Articles Posted by NYCVirago
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A friend told me yesterday about reading this story in last week's the New York Times magazine: As a stylist snipped and fluffed, Jeff Jones, the associate publisher of Gear magazine, spun a story out of ''Sex and the City'': on the morning of Sept. 11, a married man went to his girlfriend's apartment instead of his office at the World Trade Center. When his wife saw the attack on the news, she called his cellphone, expecting the worst, and was surprised to find him so nonchalant. No, it was just another uneventful day at the office, the man told ...
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Have New York Democrats learned any lessons from the mayoral debacle of 2001? Or are they crazy enough to continue drinking from the poisonous well of ethnic politics? The City of New York is going through its toughest period since the Great Depression. Terrorism has left thousands dead. The World Trade Center, the skyline's most distinctive feature, is a mixture of dust and memories. Neighborhoods like Chinatown and Little Italy are struggling to survive. Jobs are vanishing by the scores of thousands. Enormous budget deficits are coming, and perhaps a state takeover of municipal finances as well. The city, ...
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The salesman was running late that morning. He called his wife to say he was probably going to miss his meeting at Windows on the World. But at the last minute, at 8:47, he called his office to say he had made it to the restaurant. One minute later, American Airlines Flight 11 hit the building, the north tower of the World Trade Center. It was 100 minutes before the tower collapsed. He was 29. The other day, a lawyer for the salesman's 27-year-old widow pushed back in his chair at a Park Avenue law firm and estimated how ...
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PORTLAND, Ore., Nov. 8 — The incidents have not tailed off, even since Sept. 11: a firebombing at a federal corral for wild horses in northeastern California; a fire at a primate research center in New Mexico, and back-to-back break-ins in Iowa, one at a fur farm to release more than 1,000 mink, the other to free pigeons raised for research. All the incidents occurred in the last several weeks, and loose-knit groups like the Animal Liberation Front or the Earth Liberation Front have claimed responsibility. While many mainstream protest groups have scaled back their activism since the terrorist attacks, ...
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Last Saturday the New York Times carried a long profile from New Delhi of "India's most passionate polemicist," the novelist Arundhati Roy. The Times told us that Roy has not only condemned the bombing of Afghanistan as terrorism sure to breed more terrorism but labeled Osama bin Laden "America's family secret" -- that is, a monster created by the United States when it covertly supported the mujahideen against the invading Soviets in the 80s. "He has been sculpted from the spare rib of a world laid waste by America's foreign policy." Roy enjoys a "wide readership" in Europe, where important ...
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<p>Marlo Thomas doing a Simon & Schuster inspirational book, "The Right Words at the Right Time." Like what helped who when and how and why. Hillary personally phoned with several anecdotes.</p>
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N.Y. Yankees Defeat Taliban Jeter, Knoblauch lead bunker-busting rout NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE Oct. 26 — Fresh from clinching their fourth consecutive American League Championship, the New York Yankees defeated Afghanistan’s repressive Taliban regime, according to U.S. military officials. SHORTSTOP DEREK JETER and left fielder Chuck Knoblauch led the Yankees’ assault on the Taliban, who demonstrated even less resistance than the Seattle Mariners. The decision to board a military jet for Afghanistan immediately after defeating Seattle was made by Yankees manager Joe Torre. “We figured we’d do it while we had the momentum,” a champagne-drenched Torre told reporters from his ...
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Bloomberg Says He's a Liberal Quirky remarks upstage gov By MICHAEL SAUL Daily News Staff Writer Republican mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg proudly declared himself a "liberal" — invoking the "L" word he uses to bash Mark Green — at a news conference yesterday designed to feature an endorsement from Gov. Pataki. "I am a liberal," said Bloomberg, with the GOP governor standing at his side. "Yes, I think in many senses I'm a liberal. But I am not anti-business. And I am not anti-police." Bloomberg, a life-long Democrat who switched parties to run for mayor, derided Green less than 24 ...
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Fox Newsman Bill O'Reilly says he understands why New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was booed at Madison Square Garden during Saturday's "Concert for New York City." "She was talking to a blue-collar crowd," the host of Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" said of the almost 5,000 firefighters and police who were sitting front and center. "She doesn't connect with those people and never has." O'Reilly's agent, Carole Cooper, threw a party for him at Fox on Monday to celebrate the publication of his book "The No Spin Zone" (Broadway Books). The author, who has never been a ...
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I really wanted to like the concert. "United We Stand" it was called, an all-day benefit Sunday at RFK Stadium in Washington. I really wanted it to be a great time. We all did. After all, what's not to like about helping the victims of the terrorist attack on the Pentagon? And if it involves a day of performances by more than 20 of the biggest stars of pop music -- so much the better, right? Organized by Michael Jackson, and scheduled to be broadcast on ABC in November, the theme of the show was "What More Can I Give" ...
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<p>BILL CLINTON. So sharp you could cut your finger just shaking hands with him. And so fast. And so smooth. And so easy. And with such a smile.</p>
<p>Backstage at the Concert for New York, the man's working it. Surrounded by photogs, handlers, security, autographers, handshakers. Amidst this mob I ask: "So, if you were still the USA's main man, how differently would you handle this Osama bin Laden deal?"</p>
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Salt of the earth New York's finest got the party they deserved on Saturday night -- and if you don't think so, you know what you can kiss. I loved Saturday night's VH1 Concert for New York, in all its loopy, poignant, working-class excess. And anyone who didn't -- including Salon's Jim DeRogatis -- can kiss my royal Irish ass. Did I wince at some of the macho bluster from the grieving, beer-drinking cops and firemen and paramedics in the crowd? You bet I did, and then I remembered to check my luxurious left-coast snobbery. The politics, the posturing, ...
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erhaps the organizers of "The Concert for New York City," held Saturday night at Madison Square Garden and televised on VH-1, didn't fully grasp the fact that the city's police and firemen really don't like the terrorists who blew up the World Trade Center. "Hey bin Laden," bellowed one firefighter from the stage, "You can kiss my royal Irish ass." Just to let the world's most-wanted terrorist know he was serious, the fireman added in a gruff voice, "I'm from Rockaway." Others on stage seemed slightly embarrassed; the concert was supposed to be about paying tribute to the heroism that ...
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Of all the tributes, concerts, benefits and speeches staged in commemoration of Sept. 11, "The Concert for New York City" at Madison Square Garden Saturday night stood out as the most unruly and raucous. For that reason, it was perhaps the best representation yet of a community finding its way in the wake of tragedy. Paul McCartney (c.) shares the stage with firefighters, police officers, and their families at 'The Concert for New York' finale. At times a political rally, at others a burlesque, the concert embraced New York's many facets, allowing each a moment of glory. Billy Joel's heartfelt ...
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C.J. SullivanHeroes Are Silenced The best speech given during Saturday's "Concert for the City of New York" was by firefighter Mike Moran. Moran was allowed to read off a list of some of his fallen comrades, and before some nerdy p.a. could hustle him off the stage Moran bellowed, "And this is to Osama bin Laden: You can kiss my Royal Irish ass!" The civil servants in the front rows went wild. Moran then ripped off his firefighter dress cap, stuck his beefy Irish face into the camera, and with a wicked working class outer-borough accent said, "And I'm Mike ...
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Writer Susan Sontag has produced many texts during her four-decade career, including historical novels and reflections on cancer, photography and the war in Bosnia. But it was a brief essay, less than 1,000 words long, in the Sept. 24 issue of the New Yorker that created the biggest uproar of her life. In the piece, which she wrote shortly after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, Sontag dissected the political and media blather that poured out of the television in the hours after the explosions of violence. After subjecting herself to what she calls "an overdose of CNN," Sontag reacted ...
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Larry Silverstein never wanted this attention. He woke up obscure on the morning of Sept. 11. Just a few weeks before, the diminutive, 70-year-old developer had completed the deal of his life, leading a group of investors in the $3.2 billion purchase of a 99-year lease on the World Trade Center. Respected within the insular world of New York real estate, he remained little known in the world at large. That all changed the moment the Trade Center towers—the complex Mr. Silverstein called “my dream”—collapsed. Suddenly, the developer was thrust into an unaccustomed public role as New York’s rebuilder. On ...
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Students say school's policies inconsistent Texas A&M University has banished the Star and Stripes from outside dormitory windows, but some students aren't ready to wave the white flag. Students had hung U.S. flags outside their dorm room windows after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, without objections from the university. But in recent weeks, residence hall directors and university staff members ordered the flags taken down, citing safety hazards and school policy that generally bans the display of items outside windows. Flags can be displayed inside the rooms or elsewhere, said Ron Sasse, Texas A&M's director of residence life. "We ...
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After attending last Saturday's 7,500 person peace march in downtown Washington, D.C., sponsored by "International A.N.S.W.E.R." (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism), I was left with a rather odd conclusion: The protesters hadn't watched enough CNN. I mean, I'm sure they were glued to the news on September 11th like all the rest of us, watching the trade towers collapse again and again, and hearing some U.S. foreign policy luminaries, like Lawrence Eagleburger, call for sweeping retribution. But after September 12th or 13th, the demonstrators, many of them students, appear to have switched off. One of the ...
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Thoughts that first ran through my head, all garbage now, like scorched paperwork over the harbor: Wow, it's going to be hard to repair those tall buildings! Couldn't Clinton just be president again? I mean, really, that whole election thing was fun, but the real guy is alive, he's healthy, can't we just sort of slip him in there? One of those buildings couldn't actually fall, could it? Could it? There were people on those airplanes! We just watched a lot of people die! Gore would be fine, just fine. My breath stinks. Didn't brush my teeth. The people on ...
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