See, The Thing Is Was . . .

If you found it problematic getting from Manhattan to Brooklyn on the Lexington Avenue line yesterday, rest assured that it was only this way because of a fraction of an inch:

Work crews involved in a major overhaul of the Wall St. station on the Lexington Ave. line installed temporary ceiling beams and panels too low — causing some trains to scrape against them.

The Transit Authority slowed trains before finally halting service for four hours so repairs could be made.

No. 4 train service was suspended in both directions, from Nevins St. to Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall, about 2 p.m.

“Rider safety was never in jeopardy because of this incident,” TA spokesman Charles Seaton said. “It was just a fraction of an inch too low. It never came in contact with the front of any train, only certain sections of the roof, on a limited number of cars.”

For Heaven’s Sake, Please Update Your Mailing Lists!

Some people apparently have been living under a rock:

Businesses continue to mail letters to the Twin Towers five years after their addresses ceased to exist.

“Chances are this will go on indefinitely — even after the Freedom Tower is built,” said Pat McGovern, a Postal Service spokeswoman. “It takes a long time for these mailing lists to get updated.”

Even letters from the IRS continue to be sent to World Trade Center addresses.

Us Dithering About Fucking Conspiracy Theories Means That The Terrorists Really Have Won, And Good For Them Because They’ve Obviously Got Scoreboard On This Count

Hey, Idiot — I can’t believe our tax dollars are going to rebut your asinine conspiracy theories:

Faced with an angry minority of people who believe the Sept. 11 attacks were part of a shadowy and sprawling plot run by Americans, separate reports were published this week by the State Department and a federal science agency insisting that the catastrophes were caused by hijackers who used commercial airliners as weapons.

The official narrative of the attacks has been attacked as little more than a cover story by an assortment of radio hosts, academics, amateur filmmakers and others who have spread their arguments on the Internet and cable television in America and abroad. As a motive, they suggest that the Bush administration wanted to use the attacks to justify military action in the Middle East.

Most elaborately, they propose that the collapse of the World Trade Center was actually caused by explosive charges secretly planted in the buildings, rather than by the destructive force of the airliners that thundered into the towers and set them ablaze.

The government reports and officials say the demolition argument is utterly implausible on a number of grounds. Indeed, few proponents of the explosives theory are willing to venture explanations of how daunting logistical problems would be overcome, such as planting thousands of pounds of explosives in busy office towers.

Nevertheless, federal officials say they moved to affirm the conventional history of the day because of the persistence of what they call “alternative theories.” On Wednesday, the National Institute of Standards and Technology issued a seven-page study based on its earlier 10,000-page report on how and why the trade center collapsed. The full report, released a year ago, and the new study, in a question and answer format, are available online at http://wtc.nist.gov.

See also: Conspiracy Theory Underground And Nico, Pod Theory, Controlled Demolition And The Flash Is Not A Sunday Matinee Hardcore Bill At CBGB, Ed Begley, Jr.?.

Comp Time Is Looking Pretty Good Right About Now

God help me if I ever end up in the Post for accruing massive amounts of overtime:

If the city ever crowns an overtime king, the title would have to go to Pablo Martinez.

A senior systems analyst at the Board of Elections, Martinez pulled in $116,123 in OT in a 12-month period ending June 30, making him the city’s top overtime earner in the 2006 fiscal year.

Martinez’s total earnings came to $197,884, more than the mayor’s official salary of $195,000.

That alone would be impressive, except that Martinez also topped the charts in 2003, with $81,021 in OT, and in 2004, when he collected $93,385.

John Ravitz, the election board’s executive director, explained that Martinez essentially runs the agency’s entire computer operation.

“I wish I had two more bodies so he wouldn’t have to work those hours,” said Ravitz.

But with salaries that start at just $46,000, Ravitz said he hasn’t been able to find qualified computer-systems workers for two open slots.

. . .

Most of the other leading OT earners worked at the Transportation and Fire departments.

Anthony Mancino, a DOT supervising electrician who racked up $73,513 in OT in 2004, took in $108,845 this time, to bring his total earnings to $196,084.

Transportation officials told The Post last year that “overtime for ferry staff should decrease significantly” after new ferries were put into service and staffing levels were revamped.

The last of three new ferries began running in April.

But 21 of the agency’s 38 workers who made the citywide top 100 OT list had ferry duties.

One marine oiler — Theodore Archibald — earned 190 percent of his $45,082 base salary in overtime to bring his total paycheck to $130,694.

Peter Cooper Village And Stuyvesant Town To Replace Park Place And Broadway As Most Sought-After Real Estate Pieces

Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town could be yours . . . for five billion dollars:

Metropolitan Life is putting Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village — a stretch of 110 apartment buildings along the East River — on the auction block.

With a target price of nearly $5 billion, the sale would be the biggest deal for a single American property in modern times. It would undoubtedly transform what has been an affordable, leafy redoubt for generations of Manhattan’s middle class: teachers and nurses, firefighters and police officers, office clerks and construction workers.

MetLife, one of the largest life insurers in North America, said in July that it might sell the two complexes, which it built nearly 60 years ago with government help. It has hired a broker, who started registering bidders last week for the 80-acre property along First Avenue between 14th and 23rd Streets.

Behind the scenes, the sale has already drawn interest from dozens of prospective buyers, including New York’s top real estate families, pension funds, international investment banks and investors from Dubai, according to real estate executives, even though the marketing book will not be released to bidders until next week.

. . .

Already there are signs that bidding will be feverish. As one executive involved in the sale put it, “This is the ego dream of the world: 80 acres, 110 buildings, 11,000 apartments, covering 10 city blocks in Manhattan.”

According to several bidders, the list of buyers who have signed up includes the most active developer in New York City, the Related Companies; one of the largest landlords, Glenwood Management; Tishman Speyer, which controls Rockefeller Center; two publicly traded real estate companies, Archstone and Vornado; the international bank UBS; and the Blackstone investment firm, as well as the Rudin, Durst and LeFrak real estate families.

Given the size of the deal, buyers are expected to team up. “You’ll see some interesting people stepping up to the plate for this one,” said William Rudin, whose family owns about 2,000 apartments in New York.