said, "If today, after the horror of September 11, we see better and we see further, we will realize that humanity is indivisible." But we are mortal.

TTFN, Mark

Sat 12/15/2001 7:02 PM    Dorothy didn't cheer

Back when it was still in East Germany, we found ourselves in the Leipzig railway terminal (at the time Europe's largest) at an end-of-workday rush hour. As New Yorkers, we were not at all bothered by the crowds of people scurrying every which way all around us. It was actually rather enjoyable.

After the commuters left, however, I started to feel uncomfortable. It was as though someone had set off a neutron bomb. The buildings were still intact, but there was not a person to be seen. We walked along empty streets past closed shops to our car. The city had lost that which made it a city, its people.

There used to be one section of New York that at times approached that artificial desolation. It was the financial district at night or on a weekend. I'd sometimes take visitors to see the emptiness, as though it were a natural wonder, but I didn't like going alone.

This week, the New York Times ran an extra 18-page section called "Rediscovering Downtown." I'd call it an advertising supplement, but the paper has been doing so many good deeds lately that they might have donated the space. One page had a large map showing the many new express-bus and ferry terminals that are being used to compensate for the few subway stations and the PATH-train terminal still closed.

I was down in the financial district earlier this week, near the site of the World Trade Center. It is unquestionably no longer empty at night or on weekends. There's a new life that hadn't been there even before September 11.

There are ad hoc shrines everywhere, as might be expected, but they are being lit at night, which is certainly not what I would have expected. I don't know who is doing the lighting. Is it construction workers borrowing generators and rigging lamps on towers? Is it some government agency? It's a new wonder in the area.

Court decisions have determined that certain sidewalk vendors in New York -- booksellers, for example -- may not be prohibited from offering their wares, as long as they don't block traffic or create a public-safety problem. Others -- offering toys or clothes or food -- must be licensed or prepared to run from the police.

There are extra police near the site, and unauthorized sidewalk vendors have set up right in front of them. The police seem more protective than threatening, which is as it should be. The vendors add to the life of the area, and that adds to its safety.

Long before Rudolph Giuliani was credited with reducing crime in New York (a trend that began in his predecessor's term and occurred all over the country), many New Yorkers gave credit to an earlier mayor, John Lindsay, for making Central Park safe. He did it not with increased police but with "Fun City" events that brought people into the park at night.

Nighttime business is booming near the World Trade Center site. I waited about fifteen minutes to make a purchase from one vendor (he had a good deal on million-dollar bills) before giving up. He was too busy. I was delighted to see that Middle Eastern restaurants in the area are crowded again, too.

Like many other New Yorkers, I get energy from crowds. You've probably seen the old photo of a million happy New Yorkers on the beach at Coney Island. These days, on Independence Day, if I'm in the city, I like to head to the FDR Drive, one of Manhattan's few limited-access highways, which is closed to that night to vehicular traffic so people can crowd onto it to watch the fireworks.

On New Year's Eve, there used to be a spontaneous parade from the Plaza Hotel into Central Park, along the Mall, down the stairs, into a throng surrounding the Bethesda fountain. Many people brought alcoholic beverages, and they were freely shared among one and all. Maybe that's why the parade was eventually outlawed, though I cannot recall a single altercation in the inebriated New Year's crowd.

Central Park is still great fun as the year changes. We like to stand at the south end of the park at Seventh Avenue. We have a clear view to the ball dropping in Times Square. Then we turn around and watch the fireworks in the park. Finally, we walk home past the costumed participants in the Midnight Run.

New York's New Year's crowds are about as diverse as it's possible to be on this planet. We come in all sizes, shapes, ages, colors, beliefs, practices, preferences, and income levels. Anyone who wants a hug and or kiss can get one, and anyone who doesn't isn't hassled.

It would be great if everyone everywhere could be like that all the time, but that's unlikely. Those preferences of ours lead us to like what some people do and to dislike what others do. Then we move from liking and disliking certain acts to liking and disliking those who commit those acts. And, especially under the tutelage of teachers, parents, and political and religious leaders, dislike can turn to hate.

"Let's have their families wiped out; maybe that is the only thing they understand." That isn't a quote from some Middle-Eastern zealot. It was said this week by Christine Huhn, widow of one of the World Trade Center victims, after hearing the gist of the recently released videotape implicating Osama bin Laden in the September 11 attacks.

I can understand her anger, and I believe that she wouldn't really kill the children to whom she referred, even in her grief and outrage. Children are children, no matter whose children they are.

Unfortunately, when one doesn't know a child it's possible to be convinced that it's not a child at all but merely something to be used to hurt one's enemy. Perhaps that was how those responsible for the September 11 attacks were taught to view their victims. Perhaps they considered them less than human. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Owing to [the Jews'] obstinacy and refusal to believe, they have become dogs. We have today in Rome, unfortunately, too many of these dogs, and we hear them barking in all the streets and going around molesting people everywhere." Killing a dog that's molesting people might even be considered a heroic act. The speaker of that quote was Pope Pius IX, beatified last year by Pope John Paul II.

Americans say they cannot understand how Osama bin Laden could be happy about the death and destruction of September 11. My feelings about the recently released Osama bin Laden tape seem to match those of another widow of a World Trade Center victim, Lorie Van Auken. "It makes me feel very sad and very ill that somebody could be so happy about those events when we feel so completely the opposite about them, so distraught and sad." But have WE never been happy about the deaths of those we considered OUR enemies?

Did no Americans cheer when an atomic bomb devastated Hiroshima and killed those we referred to then as "Jap devils"? If one wants to hear people cheering death and destruction, one need only enter a movie theater showing an adventure movie.

Margaret Hamilton, a New Yorker, became famous worldwide because of her role in an adventure movie of sorts. She died before there was a World Wide Web, but she often autographed photos "WWW" because of that role. She was the Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz."

Her character was certainly trying to kill the child Dorothy. "I'll get YOU, my pretty, and your little dog, too!" Was she doing it out of grief and anger caused by her perception of Dorothy's role in the death of her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, or was she just after a special pair of shoes?

It doesn't matter. She was just a fictional character, and one of questionable human descent at that. She had green skin, flew, commanded monkeys, and was vulnerable to death by water splash.

The Munchkins certainly celebrated her sister's death with the movie's most joyous song. And the "adults" seemed very pleased that Dorothy killed the Wicked Witch of the West as well. But Dorothy, herself, was not happy to have killed. In my opinion, no death is cause for joy.

TTFN, Mark

Tue 12/18/2001 6:04 PM    Unintended consequences

Cleveland Browns football team president Carmen Policy made a good case for apathy on Sunday. That's my take on his statement anyway.

After an unpopular decision by officials at a game between the Browns and the Jacksonville Jaguars, fans began throwing beer bottles (and other things) onto the field. American professional football players are big, brawny men, covered in padding and wearing helmets. Nevertheless, Jaguars receiver Jimmy Smith said, "We feared for our lives. It was like dodging bullets. We were just trying to dodge as many beer bottles as we could. It felt like I was starring in 'Saving Private Ryan' or something." I'm willing to believe he was scared.

Browns coach Butch Davis reacted as one might expect. "I'm disappointed," he said. "I know the fans were upset, but our guys were getting hit along with the Jaguars and the officials. It's an unfortunate situation." President Policy, however, said on Sunday, "I don't think this is an example of life and limb being at risk. I like the fact that our fans care." If that's an example of caring, I'll take apathy any day.

Of course, people sometimes say things they don't really mean. I've certainly done it myself -- once in front of a very big audience.

In 1978, I appeared on the technology-oriented television series "Fast Forward." I was trying to convey the wonders of the system behind color television. I wanted to point out that it could even display non-spectral colors (colors that don't appear in a rainbow). What came out of my mouth was, "It can even transmit purple, which doesn't exist in real life." Oops.

Then there was Jim McKechnie, president of the condominium board of the John Hancock tower in Chicago, which has the tallest residential floors on our planet. "We live in the safest building in the world now," he said after September 11. "We have security, we have plainclothes security, we have marked cars, we have unmarked cars. It's like the Pentagon. Okay, bad analogy." That was an instant correction.

Cleveland Browns president Policy apologized Monday for his statement on Sunday. "I did not set a proper tone. I realize I had to set the record straight. In no way do we approve of that [violence]."

In New Orleans on Monday, where there was a similar bottle-throwing incident, 13 people were arrested, and another 15 were ejected from the stadium. No one praised their violent response -- except, perhaps, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), which cited "Stop the violence; stop the hate" as one of 116 examples of anti-American, unpatriotic speech they found on college campuses.

Senator Joseph Lieberman, who ran for Vice President last year, co-founded ACTA with Lynne Cheney, spouse of the current Vice President. He has, in the past, criticized the entertainment industry for offering too much violence. Last week he criticized the Justice Department decision to try Zacarias Moussaoui in an open civilian court instead of a secret military commission.

"It's wrong not to have consulted the Department of Defense," Lieberman said, "because we're at war." As best I am aware, the Congress of which Lieberman is a member has yet to declare war on anyone. Moussaoui was also never in military possession; he was arrested in the United States before September 11. Lieberman fears that a civilian court will allow Moussaoui, whom Lieberman has decided is guilty, to "get away," even though civilian courts had no trouble convicting those terrorists responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing who were brought to trial.

It may be difficult to determine from the Lieberman and ACTA statements whether either would like to retract anything. There seems to be no doubt, however, about Geraldo Rivera's intentions.

He has, on numerous occasions, said that he would personally like to kill Osama bin Laden. He has made no secret of the fact that he is carrying a loaded gun in Afghanistan. An editorial in this week's Broadcasting and Cable magazine quotes Rivera on his personal plans for bin Laden. "Kick his head in, then bring it home and bronze it."

The magazine doesn't approve of that statement. It's not because of their politics or their feelings about violence. It's because, in their opinion, he is endangering the lives of other journalists.

If journalists are allowed safe passage through war zones, it is only because they are viewed as non-combatants. If they carry arms and vow to kill, they are no longer non-combatants. There is a reason ambulances don't carry weapons.

I don't think it is Geraldo Rivera's intention to endanger journalists. It's an unintended consequence. There have been many lately.

New York has decided to pay fire-department and police supervisors for the hundreds of hours of overtime they worked on and after September 11, despite the fact that such supervisors normally don't get overtime pay. Unfortunately, because their pensions are calculated based on what they receive in their last year on the job, the overtime pay provides a powerful incentive for those supervisors to retire soon. Already, New York police officers are retiring at about double last year's rate; 2,559 have left this year through the end of November.

Airport security has increased. So have complaints by female travelers and flight attendants of physical abuse by screeners. When one flight attendant requested a female screener to perform a pat-down search, she was reportedly threatened with arrest by a National Guard soldier.

Birds need not pass through airport security to fly. Two calliope hummingbirds have chosen to visit Manhattan. They are the first ever seen in New York State.

They consume half their body weight in food daily. That's not a lot (they are the smallest, lightest hummingbirds), but there will not be enough for them to eat once our vegetation realizes it's now past the middle of December.

There has been a great debate in New York over what to do about those two birds. Should they be captured and taken to a safe environment, such as one of our climate-controlled aviaries? Should that be a permanent relocation or just for the winter? Should they be flown to their normal winter feeding range? Should feeders be placed in the park they're in? What happens if the nectar substitute freezes? Would feeders encourage other birds that need to fly to warmer climes to dally in New York? Should nature simply be allowed to take its course?

It's nice that all of the possible consequences of action to be taken on behalf of two tiny birds are being considered. Would that the consequences of other actions receive even half as much consideration.

TTFN, Mark

Fri 12/21/2001 10:38 PM    Funerals are not for the dead

Perhaps the most intense moment of the 1995 movie "Sense and Sensibility" comes towards the end. Colonel Brandon (played by Alan Rickman), the movie's kindest character, has just rescued a woman from certain death, but she's still dangerously ill. He's not a doctor, and he's in anguish from his helplessness. "Set me a task!" he cries, and, when he IS sent on a dangerous mission, he's quite relieved.

People the world over try to be helpful and are often frustrated when they can't be. Journalists in Afghanistan report receiving exquisite hospitality from people who would as soon never have met them. Families in Madagascar without enough to eat will nevertheless share what little they have with strangers.

Americans are also helpful. A couple of years ago, I got stuck with someone on a mountain road in a blizzard, and virtually every car that went past -- in either direction -- stopped first, with someone getting out and slogging through the snow to make sure we were okay.

New Yorkers are so helpful that they will attempt to offer directions even to places they've never heard of. And our mayor is so VERY helpful that he would even have people dragged kicking and screaming from where they want to be, just to save them from themselves. That's one item in the local news these days.

It should come as no surprise that there's been a recent increase in homelessness in New York. There's a recession, Federal welfare benefits have expired, unemployment is up, and some homes were made uninhabitable on September 11.

The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church has a shelter for the homeless, but it's small and has been filled to capacity. So the church allows more homeless people to sleep on its steps and use the sanitary facilities in the shelter.

The church is located in the heart of one of New York's ritziest shopping districts, so, to keep the sensibilities of its commercial neighbors from being offended, it established some rules. The outdoor homeless are not supposed to gather at the church until 9 pm and are to vacate the steps by 7 am. The homeless agreed. It would seem everyone was happy. But our mayor wasn't.

He has been ordering police to raid the site in the middle of the night. Any homeless people unwilling to be taken to city shelters (which are far away and considered dangerous) are to be arrested. The police apologize for what they are being forced to do. The church is fighting the city. Ah, it's Christmastime in New York!

There is a Christmas tree at the site of the World Trade Center, and it is no longer surrounded by smoke. The fire might finally be out! The fire department simply calls it "contained" because they're not yet certain there are no smoldering pockets left.

There is a new reason for New York's firefighters to leave the department. About a quarter of those who have worked at the site have developed respiratory ailments that may be severe enough to entitle them to disability pensions. I hope they'll be all right.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Firefighters are all very brave. They risk their lives every day to save others. "Every day" includes those days before and after September 11.

There was another story in the news today. Senator Clinton managed to get legislation passed that will extend unemployment benefits for those who lost their jobs as a result of the September 11 attacks. That's nice, but I can't help wondering about those who lost their jobs BEFORE September 11.

Someone who lost a job on the 11th gets a full year of benefits; someone who lost a job on the 10th gets only 26 weeks. Employment fairs are being held to help those who lost their jobs on the 11th; those who lost their jobs earlier or later are on their own.

Earlier this month George W. Bush eloquently said, "Every one of the innocents who died on September the 11th was the most important person on earth to somebody. Every death extinguished a world." No amount of money can bring those worlds back. But the families of the victims may also be in financial need.

Kenneth Feinberg, the special master in charge of Federal benefits for the families of the victims of the September 11 attacks, announced yesterday that a single family in the appropriate category could receive almost $4.5 million -- tax free -- in addition to anything received from a charity. The average Federal compensation is expected to be about $1.6 million per family.

There have already been complaints. Some feel the method of benefit calculation is wrong. Others complain that certain types of victims (those with mental but not physical injuries) aren't included. Yet others complain that homosexual partners won't get benefits and that families of illegal aliens won't be given any amnesty, which means they'll be unlikely to apply to the government for help.

Already, the amount to be spent on those Federal victim benefits has been almost halved, and it may drop more. As of Wednesday, the toll of dead and missing at the World Trade Center had dropped below 3,000. It now seems likely that the overall cumulative figure, including those at the Pentagon, those on the plane that went down in Pennsylvania, those killed by anthrax, and even those Americans killed in the post-September 11 military action, will end up below 3,000.

Even one is too many. But I can't help thinking about all of the others. I don't mean only the non-Americans killed in our military action; I mean those whose deaths weren't related to September 11.

It's wonderful that the family of a firefighter lost on September 11 gets a good pension, death benefits, insurance, and more. It's great that they get free tickets to concerts and plays and free vacations in Hawaii. But what about the families of firefighters killed on the job before September 11 or since?

I'm glad that the Federal government is helping the families of those killed at the World Trade Center by foreign terrorists on September 11. But what about the families of those killed by foreign terrorists at the World Trade Center in 1993? There was no Federal benefits program for them. No Twin Towers Fund was set up eight years ago. And there are many others.

Is it so different for a family to have a loved one killed by a foreign terrorist instead of a domestic one? What about loved ones killed by murderers? What about those killed in accidents, such as those on American flight 587? Their families do not have access to an average $1.6 million Federal benefit. There are no charities guaranteeing each family hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Nevertheless, it's understandable why the attack-specific charities and government funds were established. On September 11, we became a nation of Colonel Brandons. We were anguished and distraught. The living firefighters and ironworkers and doctors were, in a way, the lucky ones; they had things they could do to help. The rest of us cried for a task, and the attack-specific charities gave us a way to be of assistance. Blood banks overflowed for the same reason. A fund for victims' families gave those in government a means of helping, too.

Now, more than three months later, the blood banks are running dry again. The victims of September 11 no longer need any blood. But the victims of other crimes, accidents, and illnesses do.

The Red Cross was severely chastised for trying to divert some of the money it raised for the families of the victims of the September 11 attacks to other disaster relief. But there are other disasters, and they, too, need relief. When the Red Cross responded on September 11, it didn't do so based on any Liberty Fund revenues.

There has been much flag waving in commercial advertisements lately. It seems that buying the latest widescreen, high-definition television set is a patriotic act of the highest order. Perhaps there's something to that. Increased sales will keep some retail personnel employed, and that WILL help a little.

The business section of today's New York Times noted that Cadillac is introducing a pickup truck. Its price is $50,000, and it gets just 13.5 miles per gallon. No doubt that, too, will be seen as a patriotic purchase. General Motors is bound to promote it as such.

The New York Times no longer runs a weather map of Afghanistan every day. Ellis Island, long the immigrants' gateway to America, and Liberty Island, home of the statue that once welcomed "the wretched refuse of your teeming shore," have reopened to tourists, though the Statue of Liberty, itself, has not. Things are slowly continuing to move back towards normal. But sometimes I wonder if "normal" is always such a good idea.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the bi-state agency that built the World Trade Center, was hit very hard by the September 11 attacks. It will be spending hundreds of millions of dollars just to restore service to a single train station in lower Manhattan. It lost many employees on September 11. It is projecting a 23% drop in operating revenue. And its recently appointed executive director will be getting a 22% raise. He will earn more than the governors of New Jersey and New York.

Raises were recommended by outside consultants for many Port Authority personnel. But the dire circumstances since September 11 made them seem inappropriate -- except, it seems, for one.

In other business news, it appears that the cable-television company Comcast will take over AT&T Broadband. The publicly held Comcast shares reportedly will represent 39% of the ownership of the new company but only 1% of the voting rights; the Roberts family will own 1% but have 33% of the voting rights.

The Federal Reserve has reduced its funds rate 11 times this year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, most of the drop taking place before September 11. If this "normal" trend continues, then sometime next year the Federal government will pay banks to borrow money.

Perhaps when that happens, no one will be poor anymore -- or perhaps not. Credit-card interest remains in the double digits despite the actions of the Federal Reserve.

I'm afraid I'm not very good at understanding the nuances of business and finance. But I think I understand one small aspect of American economics. Charitable donations may be deducted from income when taxes are calculated. That means the government helps you contribute to the charities of your choice.

For most of us, the end of our fiscal year is rapidly approaching. I would not presume to tell you what charitable donations to make. I ask only that you at least try to make the donations you normally would -- give more if you think you can.

If you contributed earlier to some new charitable fund to help the families of the victims of September 11, that was very good of you. Unfortunately, it doesn't help the victims of the events of the other 364 days of the year -- layoffs, accidents, illnesses, etc.

Colonel Brandon continued being generous even after his heroic action. PLEASE don't forget your usual year-end generosity.

Thank you. Happy holidays!

TTFN, Mark

PS As a present for your anticipated generosity, and in honor of Ellis Island being reopened to tourists, here's a joke:

A New Yorker is wandering through an unfamiliar part of Manhattan when he sees a sign -- "LARS JOHANSSEN - CHINESE LAUNDRY." Inside the shop, there's only an old man who looks Chinese. The wanderer asks to see the owner, and the Chinese-looking gentleman says he IS the owner. The wanderer asks who Lars Johanssen is, and the Chinese-looking gentleman says it is he. The wanderer looks quite surprised, so the Chinese-looking gentleman explains:

"When I first came to the United States, I passed through Ellis Island. I was in the immigration line behind a big Scandinavian. The officer asked him his name, and he said, 'Lars Johanssen.' Then it was my turn. When he asked me my name, I told him it was 'Sem Ting,' but he wrote 'Lars Johanssen' on my papers, too."

Wed 12/26/2001 10:33 PM    Getting away

The second time I went downhill skiing was in New York City. I make no claim as to the glories of our slopes, but one could rent boots, skis, and poles, get instruction, ride a lift, be rescued by the Ski Patrol, AND ride the subway from Manhattan.

I am writing this much closer to better ski areas. I am 8700 feet above sea level. I am in a county larger than the combined areas of the states of Delaware and Rhode Island and the District of Columbia but with fewer residents than my block in New York. It also has no traffic lights.

We come here often. On Christmas Eve, we went to a party thrown by the local merchants association. Many people wanted us to tell them what it was like in New York.

To get here, we took two American Airlines flights. Both were booked beyond capacity, and volunteers for later flights were requested.

There are a number of airports in the New York City area. On Friday, the check-in and security waits at La Guardia Airport reportedly exceeded four hours, causing many travelers to miss their flights. Saturday and Sunday, American Airlines reported long delays at both La Guardia and Kennedy Airports.

We were flying out of Newark Airport on Sunday, and, even so, we were advised by an American Airlines agent to arrive two-and-a-half hours early. We did. We made it from the curb to the gate in less than 15 minutes, including checking three bags.

The pilot of our first flight wanted to assure us that it was perfectly all right if we were scared to get on the plane, because he and his crew were also scared to get on the plane. We did not find that message particularly reassuring.

On landing, the flight attendant who made the announcements welcomed us on behalf of all of her colleagues who had been killed on American flight 77 on September 11. The pilot's final comments were deep appreciation for our flying with him that day and the usual "We look forward to having you on an American flight again in the future." That was followed by "It's fine if you'd rather fly on one of our competitors. Just keep flying, please."

The day before, someone had brought explosives onto an American Airlines flight in his shoes, so there was a new wrinkle at security. We all had to remove our shoes, place them in the x-ray machine, go through the magnetometer in socks, stockings, or barefoot, and retrieve our shoes on the far side of the x-ray.

Drug smugglers have often hidden their contraband in body cavities. I shudder to think of what airport security will be like if explosives are discovered similarly cached.

TTFN, Mark

Sun 12/30/2001 1:56 PM    The day before the end of the Gregorian year

Things are done differently in different parts of the world. Here in the U.S., there is discussion of trying John Walker for treason and executing him. In Sweden earlier this month, four people were convicted of treason (the first such conviction anyone could remember); they're being fined up to about $370 each.

Their crime was throwing a strawberry cream cake at King Carl Gustav. They were 16 and 17 years old.

In the village of Newark, New York, two 18-year-olds face a year in jail and a $1000 fine. The crime they are accused of is "liberating" garden gnomes. Yes, they are allegedly members of the dreaded global Garden Gnome Liberation Front.

A photo in the New York Times of a legislative aide in India showed him holding hands with two taller men, their fingers intertwined. The caption indicated the taller men were taking the aide to jail. The hand holding looked a lot nicer than handcuffs.

When we were in South Africa a few years ago, we stayed in hotels of the same chain in Johannesburg and Cape Town. In Johannesburg, the hotel was surrounded by a 20-foot-high security fence. The armed guard at the gate carefully examined our driver's papers before allowing us into the compound. Several guards tried to discourage us from going for a walk outside the secured area.

In Cape Town, the same chain's hotel had neither a fence nor guards. The front desk personnel seemed a little surprised that we wanted to walk instead of taking the hotel's courtesy van, but they were happy to provide directions and were in no way discouraging.

We found neither neighborhood threatening, but the additional security in Johannesburg didn't make us feel more secure. On the contrary, the complete LACK of security in Cape Town was more comforting.

When I arrived back at Newark Airport on Friday night, people were still being told to remove their shoes and have them x-rayed before being allowed to pass to the gate area. At my departure airport, however, where many people were wearing large, heavy boots, no one examined anyone's shoes.

In Madagascar in June, five of the airports we used had no security whatsoever (at the sixth it was do-it-yourself). As at the Cape Town hotel, we found that comforting rather than frightening. If they aren't concerned, why should we be?

According to Peter Tyson in "The Eighth Continent," the rural residents of Madagascar use interesting terms to tell time. What we call noon, they call "over the ridge of the roof," a reference to the sun's position in the sky. Our midnight is their nearly identical "halving of the night," but we have no equivalent for their description of 4:30 in the afternoon as "the cow newly calved comes home."

The book lists descriptive terms for roughly every quarter-hour period between approximately 6 and 7 (both am and pm), but it lists no term for 1 am or 10 am. There appears to be no term for 11 am or pm either. And why should there be? Today there are clocks in Madagascar, but there is nothing natural about the division of a day into 24 hours, nor the division of those hours into minutes, nor the division of the minutes into seconds.

A day is a natural phenomenon. So is a year. So is the 29.5-day period of a lunar month. The seven-day week, however, seems to come from the biblical concept of divine creation. Nevertheless, it is found worldwide. There may be no rural Malagasy term for 11 pm, but they have names for each of the seven days of a week.

Similarly, Christmas is celebrated around the world, and not just by Christians. A train crash last week in Muslim Indonesia had a high death toll in part because so many people were traveling for Christmas. In Kabul last week, reportedly for the first time since the Taliban took power, Christmas trees were being sold on the streets.

Of course, a holiday on December 25 long predates Christianity. The ancient Romans celebrated it as "natalis invicti solis," the birthday of the unconquerable sun; some Christians later changed it from "sun" to "son." The 12-day celebration is even older, dating to the Mesopotamian New Year holiday. The ancient Persian holiday of Sacaea was also celebrated on what we'd call December 25.

Today, the 30th of December of 2001, is the 9th of Dey of 1380 in a more-recent Persian calendar, one reportedly used in Afghanistan. It is either the 14th or 15th of Shawwal of 1422 in the Islamic calendar, depending on whether you go by calculation or observation. According to the Jewish calendar (where the New Year comes in the seventh month), it's the 15th of Tevet of 5762 -- until sundown. In the Chinese calendar, it's the 16th day of the 11th month of the 18th year of the 78th cycle. According to the old Julian calendar, it's December 17.

In New York, at midnight tomorrow night, it will be the end of Rudolph Giuliani's term as mayor. As he promised he would, he came up before the end of his term with a deal covering two new baseball stadiums.

They would cost $1.6 billion. The teams would supposedly pay half the costs, but the $23 million a year they would contribute would be in lieu of taxes. The new ballparks would each seat about 10,000 fewer fans than the current ones. The teams are not worried about lost revenues, however, because they would have new high-priced luxury "suites" and "club" seats.

The replacement stadium for the Mets would be built in the parking area of the current Shea Stadium. The replacement for the Yankees would be built in what is now a park, assuming the state grants permission to destroy that green space. Both would be farther from existing subways, but part of the arrangement would have the city making transportation improvements. The new mayor is not bound by Rudy's deal.

The transfer of mayoral power will take place in front of the estimated half-million celebrants in Times Square. Some 7,000 New York City police have been assigned to the area. They will be using, among other tools, radiation detectors to help spot nuclear weapons. I wish I were kidding about that.

Times Square, like other Manhattan "squares," exists because Broadway doesn't follow the normal street grid. South of Times Square, where Broadway meets Sixth Avenue, it creates Herald Square, home of Macy's, the world's largest department store.

On Thursday in Herald Square, during the afternoon rush hour, the police asked the driver of an illegally positioned van to move it. It lurched into a crowd of pedestrians before smashing into a bus. Seven people were killed. The driver said the van accelerated on its own.

The victims' families suffered losses no less than those of the families of the September 11 victims, but no special charitable funds have yet been created to help them. The government is not expected to pay them up to $4.5 million each in compensation, as it is doing for the September 11 victims' families.

An insurance company that lost many of its employees on September 11 thought it was being nice when it announced last week that it would maintain health coverage for its victims' families for three years. It has been chided for being stingy.

There are people with no health insurance whatsoever. There are people with no homes. There are people with no food. There are many people with many needs.

The New Year is traditionally a time for making resolutions. It is also traditional not to keep them. But it is not yet the New Year.

As I've mentioned before, here in the United States, the government helps you make charitable donations by allowing them to be deducted from your income before calculating your taxes. As I write this, there is more than a day left to have your contributions count against your 2001 income.

Please don't just resolve; please do. Thanks!

TTFN, Mark