So congratulations to the mystery thieves who on the night of Thursday, June 7, visited 2778 Bruckner Boulevard — the home of These Our Treasures, Inc., also known as TOTS — and walked away with a Japanese cutleaf maple tree — a tribute to beloved educator Nan Sforza, who succumbed to cancer three years ago.

The small tree — carefully raised in a pot in the school’s front lobby for the past two years — was planted hardly a month ago, in an emotional ceremony that dedicated the entire garden on TOTS’ Brinsmade Avenue side to Sforza. The school’s staff was planning to attach a memorial plaque within a few weeks.

Imagine their surprise, then, when they arrived at work on Friday morning to find an empty hole where the tree had been. Since, the staff has filled the hole with a white-and-red sign reading “Shame on You,” alerting neighbors to the purpose of tree.

. . .

It all culminates in The Offer, when the firm formally invites its summer associates back for real work the following year. Offer rates at most of the top firms hover around 100%, a statistic that leads many summer associates to wonder what, exactly, they would have to do to blow it. More than a few have attempted to find out.

. . .

The polished Davis Polk & Wardwellians have a swish dinner at the Rainbow Room — cutting loose is highly discouraged — and associates can even petition for reimbursement for joint manicure/pedicure bonding sessions with summer associates. “We get people who are very nice and pretty conservative,” said one associate of Davis Polk. “It’s full of people who know what’s appropriate and what’s not. I know a lot of people who wouldn’t survive here.”

. . .

The summer is still young, but a fellow Skaddenite has already emerged as this year’s legendary associate. According to blog posts on AboveTheLaw, the unidentified summer successfully charged $3,000 worth of drinks at a firm after-party at the Lower East Side bar Libation. Like clockwork, gleeful colleagues forward the details of these hijinks to office inboxes citywide. New York thanks them.

. . .

“Crab cakes are only fun when you eat them once every few weeks,” says one associate. It may be time to dial it up a notch: What about Le Cirque? Jean Georges? The Four Seasons?

Come July, summer associates are pretty much the only diners cracking open the menus anyway. “The people next to us are from Davis Polk, the people across the room are from Skadden,” said one former associate, describing the midtown “power lunch” scene. “Many times you’re sitting next to people, they would be having the exact same conversation, and you’re thinking, ‘Are you a summer associate? I think I interviewed you.'”

. . .

. . .

Called Mobi-Mats, the blue mats — bought for a total of $130,000 from Deschamps Mat Systems, a French company — are made of polyester and are anchored into the sand by 19-inch heavy-duty staples. The mats are at Beach 116th Street in the Rockaways in Queens, on Orchard Beach in the Bronx, on Midland Beach in Staten Island and on Brighton Beach until Labor Day, a Parks Department spokeswoman said. Each mat runs in a straight line from a boardwalk or pavement toward the water, where it then branches out into a T, and varies in length from 200 to 400 feet, said Katia Taillard, a representative of Deschamps.

The move to install the mats comes after a state audit two years ago, spurred by complaints, that found that the Parks Department was failing to meet many of the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the federal law that mandates cities to provide equal access to most facilities. Adrian Benepe, the parks commissioner, pledged to make improvements, and the department has responded by hiring an accessibility coordinator, increasing the number of signs for disabled users and installing special equipment in various playgrounds.

. . .

“‘Take Your Dog To Work Day’ works because it confronts the realities of pet overpopulation in a positive and proactive way,” said PSI president Patti Moran.

Dog owners who feel guilty about leaving their beloved pooch sitting alone in an empty house all day will have the opportunity to show them what their masters do while they would normally be catching a snooze on the couch.

. . .

The Staten Island Chamber of Commerce also will be participating in the event but has extended the invitation to felines as well.