Kevin Sheekey Leaks One Or Two Little Tidbits And Then They All Go Cheney On You

See, this is what you get when you float a possible run for higher office:

Before he was elected mayor in 2001, Michael R. Bloomberg had surgery to have two stents implanted in a coronary artery because of blockage in his heart, a person with knowledge of Mr. Bloomberg’s health said last night.

Mayor Bloomberg has not had heart disease since the stents were put in, according to this person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Mr. Bloomberg had not authorized release of the information. The mayor is in excellent health today, this person said.

Newsweek magazine first reported the implants this week. The person with knowledge of the mayor’s health said the procedure took place in 2000 after Mr. Bloomberg complained of discomfort and tiredness. NY1 News also reported last night that Mr. Bloomberg was advised by a doctor to undergo the procedure and that he recovered quickly.

A spokesman for the mayor, Stu Loeser, declined to comment on the stents or on Mr. Bloomberg’s health last night.

The health of the mayor, 65, as well as other facets of his personal and professional life, have come under new scrutiny in the last week since he spurred intense speculation about his possible presidential ambitions by changing his party registration from Republican to independent.

The Story NYU Administrators Didn’t Want You To See

Let’s get one thing straight — Philadelphia is not now nor will it ever be the “sixth borough”:

Some commuters exaggerate and say they spend more time getting to and from work than they do toiling at the office. Kimberly Twist does not exaggerate.

“Leaving work, people sometimes talk about their plans for the night and invite me out, but I have to remind them that it’s going to take me four hours to get home,” says Twist, 23, an editorial staffer at Cambridge University Press in TriBeCa.

This Extreme Commuter’s ride home consists of four separate trains, across two state borders. First, Twist takes a 15-minute subway to Penn Station. Then it’s a 75-minute ride on a New Jersey Transit train to Trenton, where she boards a SEPTA train to downtown Philadelphia, which is another 50-minute ride. Finally, she transfers to a local SEPTA train for the last 45-minute stretch to a suburban station called Ambler.

Then it’s a 15-minute drive home to her parents’ house in Blue Bell, Pa.

If she makes every connection, the trip can be done in less than four hours. If any of her many trains are late or delayed by even a few minutes, the commute can become a five-hour-or-more ordeal.

Since her paid workday is only seven hours long, Twist truly does spend more time commuting than she does at her desk.

“I have systems to keep myself sane,” she says, gazing out the SEPTA train window at the same post-industrial landscape she’s been watching since she moved back home last summer, after earning an master of arts at NYU.

“I read, I eat, I do crossword puzzles or listen to my iPod. But sometimes I’m so exhausted that even that is too much effort and so I just sit and stare out the window.”

The commute is perhaps even more labored for Twist because she knows all about the convenience of Manhattan living. While at NYU, she enjoyed a seventh-floor studio apartment on Union Square West.

Living at home means she is able to save money and pay her student loan debts, even if the commute ends up costing about $550 in transit and parking passes every month. A direct Amtrak train leaves regularly from Penn Station to Philly, which would save Twist the long detour through Trenton. But at $1,079, the monthly Amtrak pass is not much cheaper than a shared apartment in Manhattan.

What’s The High Line?

We are all guilty of giving in to a full season of David Bowie’s arbitrary and capricious tastes:

David Bowie has been a rock god, a philosopher of the pop avant-garde, an actor, a fashion plate and a talent scout. But he has a little trouble taking seriously the job description for his newest gig: curator of the first High Line Festival.

“I love that word ‘curate,'” he said with a slight sarcastic chuckle. “One of the definitions is someone who oversees a zoo.”

To put together the High Line, an 11-day series of music, film, comedy and art that begins on Wednesday with a performance by Arcade Fire at Radio City Music Hall, Mr. Bowie said he followed his own tastes, booking old and new friends like Laurie Anderson, TV on the Radio and the British comedian Ricky Gervais. He also included curiosities like Ken Nordine, the octogenarian “word jazz” artist, and the Australian “kamikaze cabaret” performer Meow Meow.

“The point of the festival,” Mr. Bowie said during a phone interview last week, “is not to dig out as many obscure and unknown acts as possible. It’s to put on what I would go and see. There are certain artists you just never miss; when they come into town you go and see them. That’s how I treat virtually all of the people that are on this.”

. . .

Mr. Bowie’s programming has led to criticism that the festival is somewhat conservative: for a man known as a champion of new music, he has invited many groups that are not exactly uncommon sights in New York, like Deerhoof and the Secret Machines. Several headliners have other, non-High Line gigs booked around their festival appearances.

And the connection to the High Line itself — the 1.45-mile elevated industrial train line on the West Side left fallow since 1980 that is to be developed into a green corridor running from the meatpacking district to Chelsea — is vague. Most of the events take place near the High Line, and organizers describe the festival as partly an awareness-raising event, with some of the proceeds to benefit conservation efforts. For his own part Mr. Bowie said he had never been on the High Line and had “no particular feelings about it.”

Thank You America For Helping Us Catch Pickpockets . . . And For Finally Being Able To Correctly Identify Suicide Bombers Long After The Fact

Apparently for those in charge, distinctions between “everyday crime” and terrorism have all but disappeared:

Thirty-six high-tech cameras will be installed at three subway stops in Astoria as part as of an anti-terror security plan.

“What began as an anti-terror initiative in response to both 9/11 and the bombings in London has now proven to be a very successful tool to combat everyday crime,” State Assemb. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) said Tuesday.

The cameras, paid for with $1.7 million in state and federal funds, will be installed at the Broadway, 30th Avenue and Astoria Boulevard stops along the N/W line. Each station will be outfitted with 12 cameras, most of them positioned at the entrances and exits.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens/Brooklyn), who worked with Gianaris to secure funding for the cameras, said a 2003 al-Qaida plot to release poisonous gas in the subways shows how vulnerable the system is.

But Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign, said he isn’t convinced adding a few dozen cameras will improve safety. But, he added, “It’s like chicken soup, it can’t hurt.”

(Am I just becoming ridiculously stupidly civil rights- minded now that the threat of terrorism is gone?)

The Bravest Kitchens Demand Teamwork And Dedication

The FDNY exam for recruits covers all the important situations a firefighter must face on the job:

“As a rookie firefighter you are responsible for cleaning the kitchen. You arrive for the beginning of your shift to find the kitchen area is a mess. And there is a bowl of chili spilled on the floor from the firefighters from the previous shift. The reason the kitchen is such a mess is due to the previous crew having gone out on a call to a fire during their dinner, and they are still actively fighting the fire … What should you do with the following circumstances?”