Author Tom Wolfe has his Cadillac customized in white to match his signature style at Unique Autosports in Holbrook, NY; photo (M)

Call Him Ishmael. (He Has the Whale.)

Birkenstock, whose sandals are synonymous with hippies and latter-day granola-crunchers, is delighted to see stereotype perpetuated in public consciousness; movie Thank You for Smoking has environmentalist character wear boxy buckled sandals that director Jason Reitman says are universally recognized as emblem of liberal do-gooderness; photos (M)

Thank You for Insulting Our Sandals

The War at Home

Security personnel at Manhattan nightclubs, once known as bouncers, say they are professionals who should not be put in same category as Darryl Littlejohn, convicted felon who worked at Falls bar in SoHo and is at center of investigation into murder of Imette St Guillen; photos (M)

Buttoned-Up Bouncers on Defensive

Behind the Wheel column reviews 2006 Honda Civic; photos; chart (M)

2006 Honda Civic: Once Strait-Laced, Now Spacey

THE most vivid characters in Alan Moore's graphic novels are antiheroes of ambiguous morality and identity: costumed avengers like Rorschach, the disturbed street vigilante of ''Watchmen,'' or the crusader known only by the letter V, who commits catastrophic acts of terrorism in the dystopian tale ''V for Vendetta.''      With inventions like these, and a body of writing that spans nearly three decades, Mr. Moore, a 52-year-old native of Northampton, England, distinguished himself as a darkly philosophical voice in the medium of comic books -- a rare talent whose work can sell solely on the strength of his name. But if Mr. Moore had his way today, his name would no longer appear on almost any of the graphic novels with which he is most closely associated. ''I don't want anything more to do with these works,'' he said in a recent telephone interview, ''because they were stolen from me -- knowingly stolen from me.''  

The Vendetta Behind 'V for Vendetta'

TEDDY CRUZ has been shuttling between suburban San Diego and the shantytowns of Tijuana for more than a decade now. From anthropologists to urban planners eager for an insider's view, visitors pepper him endlessly with requests for tours.      ''It's become part of my weekly routine,'' said Mr. Cruz, a 43-year-old architect, as we raced along a fenced freeway toward the Mexican border. ''Most people here haven't even seen the border wall. I want to show people that it's not so ugly.''  

Shantytowns as a New Suburban Ideal

AFTER Black Monday, the day of the stock market crash of 1987, an official from the National Association of Securities Dealers called a meeting of Wall Street power players to discuss how to remedy the system. What is remarkable is that the meeting took place not in a boardroom but in a local bar, Harry's at Hanover Square. Harry's had so quickly become a downtown institution that The Wall Street Journal published a front-page profile of it in 1976, just four years after its founding by Harry Poulakakos, a Greek immigrant.     Fiction has shadowed fact. In Bret Easton Ellis's 1990 novel, ''American Psycho,'' the rich consort with one another at Harry's. And in ''The Bonfire of the Vanities,'' Tom Wolfe writes that ''in investment houses all over Wall Street, the erstwhile Bond Bores were making so much money they took to congregating after work in a bar on Hanover Square called Harry's, to tell war stories.'' Mr. Wolfe was a regular.  

Gordon Gekko, Meet the Kids

ONE night a little more than two years ago, Simon Cowell, the creator of and corrosive judge on the biggest show on television, ''American Idol,'' was driving his car through the streets of London, thinking about the state of his entertainment-business interests. ''I remember thinking: My gosh, I've sold a new talent show in Britain, and I'm taking 'Idol' off the air there. I'm launching a classical group called Il Divo. I'm changing the sound of the group Westlife, which had already sold 40 million records. And I was thinking: This could all come crashing down. This new show could fail. The classical group could fail. I could screw Westlife's career up. Why am I doing this, because it's going to be quite a high-profile bomb if that happens.''     Mr. Cowell did not suffer self-doubt for long. ''It was sort of a delicious thrill really,'' he said in his buttery British tones. ''Making a lot of money usually means not putting your neck on the block anymore, but putting your neck on the block is part of the thrill. If I genuinely believe something is a good idea, then I'm willing to fail or succeed by giving it a go.''  

Here Comes the Judge

Cottage industry of prognosticators, software-sellers and T-shirt sellers has developed around bracket for National Collegiate Athletic Assn Division I men's basketball tournament; bracket will be revealed on Mar 12; photo (L)

Bracket Provokes Its Own Madness for the N.C.A.A.

IT'S a sultry January day in São Paulo, and dozens of people are dining beneath a gargantuan fig tree with dramatic horizontal limbs reminiscent of ''Jurassic Park.'' An entire restaurant has been built around this 130-year-old tree, and the expansive glass-ceilinged patio is so ingeniously constructed that it's hard to tell whether they are sitting inside or out.      Families and couples can sit for hours in Figueira Rubaiyat, a popular gathering spot for the traditional Brazilian Sunday lunch. They'll snack on hot, puffy cheese rolls and drink caipirinhas, an icy national cocktail made with limes and a sugar cane liquor called cachaça. They will devour thick, charred steaks and bountiful seafood casseroles, enjoying the pleasures of summer in the city and the feel of the warm sun on their bare arms.  

The New São Paulo

US Amb Zalmay Khalilzad has played role of power broker ever since Iraq's elections in Dec 2005, shuttling between Shiite and Sunni Muslims and urging them to make concessions in interest of forming broad-based government; violence that followed bombing of Shiite shrine on Feb 22--and that raised prospect of civil war--has made Khalilzad's task far more urgent, and left him contentious figure whose credibility as honest broker has come under attack; photos (M)

The Juggler

Classified United States military report, other documents and interviews show that Saddam Hussein and his inner circle were convinced main danger to his government came from within even as US began its invasion; Hussein distrusted his own commanders and soldiers so much and was so secretive that top military leaders were stunned to learn three months before war that there were no weapons of mass destruction; prized loyalty over competence and worried about Shiites and Iran; photos (L)

Even as U.S. Invaded, Hussein Saw Iraqi Unrest as Top Threat

WITH the cacophony of pile drivers and backhoes in the background, Hugh Hardy and Darlene Fridstein emerged from their rented black sedan and surveyed one of New York City's fastest-gentrifying neighborhoods: the waterfront of Long Island City, Queens.     The two-story red stable they came to see, for sale for $3 million -- to any enterprising artist, writer, small businessman or anyone else interested in urban pioneering -- possesses one of the world's best views of the Manhattan skyline.  

Reinventing a Stable as an Essay in Light

Officials attending Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis, Tenn, describe themselves as shaken by mistakes that have afflicted Bush administration; situation is complicated for prospective Presidential aspirants Sens John S McCain, George Allen, Bill Frist and Sam Brownback and Govs Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee in that Bush remains hugely popular with party's conservative base; some suggest huge turnout at meeting is evidence that many are anxious for respite from bad news; several speakers warn Republicans to focus on 2006 elections, not Presidential race of 2008; photos (L)

Bush's Troubles Weigh Heavily as Republicans Meet

BETH LOWY protested all the way to the front door. Unlike the previous apartments she and her husband had owned, the co-op apartment in a town house on West 78th Street had no doorman. That was a deal breaker. But as is often the case with love, preconceived notions tend to go out the window.      ''I don't want to live in a place with no doorman,'' Ms. Lowy said as she and her husband, Tom, first approached the building. Once they entered the apartment, however, she changed her mind ''in a nanosecond.''  

What Explains the 'Aha' Moment

New York Yankees have great expectations of new third-base coach Larry Bowa, who is often described as 'fiery'; photos (M)

Some See Bowa's Fire, but Yankees See His Spark

Bustle around New York Tech Meetup, which began with just four attendees last year, reflects lively interest in New York's Silicon Alley; number of new-media companies have been involved in heady high-dollar deals that carry faint but alluring whiff of 1990's and startups are popping up again; New York Software Industry Assn has opened technology incubator at its Broad Street headquarters that now houses 14 new cmopanies; some of new start-ups noted; photos; map (M)

Alive and Well in Silicon Alley

Lisa Belkin Life's Work column on women who have made difference like Dr Jan Brunstrom, cerebral palsy sufferer who overcame obstacles to become doctor and is now role model to youngsters with cerebral palsy; Dawn Staley, who survived life in Philadelphia housing projects to become professional basketball player and coach, and Zainab Salbi, who fled Iraq for United States and founded group that provides microcredit loans and job training to women in war-ravaged countries; drawing (M)

Making History, One Day at a Time

ON Fountain Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn, the view isn't nearly as scenic as the name suggests. Within a mile or so there are a shuttered incinerator; a center for the mentally disabled; a school bus depot stretching for blocks; and a series of brick warehouses and neglected homes separated by several vacant lots, one occupied by a beached powerboat.      Michael Pastore, who works on nearby Linden Boulevard as a field manager for Animal Care and Control, calls this part of the city ''the land of the lost.''  

Student Is the Latest Victim to End Up in Swampland

Duke University men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski's coaching descendents, who have landed at other programs hoping to make NCAA tournament, have endured uneven performances this season and during conference tournaments; chart; photo (M)/

For Coach K's Disciples, Season Has Produced Mixed Blessings

Automakers are moving operations into China in illustration of how quickly overall auto industry is expanding and modernizing in nation; Ford Motor Co opens its second production line with its most advanced factory equipment; will bring total capacity in China to 200,000 cars per year by June; other American and European carmakers, including General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen, are also introducing their best technologies to plants in China, facing competition from local companies like Geely, Chery Automobile Co and Lifan Group; auto executives believe Chinese companies will soon be ready to compete in world market as they learn to make use of new equipment and become more efficient; photos; graph (M)

Thanks to Detroit, China Is Poised to Lead

Gretchen Morgenson column on stock analysts who are increasingly becoming targets of retaliation after making downgrades to stock; says attacks often come from companies themselves, which can sue or ban analysts from conference calls; holds Raymond James & Associates analyst Michael Krensavage encountered abuse from individual investor for his downgrade of Bentley Pharmaceutical; notes phone message threatened to report Krensavage to Securities and Exchange Commission for manipulating stock; says market is becoming closed to differences of opinions among investors; photo (M)

Downgrade a Stock, Then Duck and Cover

Employees are increasingly trying out new jobs as temporary workers before committing to permanent status in workplace; photo (M)

A Way to Try a Job on for Size Before Making a Commitment

Merck & Co sold rights to manufacture and market slow-selling cancer drugs nitrogen mustard, or Mustargen, and Cosmegen to Ovation Pharmaceuticals last August; Ovation stunned doctors and patients by raising wholesale price of Mustargen roughly tenfold in February and that of Cosmegen even more, saying increases were needed to pay for manufacturing facilities for drugs; doctors see trend in soaring prices of cancer drugs and tendency for prices to have little relation to cost of development; graph; photos (L)

A Cancer Drug's Big Price Rise Is Cause for Concern

Victor Sokolov was a Russian-American former dissident Soviet journalist and an Eastern Orthodox priest.

March 12, 2006

Headlines from March 12, 2006

Call Him Ishmael. (He Has the Whale.)

Thank You for Insulting Our Sandals

The War at Home

Buttoned-Up Bouncers on Defensive

2006 Honda Civic: Once Strait-Laced, Now Spacey

Billboard 200

High School Musical

Kidz Bop 9

Curious George (Soundtrack)

The Breakthrough

Back To Bedlam

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for March 12, 2006