October 15, 2005

Umbrella. Say it fast, as one peddler did in Times Square -- umbrella-umbrella-umbrella -- and there's music playing. Say it soft, as another peddler did at Herald Square -- ummm-brell-laa -- and it's almost like praying.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's record on creating jobs for New Yorkers came under scrutiny this week as his Democratic challenger, Fernando Ferrer, once again accused him of ignoring the needs of poor and minority communities. At the heart of Mr. Ferrer's attack is his claim that 40 percent of the city's black men, and 33 percent of its Hispanic men, are unemployed. Just how accurate are Mr. Ferrer's numbers? Not very.

More than four decades separate the debuts of Ara Parseghian and Charlie Weis as Notre Dame football coach. When the two sat down for lunch last week, however, they agreed that little had changed when it came to one of sports' most iconic brands. In 1964, Parseghian took over a program that had five consecutive losing seasons. After a 9-0 start, he found himself on the cover of Time magazine. Weis has grabbed headlines this season by leading a team that was 6-6 last season to a 4-1 record and a No. 9 ranking in the Associated Press news media poll.

The most valuable seats at Angels Stadium on Friday night were in Sections 126 and 127, where fans could watch the game from field level at the same time they had an unusual sort of group therapy. They gathered to cheer their team and release every ounce of frustration that had been building in the past two days.

They were construction workers, schoolteachers and medical center managers. From Manhattan to Minneapolis, Chicago to San Francisco, they stood in long lines that snaked a block or more for much of yesterday. Some brought their children. Some had arrived at dawn. It may have looked like a frenzied rush for rock concert tickets, but the thousands of people standing patiently in line for hours outside federal courthouses were waiting to file for bankruptcy. It was the final workday before a tough new federal law takes effect.