And Here I Thought You Took Me Off The List For Your Annual Holiday Party . . .

The yearly doormen tipping quandary story! I thought it’d never come! But of course, it’s just the economy’s fault:

New York apartment dwellers who are suddenly cash-conscious are thinking twice about how much they can afford to give this year. They worry that reducing the tips they give will lead to a certain unspoken tension, a take-a-number attitude in their dealings with people who, in the boom years, could not jump fast enough to open a door or fix a leaky radiator. Will their packages be signed for when they are not home? Will their guests be dropped off at the right floor? Will they have to wait while someone else’s toilet is unclogged before theirs is?

Some see holiday tipping as little more than blackmail, but they pay anyway because they do not want hostility on the home front, or worse.

2005: December 3.

2006: Late! (Does this count?)

2007: Labor strife . . .

Did You Ever Wonder What Exactly Was Happening On The 17th Floor? Or, More Evidence That When Rich People Aren’t Ripping Off You, They’re Probably Just Ripping Off Each Other

Rest assured, it was probably something illegal:

The epicenter of what may be the largest Ponzi scheme in history was the 17th floor of the Lipstick Building, an oval red-granite building rising 34 floors above Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

A busy stock-trading operation occupied the 19th floor, and the computers and paperwork of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities filled the 18th floor.

But the 17th floor was Bernie Madoff’s sanctum, occupied by fewer than two dozen staff members and rarely visited by other employees. It was called the “hedge fund” floor, but federal prosecutors now say the work Mr. Madoff did there was actually a fraud scheme whose losses Mr. Madoff himself estimates at $50 billion.

And if you ever wondered how the boss afforded a Mercedes 500 and that snazzy Warhol of Jackie O, rest assured, he was probably doing something illegal:

The expense of running such an operation does not provide a ready explanation for thefts of such magnitude. Even the cost of sustaining Mr. Dreier’s appetite for luxury does not provide an easy answer for what instilled the desperation that seems to have prompted schemes involved here, schemes that prosecutors said involved Mr. Dreier pretending to be other people.

Mr. Dreier’s lifestyle includes a waterfront home in the Hamptons, a Manhattan triplex and a place on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica, Calif. He kept a Mercedes 500 in New York, an Aston Martin in California, and a 121-foot blue and white Heesen motor yacht with a Jacuzzi and a crew of 10 docked in Manhattan or St. Maarten. Associates said the boat, the Seascape, was the site of late-night parties at which Mr. Dreier, who is divorced, was often joined by an attractive young crowd.

The law offices themselves at 499 Park Avenue were like modern art galleries. In court papers filed this week, the comptroller for the law firm reported that $30 million to $40 million of the firm’s assets had been spent on art. Among Mr. Dreier’s holdings were works by Picasso and a Warhol depiction of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

In recent days, someone not affiliated with the firm removed several pieces of artwork from the walls and carted them away, a person at the firm said. It was not clear what became of the art.

Soon I’ll Be Ready To Scuttle Recycling, Too*

Draconian cuts and or initiatives you read about on a Monday and shrug include but are not limited to: Shuttering the City Hall N Train stop between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. (fine — walk to Brooklyn Bridge or Chambers Street — there are a lot of train lines really close to each other downtown) and taxing Coke (there are no Libertarians in a financial meltdown and $404 million a year looks pretty good right now — and why stop there — let’s do it for a lot more stuff, like cupcakes at Magnolia, gelato at Grom, chopped liver at Fairway . . .).

*Do you remember the time before he co-opted green causes for political purposes? That was craaaazy!

Dude, You’re Totally Not Helping . . .

If he’s shopping at the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst to “be with the people” it’s not working because, duh, no one is shopping, and if he’s trying to encourage people to shop, the image of a billionaire skimping on his girlfriend’s Christmas present isn’t doing much for my confidence, I’ll tell you that much:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg went shopping on Saturday, and all he bought his girlfriend was a pair of fleece gloves for $29.99.

Oh, and he bought them at a Modell’s Sporting Goods — specifically the one at the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst. It’s safe to say that most people who live in Mr. Bloomberg’s neighborhood, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, have probably never pulled their credit cards out at that particular mall.

Though there is a Modell’s on Third Avenue near 86th Street, a few blocks from Mr. Bloomberg’s town house, and another on Chambers Street, close to City Hall, Mr. Bloomberg chose to shop in Queens because “he is the mayor of all five boroughs,” said a spokesman, Jason Post.

. . .

Flanked by aides and police detectives, and with his companion, Diana Taylor, at his side, Mr. Bloomberg arrived at Modell’s around 10 a.m., wearing a stylish navy blue jacket over a baby blue sweater. A phalanx of reporters had come by to witness the occasion and figure out what (and how much) the billionaire mayor would buy.

“I’m going to look very carefully, but I know what I’m getting already,” Mr. Bloomberg told them.

. . .

Modell’s was nearly empty as the mayor shopped. Upstairs, Joann Rice-Daniels, 46, and Adebowal T. Kiladejo, 39, meter collectors for the city’s Transportation Department, were buying gloves. Downstairs, Boris Davydov, 38, and his 14-year-old son, David, were buying socks and dumbbells.

“The mayor is always with the people,” Mr. Davydov said gleefully as he snapped a picture of Mr. Bloomberg with his cellphone.

Mr. Bloomberg paid for his purchases in cash and outside, he joked about the gloves he bought for Ms. Taylor.

“I just got Diana’s gift,” he said.

“I have them,” Ms. Taylor said from behind a cluster of reporters, holding a shopping bag with the gloves in it.

“Look, she’s got them already,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “I’ve just got to get a card to go with it.”

Tough Crowd . . .

Oh sure, now the world acts like it’s suddenly uncool to bilk investors out of billions:

For a half-century, Arnold and Joan Sinkin worked hard to raise their four kids, put a roof over their heads and build up a nice nest egg for retirement.

The Brooklyn-born couple moved out to Long Island and then down to Florida, where they planned to spend their golden years living off their nearly $1 million life savings.

That all came crashing down this past week when Wall Street legend Bernie Madoff’s empire of fraud collapsed.

“I put my kids through college, made four weddings, did everything to put away some money,” said Arnold Sinkin, 76, a retired carpet salesman, from the couple’s condo in Boynton Beach, Fla. “Two days ago, it was all wiped out.”

The couple lost about 85% of their life savings and their retirement dreams are gone with the cash.