Moment of Introspection

Feeling cynical? Just can't keep up with the world? SFGate.com columnist Mark Morford offers a genuinely bright moment with this piece

Seek out nuance and counterargument and subtle irony and contrarianism and balance and perspective. Realize it's never as one-sided as they want you to believe. Read more outside your normal box of viewpoints and interests. Find out for yourself.

Remember the world does not consist of simpleminded and reductive good/evil polarities, but, rather, is a living organism, interconnected and breathing and dying and renewing in constant flux, religions interflowing, beliefs inbreeding, crammed full of ecstatically bejeweled people who are just as contradictory and confused and gorgeous and kaleidoscopic and baffled and sleepy and horny and lost and desperately craving of juicy unfiltered spiritual nourishment as you are, in this very moment, as you read these words.

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It's always a damn shame when a young life ends due to foolish misadventures.

But when I read in a New York Post story "Subway-Surfing Teen Killed In Bronx." I realized right away that this kid should have known better.

This young man's demise came when he fatally knocked his head on an overhead beam while playing a risky game of "subway surfing". The article also pionts out that this 18 yr old was "6 feet 7 inches tall and weighed about 275 pounds."

Say it ain't so Spree

Newsday Reports

Sprewell lashed out at Knicks president Scott Layden and at Madison Square Garden president of sports team operations Steve Mills for their recent decision to fine him $250,000 because he failed to report his fractured right hand injury when it occurred. He was especially upset that they banned him from associating with the team for an indefinite period, and he suggested Layden's performance should be scrutinized as closely as his own.

Despite these woes, I still remain an Optimistic fan

But Barbara of Newsday is less than optimistic, she says:

Do you, Mr. and Ms. Knicks fan, have that kind of patience? Are you really ready to stomach a 20-something-win season just so the Knicks can win the LeBron James lottery next year? Well, ready or not, here it comes. Without Antonio McDyess, the Knicks could very well be the worst team in the Eastern Conference and the second-worst team in the NBA next to Denver. Yet that doesn't mean the Knicks won't be worth watching.

Barbara, I'm Just not going to give up on the Knicks, I'm sure they'll get their groove back

Meanwhile, NY1.com reports that:

Attorneys for Latrell Sprewell announced Monday the New York Knicks star is suing The New York Post for $40 million over an article he says is false.

The article, written by the Post’s Knicks beat writer, Marc Berman, claims Sprewell broke his hand throwing a punch at a partygoer after someone vomited on his boat during the off-season. However, Sprewell says he hurt the hand when he accidentally fell on his boat last month.

The 405 Club

Leave it to the Sunday New York Times style section to uncover a not-so-exclusive subculture that’s been around for well over a year now: the 405 Club. This refers to the monetary amount many young and unemployed white-collar workers receive weekly as unemployment compensation after being laid off.

Pocket change at best.

'Son Of Sam' chimes in about the DC Sniper

(AP) _ In a letter received Monday, "Son of Sam" serial killer David Berkowitz asked the Washington-area sniper to "stop hurting innocent people."

Berkowitz, who terrorized New York City in 1977, wrote Rita Cosby of FOX News to offer his theories of the shooter who has killed nine people and wounded three others in Virginia, Maryland and Washington since Oct. 2.

"I feel that I have been feeling this person's anger and rage toward law enforcement," Berkowitz wrote from Sullivan Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Fallsburg, about 80 miles northwest of New York City. [more]

Takes one to know one I suppose.

Owners of White Vans Catch Heat

The Baltimore Sun reports that people who drive white vans for a living are always thinking about their alibis. Many say they have been the subject of unwarranted suspicion.

One man who drives an unmarked white Astro van said schoolchildren taunt him.

"You just don't know what I've been through," said Robert Drake of New Carrollton, who works as a trash collector in Washington and part time in cleaning businesses in Laurel. "Kids getting off the school buses yell "Sniper!" and then run away.”

ATTN: Coffeeholics

According to this book, caffeine makes you smarter, wittier, thinner, more productive, more fun at parties and sexier.

An interesting read that helps dispel some common misconceptions about caffeine. But personally I wouldn't increase my caffeine intake overnight, the stuff is still addictive and there are other unanswered questions to be considered.

Still, it's always important to get both sides of the story.

"Caffeine is a safe, almost magical tool for releasing our hidden potential," according to “The Caffeine Advantage,” a new book/rationalization by noted coffeeholics Bennett Alan Weinberg and Bonnie Bealer.

The authors claim that caffeine allows us to "achieve whatever it is we want to achieve" and "gives us the extra time we need to accomplish" it. It suppresses our appetites, makes us more alert, heightens our senses, and even gives us more manual dexterity.

I'm sure Mr Juan Valdez would agree 100%.

I was going to comment on Scott Rubush's recent post in which he mentions the Ten Things he hates About New York City but La Blogatrice already did an excellent job with her rebuttal, defending our great city's honor.

Sniperphobia

Jonah Goldberg of The Washington Times reports on why he feels the sniper shootings are al-Qaeda assaults. Reuters has U.S. officials saying that there's no link yet.

_________

CNN reports this story

The police chief at the center of the Washington-area sniper investigation revealed Sunday that someone left a message at the site of Saturday's shooting outside an Ashland, Virginia, restaurant.

It is not clear where exactly the message was found or in what format, Chief Moose did not elaborate. This may possibly be a huge development, and I hope one that will lead to this case being solved.

Jogger Case

NY Newsday currently has a public opinion poll that asks "Should The Five Convicted in the Central Park Jogger Case Be Exonerated?" The answers may surprise you, the results are here.

I haven't been following the case very closely, but based on the info that I'm aware of, it is clear that there are many discrepancies that should not be ignored.

Jimmy Breslin writes a signifcant piece on the lone dissenting opinion of Judge Vito Titone of the State Court of Appeals on the appeal of Yusef Salaam (one of the five convicted youths).

Tomorrow, at the State Supreme Court in Manhattan, defense lawyers are to put forward a motion that the convictions be vacated. I've read that District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, whose office has been reinvestigating the case since Reyes came forward, also plans to be there to ask for a 30-day postponement, citing the need to reinterview more witnesses and review more DNA results.

Many residents in the community are concerned, some are planning to protest outside the courthouse tomorrow morning and with good reason. I vote for exoneration, it is the only decision that would make sense to me at this juncture.

I'll be checking with fellow New Yorker Ronn on Monday, he has been keeping a detailed watch of the developments in this case in his weblog.