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The Front Page

- Obama and Romney, in First Debate, Spar Over Fixing the Economy

- Turkey Strikes Back After Syrian Shelling Kills 5 Civilians

- A Clash of Philosophies

- Infant DNA Tests Speed Diagnosis of Rare Diseases

- Undocumented Life Is a Hurdle as Immigrants Seek a Reprieve

- Drama on Baseball’s Final Day as a Star Completes a Crown

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Obama and Romney, in First Debate, Spar Over Fixing the Economy

Doug Mills/The New York Times

Mitt Romney and President Obama challenged each other on many issues.

By JEFF ZELENY and JIM RUTENBERG

DENVER — Mitt Romney on Wednesday accused President Obama of failing to lead the country out of the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression, using the first presidential debate to invigorate his candidacy by presenting himself as an equal who can solve problems Mr. Obama has been unable to.

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The president implored Americans to be patient and argued that his policies needed more time to work, warning that changing course would wipe away the economic progress the country is steadily making. The two quarreled aggressively over tax policy, the budget deficit and the role of government, with each man accusing the other of being evasive and misleading voters.

But for all of the anticipation, and with less than five weeks remaining until Election Day, the 90-minute debate unfolded much like a seminar by a business consultant and a college professor. Both men argued that their policies would improve the lives of the middle class, but their discussion often dipped deep into the weeds, and they talked over each other without connecting their ideas to voters.

If Mr. Romney’s goal was to show that he could project equal stature to the president, he succeeded, perhaps offering his campaign the lift that Republicans have been seeking. Mr. Obama often stopped short of challenging his rival’s specific policies and chose not to invoke some of the same arguments that his campaign has been making against Mr. Romney for months.

At one point, Mr. Romney offered an admonishment, saying, “Mr. President, you’re entitled, as the president, to your own airplane and to your own house, but not to your own facts, all right?” He forcefully engaged Mr. Obama throughout the night, while the president often looked down at his lectern and took notes.

A boisterous campaign, which has played out through dueling rallies and an endless stream of television commercials, took a sober turn as the candidates stood at facing lecterns for the first time. Mr. Obama, who has appeared to take command of the race in most battleground states, seemed to adopt an air of caution throughout the evening that left some of his liberal supporters disappointed in his performance.

“Are we going to double down on the top-down economic policies that helped to get us into this mess,” he said, “or do we embrace a new economic patriotism that says, ‘America does best when the middle class does best’ “?

For much of the debate, the candidates commandeered the stage, taking control away from the moderator, Jim Lehrer of PBS, as they kept trying to rebut one other. At times, the moderator seemed as if he had walked off the stage, a result of new rules that were intended to allow for a deeper and more freewheeling discussion.

On a basic level it was a clash of two ideologies, the president’s Democratic vision of government playing a supporting role in spurring economic growth, and Mr. Romney’s Republican vision that government should get out of the way of businesses that know best how to create jobs.

Mr. Romney sought to use his moment before a prime-time audience of tens of millions to escape the corner Mr. Obama and his allies have painted him into, depicting him as an uncompromising adherent to policies that have been tried before. He instead turned the focus on his opponent’s record.

“You’ve been president four years. You’ve been president four years,” Mr. Romney said at one point. He ticked through a list of promises he said Mr. Obama had not lived up to, and said, “Middle-income families are being crushed.”

Neither candidate delivered that knockout blow or devastating line that each side was hoping for. Still, style points went to Mr. Romney, who continually and methodically pressed his critique of Mr. Obama. The president at times acted more as if he were addressing reporters in the Rose Garden than beating back a challenger intent on taking his job.

Throughout the evening, Mr. Romney escaped Mr. Obama’s attempts to pin him down on which deductions he would eliminate in his tax proposals.

“At some point,” Mr. Obama said, “the American people have to ask themselves: Is the reason Governor Romney is keeping all these plans secret, is it because they’re going to be too good? Because middle-class families benefit too much? No.”

Mr. Obama criticized Mr. Romney for his answer to a primary debate question last year in which he joined his fellow Republicans in saying he would not accept a budget deal allowing $1 of tax increases for every $10 in spending cuts. “Now, if you take such an unbalanced approach,” Mr. Obama said, “then that means you are going to be gutting our investments in schools and education.”

Mr. Romney said his position on the tax-for-revenue deal was because of the state of the economy, not necessarily ideology. “I’m not going to raise taxes on anyone because when the economy’s growing slow like this, when we’re in recession, you shouldn’t raise taxes on anyone,” he said.

He said his proposals were unlike those of other Republicans because he was combining tax reform with lowered tax rates. “My plan is not like anything that’s been tried before,” he said. He said he would not support any tax cuts that added to the deficit, in other words, that were not paid for.

The debate, held at Magness Arena on the campus of the University of Denver, was the first of three face-to-face encounters between Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney. It took place even as voters across the country were already casting early ballots.

All year Democrats have been waiting for Mr. Romney to make a more overt appeal to the sort of moderate voters he needs to win over by highlighting the more centrist positions from his years as Massachusetts governor. And on Wednesday he seemed to highlight his record in ways he had yet to do.

Even as he repeated his plans to repeal the president’s health care plan, he happily embraced the plan he pushed into law in Massachusetts — the basis for the president’s — that is anathema to many in his party.

“I like the way we did it in Massachusetts,” Mr. Romney said of his health plan. “We had Republicans and Democrats come together and work together.”

But an argument for bipartisanship animated much of Mr. Romney’s message through the night. He said he had worked with Democratic legislators in Massachusetts. And he said that he would do the same thing on his first day in the Oval Office.

The claim drew one of Mr. Obama’s sharpest retorts of the night. “I think Governor Romney’s going to have a busy first day,” he said, “because he’s also going to repeal ‘Obamacare,’ which will not be very popular among Democrats as you’re sitting down with them.”

Mr. Romney pressed Mr. Obama on a provision of his health care overhaul that cut $716 billion from the growth in Medicare, saying that by cutting fees paid to providers it was certain to affect treatment. And he emphasized that his plans for Medicare would not affect current beneficiaries or people close to entering the system.

But Mr. Obama interjected, saying that if “you’re 54 or 55, you might want to listen because this will affect you.” He said that Mr. Romney’s plans to offer subsidies for private insurance would mean “the traditional Medicare system will collapse.”

The discussion between the candidates often unfolded in a staccato of statistics, making it difficult to follow. The candidates quarreled over subsidies for the oil industry, Medicare cuts, taxes and government spending.

In the opening half of the debate, Mr. Obama sought to link Mr. Romney to former President George W. Bush. For his part, Mr. Obama sought to link himself to the economic policies of former President Bill Clinton.

Mr. Romney pushed back against Democrats arguments that he is proposing a form of “trickle-down” economics that would benefit the rich and hurt he middle class. He accused Mr. Obama of proposing “trickle-down government.”

“We know the path that we’re taking isn’t working, and it’s time for a new path,” Mr. Romney said.

Both campaigns acknowledged that the race is close enough that the first debate could reorder a contest that has recently appeared to be tilting in Mr. Obama’s favor, in spite of continued economic hardship throughout the nation and a slower recovery than he promised four years ago. The candidates meet for their second debate on Oct. 16 in New York.

While acrimony has deepened between the rivals, the men smiled broadly as they strode briskly onto the stage Wednesday night and exchanged a hand shake that lingered for several seconds. The president opened his remarks by wishing his wife a happy 20th anniversary and offered her a promise: “A year from now, we will not be celebrating it in front of 40 million people.”

Mr. Romney congratulated Mr. Obama and drew laughter from the crowd when he joked: “I’m sure this was the most romantic place you could imagine — here with me.”

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/us/politics/obama-and-romney-hold-first-debate.html?pagewanted=all

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Turkey Strikes Back After Syrian Shelling Kills 5 Civilians

Anadolu Agency/Reuters

A mortar attack on Wednesday in Akcakale, Turkey, on the border with Syria, killed a woman, her three children and a relative.

By TIM ARANGO and ANNE BARNARD

ISTANBUL — Turkey said Wednesday that it shelled targets within Syria as retaliation for a mortar that landed across the Turkish border and killed five civilians, a move that increases the risk of escalating the bloody civil war into a regional conflict and ratchets up pressure for further international involvement.

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At least two explosions, most likely car bombs, struck Saadallah al-Jabiri Square in Aleppo, Syria, and killed dozens of people.

In an image released by the Syrian state news agency, men carried a body after multiple explosions in Aleppo, Syria, on Wednesday.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, of which Turkey is a member and whose charter calls in some cases for collective action when one of its members is targeted militarily, called an emergency meeting on Wednesday evening to discuss the crisis, as Turkey’s civilian and military leaders said Parliament would consider a motion on Thursday to permit further military action within Syria.

“This atrocious attack was immediately responded to adequately by our armed forces in the border region, in accordance with rules of engagement,” said a statement from the office of the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, carried by the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency. “Targets were shelled in locations identified by radar.”

And while suicide bombers killed dozens on Wednesday as violence surged in Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, it was the cross-border strike that raised the stakes in a civil war that has left tens of thousands dead and forced more than a million people from their homes. The war has defied exhaustive diplomatic efforts by the global community. The events may increase pressure for the West to take military action, something Turkey has supported. The United States and its allies have balked at engaging in another armed conflict in the Muslim world that would be far riskier than NATO’s intervention in Libya, which helped oust Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

“The conflict in Syria is spilling well over its borders,” said Andrew Tabler, a Syria analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “I don’t see how the Obama administration continues policy as usual after this.”

But in the fog of war that has settled over Syria, where allegiances and motives are uncertain and a bloody stalemate has taken hold, some observers said they could not help wondering if the episode had been orchestrated by one side or another. The rebels have implored NATO to provide a no-fly zone or havens, and President Bashar al-Assad may feel he can rally his supporters against foreign invasion, experts said. “Various parties are trying to pull Turkey into the conflict,” Atilla Sandikli, the director of the Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies in Ankara, Turkey, said on the Turkish channel NTV.

In Washington, George Little, the Pentagon press secretary, called the Syrian attack on Turkish territory “yet another example of the depraved behavior of the Syrian regime, and why it must go.”

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was “outraged” by the mortar attack in Turkey.

After its meeting, NATO issued a statement saying the alliance continued “to stand by Turkey and demands the immediate cessation of such aggressive acts against an ally, and urges the Syrian regime to put an end to flagrant violations of international law.”

Turkey’s military strike within Syria, which represented a further deterioration of relations between the onetime allies, came after several huge explosions struck a government-held district of Aleppo. The blast killed dozens of people and filled the streets with rubble in a square near a public park, according to video, photographs and reports from the Syrian government and its opponents.

At least two explosions, which both sides said appeared to be car bombs, struck Saadallah al-Jabiri Square near an officers’ club and two government-owned hotels that residents said had housed pro-government militiamen who had essentially taken over the square. Another explosion struck near the chamber of commerce in nearby Bab Jenine, both sides reported.

Jabhet al-Nusra, an insurgent group affiliated with Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility late on Wednesday for the suicide bombings, which caused anguish for government supporters and opponents alike. The scale of Wednesday’s bombings seemed to deepen Aleppo’s sense of alarm and disgust, bringing expressions of horror and bewilderment from people on either side of the conflict.

“Oh, my God, the destruction is huge,” an accountant who works nearby, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Rami, said on his cellphone as he tried without success to approach the square, which he said was barricaded by security forces. Back in his office, listening to gunfire still echoing through the area, he wrote on Facebook: “My soul has died and my body is waiting for its turn.”

One Syrian activist, who uses the pseudonym Anonymous Syria, wrote on Twitter: “Whoever is behind those explosions is a terrorist if civilians were killed. Whether it is the regime, Al-Nusra brigade or the Free Syrian Army.”

In the square, men simply shouted obscenities and cursed “the terrorists’ fathers.” Their voices could be heard in the background as another man videotaped the bomb scene for a pro-government YouTube channel, panning over the corpses of two men in crisp camouflage uniforms who he said were would-be suicide bombers killed by security forces.

Before the retaliatory strike by Turkey, the government said in a statement that its foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, had consulted Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations and Arab League joint special envoy to Syria, as well as Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations. The prime minister’s statement said the strike was within the rules of engagement established after the Syrian military shot down a Turkish warplane in June, killing two pilots in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea. Syria had claimed the plane was flying over its own territory.

“This last incident is pretty much the final straw,” said Bulent Arinc, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, as quoted by the Anatolian News Agency. “There has been an attack on our land and our citizens lost their lives, which surely has adequate response in international law.”

The Syrian government urged restraint and offered condolences to the victims in Turkey. By announcing that an investigation was under way, it suggested that it never intended to strike within Turkey.

Syria’s minister of information, Omran al-Zo’aby, suggested on state television that Syria was defending against a regional threat that could affect Turkey and Syria.

“The Syrian-Turkish border is a long one and is being used for smuggling weapons and terrorists,” he said, adding that in response to border episodes, neighboring countries should act “wisely and rationally and responsibly, especially in cases of the presence of armed terrorist groups who have their different agendas that are not targeting the Syrian national security but the regional security.”

It was unclear if the mortar that struck Turkey was fired by government forces or by rebels fighting to oust the government of Mr. Assad, but Turkey believed it came from a government position, Turkish analysts said. The government said it used radar to select the target for its strikes, believed to be Syrian military outposts.

The shell that set off the outrage struck a building in Akcakale, one of the largest cities along Turkey’s 550-mile border with Syria, killing a woman, her three children and a relative. Officials said that eight other people were wounded, and that two were in critical condition. The town had been hit before amid the clashes between rebels and government forces, but no one on the Turkish side had been killed before. Stray mortars have also landed across other borders, including Lebanon and Iraq.

The tit-for-tat bombings signaled the collapse of the relationship between Syria and Turkey, which had blossomed before the Arab revolutions with deepening commercial and political ties between the two countries. When protests broke out last year in Syria, Turkey first called for reform, but as the government turned its guns on its own people, Turkey switched allegiance to the rebels.

But Turkey has paid a price, including a public outcry against its Syria policy, which has led to economic hardships in the south and a strain on government resources as officials contend with the refugee crisis.

Tim Arango reported from Istanbul, and Anne Barnard from Beirut, Lebanon. Reporting was contributed by Hala Droubi, Hania Mourtada and Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul, and Thom Shanker from Washington.

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/world/middleeast/syria.html?pagewanted=all

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News Analysis

A Clash of Philosophies

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Students watched the presidential debate at the University of Denver from their apartment on Wednesday. The debate had little of the overt nastiness that has characterized the campaign.

By PETER BAKER

DENVER — Somewhere in the wonky blizzard of facts, statistics and studies thrown out on stage here on Wednesday night was a fundamental philosophical choice about the future of America, quite possibly the starkest in nearly three decades.

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As President Obama and Mitt Romney faced off for the first time, their largely zinger-free styles may have disguised a fierce clash of views not only over taxes, spending and health care, but over the very role of government in American society in a time of wrenching problems.

On one side was an incumbent who, while recognizing that government is not the solution to all problems, argued that it plays an essential part in promoting economic growth and ensuring fairness for various segments of the population. On the other was a challenger who, while recognizing the basic value of government, argued that its greatest goal was to get out of the way of a free people and unleash the American entrepreneurial spirit.

“Governor Romney has a perspective that says if we cut taxes skewed towards the wealthy and roll back regulations, that we’ll be better off,” Mr. Obama said. He asked: “Are we going to double down on the top-down economic policies that helped to get us into this mess or do we embrace a new economic patriotism that says America does best when the middle class does best?”

Mr. Romney fired back with an indictment of Mr. Obama. “The president has a view very similar to the view he had when he ran four years ago, that a bigger government, spending more, taxing more, regulating more — if you will, trickle-down government — would work,” he said. “That’s not the right answer for America. I’ll restore the vitality that gets America working again.”

There was little of the overt nastiness that has characterized the campaign this year. Instead, the debate was perhaps as direct an articulation of the profound schism in this election as has been heard over the course of the campaign. The candidates spent much of the 90 minutes here at the University of Denver defining it in narrow policy details that may have bled some of the passion out of their arguments and made them sound smaller than they were. But at its core, the debate brought home a divide over domestic policy greater than any since President Ronald Reagan and Walter F. Mondale faced off in 1984.

Mr. Romney came in with the greater hurdle of explaining his vision for the future and convincing the shrinking pool of undecided voters that it represents a better path for a country plagued by stubborn unemployment and rising national debt. He calmly and persistently rebutted Mr. Obama’s characterizations of his plans while pressing his more-in-sorrow line of attack on the incumbent.

Whether he succeeded enough to change the dynamics of the race may take a day or two to become evident.

But the Romney camp hoped his performance was strong enough to fuel a sense of comeback heading into the final month of the campaign. After a rough few weeks, Mr. Romney’s advisers were heartened coming into the debate by new polls showing that the race was close nationally and somewhat closer in a few battleground states. The Obama team arrived here worried that a bored news media would exaggerate any perceived turnaround by Mr. Romney to promote a more compelling race.

What they got was a substantive if sometimes hard to follow dialogue over far-reaching issues. Both cast their positions in terms of concern over everyday Americans, but from opposite ends. Mr. Obama expressed worry about those who would lose out if government programs are cut too deeply, while Mr. Romney talked about those who feel constrained by excessive government taxation and regulation.

“The magnitude of the tax cuts that you’re talking about, governor, would end up resulting in severe hardship for people, but more importantly would not help us grow,” Mr. Obama said.

Referring to possible cuts in Medicaid, he said, “that may not seem like a big deal when it just is, you know, numbers on a sheet of paper, but if we’re talking about a family who’s got an autistic kid and is depending on that Medicaid, that’s a big problem.”

Mr. Romney talked about the impact of the continuing economic problems, noting that the cost of gasoline, electricity, food and health care has grown. “I’ll call it the economy tax,” he said. “It’s been crushing.”

The Republican focused on the impact on small business of Mr. Obama’s policies. “It’s not just Donald Trump you’re taxing,” he said. “It’s all those businesses that employ one-quarter of the workers in America.” He added, “You raise taxes and you kill jobs.”

Mr. Obama cited Abraham Lincoln and his efforts to finance a transcontinental railroad, land-grant colleges and a National Academy of Sciences. It was those sorts of investments, made by presidents of both parties, that helped make America great by providing opportunity for progress, the president argued.

“If all Americans are getting opportunity, we’re all going to be better off,” Mr. Obama said. “That doesn’t restrict people’s freedom. That enhances it. And so what I’ve tried to do as president is to apply those same principles.”

Mr. Romney pointed to the president’s efforts to stimulate the growth of clean energy with $90 billion in taxpayer assistance as an example of what government should not be about.

“The role of government is not to become the economic player picking winners and losers, telling people what kind of health treatment they can receive, taking over the health care system,” he said. “The right answer for government is to say how do we make the private sector become more efficient and more effective?”

In a way, it was the inevitable culmination of a polarized debate that ultimately spawned the Tea Party backlash against activist government. Mr. Obama has searched for the right blend of policies and messages to diminish antipathy toward government, debt and liberalism. Mr. Romney, while an imperfect messenger from the right, advanced a revision of the Great Society social compact that even President Reagan never could achieve.

As it happens, both Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney may actually be more moderate at heart, given their records. But the debate exposed little nuance or agreement. As they battled it out Wednesday night, neither shied away from the fight of a generation.

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/us/politics/debate-a-clash-over-governments-role-news-analysis.html?pagewanted=all

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Infant DNA Tests Speed Diagnosis of Rare Diseases

By GINA KOLATA

From the day she was born, the girl had seizure after seizure. Doctors at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., frantically tried to keep her alive. Weeks passed and every medication failed. Finally, her family decided to let their baby go, and the medical devices were withdrawn. She was 5 weeks old.

About one in 20 babies in newborn intensive care units has a genetic disease.

Her doctors suspected a genetic disorder, and as it happened the hospital had just begun a study of a new technique for quickly analyzing the DNA of newborns, zeroing in on mutations that can cause disease.

This new method, published on Wednesday in the magazine Science Translational Medicine, is a proof of concept — a demonstration in four babies that it is possible to quickly scan a baby’s entire DNA and pinpoint a disease-causing mutation in a couple of days instead of the more typical weeks or months. The study’s investigators said the test could be one of the first practical fruits of the revolution in sequencing an individual’s entire DNA.

For the baby with seizures, her doctors provided a sample of her blood. The analysis took only 50 hours and provided an answer. The baby had a mortal gene mutation so rare that it had been reported just once before.

If only, said Dr. Joshua E. Petrikin, one of the baby’s doctors, the test could have been done within days of the baby’s birth.

“There was no treatment, there was not anything that could have changed the outcome,” Dr. Petrikin said. “But we could have more appropriately counseled the family and bypassed what had to have been intense suffering.”

The baby, he explained, was heavily sedated, medicated and intubated for her entire brief life.

The idea behind the test is to take advantage of what is known about disease symptoms to narrow the search for genetic aberrations. And that, said Dr. Joe Gray, an expert in genome analysis at Oregon Health and Science University, “is a good step in the right direction.”

“It’s a big genome,” said Dr. Gray, who was not involved with the study. “How do you know what part of it to search?”

While more research needs to be done before the test is ready for widespread use, he applauded the effort. “If people don’t push the envelope like this, then we won’t get there,” Dr. Gray said.

About one in 20 babies in newborn intensive care units has a genetic disease, and all too often, no one can figure out what it is. Scientists identified the faulty genes for about 3,500 of 7,500 known genetic diseases, said the paper’s authors, adding that about 500 have treatments.

To test their method, the investigators tried it with two babies whose disease had been diagnosed only through an autopsy. They quickly found the genetic causes. Then they tried the method on four babies who were seriously ill with suspected genetic diseases, including the baby with seizures. They quickly found the mutated gene in three of the four.

The investigators also sequenced the DNA of an older brother of one of the babies who had the same genetic disorder — his organs were reversed. His heart was on the right, instead of the left, for example. This caused a heart defect that was corrected by surgery. The parents had been told the child had a condition that would not happen again.

Then their second baby had the same problem. The researchers found a new genetic defect, never seen before, that they suspect was the cause. They contacted doctors and discovered more than 100 other children with the same unexplained defect. Now the investigators are checking to see if some have the mutation, which would indicate it caused the problem. Then the parents could know of a prenatal diagnosis for future pregnancies.

The baby whose disease remained a mystery was another of Dr. Petrikin’s patients. When he was born, some skin was missing over his eyebrows and in patches on his scalp. Over weeks, he developed severe blistering, eventually losing nearly all the skin in his mouth and on his body and dying of an infection.

“We still don’t know what caused it,” Dr. Petrikin said.

With the new method, a computer program searches for genes based on the baby’s symptoms. And because it focuses only on genes that cause diseases in newborns, it avoids an ethical problem: findings that are unrelated to the problem at hand. In sequencing and analyzing the entire DNA, researchers may discover, for example, aberrations leading to conditions that occur only in adults. Do parents really want to know that their sick baby has a gene that increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease?

“They did it right, and you rarely hear that from an ethicist,” said Dr. Lainie Friedman Ross, an ethicist and professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago. Dr. Ross, who praised the researchers for deliberately avoiding such incidental findings, was also not involved with the study.

The method is expensive, though, costing about $13,500. It is not yet covered by insurance.

But Dr. Stephen F. Kingsmore, director of Children’s Mercy’s center for pediatric genomic medicine, expects to show it is cost effective and hopes insurers will pay for it. He noted that each day a baby spends in intensive care costs about $8,000, so any test that reduces that time would quickly pay for itself. A test that reveals a uniformly fatal genetic disease, for example, can allow parents and doctors to know that continuing life support in the hope the baby will improve is futile and only causing suffering. In the meantime, Dr. Kingsmore said, he is hoping a philanthropist will help defray the costs.

To develop the test, the researchers used every clue about the sick newborn. Was the baby floppy? Was her cry abnormal, her breathing labored? A computer program factored in the symptoms and searched the baby’s DNA sequence for mutated genes that might be responsible.

A gene-sequencing company, Illumina, had a new machine with a prototype in Essex, England, that could sequence DNA in 25 hours, so researchers sent samples of babies’ blood there. The results, a hard drive full of data, were sent by Federal Express for analysis at the Missouri hospital. By the end of November, the hospital expects to have its own machine on site.

Although genetic causes for the diseases were found in three of the four babies, the diseases had no treatments — except for surgery for the brothers — and that baby was the only one who survived.

The biggest surprise for Dr. Kingsmore, though, was that the families greatly valued having a diagnosis.

When a baby has a mysterious disease, he said, the family often embarks on a terrifying diagnostic odyssey. “Test after test is performed,” he said. “Some tests are invasive; the child is suffering. The child is getting worse and worse — most spend their entire lives in the hospital, and there is no answer.”

Just knowing the answer can be a comfort. “Providing a definitive diagnosis somehow brings closure,” Dr. Kingsmore said. “It is something they can name.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 3, 2012

An earlier version of this article misstated the time that it took Illumina’s new machine with a prototype in England to sequence DNA. It was 25 hours, not five.

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/health/new-test-of-babies-dna-speeds-diagnosis.html?pagewanted=all

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Undocumented Life Is a Hurdle as Immigrants Seek a Reprieve

Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

Jackie Aruch, right, a law student, helped Maria Torres, who is originally from Mexico, with her application for deferred action.

By KIRK SEMPLE

Chul Soo, a 27-year-old illegal immigrant from South Korea, has lived on the fringes of society in recent years, working off the books at a video game store and a beauty supplies wholesaler in New York City, carrying neither a driver’s license nor credit cards, and having little contact with the government.

Yaida, 17, a high school senior, says she came from Mexico as a child and wants to apply to the program but lacks the necessary documents.

The challenge for many immigrants is: How do you document an undocumented life?

Now he is applying for a new program that offers illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children a reprieve from deportation if they can demonstrate that they have been in the country since 2007, among other requirements. Yet Chul Soo, who said he arrived in 1995, is finding that he has little in the way of proof of his whereabouts for the last five years.

“It’s frustrating,” he said, referring to his effort to piece together a mosaic of records. “I really need this right now.”

Since President Obama announced the program in June, illegal immigrants across the country have been scrambling to collect evidence to qualify.

Their challenge is this: How do you document an undocumented life?

Applicants must prove that they were brought to the United States before they turned 16; that they have lived here continuously for the past five years; and that they were in the country and were under age 31 on June 15. They must show that they are enrolled in school or have graduated from high school or received an equivalent G.E.D. certificate, or have been honorably discharged from the military. An immigrant who poses a threat to national security or has been convicted of a felony, a serious misdemeanor or three minor misdemeanors will be rejected.

Some illegal immigrants have lived lives nearly indistinguishable from those of citizens, amassing school transcripts, medical records and bank statements. But many have remained under the radar, appearing rarely, if at all, on official or business records.

To take part in the program, many have had to retrace their often-circuitous and sometimes clandestine paths in the United States. Some have had to take the uncomfortable step of calling former employers to request affidavits attesting to their prior arrangements — at the risk of placing those employers in legal peril.

“One of the most striking things is the desperation and sadness when you’re talking to someone who absolutely qualifies but they can’t provide documents that prove it,” said Jacqueline Esposito, director of immigration advocacy at the New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella group that has received about 1,400 requests for legal assistance since mid-August, when the federal government began accepting applications.

Chul Soo, who recently moved with his parents from Staten Island to Flushing, Queens, says he came to the United States when he was 10. (Chul Soo is his given name. Like other applicants interviewed, he requested that his family name be withheld because he was concerned that he was still vulnerable to deportation.)

His paper trail all but dried up after he dropped out of high school on Staten Island and got a G.E.D. certificate in the mid-2000s.

All he has to show are bits and pieces: a transcript from the Borough of Manhattan Community College, which he attended for one semester in 2007; tax records from 2009, when he worked for a few months as a dental technician trainee using a relative’s Social Security number; recent pay stubs from his current job as a manager at an electronics company; and statements from a bank account that he opened for two months this year.

He is left with gaping holes for 2008, 2010 and 2011, and is working with lawyers at the MinKwon Center for Community Action, an advocacy group in Flushing, Queens, to fill them. He said he was considering approaching his two former bosses to request affidavits of support.

“I don’t know why I have to go through all of this,” he said.

For others, the process has been no more difficult than it would be for a citizen.

Hina, 22, a Pakistani immigrant who came to the United States with her family when she was 10, said she had the good fortune to have parents who saved everything — tax documents, school correspondence, report cards, medical records, utility bills.

She said the family stepped up the archiving in recent years in light of the debate over the Dream Act, which would give legal status to young illegal immigrants. (The legislation has not been approved by Congress.)

Still, she noted, her parents — illegal immigrants who do not qualify for the program — wondered whether their children’s applications might somehow lead to their deportation.

“But my parents finally decided that it was worth the risk,” Hina said. “They came here for their children. It didn’t make sense for all of us to sit here in the dark and wait this thing out.”

Last month, Hina submitted applications for herself, her younger brother and her sister. Her older brother applied separately.

But her experience seems to be relatively unusual.

Rigoberto, 23, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, arrived in the United States in 1995 with his family and has transcripts from the New York City public schools to establish his presence before he was 16 and for two of the past five years. But he lives with his father and works off-the-books in construction.

The only documentation he has from the past few years is a letter that he received from the Selective Service System a few months ago confirming that he had registered. He said he hoped it would at least show that he was in the country on June 15.

Rigoberto is considering asking his boss at a construction company to sign an affidavit testifying to his presence in the country this year.

“Do you think he would get in trouble?” Rigoberto asked.

Immigrant advocacy organizations around the United States have been swarmed by people seeking help with their applications to the new program, but lawyers said they were not entirely sure what the government allowed as proof.

The uncertainties, and the challenge of assembling the documents, may have contributed to a smaller-than-expected number of applications. Immigration authorities were preparing to receive as many as 250,000 in the first month of the program, but ended up with less than a third of that.

Applicants have been creative. Some have collated date-stamped Facebook photographs of themselves, said immigration lawyers and advocates. particularly those taken in front of recognizable American backdrops. Others have printed out records of activity on cellphone apps, like Four Square, and collected schedules and records of sports leagues in which they have played.

The Rev. Mark Hallinan of St. Mary of the Assumption on Staten Island said he had received dozens of requests for help. He and his staff have combed the parish archives for sacramental records of baptisms, communions and confirmations.

“There’s been a steady flow of persons coming in looking for, at minimum, a letter from me saying I recognize them as having participated in the life of the parish,” he said.

Yaida, 17, said that she was short just one document — a Mexican passport, to prove her identity — and that the quest for it had reopened family wounds.

Her father abandoned the family when Yaida was young. Her mother has been seeking to gain full custody over the children, but the process has been slow because Yaida’s father, who lives in Mexico, is not cooperating.

Unless her mother secures full custody, Mexican law requires that Yaida also receive her father’s authorization to obtain the passport. In the meantime, she waits.

“I have all the school papers, I have the doctors’ documents, I have church documents for confirmation,” she said, her voice trailing off. “I have everything except a passport.”

Luis, a 26-year-old Mexican immigrant, arrived in the United States in 2000 when he was 14, but his search has been complicated by moves and job changes and the fact that he has lived in both New York and Delaware.

He has pieced together a collage of documents from employers in both states, from G.E.D. programs and from a money-transfer company that he used to send remittances to relatives in Mexico.

One former employer at a restaurant in Delaware balked at his request for copies of old W-2 forms, Luis said. (He had been working and paying taxes under a fake Social Security number, he said.)

“He told me, ‘I don’t want problems, I don’t have time, I am busy, that was a long time ago, it will cost me some money,’ ” Luis recalled. But Luis lobbied him with e-mails, phone calls and faxes asking for help. The employer finally agreed.

“It was difficult, but now I am about to apply,” he continued. “I hope everything will come out right.”

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Drama on Baseball’s Final Day as a Star Completes a Crown

Ed Zurga/Getty Images

Miguel Cabrera left the Tigers game against the Royals in the fourth inning.

By JOHN ELIGON

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Miguel Cabrera burst on the baseball scene as a 20-year-old slugging prodigy. He hit a home run in his first major league game and, while still a rookie, helped lead the Florida Marlins to a World Series title in 2003.

Miguel Cabrera finished the regular season with a .330 batting average, 44 home runs and 139 R.B.I.

Over the years, Cabrera struggled with alcohol and his weight; fought to find an established position in the field; and was traded, at age 24, from the Marlins to the Detroit Tigers. But Cabrera never lost what everyone agreed he possessed like few others: a discriminating eye at the plate and a sweet, timely and fluidly powerful swing.

On Wednesday night, Cabrera, whose father was a professional baseball player in Venezuela and whose mother was the star shortstop for that country’s national softball team, found his way into the history books of America’s national pastime as the first player in nearly half a century to win the triple crown, leading the American League in home runs (44), batting average (.330) and runs batted in (139).

Ruth never did it. Neither did DiMaggio, Aaron, Musial, Clemente or Mays. Ted Williams did it twice, and Mickey Mantle once. The last player to accomplish the feat was Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox in 1967, when Lyndon Johnson was president, free agency was a pipe dream and the Boston left fielder known as Yaz chain smoked cigarettes in the dugout.

Cabrera had been pulled from the game and was in the Tigers’ clubhouse by the time the sixth inning rolled around and his achievement became official. He saw it on the television and exchanged hugs with teammates.

In his soft-spoken way, Cabrera stood before his locker with his hands in the pocket of his hoodie, not sure how to describe his feelings. “Right now, it’s an unbelievable feeling,” he said, then sighed. “Wow.”

Before the game, his teammates were more expressive in describing the impending feat. “It’s definitely foreign to guys my age or younger, and even guys older than myself,” said Alex Avila, the 25-year-old catcher for the Tigers. “That’ll probably be the greatest thing that I’ll ever see in my career.”

As he swung his way to history, Cabrera has been a reluctant star. He shied away from discussing the feat. In the clubhouse here, his locker was positioned out of view of the television. Before the game, while his teammates lounged on black leather couches clinging to every at-bat by Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton, who entered the day trailing Cabrera by one home run, Cabrera kept his distance.

Hamilton was the only truly serious threat to Cabrera on Wednesday. But with the Rangers playing a day game, Cabrera had the luxury of knowing, by the opening pitch here, that he would probably not be caught. Hamilton failed to homer in five at-bats, finishing with 43. The Yankees’ Curtis Granderson mounted a final-day charge at the home run title, slamming two home runs, but he also finished with 43.

Going into the final game, the rookie Angels phenom Mike Trout had a mathematical shot of taking the batting title. But Jim Leyland, the Tigers’ manager, had said he would pull Cabrera to protect his average and keep him out of Trout’s even theoretical reach. (Trout finished at .326.)

“This is a huge story, and I want everybody to enjoy it,” said Leyland, his feet kicked up on his desk as he addressed reporters before the game. “They should enjoy it.”

Leyland could also enjoy it since his team had clinched the A.L. Central title and a spot in the best-of-five division series. He pulled Cabrera in the middle innings after he went 0 for 2.

After the game, Leyland said a member of his staff was monitoring a computer to see what other hitters were doing and whether they were closing in on Cabrera.

“This is the toughest game I’ve ever had to manage in my career,” Leyland said. “It was more nerve racking than the seventh game of the World Series in 1997.”

Leyland managed the Marlins to their first title that year.

Cabrera’s triple crown achievement became official in the middle of the sixth inning, and a message was put on the big screen saying, “Congratulations from the Royals and our fans.” The players paused as Cabrera received a standing ovation.

The most difficult category for Cabrera to win should have been home runs, given the distant outfield fences at his home ballpark, Comerica Park.

But the Tigers acquired Prince Fielder, a power-hitting first baseman, over the winter, providing crucial hitting support to the already dominant Cabrera, who won the batting title last season with a .344 average. With Fielder batting fourth, right behind Cabrera, it meant that Cabrera would get more pitches to hit.

And, as it turned out, hit far.

Cabrera’s customary brilliance and Fielder’s added bat did not equate to team success early on. The Tigers were mediocre through the first half of the season, barely eclipsing .500 by the midway point. But they started rattling off victories in July, and in that same month Cabrera got his batting average over .320 and kept it there for good. In August, the winning continued as Cabrera began his quick and steep climb toward the home run title. In 26 games, he hit eight home runs (about one every series) and drove in 24 runs.

But it was not until the final week of the season that Cabrera seemed capable of solidifying his crown. He tied Hamilton with 43 home runs by hitting one in a victory over the Twins last Friday. He took sole possession of the lead on Monday night here, looping a shot over the right-field fence on the same night the Tigers clinched their second straight A.L. Central title.

Yastrzemski, long retired to a life of fishing, golfing and some duty tutoring young hitters for the Red Sox, has been sought out in recent weeks. He has been his usual taciturn, modest self.

“In ’67, the triple crown was never even mentioned once,” Yastrzemski told The Boston Herald last week. “We were so involved in the pennant race, I didn’t know I won the triple crown until the next day, when I read it in the paper.”

Every year since, Yastrzemski intimated, he half expected the feat to be done again. “I thought somebody would win it a long time ago,” Yastrzemski said.

That long time ended Wednesday night, with Miguel Cabrera, a round-faced 29-year-old, leaving the field in an opposing ballpark and hearing the crowd roar, not for its team but for history.

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International

- Violence and Protest in Iran as Currency Drops in Value

- In Organic-Hungry Hong Kong, Corn as High as an Elevator’s Climb

- Internet Law in Philippines Takes Effect, Raising Fears

- France: President’s Partner Cancels Plans to Host TV Program

- Sudan: Peacekeepers Killed in Ambush

- France: Government Introduces Terrorism Legislation

- Georgian Politician Rescinds Call for President to Quit

- 2 Coptic Christian Boys Held in Egypt on Charges They Defiled a Koran

- Europe’s Nuclear Reactors Need Repair or Upgrades

- With Cuts, Free Education Is No Longer a Cuban Birthright

- Birobidzhan Journal: Despite Predictions, Jewish Homeland in Siberia Retains Its Appeal

- China Jails 4 Tibetans Linked to Self-Immolation Protests

- In Philippines, Warrant for Former President

- Rights Group Criticizes Hamas-Run Justice System in Gaza

- Cajoling, Drugging and More as Rebels Try to Draw Defectors

- Rift Grows Between Israeli Leaders Over Relations With U.S.

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Violence and Protest in Iran as Currency Drops in Value

European Pressphoto Agency

Riot police officers clashed with money changers in Tehran on Wednesday.

By THOMAS ERDBRINK and RICK GLADSTONE

TEHRAN — The first outbreak of public anger over Iran’s collapsing currency and other economic maladies jolted the heart of the capital on Wednesday, with the riot police violently clamping down on black-market money changers, hundreds of citizens marching to demand relief and merchants in the sprawling bazaar closing their shops in protest.

Iran’s official news media said an unspecified number of people, including two Europeans, had been arrested in the turmoil, which was documented in news photographs, at least two verifiable videos uploaded on YouTube and witness accounts.

Economists and political analysts in Iran and abroad said the anger reflected the accumulated impact of harsh Western economic sanctions over Iran’s disputed nuclear program, as well as the government’s inability to manage an increasingly acute economic crisis.

It came a day after Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said at a televised news conference that the plunge in the value of Iran’s currency, the rial — which has fallen by 40 percent against the dollar this past week — was orchestrated by ruthless currency speculators, the United States and other unspecified internal enemies of Iran. He urged people to stop selling their rials for dollars, a currency he once characterized as “a worthless piece of paper,” and warned that speculators faced arrest and punishment.

But Mr. Ahmadinejad, whose stewardship of the economy has been increasingly challenged by other Iranian politicians in the last year of his term, offered no new solutions to arrest the slide in the rial, which is a major inflationary threat and has become the most visible barometer of Iran’s economic travails. Because of the sanctions, Iran is facing extreme difficulties in selling oil, its main export, and in repatriating dollars and other foreign currencies, because Iran has been cut off from the global banking system.

Unscripted protests in Iran are highly unusual, particularly since the political opposition in the country was crushed after Mr. Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in 2009. Iran experts said the outbreak on Wednesday was significant because it appeared to offer an insight into the degree of public weariness.

“It may not be widespread yet, but it demonstrates not just unhappiness with the Ahmadinejad government, but also dissatisfaction with the Islamic republic’s failure to stem the economic crisis brought about by incompetence, mismanagement and sanctions,” said Alireza Nader, a political analyst at the RAND Corporation, a research and consulting firm. He said that “the regime is going to face much greater instability in the future, especially if it loses the support of Iran’s business and merchant class.”

Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said in an audio commentary on the group’s Web site that the sanctions had effectively halved Iran’s oil exports, choked its ability to import essential goods and left its currency worth a fraction of its value compared with early this year. “These are hard times for ordinary and upper-class Iranian people,” he said.

The unrest caught the attention of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who, speaking from Washington rejected Mr. Ahmadinejad’s explanation for the rial’s plunge. She suggested that conditions would improve if Iran engaged in meaningful negotiations over its nuclear program, which Western powers and Israel suspect is meant to develop nuclear weapons, but which Iran says is for peaceful purposes.

“I think the Iranian government deserves responsibility for what is going on inside Iran,” she told reporters. “And that is who should be held accountable.”

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s warning to currency manipulators appeared to be the reason for the deployment of riot police officers in and around Manoucheri Street in central Tehran, where the black-market money changes had been doing a thriving business, particularly in recent days, as hundreds of Iranians sought to trade their rials for other currencies, fearing even worse times ahead.

Witnesses described cat-and-mouse chases between riot police officers on motorcycles armed with tear gas and batons, and money changers and their customers, who had to scatter.

Anger spread to Tehran’s grand bazaar, where many merchants closed their stores. Some were cheered by shoppers in denouncing the government for its financial support of Syria’s embattled government instead of investing that money at home.

“They spend billions of dollars to keep Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power, but now they say they have no money!” one clothing merchant screamed, according to witnesses.

A team from Iran’s state television was nearly attacked when its reporter turned to the camera saying that the people behind him had been upset over a robbery.

Abdullah, a young man selling textiles, loudly complained that it had become extremely difficult to do business when the value of the rial was so unpredictable. “The checks our customers give us bounce, we don’t know what prices will be tomorrow, how can we earn a living?” he asked.

One of the videos uploaded on YouTube that witnesses verified as genuine showed hundreds of demonstrators marching peacefully and chanting, “Leave Syria alone, think of us!”

But other videos, apparently uploaded by Iran’s underground and exiled opposition movement to exploit the moment for political advantage, appeared to be fake, blending clips from Wednesday with old footage from the antigovernment protests that followed the disputed election more than three years ago.

The secretary general of the Tehran Bazaar and Trade Union, a powerful official close to the government, accused unspecified outside instigators of pressing bazaar merchants to close their shops. The official, Ahmad Karimi Esfahani, was quoted by the Iranian Labor News Agency as saying that most merchants had wanted to remain open. “Those now present are trying to show the bazaar as closed,” he was quoted as saying. “They are guided by foreigners.”

Other bazaar traders hinted that the closing had been organized by powerful opponents of Mr. Ahmadinejad, who were trying to make him look weak. The bazaar is firmly in the hands of conservative businessmen who once supported Mr. Ahmadinejad’s rise to power but now strongly oppose him.

Members of Parliament and Shiite Muslim clerics have been calling for an end to the black-market currency trade, accusing the money changers of driving down the rial’s value. Others have called upon the government to buy rials and sell dollars, presumably from the central bank’s reserves, to stabilize the rial. But it is unclear how large a cash reserve the central bank has at its disposal.

The head of Iran’s central bank and Mr. Ahmadinejad regularly say that Iran has more than $100 billion in cash, but  government contractors, state employees and even members of the Revolutionary Guards have complained of late payments in recent months — and sometimes of none at all.

With many trying to blame Mr. Ahmadinejad for the wide range of problems plaguing Iran, he seems to be gearing up for a political fight. On Tuesday he attacked the head of Iran’s parliament, Ali Larijani, accusing him and other politicians of trying to bring him down, after Mr. Larijani said the government practiced “Robin Hood economics.”

Thomas Erdbrink reported from Tehran, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Ramtin Rastin contributed reporting from Tehran.

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In Organic-Hungry Hong Kong, Corn as High as an Elevator’s Climb

Philippe Lopez/Agence France-Presse

Plots like the rooftop City Farm are sprouting across Hong Kong amid fears of tainted imports.

By MARY HUI

HONG KONG — Kimbo Chan knows all about the food scandals in China: the formaldehyde that is sometimes sprayed on Chinese cabbages, the melamine in the milk and the imitation soy sauce made from hair clippings. That is why he is growing vegetables on a rooftop high above the crowded streets of Hong Kong.

“Some mainland Chinese farms even buy industrial chemicals to use on their crops,” Mr. Chan said. “Chemicals not meant for agricultural uses at all.”

As millions of Hong Kong consumers grow increasingly worried about the purity and safety of the fruits, vegetables, meats and processed foods coming in from mainland China, more of them are striking out on their own by tending tiny plots on rooftops, on balconies and in far-flung, untouched corners of highly urbanized Hong Kong.

“Consumers are asking, will the food poison them?” said Jonathan Wong, a professor of biology and the director of the Hong Kong Organic Resource Center. “They worry about the quality of the food. There is a lack of confidence in the food supply in China.”

Organic food stores are opening across the city, and there is growing demand in the markets for organic produce despite its higher prices. There are about 100 certified organic farms in Hong Kong. Seven years ago, there were none.

There is no official count of rooftop farms in Hong Kong, but they are clearly part of an international trend. New York has many commercialized rooftop farms established by companies like Gotham Greens, Bright Farms and Brooklyn Grange. In Berlin, an industrial-size rooftop vegetable and fish farm is in the pipeline. In Tokyo, a farm called Pasona O2 takes urban farming a step further: Vegetables are grown not only on roofs, but also in what was an underground bank vault.

With 7.1 million people in one of the most densely populated cities on earth, Hong Kong has little farmland and almost no agricultural sector. The territory imports more than 90 percent of its food. Hong Kong is hooked on vegetables, and 92 percent of its supply comes from mainland China.

On a recent morning at one of Hong Kong’s bustling and chaotic fresh produce markets, known here as “wet markets,” a woman bought three Chinese squashes for a good price. “Vegetables are expensive nowadays,” she said wearily. “Even if I cared enough about organic food and worried about chemicals, there’s nothing I can really do about it.”

Land is one of Hong Kong’s problems, of course. There is not very much of it, and only 1.6 percent is farmed, most of it in the New Territories, on the city’s far northern rim. And even that acreage is under threat from developers.

A government proposal to develop the New Territories threatens to remove about 242 acres of farmland, according to a joint statement issued by green groups. This accounts for about 13 percent of Hong Kong’s active farmland, they said.

People trying to start small organic farms in the New Territories have been deterred by the lack of a clear agricultural policy there. Large vacant tracts held by developers can be rezoned for development almost at will, creating an uncertainty that has scared off a number of potential farmers.

Then there are the typhoons, the oppressive humidity, the boiling summers. Soil is another problem.

“Imported organic soil isn’t suitable for Hong Kong’s hot and humid climate, and so we had to adjust the soil,” said Osbert Lam, a commercial video director and the owner of a rooftop operation called City Farm.

With a graying ponytail, Mr. Lam does not look like a typical farmer, but he is intensely dedicated to his farm. He imported soil from Denmark and Germany, but for a year he had to tinker, sift, mix and adjust before arriving at a suitable recipe.

Even so, he said, the formula is tweaked for different crops: “You need to add more sand to grow potatoes, and more peat moss for strawberries. Each crop needs their own luxury home!”

Another issue for rooftop gardeners is Hong Kong’s notorious bureaucracy, and many of the city’s green thumbs are turned back by red tape.

“There is too much work in dealing with the government and the Housing Authority,” said Mr. Wong, the organic-food expert.

Still, some urban farmers find the effort worth it. It cost Mr. Lam about 500,000 Hong Kong dollars, or roughly $65,000, to set up City Farm, including all farming materials, an office, piping and wiring. And the whole operation can be easily moved.

“It’s a mobile farm,” he said. “I can have the farm here today, and move it elsewhere tomorrow.”

Fourteen stories above the city’s urban din, on a rooftop the size of a couple of basketball courts, City Farm flourishes with an impressive array of organic vegetables. Black plastic planter boxes adorn the rooftop farm. Some are topped by large bamboo frames holding bitter gourds and pumpkins, while others have little signs stuck into the soil, handwritten with the names of herbs and their planting dates.

Made in Taiwan and looking roughly like milk crates, the planters come in three varieties: shallow boxes for growing leafy greens and herbs; a deeper version for turnips, carrots and potatoes; and raised planters that are easier on the farmers’ backs as they tend to their plants.

On a recent walk through the beds at City Farm, Mr. Chan, who works there with Mr. Lam, stopped at various plants, talking about them with the tenderness of a parent. He pointed to some Okinawa spinach that he eats raw to reduce his blood pressure. Not far away was a mini-watermelon plant, its fruit the size of Ping-Pong balls and hanging delicately from a bamboo frame, protected from insects by finely woven netting.

From a bamboo frame, Mr. Chan picked off a small Spanish chili pepper. After a quick rinse under the garden hose, he eagerly offered it to a visitor.

“You develop a different attitude,” he said of cultivating his garden, “and it changes your lifestyle.”

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Internet Law in Philippines Takes Effect, Raising Fears

By FLOYD WHALEY

MANILA — A new Internet law that took effect in the Philippines on Wednesday could lead to imprisonment for common activities like sharing Facebook and Twitter posts, critics say.

The new law, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, which was signed by President Benigno S. Aquino III on Sept. 12, sets penalties for several computer-related crimes, including child pornography, identity theft, online fraud and illegally accessing computer networks.

But critics are concerned about the law’s provisions related to libel, which in the Philippines is a criminal offense that can result in imprisonment. Harry S. Roque, president of Media Defense South East Asia, an advocacy organization, said the law applied the existing legal definition of libel to the online activities of individuals, meaning that if a comment on Facebook or Twitter were deemed libelous, the writer of the item and those who shared it could be prosecuted.

“It exposes Internet users to prosecution,” said Mr. Roque, a law professor at the University of the Philippines. “You can be sued. You can be forced to post a bond. You will need to get a lawyer. You can imagine the mayhem this can cause.

“The Philippines has been a leader in Internet freedom,” Mr. Roque continued. “This law makes the Philippines at par with other oppressive regimes in Southeast Asia that imprison and intimidate bloggers.”

There has been considerable public outcry against the law in the weeks leading up to its implementation. Hackers have attacked the Web sites of the president, both houses of Congress and a variety of government agencies. On Wednesday, some Facebook users replaced their profile pictures with black silhouettes and bloggers created blank posts to protest the law, while others took to the streets, staging a demonstration in front of the Supreme Court.

Some government offices have also struggled with the new law. “Foul words against our police officers can be used as evidence now to file a case against you in a court of law,” a post by the Philippine National Police on its official Facebook page read Monday, in response to a negative comment by a visitor to the site. Police officials later apologized and removed the post.

Philippine senators who voted for the law, many of whom are up for re-election next year, have been scrambling to address critics’ concerns. Some senators have had to admit that they did not actually read the law before voting for its passage. Senator Francis G. Escudero acknowledged on Tuesday on his Web site that he had not read the provision of the law dealing with online libel, but said he had introduced a bill to decriminalize libel.

Senator Edgardo J. Angara, who voted for the new law, said Wednesday — the same day he filed his certificate of candidacy for re-election — that he supported amending the legislation.

“Not all the laws that we pass are perfect,” Mr. Angara told reporters. “At least in this case we are responsive.”

A spokesman for Mr. Aquino sought Wednesday to calm public fears after the barrage of protests and an announcement by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima that her department would be hiring 150 investigators to enforce the new law.

“Our Constitution is clear and uncompromising in the civil liberties it guarantees all our people,” said the spokesman, Edwin Lacierda. “As the basic law, its guarantees cannot, and will not, be diminished or reduced by any law passed by Congress.”

At least nine petitions have been filed with the Supreme Court seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the prosecution of anyone under the law. The court has said it will rule on the matter next week.

In a study released before the law was passed, the American group Freedom House ranked the Philippines sixth in the world in terms of Internet freedom.

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World Briefing | Europe

France: President’s Partner Cancels Plans to Host TV Program

By STEVEN ERLANGER

Valérie Trierweiler, the partner of President François Hollande of France, said that she would drop plans to host a television program but would continue to work as a journalist covering cultural issues at Paris Match magazine so that she could pay for her children’s needs without depending on anyone. Ms. Trierweiler, in an interview published on Wednesday, also said that she had made a mistake when she used Twitter to support a political opponent of Mr. Hollande’s former partner, Ségolène Royal, deeply embarrassing the new president. “It was a mistake that I regret,” Ms. Trierweiler said. “I was clumsy, since this was badly interpreted. I had not yet realized that I was no longer just a simple citizen. It won’t happen again.”

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World Briefing | Africa

Sudan: Peacekeepers Killed in Ambush

By ISMA’IL KUSHKUSH

Four Nigerian soldiers belonging to the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur were killed in an ambush on Tuesday evening by unidentified attackers. Peacekeeping troops have been in Darfur since 2007. Some 16,000 troops, mostly from African nations, are currently based in the region; 78 have died. The soldiers killed on Tuesday were ambushed near a peacekeeping base in western Darfur. Eight soldiers were also injured. War broke out in Darfur in 2003, when rebel groups took up arms against the central government. According to the United Nations, 300,000 people have died because of the war. The Sudanese government says 10,000 have died. A peace agreement was signed between the government and one rebel group in 2011, but three other rebel groups have refused to sign.

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World Briefing | Europe

France: Government Introduces Terrorism Legislation

By STEVEN ERLANGER

France’s Socialist government introduced legislation on Wednesday that would give the police more power to arrest people who travel to camps for training in conflict zones like Pakistan and Afghanistan. The draft law, which incorporates aspects of one proposed by the last government, is intended to help “detect when people, collectively or individually, embark on the road to radicalization and terrorist violence,” said a government spokeswoman, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem. “The terrorist threat remains at a very high level,” she said, citing the murders of seven people, including soldiers and three Jewish children, last March in Toulouse by Mohammed Merah. Mr. Merah attended terrorist training camps but was not taken seriously by the police. Mr. Merah was killed in a shootout. The government will also extend through 2015 police powers to intercept electronic or Internet communications of terrorism suspects.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 4, 2012

The headline on an earlier version of this article misstated the status of terrorism legislation in France. The draft law has been introduced. It has not been put on hold.

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Georgian Politician Rescinds Call for President to Quit

By ELLEN BARRY

TBILISI, Georgia — The billionaire whose political coalition shocked much of the region by prevailing in this week’s parliamentary elections here, on Wednesday hastily rescinded his demand that President Mikheil Saakashvili resign, and said he was “ready for constructive relations” with him.

Bidzina Ivanishvili is poised to become the prime minister.

The surprise winner, Bidzina Ivanishvili, also announced that his first visit after the election would be to Washington, signaling that the electoral upset will not affect Georgia’s close relationship with the United States. He told local television reporters that he would travel to the United States after the presidential elections in November.

“We have also made the decision that I will not go to visit any other country yet — my first visit will be to the U.S.,” he said.

Both announcements suggest that Mr. Ivanishvili, who is poised to take the powerful post of prime minister, does not intend to drastically reorient Georgia toward a partnership with Russia. Throughout a sometimes poisonous election campaign, Mr. Saakashvili had accused his rival of representing Kremlin interests, offering as evidence the vast wealth he had earned in Russia.

Mr. Ivanishvili has little experience in public life and, until he vowed to topple Mr. Saakashvili, lived so reclusively that few people knew what he looked like. American officials have consulted intensively with him in recent weeks, both to take his measure and to urge a peaceful and constitutional transition.

During a meandering and sometimes vituperative news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Ivanishvili shocked many by casually saying that Mr. Saakashvili should resign immediately rather than serve out his term, which ends in 2013 — a jarring demand, since the president had just offered a graceful concession speech and offered to work together.

Western observers were upset, and Wilfried Martens, of the European People’s Party, released a statement calling the demand “totally unacceptable” and “a direct attack against democracy and the rule of law.”

Mr. Ivanishvili officially took it back with a written statement on Wednesday, saying it was only a recommendation.

“I reiterate that we do not raise any political ultimatums and, for the well-being of the country, we are ready for dialogue and settlement of state issues with the Georgian president and other representatives of the present government in a working atmosphere,” the statement said.

There are dizzying questions about how the two men will share power, after a campaign marked by vicious personal attacks and recrimination.

Because of recent changes to the Constitution, Georgia will become a parliamentary republic in 2013, and many executive powers will be transferred to the prime minister. But many months of compromise stretch out before then — a danger in a political culture geared toward obliterating one’s opponent. At his news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Ivanishvili said, jokingly, that American officials had been urging him to reach out to Mr. Saakashvili.

“There were attempts — would I agree to call Saakashvili? — which I refused,” he said.

“Today, and in the future, there is no need of this. Our ‘big brothers’ from America tried to do something about this and worried a lot about how we will be able to work with the governing party.”

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2 Coptic Christian Boys Held in Egypt on Charges They Defiled a Koran

By KAREEM FAHIM and MAI AYYAD

CAIRO — Two Coptic Christian boys have been detained by the authorities on charges that they defiled the pages of a Koran, the latest in a spate of recent cases involving accusations that people have insulted Islam.

The boys, ages 9 and 10, are being held in juvenile detention in the village of Ezbet Marco, south of Cairo, according to Ishak Ibrahim, a researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights who is investigating the case. They were detained last Sunday, when the imam of the local mosque claimed that he saw the children tearing the pages of a Koran.

Other news reports said the boys were accused of urinating on the Koran pages.

The charges seemed likely to add to growing anxieties in Egypt about free speech rights, the sway of hard-line Islamists and the status of the country’s Christian minority, which fears an erosion of rights under an Islamist government. It also recalled the recent arrest in Pakistan of a Christian girl who was accused of burning Muslim texts in a case that drew attention to the use of blasphemy laws to intimidate minorities.

Mr. Ibrahim said there had been at least 17 cases involving the charge of contempt of religion since the 2011 uprising that deposed President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. A flurry of recent cases suggested the authorities were moving more aggressively to act on such accusations.

In one, a blogger, Alber Saber, who is from a Coptic Christian family, was tried after his neighbors accused him of posting on his Facebook page the video trailer for a purported film “Innocence of Muslims.” The trailer ignited protests around the world. Mr. Saber’s lawyers have denied that he posted the video.

In the latest episode, the imam, Ibrahim Ali, took the two boys to the local priest after saying that he saw them tear the Koran pages, and demanded that they be punished, according to Mr. Ibrahim. The priest apologized on behalf of the boys, scolded them, hit one of them and that evening filed a complaint at the local police station.

The Associated Press quoted the local leader of a hard-line Islamist group as saying that people in the town saw the boys take Koran pages behind a mosque and urinate on them. A local security chief, though, told The A.P. that the boys were found with tarnished pages but that no one saw the children urinate on them.

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Europe’s Nuclear Reactors Need Repair or Upgrades

By JAMES KANTER

BRUSSELS — “Practically all” of the more than 130 active nuclear reactors in the European Union need safety improvements, repairs or upgrades, at a cost of up to $32 billion, according to a draft copy of a European Commission report that is scheduled to be released Thursday.

The scale of the problems detailed in the draft report, as well as the size of the expected repair bill, may amplify public concerns about the safety of nuclear power on the part of Europeans, who are already deeply divided over the technology and whose governments still zealously guard control over energy policy at the national level.

The European Commission undertook the safety review of its nuclear plants after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which led to the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Part of the assessment was the performance of so-called stress tests, which are meant to assess how a nuclear facility would fare in various kinds of failures and crises. National experts conducted the stress tests in conjunction with the commission’s advisory group on nuclear safety. The tests identified the need for “hundreds of technical upgrade measures,” the draft report says.

The two biggest previous civilian nuclear accidents — at Three Mile Island outside Harrisburg, Pa., in 1979, and at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986 — were both followed by similar scrutiny, and agreements were reached on extensive new safety measures. But the draft report notes that “even today, decades later, the implementation of those measures is still pending” in some of the union’s member countries.

Vulnerabilities found by the commission and identified in the draft report include a situation at four reactors in Finland and Sweden, where if the cooling systems failed or all electric power was lost, the operators would have less than an hour to restore safety functions before catastrophic damage took place. The draft report says that 10 reactors in countries including Spain, France and the Czech Republic lack adequate equipment to detect earthquakes.

Most of the upgrades called for in the draft report involve making European nuclear plants better able to withstand quakes, flooding and the loss of primary cooling — the factors that combined to devastating effect at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The draft report also says that rules ensuring the independence of national nuclear safety regulators “are minimal.” The European Union’s energy commissioner, Günther Oettinger, is expected to announce plans on Thursday for unionwide legislation meant to improve reporting and protect the regulators’ independence.

Mark Breddy, a spokesman for Greenpeace European Unit, the environmental advocacy organization, said: “Cozy relationships between nuclear operators, regulators and politicians were pivotal to aggravating the Fukushima disaster. The situation isn’t much better in Europe.” Given those relationships, he said, he questioned whether the European Commission’s stress tests were as thorough and as impartial as they should have been.

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With Cuts, Free Education Is No Longer a Cuban Birthright

By REUTERS

HAVANA (Reuters) — Cuba is cutting back its hallowed free education system and moving students into more practical careers to reduce costs and fill needs in its work force, recently released government statistics show.

Enrollment in the communist-run country’s many types of schools fell to 2.2 million students last year from 3 million in 2008, a drop of 27 percent, according to the National Statistics Office.

The reductions include cuts in some of the most vaunted programs of the Cuban revolution, which from its beginning in 1959 emphasized the importance of education for all.

Soon after succeeding his brother Fidel in 2008, President Raúl Castro warned of coming budget cuts in education and health care because, he said, the debt-laden country could no longer afford to maintain a bloated state bureaucracy.

“What we need to root out definitively is the irresponsible attitude of consuming, with nobody — or very few people — worrying about how much it costs the country to guarantee that and, above all, if it can really do so,” he told the National Assembly.

“Social expenditures should be in accordance with real possibilities, and that means cutting those expenditures it is possible to do without,” he added.

Among the hardest hit were universities, where the number of students dropped almost 50 percent to 156,000 in 2011, from 300,000 in 2008, as admission standards were raised and liberal arts careers slashed. Adult education also fell drastically.

Only 145,000 students were enrolled last year in university extension classes, a fraction of the 578,000 who signed up in 2008.

Enrollment in adult education courses, designed to improve work skills, dropped to 129,000 from 373,000 in 2008 as the longstanding practice of paying state workers and farmers their full salaries to study during the day came to an end.

The state runs the entire education system for the country’s 11.2 million citizens and sets the number of places available in each area of study based on what kind of skills it thinks Cuba needs. These days, that means more skilled workers and private farmers to boost stagnating production, and fewer professionals.

At the high school level, emphasis is being put on sciences, pedagogy, agriculture and skilled trades. The number of places for students in pre-university schools declined by some 50,000, or more than 20 percent since 2008, the report stated. More students were channeled into the skilled trades, where slots jumped to 74,000 from 26,000 in 2008. (The data did not include provincial high schools run by the military.)

“Opportunities are shrinking and competition increasing,” said Sonya Perez, a single mother. “I make my daughter study two hours every day and pay one of her teachers 30 pesos each week to tutor her.”

The changes can be jarring to Cubans who have taken a full, free education as a birthright.

“It used to be that a university education, in one form or another, was almost a sure thing,” said an architect in Havana, Alejandro Padron. “Now you have to struggle. I understand that it was impossible to maintain everyone studying, but I still want to see my son go to the university.”

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Birobidzhan Journal

Despite Predictions, Jewish Homeland in Siberia Retains Its Appeal

James Hill for The New York Times

Andrey Zasorin leads a congregation at the old synagogue in Birobidzhan, the capital of Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Region.

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

BIROBIDZHAN, Russia — Andrey Zasorin, the spiritual leader of the old synagogue here in the capital of Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Region, is a born-again Jew who found God after 23 years in prison for robbery. Even then, he returned to Judaism only after flirting with the Russian Orthodox and Pentecostal churches.

Yelena Sarashevskaya, the editor of the local paper, Birobidzhaner Shtern, which still publishes two or three pages a week in Yiddish, is not Jewish. She is a descendant of Cossacks, but married a Jew and learned to read and write Yiddish in college.

Identity is a complex issue in the quixotic Jewish homeland established by Stalin here in the mosquito-infested swampland of Russia’s Far East, some 20 years before the founding of Israel. While the big menorah standing outside the railroad station, the Yiddish street signs and ubiquitous Stars of David give Birobidzhan the veneer of a Jewish Disneyland, the city often seems to have the religious authenticity of a pizza bagel with pepperoni.

Because of this gap between the city’s spirit and its spirituality — not to mention the dwindling number of people who actually call themselves Jews — commentators have been predicting the Jewish Autonomous Region’s demise for decades. But whether on the Upper East Side, or in Jerusalem, or on this last patch of Siberia along the Chinese border, Jewish is as Jewish does. And when it comes to the so-called Soviet Zion, Ms. Sarashevskaya, for one, is sick of the snickering.

“I don’t blame foreign journalists, even our own native journalists suffer from this,” Ms. Sarashevskaya said, sitting in her office on Lenin Street. “They say, ‘Stalin’s experiment, the Birobidzhan Project, failed’ — these are the clichés they use — and honestly it’s annoying already. By God, we are talking about living people, you understand. And it’s not for them to judge. History turned out this way and made all this possible. At least the Jews who came here survived the Holocaust. This place saved many lives.”

Of course, some survived the Nazis only to die by the thousands under Stalin. But if coaxing Russia’s Jews virtually to the end of the land always had the feeling of a cruel joke, the comrades in the Kremlin could hardly have predicted the punch line.

Unlike other places contemplated for Jewish resettlement over the years, like Uganda or Alaska or Japan, Birobidzhan, (pronounced bi-ra-bi-JAN) cannot be written off as a historical footnote or dismissed as fiction. Though it never became the agrarian, socialist-Jewish utopia that some founders envisioned, Birobidzhan remains a Jewish place.

The old synagogue, a ramshackle, one-story wooden house, is still functioning, after closing briefly in the mid-1990s. A new synagogue, financed by the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, has been built in the center of downtown, along with a Jewish community center. Sholem Aleichem Street remains the main road, and a statue of the Fiddler on the Roof still greets concertgoers outside the symphony hall.

No doubt, the Jewish population has dropped, to less than 7 percent of the 76,000 people who live in Birobidzhan, and less than 2 percent in the wider region. Very few are religious.

But some Jews who left for Israel after the collapse of the Soviet Union have returned — tugged home even from the Promised Land, which still cannot promise peace or tranquillity.

On the same weekend last month, Birobidzhan celebrated Rosh Hashana and the city’s 75th anniversary. Visitors arrive by train, a stop on the Trans-Siberian, to see the city’s name written in huge Yiddish letters. One local elementary school still teaches Yiddish.

“For me Birobidzhan was a shock, because I was born in Yiddish civilization,” said Marek Halter, the French-Jewish novelist, who was so struck by the place when he visited in 2011 that he made a documentary film, “Birobidzhan, Birobidzhan,” and wrote a novel set in the city. “It was like Jurassic Park.”

Among the Jews to return to Birobidzhan from Israel is Gershon Riss, whose son, Eliyahu, 22, is now the rabbi of the new synagogue.

“In 2004, after a long absence, we came here for vacation,” Mr. Riss said. “We saw new buildings, a new, beautiful synagogue and the revival of the Jewish culture.”

As a boy, Mr. Riss recalled going to the Yiddish theater with his father, to see productions like “Tevye the Milkman,” by Sholem Aleichem, and “The Witch,” by Abraham Goldfaden.

Officials recently announced that they had allocated land for the city’s first mosque. At the ceremony, Roman Leder, a Jewish leader, gave the local imam a copy of the Old Testament.

Berel Lazar, the chief rabbi of Russia, said in an interview in Moscow that Stalin’s goal was to exile Russia’s Jews to where “they wouldn’t be able to do much harm.” Historians say another goal was to use the Jews as a buffer between Russia and China.

As a result, Rabbi Lazar said, Birobidzhan was never really a homeland. “Is it any more Jewish than any other area of Russia? Surely not,” he said. “He took the Jewish soul out of the Jewish people.”

But while Jewish imagery is rare in Moscow or St. Petersburg, Birobidzhan revels in it. Even signs in Russian often use a Hebraic calligraphy. Such pride was not always in evidence.

“There were times when we were young when it was not very convenient to be Jewish, it was even dangerous,” said Vilen I. Arnapolin, who, on Dec. 24, 1937, became the very first baby recorded in the city’s birth records. “Now everybody wants to be Jewish.”

But to say a renaissance is under way would be going too far.

Mr. Arnapolin’s daughter and two grandchildren have assimilated and are listed as Russian, not Jewish, in their passports. His granddaughter, Vlada Yakshina, 18, is studying not Yiddish but Chinese.

There is no kosher supermarket or restaurant — only a Chinese chef named Van Bao-lin, who goes by Kolya, serves up the occasional schnitzel and delights in toasting guests at his restaurant with a hearty “L’Chaim!”

The religious, meanwhile, are surviving as best they can.

Mr. Zasorin, who rejoined the synagogue his grandmother attended when he was a boy, leads an aging congregation, called Beit T’Shuvah — House of Redemption — that often cannot muster the 10 men required for a prayer group. The rabbi of the new synagogue, Eliyahu Riss, is hoping its Sunday school will engage a new generation.

Riva Khaskelevna Shmain, a founding Birobidzhaner who recently celebrated her 78th birthday, said she has hope for the future. “There is a Jewish kindergarten,” she said. “So I think all this will continue.”

Ms. Sarashevskaya, the editor, said those who declared Stalin’s experiment a failure missed the point. “Of course, this is not Israel,” Ms. Sarashevskaya said. “But that was not the goal. The Jewish Autonomous Region is wonderful as it is. This is a quiet, tranquil and cozy place, good for married couples, elderly people and children.” She added, “This is a Jewish place.”

Nikolay Khalip contributed reporting.

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China Jails 4 Tibetans Linked to Self-Immolation Protests

By ANDREW JACOBS

BEIJING — Four Tibetans, including two teenage Buddhist monks, have been given lengthy prison terms for supporting the resistance movement to Chinese rule that has involved the self-immolation of more than 50 people since 2009, according to Radio Free Asia, a news organization financed by the United States government.

The sentences, from 7 to 11 years, reflect Beijing’s hard-line approach to a protest campaign that has so far proved difficult to tame.

Two of the four Tibetan men were charged with leaking news of the protests to “outside contacts,” and the other two were accused of helping a fellow monk burn himself to death at Kirti Monastery, a hotbed of anti-Chinese resistance in Sichuan Province. All of the men were incommunicado for several months; the news that they had been tried and convicted was relayed to Radio Free Asia through two exiled Tibetan monks with contacts in the region.

“Two days before their trial, their family members were sent a notice by the court that the trial was about to begin, but they were not allowed to hire a lawyer for their defense,” Radio Free Asia quoted the two monks as saying. “Afterward, they were given only a few minutes to meet with their family.” The four men were tried in September, said the exiled monks, who live in Dharamsala, India.

The youngest of those jailed, Lobsang Jangchub, 17, was charged with helping a fellow monk named Gepe set himself on fire in March and handed an eight-year sentence. Another monk from the same monastery, Lobsang Tsultrim, 19, was given 11 years for his role in Gepe’s self-immolation, Radio Free Asia said.

The other two convicted men, tried by Barkham People’s Middle Court in Sichuan Province, were accused of “leaking news from inside Tibet to outside contacts,” Radio Free Asia said. A layman, Bu Thubdor, 25, was given a seven-and-a-half year term, and Lobsang Tashi, 26, a monk from Kirti Monastery, was sentenced to seven years.

The authorities have recently prosecuted scores of ethnic Tibetans on charges of fomenting opposition to Chinese rule in Tibet and three adjacent provinces with significant Tibetan populations. In August, a 17-year-old girl was given a three-year sentence for distributing leaflets calling for greater religious freedom and for the return of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader. In June, a prominent monk was sentenced to seven years for sending out photographs and information about the self-immolation of a Buddhist nun, Reporters Without Borders said.

News of the self-immolations and the ensuing crackdown have gone largely unreported in the Chinese news media.

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In Philippines, Warrant for Former President

By REUTERS

MANILA (Reuters) — A Philippine court says it has ordered the arrest of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on plunder charges, meaning a likely return to detention. Mrs. Arroyo had posted bail in July following about seven months of confinement.

The court has yet to serve the arrest warrant, issued late on Wednesday.

Mrs. Arroyo, who was president from 2001 to 2010, is unlikely to escape detention this time around as the charge under the Plunder Law is a nonbailable offense.

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Rights Group Criticizes Hamas-Run Justice System in Gaza

By FARES AKRAM

GAZA CITY — Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, of running a criminal justice system rife with arbitrary arrests, torture and unfair trials. Hamas officials responded sharply, challenging the methodology of the group’s research.

In a 43-page report titled “Abusive System,” Human Rights Watch detailed seven cases and called for an immediate moratorium on capital punishment in the Gaza Strip, as well as an end to prosecutions of civilians in military courts.

Gaza’s “criminal justice system reeks of injustice, routinely violates detainees’ rights, and grants impunity to abusive security services,” Joe Stork, the deputy Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement accompanying the report, which was presented at a news conference on Wednesday morning at a coastal hotel. “Hamas should stop the kinds of abuses that Egyptians, Syrians and others in the region have risked their lives to bring to an end.”

A number of Hamas officials disrupted the news conference, challenging Human Rights Watch’s work and barely allowing journalists time to ask questions.

“This is a politicized report that neglects the siege and the crimes of the Israeli occupation,” said Islam Shahwan, a spokesman for Hamas’s Interior Ministry.

Mr. Shahwan said Hamas had fired or disciplined 120 security employees for abusing prisoners, though he declined to detail the violations.

“We have opened the prisons for rights activists and groups to make sure that we do not use torture,” he added.

The report praises Hamas for allowing three Palestinian human rights groups “ad hoc access” to detainees, but calls on the government to lift its ban on access by the Independent Commission for Human Rights, a Palestinian institution.

Bill Van Esveld, Human Rights Watch’s researcher for Israel and the Palestinian territories, noted that the report came five years after Hamas wrested control of the Gaza government from forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and his Fatah faction.

“Today, after having consolidated its control of Gaza, there is an opportunity for Hamas to end the abuses and bring about accountability,” Mr. Van Esveld said.

His report found at least three cases in which Palestinians accused of collaboration with Israel were executed after confessions obtained through torture. One was Abdel Karim Shrair, who was arrested in July 2008 by members of Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, and executed by firing squad in May 2011, according to the report.

Mr. Shrair’s relatives and lawyers told Human Rights Watch that he was tortured for three weeks before being transferred to police custody, and that his body was bruised and burned when they saw it. The report said that in a meeting on Sept. 26, the deputy director of Hamas’s internal security agency told Human Rights Watch that it had not investigated the case because it had never received a written complaint.

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Cajoling, Drugging and More as Rebels Try to Draw Defectors

Bryan Denton for The New York Times

Syrian rebels listened to their commander before leaving for fighting in Aleppo in August.

By KAREEM FAHIM and HWAIDA SAAD

ANTAKYA, Turkey — For months, the disparate militias known as the Free Syrian Army relied on defections from the Syrian military to lead a credible if halting challenge to the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Every day seemed to bring word of new recruits. Soldiers fled in packs, or officers stole across a border, lifting the rebels’ morale while swelling their ranks.

But now opposition commanders say defections have slowed to a trickle. Some commanders have given up trying to entice defectors, and others have resorted to more desperate measures: cajoling, duping, threatening and even drugging and kidnapping military men to get them to change sides, or at least stay out of the fight. Without defections, they say, the opposition cannot hope to grow, never mind prevail.

“We use means only used by the devil,” said Ahmed Qunatri, a rebel commander in northern Syria who defected from the Republican Guard.

As Syria’s fighting burns into its 19th month, Mr. Assad’s forces have moved effectively to cut off what amounts to the armed rebellion’s most significant resource: soldiers with training and weapons who change sides. In a shift in strategy, the government has preferred to attack towns and neighborhoods from a distance using artillery and air power, preserving its resources and distancing its soldiers from rebel fighters — and from the public, including friends and neighbors, who might encourage defections.

Some rebel commanders now fret that all the soldiers who were inclined to defect already have. The rest remain loyal to the government, or are terrified of betraying it. Others are just suspicious of an armed movement that has found extremists among its ranks. A suicide attack in Aleppo on Wednesday that killed more than 40 people and devastated a government-held district drew widespread anger. Aware of just how much the violence is undermining popular support for the uprising, some rebel groups immediately tried to blame the government for staging the bombing. The government blamed the rebels. By nightfall, Jabhet al-Nusra, an insurgent group affiliated with Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings.

Col. Qassem Sa’adeddine, the head of the rebel military council for Homs, said in an interview in Turkey that the government’s close watch, especially at checkpoints, meant “communicating with officers has become much harder.” The colonel said it had also become more difficult to protect the families of defectors — for example, safe houses were harder to come by in neighborhoods depopulated by the government. “The officers are more hesitant these days,” he said. More and more, he said, the rebels used force.

“We arrest them and give them a chance to defect,” he said. “Some are convinced after a week, so they are welcomed.” Those who remained unconvinced — loyal to the government — were imprisoned, he said, and would face a “trial.”

Some of the methods used by the rebels reflected a cunning forged in necessity, but also an ability, at times, for brutality. Several times in recent months, rebel fighting groups — making no effort to persuade their enemies — have been accused of summarily executing captured soldiers. Last week, rebel fighters claimed credit for bombing a school they said was used as a military base. “The fewer the defectors, the less the opposition strives to attract soldiers rather than just fight them,” said Peter Harling, an expert on Syria with the International Crisis Group. “And the harsher armed groups treat the enemy, the fewer will change sides. It’s a self-reinforcing dynamic.”

Several commanders said they were still trying to persuade. Mr. Qunatri, the rebel commander, said in an interview here in Antakya that he preferred sending innocent-seeming emissaries to soldiers at military checkpoints. A 12-year-old boy, for example, helped turn one soldier, teasing him mercilessly until he relented. “Dude, why don’t you defect,” the boy would scold, repeatedly, as if the heavily guarded checkpoint was a schoolyard.

Another rebel officer, who uses the nom de guerre Abu Ali, sent a barber, Walid, who made friends with the soldiers by offering haircuts or doing laundry. “They want to defect,” Abu Ali said. “They don’t know how, or who can help.”

Another rebel commander who was a merchant before the war said he once sent a shepherd, who wandered by checkpoints and lent a sympathetic ear to the soldiers. “It helps if the soldiers were shepherds as well,” the commander said. “Nostalgia.”

Another of the former merchant’s operatives, a food delivery man, identified six recruits, but the checkpoint they guarded was too well secured for them to leave: there was no way past the officers. “We thought of sending sleeping pills,” the commander said. The recruits spiked the water and the tea. “Thirty-eight soldiers fell asleep,” said a soldier named Shadi, one of those who defected that day. Rebel seized the sleeping soldiers along with their weapons. Some willingly flipped and others were made to promise they would not return to the fight, he said. “Two of the 38 returned to the army,” he said.

Though the rebels claim to have attracted thousands of recruits, there is little evidence the defections have slowed the Syrian Army. Many rebels say they are still waiting for a pivotal moment, for instance, when a brigade changes sides. Until that happens, they say, they are squeezing the army of every last dissenter against increasing odds.

An officer from Damascus said rebels called him for 16 months, without ever giving their names, first peppering him with friendly requests, before telling him he would be killed if he did not desert. To drive home the point, sometimes, they called from dead soldiers’ cellphones. “I finally defected, but I was so scared I didn’t trust my own wife,” said the officer.

A few weeks ago, three Syrian border guards decided to flee the country, forcing another soldier who had no desire to defect with them at gunpoint, fearing he would thwart their escape. “It was very confusing,” the soldier said in a phone interview from a country neighboring Syria on Friday. “If I stayed, the officers would blame me and I would surely face the death penalty. If I refused, my colleagues might kill me.”

After they had crossed the border, the defectors told the soldier he was free. “But where to go?” the soldier said. “I’m stuck with no way to go back. I’m already involved.” Since his exile started, he had started to sympathize with the rebels, he said.

Such tactics have angered some antigovernment activists, who worry that they alienate supporters of the uprising. One activist, who requested anonymity for fear of angering the Free Syrian Army, cited a recent case that he said was part of a worrying trend: an officer from the coastal city of Latakia was kidnapped, thrown in the trunk of a car and told he was defecting or he would be killed.

But faced with the government’s cruelty, many defectors said they needed no convincing: they were haunted, they said, by innocent victims and the cities they helped destroy. They spoke with pride about protecting demonstrations and defending their homes.

As the uprising has transformed into something more ambiguous — a struggle against a dictator but also a war scarred by sectarianism and foreign meddling — allegiances have become more contested. This week, in a jarring turn for the rebels, a man claiming to be a former insurgent commander appeared at an opposition conference in Damascus and said he was defecting back to the government.

“The solution in Syria does not lie in the use of weapons or violence or sabotage and explosions or the killing of innocents,” the commander, Col. Khaled Abdel-Rahman al-Zamel, said at the opposition meeting in Damascus. A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army asserted that the reversal was a ruse: the government had arrested the colonel back in March. “He is our colleague and our friend,” the spokesman said.

Hania Mourtada contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.

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Rift Grows Between Israeli Leaders Over Relations With U.S.

Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in August.

By ISABEL KERSHNER

JERUSALEM — A growing rift between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister, Ehud Barak, a political rival, centers on Israel’s strategic relations with the United States as Mr. Barak tries to turn the tension between Mr. Netanyahu and Washington to his political advantage.

After years of a close alliance during which the pair almost exclusively directed Israel’s campaign against Iran’s nuclear program, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Barak have been trading the kind of barbs that would appear, at least for now, to mean an end to that kind of intimate cooperation.

Underlying the argument is a competition over who can best steer Israel’s Iran policy and other national security mainstays like the Palestinian issue. Those differences, while not new, are coming to the forefront now because Mr. Netanyahu may soon call for early elections, perhaps scheduling a vote for February.

Just weeks after Mr. Netanyahu was perceived by critics as having meddled in America’s presidential election by criticizing President Obama’s approach to Iran, the Israeli leader’s strained relations with Washington are emerging as a hot electoral issue in Israel. Israelis are anxious about the prospect of an attack on Iran without close American coordination, and they generally view strong ties with the United States as crucial, framing Mr. Netanyahu’s clash with the White House as a rare political weakness.

“Barak understands that elections are on the horizon,” said Shmuel Sandler, a politics and foreign policy expert at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. “He wants to separate himself from Netanyahu. What is his claim to fame? That he has good relations with Washington.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu’s loyalists accused the defense minister of using his recent trip to the United States to differentiate himself from the prime minister and move away from the recent friction with the Obama administration.

“As far as I know, yes, he distanced himself in an attempt to make political gains,” Yisrael Katz, the minister of transportation, told Israel Radio.

Mr. Katz was echoing remarks attributed to Mr. Netanyahu from a closed meeting on Tuesday. Mr. Netanyahu was quoted in the Israeli news media as saying that Mr. Barak had deliberately exacerbated the tensions between the prime minister and Washington in an attempt to make himself look like the moderate who can repair relations.

In response, Mr. Barak’s office issued a statement saying that the defense minister “works to strengthen relations with the United States and at their heart, the security relationship.”

“The importance of the special security and intelligence relations built up over the past five years during which Barak has served as the minister of defense should not be forgotten,” the statement added. “Those special relations contribute directly to the security and interests of Israel.”

Critics said that Mr. Netanyahu and his supporters were trying to deflect blame for the bad blood between the prime minister and Mr. Obama.

“Barak was trying to calm the waters while Netanyahu was making statements that raised the temperature,” said Shlomo Avineri, a professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The prime minister has grown “uncomfortable,” he said, with the image of Mr. Barak as “the responsible adult.”

Israeli general elections are scheduled for October 2013, but Mr. Netanyahu has made it known that if he cannot reach agreement with his coalition partners on what he calls a “responsible” budget within 10 days, he will call an early vote.

Nahum Barnea, a columnist at the newspaper Yediot Aharonot, wrote Wednesday that the budget has a shortfall of nearly $4 billion and that the only way to cover it is by a significant cut in the defense budget, since alternatives like raising taxes or cutting services cannot be done in an election year.

“There is nothing personal in Netanyahu’s offending statements against Barak,” Mr. Barnea wrote, adding that the background to the dispute was “only politics.”

Mr. Netanyahu leads the conservative-leaning Likud Party while Mr. Barak, a former Labor Party leader long unpopular with the electorate, leads the tiny, centrist Independence faction. Recent polls indicate that Mr. Netanyahu remains unrivaled as a contender for the post of prime minister, while Mr. Barak’s party is struggling to cross the electoral threshold for a seat in Parliament.

But in the Israeli multiparty political system, leadership also depends on the art of coalition building.

According to political experts here, Mr. Barak had wanted a guarantee from Mr. Netanyahu that he would continue to serve as defense minister in the next government, but there was strong opposition from within Mr. Netanyahu’s party.

Instead, Mr. Barak has been trying to carve out an agenda of his own to appeal to voters. With the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations long stalled, he recently proposed a unilateral plan for creating a separate Palestinian state that would have Israel annexing parts of the West Bank and withdrawing from others.

Most pointedly, though, he has been accentuating his relationship with the Americans. He has praised American preparedness for dealing with Iran and, after Mr. Netanyahu infuriated the Obama administration by demanding that it set so-called red lines on Iran, Mr. Barak issued a statement saying that differences between Israel and the United States on such a critical issue should be worked through “behind closed doors.”

Underscoring their shared security interests, the two countries are scheduled to hold a joint military exercise next month to practice the defense of Israel against long-range missile attack.

When Mr. Netanyahu was voted in, part of his appeal was his familiarity with the workings of Washington and his ability, as some here say, to “speak American.”

But when it comes to the Israeli electorate and relations with the United States, Mr. Avineri of the Hebrew University said, “There is a complexity.”

“On one hand, Israelis like leaders who stand up to the Americans, but on issues of national consensus within Israel,” he said. “On the other hand, they do not like a leader manufacturing a crisis on an issue where there is probably no reason to create a crisis.”

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National

- Drought Leaves Cracks in Way of Life

- Bizarre Species of Miniature Dinosaur Identified

- In Outbreak, Meningitis Is Reported in 5 States

- Sioux Racing to Find Millions to Buy Sacred Land in Black Hills

- The Lede Blog: TV Anchor Takes on Viewer Who Complains About Her Weight

- Benefits Seen in Considering Income for College Admissions

- South Carolina: Citadel Vows Steps Against Sex Abuse

- Texas: Executive Accused of Illegal Exports to Russia

- Arizona: Wright House Wins Some Time

- Pennsylvania Justices Back Stay of Murderer’s Execution

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Drought Leaves Cracks in Way of Life

Dilip Vishwanat for The New York Times

For Wayne Boschert and his wife, the drought has meant no room for luxury. They have canceled the trip to St. Martin that they take every January.

By JOHN ELIGON

BUTLER, Mo. — They have canceled vacations. Their children are forgoing out-of-state colleges for cheaper ones close to home. They are delaying doctor’s visits, selling off land handed down through generations and resisting luxuries like new smartphones.

Wayne Boschert’s cornfield in August in St. Charles, Mo.

An ear of corn from Wayne Boschert's farm from 2011, left, compared to one from this year, amid a widespread drought.

Carl Bettels, a farmer in Butler, Mo., said he might have to return to a nonfarm job.

And then there is the stress — sleepless nights, grumpiness and, in one extreme case, seizures.

Lost amid the withered crops, dehydrated cattle and depleted ponds that have come to symbolize the country’s most widespread drought in decades has been the toll on families whose livelihoods depend on farming.

Although most are not in danger of losing their homes or going hungry, the drought is threatening the way of life in rural America.

“You probably can’t print our mood,” said Dallis Basel, a sheep rancher in western South Dakota who sold off half of his herd because of the high feed prices caused by the drought. “It’s been kind of depressed. Like the wife says, she can’t drink enough to dull the pain of selling all the sheep.”

Adding to the uncertainty has been Congress’s failure to pass a farm bill; the previous version expired on Sunday. Although crop farmers will still get their insurance payments, livestock producers are now without an equivalent safety net. While lawmakers are expected to pass a farm bill after the November election, that might be too late for livestock producers, several of whom said they were losing tens of thousands of dollars a week because they were paying more to feed their animals than they were getting when they sold them.

In the short term, the agriculture industry might appear healthy — the government estimates that net farm income will top $122 billion this year, the highest level since 1973. But much of the financial impact of the crisis will be felt next year, when farmers start realizing their diminished revenue.

Despite the dire outlook, interviews with nearly three dozen farmers in the middle of the country revealed a curious sense of calm.

“My granddad wasn’t a worrier, my dad wasn’t a worrier, I’m not either,” said Kent Woolfolk, 56, a cattle farmer in southwestern Kansas. “You got to be concerned, but if you dwell on it, it’s just going to eat you up.”

He added: “It will rain. It always has.”

Positive outlook aside, the farmers are still plotting their survival, asking their banks for more money or adjusted loan terms, tapping the equity in their land and scaling back their spending at home.

“They say, ‘What are my alternatives?’ ” said R. Warren Graeff, the agricultural banking market manager with PNC. “ ‘What things do I have to take into consideration to survive?’ ”

For Carl Bettels, one of those things might include returning to a nonfarming job. Mr. Bettels, 57, had figured that another three years working at Walmart would have given him enough savings to focus comfortably on farming here in western Missouri for the rest of his life. But Walmart laid him off last October, and because of the drought, it seems as though his farm income will not be enough to sustain his family. Anticipating a $40,000 drop in earnings this year, he and his wife have been forced to dip into a retirement fund to pay their daughter’s college expenses.

On a recent morning, Mr. Bettels stood on his 560 acres, where he has about 130 cows as well as crops that produced a quarter of their normal yields this year, and reflected on his life as the grass of his pasture crunched underfoot, a brisk wind blew and a chorus of bugs chirped.

“I like this out here,” said Mr. Bettels, a fourth-generation farmer. “I’ve done it for so long, it’s a part of me.”

Mr. Bettels’s wife, Theresa, who works at a local school, said that although she sometimes wished that they had a steadier income, she understood that this was her husband’s passion. But that patience may not last forever.

“If it’s doing this for the next two years, I can’t see us being able to keep going,” she said.

Nearly two-thirds of the continental United States is in moderate to exceptional drought, according to the government, the most widespread dryness in five and a half decades. The drought has gradually expanded to leave half of the nation’s corn in poor to very poor condition. A government survey last month estimated national average yields of 122.8 bushels of corn per acre, the lowest in more than 15 years, while soybean yields are expected to drop by about 15 percent from last year.

The diminished supply has meant skyrocketing prices, which are good for whatever crops the farmers can collect on but not so good for livestock farmers who must buy the crops to feed their animals.

Dawn and John Habeck’s dairy farm in South Dakota, already dwindling because of changes in the region’s dairy industry, has been pushed to the brink of failure by the drought. Even though they sold all but 30 of their 350 cows last year, they cannot afford to feed the remainder because prices have increased fivefold this year, Ms. Habeck said. The $800,000 they made from selling their cows is quickly running out. They plan to sell two-thirds of the land that has been not only their business but also their pleasure over the years — they have hiked, camped and ridden horses with their four daughters on their land.

“We’re starting over again,” Ms. Habeck said. “Even though we worked seven days a week — 15 to 20 hours a day some days — it feels like for nothing.”

The drought’s effects trickle down to children. One of her daughters was having seizures from stress, Ms. Habeck said.

Pam Janssen said her youngest son, 19, wanted to join the family’s hog and grain farm operation in north-central Illinois, but that is currently on pause. Normally, farmers bring their children into the business by purchasing more acres and livestock so the children can have a stake, but Ms. Janssen said her family was not making enough money to do that right now. They are losing about $30 per pig on the 80 to 100 they sell per week. Her older son, 22, has 160 acres that he is farming, and Ms. Janssen said he would have to use his earnings on that to pay for college this year.

Tanya Storer, 43, a western Nebraska cattle rancher, said that her daughter wanted to attend design school in Los Angeles or New York but that community college was more likely because she expected her herd size to shrink by 25 percent and she was losing about $200 on every calf she sold.

For some farm families, the drought has meant no room for luxury.

Wayne Boschert, 63, of St. Charles, Mo., and his wife have canceled the trip to St. Martin that they take every January. Clint Sturdy, 40, a cattle farmer in Kansas who expects to lose $180,000 this year, has canceled a family vacation to Six Flags in Texas, while Andy DeVries, 37, a corn grower in eastern Nebraska, will forgo a family trip to Walt Disney World.

Rob Korff, 43, a corn grower in western Missouri, said that his son recently asked for a new phone but that he told him no.

Many farmers said they would repair old pieces of equipment — planters, balers, tractors — instead of buying new ones. Several said they would take fewer trips into town to save gas.

Money has not been a problem for some lucky farmers, the result of a serendipitous spot shower, good soil and, in some cases, the slope of a field.

“We haven’t suffered any losses at all,” said Bill Peters, who farms 1,300 acres of crops in Indiana. “I hate to say it, because I feel guilty.”

A year of drought here and there is sustainable, most farmers said. But multiple years in a row could be devastating, something that Jim Selman, a cattle rancher in south-central Texas, has learned. Last October, Mr. Selman, 80, sold all 300 of his cattle because of a drought that had been going for about five years. He is now living off the money he made, but if that runs out, he will have to sell some of his land.

“Ranching’s not just an income, it is a way of life,” Mr. Selman said. “It’s what gives me pleasure, and all of a sudden I don’t have that pleasure anymore.”

Steven Yaccino contributed reporting from Chicago, and Ron Nixon from Washington.

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Bizarre Species of Miniature Dinosaur Identified

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

Not every dinosaur grew up to be a mighty predator like Tyrannosaurus rex or a hulking vegan like Apatosaurus. A few stayed small, and some of the smallest dinosaurs that ever lived — tiny enough to nip at your heels — were among the first to spread across the planet more than 200 million years ago.

With jaws only one inch in length, the plant-eating Pegomastax is one of the smallest dinosaurs ever discovered.

Some heterodontosaurids grew to less than 2 feet in length and rank as dwarfs in the dinosaur era.

Skin, scales and quills were added to a cast of the skull of Heterodontosaurus, the best-known heterodontosaurid from South Africa.

Fossils of these miniature, fanged plant-eaters known as heterodontosaurs, or “different toothed reptiles,” have turned up as far apart as England and China. Now, in a discovery that has been at least 50 years in the making, a new and especially bizarre species of these dwarf herbivores has been identified in a slab of red rock that was collected in the early 1960s by scientists working in South Africa.

In a report published Wednesday in the online journal ZooKeys, Paul C. Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago and a dinosaur specialist, described the strange anatomy of the newfound member of the heterodontosaur family and gave the new species the name Pegomastax africanus, or “thick jaw from Africa.” He also apologized in an interview for not getting around sooner to this piece of research.

When he first viewed the specimen at a Harvard laboratory, Dr. Sereno said, “my eyes popped, as it was clear this was a distinct species.”

Embedded in the rock were remains of a creature with a short parrotlike beak, one-inch jaws, sharp teeth and a skull no less than three inches long. The entire body was less than two feet in length and probably weighed less than a small house cat.

“I’m embarrassed to say how many years ago that was — 1983,” he said. “But I was an enterprising graduate student then at the American Museum of Natural History. All the while since then, I wondered if anyone else might spot the creature hiding among the lab drawers.”

The Pegomastax fossils were eventually returned to the South African Museum in Cape Town, the true nature of the one slab still undiscovered, Dr. Sereno said. The main researcher responsible for collecting the fossils was Alfred Crompton, a Harvard professor now retired. Part of Dr. Sereno’s research was supported by the National Geographic Society, where he also is an explorer-in-residence.

His close examination showed that behind the parrot-shaped beak were a pair of stabbing canines up front and a set of tall teeth tucked behind for slicing plants. These teeth in upper and lower jaws operated like self-sharpening scissors, Dr. Sereno said, with shearing facets that slid past each other when the jaws closed. The parrotlike skull, he noted, may have been adapted to plucking fruit.

Dr. Sereno said it was “very rare that a plant-eater like Pegomastax would sport sharp-edged enlarged canines.” Some scientists suggested that the creature may have consumed some meat, or at least insects.

In his new study, Dr. Sereno concluded that the creature’s fangs, unusual for a herbivore, were probably “for nipping and defending themselves, not for eating meat.” Other aspects about the new species and other heterodontosaurs, including their chewing mechanism, are evolutionary surprises, he said, and “their anatomy is key to understanding the early evolution of this great group of plant eaters.”

Another possible characteristic of the new species, Dr. Sereno said, is that its body might have been covered in quills, something like those of a porcupine. If so, he pictured that in life Pegomastax would have scampered around in search of suitable plants, looking something like a “nimble two-legged porcupine.”

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In Outbreak, Meningitis Is Reported in 5 States

By DENISE GRADY

An outbreak of a rare type of meningitis, linked to spinal injections for back pain, is growing and has killed four people and sickened at least 30 others in five states, health officials said on Wednesday. New cases are appearing every day.

“I’m afraid we’re going to see many more cases spread across the country,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

The patients are thought to have been infected by a steroid drug contaminated with a fungus, Aspergillus. The drug may have been shipped to 23 states, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. This type of meningitis does not spread from person to person.

So far, cases have appeared in Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, Virginia and Maryland. All the patients had received a treatment for back pain called a lumbar epidural steroid injection.

The drug under suspicion is methylprednisolone acetate, and health officials confirmed on Wednesday that all the infected patients had been treated with a brand of it produced by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass. So far, the incubation period seems to be from a few days to four weeks after the injection. Doctors are urging those who have had the treatment within the past few months to see a doctor if they develop symptoms like severe or worsening headaches, fever, nausea, difficulty with balance, or slurred speech.

The outbreak has raised concerns about the safety of a treatment for back pain used by millions of people a year in the United States. Sterile drugs and equipment are essential for the procedure because epidural injections involve inserting a needle into a part of the body that, for germs, can be a highway to the brain.

The outbreak has also drawn attention to the potential threats posed by compounding pharmacies like the one in New England. These pharmacies prepare drug mixtures and solutions that are not routinely available from major manufacturers, and not subject to the same rigorous safety standards that the government imposes on big drug companies.

On Sept. 26, the New England center voluntarily recalled three lots of the drug after it was told of the problem, according to Erica Jefferson, a spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration. She did not know how many doses were in the lots or where they had been shipped, but the center’s Web site said New England Compounding was licensed in all 50 states. One clinic in Tennessee, where most of that state’s patients in the outbreak so far were infected, had received 2,000 vials of the drug.

On Wednesday, North Carolina’s board of pharmacy suspended the company’s permission to do business there. So far the state has had one case, and several clinics received the potentially contaminated drug, a health department spokeswoman said.

The New England center did not respond to phone messages or calls requesting an interview on Tuesday and Wednesday. By Wednesday afternoon, the phone was not being answered, and the center’s Web site, which had offered an array of steroids for pain control, was no longer available.

The lot numbers of the drug that are suspected of being contaminated are 05212012@68; 06292012@26; and 08102012@51.

Some hospitalized patients are recovering and walking the halls, but others are severely ill and in intensive care units, said Dr. Robert H. Latham, an infectious diseases specialist at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville.

Fungal infections are notoriously stubborn and hard to treat, requiring powerful drugs that can have harsh side effects. Dr. Latham predicted that these patients would need six months to a year of treatment to get rid of the infection.

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Sioux Racing to Find Millions to Buy Sacred Land in Black Hills

Bernie Hunhoff/South Dakota Magazine, via Associated Press

The Sioux face a Nov. 30 deadline to buy the 1,942-acre Reynolds Prairie Ranch in South Dakota.

By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS

The Black Hills, the rolling range of mountains that rise out of the badlands of western South Dakota, are considered sacred to the Sioux, who for 150 years have fought on battlefields and in courtrooms for the return of the land.

And so the Great Sioux Nation exulted this summer when a long-sought parcel in the mountains called Pe’ Sla by the Lakota was put up for sale and a bid from the Sioux was accepted by the family that had controlled the land since 1876, the year that Gen. George Armstrong Custer died not far to the west at Little Bighorn.

But now, anxiety has replaced optimism as more than a half-dozen Sioux tribes, which include some of the nation’s poorest people, race to come up with the $9 million purchase price before the deadline next month.

Not only poverty stands in the way, but also the charged history: many Sioux ask why they should have to pay for land that already belongs to them, given numerous treaties broken by the United States and a landmark federal court decision in 1979 that called the government’s seizure of the Black Hills one of the most dishonorable acts in American history.

“It’s like someone stealing my car and I have to pay to get it back,” said Tom Poor Bear, the vice president of the Oglala Lakota Tribe in South Dakota.

On Friday, tribal chairmen from across the Great Plains are scheduled to meet to devise a strategy.

But if the Sioux tribes — which for generations have been troubled by grinding poverty, unemployment rates as high as 80 percent, and disproportionate levels of violence, alcoholism and preventable death — are unable to come up with the money, long-held dreams, as well as a $900,000 initial payment, will be lost.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to get some land back that is very, very dear to us,” said Louis Wayne Boyd, the treasurer of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, which has taken the lead in the purchase. “Most of the tribes want to do something, but it’s very difficult for them to raise any money, especially of this magnitude.”

The Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868 guaranteed the Sioux ownership of the Black Hills, but after the discovery of gold, the federal government took back the mountains.

Pe’ Sla (pronounced pay-shlah), 1,942 acres of prairie in the heart of the range, was first homesteaded by the ancestors of the current owners, the Reynolds family, in 1876.

More than 100 years later, in 1979, the United States Court of Claims, discussing the federal government’s misdeeds against the Sioux, including its tactic of starving them, before it appropriated the land, wrote that “a more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealing will never, in all probability, be found in our history.”

The next year, the Supreme Court ruled that the Sioux had not received adequate compensation for the Black Hills and ordered the government to pay them. The Sioux, however, have refused to accept any money, saying that doing so would have the effect of selling their mountains. Instead, they insist on the return of the Black Hills to tribal authority.

The government fund, accumulating interest in a federal bank account, has grown to more than $800 million, although the Sioux say that using the money to buy Pe’ Sla is not an option.

The Sioux believe that the site was the scene of an epic battle between good and evil, and each spring they hold a religious ceremony there, where life is welcomed back with peace after a long winter.

Pe’ Sla is deemed sacred, but the plan to spend millions in scarce revenue on its purchase may not represent a consensus of the Sioux.

“There are mixed feelings,” said Vernon Schmidt, executive director of the Rosebud Sioux’s land enterprise department. “Some tribal members are wholeheartedly in support, and other tribal members are not. It’s hard to say, ‘Tighten your belt,’ but we’re going to have to do it anyway. There’s no dollar amount you can put on a sacred site.”

The Reynolds family, which declined to comment, has used the land it calls Reynolds Prairie Ranch — pristine grassland bisected by an asphalt road — for cattle grazing, but has always allowed access for prayer ceremonies.

The Sioux say their culture would be irreparably harmed if their bid to buy Pe’ Sla failed and the land was bought by an owner who prevented them from visiting.

“Our ceremonial patterns would collapse,” said Victor Douville, who teaches Lakota history and culture at Sinte Gleska University in Mission, S.D. Mr. Douville said that there had been annual pilgrimages at Pe’ Sla for 3,000 years, and that if they were halted, “we might come to an end as a people.”

So far, though, the Rosebud Sioux say they have received no firm financial commitments from other tribes, despite promises. The deadline to come up with the remaining $8.1 million — an amount roughly equal to the tribe’s annual budget — is Nov. 30.

“Not by any means are we a rich tribe,” said Mr. Boyd, treasurer of the Rosebud, whose unemployment rate is 83 percent. “It was always our intention to work with other tribes. We are a little nervous because this is a lot of money, and it would really hurt us if we had to do it ourselves.”

The Oglala Lakota — one of the few tribes with fewer resources than the Rosebud Sioux — say they intend to help, but have not yet decided how much to give.

“Our tribe, even though we’re a poor tribe, we’ll come up with some money,” said Mr. Poor Bear, the tribe’s vice president.

One hope had been that the richest of the Sioux tribes, the Shakopee Mdewakanton, which operates a highly profitable casino and entertainment complex outside Minneapolis and donates millions each year to other tribes, would contribute as well.

But Tessa Lehto, a spokeswoman for the Shakopee, said in an e-mail that she had “no information” about a forthcoming grant or loan for Pe’ Sla.

The Rosebud Sioux have been left to negotiate with commercial banks, which often decline to make large loans to tribes because banks are generally prohibited from seizing assets on reservations if a tribe is unable to repay.

Still, Charmaine White Face, the coordinator of the volunteer group Defenders of the Black Hills, echoed the sentiments of Sioux across the Great Plains. “It can’t not go through,” she said of the purchase.

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TV Anchor Takes on Viewer Who Complains About Her Weight

By JENNIFER PRESTON

A local television anchor from Wisconsin rebuffs a viewer who had written to her about her weight.

Jennifer Livingston, a local morning anchor in Wisconsin, responded on air directly to a viewer who sent her an e-mail telling her she was an unsuitable role model for young people, especially young girls, because she is overweight.

Ms. Livingston’s response, which has gone viral on the Internet with almost 2 million views on YouTube alone, said she had initially dismissed the criticism but then decided to speak up to raise awareness about bullying behavior.

“The truth is I am overweight,” said Ms. Livingston, 37, during the morning broadcast on WKBT-TV, a CBS affiliate in Lacrosse. “You could call me fat and yes, even obese on a doctor’s chart. But to the person who wrote me that letter, do you think I don’t know that? That your cruel words are pointing out something that I don’t see?”

“You don’t know me,” she continued to say during the next four minutes in what was billed as a broadcast editorial. “You are not a friend of mine. You are not a part of my family, and you have admitted that you don’t watch this show so you know nothing about me but what you see on the outside — and I am much more than a number on a scale.”

Ms. Livingston, a mother of three, then used her experience to remind viewers that October is “National Anti- Bullying Month,” and that bullying is rampant on the Internet and growing every day in schools and must be stopped.

She said she tried to laugh off the hurtful attack on her appearance but that her colleagues, especially, her husband, Mike Thompson, an evening anchor for the station, could not do the same.

Last Friday, Mr. Thompson posted the contents of the e-mail on his Facebook page, adding that he was infuriated by the attack on his wife and it had made him “sick to his stomach.”

The e-mail, written by Kenneth W. Krause, a lawyer, who did not answer multiple telephone calls made to his home in LaCrosse, said:

Hi Jennifer,

It’s unusual that I see your morning show, but I did so for a very short time today. I was surprised indeed to witness that your physical condition hasn’t improved for many years. Surely you don’t consider yourself a suitable example for this community’s young people, girls in particular. Obesity is one of the worst choices a person can make and one of the most dangerous habits to maintain. I leave you this note hoping that you’ll reconsider your responsibility as a local public personality to present and promote a healthy lifestyle.

The Facebook post prompted hundreds of comments over the weekend from people around the world, with many offering support and others sharing their pain over having been bullied because of their weight.

Ms. Livingston, the sister of Golden-Globe nominated actor, Ron Livingston, said during her broadcast on Tuesday that the outpouring on Facebook inspired her to take a public stand against bullying.

As a grown woman, she said that she was able to dismiss this man’s remarks. But she worried that children targeted with similar messages were not able to do so. She said she was also concerned about what children were learning about bullying at home.

“If you are at home and you are talking about the fat news lady, guess what? Your children are probably going to go to school and call someone fat,” Ms. Livingston said.

In closing, she thanked her friends, family, colleague and the many people offered their words of support. “We are better than the bullies that would try to take us down.”:

Then, looking directly into the camera, she said:

“I leave you with this: To all of the children out there who feel lost, who are struggling with your weight, with the color of your skin, your sexual preference, your disability, even the acne on your face, listen to me right now: Do not let your self-worth be defined by bullies. Learn from my experience — that the cruel words of one are nothing compared to the shouts of many.”

During an interview with NBC’s Today Show, Ms. Livingston said that she is not opposed to talking about obesity but she does not think that personal attacks should be part of the conversation.

Mr. Krause was invited to be interviewed on WKBT-TV, a programming director said. Instead, he issued a statement, which was shared on the air. The statement concluded with Mr. Krause saying: “Considering Jennifer Livingston’s fortuitous position in the community, I hope she will finally take advantage of a rare and golden opportunity to influence the health and psychological well-being of Coulee region children by transforming herself for all of her viewers to see over the next year.”

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National Briefing | Education

Benefits Seen in Considering Income for College Admissions

By RICHARD PÃ‰REZ-PEÃ‘A

Giving college applicants preference based on socioeconomic factors, rather than race, is comparable to affirmative action in achieving racial diversity, and superior in helping people who are disadvantaged, according to a study released on Wednesday. In states that have banned affirmative action, public universities have taken steps like accepting top students from each high school and recruiting in low-income areas. The study by the Century Foundation, a left-leaning policy group, says that approach sustains racial diversity and helps poor students. The study was released ahead of arguments, set for next week, before the Supreme Court in a case that could produce new restrictions on considering race in public college admissions.

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National Briefing | South

South Carolina: Citadel Vows Steps Against Sex Abuse

By ROBBIE BROWN

The Citadel said Wednesday that it would train every student, employee and campus resident how to prevent sexual abuse, after a former camp counselor’s admission that he molested 23 young boys over a decade. The military college formed a partnership with a nonprofit group, Darkness to Light, to train all 3,650 people on its Charleston campus starting next year in how to detect and prevent child abuse, the college president, Lt. Gen. John W. Rosa, said. Louis ReVille, 32, a Citadel graduate who became a camp counselor there and an educator at other schools, pleaded guilty in June to 22 counts of child sexual abuse and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Victims have claimed The Citadel knew Mr. ReVille molested teenagers at a camp in 2002. The college investigated the complaint but did not report it to the police. In September, two other cadets brought sexual assault charges against an older classmate who had made unwanted advances.

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National Briefing | Southwest

Texas: Executive Accused of Illegal Exports to Russia

By MANNY FERNANDEZ

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged a Houston electronics executive with illegally exporting microelectronics to Russian military and intelligence agencies, as part of a sophisticated network aimed at supplying American high-tech goods for use in Russian weapons systems. The authorities said the items supplied by the executive, Alexander Fishenko, and 10 other people included microprocessors and memory chips that can be used in radar and surveillance systems and detonation triggers. The export of such material is regulated by the federal government for national security reasons, but prosecutors alleged Mr. Fishenko — and several employees of his Houston company, Arc Electronics Inc. — falsified federal export documents and concealed the nature of their work, telling American suppliers that they were not exporters but traffic-light manufacturers. Since 2002, Arc Electronics shipped $50 million worth of microelectronics and other technologies to Russia, with the main port of export being John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, prosecutors said.

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National Briefing | Southwest

Arizona: Wright House Wins Some Time

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The City of Phoenix and a developer who was poised to demolish a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home have reached an agreement that will put any work on hold while a search continues for a buyer. A senior adviser for Mayor Frank Stanton said Wednesday that the agreement with the developer who bought the 1952 home delays for nearly a month any demolition of the house. The adviser, Brendan Mahoney, said the deal allows time to find a buyer who will preserve the house. The potential demolition of the sweeping home, built on more than two acres, set off a firestorm among architects.

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Pennsylvania Justices Back Stay of Murderer’s Execution

By JON HURDLE

PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday halted the execution of Terrance Williams, a convicted murderer who had been scheduled to die by lethal injection only a few hours later.

The ruling upheld a stay of execution granted last week by Judge M. Teresa Sarmina of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on the ground that prosecutors had withheld evidence at Mr. Williams’s 1986 trial that could have led to a lesser penalty.

In a brief statement, the state’s highest court denied an emergency application by the Philadelphia district attorney, R. Seth Williams, to overturn Judge Sarmina’s ruling, which also granted a new sentencing hearing. The defendant remains under sentence of death unless or until the State Supreme Court upholds the ruling for resentencing and a new jury commutes the sentence to life without parole.

The court gave no reason for its decision, which followed defense arguments that the murder victim had sexually abused Mr. Williams for most of his adolescence and that prosecutors had withheld that evidence from the jury.

Mr. Williams had been scheduled to be put to death at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The execution would have been the first in Pennsylvania in 13 years, and the first in the state since 1962 for an inmate who did not choose to die because he had lost all appeals.

Shawn Nolan, a lawyer for Mr. Williams, called for the death sentence to be vacated.

“The Philadelphia district attorney’s office should stop its pursuit to execute Terry Williams,” Mr. Nolan said in a statement. “The time has now come for them to heed the call from the victim’s widow, jurors, child advocates, victim’s rights advocates and over 380,000 people who do not want Terry executed.”

District Attorney Williams said that although the court denied an immediate review of Judge Sarmina’s ruling, the case would now proceed as a normal appeal and the court would have time to examine the facts.

“I continue to believe that this defendant received an appropriate sentence and that his new claims are not true,” Mr. Williams said in a statement.

The inmate, now 46, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1986 for killing Amos Norwood, 56, two years earlier in an attack that prosecutors said at the trial was motivated by robbery.

Defense lawyers argued that the killing was in fact motivated by sexual abuse perpetrated by Mr. Norwood on Mr. Williams starting when he was 13. Those circumstances were unknown to jurors at the time of the trial.

Five jurors have signed affidavits saying that they would have voted instead for life in prison without parole if they had known about the history of abuse, and that they were unaware that in Pennsylvania a life sentence means permanent incarceration.

In a late attempt to spare Mr. Williams’s life, lawyers argued that prosecutors had withheld evidence of sexual abuse. Marc Draper, a co-defendant who is serving a life term for his part in the killing, testified that he had told the police and prosecutors that the attack was caused by rage after years of abuse, but that the officials were interested only in robbery as a motive.

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Obituaries

- Robert J. Manning, Former Editor of The Atlantic, Dies at 92

- Irving Cohen, Major-Domo in Catskills, Dies at 95

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Robert J. Manning, Former Editor of The Atlantic, Dies at 92

Edward Jenner/Boston Globe

Robert J. Manning, center, with the author John Updike, left, and the biographer Justin Kaplan.

By WILLIAM YARDLEY

Robert J. Manning, who covered the White House as a cub reporter during the final term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, worked for the State Department under President John F. Kennedy and later became editor of The Atlantic Monthly, where he broadened the magazine’s scope and readership, died on Friday in Boston. He was 92.

The cause was lymphoma, his son Brian said.

Mr. Manning became editor in chief of The Atlantic Monthly in 1966, more than a century after the magazine was founded in Boston. (It is now called The Atlantic.) While the magazine had a rich history in cultural matters, Mr. Manning expanded its attention to current affairs, including the civil rights movement, Vietnam and the oil and economic crises of the 1970s.

“He really began the process of bringing it into the modern era,” said James Fallows, a national correspondent for the magazine who was one of many writers, including Elizabeth Drew, Ward Just and Tracy Kidder, Mr. Manning nurtured there.

Mr. Manning got an early jump on his journalism career. He was a senior in high school in Binghamton, N.Y., when he was hired as a copy boy at The Binghamton Press. Soon he was promoted to reporter. He never attended college, instead taking a job with The Associated Press in Buffalo before joining the Army in 1942. He received an early honorable discharge because of nearsightedness.

“He couldn’t get his gas mask on because of his glasses,” Brian Manning said.

In April 1945, Mr. Manning was working for United Press in Washington when White House officials summoned reporters to announce Roosevelt’s death in Warm Springs, Ga. By 1949, he had become a writer for Time magazine. In 1954 he wrote a cover story on Ernest Hemingway after interviewing and fishing with him in Cuba. He spent his final years with Time, from 1958 to 1960, as its London bureau chief.

In 1961, the secretary of state, Dean Rusk, hired Mr. Manning to be assistant secretary of state for public affairs in the Kennedy administration. As part of an administration that was often accused of limiting press access to information, particularly during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, Mr. Manning was said to be less restrictive than other officials. In June 1963, he traveled with the president to Italy, Ireland, Britain and Germany, where Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in West Berlin.

Mr. Manning joined The Atlantic Monthly in 1964 as executive editor under Edward Weeks, the editor, and succeeded him on his retirement two years later, a tumultuous time of war in Vietnam and political and cultural conflicts at home. He was proud to learn later that he had been placed on President Richard M. Nixon’s enemies list.

“If you look back at The Atlantic’s coverage in those days,” Mr. Fallows said, “I think it gives you a very good sense of America and how it was changing.”

Mr. Manning’s time at The Atlantic ended in a bitter dispute with Mortimer B. Zuckerman, a real estate developer who bought the magazine in 1980. In a fight played out in court for several years, Mr. Zuckerman maintained that he had been misled about the magazine’s troubled finances when he bought it, and Mr. Manning and others accused Mr. Zuckerman of reneging on the terms of the deal, including an expectation that Mr. Manning would remain at the magazine.

Mr. Manning was gone by the end of 1980. The case ended in 1987 with Mr. Zuckerman ordered to honor the original deal. In a separate settlement, he agreed to pay Mr. Manning $429,000. Mr. Zuckerman, who now owns The Daily News in New York, sold the magazine in 1999.

Mr. Manning later became editor in chief of Boston Publishing and oversaw publication of “The Vietnam Experience,” an illustrated 25-volume series. In 1992 he published a memoir, “The Swamp Root Chronicle.”

Robert Joseph Manning was born on Dec. 25, 1919, in Binghamton. His first wife, the former Margaret Raymond, a former book editor of The Boston Globe, died in 1984. In 1987 he married the former Theresa Slomkowski. She survives him. Besides his son Brian, he is survived by another son, Robert, and five grandchildren. A third son, Richard, died in 2004.

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Irving Cohen, Major-Domo in Catskills, Dies at 95

David Jennings

Irving Cohen in 1991, with a pegboard to keep track of who sat where in the Concord dining room. The pegs’ colors told a tale.

By MARGALIT FOX

Irving Cohen, who was known as King Cupid of the Catskills for his canny ability to seat just the right nice Jewish boy next to just the right nice Jewish girl during his half-century as the maître d’ of the Concord Hotel, died on Monday at his home in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 95.

His son Bob confirmed the death.

By all accounts, Mr. Cohen, the borscht belt’s longest-serving maître d’hôtel, worked at the Concord, in Kiamesha Lake, N.Y., from his early 20s until he was in his early 80s. He would have worked there longer, he said, had the hotel not closed in 1998.

Officially, Mr. Cohen presided over three meals a day in the vast kosher empire that was the Concord dining room, helping thousands of patrons navigate its towering shoals of gefilte fish, pot roast, potato pudding and a great deal else.

Unofficially (though only just), he was the matchmaker for a horde of hopefuls, who flocked to the Catskills ostensibly for shuffleboard and Sammy Davis Jr. but in actuality to eat, drink, marry and be fruitful and multiply, generally in that order.

Thanks to Mr. Cohen, many did. In the 1940s, he paired the Concord’s original clientele. In the ’60s, he paired their children. And in the ’80s, he paired their children’s children. It is no exaggeration, Bob Cohen said Tuesday, to say that thousands of marriages resulted from his father’s sharp-eyed ministrations.

And thus, simply by doing his job — which combined Holmesian deductive skill with Postian etiquette and a touch of cryptographic cloak and dagger — Mr. Cohen single-handedly helped perpetuate a branch of American Jewry.

Irving Jay Cohen was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on May 11, 1917. After graduating from Seward Park High School, he found work as a busboy at Grossinger’s, another well-known Catskills resort. He eventually became a waiter there, serving the likes of John Garfield (né Jacob Julius Garfinkle), Milton Berle, Eddie Cantor and Irving Berlin.

Mr. Cohen joined the Concord as a waiter in the late 1930s. In 1943, he became the maître d’, commanding a dining room that seated more than 3,000. Before long, he was taking phone calls from a multitude of mothers, who beseeched him to seat their eligible daughters beside eligible young men.

Corresponding calls from mothers of sons were rarer, Mr. Cohen said, though not unknown.

For making matches, Mr. Cohen relied on his keen ability to suss out subjects at a glance. Age, sex and marital status were of crucial concern, of course, but so too were occupation, tax bracket and geography.

“You got to pair them by states and even from the same cities,” Mr. Cohen told The Daily News in 1967. “If they come from different places, the doll is always afraid the guy will forget her as soon as he gets home.”

To keep track of demographic information, Mr. Cohen used a specially built pegboard, 10 feet long, on which each of the Concord’s hundreds of dining tables was represented by a circle.

Around each circle was a set of holes, and as Mr. Cohen seated each diner, he stuck the appropriate hole with a color-coded peg — pink for single young women, blue for single young men, white for older people and several other colors denoting characteristics so secret they appear to have been known only to him.

Though Mr. Cohen plied his trade well into the computer age, the pegboard endured.

“Can a computer get to the human element?” he said in the Daily News interview. “I ask you, can a nice widow, maybe a little on the plump side, but nice, can she tell all her aches and dreams to a computer? Never!”

Mr. Cohen’s first wife, the former Sarah Berzon, whom he married in 1944, died in 1982. He is survived by his second wife, Christine Golia; three children from his first marriage, Bob, Arnie and Barbara Cohen Parness; two stepsons, Ed and Christopher Ventrice; and grandchildren, step-grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Mr. Cohen’s dining-room savvy extended far beyond matters of the heart. As he recounted in the 1991 book “It Happened in the Catskills,” by Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer, he was accosted one night by a guest, purple with rage.

“My wife almost choked,” the man told him. “I’m going to sue the hotel for a million dollars.”

The offending object was a small metal tag, called a plumba, affixed to meat to identify it as kosher. The tags were normally removed before cooking, but this one, on a chicken, had been overlooked.

“What’s your name?,” Mr. Cohen asked the woman hurriedly. “Your address?”

He raced to the dining-room microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he intoned. “Mr. and Mrs. Sam Weinstein from Cedarhurst, Long Island, have just won a bottle of Champagne. Mrs. Weinstein is the lucky lady who wound up with the chicken with the plumba.”

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Editorials, Op-Ed And Letters

- Editorial: An Unhelpful Debate

- Editorial: Contraception and Religious Liberty

- Editorial: Georgia Speaks Its Mind

- Nicholas D. Kristof: Why Let the Rich Hoard All the Toys?

- Gail Collins: The Season of Debates

- Op-Ed Contributor: We’re Here, We’re Queer, Y’all

- Op-Ed Contributor: Understanding Kids, Gangs and Guns

- Letters: How Useful Are College Rankings?

- Letter: Bias in the Media

- Letter: Donations From Lawyers

- Letter: Garden Days in England

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Editorial

An Unhelpful Debate

The first debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, so long anticipated, quickly sunk into an unenlightening recitation of tired talking points and mendacity. With few sparks and little clarity on the immense gulf that truly separates the two men and their policies, Wednesday’s encounter provided little guidance for voters still trying to understand the choice in next month’s election.

The Mitt Romney who appeared on the stage at the University of Denver seemed to be fleeing from the one who won the Republican nomination on a hard-right platform of tax cuts, budget slashing and indifference to the suffering of those at the bottom of the economic ladder. And Mr. Obama’s competitive edge from 2008 clearly dulled, as he missed repeated opportunities to challenge Mr. Romney on his falsehoods and turnabouts.

Virtually every time Mr. Romney spoke, he misrepresented the platform on which he and Paul Ryan are actually running. The most prominent example, taking up the first half-hour of the debate, was on taxes. Mr. Romney claimed, against considerable evidence, that he had no intention of cutting taxes on the rich or enacting a tax cut that would increase the deficit.

That simply isn’t true. Mr. Romney wants to restore the Bush-era tax cut that expires at the end of this year and largely benefits the wealthy. He wants to end the estate tax and the gift tax, providing a huge benefit only to those with multimillion-dollar estates, at a cost of more than $1 trillion over a decade to the deficit. He wants to preserve the generous rates on capital gains that benefit himself personally and others at his economic level. And he wants to cut everyone’s tax rates by 20 percent, which again would be a gigantic boon to the wealthy.

None of these would cost the Treasury a dime, he insisted, because he would reduce deductions and loopholes. But, as always, he refused to enumerate a single deduction he would erase. “What I’ve said is I won’t put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit,” he said. “No economist can say Mitt Romney’s tax plan adds $5 trillion if I say I will not add to the deficit with my tax plan.”

In fact, many economists have said exactly that, and, without details, Mr. Romney can’t simply refute them. But rather than forcefully challenging this fiction, Mr. Obama chose to be polite and professorial, as if hoping that strings of details could hold up against blatant nonsense. Viewers were not helped by a series of pedestrian questions from the moderator, Jim Lehrer of PBS, who never jumped in to challenge either candidate on the facts.

When Mr. Romney accused the president of supporting a “trickle-down government,” Mr. Obama might have demanded to know what that means. He could then have pointed out that it is Mr. Romney whose economic plan is based on the discredited idea that high-end tax cuts trickle down to the middle class and poor.

Mr. Romney said he supported the idea of regulation but rejected the Dodd-Frank financial reform law because it was too generous to the big “New York banks.” This is an alternative-universe interpretation of a law that is deeply despised and opposed by the banks, but Mr. Obama missed several opportunities to point out how the law limits the corrosive practices, like derivatives trading, that led to the 2008 crash and puts in place vitally important consumer protections.

On health care, Mr. Romney pretended that he had an actual plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, and that it covered pre-existing conditions. He has no such plan, and his false claim finally roused the president to his only strong moment of the evening. The country doesn’t know the details, he said, of how Mr. Romney would replace Wall Street reform, or health care reform, or tax increases on the rich because Republicans don’t want people to understand the hard trade-offs involved in these decisions.

There are still two more presidential debates, and Mr. Obama has the facts on his side to expose the hollowness of his opponent. But first he has to decide to use them aggressively.

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Editorial

Contraception and Religious Liberty

Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, prominent Republicans and other social conservatives have spent the past year making inflammatory allegations that an Obama administration rule requiring employer health plans to cover birth control without a co-pay tramples on religious freedom. An important federal court decision issued Friday rejected that attack as without foundation.

Judge Carol Jackson of Federal District Court, a George H.W. Bush appointee, dismissed the lawsuit filed against the administration brought by a mining company and its owner, who said that providing contraceptive coverage in the company health plan violated his personal religious views.

Judge Jackson, based in St. Louis, correctly pointed out that the rule exempts churches, mosques and other houses of worship. The mining company — a secular, for-profit employer — clearly does not qualify for that exemption or for the accommodation the administration is fashioning to relieve colleges, hospitals and other organizations with religious affiliations from having to provide contraceptive coverage directly, by putting the burden on insurance companies. Her legal analysis, however, applies broadly, providing a useful framework for assessing claims by varied religious objectors.

The plaintiffs argued that the contraception mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a 1993 law that prohibits the federal government from taking actions that “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” unless that action advances a compelling government interest and is the “least restrictive means” of achieving it.

Judge Jackson said she did not have to address whether the act’s strict test should be applied in this case to a company because the contraception coverage requirement does not rise to the level of a “substantial” burden needed to trigger the law.

Any imposition on religion is trivial and remote, she explained. The health care coverage would offend the plaintiffs’ religious beliefs only if an employee “makes an independent decision to use the plan” to obtain contraceptives; and that independent decision is no different from an employee using part of a salary to pay for contraceptives, which clearly would not harm the employer’s right to free exercise of religion.

The 1993 statute “is not a means to force one’s religious practices upon others” and “does not protect against the slight burden on religious exercise that arises when one’s money circuitously flows to support the conduct of other free-exercise-wielding individuals who hold religious beliefs that differ from one’s own,” Judge Jackson wrote.

She also forcefully dismissed the claim that the contraceptive coverage requirement violates the First Amendment’s prohibition against the establishment of religion. Her ruling accurately said the regulation is a “neutral” attempt to expand women’s access to health care and combat gender bias, and applies equally to all denominations. Under legal precedents, the First Amendment does not exempt individuals or entities from complying with neutral laws of general applicability based on a religious objection, however sincere.

Judge Jackson’s powerful ruling is a victory for women and religious freedom. The many other courts hearing similar lawsuits by companies, individuals and groups with religious affiliations should follow her approach.

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Editorial

Georgia Speaks Its Mind

The stunning victory by a reclusive billionaire over the forces of the West-leaning president in Georgia raises a host of questions. But before they can be answered, the election itself is worth celebrating. It was a significant achievement that Monday’s election in the small former Soviet state was deemed essentially free and fair by international observers, despite President Mikheil Saakashvili’s increasingly imperious ways, and that both sides accepted its results nine years after the Rose Revolution.

Still, the next steps are rife with dangers. Under a transitional political arrangement, victor and loser will have to rule jointly for most of the next year, and Georgia still has to find its place between the West and Russia, with which it fought a short, nasty war in 2008.

Mr. Saakashvili will remain president for almost a year as Bidzina Ivanishvili’s victorious Georgian Dream coalition takes over the Parliament, with Mr. Ivanishvili most likely becoming the prime minister. Next October, a new constitution will come into force, devolving many powers of the president to the prime minister.

Until then, both men will have to somehow overcome the scars of a vicious campaign in a culture not given to compromise. Even in his gracious concession of defeat, Mr. Saakashvili noted that “we believe that their views are extremely wrong.” And Mr. Ivanishvili called on Mr. Saakashvili to resign, but later withdrew his demand.

Another challenge for the new government will be to lower tensions with Russia without abandoning its Western ambitions. Mr. Saakashvili, who took an unabashedly pro-Western stance, was completely spurned by Moscow, especially after the brief Russian-Georgian war. Russian boycotts of Georgian wine and other products have hurt the Georgians, while Russia’s recognition of the independence claims of two Georgian regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, remains a deep wound.

Mr. Ivanishvili, who made a huge fortune in Russia, was little known even to Georgians before he plunged into politics a year ago, and remains something of an enigma. He promises to improve relations with Russia, and also says he will continue to pursue membership in NATO.

During the campaign, Washington wisely avoided taking sides. The United States and the European Union must continue giving the Georgians every incentive to build their democracy and to take their place in Western institutions. But overt interference can only create unnecessary tensions and suspicions.

Russia expressed hope that the election would help restore “constructive and respectful relations.” For Russia, that would mean lifting economic pressures and acknowledging that Georgia has its own hopes and dreams.

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Op-Ed Columnist

Why Let the Rich Hoard All the Toys?

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Imagine a kindergarten with 100 students, lavishly supplied with books, crayons and toys.

Nicholas D. Kristof

Yet you gasp: one avaricious little boy is jealously guarding a mountain of toys for himself. A handful of other children are quietly playing with a few toys each, while 90 of the children are looking on forlornly — empty-handed.

The one greedy boy has hoarded more toys than all those 90 children put together!

“What’s going on?” you ask. “Let’s learn to share! One child shouldn’t hog everything for himself!”

The greedy little boy looks at you, indignant. “Do you believe in redistribution?” he asks suspiciously, his lips curling in contempt. “I don’t want to share. This is America!”

And then he summons his private security firm and has you dragged off the premises. Well, maybe not, but you get the point.

That kindergarten distribution is precisely what America looks like. Our wealth has become so skewed that the top 1 percent possesses a greater collective worth than the entire bottom 90 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.

This inequality is a central challenge for the United States today and should be getting far more attention in this presidential campaign. A few snapshots:

• The six heirs of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, own as much wealth as the bottom 100 million Americans.

• In 2010, 93 percent of the gain in national income went to the top 1 percent.

• America’s Gini coefficient, the classic measure of inequality, set a modern record last month — the highest since the Great Depression.

This dismal ground is explored in an important and smart new book, “The Price of Inequality,” by Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate who was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton. It’s a searing read.

“We are paying a high price for our inequality — an economic system that is less stable and less efficient, with less growth,” Stiglitz warns.

The problem is not that the rich are venal or immoral, and I buy into the Chinese mantra of the reform era: “To get rich is glorious.” But today’s level of inequality is unusual by American historical and global standards alike, and, as Stiglitz notes, evidence is mounting that inequality at the levels we’ve reached stifles growth and employment.

As I see it, the best way to create a more equitable society wouldn’t be Robin Hood-style redistribution, but a focus on inner-city and rural education — including early childhood programs — and job training. That approach would expand opportunity, even up the starting line, and chip away at cycles of poverty. If the cost means forcing tycoons to pay modestly higher taxes, so be it. The economy wouldn’t suffer.

After all, the United States enjoyed strong growth in the 1950s when we were a more egalitarian country, even though the top income tax rate in that decade was always more than 90 percent.

Indeed, it was only in 1987 that the top income tax rate dropped below 50 percent in the United States. So the 15 percent rate that some tycoons pay because of the carried interest loophole is a recent, er, entitlement.

On this issue, Americans seem by intuition to be flaming lefties. A study published last year by scholars from Harvard Business School and Duke University asked Americans which country they would rather live in — one with America’s wealth distribution or one with Sweden’s. But they weren’t labeled Sweden and America. It turned out that more than 90 percent of Americans preferred to live in a country with the Swedish distribution.

Perhaps nothing gets done because, in polls, Americans hugely underestimate the level of inequality here. Not only do we aspire to live in Sweden, but we think we already do.

It’s also troubling that a considerable share of wealth today comes from the plutocratic version of welfare.

Mitt Romney, for example, became rich in private equity, as did many barons of finance. They’re smart, entrepreneurial and hard-working business executives. But private equity exists largely because of tax advantages for corporate debt that amount to a huge subsidy.

Likewise, the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington estimates that four major tax breaks that encourage excessive corporate pay cost taxpayers $14.4 billion last year. And 26 chief executives received more in pay last year than their companies paid in total federal corporate income taxes.

Often the best route to wealth isn’t competing in the marketplace but lobbying Congress for a tax break. That’s why there are six lobbyists for every member of Congress from the health care industry alone.

All this inequity would be unconscionable if it unfolded in a kindergarten. It should be more offensive when it defines our nation from womb to tomb.

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/opinion/kristof-why-let-the-rich-hoard-all-the-toys.html?pagewanted=all

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Op-Ed Columnist

The Season of Debates

By GAIL COLLINS

So how are you enjoying Debate Season, people?

Gail Collins

As compared to the prior Convention Season. Or that little patch in between that has now become known as Reducing Expectations Season. And before that, of course, there was Primary Season, and, before that, the French and Indian War.

On Wednesday night, as the debate era opened, Mitt Romney definitely seemed more energetic — was there ever before a presidential candidate who could sound that enthusiastic while vowing to defund Big Bird?

But Romney had that funny look on his face whenever President Obama was talking. Somewhere between a person who is trying to overlook an unpleasant smell and a guy who is trying to restrain himself from pointing out that his car is much nicer than your car.

Obama seemed tired or bored, and he fell way behind in the much-anticipated battle of the zingers. The president thinks these debates are ridiculous, and he may well be right. But, truly, it would have been a better idea to keep the thought to himself.

On the other hand, he was the only one who wants Donald Trump to pay more taxes.

If you watched the whole thing, you now know that the president has taken to calling his health care reform law “Obamacare,” which is really a tad strange.

Also that Mitt Romney will not admit that any of his proposals could involve unpleasant details. Taxes will go down, but not revenues. The health care reform plan will go away, except for all the popular parts, which will magically remain intact.

“At some point, I think the American people have to ask themselves: Is the reason that Governor Romney is keeping all these plans-to-replace secret because they’re too good? Is it because that somehow middle-class families are going to benefit too much from them?” Obama retorted. But this was about an hour into the debate.

Romney, on the other hand, was a veritable zinger arsenal from the get-go. (“Mr. President, you’re entitled, as the president, to your own airplane and to your own house, but not to your own facts.”)

And what are we to make of all this? There wasn’t any car crash, but we have been trained to regard every twitch, tic and failure to look engaged as a matter of possibly cosmic consequence. The next leader of the most powerful nation on earth needs to be the person with the best comebacks, but the fewest strange facial expressions.

It’s a little like one of those fairy tales where the citizens of the kingdom pick their next king on the basis of a race to find the feather of the golden swan.

Do debates really matter? The experts say that, barring total disaster, the answer is actually no.

The committed are already committed. (In some cases, really, really committed. Witness the large proportion of Ohio Republicans who told a pollster that they thought Mitt Romney was the person most responsible for killing Osama bin Laden.)

It’s all about the voters with failure to commit. CNN managed to corral some of them to register their responses to the debate’s every jab and parry. I kept peeping at the lines recording their emotions, and I swear there were long stretches where the Undecideds nodded off.

Still, you don’t want to mess these things up. No candidate wants to repeat the saga of Rick Lazio, who ran against Hillary Clinton for the United States Senate in New York in 2000. During a critical debate, Lazio tried to be clever by walking over and asking Clinton to sign a campaign fund-raising pledge. It made him look less like a senator than a stalker, and now, a dozen years later, Hillary Clinton is known as one of the most beloved figures on the planet, while Lazio is known as the guy who once violated Hillary Clinton’s space.

All I know is that you deserve a hand, interested citizen. You really have been through a lot. You were there for the Rick Perry meltdown and the Mitch Daniels blip, and the period when we had to get up to speed on Newt Gingrich’s marital history. And now we’ve still got two more presidential debates plus one vice-presidential debate. Then we will be moving into the final two weeks, sometimes known as the Actually Having an Election period.

Did you read John Noble Wilford’s article in The Times about the discovery of the remains of a dinosaur the size of a house cat? A paleontologist told Wilford that it might have looked like a “nimble two-legged porcupine.” I am telling you this because the race for the Republican nomination first began at about the time these creatures became extinct. Michele Bachmann shot the last one when it hopped across her front yard.

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Op-Ed Contributor

We’re Here, We’re Queer, Y’all

By KAREN L. COX

Charlotte, N.C.

REALITY television often acquaints us with people we never knew existed. During last week’s season finale of “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” TLC’s smash hit about the small-town Georgia family of Alana Thompson, a 7-year-old pageant contestant, viewers were introduced to Alana’s Uncle Lee — affectionately known as “Uncle Poodle.” In Alana’s world, a “poodle” is a gay man, and his appearance on the show has opened people’s eyes to something many have never considered: that you can be openly gay and accepted in the rural South.

Many people assume that because the South is the nation’s most evangelical and politically conservative region, it is probably also a hotbed for hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. But while such crimes do occur, they are less common than in large urban centers, where the absence of a tight community and the abundance of strangers make it easier to target people for their differences.

I should know: as a lesbian who has lived in the South my entire life, and in a small town in the Deep South for part of it, I’ve met many people — men, women and transgendered — whose sexual identity has not prevented them from living a life of acceptance, admiration and even respect by their families and communities.

My friend Helen and her partner, Kathleen, for example, have made an enormous impact on the small town of Louisville, Ga., in rural Jefferson County. Several years ago they bought an old fire station and turned it into an art gallery. What began as a way to showcase rural artists has expanded into a larger community endeavor in which children from the local public schools, many of whom are quite poor, are given free classes in art and art appreciation.

And the gallery openings? The last one I attended drew nearly 100 people.

It’s an unspoken truth that Helen and Kathleen are in a committed relationship, and yet they’re invited to social gatherings as a couple, and only a few months ago Helen gave the graduation address at the local high school. People know who they are and very likely understand the nature of their relationship, and it’s clear they value the investment that Helen and Kathleen have made in their community.

In the mid-1990s, while in graduate school, I lived in the small city of Hattiesburg, Miss. There I met gays and lesbians who came to Hattiesburg from nearby rural communities like Petal, Wiggins, Runnelstown and even more far-flung places to enjoy the one gay bar that was within reasonable driving distance, or simply hang out with friends. Though they came for the comforts of a larger L.G.B.T. community, their sexual orientation was often known to their communities back home.

They were gay, but they weren’t only that. Many of them were working class, from religiously conservative families and often politically conservative themselves.

One woman I met, Sandy, is what you’d describe as butch. She drives a truck and she belongs to a (nearly) all-male hunting club. She goes on coon hunts, which she’s described to me as romantic adventures with the baying of hounds in the cool of the night. Her mother, on the other hand, was a proud member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a prim and proper Southern lady.

Because my dissertation was about the U.D.C., Sandy took me to meet her. While at her mother’s house, Sandy went back to her old bedroom and returned with a badge she had won in the eighth grade — for sewing a dress. She seemed to take pride in the fact that as a woman who had pretty much rejected traditional femininity, she had won top prize at her school for sewing.

I don’t think her mother ever openly acknowledged her daughter’s sexual orientation, which she certainly knew, because such things usually go unsaid in the South.

Most Southerners who aren’t comfortable with homosexuality don’t use terms like “gay” or “lesbian.” They’ll use euphemisms. A gay man is a “little light in the loafers” or has “sugar in his britches.” If a lesbian has a partner, the partner is often referred to as her “friend.” But everyone knows exactly what it means.

To be sure, such acceptance is often possible because, in a small community, gays and lesbians don’t represent a large population to begin with. As my partner, who grew up in rural South Carolina, told me, “in my high school, the L.G.B.T. group had a membership of one and was taking applications.”

And there is a limit to the acceptance. In the rural South, people love their sons and daughters and they may even break bread with the florist and his partner, but they still believe homosexuality is a sin. They draw the line at a gay pride march down Main Street, and they won’t stand for gay marriage.

Still, as Alana’s Uncle Lee has shown America, there are gays living in the rural South who don’t all set out for the big city. They lead rich lives and have families, and sometimes even communities, that love them and accept them for who they are.

Karen L. Cox is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and the author of “Dreaming of Dixie: How the South Was Created in American Popular Culture.”

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/opinion/were-here-were-queer-yall.html?pagewanted=all

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Op-Ed Contributor

Understanding Kids, Gangs and Guns

By SUDHIR VENKATESH

CHICAGO hit a grim milestone last week, when it recorded its 400th murder for the year. Homicides are up about 25 percent over last year. Chicago has surpassed New York and Los Angeles as a hub of gun-related violence, most of it involving young people. Since 2001, it has recorded more than 5,000 gun-related deaths, compared with the 2,000 American military deaths in the war in Afghanistan.

I’ve been studying violent crime for more than a decade — first as an academic researcher, then briefly as a senior adviser to the F.B.I. — and have been struck by the ways in which our efforts to stop gun violence are not as targeted and efficient as they should be.

Until I started observing gangs and criminals, I used to think that young, violent criminals were generally adept in gun use. I learned the reality was far worse. Gangs and drug crews had caches of high-powered weapons but no formal training. Their members could not match a gun to its proper bullet. Few knew how to load, clean or shoot. Their aim was woeful: they injured one another — not to mention bystanders — as often as their enemies. It would be ludicrous to train gang members to shoot better (even if it would reduce the number of innocent bystanders who get shot, it would empower criminals). So big-city mayors, and their police departments, understandably focus on gun access.

But they have done so in an unbalanced way. Gun runners who transport weapons from federally licensed dealers to city neighborhoods have been singled out as a primary culprit. But purchases from authorized dealers account for only about 60 percent of gun purchases, and the gun runners — so-called straw purchasers — are responsible for only a fraction of these. We can no longer ignore the 40 percent of guns obtained on the secondary market, which includes gun brokers, gangs and other informal traders.

For inner-city young men, a gun is a badge of honor and an act of masculine one-upmanship. Rarely do they have access to straw purchasers — most couldn’t even name one. They do, however, know a gang or a clandestine seller around the corner from whom they can buy, borrow or rent a gun.

Stopping the intra- and interstate transport of guns by straw purchasers can net great sums of money, not to mention public acclaim. But more significant gains have been made by targeting the secondary market, through amnesty programs in which guns may be turned in by the public, no questions asked. In June, for example, 5,500 guns (including some replicas and BB guns) were turned in to the Chicago police as part of its annual gun “buyback” program. The incentive? A $100 gift card for each real gun. (Chicago’s crime rate did not drop significantly as a result, but that is not the point of buybacks, which signal to communities that the police are interested in nonpunitive ways to get guns off the street.)

A second problem with current policy is the lack of support for mediation programs. In Boston, the interfaith Ten Point Coalition, co-founded by the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers with police support, helped reset relations between the community and law enforcement. Then the criminologist David M. Kennedy brought in his Ceasefire program, which brings street-based mediators and cops into productive discussions with gang members and would-be criminals. Gang violence sharply declined through both efforts, and Mr. Kennedy’s experiment has been successfully replicated in other cities.

But many police chiefs have been reluctant to embrace such efforts. They fear that mediators will usurp their authority and become vigilante citizen patrols. Charities are reluctant to support mediation efforts because of a mistaken view that philanthropy should not get into bed with law enforcement. The fact that criminal justice programs receive less than 1 percent of total philanthropic giving should alarm us.

A third mistake: not understanding how guns change hands. A Justice Department study found in 2001 that 40 percent of all criminals acquired their guns on the street, but another 40 percent obtained their guns from friends or family members. Why not wage a national campaign around the familial dynamics that perpetuate liberal gun exchange?

We are unlikely to eliminate guns from the home, but at least we could get out this message, through social media and clever advertising, that just as friends don’t let friends drive drunk, they shouldn’t lend or give weapons away. Acknowledging that many illegal guns will remain on the streets, while recruiting friends and relatives to at least make sure those guns are kept away from untrained and emotionally volatile kids, would be a sensible step.

Good gun policy is good social policy. A study by researchers at the University of Chicago found that one-fifth of youths killed by gunfire there were innocent bystanders. The economist Steven J. Levitt has estimated that each homicide is associated with out-migration of 70 city residents. The total social costs of gun violence in Chicago have been estimated at about $2.5 billon — $2,500 per household — a year.

I’m sure that Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, could find better ways to spend that money. Gun buybacks, mediation programs and media campaigns aimed at gun owners and their families should be among them.

Sudhir Venkatesh, a professor of sociology at Columbia, is the author, most recently, of “Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets.”

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/opinion/understanding-kids-gangs-and-guns.html?pagewanted=all

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Letters

How Useful Are College Rankings?

To the Editor:

I disagree with Joe Nocera’s critique of U.S. News & World Report’s latest “Best Colleges” survey (“The College Rankings Racket,” Sept. 29).

Rejecting rankings suggests that prospective students are not smart enough to interpret data and make an informed choice. In reality, rankings force colleges to be forthcoming about class size, student demographics and resources expended on learning — factors that contribute to learning outcomes.

No single ranking suffices for all students. Those at the top of U.S. News’s 2013 list may not be the best colleges for students interested in study abroad, community service or seminar-style classes, for instance — characteristics for which U.S. News publishes separate listings.

No shorthand can replace careful scrutiny of institutions to determine the right fit. Though U.S. News’s methodology is imperfect, all but the silliest rankings provide critical consumer information that helps students and parents make a complicated decision.

DAVID E. VAN ZANDT

President, The New School

New York, Sept. 30, 2012

To the Editor:

To sell access to its databases every year, U.S. News & World Report must create rankings that change annually. The relative quality of schools changes over a period of years, not yearly, and that fiction exposes the folly of the rankings. Rather than a number, groupings like “great,” “good,” “fair” and “poor” should be the only ratings that schools receive. Further attempts to distinguish them are unnecessary, misleading and impossible.

CHAD MARLOW

New York, Sept. 29, 2012

To the Editor:

I applaud Joe Nocera for his insights on college rankings. But a degree from an Ivy League or similarly rated school is fast becoming a requirement for the future masters of the universe.

Outstanding students know that a top-tier pedigree is practically the only way to get a job at the breeding grounds for the 1 percenters — global investment banks, white-shoe law firms and premier strategy consultants. As long as a top-rated school is a prerequisite to a seven-figure salary, there will be lists to help the decision makers choose the fortunate few.

RICHARD WEINSTEIN

East Brunswick, N.J., Sept. 29, 2012

To the Editor:

Joe Nocera explains with great insight the damage that college rankings do to students and to American higher education. I would add two points.

First, the rankings place considerable weight on a “reputational survey” of colleges sent to the presidents and other top college officials across the country, in which they are asked to indicate on a numerical scale their perception of the quality of institutions similar to theirs.

This measure is highly biased in favor of well-known elite institutions irrespective of what these schools actually provide to their students today. And universities spend substantial amounts of money to send out glossy brochures to the officials in the hope of raising their score — a huge waste of money at a time when college costs are rising so rapidly.

Second, U.S. News & World Report does a separate ranking of student diversity at each college. Most higher education leaders agree that racial, ethnic and religious diversity contributes significantly to students’ educational experience, but U.S. News does not use this data, or data on income diversity, in its assessment of institutional quality. This suggests that student diversity is unrelated to quality, which most certainly is not the case.

STEVEN J. DINER

New York, Sept. 30, 2012

The writer was chancellor of Rutgers University-Newark from 2002 to 2011.

To the Editor:

The fact is that highly ranked schools based on the traditional metrics do provide advantages in many respects, but a committed student can transcend the rankings. I graduated from Stuyvesant High School near the top of my class, and my limited finances brought me to Brooklyn College, probably the most cost-effective quality higher education that I could have received at that time.

It jump-started my professorial and research career in academia. Now I have returned to Brooklyn College as a visiting professor to inspire students who may not be aware of how right Joe Nocera is that “where you go to college matters far less than what you put into college.” And, I would add, what you do with the knowledge you gain.

SHELDON KRIMSKY

Medford, Mass., Sept. 29, 2012

The writer is a professor in the department of urban and environmental policy at Tufts University.

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/opinion/how-useful-are-college-rankings.html?pagewanted=all

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Letter

Bias in the Media

To the Editor:

Re “Tired Cries of Bias Don’t Help Romney,” by David Carr (The Media Equation column, Oct. 1):

Any conservative American would be pleased that in his attempt to dismiss the overwhelming pro-Obama bias in the national media, David Carr would allow the notion, “It’s not as if everyone who believes there is a liberal bias needs to be fitted for a tinfoil helmet.”

But Mr. Carr made no serious attempt to suggest that the “legacy media” have been fair and balanced in political coverage. He argued only that they no longer have a “death grip” on public opinion. After all, he would be taking on the previous public editor of The Times, who found that a liberal “worldview virtually bleeds through the fabric of The Times.” Instead, Mr. Carr tries to claim that since the competition at The Wall Street Journal has a larger circulation, there is somehow no liberal bias to protest.

Mr. Carr seems to be drawing a vicious circle around this “legacy media.” Their obnoxious level of bias drives away readers and viewers by the thousands. Then when conservatives call them out for this aggressive tilt to the left, journalists use their increasing unpopularity to claim that there’s no bias worth mentioning. That’s an impressive tap dance, but media consumers are not persuaded.

TIM GRAHAM

Director of Media Analysis

Media Research Center

Alexandria, Va., Oct. 2, 2012

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/opinion/bias-in-the-media.html?pagewanted=all

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Letter

Donations From Lawyers

To the Editor:

What a disappointment to see The New York Times publish an article that asserts a connection between political donations and rewards to lawyers representing whistle-blowers, using me as an example (“A Legal Circle Reaches Deep to Aid Obama,” front page, Oct. 2). No such connection exists.

The rewards have gotten larger because whistle-blowers are exposing fraud schemes that have gotten more egregious, leading to taxpayer recoveries totaling $50 billion from miscreant corporations. Whistle-blowers and their lawyers — myself included — have worked closely with government enforcement agencies for the past 25 years no matter who was in the White House. Fighting fraud is a bipartisan effort.

There is one implied connection that the story does get right: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce attacks whistle-blower lawyers because companies it represents have paid billions in fines due to whistle-blower cases that exposed illegal and improper activities.

JOHN R. PHILLIPS

Washington, Oct. 2, 2012

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Letter

Garden Days in England

To the Editor:

Re “The Roses Are a Draw. (So Is the Dress Code.)” (Malmesbury Journal, Sept. 26), about clothing-optional days at Abbey House Gardens in England:

Are there no ticks or mosquitoes in England? When I do heavy-duty gardening, I wear a wide-brimmed hat, long pants tucked into socks, a long-sleeved, insect-repellent shirt and gloves. Could this explain why my garden is nowhere near as spectacular as the gardens I recently toured in England?

JUDY SMITH

Stony Brook, N.Y., Sept. 26, 2012

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/opinion/garden-days-in-england.html?pagewanted=all

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New York

- Rolling Past a Line, Often by Exploiting a Rule

- Cartier Jewelry Disappears From an Actress’s Home

- Competitive Races Put New York State in Thick of the Fight for Congress

- Wanted Man Could Survive in Wilderness

- Man Accused of Plot on Envoy Wasn’t Mentally Ill, U.S. Argues

- Romney Dials Back Acceptance of Obama Immigration Program

- 2nd U.S. Inquiry Centers on ‘Rebecca’ Go-Between

- That Name for a Storm? It’s Inspired by a Train

- City Room: An Island of Tranquillity Is Reclaimed in Prospect Park

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Rolling Past a Line, Often by Exploiting a Rule

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

A passenger in a wheelchair at La Guardia Airport on Wednesday.

By SARAH MASLIN NIR

The familiar drudgery was under way along the security line at Kennedy International Airport on a recent afternoon. Shoes were fumbled off feet, laptops unearthed from satchels and belts tugged from their loops. But mostly people waited, shuffled and waited as they wound their way to the front of the line.

Federal law requires wheelchairs to be given to those who request them, and airlines generally do not ask for proof of a disability before providing one.

But one couple had a different experience. Pushed along in the wheelchairs each airline provides by request, they whizzed past the line to a specially designated and briskly efficient Transportation Security Administration screener. Once cleared, the woman suddenly sprang up from her wheelchair, hoisted two huge carry-on bags from the magnetometer’s conveyor belt and plopped back in the wheelchair. She gave a nod to the person pushing her, and they rolled off to the gate.

In the modern airport experience, where the tedium of long lines, sudden delays and ever-more-invasive security checks is the norm, little can be done to avoid the frustrations increasingly endemic to travel. So it may be an expected, if uncomfortable, fact that some travelers appear to exploit perhaps the only remaining loophole to a breezy airport experience — the line-cutting privileges given to people who request airport wheelchairs, for which no proof of a disability is required.

The practice, tacitly endorsed by a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy from wheelchair pushers, who sometimes receive tips, is so commonplace that airport workers can predict spikes in wheelchair requests when security is particularly backed up, and flight attendants see it so often on certain routes — including to the Philippines, Egypt and the Dominican Republic, for which sometimes a dozen people in wheelchairs will be waiting to board — they’ve dubbed them “miracle flights.”

“We’d say there was a miracle because they all needed a wheelchair getting on, but not getting off,” said Kelly Skyles, a flight attendant and the national safety and security coordinator for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents American Airlines attendants. “Not only do we serve them beverages and ensure their safety — now we’re healing the sick.”

The actual reason, she guessed, is that passengers in wheelchairs are the first to board but the last to debark, meaning what is a shortcut on one end is a time-waster on the other end. As a result, wheelchairs brought to the arrival gate, one for each passenger who used one during boarding, are left unused as their intended occupants walk by. When flying, personal wheelchairs are usually checked like baggage. The ubiquitous airport chairs, pushed by uniformed attendants, are provided by airlines upon request for free, as mandated by the federal Air Carrier Access Act, the 1986 law requiring accommodations for disabled travelers. But the wheelchairs are unlike handicapped parking spaces, which require a permit: airlines as a rule do not ask for proof of disability.

“We respect our passengers, and we trust their integrity when they seek wheelchair assistance,” said Jean Medina, the spokeswoman for Airlines for America, an industry trade organization, via e-mail. “And we hope that the service would not be abused for convenience.”

While wheelchair users face the same T.S.A. rigmarole as other passengers, their trip through security is often expedited.

There are no statistics to show how many people request wheelchairs at airports each year, but only a small percentage of those travelers appear to be engaged in deceit. The airport employees in charge of pushing wheelchairs estimated that in some weeks they will assist about a dozen passengers who claim wheelchairs they do not need. Sometimes the fraud happens in plain sight: a customer waiting in line will suddenly request a chair after seeing one whiz through security, said Evelyn Danquah, a wheelchair pusher for Delta Air Lines. The more dramatic will suddenly start walking with a limp.

“When they see that the line is so long,” she said, “they just ask for a wheelchair.”

Ms. Danquah said their recoveries can happen just as quickly: almost as soon as security is cleared, some stand up and walk off. At first it shocked her, she said, but she explained that now she was used to it.

Dubinder Kaur, another wheelchair attendant for Delta, agreed: “They say, ‘Ma’am, I feel better — I can go by myself.’ ”

As security checks have become increasingly stringent, the number of people exploiting the loophole seems to have risen, said Peter Greenberg, the travel editor for CBS News and the author of a dozen books on travel. He said it was common to see departure gates full of wheelchairs, especially in places like Palm Beach, where populations are older. Once the plane has taxied to the gate in Florida, however, many supposedly injured passengers exit on foot. The ends-justify-the-means approach may work, Mr. Greenberg said, but to his mind fakers pay another price.

“I’m a big believer in karma,” he said. “You don’t put on a dress when the Titanic is going down so you can get in the first lifeboat.”

Identifying abuse is difficult, because not all disabilities are visible. Some older passengers who are able to walk short distances, for example, may not be able to stand for the long periods sometimes required in security lines. Still, said Helena Berger, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the American Association of People With Disabilities, “Generally speaking, if you’re using a wheelchair, you’re using it based on a mobility need.”

“That would be something that you could usually see,” she added.

Attendants, many of whom sit idle for long periods of time waiting for a customer, are, in a sense, encouraged to look the other way when a healthy person requests wheelchair service. Most earn between $9 and $14 an hour and rely heavily on tips.

At Heathrow Airport in London in late September, some customers in wheelchairs carried giant carry-on bags on their laps as they wheeled to board a Virgin Atlantic flight to New York. Wheelchair pushers say they see the ability to schlep a huge bag as a possible indicator that someone does not truly need assistance.

Indeed, upon landing in New York, though six wheelchairs were waiting at the off-ramp — airlines order one for every wheelchair-using customer who boards — only four were used.

“By the time you get out of the plane, your pains can be gone,” said Roy Sanichara, 20, one of the wheelchair attendants who waited fruitlessly for an expected customer, as he wheeled an empty chair back through the terminal. He said he believed his passengers, usually. “But sometimes they play tricks, too.”

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Cartier Jewelry Disappears From an Actress’s Home

By J. DAVID GOODMAN

What riches lie behind the manicured facades of Manhattan brownstones are seldom willingly discussed.

The West Village home of the actress Julianne Moore is undergoing interior renovation.

Tell-all books and blind gossip items give some inkling about the opulence that is concealed. And, as the actress Julianne Moore recently learned, so do burglaries.

Ten pieces of Cartier jewelry, valued at $127,000, disappeared from her five-floor brownstone on West 11th Street between June 6 and Aug. 28, the police said on Wednesday. No arrests have been made.

Contractors had been working in the brownstone, which Ms. Moore shares with her husband, the director Bart Freundlich, and their two children. The city’s Buildings Department lists three permits, filed in July, for interior renovation and plumbing work. On Wednesday, there were no obvious signs of construction, apart for some wires hanging loosely from the roof near the front door.

But Jesse Robertson-Tait, a contractor working on the site, said, “There’s a great deal of activity.” He declined to discuss details of the work, which he said was “nearly finished,” or anything about the burglary, though he acknowledged hearing about it.

Ms. Moore’s publicist did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

According to published reports, Ms. Moore spent part of the summer in Toronto, where she was filming a remake of “Carrie,” and in Montauk, N.Y., where she attended the wedding of the musician Rufus Wainwright.

In the neighborhood of bankers and brokers, graphic designers and artists, the six-figure theft appeared to have been carried off without anyone immediately noticing.

“First I heard of it,” said a documentary filmmaker who was walking his dog around the block and would give only the name of his companion, Bodhi. (“Like the tree,” he said.)

A neighbor in the building next door, which shares a back yard with Ms. Moore’s brownstone, said he also had not heard of any trouble.

“There are a lot of families in this neighborhood,” said Marcela Gamboa, 20, a writing student who works three doors down at the 11th Street Cafe but lives in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

A customer in the cafe with a blueberry-size diamond on her ring expressed surprise after hearing of the theft and said she had recently seen Ms. Moore at a local farmers’ market.

Ms. Gamboa said that did not surprise her. “She walks around the neighborhood alone,” she said of Ms. Moore. “She seems to feel pretty safe here.”

Nevertheless, according to real estate documents, Ms. Moore may be planning on decamping; the family’s six-bedroom 1905 brownstone has been listed twice in the past few years, most recently for $12.5 million.

Joseph Goldstein contributed reporting.

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Competitive Races Put New York State in Thick of the Fight for Congress

By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ

New York State has become a prime focus of the battle for control of Congress, as both parties and their allies deploy ground troops and pump millions of dollars into more than a half-dozen competitive districts.

Representative Louise M. Slaughter

Representative Michael G. Grimm

Representative Kathy Hochul

Representative Nan Hayworth

The intense interest reflects how energized the fight for the House has become as the election enters its final five weeks. Only a few months ago, Democrats faced big hurdles in New York, with districts once deemed safe suddenly becoming vulnerable, largely because of new Congressional maps. Now, the same Democratic incumbents are showing resilience, while Republican lawmakers face stiff re-election challenges, according to independent political analysts and officials in both parties.

Democrats are strongly urging donors to turn their attention to the Congressional races. Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, and Representative Steve Israel of Long Island, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, are hosts of a Manhattan fund-raiser on Thursday for the party’s challengers and incumbents; former Vice President Al Gore is a “special guest.”

Most independent analysts have predicted that Republicans will retain control of the House, but some uncertainty has emerged in recent days. And independent projections that have Democrats winning the 25 seats needed to reclaim the majority requires them to post a net gain of 3 or 4 seats in New York.

Money is pouring into House races in the state, with outside organizations, including advocacy groups and “super-PACs,” funneling in $4.1 million since Labor Day. More than $3 million of that has come from groups supporting Republicans. Since late August, the two parties have also invested in the state, with the National Republican Congressional Committee spending about $2.8 million, compared with $1.8 million from the committee Mr. Israel leads.

“Democrats have said that New York is key to their drive to take back the House,” said Nathaniel Sillin, a spokesman for the Republican Congressional committee. “But the fact that they are allowing themselves to be outspent suggests that they are not serious.”

Mr. Israel said the large infusion of money from conservative groups underscored the concern gripping Republicans. “These races are slipping away and now they are panicking,” he said.

Republicans have singled out four Democrats in the state for defeat: Louise M. Slaughter, a 13-term representative from Rochester; Timothy H. Bishop, from Long Island; Kathy Hochul, who represents the Buffalo area; and Bill Owens, in the far north. Republican challengers, with the help of the national groups, have unleashed aggressive advertisements.

But with the exception of Ms. Hochul, whose race is tight, the targeted Democrats have managed to maintain an advantage. The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan monitor of Congressional races, said the seats held by Mr. Bishop and Mr. Owens were leaning Democratic, while the one held by Ms. Slaughter was likely to remain Democratic.

Mr. Owens said that while he worried that the barrage of advertising might drown him out, his constituents appeared unmoved, with many telling him “that when they see what they perceive to be a negative ad, they just tune it out.”

Mr. Bishop, a five-term incumbent, said that he had deployed a large network of volunteers to knock on doors and make phone calls and that he had significantly expanded his get-out-the-vote operation after the 2010 election, when he came within 600 votes of losing his seat. “We knew we were going to be a magnet for Republican super-PAC money,” he said.

The parties and their allies are also battling it out for three Republican-held seats, including the 25th District, in the Syracuse area, where Representative Ann Marie Buerkle faces an uphill battle against Dan Maffei, the Democrat she ousted in 2010. Two other first-term Republican incumbents stand only an even chance of holding on to their seats, according to some analysts.

In the Albany area, an especially competitive contest has developed between Representative Chris Gibson and his Democratic challenger, Julian Schreibman. Nearly $2 million has recently poured in from the national parties and pro-Republican groups like Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies.

The third embattled Republican freshman is Representative Nan Hayworth, who represents the suburbs north of New York City. She is facing Sean Patrick Maloney, who was an aide to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

In an interview, Ms. Hayworth predicted that the Democratic attacks against her, which suggest that she is a right-wing extremist who is out of touch with the district, will ultimately fail.

“It’s a tone-deaf and unsupportable argument,” she said. “People in the district know who I am.”

Republican leaders in Washington have moved aggressively to defend Ms. Hayworth’s seat, spending nearly $650,000 in recent weeks, while Democratic groups, including the House Majority PAC, have spent nearly $800,000.

A bright spot for the Republicans is Staten Island, where Representative Michael G. Grimm continues to hold an advantage despite scrutiny of his fund-raising from federal prosecutors, officials in both parties and independent analysts say.

Derek Willis contributed reporting.

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Wanted Man Could Survive in Wilderness

By LISA W. FODERARO

Eleven days ago, after the police say Eugene Palmer shot and killed his daughter-in-law, he apparently fled into the forested slopes of Harriman State Park, one of the largest state parks in New York, not far from his home in Haverstraw. Searchers found his green pickup truck, and police dogs trailed his scent before losing it. The police also found vestiges of a campfire they suspect was his.

Harriman State Park’s dense woods, myriad lakes, caves and ridges are an ideal place to live off the land. Experts said that Eugene Palmer’s experience as an outdoorsman gave him an edge.

Shane Hobel said he could slip into Harriman State Park “and completely disappear.”

Eugene Palmer

But how long could Mr. Palmer — a 73-year-old with diabetes, albeit a veteran outdoorsman — survive in the woods? As the autumn chill descends across the park’s 46,000 acres in Rockland and Orange Counties, how would he stay warm? What would he eat? And how could he do it while avoiding detection?

Backcountry campers and survival experts said that Harriman, with its dense woods and myriad lakes, caves and ridges, was an ideal place in which to live off the land — and that Mr. Palmer’s background would give him an edge.

A former park ranger skilled in hunting and trapping, he would know, for example, how to make a simple snare for catching squirrels, rabbits and partridge. He might also know how to make a shelter called a debris hut, using branches and vegetation, which is relatively warm and waterproof even in the extreme cold.

“This is a great place to hide,” said Shane Hobel, the founder and head instructor of the Mountain Scout Survival School. “It’s a huge expanse. There are plenty of food and water resources there,” Mr. Hobel, known as Whitefeather, said. “I could slip into that park and completely disappear. But it really depends on the skill level one has.”

Several law enforcement agencies initially flooded the park, which is less than 50 miles from mid-Manhattan, and the Department of Defense sent a helicopter equipped with infrared technology to aid the search.

While there is no evidence that Mr. Palmer left the park, he could have hitched a ride out of the area, or died in the woods. The manhunt in the park continues, although with fewer searchers. The popular Beaver Pond campground remains closed, and the park’s Web page has an advisory warning visitors to “refrain from hiking” in the backcountry because of the search.

Evading the authorities and their sophisticated tracking dogs would be Mr. Palmer’s greatest challenge, survival experts said. But as a trapper, Mr. Palmer would be adept at concealing his scent, by, for example, walking through streams or rubbing his clothes and skin with leaves or ashes.

Smoke and light from a campfire could also give him away. But a savvy outdoorsman can make a fire, which is essential for cooking game, boiling water and staying warm, that produces little or no smoke. One technique, known as a Dakota fire hole, involves digging a pit for a fire and then adding an angled tunnel from the surface that acts as a chimney. Such a fire needs far less wood than a surface campfire. It is also hidden.

“There’s a little bit of smoke at first, but the fire is buried,” said Robert J. Plude, a survival instructor based in Ticonderoga, N.Y. “He can put his shelter over the top of that” and the coals would radiate heat to keep him warm all night.

Food is plentiful this time of year. There are numerous edible plants, especially in and around swamps and ponds, which Mr. Plude called the “grocery store of the woods.” A forager would be sure to find Indian cucumbers, cattails, duck potatoes and white pine needles (the last being loaded with vitamin C). Although the police believe that Mr. Palmer is armed, he would probably avoid hunting with a gun since the blast could signal his location. In addition to a rudimentary snare, a survivalist can hunt successfully with only a knife.

“You can get up in a tree and observe the animal and watch where it goes,” said Edward Goodell, a backcountry camper and executive director of the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, a federation of hiking clubs and environmental groups. “Then you drop down on it and cut its throat. Deer, for one, would last you a long time.”

But much depends on what Mr. Palmer managed to grab before fleeing. He reportedly told his sister that he needed an hour to escape. Temperatures have fallen only into the 40s at night, but the first frost is not far off.

“If you start to get some cold nights, hypothermia becomes an issue,” said Ryan Doyle, an outdoor educator and guide for the Adirondack Mountain Club, a nonprofit group. “If you’re wet and don’t have wool or synthetic clothing, you’re not going to be too comfortable.”

Then there is the possibility that Mr. Palmer headed north to the Adirondacks, where he has access to a cabin. “It would be a lot easier to go undetected for a while because we have such big tracts of untrammeled land,” Mr. Doyle said. “But I’ve never been on the run, and there are so many variables.”

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Man Accused of Plot on Envoy Wasn’t Mentally Ill, U.S. Argues

By BENJAMIN WEISER

An Iranian-American man charged in a plot to assassinate a Saudi diplomat did not suffer from any mental illness that would have precluded him from knowingly consenting to questioning without a lawyer, federal prosecutors said in court papers Wednesday.

The filing by the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, came in response to defense lawyers’ claims that the man, Mansour J. Arbabsiar, was suffering from bipolar disorder when the authorities say he waived his rights and agreed to be questioned in the first 12 days after his arrest.

The defense, citing experts’ findings, had argued that as a result of his mental illness, Mr. Arbabsiar could not have made a knowing and voluntary waiver of his rights.

They asked Judge John F. Keenan of Federal District Court to suppress Mr. Arbabsiar’s statements or dismiss the indictment.

But Mr. Bharara’s office, citing the findings of a University of Virginia psychiatrist who had examined Mr. Arbabsiar for the government, said that the charges should not be dismissed and that the defense motion should be rejected.

Mr. Arbabsiar, a former used-car salesman from Corpus Christi, Tex., faces trial in January on charges he conspired with an Iranian officer to hire assassins from a Mexican drug cartel for $1.5 million to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has said the plot was “directed and approved by elements of the Iranian government.”

The debate over Mr. Arbabsiar’s mental state stemmed from an interrogation that began after his arrest on Sept. 29, 2011, at Kennedy International Airport and continued for almost two weeks.

During that time, the authorities have said, he “knowingly and voluntarily” waived his right to a lawyer and a speedy court appearance, “confessed to his own role in the plot to kill the ambassador” and provided “extremely valuable intelligence.”

He was not taken before a magistrate judge until Oct. 11.

Two defense experts had diagnosed bipolar disorder in Mr. Arbabsiar and one questioned whether “decisions made by him during this period were made rationally.”

But the psychiatrist retained by the government, Dr. Gregory B. Saathoff, said he had examined Mr. Arbabsiar for more than 30 hours this summer and concluded that he did not suffer from bipolar disorder and did not, as a defense expert found, experience manic episodes while being questioned by federal agents.

“Consistent observation of Mr. Arbabsiar’s behavior” since his arrest, Dr. Saathoff wrote, provided “comprehensive and independent evidence of his continued stability and lack of cyclic mood disorder.”

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Romney Dials Back Acceptance of Obama Immigration Program

By JULIA PRESTON

With hours to go before the presidential candidates meet in Denver for their first debate, Mitt Romney has scaled back his acceptance of a program by President Obama to grant reprieves from deportation to hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants.

On Monday, after months of pressure to clarify whether he would end the program if elected, Mr. Romney said in an interview with The Denver Post that he would not cancel two-year deportation deferrals already granted by the Obama administration.

“I’m not going to take something they’ve purchased,” Mr. Romney said.

But on Wednesday morning, campaign aides clarified that Mr. Romney intended to halt the program after he took office and would not issue any new deferrals.

“We’re not going to continue Obama’s program,” an aide said by e-mail. “We’re going to replace it and would only honor visas already issued.”

Mr. Romney has said that instead of Mr. Obama’s temporary measure, he would seek a long-term solution for young undocumented immigrants. He has said he would support legislation to give permanent resident green cards to illegal immigrants who serve in the military.

“He will seek from Day 1 to work as quickly as he can for a permanent solution that will supersede what Barack Obama did,” said Alberto Martinez, an adviser to the Romney campaign. “He will replace certainty and permanence for something that is uncertain and not permanent.”

Mr. Martinez confirmed that Mr. Romney, as president, would not issue any new deportation deferrals. But he said Mr. Romney would not deport undocumented students who would have been eligible for a deferral.

Mr. Romney has not offered details of a broader plan to give legal status to those immigrants. An estimated 1.2 million immigrants are immediately eligible for reprieves under Mr. Obama’s program.

Undocumented youth leaders said they were dismayed by Mr. Romney’s turnaround. “Dreamers across the nation are disappointed to learn that if elected to the presidency, Governor Mitt Romney would dismantle the Dreamer deferred action policy,” Lorella Praeli, a leader of the United We Dream Network, said Wednesday. She was referring to a group of young undocumented immigrants who call themselves Dreamers, after a bill called the Dream Act.

Mr. Romney’s revision could have a major impact on the deferral program, which began to receive applications on Aug. 15. Since there is no filing deadline, many illegal immigrants have said they were holding back from applying until after the Nov. 6 elections, fearing that Mr. Romney would stop the program.

Still, more than 100,000 immigrants have applied for deferrals and work permits that come with them. After the first month, officials confirmed 29 approvals, and they said the pace of decisions could slow as the volume increases.

Immigration policy analysts were perplexed that Mr. Romney referred to the deferrals as visas, noting that the program does not grant visas. Mr. Obama created the program by executive action after the Dream Act stalled in Congress.

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2nd U.S. Inquiry Centers on ‘Rebecca’ Go-Between

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and PATRICK HEALY

The Long Island stockbroker who has emerged as a central figure in the spectacular collapse of the Broadway musical “Rebecca” is the subject of an unrelated federal fraud investigation that grew out of several civil lawsuits filed in recent years, lawyers with knowledge of the matter said Wednesday.

The broker, Mark C. Hotton, introduced the lead producer of the ill-fated show to a mysterious investor whose reported death from malaria in London in August led to the disintegration of the production, which is now itself the subject of a separate federal investigation, people briefed on that matter have said.

How Mr. Hotton, 46, a stockbroker for nearly two decades who is also a consultant with an interest in an electrical contracting company and other businesses, turned to playing a role in financing a Broadway show remains unclear.

But it was Mr. Hotton who connected the producer, Ben Sprecher, to the mysterious investor, a wealthy South African businessman with offices in London and Johannesburg, according to people who learned about the middleman from Mr. Sprecher. In an interview last month, Mr. Sprecher identified the investor as Paul Abrams and acknowledged that he had never met him or spoken with him, though early this year Mr. Abrams signed investment papers for “Rebecca” and pledged to provide $2 million for it and raise $2.5 million more from three other people.

The musical, a gothic mystery based on the Daphne du Maurier novel of the same name, had been in limbo since the report of Mr. Abrams’s death.

Mr. Hotton was introduced to Mr. Sprecher by a frequent financier of Broadway shows, according to a person familiar with how they met.

Mr. Hotton, who lives in a waterfront home in West Islip, is alternately described as charming and gregarious and arrogant and aggressive. Mr. Sprecher, who made a good living as an Off Broadway theater landlord but is not wealthy, is a confident and optimistic dealmaker who found himself struggling to recruit investors, including among experienced Broadway producers who did not believe that “Rebecca” would be popular.

Mr. Sprecher and his lawyer did not return calls on Wednesday, and Mr. Hotton could not be found at his home.

Federal agents and prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn, which is conducting the fraud investigation focused on Mr. Hotton, have contacted a number of the lawyers who brought the civil fraud lawsuits, two of the lawyers said. Mr. Hotton filed for personal bankruptcy last year, claiming $15 million in debts.

One of the lawyers, Jerome Reisman, said he was contacted about two years ago. Another, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to upset the prosecutors, said he was contacted last year. All identified the same assistant United States attorney, Burton T. Ryan, as the leader of the inquiry.

The status of the investigation was unclear on Wednesday. Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the United States attorney’s office, declined to comment.

Stephen B. Wexler, a Long Island securities lawyer who acknowledged that he was representing Mr. Hotton “in certain legal matters,” said he did not represent him in connection with the criminal investigation. Asked if he knew who did, he said, “No comment.”

The inquiry into the collapse of the play is being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and federal prosecutors in Manhattan. The question of who was responsible for creating what is appearing more and more like a fictitious tale — the story of Mr. Abrams, who was going to provide $2 million, and three additional investors whom Mr. Abrams was bringing in with $2.5 million more — looms large.

No records confirming the existence of Mr. Abrams have been found. While Mr. Sprecher says he exchanged e-mails with him, and Mr. Sprecher’s lawyer has turned them over to prosecutors, no one has said they met or spoke with him. This week, Mr. Sprecher’s lawyer, Ronald G. Russo, expressed doubt that Mr. Abrams ever existed, noting, however, that it is hard to prove a negative.

Stacey Stowe contributed reporting.

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That Name for a Storm? It’s Inspired by a Train

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

The Weather Channel has given names to coming winter storms. The 17th would be Q, after the subway train.

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER

For years, the steely force has left travelers captive to its whims, sweeping across New York City’s main arteries and quaking above many of its neighborhoods.

And now the Q train, that rumbling gale of Broadway, seems to have acquired another power: It can make it snow.

This week, when the Weather Channel announced that it would, for the first time, name up to 26 winter storms for the coming season, one for each letter of the alphabet, Q, in reference to the train, took its place on the list, joining Roman gods, a Shakespearean villain and Xerxes, the fourth king of the Persian Achaemenid Empire. (Alternatives for the X slot appear to have been few.)

The channel’s decision to name storms has been criticized by some broadcast meteorologists as a unilateral power play, prompting one to post on Twitter on Wednesday, “Who died and made them king?!”

But among New Yorkers, who board their trains some 880 miles from the Weather Channel’s headquarters in Atlanta, a more pressing question emerged: How in the world did the channel land on the Q train?

The answer seems to be a combination of coincidence and scarcity. Bryan Norcross, the Weather Channel’s director of weather content, who led the formulation of the list, said he came up with the name because he used to live in Midtown and take the Q from 49th Street.

“We could not find a good Q,” he said of his storm name list.

Mr. Norcross said the channel did not mind including some “whimsical” choices near the end of its alphabetical list because the storm season was unlikely to require so many names.

Last year, he said, about six storms were severe enough that they would now warrant a name. During an average season, the channel expects to use about 10 names.

Officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority appeared to view the name as a mixed blessing.

“I guess it’s an honor for the Q train to be listed in the same august company as Euclid, Plato and Zeus,” said Adam Lisberg, the authority’s chief spokesman. “We’re always leery of anything that equates a remarkably well-run subway system with disruptions to millions of people across the country.”

In fact, the Q is perhaps the subway line least deserving of the ignominy. In August, it was named the best train in the subway system, according to an annual analysis by the Straphangers Campaign.

Yet despite its questionable credentials, the Q train should have an easier task than some of its counterparts on the list, who, history suggests, might have trouble co-existing.

There is a Winter Storm Caesar, slotted one spot behind a weather system not to be trusted.

Et tu, Winter Storm Brutus?

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Building Blocks

An Island of Tranquillity Is Reclaimed in Prospect Park

By DAVID W. DUNLAP

“I claim this land in the name of the Prospect Park Alliance,” its president, Emily Lloyd, declared after setting foot for the first time on Music Island.

Building Blocks

How the city looks and feels — and why it got that way.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

Recreated ornamental railing along the esplanade.

In place of a helmet, Ms. Lloyd wore a soft straw hat. She didn’t plant a flag. Her troops consisted only of two landscape architects and a colleague from public relations. Still, the authority of her claim is not likely to be challenged.

For one thing, Music Island, about one-quarter of an acre in extent, is in Prospect Park, rising along the southeastern shore of the lake. For another, almost no one knows that Music Island even exists. Once again.

The first Music Island was a feature of the 19th-century park design by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. It occupied a small cove that was bordered by a formal esplanade of carved granite posts and iron railings.

Musicians would row out to the island and play concerts for parkgoers. Romantic? Yes. Audible? Barely. Concerts were abandoned and the island was given over to ornamental plantings of red flowers.

In 1959, it was bulldozed into oblivion to accommodate the new Kate Wollman Memorial Rink. The cove in which it sat was filled with hundreds of pilings. The elegant shoreline esplanade was chopped to pieces and dumped into the cove as fill. On top, a 12-inch concrete-and-rebar slab was set on which the rink was built.

Tear Drop Island nearby was spared. But the channel grew so choked by a hard-packed weed called phragmites that land and island fused. “You could walk out to it,” said Christian Zimmerman, the vice president of the alliance for design and construction. “And sometimes, people did.”

By 2000, Wollman Rink was reaching the end of its days. It was clear that it would have to be reconstructed or replaced.

Tupper Thomas, Ms. Lloyd’s predecessor as alliance president, raised the notion of reviving the formal Olmsted and Vaux shoreline. By 2009, it was official: Music Island would be recreated — as a nature preserve, not a concert venue — under a redevelopment plan known as Lakeside. The centerpiece of Lakeside, a year-round recreational center with two rinks, is now under construction, though the project’s budget has ballooned and its timeline has grown. Wollman Rink was demolished in 2011. Lakeside is not expected to open until the 2013 skating season.

For now, the esplanade is closed to the public, and Music Island can be seen only through a chain-link construction fence. However, beginning Oct. 20, the esplanade will be open Saturdays and Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., permitting a much better view.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

Duck potato.

Music Island will have an enhanced name — Chaim Baier Music Island — honoring the father of Shelby White, a trustee of the Leon Levy Foundation, which made a $10 million grant to finance the shoreline and island reclamation. Ms. White recalled the area from her childhood, Ms. Lloyd said, and believed it was important that it be restored.

To accomplish that, the cove was dammed in 2011. After the fish and turtles behind the dam were relocated, the water was pumped out. About 9,800 cubic yards of soil, phragmites and masonry rubble was removed from the cove and the nearby shoreline. (For comparison’s sake, a large rear-loading garbage truck carries up to 25 cubic yards.) That excavation restored Tear Drop Island’s discrete outline.

Then, 1,300 cubic yards of clean subsoil were brought to the site to create the rough shape of Music Island and two short points on either side. On top of this were deposited 2,000 cubic yards of topsoil and 330 cubic yards of granite boulders. That was when the sculptural work began.

Mr. Zimmerman, the alliance vice president, was the lead landscape architect, working with Crystal Gaudio, another landscape architect, and Joseph Izzo and his colleagues from Ravine Construction on Staten Island. Though they had a general idea of how the island would lay out, they waited until the soil was in place and the boulders were on site to shape its contours for greatest effect.

That meant asking construction contractors who usually work in broad strokes to take the time to flip a single boulder this way and that, to move it an inch to the left or a foot to the right. Rocks were positioned to afford the best sunning possibilities for the large turtle population. The workers seemed delighted to oblige.

“Everyone who has worked on this project would get seduced by it,” Ms. Lloyd said.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

A statue of Abraham Lincoln overlooks Music Island.

Trees and plants were brought in: bald cypress, black tupelo, duck potato, river birch, shadbush, sweetbay magnolia and winterberry, among others. “It’s balanced for habitat as well as to make people happy,” Mr. Zimmerman said.

In May, the pumps were turned off and stitches in the fabric dam were loosened. The waters of the lake embraced the new Music Island. The moment was bittersweet, however, as Mr. Izzo, 46, who worked devotedly on the job, had died two months earlier.

It was not until September that Ms. Lloyd first explored the island, stepping deftly over the small stream bed that bisects it. As she stood quietly surveying her new realm, it was clear that someone else had been seduced by Music Island.

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Business Day

- Fan Sites Settle Children’s Privacy Charges

- Bits Blog: H.P.’s Chief Says a Revival Is Unlikely Before 2016

- State of the Art: Newly Enlightened E-Readers

- Scardino, Chief of Pearson, to Step Down

- Japan’s New Tech Generation

- Multinational Crackdown on Computer Con Artists

- Advertising: From Hamsters to Wizards, Weirdness That Succeeded

- Drug Shows Promise in Treating a Type of Muscular Dystrophy in Boys

- Bits Blog: Bias Plaintiff Says Venture Firm Fired Her

- Euro Watch: Survey Signals That Euro Zone Has Entered Recession

- DealBook: T-Mobile Deal for MetroPCS Increases Pressure on Sprint

- App Smart: Map Apps to Bypass the Rivalry of Google and Apple

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- Jobs and Service Sector Data Point to Modest U.S. Growth

- Markets Close Slightly Higher on Labor Report

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Fan Sites Settle Children’s Privacy Charges

By NATASHA SINGER

The operator of fan Web sites for the pop stars Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Rihanna and Demi Lovato agreed to pay a $1 million civil penalty to settle federal charges that the sites illegally collected personal information about thousands of children, the Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday.

Selena Gomez's site collected e-mail addresses, birth dates, parents' names and in some cases children's full names.

In a complaint, the Federal Trade Commission said that Artist Arena, the operator of the sites, violated a children’s online privacy rule by collecting personal details — like the names, e-mail addresses, street addresses and cellphone numbers — of about 101,000 children aged 12 or younger without their parents’ permission.

The law, called the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or Coppa, requires operators of Web sites to notify parents and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting, using or disclosing personal information about children younger than 13.

The sites are BieberFever.com, SelenaGomez.com, RihannaNow.com and DemiLovatoFanClub, which is no longer in operation. The agency did not accuse the pop stars themselves of any wrongdoing.

At a conference on children’s marketing in New York on Wednesday, Edith Ramirez, a member of the F.T.C., said the settlement still required ratification in court.

As part of the registration process, the four fan sites asked users to submit personal details including their birth dates that would enable members to create online profiles, post messages and sign up for newsletters about the pop stars, the complaint said. Because the sites therefore knew the children’s ages, the F.T.C. charged, the company had knowingly collected information and failed to properly notify their parents.

“These were fan sites that knew that a very substantial percentage of users were 12 or under,” said David C. Vladeck, the director of the F.T.C.’s bureau of consumer protection. “There is really no excuse for violations like these.”

Artist Arena, a division of the Warner Music Group that manages artist fan clubs, neither admitted nor denied the agency’s allegations. Warner first invested in Artist Arena in 2007 and bought the company in 2010. James Steven, a spokesman for Artist Arena, declined to comment. The fan sites no longer allow children under 13 to register as members.

The proposed settlement comes at a time when the agency is preparing to extensively strengthen the children’s online privacy protection rule for the first time since its introduction more than a decade ago.

In an effort to keep pace with innovations like mobile apps and facial recognition technology, the agency has proposed to widen both the kinds of data about children that would require parental consent and the kinds of operators — like advertising networks or data miners — whose activities could be subject to the rule.

Last week, major corporations including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Viacom responded, submitting public comments to the F.T.C. in which they argued that some of the proposed changes were so unworkable that they could deter companies from providing sites and online services to children.

“To ensure that the Internet continues to be a robust and enriching place for children, the commission should avoid promulgating rules that frustrate operators’ ability to continue providing the same quantity and quality of sites and online services, including those that are directed to children,” Michael D. Hintze, Microsoft’s chief privacy counsel, wrote in comments to the agency.

But the case of the pop star Web sites bolsters the viability of at least one of the agency’s proposals: that child-friendly sites aimed at audiences of varying ages must either assume all users are under 13, or screen users for age to identify those for whom data collection requires prior parental consent.

Some companies, like Viacom, have objected to this proposed change, saying that such a screening process might cause some sites to block children from participating or deter some children, who might then end up on inappropriate adult sites that do not screen users for age.

But BieberFever.com and the other fan sites, even if they failed to properly notify parents, seemed to be able to collect information on tens of thousands of children who willingly identified themselves as being younger than 13.

“Marketers need to know that even a bad case of Bieber Fever doesn’t excuse their legal obligation to get parental consent before collecting personal information from children,” Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the F.T.C., said in a statement. “The F.T.C. is in the process of updating the Coppa rule to ensure it continues to protect kids growing up in the digital age.”

Each of the fan Web sites had slightly different registration processes. But the agency charged that Artist Arena had falsely claimed that it would not activate a child’s registration without parental consent.

SelenaGomez.com, for example, required users who wanted to sign up for the online fan newsletter to enter information like their e-mail address, birth date, parent’s name and e-mail address, and in some cases full name, city, state and ZIP code as well, according to the complaint. The child then received an on-screen notice that said “registration successful” and was able to edit his or her online profile, the complaint said.

The site sent the child’s parent an e-mail saying that it needed parental consent to complete the child’s registration. According to to the complaint, the e-mail falsely stated that if a parent did not want to approve the child’s registration, “you do not need to do anything else: simply do not click on the above link.” Regardless of the parent’s actions, the site had already registered the child, the complaint said.

From April 25, 2010, to Aug. 2, 2011, SelenaGomez.com registered 10,026 children for its fan newsletter and 2,196 children for its fan club. The site also collected and kept information on 48,531 children who started but did not finish the registration process, the complaint said.

As part of the settlement, Artist Arena agreed to delete the personal information about children under 13. The company also agreed that the sites, in places where they collect personal data, would prominently display links to a federal Web site, www.OnGuardOnline.gov, that offers information on protecting children’s privacy online.

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/technology/fan-sites-for-pop-stars-settle-childrens-privacy-charges.html?pagewanted=all

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H.P. Shares Fall as Chief Sees Trouble

By QUENTIN HARDY

Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

Hewlett-Packard needs four more years “to have confidence in itself,” says Meg Whitman, the company’s chief executive.

SAN FRANCISCO — Meg Whitman, Hewlett-Packard’s chief executive, beat up her company on Wednesday.

Ms. Whitman told a meeting of Wall Street analysts that they should expect sharply lower revenue and profits. She also told them not to expect the company to fully right itself before 2016. “We have much more work to do,” she said.

While the news was not completely unexpected, the vehemence of Ms. Whitman’s message drove shareholders to the exits. H.P.’s stock dropped about 8 percent while she was speaking and ended the day at $14.91 a share, down nearly 13 percent on unusually high trading volume. The stock had not been that low in a decade.

The drubbing was probably what Ms. Whitman, the former chief  of eBay, had in mind. Executives involved in her presentation, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said she wanted to get as much bad news as possible out at once, so the company could focus on rebuilding rather than having to explain one disappointing quarter after another.

Analysts, while somewhat taken aback by the depth of H.P.’s problems, thought Ms. Whitman had made the right move in putting them out in the open. “In an era where C.E.O.’s watch every word they say, it’s refreshing to see complete candor. H.P. is a mess,” said Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights and Strategy, who attended the meeting. “It will take five to 10 years to fully take care of this, just the way it took I.B.M. to remake itself. Wall Street doesn’t like anything longer than a one- to three-year horizon. It’s too much risk for them.”

For now, Hewlett-Packard is still the world’s leader in sales of personal computers, printers and computer servers, with revenue last year of $127 billion, but it forecast revenue next year of 11 percent to 13 percent below fiscal 2012 levels. Analysts had assumed it would only decrease about 1 percent.

Operating profit margins, which have been about 7 percent, could evaporate completely or, at best, shrink to about 3 percent, the company said. Earnings per share were expected to fall by about 16 percent from what analysts had projected.

The meeting was probably also Ms. Whitman’s last chance to blame previous leaders for any of H.P.’s problems. Since 1999, H.P. has had three other chief executives, each with a different vision and operating strategy. All left under duress, leaving a company that leads the industry in revenue but is internally chaotic.

Those problems now belong to Ms. Whitman, who took over almost 13 months ago. She has replaced a number of top executives, and has initiated changes to product development and the company’s global marketing and branding. These changes will start to appear next year, but she is clearly impatient to fix more things faster.

“Operational excellence should have become a way of life,” she told analysts, but instead, H.P. is hampered by poor internal communications and management systems.

“I’ve learned at H.P. that you do not get what you expect, you get what you inspect,” she said.

Investors may also have been troubled by some of Ms. Whitman’s strategy. She intends to shrink the number of products H.P. makes, and to move out of businesses that are in decline.

For example, she said the company made more than 2,100 varieties of laser printers, causing excess costs in everything from parts to packaging requirements.

Printer cartridges were once responsible for over 90 percent of H.P.’s profits, but they face increasing competition from lower-price suppliers. Consumers are also using their printers less because many of the things they used to print routinely, like maps and boarding passes, are on smartphones.

H.P. is reversing its printer strategy in the developing world by selling cheaper cartridges and more expensive printers. In developed economies like the United States, it wants to move to a subscription model in which business customers pay an annual fee, and their Internet-connected printers get new cartridges when the system detects they are low on ink.

Investors could be skittish about plans like these, simply because they are not yet proved. Indeed, H.P. shares fell further as Ms. Whitman’s lieutenants laid out the new strategies.

In other areas, there are questions about whether H.P.’s new products can replace, or even surpass, the revenue lost from declining businesses. Cloud computing systems, which consist of thousands of servers sold as a unit, are meant for an increasingly important market. Cloud computing is more efficient than existing systems, however, which means it is likely to lower the overall demand for large numbers of servers.

For all the difficulties she identified, Ms. Whitman may have actually cloaked other long-term problems. The new company she foresees, which she projected would exist by 2016 or so, would probably increase revenue no faster than the overall growth of the global economy. Profit margins would improve from better management, but not necessarily from technological innovations.

The new H.P. would most likely employ fewer workers, as well. Ms. Whitman has already announced a total of 29,000 layoffs. The company had 349,600 employees at the end of last October. She said future profitability would depend in part on more automation, indicating even more job cuts.

While Ms. Whitman said H.P. must focus more closely on its top 14 markets and its main  competitors, a continued low stock price may present other worries. The tech industry is facing a transition from traditional PCs and servers to mobile devices and cloud computing, and is consolidating. H.P. could become a target either for corporate raiders or for another tech company in a hostile takeover.

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State of the Art

Newly Enlightened E-Readers

By DAVID POGUE

It must be great to be an architecture critic. You write about a building once, and your review remains basically fresh forever.

The Kindle Paperwhite from Amazon, in a cover.

The Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight.

When you’re a tech critic, though, the state of the art changes monthly, if not hourly. You toil over writing a masterpiece, and it winds up having the shelf life of milk.

It could be worse. Instead of writing about gadgets, you could be stuck with an even worse treadmill job: making them.

Pity, for example, the poor slobs at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, locked in an endless battle for e-reader supremacy. They play an annual game of leapfrog that would exhaust frogs.

“I see your new color tablet,” says Barnes & Noble’s Nook team, “and I raise you one higher-resolution screen!”

“Oh, yeah?” says Amazon’s Kindle team. “Well, you know the Nook with a self-illuminated screen that you introduced in April? We have one with a better backlight. Take that!”

That’s a real example. There are two kinds of e-book gadgets. There are those with E Ink screens (cheap, light, thin, no color, long battery life, great to read in bright sunlight, useless in the dark). And there are those with color screens (heavier, thicker, pricier, great to read in low light, tough to read in sunlight).

People who opt for E Ink rave about the “printed” look of the black text on a light gray “page.” They can also be found spending $60 on a case that contains a tiny flip-up flashlight — or just carrying one around on a keychain — so that they can read in bed or in other darkish situations. E Ink is so much like paper, it doesn’t light up on its own.

In April, Barnes & Noble changed the game: it offered an E Ink e-reader whose background lights up with a soft glow, like a digital watch. With the introduction of that model — the efficiently named Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight — the company hacked off one enormous item on the list of E Ink drawbacks. Not only is reading in bed practical, it’s actually superior to reading an actual book, since the gentle glowing screen is nowhere near bright enough to keep a sleeping partner awake.

Your move, Kindle.

Amazon’s response to the B&NNSTGL (now $120) is the new Kindle Paperwhite (same price). The headline here is that the Paperwhite’s lighting is better than the Nook’s.

At top brightness, it’s much brighter. More usefully, its lighting is far more even than the Nook’s, whose edge-mounted lamps can create subtle “hot spots” at the top and bottom of the page, sometimes spilling out from there. How much unevenness depends on how high you’ve turned up the light. But in the hot spots, the black letters of the text show less contrast.

The Kindle Paperwhite has hot spots, too, but only at the bottom edge, where the four low-power LED bulbs sit. (Amazon says that from there, the light is pumped out across the screen through a flattened fiber optic cable.) In the middle of the page, where the text is, the lighting is perfectly even: no low-contrast text areas.

The Kindle’s screen also packs in 212 tiny dots an inch, compared with the Nook’s 167, for visibly sharper text.

Both models have touch screens, which is a real joy; you can tap lightly to turn the page or bring up a panel that controls type size, font choice, margins and line spacing. But on the Kindle’s screen, you can use two fingers. That’s primarily useful when you want to adjust the type size (most of us will, in fact, be over 40 at some point); you can just spread two fingers apart, as on an iPad, without having to open some settings screen.

When viewed side-by-side with the Nook GlowLight, the Paperwhite is much more comfortable to read. You could argue that that’s an important factor in a reading tablet.

The Kindle Paperwhite and Nook are about the same height (4.6 inches), but the Kindle is 0.4 inch narrower and slightly thinner. Thin is great — you can cradle the entire thing in one hand; on the other hand, the Nook’s soft-touch back panel has a gentle sculptured ridge that makes one-handed holding comfortable and secure.

All right, the Paperwhite has superior lighting and sharpness. The Nook, however, has some persuasive counterarguments of its own — starting with the value.

Both readers may seem to cost $120, but for that money, Barnes & Noble includes a wall charger. (The Kindle charges only from the USB jack on a computer, unless you spring $10 more for the charger.)

The Kindle displays ads. They appear on the screen saver and across the bottom of the Home screen.

Now, those ads — commonplace in the Kindle line — are a brazen move by Amazon. You might think that it’s obnoxious for Amazon to advertise on a gadget you own. You’d think that your personal property would be exempt from commercial intrusions; it would be like finding ads on your car’s dashboard or your phone’s Home screen.

In practice, however, most Kindlers don’t seem to mind. You can pay $20 extra to have them removed, but few people bother. The ads are fairly subtle, they appear only in places where you don’t spend much time, and $20 is $20.

Still, the Nook never puts ads on your screen.

The Nook has a half-ounce weight advantage, which is important in a gadget that you hold all the time. It also has physical, clicking page-turn buttons on each side of the screen, which accounts for its extra width.

The Nook also has a memory-card slot for more storage. The Kindle offers two gigabytes of storage, which the company says is enough for more than 1,000 books, so running out of room isn’t a knuckle-biting concern. Besides, you get unlimited storage on Amazon.com for anything you’ve bought from its e-book store; you can re-download any book when you need it. (Especially if you’ve sprung an extra $60 for the cellular version, which gets you online wherever you are — no charge.)

But if you’re a candidate for the next mission to Alpha Centauri, it’s good to know that the Nook is ready for a bigger library.

You can turn off the backlighting on the Nook, too. On the Kindle, it’s on all the time. You can turn it way down low, but not off. Amazon’s rationale is that the light imposes no battery-life penalty, so why not simplify life and have it on all the time? Even with the light on, the Kindle lasts eight weeks of reading 30 minutes a day (with Wi-Fi off); that’s twice as long as the Nook with the same settings.

You have a dizzying number of options in e-readers these days. You can go with an iPad ($500 and up, gorgeous, big, heavy, almost as useful as a laptop). You could get a $200 color touch-screen reader (Kindle HD, Google’s Nexus 7 or the coming Nook HD), which offers great reading and movie viewing, and a few apps.

But if what you mostly want to do is read, a self-illuminating E Ink reader still sits at the sweetest spot on the price-weight-size-beach-bedroom matrix.

Both of these light-up readers are backed by e-bookstores that would raise the Library of Congress’s eyebrows. Both are oozing with features — annotations, dictionary definitions and so on.

The glowy Nook has more hardware features and a better price. But if you’re choosing an E Ink reader over the color models, it’s because what you intend to do mostly is stare at that screen, lost in your reading. In that case, the display of the page is more important than any other factor, and that’s where the Kindle Paperwhite shines.

E-mail: pogue@nytimes.com

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/technology/personaltech/kindles-paperwhite-e-reader-lets-there-be-more-light-review.html?pagewanted=all

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Scardino, Chief of Pearson, to Step Down

By AMY CHOZICK

Marjorie Scardino, the chief executive of the global educational and media conglomerate Pearson and one of Britain’s highest-ranking female executives, will step down after nearly 16 years, the company said Wednesday.

Marjorie Scardino, the chief executive at Pearson, and her successor, John Fallon.

John Fallon, currently chief executive of Pearson’s international education division, was expected to take over the company, which owns The Financial Times, the book publisher Penguin Group and half of The Economist magazine.

The transition, expected to take place in January, raises questions about the future of Pearson’s flagship newspaper, known as The FT. Analysts have speculated that Pearson would sell the FT Group, which includes the rose-colored business daily and its various digital assets. Potential buyers include Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg, both of which employ hundreds of financial journalists but do not own a daily newspaper.

“I think it increases the chance that in the medium term they dispose of The FT,” said Ian Whittaker, a media analyst at Liberum Capital in London. He said the company could look for other ways to slim down as its core education business faces challenges, particularly in the tough North American market.

A longtime player in printed educational products, Pearson has had to adapt to the digital era and a range of deep-pocketed competitors like Discovery Communications, the Walt Disney Company and Apple. At the same time, public schools in the United States face budget cutbacks.

“Penguin is in question, too, but there are more synergies between that and the education division than The FT,” Mr. Whittaker said.

In an interview, Mr. Fallon said The FT was a “valued and valuable” asset that fit into Pearson’s education business. He noted a popular English-language program in China aimed at executives that used The FT’s business and markets coverage into lesson plans. The company says The FT has more than two million readers worldwide, including the print paper and its online, mobile and tablet services.

“If you look at the portfolio of Pearson, it’s constantly changing and evolving and we never ever said what we’re going to do or not going to do,” Mr. Fallon said. “We never rule out anything.”

Mr. Fallon, 50, does not have a traditional publishing background but does understand the company’s fast-growing education business. He spent the last several years leading Pearson in its expansion into international markets, which represent a significant area of growth. Before taking over the international education division in 2008, Mr. Fallon headed operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

His appointment signals the company’s global ambitions, particularly in emerging markets like China, Brazil, India and sub-Saharan Africa. “What you see is a rapidly growing middle class that is very conscious of the importance and value of education,” Mr. Fallon said.

Ms. Scardino, 65, was born in Arizona and previously served as chief executive of The Economist Group. She took over Pearson in 1997 and led a period of aggressive acquisitions, including the $2.4 billion purchase of National Computer Systems, a company that provides school administrators and teachers with data management for educational exams, and the $4.6 billion purchase of Simon & Schuster’s educational, professional and reference book publishing business from Viacom.

Even as newspapers faced a downturn in advertising revenue, Ms. Scardino stood by The FT. When questioned about its future, Ms. Scardino once said Pearson would sell the newspaper “over my dead body.”

Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg have denied that they are interested in acquiring the FT Group. But strategically, analysts said such an acquisition would make sense for either company because each relies on computer terminals that dispense financial news to a small but lucrative subscription audience mostly in the financial sector. That business has softened in recent years as Wall Street and hedge funds cut back.

The company said Ms. Scardino had for months planned to retire after leading the company for nearly 16 years.

Analysts said the timing corresponded to the challenges facing Pearson’s core education business and that Ms. Scardino, who oversaw the 168-year-old company through a period of great growth wanted to go out on a high note, while board members wanted a leader who could emphasize digital and emerging market expansion.

“For more than 160 years, Pearson has stood for integrity, quality and business strength. It has been a privilege to be part of such a great company for a small part of its history,” Ms. Scardino said in a statement.

Glen R. Moreno, the chairman of Pearson, said Ms. Scardino had “navigated two recessions, one financial crisis, a dot-com boom and bust and several waves of structural industry change.”

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/business/media/scardino-ceo-of-pearson-to-step-down.html?pagewanted=all

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Japan’s New Tech Generation

Kosuke Okahara for The New York Times

At a “start-up dating salon” in Tokyo, Shingo Hiranuma, a former Toshiba engineer, presented his Sanpo map application.

By HIROKO TABUCHI

TOKYO — Every Wednesday, a bar in central Tokyo hosts an unusual speed-dating event. There are drinks and plenty of coy looks. But the young people at the bar aren’t here for romance.

Hiro Maeda, who worked on start-ups in the United States, created Open Network Lab in Tokyo.

“I want to meet like-minded people — basically, people who get the Internet,” said Shingo Hiranuma, 29, a former smartphone engineer at Toshiba who recently introduced a new map application, Sanpo. “And I won’t settle for just anyone.”

As Japan’s aging tech giants like Sony and Panasonic continue to falter, a new generation of Japanese technology entrepreneurs is stepping up. While their numbers are small compared to those in the United States, they are turning to a bevy of start-up incubators and even to financing from Silicon Valley. And so-called start-up dating salons, like the bar in central Tokyo, are helping to match would-be collaborators.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty in Japan right now, and that’s actually made younger Japanese more willing to take risks and try out new ideas,” said Hiro Maeda, 26.

Mr. Maeda went to college at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and worked on several start-ups in the United States before returning to Japan to create Open Network Lab, a Tokyo-based incubator.

Open Network Lab has financed five rounds of start-ups since its start in 2010. Mr. Maeda said it received close to 100 applications during its latest round this year — more than twice the number from the previous year. The lab provides early funds, office space and mentoring.

Japan badly needs an infusion of entrepreneurial blood. With its economy sluggish and its population graying, the country slipped to No. 25 in the most recent ranking of global innovation by the United Nations, falling out of the top 20 for the first time since the survey began in 2007.

And it has become increasingly clear that the country’s big electronics firms cannot be counted on to drive innovation. Japan’s top tech giants in products from televisions to smartphones, their competitiveness sapped by a strong yen, are racking up huge losses and being overtaken by nimbler, cheaper overseas rivals.

More than ever, many innovations seem incremental or just plain odd. A $4,500 “networked” washing machine released by Panasonic in August that can be operated remotely via smartphone was greeted with derision in the Japanese blogosphere. “Has Panasonic lost its way?” one blogger asked.

Still, Japan’s tech entrepreneurs have much to overcome if they hope to succeed where the mainline giants have not.

Japanese society continues to venerate lifetime company loyalty, while penalizing risk-taking and failure. The government has created a cumbersome web of regulations that hampers new entrants. And risk-taking is absent not just among would-be entrepreneurs, but also among investors, who still favor propping up old companies rather than fostering new ones.

“Whether you’re talking about driving innovation or creating new jobs, it’s clear that Japan needs to try something new,” said Taizo Son, who helped start Yahoo Japan with his brother, Masayoshi Son, in 1996, and now runs the venture capital fund Movida Japan. “But the odds are still stacked against people who dare to try.”

According to the Tokyo-based Venture Enterprise Center, the value of investments by its 50 or so venture capital fund members increased to 24.6 billion yen ($316 million) in 2011, 35 percent higher than the previous year. But that was a small fraction of the $12.6 billion in venture funding raised by Silicon Valley companies that year, according to Ernst & Young.

The proportion of the working population involved in entrepreneurship in Japan — as measured by a start-up portal, InternationalEntrepreneurship.com — stood at 3.3 percent in 2010, one of the lowest rates in the industrialized world. In the United States, the equivalent number was 7.6 percent.

Satoshi Sugie, Junpei Naito, Muneaki Fukuoka and Hiroshi Kurita are among those who are trying. All left comfortable jobs — at Nissan, Sony, Olympus and Japan’s largest advertising agency, Dentsu — to work on Whill, a device that clamps onto wheelchairs to turn them into electric vehicles.

It is a big bet for the founders. Because they were unable to secure large investors, the 6 million yen put toward developing a prototype came from their savings. After it was invited to display the prototype at the Tokyo Motor Show last year, the start-up has been inundated with inquiries from Japan, Europe and the United States, the company says. The start-up is preparing to announce a brand-new model next week.

“At Whill, we move at such a different speed from Sony,” said Mr. Naito, who came up with the idea for Whill before leaving his job this year as a Sony product engineer. “We move things along much faster, and I enjoy that.”

Makoto Fukuyama, 27, and Kota Uemura, 25, ex-Google employees who started Social Lunch in October, have also seen interest surge among users.

Social Lunch’s Facebook-based app helps young professionals set up casual business lunches to expand their social networks. The start-up now has 60,000 users and is adding 10,000 more a month. It won 32 million yen of seed money this year from a new start-up fund started by KDDI, Japan’s second-largest telecommunications firm, but has found that few investors in Japan are willing to offer larger amounts.

Part of the problem is that there is still no real track record of start-up buyouts in Japan, which means the only way that tech entrepreneurs can cash out of an investment is through an initial public offering — a lofty goal for most companies. (Eleven technology companies managed an initial public offering last year.)

Because Japanese investors do not have high expectations of a successful exit, they invest far less than their Silicon Valley counterparts, which leads to fewer companies succeeding, a vicious cycle that damps entrepreneurship.

“Seed funding has grown in Japan, but you’re talking about very small amounts,” Mr. Fukuyama said. “Entrepreneurs are still seen as drifters with nothing better to do.”

But the growing trickle of older, more experienced Japanese who are leaving their jobs to start their own companies is helping to galvanize the local start-up scene, said Taku Harada. Mr. Harada runs PeaTiX, an event management start-up that lets users set up event invitations and ticketing.

Mr. Harada, who worked at Sony, Apple and Amazon before founding PeaTiX in 2009, says it has become easier for him to lure talent away from big companies; the average age at his 20-person start-up is well over 30, and all hires have extensive experience in the tech sector.

“More success stories might inspire more people at senior positions at corporations to make the jump,” Mr. Harada said. Still, many potential recruits tell him that the blow to their reputations if they fail is too large in Japan.

“If you fail, you don’t get many chances after that,” Mr. Harada said.

The constraints of Japan’s local start-up scene drove Gengo, a Web-based translation start-up, to look for investors and talent beyond Japan’s shores. Robert Laing, 33, Gengo’s founder and chief executive, had the idea of setting up a platform that instantly links clients looking for translations with a network of freelance translators worldwide.

But Gengo struggled to take off. Mr. Laing, a British citizen, paid himself nothing for a year, living off his savings. His business partner, Matthew Romaine, who is part Japanese, slept on the floor of his parents’ apartment in Tokyo. Landlords would not lease them office space without years’ worth of company statements.

Their break came in early 2010 when an American angel investor, Dave McClure, gave them seed funding and connected them with other investors outside Japan. Gengo’s main investor is now Atomico, based in London, and a handful of non-Japanese investors.

Even as Gengo won investors and clients, it struggled to find people willing to join its team. It turned to Craigslist, word-of-mouth and recruiters to assemble what Mr. Laing calls a motley international crew, now 30 strong and growing. Only in the last year did Gengo make big hires in Japan; among those it brought in were Hiroto Tokusei, a former senior product manager at Google.

“We ended up with foreigners because they seemed to be the only ones willing to join some crazy start-up,” he said. “And because there are so few start-ups in Tokyo, we had nobody to discuss things with, to ask whether we’re on the right track.”

The weekly start-up dating salons, like the bar Nomad New’s Base here in central Tokyo, seek to fill such a need. As the drinks flowed, Mr. Hiranuma, the former Toshiba engineer, moved around the room on a recent Wednesday with his MacBook Air, pitching his Sanpo app.

Sanpo, which means stroll in Japanese, lets users plan routes to destinations, as Google Maps does — except the app suggests detours to popular shops, restaurants and other spots along the way.

“It helps people take fun detours, and try something new,” Mr. Hiranuma said. “I believe in trying new things.”

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Multinational Crackdown on Computer Con Artists

By EDWARD WYATT

WASHINGTON — Consumer frauds often make claims that are too good to be true. But a recent one, cited by regulators around the world Wednesday, depended on a pitch that many people found completely believable — that Microsoft or another computer company knows what is on your personal computer.

The Federal Trade Commission announced a multinational crackdown on so-called tech support scams, in which a caller fools a consumer into believing Microsoft or a computer security company has discovered that a PC is infected with harmful software. The caller then offers to fix the computer on the spot for a price. The target would sometimes let the ostensible tech support company gain remote access to his computer, allowing the company to download software to it.

In six cases filed in federal district court in Manhattan, the commission named 17 individuals and 14 companies, most in India, as participants in the operations, including many with legitimate-sounding names like Virtual PC Solutions and Zeal IT Solutions.

At the commission’s request, a federal district judge in Manhattan froze the United States assets of the suspects. The commission also said it had shut down 80 Internet domain names and 130 phone numbers in the United States used in the scheme. Efforts to reach several of the companies and individuals were unsuccessful.

Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the trade commission, said at a news conference that the scheme involved getting a computer user to look at a program that is a standard part of the Windows operating system.

That program, known as “Event Viewer,” displays logs of operating-system events, which can sometimes carry the benign label “Warning” or “Error.”

The caller would then warn that those files indicated viruses that could crash the computer or, in at least one case studied by the F.T.C., that the computer could explode.

“Clearly the defendant’s M.O. was to exploit these fears about malware hiding in the machine,” Mr. Leibowitz said. “These scams fleeced English-speaking consumers worldwide likely to the tune of tens of millions of dollars and resulted in innumerable Do Not Call violations in the United States.”

Officials said they were unable to pinpoint the number or dollar-amount of violations because many of the victims might not yet be aware they were taken.

But Microsoft later provided data on its contacts with 1,045 people who had told the company they believed they had been contacted by a fake tech support caller. More than 400 of those either fell victim to such operations, with losses averaging $875, or had to pay an average of $1,700 to repair damage to their computer.

The suspected fraud occurred in several English-speaking countries. Joining the F.T.C. in the enforcement action were the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission and Britain’s Serious Organized Crime Agency.

David Vladeck, director of the F.T.C.’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said the commission was working with law enforcement officials in India to catch the perpetrators. The commission has also referred the cases to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution.

The scheme relied on boiler-room cold calls or ads connected to Google searches that offered the phone numbers for phony tech support services for a specific computer brand.

The callers, who usually asserted that they represented technology companies like Microsoft and Dell and security companies like Symantec and McAfee, would try either to sell virus-protection software or to get the consumer to allow remote access to his computer so that the caller could then “fix” it, for fees of $45 to $450.

Frank Torres, director of consumer affairs at Microsoft, who also spoke at the news conference, said the company “will never cold call a consumer and ask for their credit card information to charge them for a service that they don’t need.”

A consumer who gets a call like this, he added, should go to the site of a trusted computer-security resource to determine whether any threat is present.

In an interview, Mr. Torres said it was understandable that a consumer might believe that Microsoft could monitor the computers of Windows users.

Microsoft does have a lot of information about what is on many consumers’ computers. Most Windows users have probably seen a message asking if they want to send information about a program error to Microsoft.

And depending on a user’s security setting, Microsoft often sends patches and updates to its programs for consumers to download and install.

Microsoft collects that information because “part of our role is to do everything we can to protect consumers,” Mr. Torres said. Several units at Microsoft, including a digital crimes division, monitor messages from consumers about potentially illicit software or events.

The latest scheme is not entirely new; this week the commission ended a four-year investigation and enforcement action against a similar operation in which more than one million consumers were conned into buying software that supposedly remove malicious files. Last month, a federal district court in Maryland imposed a $163 million judgment against one of the defendants.

“Commerce is global, which is great for consumers, but it’s a double-edged sword,” Mr. Leibowitz said. “It allows scammers to go where the money is, where it’s made most easily and to engage in global scams.”

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Advertising

From Hamsters to Wizards, Weirdness That Succeeded

By TANZINA VEGA and STUART ELLIOTT

THE advertising business is like a proverbial three-legged stool, supported by agencies, the media and marketers. (Where are the consumers? Perhaps being milked by whoever sits on the stool.)

Kia’s popular music-loving hamsters.

An ad for Axe told a story of lost love as narrated by the actor Kiefer Sutherland.

So it is not surprising that Madison Avenue is sharing the spotlight with marketers and media executives during Advertising Week 2012, which began in New York on Monday and continues through Friday. Indeed, some of the most popular sessions have been those featuring decision-makers from marketing and media companies.

For instance, a panel discussion on Wednesday, composed of marketing executives for three brands with large ad budgets — Axe, Kia and Pepsi Max — was standing room only. The attendance may have also been stimulated by the title, which, cleaned up, was something like “How the Heck Did They Sell That?”

The “sell” referred not to how agencies create ads to sell brands to consumers, but how marketing executives sell agencies’ offbeat — and sometimes off-putting — ad ideas to their bosses.

The moderator, Jason Harris, president and chief executive at Mekanism, gave as an example a commercial with a wacky wizard that his agency created for Method laundry detergent. The company approved the spot because “the cost-to-weirdness ratio” was low, he said.

In the case of Axe, the Unilever line of personal-care products for younger men, the success of a rival, Old Spice, sold by Procter & Gamble, led to a willingness to consider alternative approaches.

“A certain man appeared on a horse,” said Joshua Dean, senior brand manager for Axe, referring to “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” the oddball campaign for Old Spice, “and it made us think.”

•

The result was a “very, very different” campaign for Axe, Mr. Dean said, which took a softer, more sophisticated tack by presenting the actor Kiefer Sutherland reminiscing about a lost love and suggesting how Axe might have helped write a happier ending. The Axe creative agency is the New York office of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, part of the Publicis Groupe.

“Sometimes with the work, especially if it’s different, the agency needs to shake the client a bit and say, ‘You need to do this,’ ” Mr. Dean said. And sometimes, he acknowledged, the work fails, but “if you never had a flop, you’re not trying hard enough; it’s what you can learn from it — as long as it doesn’t happen too many times.”

Michael Sprague, executive vice president for marketing and communications at Kia Motors America, discussed a successful campaign for the Kia Soul, created by the David & Goliath agency, using characters that are, improbably enough, hip, music-loving hamsters.

Kia was aiming the Soul at millennial consumers who “thought I was selling Swedish furniture, who thought I was Ikea,” Mr. Sprague said. “What the hell do we have to lose?” The agency’s ability to home in on those car buyers and understand their tastes in music, gaming and pop culture helped him sell the campaign, he added.

Still, Mr. Sprague offered a remark that drew some startled laughter from the audience. “Our agency does best when they’re put under an incredible deadline pressure,” he said. “Great ideas bubble up under stress.”

At a panel about the uses of so-called big data in advertising, Scott Howe, president and chief executive at Acxiom, a marketing technology and services company, predicted that in the next five years advertisers will have to “stop thinking about media procurement and start thinking about data procurement.”

For Tim Cadogan, chief executive of OpenX, an ad technology company that uses data to serve digital ads, a potential area of concentration will be “improving the interaction of advertising and content,” or what is known as native advertising.

Marketers that interrupt consumers before they complete a task like reading an article online are sending messages at the wrong time, Mr. Cadogan said. Once a user completes the task “is the perfect time” to deliver messages they will be receptive to, he added.

•

John Battelle, executive chairman at Federated Media, described some brands as struggling to shift from traditional ad forms like commercials to having conversations with consumers on social media platforms.

“Brands don’t have confident voices in real time,” Mr. Battelle said. “When you see campaigns that appear ham-handed, it’s probably because they were written by committee and cleared through legal.”

Marketers are the target audience for a new initiative from Twitter, called sponsored surveys. Twitter executives briefed reporters on the introduction at an event on Wednesday. Sponsored surveys will enable marketers to ask Twitter users a handful of multiple-choice questions, like “Which brands do you associate with Fashion Week?” The surveys will appear as part of the promoted Twitter posts that users see in their newsfeeds, whether they are on computers or mobile devices.

Adam Bain, chief revenue officer at Twitter, said that survey marketing in the digital landscape, particularly on mobile devices, had “become a bigger pain point for marketing.”

The surveys will seek to take the place of interruptive surveys like the ones seen in pop-up screens when visiting certain Web sites, an experience that Mr. Bain described as “really disjointed” for users.

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Drug Shows Promise in Treating a Type of Muscular Dystrophy in Boys

By ANDREW POLLACK

An experimental drug preserved and even improved the walking ability of boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in a clinical trial, raising hopes that the first effective treatment for the disease may be on the horizon.

Jenn McNary and her sons. Max Leclaire, 10, right, was in the drug trial, but Austin, 13, was not.

Boys with the disease who received the highest dose of the drug had a slightly improved ability to walk after 48 weeks of treatment, the drug’s developer, Sarepta Therapeutics, announced Wednesday. By contrast, the boys who received a placebo suffered a sharp decline in how well they could walk.

The drug, called eteplirsen, also appeared to restore levels of the crucial protein that muscular dystrophy patients lack to about half of normal levels, Sarepta said.

“I think this changes the entire playing field for muscular dystrophy,” said Dr. Jerry R. Mendell, director of the gene therapy and muscular dystrophy programs at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and the lead investigator in the trial.

There are many caveats. The trial had only 12 patients, with only four receiving the high dose and four the placebo, and the data has not been reviewed by experts. It is also unclear how long the effects of the drug would last or if safety issues would arise with longer treatment.

Also, eteplirsen would be appropriate for only about 13 percent to 15 percent of Duchenne patients, those with the particular genetic mutation the drug is meant to counteract. However, a similar approach might work for some other mutations.

Duchenne, which affects as many as 15,000 Americans, mainly boys and young men, is the most severe common form of muscular dystrophy, a disease made more prominent by years of Jerry Lewis telethons. Those with the disease make barely any dystrophin, a protein necessary for muscles to function. Patients typically lose the ability to walk as teenagers and die by age 30.

While steroids, which reduce inflammation, can slow progression of the disease, they have undesirable side effects. Eteplirsen, which Sarepta says has shown no side effects so far, is vying with a similar drug being developed by GlaxoSmithKline to become the first medicine that works by directly countering the cause of the disease.

Eteplirsen could also be the first drug to reach the market for Sarepta since it was founded 32 years ago. It changed its name recently from AVI BioPharma to distance itself from its underachieving past.

Shares of Sarepta nearly tripled on Wednesday, closing at $44.93. And the stock had already roughly quadrupled since July, when Sarepta announced some interim results from the study.

The study measured how far the boys could walk in six minutes. Those who received the higher dose walked an average of 21 meters farther after 48 weeks of treatment than at the beginning of the trial, a gain of about 5 percent. The boys in the placebo group walked 68 fewer meters at the end than at the beginning, a decline of about 17 percent.

One possible reason for skepticism is that two of the boys on a lower dose of the drug rapidly lost the ability to walk, even though the level of dystrophin in their muscles increased substantially.

While the company excluded those boys from its analysis as outliers, the Food and Drug Administration might not do so. That could make it harder for the Sarepta to win approval for the drug based only on this small trial, something the company hopes to do.

“If you wait and require this company to do another two-year study, a lot of these boys are going to be in a wheelchair,” Christopher Garabedian, the Sarepta chief executive, said in an interview.

Patient groups may also put some pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to approve the drug quickly. But some also want Sarepta to make the drug available to more patients on a compassionate basis even before approval.

Ten-year-old Max Leclaire of Saxtons River, Vt., who has been receiving the highest dose in the trial, can now walk up stairs without having to pull himself up by the handrail, according to his mother, Jenn McNary. “He’s no longer riding the handicap bus to school,” she said.

But Ms. McNary said Sarepta had refused to provide the drug to Max’s 13-year-old brother, Austin, who could not be in the trial because he already could not walk.

Mr. Garabedian said Sarepta did not have the money or the manufacturing capacity to make the drug available outside of clinical trials. “That would be the quickest path to insolvency,” he said.

If eteplirsen gets to market, it would come nearly three decades after the 1986 discovery of the gene responsible for Duchenne. It would also represent a success, after decades of setbacks, for the technology eteplirsen uses, called antisense, which is a way of turning off specific genes.

Eteplirsen actually turns off just one part of the dystrophin gene, known as exon 51, which contains a mutation that in some patients stops production of dystrophin. By skipping over this exon, muscle cells can produce an imperfect form of dystrophin that nonetheless is at least partly functional.

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At Venture Capital Firm, Arguments About Whether a Partner Is Still Employed

By NICOLE PERLROTH

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Ellen Pao, who filed a sexual discrimination suit against the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, says she has been fired as a partner.

Updates throughout.

SAN FRANCISCO — In a sexual discrimination suit involving one of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital firms and one of its investment partners, the two sides cannot agree on anything — including whether she has been fired.

Ellen Pao, the junior investment partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers who is suing the firm for discrimination and retaliation, said late Tuesday that the firm had fired her. Kleiner Perkins rejected that claim and said Ms. Pao remained an employee.

It was the latest twist in a lawsuit that has gripped Silicon Valley since Ms. Pao filed her suit in May, claiming that she was sexually harassed by another investment partner there. When she complained to senior partners, her suit claims, they retaliated against her, cutting her out of investment decisions and profits and limiting her career advancement. Her suit claims that gender discrimination at Kleiner Perkins is rampant, with women partners routinely getting passed over for promotions and a greater share of the firm’s profits.

Kleiner Perkins has denied all of Ms. Pao’s claims. It has said that it chose not to promote her to senior partner because she was a poor performer, and that she did not complain about her treatment at the firm until shortly before filing suit. The firm has also pointed out that nearly a quarter of its investment partners are women. That gender ratio is notable relative to other Silicon Valley venture firms, where full-time female investment partners are few.

As her discrimination suit winds its way through the courts, Ms. Pao has continued to work at Kleiner Perkins, which legal experts say is uncommon. Typically in work-related discrimination suits — especially cases with underlying sexual harassment claims — plaintiffs file suit after they have been fired or claim they were forced to quit because of a hostile work environment.

Ms. Pao wrote on Quora, a question-and-answer Web site, that earlier she had had no plans to leave the firm. “I have been terminated from my job at KPCB,” she wrote. “On Monday afternoon, senior management told me to clean out my office, leave, and not come back.”

Ms. Pao’s lawyer, Alan Exelrod of Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe, said that Ms. Pao “was cut off from access to company documents and told to transition off her corporate boards within 30 days.” Mr. Exelrod said, however, that the firm did not cut off her pay.

“Our view is that this is retaliatory for making the claims and filing the lawsuit,” Mr. Exelrod said. “Also, that it is because she is of her gender. We intend to add this claim to the lawsuit.”

Kleiner Perkins characterized Ms. Pao’s post as “misleading” and said she remained an employee. The firm said it had approached her about a six- to 12-month “transition” plan to ease her departure from Kleiner Perkins, not because of the lawsuit, but because of longstanding performance issues. The plan involved keeping her on the firm’s payroll and helping her find a new job.

“Ellen and her lawyer are painting a false picture of what happened,” said Lynne Hermle, outside counsel for Kleiner Perkins. “No one ever told Ellen to clean up her office, or any words in that regard.”

Ms. Hermle said that last July the firm set performance goals for Ms. Pao that she did not meet. “I have never seen the kind of offer the firm made here,” Ms. Hermle said. “The firm has given her an extraordinary opportunity to keep suing them, while helping her transition to a new job.”

Legal experts said the question of whether Ms. Pao was fired would factor prominently into her case. “If she can persuade a judge or jury that she was fired in retaliation for filing a claim, or the underlying sexual harassment claim, then this will help her case,” said Alison D. Morantz, a professor at Stanford Law School. “But if the firm can prove she was dismissed for totally unrelated reasons, such as poor performance, it may not factor in — well, assuming she was discharged.”

Ms. Pao has not granted interviews since filing her suit, opting instead to address the public via Quora. In response to a post on the site in June asking whether she planned to quit, Ms. Pao said she would stay.

Ms. Pao sits on the board of three Kleiner Perkins portfolio companies: Flipboard, Lehigh Technologies and Datameer. Those board seats are reserved for the firm, and Kleiner Perkins said that, as of Tuesday, it had still been working with Ms. Pao to find the appropriate people to replace her.

Representatives for all three companies said they could not comment on Ms. Pao’s status on their respective boards.

Kleiner Perkins is still appealing a ruling by a San Francisco judge last July that declined the firm’s request that Ms. Pao’s case be sent to arbitration. That ruling all but guaranteed an embarrassing public trial or costly settlement.

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Euro Watch

Survey Signals That Euro Zone Has Entered Recession

By JACK EWING

FRANKFURT — The euro zone was most likely in recession in the third quarter, a private sector survey showed Wednesday, a day before the European Central Bank’s governing council was to meet to discuss monetary policy.

An employee assembling a car at the PSA Peugeot Citroën plant in Poissy, France.

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Business activity and new orders in the 17-nation currency bloc declined in the three months through the end of September, according to a survey of purchasing managers by Markit Economics, a financial data provider. Markit said its composite index came in at 46.1 in September, down from 46.3 in August but an increase from its initial estimate of 45.9.

A reading below 50 suggests the economy is contracting; the index has been below that level for eight consecutive months. By country, Ireland was the only nation to have an increase in its composite index. German activity was largely unchanged, and French activity fell sharply.

Chris Williamson, Markit’s chief economist, said in a statement that it appeared “inevitable” that the euro zone had returned to recession in the third quarter after a 0.2 percent decline in gross domestic product in the second quarter. The commonly accepted definition of recession is two consecutive quarterly declines in G.D.P.

“There therefore seems little scope for a return to growth in the fourth quarter,” Mr. Williamson said. “The uncertainty is perhaps whether policy makers will be able to induce an improvement in business and consumer confidence to help ease the rate of decline, or whether the pace of downturn will accelerate further towards the end of the year.”

The central bank meeting on Thursday comes as Spain, which is battling to meet demands for fiscal consolidation during a devastating recession, is thought to be preparing to ask its European partners for a bailout. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Wednesday that no bailout request was imminent.

The president of Cyprus, another troubled euro zone economy, said Wednesday that he would not accept a bailout from the troika of international lenders that has already bailed out Greece, Portugal and Ireland, unless the terms of the aid package were improved.

President Demetris Christofias said he would never sign a bailout agreement that called for the sale of profitable state-owned companies or that required an end to inflation-linked pay increases, according to Reuters.

Both changes were part of a draft economic program Cyprus received in July from the troika — the European Commission, the central bank and the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Christofias said in an interview with the Greek state broadcaster NET that his government was preparing counterproposals.

After a period of intense activity to calm the euro zone crisis, the central bank is not expected to announce significant new policy actions Thursday after the meeting of its governing council in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana.

Last month, Mario Draghi, the president of the central bank, set out the terms for the central bank to begin buying bonds of countries like Spain to hold down their borrowing costs. One of the conditions was that countries must request help from the euro zone bailout fund. Until Spain takes that step, the central bank is not likely to buy Spanish bonds.

The bank is not expected to cut its benchmark interest rate, already at a record low of 0.75 percent. Mr. Draghi has expressed concern that the official rate is no longer having much effect on borrowing costs for businesses and consumers in troubled countries.

The rationale for bond purchases is that by lowering the cost of government borrowing, interest rates in the private sector would also fall. Market interest rates in euro zone countries tend to track the rates that their governments pay.

In addition, a rate cut now would leave the central bank with few policy options if the situation in the euro zone deteriorated further.

“While a rate cut could easily be justified by the economic outlook,” analysts at ING wrote in a note Wednesday, “we think that the E.C.B. is not yet willing to fire this very last shot.”

The Bank of England was also scheduled to announce an interest rate decision Thursday, though most analysts did not expect the central bank to announce new stimulus measures in light of recent data showing that the British economy was strengthening.

David Jolly contributed reporting from Paris.

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Legal/Regulatory | Mergers & Acquisitions

T-Mobile Deal for MetroPCS Increases Pressure on Sprint

By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED

Stephan Savoia/Associated Press

With MetroPCS out of play, Sprint will have few attractive takeover targets.

By clinching a deal to buy MetroPCS, T-Mobile USA is aiming not only to survive but also to turn up the pressure on its larger rival, Sprint Nextel.

The merger, formally announced on Wednesday, signals a renewed phase of jockeying among cellphone service providers as they race to draw in more smartphone users and upgrade to the latest high-speed data networks. And by taking one of the most attractive takeover targets, MetroPCS, off the table, T-Mobile may have strengthened its hand at the expense of Sprint.

The cellphone service industry is dominated by the virtual duopoly of Verizon Wireless and AT&T, which together claim 199 million customers, more than their next six competitors combined. That has left Sprint and T-Mobile to scramble, trying to undercut their big rivals on price even as they seek additional wireless spectrum that would support high-speed data networks.

The industry has long looked to consolidation to grow; last year, AT&T unsuccessfully sought to buy T-Mobile for $39 billion, hoping to gain size and spectrum. Growth via merger also underpinned Sprint’s aborted attempt to buy MetroPCS this year, a transaction scrapped at the 11th hour by Sprint’s reluctant board.

MetroPCS represents a potentially big lost opportunity for Sprint. The two companies use the same network technology (CDMA), which would have made for a relatively smooth integration of customers and devices. T-Mobile runs on GSM, so the company will have to convert MetroPCS’s 9.3 million customers to its technology over the next three years.

The newly enlarged T-Mobile will have about 42.5 million customers, compared with Sprint’s 56 million. But the merger could potentially give T-Mobile additional clout to demand popular devices like the iPhone, which it does not now carry. Adding MetroPCS will also help T-Mobile build out more quickly its Long Term Evolution network, the speedy data standard that powers the latest batch of smartphones.

T-Mobile executives argue that the unified operator can offer unlimited data and cheaper prepaid service plans to more customers.

“When you look at this as an industry, we are the alternative choice for consumers,” John J. Legere, the company’s chief executive, said in a telephone interview. “This can only be good for the industry to think about the competition and consumer.”

T-Mobile’s parent, Deutsche Telekom, and MetroPCS held on-and-off discussions about a merger for years, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak publicly about private discussions. But after Sprint’s board vetoed a takeover of the smaller service provider, T-Mobile and MetroPCS met early this summer to begin formal discussions about a deal.

Weeks of negotiations ensued, leading to a structure in which Deutsche Telekom would own 74 percent of the combined entity through a complicated stock swap. Existing MetroPCS shareholders will also receive $1.5 billion through a special dividend, worth about $4.09 a share.

And while antitrust officials fiercely opposed AT&T’s takeover of T-Mobile, people involved in the MetroPCS transaction argued that Wednesday’s deal was more likely to pass regulatory muster. Instead of fortifying one of the country’s biggest service providers, it will bolster one of its weaker ones.

A spokesman for Sprint declined to comment.

With T-Mobile claiming MetroPCS, Sprint is likely to find itself even harder pressed to build out its next-generation network and pitch itself as the dominant low-cost service provider. Sprint’s chief executive, Daniel R. Hesse, has said he expects to participate in mergers within the industry, but few attractive takeover targets remain.

Shares in Leap Wireless International, a smaller competitor often cited as a likely deal partner, plummeted nearly 18 percent on Wednesday, as investors shook off hopes that it would be acquired anytime soon. The company, a prepaid service provider, operates largely in less-attractive markets and is in the midst of a turnaround effort.

“I don’t think that Leap would provide all that much,” Charles S. Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research, said by telephone.

While some analysts have speculated about whether Sprint would try to outbid T-Mobile for MetroPCS, some industry deal makers were skeptical of the company’s will to revisit a target it had already left at the altar.

Sprint is still scarred by the merger that produced its current incarnation: its 2005 union with Nextel Communications, an example still used in business schools as a classic case of a bad deal.

The tie-up was marred by incompatible phone networks and infighting. As a result, Sprint slipped further behind Verizon and AT&T in market share.

Sprint may still pursue deals, especially as a way to add to its stores of spectrum, without resorting to full-on mergers. Analysts and deal specialists say one potential seller is Clearwire, which already helps provides a high-speed data network to Sprint.

Another is Dish Network, which has an abundance of spectrum but has been unable to set up its own mobile phone network. The company’s chairman, Charles W. Ergen, hinted at an industry conference that with T-Mobile out of the running as a potential partner, he would be open to others.

“Sometimes when one door closes, a window opens somewhere else,” he said, according to a report in The Denver Post.

Analysts have floated one more, bolder, possibility: buying the newly enlarged T-Mobile, creating a third major company to combat Verizon and AT&T. Industry bankers disagree on whether such a deal would be opposed by the Federal Communications Commission.

Brian X. Chen contributed reporting.

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App Smart

Map Apps to Bypass the Rivalry of Google and Apple

By KIT EATON

Years ago my family made an almost nonstop drive across five European countries, armed only with a thin ring-bound map book for navigation. The book got us to our destination a couple of days later, but it didn’t really help during a snowstorm in France or divert us around Madrid’s rush-hour traffic.

Navigon’s app is a lot like the experience you would get from a high-end dedicated GPS unit.

The icon buttons on the Waze app are clear and large, making them easy to press when you’re reaching for a phone mounted on your windshield or dashboard.

The Waze app.

We tossed that book in the recycling a while ago. Later our GPS unit went, too. Our smartphones now navigate us everywhere and can do many things those older items can’t.

But what to do now that Apple and Google are snarled in a maps rivalry? Google’s maps are no longer available as an app on the iPhone. And although Apple has its own maps app, it has been much maligned.

There are, though, other options — in some cases better ones. Apple’s new system may offer free turn-by-turn instructions, and Google’s Android maps app is pretty powerful. But neither is as good as a dedicated mapping and navigation app.

For a high-end navigation solution, my family relies on Navigon’s app after a lot of experimentation. It’s $40 for United States maps on iOS and Android. The app is a lot like the experience you would get from a high-end dedicated GPS unit.

Once you’ve downloaded your area’s maps data from the company’s servers, it works offline and offers the usual navigation routing and text-to-speech turn-by-turn instructions. It also advises on lane choice on the freeway and even shows you a representation of street signs. The app alerts you to speed limits and speed camera positions; there’s also an extensive list of “points of interest” like pharmacies, hotels, gas stations and so on. This means that you can navigate to a city you don’t know and find services that you’ll need while you’re staying there without needing mobile data.

The Navigon app has recently been improved for pedestrian navigation, so it can help you across parts of a city that cars can’t reach. It also uses this mode as part of its Last Mile system that helps you navigate back to where you parked your car. There is also a Public Transport mode, which helps you use alternative forms of transportation, though this and a couple of other extras are in-app purchases.

Basically this app does almost everything you need in a mapping app, and it’s all offline, apart from some of the features like the Public Transport mode and Google Street View images. That makes it great if you’re on a limited smartphone data package or you’re traveling overseas. Two minor complaints: It takes up a lot of memory space on the phone because all of its data is downloaded at the start, and sometimes its view of the road ahead can get cluttered with street names and other details. But the benefits outweigh these issues.

Another app I like is Waze (free on iOS and Android). It offers proper turn-by-turn navigation, its graphics are exceptionally clear and uncluttered, and you can even choose the color scheme it uses to represent roads. Its icon buttons are clear and large, making them easy to press when you’re reaching for a phone mounted on your windshield or dashboard. Apart from these benefits, it appeals to me because it’s a community-driven app. Its strength is that users can quickly and easily use its interface to report road incidents like police speed traps, traffic jams or accidents.

Waze’s community power may be ideal if you’re often on the road and need to plan ahead if there’s traffic. A few quick taps on the app’s icons warn you, for example, of any traffic problems in the area around you, or on the route you have planned. You can even chat with fellow users and add them as friends, turning navigation into a social game. If you use these social networking features, and trust the input from a particular group of Waze users that may share your commuter journey, then you can just check the road alerts those users are reporting.

There is also a points system, where you earn rewards by using Waze to navigate to destinations, report problems and so on. Waze’s weakness is that it needs plenty of users inputting data to deliver real-time alerts, and that might not be the case where you live. You also need a data connection to use some of its services, and that might be an obstacle if you’re on a limited-data contract.

Another map app that’s worth a try, if you’re looking for a solution on the iOS platform right now, is MotionX GPS Drive. It’s $1 to download, and there’s a yearly fee, currently $10. The app gets many stars on iTunes and its strengths include spoken turn-by-turn directions and traffic alerts.

Safe journeying!

Quick Calls

Netflix has overhauled its iPad app, adding a “Just for Kids” feature that allows users access only to child-friendly content — a feature it has had on its Web site for some time ...Amtrak has released an Android app that lets you plan a train and bus journey, check on train status and use an eTicket to travel.

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The RAZR M Is a Sharp Droid Phone

By ROY FURCHGOTT

Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press

The Droid Razr M

The iPhone has grabbed the spotlight so completely, you would think there were no other phones being produced.

But there are, and some good ones too. A case in point is the Motorola Droid RAZR M, a slightly downsized RAZR Maxx that has many of its big brother’s features, including some you won’t find on the iPhone.

At the top of that list is Google Maps, whose absence from the latest Apple operating system, iOS 6, is much lamented. You’ll still find it with turn-by-turn audible instructions on the RAZR M — as you would with other Android phones.

It comes with a YouTube app, which has also been banished from iOS 6.

And unlike the iPhone, the RAZR M has a micro-SD card slot, so memory can be added.

The phone even accommodates near-field communications. That means it has a super-short-distance radio that can be used for sharing data by bumping the phone with other NFC phones. It may let you make purchases with Google Wallet in the future, although that can’t be done right now.

The phone cleverly packs a vivid 4.3-inch Amoled screen into a handset just slightly larger — at 4.8 by 2.3 inches, by a third of an inch — and lightweight, at 4.4 ounces. The back is of matte Kevlar, which makes smudgy fingerprints surprisingly apparent; this phone is not for the fastidious.

The phone has all the other Google goodies as well: Gmail, calendar and contact integration. Call quality was good over the 4G LTE network.

The boards inside have a nanotechnology coating that makes them water resistant. You can safely use the phone in the rain, and while technically you could submerse without harm, Motorola advises against it.

The camera is eight megapixels with an LED flash.

The phone lacks the latest Android operating system. It has 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, not 4.1 Jelly Bean, but it is still a very capable phone.

While the talk time is good, at an estimated 12.5 hours, it is no match for big brother RAZR Maxx, with a 21.5-hour talk time.

The phone is available through Verizon at $100 with a two-year contract and after a rebate.

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Device Protection, Without the Armor Plating

By ROY FURCHGOTT

Phone and pad covers generally fall into two categories: highly protective with the delicate design of an M1 Abrams tank, or chic and generally useless.

Hard Candy has split the difference with its Bubble cases for iPhones 4 and 4s, iPads and Kindle Fire tablets.

All the cases in the line have a 1960s-looking pattern of polka dot indentations. Austin Powers might feel pretty groovy carrying one.

The iPhone version is hard plastic, available in an imitation metallic chrome, gold or glossy black, or a soft textured matte red, pink, black or white case. The bottom slides off for charging. The case is priced at $35.

The $40 Kindle case comes in black and white with rubberized protective edges.

But for protectiveness, both pale compared to the $60 Bubble 360 case for the iPad, which advertises itself as “bump proof, kid proof and even latte proof.” I’d say it’s more like resistant.

While it does have rubber edges, like the Kindle case, the Bubble 360 has very little padding inside, which makes me wonder how much of a bump it can really take. The screen is covered by a thin sheet of plastic, but if you splash it with a latte, don’t dawdle mopping it up. The screen on my test model didn’t seal all that securely.

Still, without adding much bulk, the case added more protection than the average fashion case, and it certainly looks more stylish than a tank.

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Furniture That Is Quirky but Functional

By ROY FURCHGOTT

Quirky, the design collective whose products are often true to its name, has melded milk crate shelving, Lego blocks and hipster design to create Crates, a modular shelving system with dorm rooms in mind.

The crates themselves are 14-inch plastic cubes with one open side and Swiss cheeselike holes in the others. Those holes serve a purpose, allowing you to put legs or casters on the crates and to use couplers to stack the crates into an elaborate piece of furniture. The holes also accommodate wiring, making these a natural for storing electronics.

The genius of the system is the array of accessories that let you customize the system. There are drawers, pegs for hangers, and cork and dry eraser boards that mount to the side. There is also a butcher block game board, a cable management system and a cushion that turns the crate into a seat.

The crates snap together in a Lego-like system. In a test, the fiberglass-reinforced polypropylene crates seemed sturdy and assembled easily. It was much less trouble than the average Ikea product. Sorry, Borgsjo. With a little ingenuity you can assemble a media center or computer desk.

The crates cost $20 apiece. The accessories range in price from for a book that hangs from the side, to $30 for the seat cushion.

The one real kink to ease of use was finding the crates. They are supposed to be at Target stores, OfficeMax and Staples. I went to several of these stores in my area and could find nary a crate. Office Max does sell them online, and Quirky said it would add them to its Web site

Although they were built with the dorm room in mind, I suspect they could capably suit more grown-up interiors, too.

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What if Web Users Could Sell Their Own Data?

By JESSICA BRUDER

Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

Avniel Dravid (left) and Marc Guldimann: “We see data as a currency.”

Start

The adventure of new ventures.

Two-thirds of Americans don’t want advertisers tracking them on the Internet, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California. But that hasn’t slowed the growth of online behavioral advertising, the industry that harvests data about Web habits and uses it to target individual consumers with ads.

For advertisers, “data exhaust” – the digital traces you generate while browsing the Web – has monetary value. Often, the information gets collected and sold behind the user’s back. But what if users could cash in on their own data?

Enter Enliken, a start-up that encourages consumers to sell their own data. Enliken’s users voluntarily download software that tracks their online activity. A personal dashboard lets them limit what gets captured and sold to advertisers. Users pick one of several independent charities to receive the proceeds, while Enliken takes a 10-percent cut. The company’s founders hope that, someday, users will be able to earn a wide range of perks – from airline miles to online news subscriptions – in exchange for their information.

Employees: Three full-time and five part-time.

Location: Brooklyn and Seattle

Co-Founders: Marc Guldimann and Avniel Dravid, both 33, lived on the same floor during their freshman year at Carnegie Mellon. Mr. Guldimann went on to co-found Spongecell, an online advertising developer that later raised more than $10 million from investors, including Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman. Mr. Dravid earned an M.B.A. and held jobs in software development and venture capital. The two remained friends and, last year, teamed up to start Enliken.

Pitch: “We see data as a currency. Why don’t we help the people who are creating the information monetize it?” Mr. Guldimann said. “Enliken enables people to control and use their own data. We capture the value created by its use. We think that letting individuals offer a competing product in the marketplace for consumer data is the most efficient and least destructive way to move the Internet to a privacy-friendly space.”

Traction: So far, Enliken has partnered with 10 nonprofit organizations, including Autism Speaks, an advocacy group, and Soles4Souls, a charity that donates shoes to people in need. These groups will reap most of the proceeds from users’ data sales. Enliken is also working with search retargeting firms, including Magnetic, that buy behavioral data and use it to place online ads. Enliken would not disclose how many users have signed up to be tracked so far.

Revenue: None yet. But Mr. Guldimann believes the data he gathers will be worth $1 a user a month.

Financing: Enliken raised $200,000 in seed funding this summer. The company is now seeking a second round of investment between $500,000 and $750,000.

Marketing: The co-founders have been courting new charities. If their system works, these nonprofit partners will do a large part of Enliken’s marketing, by bringing new users into the system and earning money off their data. “Not only are we helping these nonprofits generate a new form of revenue, we’re helping them learn about their audience,” Mr. Guldimann said. “They can learn more about what types of Web sites they should advertise on to reach more constituents.” Enliken is also trying to woo consumers directly. At the end of last month, the company unveiled a new feature – “Enliken for the People” — that allows users to see what elements of their personal information other companies are harvesting. (To access this feature, users must install Enliken’s own tracking software.)

Competition: Start-ups like BlueKai and eXelate have already raised tens of millions of dollars in financing to run “data exchanges” that quietly pipe consumer information to advertisers. (BlueKai’s motto? “Carpe datum,” or “seize the data.”) But Mr. Guldimann said these companies offer a hodgepodge of behavioral data collected from a smattering of Web sites that track users. Enliken’s system, he said, will offer a wide-angle, seamless view of online behavior via its Web-browser plug-in, which watches users everywhere they go.

Other start-ups have emerged to let consumers broker their own information. But Mr. Guldimann thinks Enliken will prevail by creating less friction. “We don’t require any change in behavior. You install the plug-in and then you’re done,” he said. “You sign up for something like Personal.com and they’re like, ‘Please fill out 500 things about yourself.’”

Challenge: Enliken faces a twofold challenge. First, will the company’s estimate of the value to advertisers of a user’s online data –  $1 per person per month or $12 a year — be enough to convince users to sign up for tracking? The modest return, Mr. Guldimann said, will be mitigated by how easy it will be to claim. “It’s basically found money, with very little effort,” he said, adding that avid online shoppers may earn more because they generate more data. He also believes the value of the data is likely to rise over time as both e-commerce and advertising models evolve.

The second hurdle is that people remain wary of anything related to online surveillance. Internet privacy advocates and federal legislators are lobbying for a range of antitracking policies; in a landmark move, Microsoft wooed skeptical consumers over the summer by announcing that “do not track” settings would be enabled by default in the latest version of Internet Explorer.

Can Enliken win over people who don’t want their online behavior captured and monetized, even if they get a cut of the cash? Mr. Guldimann hopes to change hearts and minds by giving consumers more control. “What we have is a classic human nature thing going on,” he said. “As something new appears, you’re scared of it. You don’t understand it. You want it to go away. You want to cover your ears and sing. But as humans get educated about something, they move from a place of fear to a place where they want control over it. When you empower people to control something, you make them feel good. It’s a chemical reaction in their head. They’re like, ‘This makes me feel great. I’m going to share more information because I feel in control.’”

What do you think?

You can follow Jessica Bruder on Twitter.

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How a Diner Gets the Most Out of Social Media

By MELINDA F. EMERSON

On Social Media

Generating revenue along with the buzz.

Tourine Johnstone

One of Squeeze In’s Foursquare mayors, Nikki McCarroll, with son, Angus.

Squeeze In is a modest little breakfast-and-lunch diner with four locations in the greater Reno, Nev. area. The restaurants are open seven days a week, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. While online commenters rave about the food, I can’t get over how creatively this little chain has managed its social media. It has a Web site and a custom mobile site. It promotes the business through Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

“We want to reach our guests where they are: on their phones, in their homes, on their laptops or desktops, on their weekends and at their charitable events,” said Misty Young, 50, the company president. “We want to be in their heads when they think breakfast or lunch.”

The diner has a custom smartphone app. In 2010, the company invested $2,500 in building the app for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry phones. It took four months to develop and to date, 2,795 people have downloaded it. If you browse the menu on the way over, you will find app-only deals to show your server once you’re seated. The deals have been redeemed nearly 2,000 times.

Servers have been trained to offer to take a group picture if they see a smartphone on the table. This, of course, is a terrific way to generate Instagram and Facebook photos that are posted directly by guests and then linked to by Squeeze In in its Flickr photo stream (the app also has a built-in tip calculator). Everything that’s done in social media is quantified. “Our Foursquare newbie offer for first time check-ins has been unlocked 1,151 times,” said Ms. Young. “The mayor special has been unlocked 140 times. People are actively using this stuff.”

The restaurant has 6,800 “likes” on Facebook, more than 42,000 views of its YouTube videos, more than 1,000 followers on Twitter and more than 52,000 members of its Egghead Breakfast Club, a guest loyalty program that uses a customized magnetic swipe card system. The transaction data taken from the cards drive marketing and sales decisions, promotions and initiatives. The program also helps lead members to social media review sites, and the chain responds to every review posted on Yelp. Not surprisingly, if you type the restaurant’s name into a Google search, you will find it holding the top three positions. And it never pays for online advertising.

The people who work at Squeeze In seem to have a lot of fun. “For example, we created an energetic parody video just for a good time and to feature our cool staff,” said Ms. Young. “It cost us a whopping $600 to produce.” The parody video is the staff’s take on the popular Black Eyed Peas song “Imma Be.” The Squeeze In version is called “Omma Lette.” It has been viewed more than 2,500 times.

The online presence helped the chain land a spot on the Food Network’s “Throwdown With Bobby Flay.” When Ms. Young asked a producer how the network had found Squeeze In, the producer responded, “We troll the Web, and we look for and listen to what people are saying.” The Food Network exposure immediately increased revenue 25 percent, Ms. Young said, and encouraged the company to speed up its expansion plans. “It’s called social for a reason,” she said. “We’ve multiplied our Twitter presence by 450 percent in a year. We’ve run contests, promoted specials, posted photos and videos, engaged. We’ve been social to keep growing.”

Squeeze In has 270 nonfiltered reviews on Yelp, and one of the owners of the restaurant has responded to every review. “Being responsive, social, relevant and listening has been a key to our social success,” said Ms. Young, who runs the business along with her husband, her daughter and her son-in-law, all of whom own a stake in the company. When the reigning mayor of FourSquare stops by, she is treated to a complimentary mimosa (yes, Squeeze In serves liquor at 8 a.m. to people who order bloody marys or champagne with their omelettes). Customers can also get free breakfasts on their birthdays and free champagne on their anniversaries.

The chain also uses social media in its internal operations. A private Facebook group, for example, helps communications with the 96 employees and has improved camaraderie, job satisfaction and job retention. And it uses multiple public Facebook pages to engage the surrounding communities. Each of the four locations has its own page to allow for check-ins and special offers, but they also offer community information — if there’s a cat lost, they post about it; if there’s a high school production or a breakfast event, they’ll support it and post it on their fan page.

This kind of social media effort does not come free. Squeeze In’s social media efforts are handled by three people: Ms. Young, who is really the face of the company in social media; her daughter, Shila Morris; and Eva Lipson, a full-time communications manager. Ms. Young estimates that she spends an hour a day on social media, mostly in 15-minute bursts, monitoring the brand across all social media accounts and engaging with customers. Ms. Morris handles day-to-day operations and monitors Yelp. Ms. Lipson handles external marketing efforts, including managing the Web site, the monthly newsletter and e-mail blasts, and she reviews the metrics of all the company’s social media efforts.

Of course, none of this would matter if people didn’t like the food. “All our communications tactics are lame and ineffective if we can’t back it up at the table,” said Ms. Young.

Melinda Emerson is founder and chief executive of Quintessence Multimedia, a social media strategy and content development firm. You can follow her on Twitter.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 28, 2012

A previous version of this post spelled Eva Lipson's name incorrectly.

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A High-End Brand Tries a Different Sales Channel

By JOHN GROSSMANN

Case Study

What would you do with this business?

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

Eve Pearl

Last week, we published a case study about Eve Pearl, an Emmy-winning TV makeup artist who founded a cosmetics company by the same name. In June 2011, with online sales and traffic at her three-year-old Manhattan boutique slower than desired, Ms. Pearl, 46, listened hard when ShopNBC, the nation’s third-largest 24-hour home shopping network, invited her to appear live with some of her high-end products.

She weighed the pluses: her experience in front of the cameras on several “Today” show product demos and a potential audience of tens of millions. And she considered the negatives, among them: a possible worsening of cash flow because of the shopping network’s payment terms and the fear of tarnishing her top-drawer brand in the hurly burly of home shopping TV.

Last October, Ms. Pearl stepped in front of the ShopNBC cameras, first at midnight, then again at 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. She returned to the networks’ Minnesota studios the following month and has reappeared every month or so, as recently as last weekend. The exposure has had direct and indirect benefits. Ms. Pearl estimates home shopping sales will reach seven figures this year — and represent about a third of her total revenue. And rather than losing any luster because of this added sales venue, she feels her brand is sparkling even more. “Traffic both in the store and on our Web site spikes every time I’m on air — about 30 percent,” she said.

Q.

Did you feel that you might be gambling the future of your company with those live appearances?

A.

No, I felt very confident appearing on air with my products. Makeup is a very visual, emotional product and you can see the results happening right in front of your eyes. It’s not like you have to wait a few weeks or months to see the results. Doing live makeovers on the “Today” show and at trade shows, my experience has been, people see it and that’s how they fall in love with it.

Q.

One of your concerns about selling your goods this way was a possible cash-flow problem. Did this happen?

A.

Yes, we did face cash-flow problems. We went to Citibank and took out a small-business loan, because it took about six months to start seeing our first significant payments coming in.

Q.

And you’re now cash-flow positive?

A.

Yes.

Q.

How many ShopNBC appearances have you made?

A.

I’ve been on a couple dozen times. Sometimes we’re on for as long as an hour, sometimes we’re on three times for 15 to 20 minutes each time.

Q.

What would be your advice for someone thinking of selling products on a home shopping network?

A.

It’s important to realize this can’t be your only sales route, because if it doesn’t sell here, you have to have another channel of distribution. Your stuff might not move — so what are you going to do with it when it all gets sent back to you, on your dime? That’s why people are so afraid of it. It can make incredible successes, but it also can cause the B-word: bankruptcy.

I also think it’s wise to start by testing the waters with only a couple of hero items. Our hero items are our high-definition dual foundation and our salmon concealer. Not only do they continue to sell for us, but they’re available on auto delivery. Customers receive the product every two months and they’re automatically charged. We’re up to four items now on auto delivery.

Q.

That’s the holy grail, right?

A.

Exactly. That’s the goal, really. To have things go on auto delivery where you don’t even have to appear. As buyers develop more trust and loyalty to your brand, they’re apt to try more new products and more of the unique things like lipsticks and mascaras.

Q.

Do you have auto delivery on your own Web site?

A.

We do not, right now, offer auto delivery. We are working on that.

Q.

Several readers echoed the Prtty Peaushun creator Bethany Karlyn’s suggestion for a makeover of your current Web site. Do you agree?

A.

I absolutely agree. My Web site does need a makeover. It’s not clean and user-friendly, and the experience is not as smooth as I would like it to be. It’s like a candy store, which is not what we’re about. I’ve wanted to do auto delivery for a year. It’s frustrating. I’d love to find someone who can help me make the Web site that I have in my head.

Q.

Are there any indications that you tarnished your brand or cannibalized your Web business?

A.

No, I really think we’ve kept our high-end brand image. It’s not like we’re selling millions of pieces. When I appear on air, one of my Emmy awards is sitting there. I challenge any high-end brand to provide a better-quality product with better education and better service. In fact, actually, every time we appear on ShopNBC, our Web sales increase — even though they’re offering our products at lower pricing.

Q.

What percentage of your 2012 sales do you expect will come from ShopNBC?

A.

Right now, the purchase orders that have gone out represent about one-half of our business. The money that comes back is about one-third of our revenue. I’m happy with that, because it’s also allowed us to test out that market, and that will enable us to take this sales model into other countries, like QVC Canada or QVC UK. We hope to get into Canada before the end of the year.

- Previous Post Further Thoughts on the Brilliant Jerk

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Jobs and Service Sector Data Point to Modest U.S. Growth

By REUTERS

Companies in the United States added more jobs than expected last month while activity in the vast services sector picked up, suggesting the economy remained on track for modest growth.

The ADP National Employment Report showed private employers added 162,000 jobs in September. While the gain topped economists’ expectations, it was still fewer than the 189,000 new hires seen in August.

Separate data showed the Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing managers index for the service sector rose to its highest level since March at 55.1 from 53.7 as new orders accelerated.

“It looks more like things are heading in the right direction. It is this new reality. We don’t have robust growth; we just have very moderate growth,” said William Larkin, a fixed-income portfolio manager at Cabot Money Management in Salem, Mass.

The ADP report comes ahead of the Labor Department’s more comprehensive employment report on Friday, which will include both public and private sector employment. That report is expected to show job growth improved slightly, with employers adding 113,000 jobs. Private sector payrolls are seen rising by 130,000.

“While the economy isn’t plunging into recession, it still isn’t creating enough jobs to drive the unemployment rate lower either,” Paul Ashworth, chief United States economist at Capital Economics, wrote.

Small businesses, firms with fewer than 50 workers, added half of the jobs in September, according to ADP, with 81,000 new workers. Large companies with 500 or more workers added 17,000 jobs, while companies in the middle created 64,000 jobs.

The increase in private payrolls in August was revised down to 189,000 from the previously reported 201,000. July’s rise was also revised down, to 156,000 from 173,000.

Last month the Federal Reserve introduced an aggressive new plan to bolster the economy, saying it would buy $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities a month until the outlook for the job market substantially improved and as long as inflation remained under control.

The I.S.M.’s forward-looking new-orders index jumped to 57.7 from 53.7, but growth in employment eased to 51.1 from 53.8.

Exports also waned, to 50.5 from 52.

Services firms, which range from agriculture to real estate companies, avoided the contraction that hit their manufacturing counterparts over the summer.

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Markets Close Slightly Higher on Labor Report

By REUTERS

Wall Street ended modestly higher on Wednesday on stronger-than-expected data on the labor market and the service sector, but the Dow industrials were hobbled by a slide in Hewlett-Packard.

Traders on the floor of the New York Exchange on Wednesday, when H.P. news hurt the Dow.

Shares of H.P. dropped sharply after the company warned on Wednesday of a darker outlook for 2013 earnings, reflecting slow progress on the turnaround plan developed by the chief executive, Meg Whitman, and a slowdown in technology spending. Its stock fell $4.22, or 13 percent, to $14.91 a share, a nine-year low.

The three major stock indexes, which were initially lifted from the positive data, came off their highs by late afternoon trade on lingering concerns about the global economy. A gloomier outlook in China and Europe weighed on commodity prices and hit energy and materials shares.

“The ADP numbers were good and the services index was good, but we are missing the big catalyst to keep the market up,” said Jack De Gan, principal and senior adviser at Harbor Advisory in Portsmouth, N.H.

Data showed growth in the services sector picked up in September, defying economists’ expectations for a slight decrease, while last month, the private sector added more jobs than forecast. The data comes ahead of the closely watched monthly nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.

The Standard & Poor’s consumer discretionary sector index rose 0.8 percent, helped by stocks like Amazon, up 2.1 percent at $255.92.

But prices of crude and metals tumbled, pressuring stocks in the energy and basic materials sectors, and China’s slowdown looked likely to extend to a seventh quarter.

The S.& P. energy index fell 1.1 percent. Chevron also slipped 1.5 percent, falling to $116.14, and dragged on the Dow.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 12.25 points, or 0.09 percent, to 13,494.61 at the close. The S.& P. 500-stock index advanced 5.24 points, or 0.36 percent, to 1,450.99. The Nasdaq composite index rose 15.19 points, or 0.49 percent, to close at 3,135.23.

H.P. forecast that its earnings would slide sharply next year, compared with Wall Street’s expectations for flat profits.

“If you look at Apple and Google, they are pretty much doing well today. H.P. is basically on its own,” Ben Schwartz, chief market strategist at Lightspeed Trading in Chicago, said.

Apple shares rose 1.5 percent to $671.45, and Google shares gained 0.7 percent to $762.50.

Best Buy shares gained 4.7 percent to $17.76 as the founder, Richard Schulze, and at least four private equity firms started examining its books, in early steps toward what could become an $11 billion buyout.

Shares of Family Dollar Stores rose 3.9 percent to $68.56 after the discount chain posted a higher quarterly profit. The proportion of bullish United States investment advisers fell below 50 percent for the first time in five weeks, hitting 46.8 percent in the latest week versus 51 percent the previous week, according to a survey by Investors Intelligence on Wednesday.

Interest rates were steady. The Treasury’s benchmark 10-year note was unchanged at 100 3/32 and the yield was unchanged at 1.62 percent.

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Nasdaq Cancels Some Kraft Trading

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Nasdaq canceled some trades in the Kraft Foods Group on Wednesday after its shares posted an unusual price spike when the market opened.

Shares of Kraft opened at $45.55 and surged 29 percent in the first minute to $58.54. The exchange says it is looking into “potentially erroneous transactions” and will cancel all trades that were made above $47.82 in the one minute after 9:30 a.m.

The issue comes only days after Kraft Foods and a former Kraft snack business, Mondelez International, began trading as two separate companies.

There have been several prominent trading errors recently with the increasingly complicated electronic systems that run stock trading. Those systems have shown signs of strain as more traders and investment firms use powerful computers to execute trades in fractions of a second.

Shares of Kraft, which is based in Northfield, Ill., fell 55 cents, or 1.21 percent, on Wednesday, to $44.87.

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South Koreans Resist Hypermarkets’ Intrusion on Small Businesses

Jean Chung for The International Herald Tribune

Cho Hye-jin, center, a merchant at Mangwon Market in Seoul, wore a vest in protest of hypermarkets like Tesco’s Homeplus.

By CHOE SANG-HUN

BUPYEONG, South Korea — When sales at his clothing shop began sliding several years ago, In Tae-yeon first attributed the drop to a bad economy. But he said he soon realized that the real culprit was something else: hypermarkets crowding into busy commercial districts, attracting shoppers with their easy-to-use parking lots, flashy signs and cutthroat discounts and, as Mr. In put it, “sucking the life out of small-business men like me, like vampires.”

In Tae-yeon at his shop in Bupyeong, South Korea. Mr. In said many stores like his had lost business to the hypermarkets.

The arrival of hypermarkets — vast department stores that also contain supermarkets — is relatively new in South Korea; a few began opening two decades ago. But they are unique in the country because most are owned by chaebol, the family-controlled conglomerates whose dominance in large and increasingly diverse swaths of the economy is prompting many in South Korea to refer to the country as the Republic of Chaebol.

Rapidly expanding nationwide chains of hypermarkets, supermarkets and 24-hour-a-day convenience stores are the latest and perhaps most visible examples of the penchant among the chaebol for seemingly relentless growth. Total revenue at hypermarkets grew to 33.7 trillion won, or $30.3 billion, in 2010 from 23.7 trillion won in 2005, according to Statistics Korea, the national statistical agency. During the same period, sales at traditional markets, where individual dealers sell products as varied as manufactured goods, meat and farm produce, declined to 24 trillion won from 32.7 trillion won, according to the government’s Agency for Traditional Market Administration.

So when owners of small stores, like Mr. In, began pushing back, picketing hypermarkets and lobbying lawmakers, they started a South Korean version of the “We are the 99 percent” campaign — a movement in support of what is called “economic democratization.”

The chaebol are widely credited with leading South Korea’s economic growth, exporting goods as diverse as computer chips, cellphones, cars and ships. The number of subsidiaries of the top 30 conglomerates jumped to 1,150 last year from 731 in 2007. The five biggest chaebol — Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK, LG and Lotte — generated 653 trillion won in sales in 2010, the equivalent of 55.7 percent of South Korea’s gross domestic product.

But at home, the sprawling corporate empires are also seen as predators — so much that protecting smaller businesses from them has become a prominent slogan for both the governing party and the opposition before the December presidential election, which is approaching amid growing discontent about a widening gap between rich and poor. The anti-chaebol rallying cry is a reference to the country’s 1948 Constitution, which requires the state to “prevent the domination of the market and the abuse of economic power and to democratize the economy through harmony among the economic agents.”

For several years, store owners in the traditional shopping street where Mr. In keeps his shop have suffered declining sales because of competition with three hypermarkets and a department store, all within about two kilometers, or 1.2 miles, and all owned by Lotte.

“We only ask chaebol to let us live together with them,” Mr. In, now the leader of a nationwide network of 5,000 independent shop owners, said in an interview at his shop in Bupyeong, a bustling town east of Seoul. “Currently they are behaving like giant serpents gobbling up everything.”

Other countries have found their mom-and-pop retailers squeezed out by hypermarkets, like Wal-Mart in the United States or Tesco in Britain, but to understand how the chaebol operate is to understand how the South Korean economy works.

A typical chaebol comprises dozens of subsidiaries that its chairman controls through a web of cross-shareholdings. Armies of subcontractors depend on the chaebol through patron-client relationships.

Big companies often dictate a profit margin for subcontractors, no matter how innovative their work, and unilaterally impose a cut in the suppliers’ prices, said Hong Jang-pyo, an economist at Pukyong National University.

In July, the country’s Fair Trade Commission said that the nation’s six main hypermarket and department store chains had forced their domestic suppliers to sign and submit “blank contracts” so that the chains could determine their own share of profit “as they pleased.” Meanwhile, the hypermarket and department store chain run by the Shinsegae chaebol has guaranteed unfairly high profit margins for a bakery and pizza supplier controlled by the chairman’s family, the commission said Wednesday, imposing a financial penalty on the conglomerate.

“In South Korea, they say no matter what you do, the winner is already decided and he takes it all,” Kim Byoung-kweon, an economist at the Corea Institute for New Society, said during a recent forum, referring to the chaebol.

To ordinary South Koreans, never was the hunt by the chaebol for new sources of profit felt more acutely than when they saw the chaebol opening shops in their neighborhoods. First, hypermarkets sprouted, and there are 448 of them now. Then they branched out into “super supermarkets,” smaller than hypermarkets but bigger than traditional supermarkets. There are 1,116 of those now. Most are owned by local chaebol like Shinsegae and Lotte, or by Tesco, which took over the Home Plus hypermarket chain it had started as a joint venture with Samsung.

Samsung and other chaebol opened chains of bakeries or coffee shops. CJ opened a restaurant chain that specializes in bibimbap, a popular rice and vegetable bowl. Some hypermarkets sell tteokbokki, a snack made of rice cake slathered with chili pepper. LG, an electronics conglomerate, sold a Korean blood sausage.

These are the foods some of the poorest South Koreans make a living selling. When one of the hypermarket chains, Lotte Mart, recently sold fried chicken at half the price of mom-and-pop sellers, it set off not only a stampede but also outrage at how such marketing would destroy smaller shops. Under public pressure, Lotte canceled the discount.

“The government repeatedly told us that if chaebol grow, so will employment, exports and our country’s credit ratings, and the benefit will trickle down to us,” said Hong Ji-gwang, 47, owner of a cosmetics shop who is leading a campaign to drive a Home Plus hypermarket out of the Hapjeong district in Seoul. “That’s a lie. Instead of innovation and going abroad for tough competition, they make easy money by taking rice bowls from smaller people.”

At Parliament, rival political parties have submitted a number of “economic democratization” bills, calling for various restrictions aimed at checking the unruly behavior of the chaebol.

Huh Chang-soo, chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries, which speaks for the chaebol, said in July that he could not “understand what they meant by ‘economic democratization.’ ” When the chaebol came under pressure to “share profit” with their subcontractors last year, Lee Kun-hee, the chairman of Samsung, said he had never heard of the concept and did not know “whether it’s used in a socialist, capitalist or Communist country.”

And while accusing politicians of populist “election-year chaebol bashing,” the conglomerates vowed to increase the number of new employees this year by 3.4 percent.

They also distributed gift coupons that their employees could use in traditional markets.

That is unlikely to placate small retailers like Mr. In. “We reject a life of living on little crumbs the chaebol throw to us,” he said.

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Sports Thursday

- Yankees 14, Red Sox 2: Yankees Finish With a Flourish, Capturing East

- N.B.A. Outlines Policy to Try to Stop Flopping

- On Baseball: Disappointed, Orioles Still Have a Game to Play

- As Chaos Subsides, a Schedule Emerges

- Djokovic Advances

- Lawrie Critical of Ryder Fans

- A.C.C. Drops 9-Game Plan for Football

- Another 3 Goals for Ronaldo

- Star May Return to England

- Athletics, 12, Rangers 5: A’s Win the A.L. West With One Final Rally

- Mets 4, Marlins 2: Alderson Says Money Is an Object to the Mets

- Valentine’s Season Is Turbulent to the End

- Self-Made Runner Remains in the Lead 27 Years Later

- With Coach Ill, Colts Try to Focus

- Jets Sign a Wide Receiver as the Names on Their Roster Keep Changing

- N.F.L. Roundup: Chiefs Tight End Is Out for Season With Head Injury

- The Fifth Down: Thursday Matchup: Cardinals vs. Rams

- The Fifth Down: Kicker Says Giants Considered a Fake in Final Seconds

- Off the Dribble: Wallace Ends Retirement to Join Knicks

- L.S.U. Has Quaked in Recent Weeks, but 5-0 Tigers Haven’t Cracked

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Yankees 14, Red Sox 2

Yankees Finish With a Flourish, Capturing East

Barton Silverman/The New York Times

The Yankees in the locker room on Wednesday night after beating Boston and clinching the American League East title, their 13th in the last 17 seasons.

By DAVID WALDSTEIN

On July 18, the Yankees owned a 10-game lead in the American League East, and nothing seemed capable of derailing their inevitable march to a divisional crown and a Champagne celebration. The coronation, however, was delayed much longer than anyone could have predicted.

Robinson Cano, left, who had two homers, and Ivan Nova after the Yanks beat Boston, 14-2, and won the A.L. East.

Curtis Granderson hitting a three-run homer in the second inning on Wednesday. He homered again in the seventh, setting a new career high of 43 home runs.

Their commanding advantage dissolved to nothing on Sept. 4, and the Yankees were forced to play a month’s worth of tense, playofflike games to avoid the embarrassment of blowing such a large lead to the upstart Baltimore Orioles.

They never relented, but neither did the Orioles, and it took until the final day of the regular season for the Yankees to clinch the title, their 13th in the last 17 years. After so much extended tension, they exploded with a resounding 14-2 victory over the hapless Boston Red Sox that felt more like a victory parade than a competitive game.

In fact, the decisive moment came even before their game ended. It arrived in lights on the center-field scoreboard during Alex Rodriguez’s at-bat in the seventh inning, showing that Tampa Bay Ray had defeated the Orioles, 4-1.

“I knew those loud cheers weren’t for me,” Rodriguez said with a laugh. “My second thought was perhaps there was a fan on the field. It was just great when we saw the score and our coaches were hugging. That was a nice moment, and I won’t forget that for a long time.”

But the Yankees still had work to do and runs to score. The final out came when Freddy Garcia struck out Ivan DeJesus and gave an uppercut to the air as the Yankees streamed out of the dugout to celebrate.

It was their fourth consecutive win in the most critical moment of the season. Their late-season flourish with 16 wins in their final 21 games gave them the best record in the league (95-67) and a No. 1 seed, ensuring they will play the winner of Friday’s one-game wild-card playoff between the Texas Rangers and the Orioles.

The winner of that game will host the Yankees in the first two games of the best-of-five divisional series starting Sunday. If the Yankees win that series, they will have home-field advantage in the A.L. Championship Series.

After such a grueling month, the Yankees can use the rest, except for Robinson Cano, one of the hottest hitters in baseball entering the playoffs. Cano hit a pair of two-run homers Wednesday and knocked in a career-high-tying six runs to lead the march. He had four hits to record his ninth straight multihit game and was asked what he would think if he saw a hitter doing what he was doing.

“I’d say, That’s a great hitter; it’s what I’ve been saying about Miguel Cabrera,” he said, referring to the Detroit Tigers slugger who won the triple crown.

Curtis Granderson started the outburst with a three-run homer against Daisuke Matsuzaka in the second inning and almost caught Cabrera when he hit his 43rd home run in the seventh. The four home runs gave the Yankees 245 for the season, a franchise record that eclipsed the mark of 244 set in 2009, the year they won their last World Series.

Hiroki Kuroda, who pitched and won the home opener at the Stadium on April 13, bookended a fine first season with the Yankees by winning his 16th game. He pitched seven innings and allowed two runs and seven hits and easily outshined Matsuzaka in a duel of Japanese pitchers.

The Yankees led by 5-1 after three innings and just kept adding on.

“It’s nice because you can relax for second,” Manager Joe Girardi said, “and we have not been able to do that for a long time.”

Although the Yankees were guaranteed a place in the postseason via a wild-card berth clinched on Sunday night, they continued to press for the divisional crown with the same steely resolve they showed since the Orioles tied them in the standings Sept. 4. The Orioles were even with the Yankees for 10 days during September, including the last day of the month, but were never able to pass them.

The Yankees’ lead during the last 29 days never exceeded one and a half games, but each time the Yankees had to win to stave off a fall into second place, they did. The last time they were in second place was June 10.

The reason for their unyielding hold on the top spot in the division was Major League Baseball’s new postseason format. The Yankees wanted no part of the risky one-game wild-card playoff.

“We said all along, the one thing you don’t want to do is get in a one-game shootout,” Girardi said.

All the Yankees needed to do Wednesday was beat the staggering Red Sox to secure the division, but because of the lingering uncertainty before the game about what might happen, all the players had to bring a packed suitcase to the Stadium. All except one.

“I didn’t bring a bag,” closer Rafael Soriano said. “I knew I wouldn’t need it.”

Now, with three days off, the Yankees will exhale and hope that Cano does not lose his rhythm at the plate — and that their monthlong race for the division is not their only crowning achievement.

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/sports/baseball/yankees-clinch-al-east-title-with-win-and-orioles-loss.html?pagewanted=all

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N.B.A. Outlines Policy to Try to Stop Flopping

By HOWARD BECK

The N.B.A.’s best actors will now pay for their theatrics, at least when it comes to fooling game officials.

The league announced Wednesday that it will institute an anti-flopping policy this season, enforced by fines and a dose of public shame.

“Flops have no place in our game,” Stu Jackson, the N.B.A.’s executive vice president for basketball operations, said in a statement. “They either fool referees into calling undeserved fouls or fool fans into thinking the referees missed a foul call.”

Flopping will not be called as an infraction during games, but will be determined afterward by video review. A player will be given a warning for his first offense and will receive a fine of $5,000 for a second violation, $10,000 for a third violation, $15,000 for a fourth violation and $30,000 for a fifth violation during the regular season.

Further violations will draw steeper fines and perhaps a suspension. The count will reset for the playoffs, just as it does for technical and flagrant fouls. The league will announce postseason flopping penalties at a later date.

Although many players welcomed the rule, the National Basketball Players Association announced plans Wednesday to file a grievance with the league office, claiming that it should have been consulted on what amounts to a disciplinary matter. The union will also file a complaint of unfair labor practices to the National Labor Relations Board.

“The N.B.A. is not permitted to unilaterally impose new economic discipline against the players without first bargaining with the union,” Billy Hunter, the union’s executive director, said in a statement. “We believe that any monetary penalty for an act of this type is inappropriate and without precedent in our sport or any other sport.”

Hunter labeled the rule a “vague and arbitrary overreaction and overreach by the commissioner’s office.”

The league defended the policy. “Although we haven’t seen any filing from the players association, our adoption of an anti-flopping rule is fully consistent with our rights and obligations under the collective bargaining agreement and the law,” N.B.A. spokesman Tim Frank said in an e-mail.

The policy represents the N.B.A.’s first attempt to curtail flopping, after years of complaints by fans, coaches and players. Commissioner David Stern has long pushed for a crackdown, but he had to convince the owners first.

“We’re hopeful that it has an impact on behavior on the floor,” Jackson said in a telephone interview. He added, “It’s a big enough problem that we felt strongly it needs to be addressed.”

Many players agreed.

“It’s going to clean up the game a little bit,” Nicolas Batum of the Portland Trail Blazers told The Oregonian. “Everybody flops sometimes, and if this cleans up the game, that’s great.”

The Knicks’ Amar’e Stoudemire called the crackdown “a great thing,” adding, “It takes out some of the acting on the court.” His teammate Tyson Chandler said, “There are a lot of guys in the league that are in trouble.”

The league will define flopping as “any physical act that appears to have been intended to cause the referees to call a foul on another player.” Officials will make their judgment based on whether a player’s “physical reaction to contact” is “inconsistent with what would reasonably be expected, given the force or direction of the contact.”

However, the league clarified that “legitimate basketball plays,” such as “moving to a spot in order to draw an offensive foul,” as well as minor reactions to contact, will not be punished as flops.

Although the fines are not particularly onerous, the shame of being publicly labeled a flopper might be an effective deterrent. Flopping is generally viewed by players as a cheap trick — or, more bluntly, a “chump move,” as Kobe Bryant said in an interview with Los Angeles reporters.

Embarrassment is not necessarily the goal, Jackson said, “but if it happens, and it helps keep flopping to a minimum, it’s great.”

The N.B.A. already employs game “loggers” who tag and catalog every play of every game. They will now add flops — or perceived flops — to the list of tagged plays, which will be reviewed daily by Jackson and his staff. Teams can also alert Jackson to suspected flops.

The league will not formally announce when a player has been judged guilty of flopping, Jackson said, but will instead post a daily update on the “media central” section of its Web site. No fines will be issued during the preseason, although players will be given warnings.

For serial floppers, the habit could get expensive quickly. Jackson said that a player can be fined for multiple flops in a single game. Thus, a three-flop night could cost $30,000 or more.

Some commentators and players would prefer to have referees call a flop when it happens, and for the punishment to be immediate. Jackson said that would be impractical and “not fair” to the referees, who would not have the benefit of replay and multiple camera angles. Using replay during a game might create too many delays.

“It’s too difficult for the referees to assess,” Jackson said. He added, “It’s unfair, given all the other levels of contact that they need to observe and violations that they need to observe during the game.”

Jackson’s staff will also have the benefit of using the league’s video database to compare similar plays from the past.

“They wouldn’t have that on the floor,” he said. “And the likelihood of making an error is higher than it would be here at the league office.”

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On Baseball

Disappointed, Orioles Still Have a Game to Play

By TYLER KEPNER

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.

The Orioles’ Chris Tillman, left, gave up two of the three homers hit by the Rays’ Evan Longoria.

Jim Thome, who is seventh on the career home run list, still has a chance to add a World Series title to his impressive résumé.

For more than a month, the Baltimore Orioles put a scare into the Yankees. They succeeded in filling the end of the regular season with tension, making it seem as if the playoffs had already started.

In the end, though, the Orioles never did overtake the Yankees for first place in the American League East — not for a single day. They pulled even for 10 days, sprinkled all through September, and came here that way on Sunday night. They left here on Wednesday two games back, after dropping two of three to the Tampa Bay Rays, who got three homers from Evan Longoria in a 4-1 victory in the regular-season finale.

The Orioles now head to Texas for the wild-card game against the Rangers on Friday. Had they beaten the Rays on Wednesday, the game would have taken place at Camden Yards.

“There’s a little bit of disappointment,” said right fielder Chris Davis, a former Ranger whose streak of six games with a homer ended on Wednesday. “But at the same time, you can’t hang your head. You have to be proud of what you accomplished this season, and you’ve got to be ready to go to Texas and play nine innings.”

The Orioles knew they would face a much tougher opponent than they had last weekend, when they swept the free-falling Red Sox at home. The Rays finished the season with 90 victories and the best earned run average in the majors, 3.19, holding Baltimore to 5 runs and 11 hits in the series.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, capped their worst season in decades with three losses in a row in the Bronx, two by wide margins. The Yankees had the clear edge this week, and they used it.

“We knew that game in New York tonight was a real long shot,” Orioles Manager Buck Showalter said. “There was some advantage to being able to win, regardless, but they’re looking forward to the opportunity. It’s a tough road, however you do it. We feel real good about the opportunity we have earned.”

The Orioles will face Yu Darvish, the Rangers’ All-Star right-hander, on Friday, but they have not named their own starter. Showalter said it could be the veteran left-hander Joe Saunders, who is 3-3 with a 3.67 E.R.A. in seven starts since a trade from Arizona, or the rookie Steve Johnson, who is 4-0 with a 2.11 earned run average in 12 games (four starts) this season.

Baltimore and Texas have identical records (93-69), but the Rangers will host on Friday because they won the teams’ season series. In that way, said the Orioles’ Adam Jones, the new playoff format is no different than the old one, at least in the American League. Had they finished with identical records last season, the teams would have still had to play a tiebreaker game for the right to advance to the division series.

“Who matches up well with Texas?” Jones said. “They’re a major league team; they can be beat. They’re not easy to beat, but we can beat them. You’ve got to put up runs. They will put up runs in a hurry, and our team has to do that. We’ve got to get these bats going.”

The Orioles desperately want a game at Camden Yards, which last hosted a postseason game in the 1997 American League Championship Series, when Jim Thome’s Cleveland Indians won the pennant.

“It was very hectic,” said Thome, now the Orioles’ designated hitter. “From a visiting player’s end, it was chaos. It was very electric, very similar to Cleveland when we first started going.

“The excitement, the atmosphere, the adrenaline, everything was great. It’s a great baseball city, and it’s so great to see it now re-form itself again and come back. What has it been, 15 years? It’s been 15 years of, let’s face it, not so much fun. And I guess to have watched it back then, and then to see it go back to that, you root for cities like that.”

Thome, 42, has done more than root for the Orioles this year. He has played a small part in helping them return to the playoffs, hitting .260 with three home runs in 28 games since a midseason trade from Philadelphia. Thome batted sixth here on Wednesday, going 0 for 3.

The Orioles will be the fifth team Thome has played for in the postseason, after the Indians, the Chicago White Sox, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Minnesota Twins. He has never won a championship, and his pursuit of one led him last winter to the Phillies, his team from 2003 through 2005.

“I signed with Philly to go back there, because I had history and I knew Charlie Manuel and I knew the organization, and let’s face it, they won 102 games,” Thome said. “That was a team that you looked at and said, ‘Man, they have a great opportunity.’ Then I get traded and you come over here and you go, ‘Wow.’ ”

It has not been easy. It rarely is, for players his age. Thome has made history this season, setting the career record for game-ending homers, with 13, and climbing into seventh on the career home run list, with 612. But he missed eight weeks with a herniated disk in his neck before returning Sept. 22.

Like Andy Pettitte with the Yankees, Thome did not choose to keep playing so he could spend his summer in the Florida humidity, recovering from an injury. But he has made it back in time for another chance at October, with his trademark enthusiasm intact.

“Jim’s on every day, and it’s not anything phony,” Showalter said.“He’s on, and he’s fun to be around. His glass is always half-full.”

Showalter used that phrase again to describe his own attitude after losing on Wednesday. The Orioles cost themselves a chance to play at home, but the delay might be only temporary.

“We still have that opportunity,” Showalter said. “If we play well on Friday and win a game, that’s in our hands.”

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As Chaos Subsides, a Schedule Emerges

By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN and ZACH SCHONBRUN

Before Tuesday’s game against Boston, Yankees Manager Joe Girardi was asked how he remained focused on the game in front of him, considering all the postseason possibilities still in play for his team.

“If there were maybe two scenarios, it might be easier to look ahead,” Girardi said. “But because there’s been so many, you’ll drive yourself crazy. I’m concerned about what we’re doing, and then you just go from there. Wherever Bennie tells us we’re going, that’s where we’ll get on a plane and go.”

That would be Ben Tuliebitz, the team’s traveling secretary. He is responsible for booking hotels, arranging flights, ordering buses, shipping equipment, buying tickets and handling just about every bit of minutiae that allows the Yankees to get from point A to point B without a hitch.

This year’s postseason push, Tuliebitz said, had been the most hectic in his six seasons in the position. As of Wednesday morning, though all five American League playoff spots had been secured, only Detroit, as a No. 3 seed, knew where it would be playing (at home) when the division round began.

As the day progressed, the rest largely fell into place. Oakland beat Texas, 12-5, to secure the American League West title and push the Rangers into Friday’s wild-card play-in game. The Yankees, after steamrolling the Red Sox, 14-2, emerged as the top-seeded team in the A.L. and finally knew their postseason destination, sort of. They will open their first-round series, on Sunday, in either Texas or Baltimore, playing the winner of Friday’s wild-card game. The Athletics will start their first-round series against the Tigers on Saturday.

In the National League, Wednesday began with one game in place — Friday’s wild-card encounter, in Atlanta, between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Braves. When Washington won its afternoon game against Philadelphia and locked up the No. 1 seed in the N.L., everything else took shape. The Nationals will play a first-round series against the wild-card winner, starting on Sunday, while Cincinnati travels to San Francisco to begin a first-round series on Saturday.

For Tuliebitz and Girardi and everyone else in baseball, the 2012 homestretch has been a mental challenge because of the new playoff structure. The introduction of a second wild-card team in each league and the one-game play-in between those two teams was not officially approved until the schedules for the 2012 season and postseason had already been worked out.

As a result, baseball had to improvise, reverting to a 2-3 first-round format in which the higher-seeded team opens on the road for two games and then goes home for as few as one or as many as three, if needed. Baseball had revised that format in 1998, going to a 2-2-1 format in which the team with the better record, and the higher seed, hosted the first two games and a Game 5, if necessary.

But for this year, and this year only, the 2-3 format was reinstituted to eliminate a travel day and compensate for the added Friday game.

All this was playing out in front of Tuliebitz as he waited for things to sort themselves out. A tiebreaker game against the Orioles on Thursday? Possible, but only if Baltimore beat Tampa Bay on Wednesday night and the Yankees lost. That didn’t happen. A weekend trip to Texas? That could occur.

Earlier in the week, Tuliebitz and Michael Fishman, the Yankees’ director of qualitative analysis and a biomathematics graduate from Yale, were working on a probability spread sheet to determine the odds of each outcome.

“We don’t know where we’re going to seed or how it’s going to wind up,” Tuliebitz said at the time. “Yeah, it’s probably the busiest that I’ve been in a postseason.”

Teams typically travel with about 60 people during the regular season, but that number jumps to 80 in the postseason and increases the deeper a club goes into October. On the Yankees, Tuliebitz handles all the arrangements on his own, although he does have an intern. Although George Constanza was the assistant to the traveling secretary on the Yankees for a while in “Seinfeld,” in reality there is no such aide. But over the last few weeks, Tuliebitz could probably have used one.

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Sports Briefing | Tennis

Djokovic Advances

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The two-time champion Novak Djokovic reached the China Open quarterfinals after dismissing Carlos Berlocq of Argentina, 6-1, 6-3. On the women’s side, the defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska beat a Spanish qualifier, Lourdes Dominguez Lino, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4. Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic were knocked out of the third round.

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Sports Briefing | Golf

Lawrie Critical of Ryder Fans

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Paul Lawrie of the winning European team said he was unhappy at the behavior of the gallery at the Ryder Cup in Medinah, Ill., last weekend. “I didn’t get abused, but you get comments like: ‘Top it! Shank it! You’re going to lose.’ Stuff like that on every shot you play,” Lawrie said.

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Sports Briefing | College Football

A.C.C. Drops 9-Game Plan for Football

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Atlantic Coast Conference dropped a plan to play nine conference games starting next season. The league announced in February that it would have a nine-game schedule once Pittsburgh and Syracuse moved from the Big East to the A.C.C. But with Notre Dame now set to play five games against conference teams every season, starting no later than 2015, conference leaders decided to stick with an eight-game schedule.

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Sports Briefing | Soccer

Another 3 Goals for Ronaldo

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ronaldo scored three goals in his second straight game as Real Madrid defeated Ajax, 4-1, in Amsterdam in the Champions League on Wednesday. Karim Benzema scored the other goal for Madrid on a bicycle kick. Manchester City is languishing with just 1 point after two games in Group D, after needing a late penalty from Mario Balotelli to salvage a 1-1 draw with visiting Borussia Dortmund of Germany.

In Group C, A.C. Milan needed a late own goal to seal a 3-2 win at Zenit St. Petersburg after squandering an early two-goal lead. Milan is 2 points behind Spain’s Málaga, which won, 3-0, at Anderlecht to stay unbeaten. Arsenal and Porto also have perfect starts after wins.

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Sports Briefing | Cricket

Star May Return to England

By REUTERS

Kevin Pietersen, one of the best batsmen in the world, announced his reconciliation with the England and Wales Cricket Board, which could pave his way back to the national team. He had left the team in the wake of accusations that he sent text messages critical of his captain to opposition players. Without him, England, the defending champion, departed in the last eight of the Twenty20 World Cup this week.

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Athletics, 12, Rangers 5

A’s Win the A.L. West With One Final Rally

By JASON TURBOW

OAKLAND, Calif. — Jonny Gomes isn’t much for standard operating procedure. Not content to fling Champagne in the A’s clubhouse after Oakland’s 12-5, American League West-clinching defeat of the Texas Rangers, he waited until his booze-soaked teammates had gathered on the mound for an impromptu photo shoot. Then, spying a groundskeeper’s hose, he unleashed a jet of water upon the unsuspecting A’s that put to shame anything that came out of the bottles of Chandon California brut back in the locker room.

Grant Balfour and catcher Derek Norris celebrated Oakland's first division title since 2006.

Center fielder Josh Hamilton, right, on Yoenis Cespedes’s fly ball, one of three Rangers errors.

Yoenis Cespedes hit a fly ball in the fourth that was dropped, as two runs scored in the A’s six-run inning, after the Rangers had scored five runs in the third.

The Athletics, who rallied from a 5-1 deficit, celebrating after the final out Wednesday. Oakland had trailed Texas by five games with nine games left.

So it goes for the remarkable A’s, who at this point have become accustomed to seizing opportunities wherever they find them. On Wednesday, it was at the expense of the Rangers, heavy division favorites coming into both the season and this series but who left Oakland in defeat when a single victory would have relegated the A’s to a wild-card play-in game. Instead, it’s now Texas that will face Baltimore for the right to advance to a first-round series.

The A’s, meanwhile, will move on to Detroit, where their unlikely journey will continue in a Game 1 on Saturday night.

“It’s always good for the underdogs to come out on top,” said closer Grant Balfour, who was called upon to close out Texas in the ninth despite his team’s seven-run lead. “That’s something I’ll take every time.”

In their underdog role, the A’s pulled off one of baseball’s great surprises in recent decades. This was a team picked to finish last in its division, even before trading its three best pitchers for youngsters during the off-season in what seemed a move designed for the 2015 season, and certainly not this one. It is also a team speckled with castoffs, a team that was 13 games behind Texas on June 30, and five games back with only nine to play. A team with a $59.5 million payroll, baseball’s lowest. A team that, in the end, is a little bit hard to believe.

It was easy to think Wednesday afternoon that the magic had finally cracked. The Rangers put together a five-run third inning, aided by two dropped pop-ups, which knocked Oakland starter A. J. Griffin from the game. Trailing, 5-1, the A’s looked, for the first time in recent weeks, like the very young ball club that they are.

And then, suddenly, they didn’t. Wearing their gold alternate jerseys, the A’s came right back in the bottom of the fourth with a big inning of their own, scoring six runs to take a 7-5 lead. From there, the Oakland bullpen shut Texas down, making the seasoned Rangers look like the team unaccustomed to such pressure. The Rangers made three errors in the game, none more prominent than the easy fly ball dropped by Josh Hamilton in the fourth. It allowed the A’s to score the final two runs of their big rally. Three innings later, with Rangers on second and third, nobody out and Texas down by three, the rookie reliever Ryan Cook — Oakland’s lone All-Star representative this season — shut the door for good with a groundout and two strikeouts. Oakland’s stadium still had tarps over all but three sections of the third deck Wednesday, but every other seat, all 35,067 of them (plus another 1,000 standing-room-only tickets) was sold. Chants of “Let’s go, Oakland” serenaded the team from the first pitch onward. Every two-strike count against the Rangers set off a minor roar.

That Oakland started a rookie pitcher in its biggest game of the season should not be surprising; its rotation is currently made up of nothing but rookies. The starting five — Griffin, Tommy Milone, Jarrod Parker, Travis Blackley and Dan Straily — had 14 games of major league experience between them coming into the 2012 season, and have now started 14 games in a row.

Then again, as the season began, Oakland’s rotation included the veterans Brandon McCarthy and Bartolo Colon, who were knocked out of action by a line drive to the head and a flunked drug test, respectively. Even Brett Anderson, who returned from Tommy John surgery in August to go 4-2 with a 2.57 earned run average in six starts, has been shelved recently with an oblique strain.

With the victory going to Evan Scribner, who held the Rangers to two hits over three shutout innings, rookie pitchers have now accounted for 54 of Oakland’s 94 victories — the highest such number in major league history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“Experience is one thing, but when you trust yourself and you’re good at baseball, you win games,” McCarthy, a seven-year veteran, said. “These young guys are so together, they’re almost too mature.”As Oakland General Manager Billy Beane held one of his 4-year-old twins, Brayden, in the celebratory clubhouse, he said that it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that he was convinced his club had what it took.

“I thought our debutante ball, so to speak — our coming-out party — was the series against the Yankees,” he said, referring to three games at Yankee Stadium in mid-September.

To Beane, it hardly mattered that the A’s won only one of them. “The Yankees are the barometer for success in this league, and when we went toe-to-toe with them, that really told me something about this team,” he said.

Now his team is a division winner, with a couple of days to rest and contemplate its next miracle.

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Mets 4, Marlins 2

Alderson Says Money Is an Object to the Mets

By ANDREW KEH

MIAMI — On the final day of another disappointing season, General Manager Sandy Alderson again emphasized that signing David Wright and R. A. Dickey to contract extensions was the organization’s top priority for the winter.

And his pitch to them, one he previewed with reporters Wednesday, will be of interest to any fan anxious about the current state of the team.

“My message would be, look, I think we’re very definitely headed in the right direction,” Alderson said before the Mets beat the Marlins, 4-2. “But at the same time, we will not in the near future have unlimited funds. So recognize what our immediate situation is, what we expect will be our mid- and long-term situation, and evaluate us on that basis.”

Evaluating the Mets on that basis, the goal of next season will apparently be to improve with the same or comparable pieces, while keeping one eye trained on a potentially brighter future, one with more financial freedom.

Alderson said the Mets were stronger financially than they had been the past few years. That he could have discussions about Wright and Dickey at all — as opposed to last year, when the team unloaded stars like Francisco Rodriguez, Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes — attested to that.

The Mets have club options on Wright and Dickey for the 2013 season, and Alderson said he hoped their long-term situations would be resolved as soon as possible. The Mets have not officially met with either player, but Alderson says he has had informal chats with both.

“He has a plan that he is trying to execute, and that plan, on paper, looks pretty good to me,” Dickey said. “I want to be back. I told him I like it here and that I’d like to be back. So hopefully we get it worked out.”

Wright has alluded to a desire to stay, but he — like Dickey and Alderson — has always taken care to acknowledge unknown factors and outcomes. Earlier this year, Wright said he would not negotiate a contract during the season, and he said Wednesday that he had been successful in minimizing the distraction.

“I haven’t thought about it really at all,” Wright said. “I’m sure over the next couple of weeks I’ll be able to think about it a little more, take a deep breath and just enjoy the process.”

Alderson said more meetings between members of his staff and the team’s ownership would be necessary before a payroll figure for 2013 could be settled. Alderson estimated the team’s payroll in 2012 was $100 million, accounting for all aspects of the 40-man roster and buyouts.

Whatever the exact number, it is clear that the team will push the figure much higher for 2013. Next year, the final contract years of Jason Bay and Johan Santana, including potential buyouts, will cost the Mets about $50 million. While Alderson indicated that the Mets could be active in the trade market this off-season — he identified power bats as the team’s main need — he said significant free-agent acquisitions were probably unrealistic.

“We have lots of payroll tied up in a handful of players,” he said. “And that’s a situation that gradually has to resolve itself, and we’re not really at that point.”

There exists a radical but not uncommon view that Alderson should disassemble the team, which finished 74-88 to post its fourth straight losing season, and start anew. Alderson, aware of the pressure surrounding New York teams, dismissed the idea.

“I’m not prepared to blow up the team and start over again, and I don’t think we need to do that,” he said.

Yet Alderson, who has been the general manager for two seasons, also said he believed that a team could trade 70 percent of its roster — anyone outside the core — with no real backlash. And because the Mets’ core may not be much bigger than Wright and Dickey, drastic change remains possible. Alderson mentioned a threefold philosophy for building a successful roster: drawing from the farm system, retaining core players and adding players through free agency and trades on a “judicious basis.” He was forthright that the Mets had not delivered.

But he insisted the Mets were on the verge of significant positive changes. It is a pitch he will deliver to Dickey, Wright and, indirectly, to the fans.

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Valentine’s Season Is Turbulent to the End

By ZACH SCHONBRUN

On the final day of the regular season, Bobby Valentine brought Boston’s lineup card out to the home plate umpire C. B. Bucknor before the game. Such duty is normally reserved for the bench coach Tim Bogar or the third base coach Jerry Royster. But for the first time this season, it was Valentine who did the honors, perhaps knowing it would be his last game as Red Sox manager.

Valentine’s tumultuous first year concluded with yet another fractious comment hours before the game. In an interview with the Boston radio station WEEI, Valentine said he felt that members of his coaching staff had undermined him at times.

He repeated the claim in his pregame news conference when asked whether he thought his coaches were on his side.

“It’s not side or not; it’s just there were situations during the year where I didn’t think it was all for one,” Valentine said.

He would not specify to whom he was referring or instances when he thought it occurred.

“The question was jumped out at me — I could’ve said yes or no, and I said no,” Valentine said. “I was trying to be honest. It wasn’t any burning desire. Just a feeling, at times.”

Although General Manager Ben Cherington would not comment on Valentine’s job status Wednesday, it seemed unlikely Valentine would return for another year with the Red Sox. They finished 69-93 — their worst record since 1965, when they went 62-100 — and in last place in the American League East for the first time since 1992.

“It was trying,” he said. “I don’t know how it could be more challenging than this.”

Valentine’s final series did not go smoothly either. The Yankees swept the Red Sox to win the division and clinch home-field advantage in the A.L. playoffs, and Valentine was injured Tuesday when he fell off his bike while reading a text from Dustin Pedroia and then trying to avoid two French tourists during a ride through Central Park.

When asked whether he regretted taking the job last November, however, Valentine said he did not.

“It’s a great life experience,” he said. “It wasn’t always an enjoyable experience, but it’s been great.”

Asked whether he felt he had the support of the front office, including Cherington, throughout the season, Valentine said he felt he did. “I had every opportunity to succeed and didn’t,” he said.

After the game, Valentine offered an explanation about the lineup card: “Actually I wanted to do it the last time we played each team, but I kept kind of missing the beat.”

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Self-Made Runner Remains in the Lead 27 Years Later

By SARAH BARKER

ST. PAUL — The lead runner was bent slightly forward at the waist, arms and legs pumping, working the pavement like a machine. His gait was inelegant, but in the time it took spectators to think, “Where is everybody else?” the runner had passed. There was no grimacing battle down the stretch between sweat-soaked thoroughbreds, no fleet-footed challenger quietly gaining ground.

Phil Coppess, left, running in 1983, had three children, a blue-collar job and an uncanny ability to run fast marathons without the assistance of coaches or agents.

“I was amazed how my times were dropping,” Coppess said. “I just wanted to keep it up and see where it would go.”

It was Oct. 6, 1985, and the runner was Phil Coppess, a 31-year-old from Clinton, Iowa, on his way to setting the course record at the Twin Cities Marathon with a time of 2 hours 10 minutes 5 seconds. The second-place finisher was three minutes behind. Coppess’s time was the fastest by an American that year, and it ranks Coppess among the top 20 American marathoners ever, just ahead of Frank Shorter.

Like all marathons, the Twin Cities race has hosted increasingly international elite fields, with strong contingents of East Africans and Russians. But 27 years later, Coppess’s record still stands — a fact that is all the more remarkable considering Coppess was a single parent of three who had worked full time in a factory since he was 18.

Today’s marathoning elites are full-time professionals supported by coaches, agents, corporate sponsors, physiotherapists, massage specialists and nutritionists. That was not Coppess’s arrangement.

“I had three kids to feed and all the usual bills — house, car,” Coppess, now 58, said in a telephone interview. “That’s just the way it was. When I went to a race, I gave it 100 percent. I couldn’t have run any harder, job or no.”

Coppess was the youngest of nine children from Oxford Junction in northeastern Iowa. As a high school runner, he was not especially fast but prevailed in distance runs, the longer the better, with remarkable endurance and sheer determination.

“Our family wasn’t rich,” he said. “If I went to college, it was going to have to be a full ride, and there were a lot of kids faster than me. I ran a couple track meets that summer after I graduated, in 1972, and that was about it. Said, guess I’m going to have to get a job.”

That same summer, Shorter, a Yale graduate, won a gold medal at the Munich Olympics, touching off a running boom. Like Shorter, those most interested in going out for a 10-mile jaunt were graduates of college running programs. The pursuit was not popular in the blue-collar world.

By 1974, Coppess was married and working the corn evaporator at the Archer Daniels Midland processing plant in Clinton. That year, he and his wife had their first child. There was no time for running, especially after a daughter was born in 1977 and another son in 1980.

But during a 1979 strike at Clinton Corn, Coppess got a job at a nuclear plant where he observed some of the office workers going for a run on their lunch hour. “I thought, I used to do that.”

He set out to develop his own study of distance running, gleaning training programs from magazines and connecting with runners at local races.

“I remember Phil showing up at races, always interested in who I trained with and what workouts we were doing,” said Jim Ijams, a Quad Cities-area runner and at the time a recent graduate of Iowa State. “We took that stuff for granted, but he was actively seeking ways to get better.”

Ijams, like many promising college runners in the 1980s, pursued a postgraduate degree in road racing. The lifestyle was characterized by sharing a cheap and charmless apartment with other runners, dozens of pairs of training shoes and some Miller Lites. They ran together twice a day. In between, they worked part time at running shoe stores and watched TV. Responsibility was limited to showing up for a given workout. There was always a diploma to fall back on.

Coppess eventually designed a training regimen that dovetailed with his rotating shifts at Clinton Corn and his parenting responsibilities; he was awarded full custody of the children in a 1985 divorce. He ran 14 to 15 miles on work days, longer on his days off, carrying a palm-sized stopwatch to record each mile. “I didn’t think it was a good 20-miler unless I had gone under two hours,” he said. One day a week, he did a track workout, and on another, hills. Physical therapy consisted of weekly chiropractic adjustments.

Days, weeks, months fell into a steady rhythm of running, work and child care that others saw as grinding but Coppess found satisfying.

“The kids knew the routine — I’d go for a run or they’d go with me to the track, then we’d go out to eat,” he said. “I didn’t cook much.”

He raced once a month, on his weekend off, always seeking bigger races with better competition. Winning the 1981 America’s Marathon in Chicago in 2:16 was pivotal. While the marathon offered no prize money, New Balance was impressed enough to sponsor his shoes and travel expenses for the next four years.

“I was amazed how my times were dropping,” he said. “I just wanted to keep it up and see where it would go.”

He was still largely unknown on the national running scene, living and training in small-town Iowa without training partners of note.

“Phil wrote to me about running the marathon,” said Jack Moran, the race director for the Twin Cities Marathon in 1985. “I hadn’t heard of him, but I looked over his times and said, ‘Sure, I’ll give you a comp,’ ” referring to a free entry.

Major fall marathons like Chicago and New York City offered appearance money as well as hefty prize purses, but they sought international fields. Moran recruited mostly Americans, and though there was no appearance money, many were attracted to the first-place prize: $20,000. (By comparison, this year’s Twin Cities Marathon, scheduled for Sunday, pays $15,000 for first, with a bonus of $25,000 for anyone who breaks Coppess’s record.)

“I thought about Chicago and New York, but I was going for the win and thought Twin Cities was my best shot,” Coppess said.

He took the weekend off and flew to Minneapolis. His parents made the five-and-a-half-hour drive with his three children. Coppess was confident that he could break 2:11, which he figured would be good enough for first place. As always, his strategy was simple: go out hard, a pace just under five minutes per mile, and keep it up for 26.2 miles. If others wanted to go with him, fine, and if they didn’t, that was fine, too.

It was a brisk day, with temperatures at the start in the upper-30s. After six miles, he was alone in the lead. By the halfway point, he was out of sight from second place.

“It was a faster pace than I’d ever run for a marathon, but every mile, I was right where I wanted to be,” he said.

Coppess passed the 30-kilometer mark in world-record time.

“When I hit 26 miles at 2:09 flat, I thought, I can run 385 yards in under 60 seconds, so I started to sprint but got a side-ache,” he said. “It was a pretty good payday. Until I did taxes.”

He stayed overnight in Minneapolis because the hotel room was paid for, and because he did not have to work until Tuesday.

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With Coach Ill, Colts Try to Focus

By TOM PEDULLA

INDIANAPOLIS — When the Colts’ interim coach, Bruce Arians, met with the players on Wednesday, he did everything possible to strip away the emotion that will be attached to their home game Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.

As he copes with leukemia, Chuck Pagano wants his players to win, but not for him, the interim coach Bruce Arians said.

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Arians did not implore a young team to win one for Chuck Pagano, who realized his dream of becoming an N.F.L. head coach this season only to be forced to step away from his job with Indianapolis after learning he had leukemia. Arians did not ask the players to envision what it would mean to present the game ball to Pagano, who received chemotherapy and other treatments as he marked his 52nd birthday Tuesday. He merely urged them to do their jobs.

“More and more as the week progresses, the emphasis is going to be on trying to win the game for Chuck, and Chuck doesn’t want that,” Arians said. “He doesn’t want to put that added pressure on these guys. Just win the game because we want to win the game.”

The Colts (1-2) knew this would be a challenging season before it began. Quarterback Andrew Luck, the top pick in the draft, is succeeding Peyton Manning, who for more than a decade was the face of the team. The once-proud franchise is transitioning to a new era after slogging to a 2-14 record last season.

As Arians sees it, that is pressure enough.

“One thing we have to be very aware of is not to get overexcited, overhyped to try to do something extra,” said Arians, who has had prostate cancer. “We just need to play and coach and prepare every day like we have.”

Pagano had recently felt tired and observed bruises on his body. He used an early bye in the team’s schedule last week to address his health at the urging of his wife, Tina. He received the diagnosis and was immediately hospitalized Sept. 26.

Players accustomed to worrying about the condition of hamstrings, knees and ankles appear to be adjusting to the shocking news about Pagano while accepting Arians’s message.

“A lot of guys will be playing for him for a lot of games to come,” Luck said. “But we also realize he’d be disappointed if we were not putting the right effort into practice or getting too low about what’s going on and too emotional about it.”

No matter how frenetic the atmosphere at Lucas Oil Stadium might be after this week’s outpouring of community support for Pagano, Luck said, the players will do everything they can to treat the Green Bay game the same as the other 15 on their regular-season schedule.

“There will be a little bit of focus on not getting too emotional in the locker room,” he said. “Coach Pagano wouldn’t want us worrying about him before the game.”

Arians, who served as offensive coordinator, will continue to call plays. He emphasized to coaches and players that he should be the only person to feel the change with his added responsibilities. Veterans like kicker Adam Vinatieri are trying to reinforce that business-as-usual approach this week, even as a light is left on in Pagano’s vacant office.

“There would be nothing better than to bring the game ball to Coach,” Vinatieri said. “But we don’t really need to think about that when we’re on the field. We’ve got to think about the X’s and O’s.”

Indianapolis hired Pagano at the end of January after he had spent four seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, the last as defensive coordinator. He is in his 29th year as a coach, his 11th in the N.F.L. Although there are hopes that he can make a full recovery, the Colts’ owner, Jim Irsay, said Monday, “It’s probably not in the cards where he’s going to be able to come back and be all-in this season.”

Linebacker Pat Angerer described Pagano as a popular figure around the team.

“He’s a player’s coach; he’s a coach’s coach,” he said. “Everybody around this organization loves him.”

Angerer said he had no doubt that Pagano would eventually return to put in the long hours of a head coach again.

“He’s a tough guy,” Angerer said. “He’s going to get through this. We’ve got to go out and play hard.”

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Jets Sign a Wide Receiver as the Names on Their Roster Keep Changing

By DAVE CALDWELL

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — On Tuesday, the day before he replaced the injured Santonio Holmes on the Jets’ roster, a wide receiver named Jason Hill returned to his stall in an N.F.L. locker room after a workout and saw that he had received a text message from his agent.

Jason Hill with the Jaguars in 2011. He was a free agent, trying out for the Saints, when the injury-riddled Jets called on Tuesday.

Santonio Holmes during Sunday's game against the San Francisco 49ers.

Hill did not happen to be in the Jets’ locker room. He was about 1,300 miles away, in Metairie, La., at the New Orleans Saints’ practice center, to try out for that beleaguered team, when he was told to hustle to the airport for a 12:30 p.m. flight.

He flew to Charlotte, N.C., then to Newark, got to a hotel and slept seven hours before he was rousted at 6:30 a.m. for a physical exam. By 1 p.m., he was signed and on the field, wearing No. 89, for the Jets’ practice. Coach Rex Ryan greeted him with a handshake and a hug.

After practice, Hill stood at his new locker and said of his 24-hour excursion: “Nothing surprises me. Was I expecting it? No. Is it the N.F.L.? Yes.”

Yes, this is the N.F.L., where bygones are bygones if a player can patch a hole. The desperate Jets (2-2) have more like a crater, with Ryan announcing Wednesday that Holmes would miss the rest of the season with a Lisfranc injury in his left foot.

Holmes was injured in the fourth quarter of a brutal 34-0 loss Sunday to San Francisco — a game in which the Jets all but quit, 49ers cornerback Carlos Rogers said in a radio interview. The Jets were not interested Wednesday in offering rebuttals.

“It’s an embarrassing thing to even have to address it,” Jets outside linebacker Aaron Maybin said.

The Houston Texans (4-0) would be a formidable challenge for the Jets on Monday even if they had Holmes and the injured All-Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis. The Jets cannot run the ball effectively, and they cannot stop the run. Ryan said he counted 17 missed tackles against the 49ers.

Addressing Rogers’s comments, Ryan said: “I think when you look at it, certainly we didn’t play well. It’s obvious we didn’t play well to his standards, either. I think we have a reputation in this league as being a tremendous defense, and we didn’t play that way. As far as us quitting, there’s no way. That wasn’t the case.”

They were forging ahead. A year ago, Hill, then with Jacksonville, drew the Jets’ attention by saying before a game that Revis was “overhyped.” Hill was injured and did not play in that game, a 32-3 Jets victory, before the Jaguars cut him.

(The former Jets receiver Plaxico Burress, Ryan said, was not considered to be re-signed even though he is looking for work. Hill is eight years younger and much faster, Ryan said.)

Hill, who was also cut by the Denver Broncos in training camp, said of his comment about Revis: “It’s in the past. We’re teammates now. We’re going to move forward.”

Revis is still, technically, a teammate of Hill’s, but he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee a week before Holmes was hurt and is probably out for the season. The Jets on Monday signed a replacement cornerback, Aaron Berry.

Berry and Revis each played at Pitt, where Revis was Berry’s mentor, of sorts. This was before the summer, when the Detroit Lions cut Berry after he was arrested twice. In one episode he was accused of pointing a gun at three people. Neither case has been resolved.

Berry said Wednesday of Ryan: “He feels like everybody deserves a second chance. He just wants me to come in here and respect everybody in the locker room and just be disciplined. If they take me in, then I won’t make the same mistake as I did before.”

The Jets’ locker room resembles Penn Station, with strangers with suitcases hustling in and out, and the neon-backlit nameplates above the lockers constantly being replaced. Some players who were to be mainstays have been slow to overcome injuries.

Dustin Keller, who missed the last three games with a hamstring injury, did not practice Wednesday as the Jets began preparing for Monday’s game. Stephen Hill, the rookie receiver, also did not practice because of a hamstring injury.

Asked if he wanted to return quickly because of the injury to Holmes, Hill said, “I had a sense of urgency to get back last week.”

The Jets will be using a makeshift lineup when they face an opponent Monday that Ryan said was “regarded as the best team in the National Football League.” But Ryan also said he was confident that his team would recover from Sunday’s rout.

The Jets’ media-relations department posted someone at practice to hand out revised rosters for a team that seems to be changing on the fly. Later, center Nick Mangold stood at his locker and made a rather modest promise about the Jets.

He said, “We’re going to continue playing.”

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N.F.L. Roundup

Chiefs Tight End Is Out for Season With Head Injury

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Kansas City Chiefs put tight end Kevin Boss on injured reserve with a head injury after doctors determined they would not clear him to play the rest of the year.

Kevin Boss catching a touchdown pass for Kansas City. Boss, who was hurt in Week 2, was put on injured reserve.

Boss signed a three-year, $9 million deal in the off-season, providing a versatile tight end for quarterback Matt Cassel and some insurance as Tony Moeaki returned from a torn left anterior cruciate ligament.

Boss caught three passes for 65 yards and a touchdown before being hurt in Week 2 at Buffalo, where Bills safety D’Norris Searcy’s elbow slammed into his helmet.

“When he didn’t make the comeback, you know, and it was taking time, I was kind of concerned there might be an issue, because generally they do those baseline tests and you can make a comeback, you see improvement,” Chiefs Coach Romeo Crennel said. “So when it took a little longer to show improvement, I thought there could be an issue, and found out there was one.”

The injury is significant to a Chiefs offense that has struggled with inconsistency, leads the league in turnovers and has been unable to put together many sustained drives.

Boss, who carved out his reputation with the Giants, caught 28 passes for 368 yards and 3 touchdowns with the A.F.C. West-rival Oakland Raiders last season.

Crennel said a recent emphasis on player safety, in particular when it comes to concussions, underscored the decision to shut Boss down for the season.

Crennel said the Chiefs had signed linebacker Bryan Kehl, who spent last season with the St. Louis Rams, to fill the roster spot opened up by putting Boss on injured reserve.

PAYTON CAN ATTEND GAME The N.F.L. has granted permission for Saints Coach Sean Payton, General Manager Mickey Loomis and the assistant head coach Joe Vitt to attend New Orleans’s home game Sunday night against San Diego. Drew Brees can break a tie with Johnny Unitas for the N.F.L. record of consecutive regular-season games with a touchdown pass.

The N.F.L. spokesman Greg Aiello said Brees, tied with Unitas at 47, asked that Payton, Loomis and Vitt be allowed to attend even as they continue to serve suspensions of various lengths in connection with the league’s bounty investigation. Aiello said the three suspended members of the organization could watch the game from a private area and may not have contact with the team.

Unitas set the record from 1956 to 1960. Brees tied it Sunday at Green Bay, throwing for three scores.

TITANS TO START HASSELBECK Tennessee Coach Mike Munchak said the veteran Matt Hasselbeck would be the starting quarterback Sunday when the Titans visit Minnesota.

Munchak said Jake Locker would not dress while his injured left shoulder continued to heal. Locker dislocated his nonthrowing shoulder for the second time in four games when sacked in last week’s 38-14 loss at Houston.

PACKER MISSES PRACTICE Green Bay Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings is not sounding optimistic about playing Sunday at Indianapolis. Jennings missed practice with a groin injury and said there was no timetable for his return. Jennings has already missed one game and had to leave last weekend’s game early.

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Thursday Matchup: Cardinals vs. Rams

By BENJAMIN HOFFMAN

Cardinals (4-0) at Rams (2-2)

8:20 p.m. Eastern, NFL Network

Line: Cardinals by 1

With a win, each team has a chance at achieving something it has not done in quite some time. The Cardinals, should they improve to 5-0, would continue the team’s best start since 1974. The Rams, at 3-2, would have a winning record after five games for the first time since 2006.

That is not to say the teams have had similar seasons. The Cardinals have shown that the end of last season was no fluke, as the defense has come through repeatedly in each of their victories. Even last week, when the unit allowed a season-high 21 points, it was a pair of defensive plays, a forced fumble in regulation and an interception in overtime, that led Arizona past the Miami Dolphins.

The Rams, meanwhile, have had to rely on the rookie placekicker Greg Zuerlein for nearly all of the team’s offense. Zuerlein, a sixth-round pick, is 12 for 12, including a team-record 60-yard field goal last week.

When one team is openly declaring its kicker to be its most valuable player, as the Rams’ Steven Jackson did this week, the advantage would certainly appear to lean toward the team with the suffocating defense.

Pick: Cardinals

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Kicker Says Giants Considered a Fake in Final Seconds

By SAM BORDEN

Suchat Pederson/The Wilmington News-Journal, via Associated Press

Lawrence Tynes of the Giants attempting a 54-yard field goal, which fell short, against the Eagles on Sunday.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Three days after the Giants lost to the Philadelphia Eagles when a long-range, last-second field goal attempt came up short, kicker Lawrence Tynes revealed that the Giants considered running a fake on their final play.

Tynes pointed out that the circumstances lent themselves well to attempting a pass. After a pass interference penalty on Ramses Barden pushed the Giants back to the Eagles’ 36-yard line, the Giants had a third-and-19 with about 15 seconds remaining.

According to Tynes, the Giants could have run a fake in which they passed the ball – ostensibly into the end zone because they had no timeouts remaining and thus might not have time to run another play – but still had the backup plan of kicking the field goal on fourth down if the pass was incomplete.

“I think it would have really had a chance to work,” Tynes said. “If it didn’t, O.K., we go kick.”

Tynes added that, obviously, the players do what the coaches tell them when it comes to play-calling and it is difficult to imagine Coach Tom Coughlin – generally known as an old-school traditionalist – to give the go-ahead on a bizarre play in such a critical spot.

Also, with the Giants having to rush onto the field to set up the field goal unit in the first place, it might not have been the most ideal opportunity for the coaching staff to call for something unforeseen.

“It was too chaotic,” Tynes said. “But it would have been something, wouldn’t it?”

Extra point: How would you have reacted if the Giants had run a fake instead of kicking?

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Wallace Ends Retirement to Join Knicks

By NATE TAYLOR

Elise Amendola/Associated Press

Rasheed Wallace driving past Kevin Garnett of the Celtics when he played for the Pistons in 2007.

GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Under the basket was Rasheed Wallace. With his new Knicks teammates Amar’e Stoudemire and Marcus Camby to his right and left going through post move drills, Wallace was grinning above his signature ungroomed beard. His wore his practice jersey backward so you could see his No. 36 below his face. His sweat pants were cut at his shins.

Inside the Knicks’ practice facility Wednesday, Wallace, 38, was still the same quirky and charismatic player that he was for 15 N.B.A. seasons. Wallace made his return to the league — after a two-year retirement — by signing what is probably a one-year veteran’s minimum deal for around $1.7 million.

Wallace, who received offers from multiple N.B.A. teams the last two years, said he wanted to play for only one coach: Mike Woodson. It was Woodson, perhaps with perfect timing, who called Wallace in May. That was the same month the Knicks removed his interim title.“He asked me if I still wanted to play,” Wallace said of Woodson, who coached him as an assistant in Detroit. “It meant a lot that Coach Woodson still has that feeling that I can be a positive influence on this team.”

Still, the Knicks already have a crowded frontcourt. Wallace also represents a continuation of the Knicks’ emphasis this off-season on acquiring more experienced players. According to Stats L.L.C., the average age of 13 Knicks players under contract is 32 years 240 days. That makes them the oldest team in league history. Wallace is the fourth-oldest player on the team behind Jason Kidd (39), Kurt Thomas (39) and Camby (38).

The Knicks are taking a gamble that Wallace will stay healthy, not be the volatile player who led the league in technical fouls and not disrupt the team’s chemistry (the Knicks already have J. R. Smith, who is also known as being unpredictable and temperamental).

Because he was not cleared to practice Wednesday, Wallace shagged rebounds — which the Knicks hope he can do during the season — for Stoudemire, Camby and Thomas. Wallace said he was pleased to already have relationships with his teammates.

“I’ve played against darn near everybody on the team,” he said.

Whether Wallace can perform at a high enough level to help the Knicks remains a question. Woodson believes he will have an answer after the preseason.

“I don’t know if he still has it until he gets out here and starts playing,” Woodson said. “Training camp and six exhibition games is enough time to evaluate him.”

Woodson said it felt great to give Wallace an opportunity. When Wallace talked about his coach, he did an impression of Woodson.

Wallace remembers well the history the two developed in Detroit. Wallace played at his best when the Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Lakers for the N.B.A. title in 2004. Woodson was an assistant that year with the Pistons. The respect Woodson had for his players and his demeanor impressed Wallace.

“You know with myself being a hothead and with Ben Wallace, the way he was, Coach Woodson kept us calm,” Wallace said. “He was the one that quieted the storm.”

Once Woodson made the offer, Wallace did not have to struggle with what he should do.

“Rasheed and Mike had a number of talks,” Wallace’s agent, Bill Strickland, said. “He decided this was something he wanted to do.”

The last game Wallace played in the league was Game 7 of the 2010 finals as a member of the Boston Celtics. The Celtics fell to the Lakers, but Wallace had 11 points and 8 rebounds. He retired for personal reasons and to help take care of his mother. Since then, he has played in North Carolina Pro-Am games during the summer.

Wallace knows another year in the N.B.A. will be a challenge. But he is ready to help Woodson and the Knicks try to win a title.

“We’re trying to go after that golden ball,” he said. “We have the opportunity to do that. If Coach needs me for two minutes, then I’m out there for those two minutes going hard.”

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L.S.U. Has Quaked in Recent Weeks, but 5-0 Tigers Haven’t Cracked

By GREG BISHOP

Before the Louisiana State Tigers even finished out September, they had endured a hurricane and a bomb threat. They had dismissed the star player Tyrann Mathieu because of team rules violations. Other players had sustained injuries or had been suspended for academic problems.

Towson’s Gerrard Sheppard catching a touchdown pass past cornerback Jalen Mills in L.S.U.’s 38-22 victory on Saturday. L.S.U. slipped to fourth in the Associated Press poll.

Amid such turbulence, all L.S.U. did was win its first five football games, with victories at home and on the road, by margins as wide as 49 and 38 and 27. The Tigers’ latest victory, over Towson, was Coach Les Miles’s 80th win at L.S.U.

Yet his team again dropped a spot in the Associated Press poll this week, to fourth, behind Alabama, as expected, but also behind Oregon and Florida State. A season that started with national championship expectations, with the Tigers locked in behind the Crimson Tide, has eroded into something of a crisis with a daunting schedule ahead.

L.S.U., then, presents an odd duality, at once shaky and undefeated.

“If you listen to the world’s view, I’m supposed to be the happiest 2-2 coach in the country,” Towson’s Rob Ambrose said. “Les is supposed to be the unhappiest undefeated coach. I’d much rather trade records. I wouldn’t mind being 5-0 and hearing that the sky is falling.”

L.S.U.’s perceived problems — turnovers, poor quarterback play, an inconsistent offensive line — are indeed a matter of perspective. Towson fell to the Tigers, 38-22, on Saturday, yet Ambrose received nearly 1,000 notes of congratulations.

Someone suggested he run for president. Someone else, presumably an L.S.U. fan, suggested to Ambrose that the programs switch coaches. Towson hosted its first football playoff game in 35 years last season, albeit in the Football Championship Subdivision, and Ambrose said that “watershed moment pales in comparison to this.”

The Baltimore Orioles posted Towson’s losing score on their scoreboard, and thousands stood and cheered. Miles stewed in Louisiana over 10 penalties and 5 fumbles (3 lost) on a rainy night that neatly summarized his mood. A somber locker room, he called it.

“Am I alarmed?” Miles told reporters. “Yes, absolutely.”

The victory over Auburn was supposed to be the one that raised the alarm, after the Tigers played sloppily but eked out a close win and returned to their expected championship collision course with the Crimson Tide. Towson supposedly provided the perfect foil before L.S.U. turned its attention to more formidable opposition: Florida on the road this Saturday and South Carolina at home in two weeks.

Instead, quarterback Zach Mettenberger fumbled again. The offensive line, which had earlier lost the all-American tackle Chris Faulk to injury for the season, again failed to protect him.

L.S.U.’s recent performances reminded Gary Danielson, a CBS Sports college football analyst, of the national title game last season, which the Tigers lost to Alabama. The difference in that game? Quarterback play. Alabama received it. L.S.U. did not.

Mettenberger, a junior transfer in his first season as a starter, is strictly a pocket passer. Ambrose said Towson recognized that on film and designed its game plan to pressure Mettenberger, force him out of the pocket and put him on the move. Towson did so less with blitzes, Ambrose said, and more with a variety of defensive looks and little man-to-man coverage.

The rain helped, Ambrose said. “And,” he added, as if he felt the need to clarify, “we’re not that bad.”

Florida Coach Will Muschamp said Wednesday on a conference call that Mettenberger was undefeated at L.S.U. and that “that’s where he wants to be.”

But to Danielson and Ed Cunningham, an ESPN analyst, Mettenberger’s struggles are representative of the Tigers’ weaknesses — namely, Cunningham said, an offense that lacks an identity and seems unsure of itself, “which has been a problem throughout Les Miles’s career there.”

The best case for L.S.U. is that Mettenberger improves the way quarterback A J McCarron improved for Alabama last season, to the point where McCarron, not running back Trent Richardson, carried the Crimson Tide in the national title game.

It is as if Mettenberger, Danielson said, recently switched from a five-speed bicycle to a 10-speed. In the Southeastern Conference, with dozens of future N.F.L. players on the defenses, average quarterback play can sink even the best teams.

“They’re in a state of transition,” Danielson said. “They’re trying to bring Mettenberger along. At the same time, they don’t seem to have that belief in him. They’re not in sync.

“They’re not comfortable with where they are. But they know he’s got to get there. He’s really their only path to a national title.”

Mettenberger, meanwhile, must adapt to a roster constantly in flux. Fullback J. C. Copeland left the Towson game on crutches. He was the latest important player to join the list of the lost, which includes Mathieu, Faulk, tailback Alfred Blue (knee injury) and linebacker Tahj Jones (academic suspension).

On the conference call for SEC coaches Wednesday, Miles sounded less concerned than he did after the Towson game. Last season, his team played better and was more dominant as the year wore on and still ultimately finished second. In 2007, L.S.U. lost two regular-season contests under Miles and still won a national title.

His latest team still boasts a defense that is among the country’s most stout. The Tigers allow 3.59 yards per play, fourth in the nation, and they are, Cunningham said, physical, fast and especially dominant up front.

The second half of the schedule, though, is more difficult than the first. It features Florida, South Carolina and Alabama.

“The schedule gets real real fast,” Cunningham said. “But there is time for L.S.U. to put it all together. Plenty of time. Don’t be shocked if in the next four weeks they go 4-0 or 3-1. It doesn’t matter what anybody thinks because we’ll know by the end of the month.

“That’s what makes Les Miles so fascinating. His teams are so confounding, eternally so, yet they often end up in the same place.”

Namely: shaky and undefeated and in the mix for another national championship.

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The Arts

- A United Nations of Music

- Critic’s Notebook: Late at Night, Comedy Gets Pointed and Political

- Flaws Seen in New Rules for Oscars

- Digital Roots to Dead Trees

- Books of The Times: ‘Live by Night’ by Dennis Lehane

- Bridge: World Mind Sports Games in France

- Theater Review | 'Hamlet': Yes, a Blended Family Can Be a Pain, but That Danish Prince Tries His Best

- ArtsBeat: A $10 Million Gift for Museum of Natural History

- ArtsBeat: Ari Emanuel Joins Board of Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles

- ArtsBeat: Roster of Stars to Celebrate Twain Prize for Ellen DeGeneres

- ArtsBeat: Mumford & Sons Rules the Pop Chart

- A Roman Rapper Comes to New York, Where He Can Get Real

- Dance Review: Tapping Glory From a Soviet Past, Supercharged With Precision and Vigor

- Music Review: Breaking Into Machismo After Playing It Cool

- Music Review: Fighting for Survival, Like Animals

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A United Nations of Music

David Manning for The New York Times

Aditi Bhagwat, an Indian foot percussionist, rehearsing with other OneBeat fellows, Kyungso Park, left, and Chance McCoy at Atlantic Center for the Arts.

By LARRY ROHTER

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — In one studio a Polish saxophonist was jamming with an Indonesian gamelan master. In another, two singer-songwriters — one from Kenya, the other from Denmark — were finishing a song they had written together. Next door a Lebanese oud player and a Korean playing a traditional zitherlike instrument called a gayageum rehearsed a duet for a coming live performance.

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Parfum Zola of Congo was among the other musicians who participated in OneBeat.

In one room after another world music in its truest sense was being created last month at the Atlantic Center for the Arts here, just north of Cape Canaveral. As part of a new federally sponsored program called OneBeat, 32 musicians from 21 countries on 5 continents, almost equally divided between men and women, were brought together to write, produce and record original music and take it on the road for American audiences.

“The canvas here is huge,” said Aditi Bhagwat, a singer, percussionist and dancer from Mumbai. “I’ve seen instruments I’ve never seen; heard rhythms, scales and harmonies I’ve never heard; and tried things that, if I did them in India, some might think I was foolish. But here everyone is open to new things, to change and experimentation, which can only encourage you to grow as an artist.”

On Thursday the OneBeat tour will arrive in Brooklyn, the last stop on a tour that began in Orlando, Fla., and included stops in Charleston, S.C.; Asheville, N.C.; Roanoke and Floyd, Va.; Washington; and Philadelphia. The musicians are scheduled to visit the Brooklyn Community Arts and Media High School, check out local recording studios and perform at Roulette in Boerum Hill on Friday, and the Bring to Light Festival, on the waterfront in Greenpoint, on Saturday, before returning to their home countries.

Some of the ensembles that formed here are based on traditional musical affinities, like an Arab-Indian group and a jazz-pop fusion trio whose members come from Kenya, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But others are purely random: shortly after arriving here on Sept. 10, the 32 fellows pulled numbers from a hat, and were assigned to bands accordingly.

“We’re in a Garden of Eden, with no forbidden fruits, but it’s also very intense, because we have to mingle,” said Nina Ogot, a guitarist and singer-songwriter from Kenya who has ended up writing and performing with Sidse Holte of Denmark in a side project. “That forces different cultural traditions together, so you have to find common ground and make music, no excuses allowed.”

Many of the foreign fellows had not visited the United States before; some are out of their own countries for the first time; and a few had never flown on an airplane. Nourished by notions of America derived from movies, many of them were startled to end up in a small-town setting, hard by the Intracoastal Waterway and hot and humid, that did not at all conform to their expectations of what the United States would be like.

“Having never been in America before, this seems like Columbus to me,” said Piotr Kurek, a Polish producer and sound engineer who has gravitated toward the Asian contingent. “It’s very wild here, like a jungle.”

OneBeat also has five American fellows, seemingly chosen to give a sense of the breadth of United States musical traditions and styles. Chance McCoy is an Appalachian fiddler and dulcimer player living in Virginia, while Amir ElSaffar is a jazz-oriented trumpet and santur player from Chicago, and Domenica Fossati is a flutist and singer from New York who has performed in genres ranging from classical to pop.

Through the luck of the initial draw Mr. McCoy and Mr. ElSaffar found themselves in a band with Ms. Bhagwat and Kyungso Park, the Korean gayageum player, creating a new style they jokingly call country and eastern music. On one song they wrote together Mr. McCoy played slide guitar in a modal style to get closer to Ms. Bhagwat’s natural sound, while Ms. Park made her instrument sound almost like a banjo to approximate an Appalachian feel.

“I’m not a person who wants to play museum music, and I’m happy to see all the other fellows think like me,” Ms. Park said. “Here I can open my eyes to new sounds and a new world.”

The initial two weeks of writing and rehearsing new music here also included visits and workshops led by well-known American musicians, with other collaborations planned for the tour. Those participants include the jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas; the guitarist Mark Stewart; the composer and clarinetist Evan Ziporyn; and the Cuban-born drummer Dafnis Prieto.

“This is like a dream come true for any musician,” not just the 32 fellows, Mr. Prieto said after giving a master class that ended with his jamming with an Indian sarod player, Sayak Barua, and Ms. Park. “Instead of having to travel all over the world, getting to know all these different traditions, you have such a wide spectrum of possibilities in one place.”

The OneBeat program is a two-year, $1.25 million initiative of the State Department, administered by Found Sound Nation, which is a project of the New York new-music organization Bang on a Can. Ann Stock, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, described OneBeat as a particularly effective exercise in cultural diplomacy, aimed at establishing links with what she called “young opinion makers and future leaders” abroad.

“We want to engage them in every way we can,” she said. “We want to know them, and we want them to know us.”

She added, “They are not only coming together to write and produce new music, but forming bonds and networks and relationships that will continue to grow.”

One fellow, Hélio Vanimal, is a topical songwriter from Mozambique who said he often goes to rural villages to sing and rap about AIDS containment and agricultural development. Asked if his impressions of the United States might find their way into his presentations, he responded, “How can they not?”

More than 900 musicians from 40 countries, ages 19 to 35, applied for the OneBeat fellowships, organizers of the program said. Despite their young ages many of the musicians are deeply imbued with the traditions of their cultures.

Sri Joko Raharjo, 29, who teaches gamelan theory at a conservatory in Java, said, “My grandfather, his grandfather and his grandfather’s grandfather” all were musicians.

“I don’t want to abandon my tradition, I just want to make it richer,” he said. “Each musician here has given me something new, something I can take and apply in my own culture.” In particular, he added, he was drawn to jazz, “which I had only read about before, but now I can see the reality.”

Weronika Partyka, a 23-year-old Polish saxophonist, with whom Mr. Raharjo was collaborating, said that she had similarly been stimulated by her first encounter with gamelan, noting that “Joko’s scales are ‘wrong’ in a Western sense, but they’re not.” Asked if the contact with other musical traditions would make her a different musician, she smiled and replied, “I have already become a different musician.”

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Critic’s Notebook

Late at Night, Comedy Gets Pointed and Political

By JASON ZINOMAN

Last week Politico’s chief political columnist, Roger Simon, advised Mitt Romney to tell more jokes. The most notable speech at the national party conventions was a sketch between a man and a chair. The most successful speech, delivered by Bill Clinton, was hailed for its improv.

Lewis Black channels the middle-class outrage that has long been a focus of American politics.

FX’s “Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell” is one of the newest politically-minded comedy shows.

The debate on Saturday between Jon Stewart and Bill O’Reilly — three days after the first presidential debate, in Denver — is only the latest evidence that comedy has infiltrated politics. But the reverse is also true. Our nonstop, polarized political culture has fundamentally changed late-night television.

Political anger has long been a staple of comedy, but less so on late-night talk shows, where it doesn’t wear as well in close-up. One of the keys to Mr. Stewart’s success has been his ability to move from a coolly sarcastic observer to one who expresses eye-rubbing liberal rage while remaining broadly likable. Though he has a more limited appeal, Lewis Black helped pioneer this kind of comedic conviction. And with “Real Time With Bill Maher” on HBO and FX’s new “Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell,” today’s comedy talk show has become more left-wing, opinionated and earnestly engaged.

Mr. Black, who began performing on “The Daily Show” when Craig Kilborn was the host, channeled the middle-class outrage that has long been a focus of American politics. For Mr. Black, whose Broadway show “Running on Empty” begins Oct. 9 at the Richard Rodgers Theater, anger is not just an emotion. It has a rhythm, an attitude and, of course, a volume.

As a new host in 1999, Mr. Stewart, whose sensibility then could be described as David Letterman by way of MTV, looked a little startled by Mr. Black’s eye-bulging rant. “Do you drink coffee?” Mr. Stewart asked with a smirk at the end. In the less frequent “Back in Black” segments on “The Daily Show” today, Mr. Black’s finger shakes more frantically. He’s added a cartoonish lip-smacking sound effect. And on television, after more than a dozen years of screaming fits, he now seems less like a besieged Everyman than a crank.

That’s not the case in his live shows, where instead of shtick, his anger comes off as the essence of an aesthetic. At a 90-minute performance of “Running on Empty” last weekend in Washington there were long stretches of calm eloquence before his characteristic outbursts. Mr. Black had time to establish a pace and develop his many varieties of irritation, from surgical sneer to Sam Kinison yell. His abrasiveness extended to the audience, young people, even his parents. When he called them parasites, it was his way of expressing love.

He is at his best striking different notes of fury graduating to a sustained fever pitch. In an otherwise familiar bit criticizing social media and smartphones, Mr. Black offered a sweeping history of technological change, a context that gave weight to his passionate excess. His very amusing explanation of the days before remote control employed screaming sparingly, which increased its impact.

Mr. Black ended the show by sarcastically ordering us never to tax the rich, and in a previous comedy special he made a more forceful case for why health care is not a commodity. His brand of comedic rage works best when his fervor appears to match what he really believes. So his insistence on knocking both parties, even when his jibes at President Obama are clearly dutiful at best, seems oddly contrived, if not self-defeating.

With the success of “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” late-night talk shows have become more openly partisan, but most comics still make nods to balance. Jay Leno appears to be counting Republican and Democratic jokes. Last week, after harshly poking fun at the conservative co-host of “The View,” Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Conan O’Brien clarified the following night that he’s not a liberal. It was in service of a joke — he called himself “a registered anarchist” — but one that looked to avoid seeming politically biased. On “Real Time” Bill Maher even attacked Mr. Stewart’s speech in his march on Washington for “false equivalency.”

Mr. Bell, the most promising new talent in political comedy in many years, positions himself against network-anchor-style caution in the title of his series, “Totally Biased,” a sharp, if still ragged, topical talk show that returns next Thursday. Whereas Mr. Black delights in frenetic outrage, Mr. Bell, a wry, liberal comedian from San Francisco, prefers a cheerful one-liner. His opening stand-up jokes display as much love for wordplay as for argument. His favorite tactic is unpacking rhetoric, explicating dog whistles, revealing subtext. Call it comedic translation. After noting that President Obama said he was not “the president of black America,” he went on a smart riff that only sounded like nonsense: “Hey, Barack. I know that you know that you’re the president of black America, and I know that you know that I know that you are the president of black America.”

His mockery of Mr. Romney’s remark that no one had asked for his birth certificate also makes a perceptive point. In the Internet age, when context shifts so quickly, coded messages are more likely to backfire. These days politicians, and comics, can’t say something to one audience and expect others won’t hear.

What comes across most impressively in “Totally Biased” is a point of view that has not been watered down. Chris Rock serves as executive producer with the sensitivity of an artist who understands how easily a new comic can be made to sound like everyone else.

Mr. Bell’s clothes are as casual as the goofy way he chuckles at his own jokes. At times he still seems as if he’s playing a small theater on the West Coast (although in a recent episode he did wear a sport coat for the first time).

The downside of his appealing lack of slickness is that the production can be clunky and the sensibility slightly insular. Maybe in a Bay Area comedy club the premise of sending Mr. Bell to meet gun owners would be incongruously funny enough, but here the sketch seemed like it needed more jokes. His inexperience also shows when he conducts interviews, which somehow come off as both overly edited and aimless.

The challenge for Mr. Bell is the same for a senator or governor looking to run for president: Can he grow in front of a national audience without losing the integrity of his voice? Television can be more ruthless than politics, so he won’t have four years to prove himself. For now it’s just seven more episodes.

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Flaws Seen in New Rules for Oscars

Magnolia Pictures

Heidi Ewing, left, and Rachel Grady are directors of “Jesus Camp” and “Detropia.”

By DAVE ITZKOFF

A month and a half spent watching nearly 100 movies may sound like a cinephile’s dream come true. But it is a seemingly insurmountable reality for the filmmakers choosing the movies that will vie for the Academy Award for best documentary feature. Now some directors are wondering if a new set of rules, meant to be more inclusive, is as flawed as the one it replaced.

Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” won an Oscar.

In recent days the more than 160 members of the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have received a box of about 80 DVDs of nonfiction features they are expected to watch before submitting ballots next month, ranking their top 15 choices.

This haul comes with a letter suggesting specific films to focus on. And it follows about 30 to 40 films that members were sent over the summer, with the Academy promising to deliver 10 or more later this month.

“In theory this new system seems very democratic — everybody gets everything,” said Kate Davis, an Academy member and documentarian whose films include “Southern Comfort” and “Stonewall Uprising” (directed with David Heilbroner). “In practice I think it’s going to overwhelm many voters.”

In past years the Academy relied on committees to winnow the field of 100-plus documentaries each year to 15 qualifying movies. (All branch members would then view the films on that shortlist before voting for the five official Oscar nominees, a step that continues under the new rules.)

Among the problems with the old system, filmmakers said, was that it prevented committee members from voting for movies that were not on their list. “You’d get a random stack, and you wouldn’t be able to help what you thought were the best films of the year,” said Heidi Ewing, a co-director with Rachel Grady of the documentaries “Detropia” and “Jesus Camp,” among others.

This year the Academy announced several rule changes to its documentary-feature selection process, including opening the first round of voting to all documentary-branch members on all eligible films. (Another new rule requires that a film be reviewed by The New York Times or The Los Angeles Times in order to qualify.)

Michael Moore, a member of the Academy’s board of governors and a central figure behind the new rules, said Wednesday that these latest changes were made to bring the documentary division’s selection system more in line with other Academy branches, to democratize the process and to weed out films that were made for television or were essentially vanity projects.

On this last front, Mr. Moore said, the system “has failed, miserably.”

“There really should be no boxes of screeners,” said Mr. Moore, who won an Oscar for “Bowling for Columbine.” “Documentary filmmakers, the 160 of us, we watch a lot of documentaries every year, so we know the documentaries that are out there, and we know the ones to watch.”

Going forward, Mr. Moore said, the eligibility rules for documentary features might need to be tightened further to eliminate unqualified films. But he said he was not losing sleep over Academy members who felt besieged by their viewing assignments.

“I’m one of those people,” Mr. Moore said. “I don’t have time to watch 132 movies. No one does, and no one will.”

Speaking from his office in Manhattan, where his package of nearly 80 DVDs had just arrived, Morgan Spurlock the director of “Super Size Me,” said the sheer number of films it contained would inevitably steer voters to familiar titles and recognizable subject matter.

“You do want the best movies to continually rise to the top,” Mr. Spurlock said. But this process, he continued, will “create more of a distance and more of a chance for popular films and filmmakers to get on the list.”

Then there is the correspondence that came with the 80-DVD package encouraging voters to view about a dozen randomly selected titles that vary from letter to letter. The list was intended, the letter said, to address the “concern that films without the support of a major distributor or public relations firm would not be seen by voting members.”

Some filmmakers questioned the propriety of emphasizing any films at all. “Directing branch members to view certain titles over others defeats the entire purpose of the rule changes,” said Joe Berlinger, whose documentaries include the “Paradise Lost” series (directed with Bruce Sinofsky) and “Under African Skies.” He added that this was “a virtual invitation to not watch all of the eligible films.” (Among the recommended films on Mr. Berlinger’s list were highly visible releases like “The Central Park Five,” whose directors include Ken Burns.)

Steve James, whose well-regarded documentaries “The Interrupters” and “Hoop Dreams” were both denied feature nominations, said he appreciated the delicate position of the Academy as it tried to enforce stricter guidelines without offending other filmmakers.

Still, Mr. James said, this confusion indicated a “fundamental dilemma” in the methods for choosing the Oscar winner.

“Should it be about the way in which the public engages a documentary — films that they have seen at the theater, that have been hits on the festival circuit, that are going to have the best chance?” he asked. Or, he said, should it “throw open the doors to every single film that can wrangle a date in L.A. and New York?”

“You can’t have it both ways,” Mr. James said.

Thom Powers, a documentary programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival who is artistic director of the IFC Center’s Stranger Than Fiction series and the DOC NYC festival, said this was an issue the Academy would continue to wrestle with as more filmmakers find their way into documentaries.

“The field is growing exponentially, and to me that’s a good thing,” he said. “Among that tide are more films that are probably unworthy of Academy recognition, but it also brings more films that are worthy.”

With her tongue firmly in cheek, Ms. Ewing said the lesson of this debate was that democracy was “terrifying.”

“I agree that tyranny is way more efficient,” she said. “But I am so far more comfortable with a messy democracy. Who knows? Maybe the list this year will be equally as unsatisfying, and we’ll just realize we have different tastes.”

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Digital Roots to Dead Trees

Librado Romero/The New York Times

Robin Sloan, peeking out of the secret door at the Grolier Club in Manhattan.

By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER

Robin Sloan, a 32-year-old former Twitter manager and self-described “media inventor” from San Francisco, has established himself over the past few years as a notably nimble thinker on the future of digital culture.

Mr. Sloan

But on Tuesday morning he arrived at the Grolier Club, a redoubt of rare book collectors on East 60th Street in Manhattan, prepared to talk — mostly very quickly — about the joys of old-fashioned paper and ink.

Dressed in a black Patagonia pullover and a straw fedora and downing a cup of coffee on the sidewalk, Mr. Sloan unleashed a rundown of the other venerable book depositories in the vicinity, including the New York Society Library on East 79th Street (the oldest cultural institution in New York) and the Mercantile Library on East 47th Street (now the Center for Fiction). “We’re standing in the middle of this whole history of private libraries,” he said, opening his eyes wide as punctuation. “It’s really cool.”

“Cool” is a word you hear a lot in conversation with Mr. Sloan. It’s also a word that pops up often in his first novel, “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore,” a rollicking neo-Borgesian tale about an unemployed San Francisco Web designer who takes a job in a mysterious bookshop only to find himself initiated into the Unbroken Spine, a 500-year-old secret society of bibliophiles on an unexpected collision course with Google.

The book, published this week by Farrar Straus & Giroux, is an affectionate shout-out to everything Mr. Sloan loves about his home city’s tech culture — some of whose luminaries were scheduled to appear in a 24-hour live Webcast staged by Mr. Sloan from the Center for Fiction, starting at 9 p.m. on Wednesday.

During a tour of the Grolier’s atmospheric third-floor library Mr. Sloan gave a preview of the playful attitude and fast-twitch intellectual style that he brings to the older side of his story.

The Grolier doesn’t own a copy of the “Codex Vita” of the 15th-century Venetian printer Aldus Manutius, the fictional tome on which Mr. Sloan’s plot turns. But in preparation for his visit Meghan Constantinou, the club’s librarian, had pulled out some “Aldines,” as books from Aldus’s very real print shop are known.

There was a 1502 edition of Catullus, printed in reader-friendly italic type (an Aldus invention), and a 1504 edition of Homer that belonged to the early French collector Jean Grolier, the club’s namesake. Both, Ms. Constantinou explained, were examples of the small-format, relatively affordable books that Aldus pioneered — the rough predecessors of today’s Modern Library classics.

Mr. Sloan, however, reached for another analogy. “They’re so appealing and human scale,” he said. “They must have felt as remarkable as an iPhone does now, and literally that high tech.”

Growing up in Troy, Mich., the son of a salesman and a home economics teacher, Mr. Sloan loved both computers and books, especially the ones “with spaceships and dragons,” he recalled. At Michigan State University, where he majored in economics, he started a literary magazine but never considered a literary career.

“I always got the sense that it was frivolous, and that maybe writing made-up stories wasn’t the best use of my time,” he said.

At the Poynter Institute, a journalism center in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he landed a fellowship after graduation, Mr. Sloan found himself writing them anyway, and grabbing huge numbers of eyeballs while he was at it. “Epic 2014,” a 2004 eight-minute Flash video describing an apocalyptic near-future in which the traditional news media are vanquished by a rampaging conglomerate called Googlezon, was viewed more than a million times — impressive numbers in the pre-YouTube era — and put Mr. Sloan and his collaborator, Matt Thompson, on the map.

“It’s amazing to watch how many times people reference that film,” said Andrew Fitzgerald, the manager of editorial programming at Twitter, who met Mr. Sloan shortly afterward, when both were working at Current TV in San Francisco. “Robin is incredibly good at stepping out of the present and looking to the future in what for most people is a bit of a fantastical way.”

Mr. Sloan said he owed his job at Current to another bit of speculative fiction. After reading about the start-up in 2004, he e-mailed Joel Hyatt, who founded the company with Al Gore, to inform him that he would be sending him a new idea about digital strategy every day for the next month.

Not that he already had the ideas. “I was driving cross-country, composing things in my head, stopping at rest stops to type them out,” he recalled. “The final message, basically, was ‘Hire me.’ ”

Mr. Sloan became Current’s employee No. 7 and, eventually, its official “futurist.” Among many other projects he orchestrated what he called the first-ever television broadcast using live Twitter data, during the 2008 presidential campaign. In 2010 he became the manager of media partnerships at Twitter.

Around the same time he started thinking about a literary career, a process that, as he recounts it, comes across as a friendly hack on the traditional machinery of publishing. In the spring of 2009, inspired by a friend’s tweet — “just misread ‘24-hour bookdrop’ as ‘24-hour bookshop.’ the disappointment is beyond words” — he wrote a 6,000-word version of “Mr. Penumbra,” which he published in the Kindle Store.

The story, priced at 99 cents, drew a respectable 5,000 downloads, Mr. Sloan estimated. Next came another straight-to-Kindle story, followed by “Annabel Scheme,” a detective novella “set halfway between San Francisco and the Internet” and financed with $14,000 raised on Kickstarter, then brand new.

In 2010 he signed with an agent, Sarah Burnes of the Gernert Company, and began spending his off hours from Twitter turning the Penumbra “prototype,” as he called it, into a full-scale novel. He had no shortage of ideas, he said. The bigger challenge was getting over the habit of writing in short, punchy — in a word, bloggy — chunks.

“When you’re writing for the Internet, you have the analytics, and you know that people are bailing every second,” he explained. “But various people kept reminding me that once people have bought a book, they’re in. You don’t have to be selling them on every page.”

While his fantasy of printing “Mr. Penumbra” in a custom typeface named after a crucial character turned out to be wildly impractical, Mr. Sloan — who fills the novel with odes to the beauty of the dead-tree book — praises the glow-in-the-dark cover designed by Rodrigo Corral as “a work of mad genius.” And his publishers praise him for bringing an infectious spirit of optimism to an industry knocked sideways by digital technology.

“He’s making things up as he goes along, making decisions partly on what’s the most fun,” said Sean McDonald, his editor at Farrar Straus. “He has the right mix of cleverness and hardheaded business sense, and that’s apparent in the book.”

When it comes to the showdown between print and digital, Mr. Sloan, who has 275,000 Twitter followers, strikes a gentle “why can’t we all get along?” tone. Not that he is entirely unconcerned with the downside of living inside the Googlezon. One of his first digital projects since leaving Twitter last November was a much-blogged-about iPhone app called Fish, a “tap essay” questioning the erosion of attention in our distracted digital age. In the months since, he has downgraded his “walking-around phone” to a basic Nokia that can only handle texts and calls.

Cellphones of any kind are forbidden inside the Grolier Club. But during his visit Mr. Sloan made sure to test-drive a different piece of gee-whiz technology he wrote about in the novel but had never seen: a secret door concealed in one of the library’s bookshelves.

Swinging it back and forth, Mr. Sloan noted with a satisfied smile, “It’s exactly as heavy as you expect a secret door to be.”

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Books of The Times

His Days of Crime May End Real Soon

‘Live by Night’ by Dennis Lehane

By JANET MASLIN

“Live by Night” is Crime Noir 101, as taught by the best of its current practitioners. “Some years later, on a tugboat in the Gulf of Mexico, Joe Coughlin’s feet were placed in a tub of cement,” Dennis Lehane writes in this perfect specimen of an opening sentence. In the same paragraph he lets Joe realize “that almost everything of note that had ever happened in his life — good or bad — had been set in motion the morning he first crossed paths with Emma Gould.”

LIVE BY NIGHT

By Dennis Lehane

401 pages. William Morrow. $27.99.

Dennis Lehane

There is an inviting degree of mystery to this paragraph full of foreshadowing. You can wonder what Joe did to earn himself the cement-on-a-tugboat treatment. You can see that Joe’s life, “good or bad,” has spanned a wide moral spectrum. And you can notice that “set in motion” and “first crossed paths” are odd ways of hinting at the connection between Joe and this mysterious Emma. Cryptic, doomy, romantic yet ominous, this opening salvo signals the most important thing about Mr. Lehane’s latest: precision. All of “Live By Night” is written with that same degree of cleverness and care.

“Live by Night” is nominally a follow-up to Mr. Lehane’s powerhouse “The Given Day.” That was a Boston-based historical novel of epic scope and gut-wrenching emotion. This is a narrower genre piece and a Tommy-gun salute to vintage noir style. Joe is one of the last remaining members of the Coughlin family, which loomed so large in the first book’s tumultuous account of 1919. As the main story of “Live by Night” begins, Thomas Coughlin is still an aloof high-ranking Boston police officer and a dauntingly cruel parent. Joe is 19, taking his first steps into a serious life of crime.

Joe meets Emma Gould in the midst of a stickup in 1926, with Prohibition in full swing. He and two cronies have made the mistake of hitting a speakeasy owned by a powerful bootlegger named Albert White. Joe compounds his troubles by falling hard for Emma, who was a waitress at the speakeasy and comes from a tough Charlestown family, so unlike the elite Boston Irish Coughlins. “Charlestown,” Joe chides himself. “No wonder she hadn’t gotten rattled with a gun pointed at her. In Charlestown, they brought .38s to the dinner table, used the barrels to stir their coffee.”

Once Joe falls (hard, of course) for Emma, he faces the further problem that she is Albert White’s girlfriend. Albert does not like being either robbed or cuckolded, so he is happy to see Joe sent to prison after a wild shootout at the new Statler Hotel. Joe’s story shocks Boston, not just because of the violence, but also because Thomas Coughlin allows his officers to brutally attack Joe. “Failing to raise your child properly was one thing,” Mr. Lehane writes about the public’s perception of Thomas after that. “Ordering him beaten into a coma was quite another.” At this early point in “Live by Night” the Coughlin family begins bringing the Corleones to mind. Thomas, the patriarch, has an eerie experience in his beloved garden. Meanwhile Joe, behind bars, begins to hone his powers of intimidation and takes on a cool, commanding style. He remains an immensely appealing character even after Mr. Lehane has ushered him into the land of ruthless intimidation and deadly crime.

“Live by Night,” an echo of both Nicholas Ray’s 1949 film “They Live by Night” and Raoul Walsh’s 1940 “They Drive by Night,” is a title meant to explain what drives Joe in this direction. As readers of “The Given Day” know, his was not an easy childhood. He sees himself as a nocturnal outlaw, living outside of the ordinary.

But a funny thing happens after Joe gets out of prison and heads for Ybor City, Fla. He becomes successful enough to wonder where his old credo disappeared to. He sees something in himself “that was starting to live by day, where the swells lived, where the insurance salesmen and the bankers lived, where the civic meetings were held and the little flags were waved at the Main Street parades.”

Mr. Lehane gives shades of gravitas to “Live by Night” by focusing on questions of conscience, morality and faith. Joe frequently wonders about an afterlife. He questions whether he’s right to live entirely in the moment. He wonders whether the ingenuity and purposefulness of his scheming make it any better than garden-variety brutality. Eventually he will know three women who embody the yearnings that tug at him.

One is a Cuban beauty named Graciela (“Paradise,” Joe thinks upon first seeing her, “is dusky and lush and covers limbs that move like water”) who values strength, not power, and wants to do some good in this world. “She believed in fairness, essentially, a concept Joe was certain had left the earth about the time the earth left diapers.” Another, whose reputation Joe ruins a shockingly heartless way, is reborn as a saintly evangelist but still struggles with doubt. The third, who first made the nighttime ethos look so good to Joe, is the original troublemaker, Emma.

Much of this story unfolds in Ybor City, where racism, Prohibition, bootlegging and gangland violence collide in surprising and awkward ways. (The Ku Klux Klan’s reasons for approving of Prohibition are a narrative element.) And much of it consists of well-rendered crime episodes, not the soaring battles of principle that Mr. Lehane took on with “The Given Day.”

Yet his idea of plain old crime is sophisticated, literary and barbed enough (“How does anyone become so callous?” “Takes less practice than you’d think”) that it makes this book a sentence-by-sentence pleasure. You are in the hands of an expert. And you’ll know it.

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Bridge

World Mind Sports Games in France

By PHILLIP ALDER

I sometimes wonder how many well-played or well-defended deals are never published because none of the players tell a journalist. The diagramed deal might have joined the list, but luckily while in France for the World Mind Sports Games, I had dinner with Lynn Deas of Schenectady, N.Y. She told me about this astute piece of declarer play against New Zealand by her partner, Beth Palmer of Chevy Chase, Md.

In the auction East’s two-spade overcall showed at least 5-5 in hearts and clubs. An easier way for North-South to have ensured a plus score would have been to start doubling. Three clubs doubled can be taken down four but would probably escape for down three.

Against three no-trump West led the club seven. Palmer (South) ducked the first two club tricks, then won with her ace. She played a heart to dummy’s ace and ran the diamond queen, East discarding a heart. West won with her king and shifted to a low spade, which was taken by South’s king. Declarer played a spade to dummy’s jack and cashed the diamond jack, diamond ten and heart king to give this position:

NORTH

A 5

J

—

—

WEST

Q 10

—

9

—

EAST

—

Q

—

K 10

SOUTH

—

—

A 8

8

Palmer cashed the spade ace, then led the spade five, which endplayed West to lead a diamond to South’s ace for her ninth trick (three spades, two hearts, three diamonds and one club).

At the other table New Zealand played in five diamonds, going down one.

Plus 600 and 100 gave the American team 12 international match points on the board.

That was a steppingstone coup, which is both pretty and pretty rare.

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Theater Review

Yes, a Blended Family Can Be a Pain, but That Danish Prince Tries His Best

Michael Benz in ‘Hamlet’ at the Schimmel Center

Fiona Moorhead

Michael Benz as Hamlet in a visiting London production by Shakespeare’s Globe, at the Pace University Schimmel Center.

By CHARLES ISHERWOOD

The corpses strewn copiously across the stage all rise and perform a merry jig at the conclusion of the touring production of “Hamlet” from Shakespeare’s Globe theater, which opened on Tuesday night for a brief run (through Sunday) at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts. This dance of the dead is not some dubious high-concept coda from a director bent on textual depravities. It’s the traditional conclusion of many productions from this estimable London theater and harks back to Elizabethan practices.

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Cutting a rug may seem out of place as a conclusion to a death-haunted tragedy like “Hamlet,” but the jubilant finale doesn’t jar even a little in this version, staged by the Globe artistic director, Dominic Dromgoole, and Bill Buckhurst. It feels entirely in tune with a production that prizes efficiency, clarity, accessibility and above all energy.

The house lights remain on throughout the comparatively brisk running time of 2 hours 40 minutes: a nod to the open-air atmosphere of the Globe theater, we are told as the play begins. Once again it seems apt. With Michael Benz portraying the title character as a restless youth whose “antic disposition” is less a pose than a natural way of being, this is a “Hamlet” in which shadows have been more or less banished to the sidelines.

Staged on a simple wooden set, based on the traditional Elizabethan model, the production features a compact company of just eight actors. All but Mr. Benz play more than one role. This might be expected to sow confusion, but the actors are skilled at shifting gears, and the textual nips and tucks are so deftly handled that even scenes that pose obvious challenges come across cleanly.

The handsome, blond Mr. Benz looks as if he should be palling around with the roistering Prince Harry — the current one, I mean — getting into some harmless mischief. His performance brims with high spirits that tend to make you forget that Hamlet’s mission is murder. Dispatching Polonius in the emotionally fraught encounter with his mother, Gertrude (Miranda Foster), Mr. Benz’s Hamlet seems delighted with himself, if a little petulantly disappointed that the fox has dashed away once again. Hamlet’s tortured inability to act, as interpreted by Mr. Benz, seems less a matter of moral and philosophical doubt than a decision to keep the fun and games going for as long as he can.

At 30, Mr. Benz is one of the youngest actors I’ve seen in the role, and the air of callow insouciance he brings to it occasionally had me wincing. But he speaks the verse with an easy authority that makes every phrase tell, even when he, like many of the actors, is plowing through the text at a dizzying clip. In the great soliloquies his Hamlet seems less to be wrestling with his soul than expressing casual confidences to the audience.

The brash boyishness lends the character a certain pathos: it seems cruelly unfair that this gilded youth should be required to sully his spirits with the unpleasant task of avenging his father’s death. But the emphasis on Hamlet’s irreverence comes at the expense of cultivating a character with a believable interior life, resulting in the occasional inconsistency.

It’s hard to give much credence to this Hamlet when he is confessing to Rosencrantz (Peter Bray) and Guildenstern (Matthew Romain) that he has “lost all his mirth.” The gloomy soliloquy that follows, in which Hamlet calls the world a “foul and pestilent congregation of vapors,” seems more a youthful pose than an agonized cry.

The supporting roles are handled with less outward flair but similar efficiency. Christopher Saul shines as a busily blustering Polonius and in particular a mordantly funny gravedigger. Ms. Foster’s Gertrude is somewhat hampered by the textual trims, to the point that her brief performance as the second gravedigger, in which she sports a woolly Cockney accent, is almost as memorable. Dickon Tyrrell is a stern ghost in the opening scenes and a chronically exasperated Claudius.

The Ophelia of Carlyss Peer is well matched with Mr. Benz’s Hamlet in at least one respect: She seems a young woman of stout good cheer and a strong backbone. Unfortunately this makes her sudden collapse into madness and frailty less credible than it might be. I could more easily picture her doing a brisk backstroke to the river’s edge rather than allowing the waters to claim her, as poor mad Ophelia does.

The surging waves of feeling that can overtake you at a more soul-stirring production of “Hamlet” mostly fail to emerge, but the Globe players are certainly adepts at finding brief sunbursts of laughter in the text, and sometimes outside it. Claudius amusingly garbles the names of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, more than once, and there’s a funny interpolated reference to the “student union lounge bar.” Mr. Benz’s exuberant physicality raises smiles too, as he scampers around the stage with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as if playing a game of tag.

Mr. Dromgoole and Mr. Buckhurst’s production seems conceived to reach as wide an audience as possible, in particular winning over those spoilsports who find Shakespeare a dreary slog. If this means forgoing some of the play’s psychological complexity and philosophical heft, so be it. You may not be overcome by grief when Mr. Benz’s Hamlet breathes his last, but you may feel a pang at the loss of a lad who was such boisterous good company.

Hamlet

By William Shakespeare; directed by Dominic Dromgoole and Bill Buckhurst; sets and costumes by Jonathan Fensom; score by Laura Forrest-Hay, music and arrangements by Bill Barclay; lighting by Paul Russell; choreography by Sian Williams; fight director, Kevin McCurdy; text by Giles Block; movement by Glynn MacDonald; voice and dialect by Martin McKellan; assistant director, Alison Convey; assistant choreographer, Chloe Stephens; production managers, Mr. Russell and Dave McEvoy; technical manager, Wills; company manager, Marion Marrs; general manager U.S.A., 2Luck Concepts/Eleanor Oldham and John Luckacovic; general manager Britain, Shakespeare’s Globe Theater/Claire Godden; executive producer, Sacha Milroy. Presented by Pace University and Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, Mr. Dromgoole, artistic director. At the Schimmel Center for the Arts, Pace University, 3 Spruce Street, near Park Row, Lower Manhattan, (212) 346-1715, pace.edu/culture. Through Oct. 7. Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes.

WITH: Michael Benz (Hamlet), Peter Bray (Rosencrantz/Marcellus/Prince Fortinbras/Osric), Miranda Foster (Gertrude/Second Player/Player Queen/Second Gravedigger), Tom Lawrence (Horatio/Reynaldo/Captain), Carlyss Peer (Ophelia/Voltemand), Matthew Romain (Laertes/Bernardo/Guildenstern/Lucianus), Christopher Saul (Polonius/Francisco/Player/First Gravedigger/Priest) and Dickon Tyrrell (Claudius/Ghost/First Player/Player King).

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A $10 Million Gift for Museum of Natural History

By ROBIN POGREBIN

A $10 million gift from the Richard S. and Karen LeFrak Charitable Foundation will enable hundreds of thousands of New York City schoolchildren and summer campers to visit the American Museum of Natural History free, the museum is to announce on Thursday.

The schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, is to attend a ceremony on Thursday honoring Richard S. LeFrak, a developer and trustee of the museum, along with his wife Karen, and sons Harrison and James.

The museum will name its fourth-floor special exhibition gallery — the newest and largest temporary exhibition space — the LeFrak Family Gallery. The free-admission program will apply to students and campers who are on group visits to the museum.

The gift represents the second major donation from the LeFrak family. In 2001, Mr. LeFrak’s parents, Samuel J. and Ethel LeFrak, provided the money for a refurbishment of the museum’s IMAX theater, known as the Samuel J. and Ethel LeFrak Theater.

“We hope that the hundreds of thousands of New York City students who come here throughout the year will be inspired to begin lifelong journeys of discovery,” Richard LeFrak said in a statement, “and to reach for the stars.”

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Ari Emanuel Joins Board of Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles

By RANDY KENNEDY

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, which has been battered in recent months by the departures of board members critical of the institution’s direction, announced Wednesday that Ari Emanuel, the agent and Hollywood power broker, has been elected to its board.

The move – which comes at the same time as the re-election of a former board member, Maurice Marciano, a prominent art collector and a founder of the Guess clothing line – is intended as a signal by the museum that it is trying to broaden its base of support in the Los Angeles establishment beyond that of Eli Broad, the billionaire collector who saved the museum from financial ruin in 2008.

Mr. Emanuel, co-chief executive of the William Morris Endeavor agency, is not known as an art collector and is not deeply involved in the Los Angeles art scene. But he has been active in P.S. Arts, a nonprofit organization that works to bring art education programs to Southern California schools, and he has also helped the museum establish MOCAtv, a dedicated YouTube art channel that began operating on Monday. Mr. Marciano, who served on the board for a few months in 2008 but left along with other trustees as the museum’s finances worsened, has donated important works to the museum’s collection over the past two years.

The new trustees still leave the board – which has been deeply involved with the careers of living artists since it opened in 1983 – without any artist members, after John Baldessari, Catherine Opie, Barbara Kruger and Ed Ruscha resigned in July, saying they believed that the museum’s director, Jeffrey Deitch, was taking the museum too far in a pop-culture direction.

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Roster of Stars to Celebrate Twain Prize for Ellen DeGeneres

By DAVE ITZKOFF

Chris Pizzello/Associated Press

Ellen DeGeneres

When the talents of Ellen DeGeneres are being celebrated, which of her celebrity pals will join her on the dance floor? As befits a woman equally known for hosting a talk show and providing the voice of a talking fish, it’s an eclectic group of performers who will pay tribute to Ms. DeGeneres, of daytime TV’s “Ellen DeGeneres Show” and the film “Finding Nemo,” when she receives the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Oct. 22. That roster of entertainers who will join her in Washington, the Kennedy Center said on Wednesday, will include the actress Kristin Chenoweth (“Wicked,” “The Good Wife”); her fellow comedians and talk-show hosts Steve Harvey and Jimmy Kimmel; the actors Sean Hayes (“Will & Grace”) and John Krasinski (“The Office”); the musician Jason Mraz; and Lily Tomlin, who herself won the Mark Twain Prize in 2003.

The ceremony honoring Ms. DeGeneres will be taped and is to be broadcast by PBS on Oct. 30. Previous winners of the award include Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Bill Cosby and George Carlin.

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Mumford & Sons Rules the Pop Chart

By JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.

The Billboard album chart belonged to the English folk-rock group Mumford & Sons this week, as its second album, “Babel” (Glassnote), sold 599,900 copies in its first week, more than any other album has sold in a single week this year.

The quartet, from West London’s folk scene, known for its anthemic songs, close harmonies and acoustic instrumentation, easily trumped the first-week sales of Justin Bieber’s “Believe” in June and Madonna’s “MDNA” in March, neither of which broke the 400,000 mark. The band’s latest single, “I Will Wait,” has been getting heavy airplay on alternative rock stations. “Babel” was also streamed eight million times on Spotify during the past week, shattering the previous weekly record on the Internet service by a factor of three, according to Spotify.

Mumford & Sons’ new album arrived in a week full of strong debuts. Green Day’s “¡Uno!” (Reprise) sold more than 138,600 copies, which in many weeks would be enough to top the chart, but this week was only good enough for second place.

No Doubt’s long-awaited “Push and Shove” (Interscope) took the third spot, with sales of 114,000 in its first week.  That album, which has received mixed reviews, is the first one that the pop-punk foursome, fronted by Gwen Stefani, has put out since 2001’s “Rock Steady,” which sold much better in its first week.

Two other new records were in the Top 10. Lupe Fiasco, the Chicago rapper, grabbed the fifth slot with 88,800 sales of his new album, “Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1” (Atlantic). And Deadmau5, the electronic dance music D.J. who wears a giant mouse head at his concerts, had his highest-selling debut ever, selling 57,000 copies of his latest CD, which he has cheekily titled “Album Title Goes Here” (Ultra).

Last week’s chart leader, Pink’s “Truth About Love” (RCA), slipped to No. 4, even as it sold a respectable 94,000 copies.  Rounding out the Top 10 were Kanye West’s hip-hop compilation,“G.O.O.D. Music: Cruel Summer” (G.O.O.D./Def Jam), at No. 7;  the Dave Matthews Band’s “Away From the World” (RCA) at No. 8; Little Big Town’s “Tornado” (Capitol) at No. 9; and the Killers’ “Battle Born” (Island) at No. 10.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 3, 2012

A previous version of this post incorrectly listed Lupe Fiasco's new album, “Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1” (Atlantic), as placing at No. 6 in the Billboard 200 album chart. It is at No. 5 in the chart.

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A Roman Rapper Comes to New York, Where He Can Get Real

By BEN SISARIO

When Jovanotti, a pioneering Italian rapper, was starting out in the 1980s, he and his producers tried to emulate the sound of the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC as produced by Rick Rubin. They had all the right equipment, like the Roland 808 drum machine, but no matter what they did, they could not get their tracks to sound as powerful.

“Being somebody in America is the dream of every musician in the world,” said Jovanotti, Italian rapper.

“We tried to do exactly the same thing, but we couldn’t make it sound so rude,” Jovanotti recalled recently. “If you listen to my records of the same time as ‘Walk This Way,’ they sound small, while if I play ‘Walk This Way,’ it still sounds huge.”

Eventually he came to a realization about music and geography. “It’s not just Rick Rubin,” he said. “It’s the place.”

That place is New York City, sacred ground for any hip-hop fan and an especially mythical site for an artist who learned the craft from afar. After Jovanotti — a tall, shaggy-bearded Roman whose real name is Lorenzo Cherubini — released his first single in 1987, he went on to sell millions of records and join the fraternity of the famously mononymous (Bono, Pavarotti). He vies with a motorcycle racer, Valentino Rossi, for the title of Italy’s most-followed Twitter user.

Making a mark in New York remained an itch, though, so three years ago he began his pilgrimage, playing club shows in occasional series. Last month Jovanotti, 46, moved with his family to an apartment in Greenwich Village, and his American invasion began in earnest. In August a compilation of his work, “Italia: 1988-2012,” was released here by ATO Records, and on Saturday he will perform at Terminal 5 in Manhattan as part of a national tour.

When asked why he was taking a risk in a country that can be brutally indifferent to the pop of other tongues, Jovanotti said he was stimulated by the city’s energy and by the connection to his musical roots. But he acknowledged that “pure ambition” played a role.

“You respect Fellini here, you respect Roberto Benigni, you respect Antonioni,” he said. “Why is it that Italian pop music is totally off the radar? I just want to try to break that tradition.”

“Being somebody in America is the dream of every musician in the world,” he added.

His background is as much Old World as old school. He grew up around the Vatican, where his father was a guard. In 1979, at the age of 14, he saw a TV report about the new musical phenomenon taking shape in the Bronx and, though he could barely understand the words, was mesmerized by the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.” He absorbed endless American sitcoms like “Happy Days,” a world far removed from the political and economic strife of Italy at the time.

“The father was so funny and so nice,” he said of “Happy Days.” “My father was always tired and always hungry, while the father of Richie Cunningham was never hungry.”

His early records mimicked American rap, but by the 1990s he began to develop a more eclectic songwriting voice. He drew from the dusky romanticism of Italian ballads, and rhythms from Latin pop and from Africa, leading to songs like “L’Ombelico del Mondo,” a huge hit that might ring a bell for any tourist who passed through Italy in mid-90s. Political and social causes also made their way into his work.

Over a leisurely three-hour meal at an Italian restaurant near his new home he discussed his childhood in Rome, postwar Italian politics and his infatuation with American pop culture. He can be disarmingly chummy until he casually drops a conversational bomb underscoring his place among the ultra-elite, like: “I had the privilege to know opera through Luciano Pavarotti, who was a friend of mine — a real friend of mine.”

That magnetism, and the energy of his live performance, could help win over American audiences. So could his accessible and wide-ranging musical style, said Joseph Sciorra of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute at Queens College. He also noted that Jovanotti’s arrival follows a mini-wave of other sophisticated Italian pop performers like Vinicio Capossela, Carmen Consoli and Avion Travel, who have been turning up at New York clubs and some American festivals in recent years.

“Jovanotti’s potential for success here in the States is that he is this consummate pop artist, knowing how to tap into what’s cool,” Mr. Sciorra said.

To sell him in America, Jovanotti’s label, ATO, is going after the “food and wine crowd,” said Jon Salter, the label’s general manager. That means pushing him at stores like Barnes & Noble and through noncommercial radio stations like KEXP in Seattle and WFUV in New York. So far the tastemakers love him, but that has not translated into big sales. According to Nielsen SoundScan, “Italia: 1988-2012” has sold about 1,000 copies in the United States.

Jovanotti can afford to take it slowly. He is dividing his time between New York and Italy, where he remains a megastar. Next summer he plans to do a tour of 15 soccer stadiums there, which could sell as many as one million tickets. “I don’t want to get rich in this country,” he said. “That’s not even something I’m thinking about.”

Instead, he said he is soaking up American culture, pulling all the inspiration he can from New York.

“It’s like tomatoes in Italy,” he said. “You cannot have these kinds of tomatoes here. In Whole Foods I can find wonderful tomatoes. But the tomatoes we have in July in Italy? It’s another thing.”

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Dance Review

Tapping Glory From a Soviet Past, Supercharged With Precision and Vigor

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

Members of the Moiseyev Dance Company in “Suite of Moldavian Dances,” one of several folk-inflected pieces, on Tuesday as part of the Fall for Dance festival at City Center.

By ALASTAIR MACAULAY

The energy that poured from the stage as the Moiseyev Dance Company performed on Tuesday was at once exhilarating and extraordinarily disciplined. The four pieces were traditional, culled from different parts of the former Soviet Union; Igor Moiseyev arranged them for his company between 1938 and 1959. I kept expecting the company’s precision to get in the way — to inhibit the folk exuberance of each item — but no. The fast-biting footwork, changing patterns, pounding jumps, vibrating shoulders and hands never lost their impact.

Christiana Bennett with Rex Tilton and others from Ballet West performing in “Grand Pas From Paquita.”

From left, Ramil Mekhdiev, Roman Ivashchenko and Yury Chernyshkov of the Moiseyev company in “Kalmyk Dance.”

The Moiseyev company — which followed Ballet West, Tu Dance and Nan Jombang as part of the third Fall for Dance program at City Center — used to be one of the glories of the Soviet regime. It hasn’t appeared in New York since 2000.

The opening number, for three men, was inspired by the Kalmyks, who until recently lived as nomads on the Nogai Steppe near the mouth of the Volga; it’s easy to feel that it suggests eagles in flight and horses running. Ramil Mekhdiev (especially), Yury Chernyshkov and Roman Ivashchenko were phenomenal. They charged, pranced and chased like horses both racing and in dressage; they trilled their shoulders with speed I could not have imagined in men, and they fluttered their hands not just rapidly but also powerfully.

In “Tatarotchka,” a dance of the Tartars of the Crimea, a woman (Olga Volina) and two men (Oleg Chernasov and Evgeny Masalkov) wore boots. The quick-trotting footwork that this high-voltage triptych exhibited, as it swept around the stage, was brio personified. “Dance of Bessarabia Gypsies,” from near the Romanian border, builds superbly: from a languorous opening for three women to an exuberant surge for both sexes.

And the final “Suite of Moldavian Dances” shows the thrilling attack of these dancers’ booted feet as they chase across the stage. Hungrily they tear across space, and yet each step onto the ball of the foot has piercing acuity. Formations keep changing: the eye is constantly engaged by geometry as well as by energy. Though the music was taped, alas, the Moiseyev dancers performed as if not only responding to music but also making it.

Ballet West’s “Grand Pas From Paquita” suffered from taped music (Minkus’s music gains greatly from the interplay of a conductor with dancers he knows) and City Center’s acoustics (which seemed to add a couple of strange groans). The staging of Marius Petipa’s choreography is by Elena Kunikova, who has animated the all-female corps de ballet with verve and charm; I have seen more illustrious troupes dance this with less color.

But the “Paquita” suite of dances falls into two halves: Petipa’s original, Spanish-flavored classical ensemble framing one ballerina and her partner, and the suite of solo female variations (by various composers and choreographers). And here the Ballet West women negotiated the exposure and challenge of Petipa’s choreography with a quality both hard-boiled and precarious that forced the danciness of the earlier sections to evaporate. Best was the lone male dancer, Rex Tilton; the texture he brings to bravura passages has an unusual softness and relaxation.

Waves of laughter greeted Tu Dance’s “High Heel Blues,” prompted by the words of the taped Tuck and Patti song. (The subject was a woman’s craving for shoes). The accompanying dance by Uri Sands, performed by himself and Yusha Marie Sorzano, showed wry humor but forgettable dance invention.

The program’s sole item to live music was not only of a tradition far from the Moiseyev but also of a diametrically contrasting spirit. “Tarian Malam (Night Dances)” was brought from the city of Padang in West Sumatra, Indonesia, by the Nan Jombang company. All seven dancers were barefoot, dressed in red; the men were bare-chested; all — men and women — drummed extensively and sang.

The dances were principally gyrations of the torso. I loved the general style of the vocalism here, with long, chanted lines punctuated by urgent little catches. But the dances, which are said by a program note to “create a contemporary narrative about the earthquake that struck the region in 2009,” are thin and generalized.

I mentioned acoustics. Can something be done about the deafening music that now wrecks intermissions in City Center’s upstairs foyer?

The Fall for Dance festival continues through Oct. 13 at City Center, 131 West 55th Street, Manhattan; (212) 581-1212, nycitycenter.org.

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Music Review

Breaking Into Machismo After Playing It Cool

Chad Batka for The New York Times

Miguel The Los Angeles R&B star performing at the Bowery Ballroom on Monday, the day before the release of his album “Kaleidoscope Dream.”

By JON CARAMANICA

Whatever happened to machismo? Not the rote boasting about sexual conquests and half-cooked promises of caress that typify broad swaths of contemporary R&B, but something sturdier. The husky, unapologetic, beyond confident stuff. The stuff that flexes even the small muscles.

The stuff with a few day’s beard growth on it.

During most of the Los Angeles singer Miguel’s concert at the Bowery Ballroom on Monday night, he played it cool. For a show in a small room, it was intensely flashy — a slick outfit, bursts of light at every angle, overstated dance moves. Miguel performed, but he didn’t sweat much.

But near the end of the night things were winding down, which meant the veneer had thinned a bit. Miguel’s guitar player sawed off a few grunge-esque notes, and Miguel began singing a vulgar and wounded song — the title is unprintable, but let’s call in “Mine” for short — from his second album, “Kaleidoscope Dream” (ByStorm/RCA), which was released on Tuesday.

This was a different thing altogether, past Marvin Gaye aching tenderness to James Brown shouts, and then past that into some soul outer world where the gravity is weaker, and outrageous twists are possible.

He tensed up and then melted. He roared with fierce control. He breathed deeply. It was an almost savage performance, and totally draining. And it was macho, in a manner that felt startling and bold. All adults should feel that intensely.

Miguel can do that. He doesn’t always, but he can. Much of the rest of the time he’s playing around with style — musical and sartorial — and tone, and honing his ample songwriting gifts and facile voice. He’s a perfectionist in the guise of a risk taker.

He has made a place for his slightly left-of-center talent, no small accomplishment in R&B, which can be among the least forgiving genres around, boundary-wise, on a par with country music. But the truth is he is left of today’s center, not 1984’s or even 1995’s. He’s more retro than avant, and more modern than the retro tag typically signifies. (That goes for his outfits too: on the back of his album, it’s high-cuffed pants, white socks and creepers.) Plus, he’s been savvy in handling his currency, doling out the occasional hook for a hip-hop song, most notably on Wale’s “Lotus Flower Bomb.” “Kaleidoscope Dream” is, purposefully, a little washed-out, a blend of Prince-isms and slurry grooves. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s on the verge. At the Bowery Ballroom he shook off some of the album’s languor in an ardently performed show of new-wave soul that was pristine and committed to it. Often, though, it was to the exclusion of just the sort of sweat intensity that made the performance of “Mine” so thrilling.

He was smooth, in a slim red blazer, and with his hair frozen upward into a cool, swooping curl. And for the most part he was effective, from the raucous and full-bodied “Use Me” to the moist “Gravity” to even the vexing agit-soul song “Candles in the Sun,” which he rescued from didacticism with subdued, heavy breathing. “Sure Thing,” one of his most concise hits, was here swollen and extended with vamps that could have come from the Love Unlimited Orchestra.

Unexpectedly, one of the loosest moments was also his biggest hit, “Adorn,” which was originally released as part of his series of “Art Dealer Chic” EPs this summer. It’s a tightly wound slow burner, a plea that comes from a place of certainty, not desperation. It has far more to do with Prince’s rock-soul throb than anything else in the genre today, and yet it’s been a success.

There were a few other moments of pep, like his early hit “All I Want Is You,” and the rendition of 2Pac’s “I Get Around” he tossed off just after he shook the room with “Mine.” But that moment felt like a retreat, or as if he could only manage that level of force and vim for so long before exhaling and getting back to boasting as usual.

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Music Review

Fighting for Survival, Like Animals

‘Dog Days,’ New Opera, at Peak Performances in Montclair

By STEVE SMITH

MONTCLAIR, N.J. — With the approaching centenary of Stravinsky’s ballet “The Rite of Spring,” whose 1913 premiere provoked an outraged riot, conversation about the purpose and efficacy of shock in art is in the air. I had been struggling to think of something to add to the discussion. But on Saturday evening, near the end of a new opera, “Dog Days,” I saw the most genuinely unsettling incident I have yet witnessed on any stage.

Dog Days Lauren Worsham (and a projected image of her) in this new opera by David T. Little and Royce Vavrek, at the Kasser Theater, Montclair State University.

The action, relatively brief but endless in the moment, involves a girl performing a ritual of ablution. (I will say no more; dawning recognition forms part of the scene’s impact.) That the act is one of piety and tenderness makes it all the more wrenching.

Created by the composer David T. Little and the librettist Royce Vavrek, and presented in its premiere as part of the Peak Performances series at Montclair State University, “Dog Days” tells the story of a rural family struggling to survive and cohere in the wake of an apocalyptic catastrophe. You never learn the precise details but can easily imagine life in a flyover state after a nuclear war.

The original short story, by Judy Budnitz, recounted events from the perspective of Lisa, a 13-year-old who befriends a curious vagrant, who is coping with catastrophe by becoming a dog: not just dressing the part but living it. Mr. Little and Mr. Vavrek maintain that focus, and in Lauren Worsham, a preternaturally girlish soprano, they have a self-possessed heroine who maintains dignity and charisma in spite of harrowing conditions.

John Kelly, a performance artist, makes Prince, the dog, a soulful-eyed creature of relatable vulnerability. The vocal cast is uniformly fine, with particularly moving work from James Bobick as Howard, a father desperate to preserve his family, and Marnie Breckenridge as Lisa’s mother, whose emotional and physical reserves diminish along with the rations dropped from an unseen military helicopter.

Unseen but felt: the sound engineering, by Garth MacAleavey, is aggressive, and at times bombastic, in ways that complement the work. Amplified voices grow strident at peaks. The opera’s ending comes awash in electric distortion. Earplugs are advised for the sensitive. Almost everything involved in the director Robert Woodruff’s canny staging — Matt Frey’s sickly lighting, Victoria Tzykun’s threadbare costumes, a debris-strewn set, the sweaty sheen of bare skin — deliberately provokes discomfort.

Unease even suffuses a scene in which Lisa delights in her budding femininity. As Ms. Worsham coos into a mirror, back turned to the audience, a camera projects and magnifies her face on a screen overhead. Fixating on her blotchy skin and glassy eyes, you realize that the cheekbones Lisa proudly calls attention to were a result of starvation, not maturity.

It might all amount to mere provocation had Mr. Little and Mr. Vavrek not delivered a taut, nuanced work that clawed beneath the surface of every situation. Profanities pop like a string of firecrackers in Mr. Vavrek’s libretto, yet its poetry is indelible and affecting.

Mr. Little responded with music of emotional insight and charm, suggesting pop-music modes at times without ever resorting to pastiche. Harsh, angular lines and abrasive textures cede to wistful melodies and touches of hymnody; unorthodox instrumental techniques enhance mood without distracting. Mr. Little’s new-music band, Newspeak, augmented with guests and conducted by Alan Pierson in plain view upstage, played with a stylishness born of familiarity and commitment.

Think about it: When was the last time a new opera got under your skin the way an Edward Albee play does? Credit is due to Beth Morrison Projects, which fostered the opera to fruition, and to Jedediah Wheeler, the executive director of Peak Performances, for endowing it with ample resources: not least, a stage. Why do provocative operas like “Dog Days” rarely reach New York?

“Dog Days” is repeated from Friday through Sunday at the Alexander Kasser Theater, Montclair State University; (973) 655-5112, peakperfs.org.

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/arts/music/dog-days-new-opera-at-peak-performances-in-montclair.html?pagewanted=all

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Home

- Domestic Lives: Bumping Into the Characters

- Q&A;: Home Sweet Architectural Masterpiece

- Online: Designed (and Now Sold) in the U.S.A.

- Tile: Stone in Looks Alone

- Goods: A New Kind of Pure Design

- Furniture: Evoking Decadence With a Wild Touch

- Deals: Sales at Broadway Panhandler, Artek and Others

- The Pragmatist: Extended Shelf Life

- Market Ready

- Shopping With Rich Thrush: Power Strips

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Domestic Lives

Bumping Into the Characters

IMPRESSIONABLE The author in the mid-1950s. Serendipity and design coexist in a readable book, he writes, and in a home.

By MARK HELPRIN

THE great essayist Roger Rosenblatt once generously reminded me that “good writers have good accidents.” Accident is as much a part of fiction as anything else, symbolic of the grace that along with will conspires to put words on the page. The craftless anarchy of the Beat poets on the one hand, and the extreme control of Henry James on the other, suggest that for most human beings, just as both freedom and discipline are necessary in life, serendipity and design must coexist in a work to make it readable. Fortunately, the world is rich in the interweaving of the two, which can be found almost everywhere, and not least where one lives.

TRAIL Above, the house on the Hudson where the author grew up, in about 1952. It had been the stable of a financier and Civil War general. Bottom, his library that found its pleasing way into his new novel. Center, the author in Brooklyn circa 1980.

I was raised on the Hudson, in a house that had been the stable of the financier and Civil War general Brayton Ives. In midcentury, we had fire pits in the floor for heating, and rats everywhere, because they nested in the hay insulation.

Accidents began to happen early, when behind the massive beams we found a Kentucky rifle and a Whistler etching, both perfectly preserved. As a boy, I habitually took a path past a house where I could hear what I thought was an old man (younger than I am now) playing the piano. He was pretty good. He was also Aaron Copland.

Next to the New York Central tracks was a factory constructed of the same brick and slate as our house. Faded letters across its front read “Brandreth’s Pills.” What a surprise it was, in 11th grade, to find that Melville, who rode past this spot frequently as he traveled between Albany, the Berkshires and New York, wrote in “Moby-Dick” that to cure dyspepsia in a whale one would need “three or four boat loads of Brandreth’s pills.”

But it was not as surprising as the ancient in his 90s, as thin as a pipe cleaner and with wispy white hair, who wore a black three-piece suit even in the heat of July. He carried a huge sack to help him in collecting (stealing) insulators and iron spikes from the New York Central Railroad. He ran from everyone, including me, until one day he saw a book in my hand. I had taken “Leaves of Grass,” my homework, to read down by the Hudson.

“What’s that?” he asked. “Oh, him. The son of a bitch still owes me eight dollars.”

It might have been another amount, I’ve forgotten exactly, but from the nature and detail of his testimony, not to mention his obviously unfeigned resentment, I knew that it was true.

These were lovely accidents, purely serendipitous, much like what may be the origin of the name Holden Caulfield. In 1965, arriving at college, Google-less of course, I went deep underground and spun The New York Times on microfilm as far back as it went. Around the time that Salinger was working on “The Catcher in the Rye,” a movie called “Dear Ruth” was released, advertised with great fanfare and much space in the theatrical pages. The first names of the two leads, William and Joan, appeared in tiny letters. Beneath the small print, in gigantic type, reading from left to right as if to smack you in the face, were their last names: HOLDEN CAULFIELD. Serendipity. Nice.

It happens all the time, and where it gets quite interesting is in your own house, because what leaps out at you is so often conjoined with your preferences and your history. Here, the conscious and the subconscious, intent and accident, will and grace, often intersect. In some respects the writer’s house is like an artist’s model. She is chosen, she is posed, but like all elemental beauties, hers is beyond your design and therefore a continuing source of elevation and surprise.

I wrote a great deal of a novel, “Winter’s Tale,” on the roof of a Brooklyn Heights tenement on Henry Street. I was a technical climber, and now and then I would put down my manuscript and get up to walk along parapets and climb walls and chimneys. At the top of a chimney that had gone unused for a century, I looked down into the darkness. A sweet and lovely scent arose, the history of a hundred years of pine blazes on half a dozen hearths, still alive, still giving of itself night and day long afterward, even if to nothing but the sky. I thought this was so wonderful I had my protagonist do the same to remember what he had loved, what he had lost and to what he would be forever faithful.

THE house I live in now is also excellent territory for accidents.

One morning, I went downstairs and was astounded as the winter sun, low and rich on the horizon, illuminated the living room. The scene was perfect for where I found myself in “In Sunlight and in Shadow,” and I transplanted it: “In the very early morning when the sun was trapped by the stubby buildings across the river in Long Island City, it sent out weak rays to scout the gaps between the tenements, and these rays would leap the river and hit the bottles, their dim light making the room glow in preternatural brown, bringing up the colors so gently that they showed even finer than the blazes of color that would follow.”

Just before I was going to embark upon a section about the Battle of the Bulge, I was taking down sweaters and scarves from a high cabinet, when a piece of cloth fell on my head. It was artillery flannel, with blue lines marking it off so the gunners could cut it off its huge rolls into proper-size strips for their ramrods.

When I was a soldier in the winter mountains of the Middle East, despite our battle parkas and wool pants, we were always freezing. A supply truck stopped in front of our fort, and I asked two blue-lipped soldiers in the back if I could have a few pieces of cleaning flannel to use as a scarf. They were cutting it for me when an officer arrived, screamed at them and threatened to bring charges for theft of army property. He got in the truck and slammed the door, and as it drove away a magnificent bastard in the back, at risk to himself, and out of sympathy, understanding and defiance, threw me the whole roll. I shared it with my squad, and it saved us that winter. When the remnant piece fell on me 40 years later, it gave me a way into writing about the citizen soldiers of my father’s generation who breached the Siegfried Line in winter and certainly understood how in war a small gesture can illuminate the greater themes, the ever-present loss and the ever-present love.

And then there is my study, constructed according to my specifications and dominated by a great wall of books, which lent itself to the description of Catherine’s rooms in “In Sunlight and in Shadow.” Giving to her the rooms in which I myself was writing gave me great pleasure. At first I didn’t know why, but then I understood.

The day of the physical book as anything but a curious artifact is fast approaching. Out of continuing affection, I built a library to hold the books that I have read and those I have written. Much like the sweet smell from a century-old chimney, they are a wonderful, life-sustaining record with far greater power than their mere physical presence. But soon enough these books and what surrounds them will be scattered to the winds.

Houses, rooms, our designs of all sorts and all material things will eventually vanish. Because they cannot last, their value is in the present, in memories that die with us, in things that come unbidden to the eye and in the electric, immaterial, miraculous spark that occurs when by accident and design they jump the gap and, like life itself, are propagated into something else, becoming for a moment pure spirit, thus to become everlasting.

Mark Helprin is the author of, among other works, “Winter’s Tale,” “A Soldier of the Great War” and “In Sunlight and in Shadow,” just published.

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Currents | Q&A;

Home Sweet Architectural Masterpiece

Corine Vermeulen

Jacqueline Neal in her apartment in the Pavilion building.

By ALEXANDRA LANGE

Lafayette Park in Detroit consists of three high-rises, 24 single-story courthouses and 162 two-story town houses, completed in the early 1960s. It was an urban renewal project built on land that was once a working-class black neighborhood. It was designed by one of the 20th century’s most famous modern architects, Mies van der Rohe.

The exterior of the Pavilion building, which can be seen to the right of a row of Mies town houses.

A new book offering a portrait of Lafayette Park.

All these elements have spelled disaster in other cities, and yet Lafayette Park has been a success, with high occupancy rates, a racially diverse population and a strong commitment to maintaining Mies’s architecture.

In their new book, “Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies,” which is due out at the end of the month (Metropolis Books, $29.95), the editors Danielle Aubert, Lana Cavar and Natasha Chandani, graphic designers all, offer a portrait of Lafayette Park very different from the classic Mies monograph.

Contents include interviews with residents of Lafayette Park’s towers and town houses; archival materials from the complex’s history; an account of nine days spent trying to climate-control a corner apartment; and essays on Mies in Detroit, the Lafayette Park landscape, bird-watching and a record of bird-strike deaths (birds and plate glass don’t mix).

At-home portraits of residents by Corine Vermeulen show Mies’s architecture as a strong frame for personal expression. Some homes look like shrines to 1958, while others reflect the lived-in décor of decades. Jacqueline Neal, an interior designer and 12-year resident of the Pavilion, the smallest of the complex’s three towers, spoke last month about living and accessorizing with Mies.

What kind of interior design do you do?

For the past 17 years, I have been doing commercial design, corporate offices, working for C.E.O.’s. But the commercial industry has not come back as quickly as residential furniture. Residential is not difficult for a designer.

How did you come to live at Lafayette Park?

I went to college at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Mich. When I came back to Detroit, I kind of stumbled upon it. What drew me to the building was the ambience of the space when I would come by at night. When you drive down Rivard, you pass the town houses, and it gives you that serene feeling. Then you pull in and see the doorman at the Pavilion. When I finally came in and they gave me the brochure, I said, “I studied this guy in college.”

Design-wise, what do you like about the Pavilion?

I like the floors and the green marble walls in the lobby that are accented with chrome trim and chrome elevator doors. The housekeeping staff does an excellent job in maintaining the space. The floors are always done. Everything is original. When you invest in quality, you do get what you pay for. That’s a sad thing a lot of people don’t understand or appreciate.

What about Mies’s furniture?

That is not my style at all, no, uh-uh. It is sterile. When it comes to the furniture like that, to sit on it long-term, it doesn’t quite work for me. Would you really entertain in that living room? They have Mies chairs in the lobby of the Pavilion. They aren’t leather but they have that leather look. They are there with the glass table and the chrome.

So what is your taste like?

My taste is contemporary, classy and elegant. I am going to use a street term, not that I am a bougie woman by any stretch of the imagination, but I like quality things.

How big is your apartment?

This is a studio I have divided up. I want to say it is 600 square feet. I decided I was going to create my space to be like an elegant hotel suite. The green wall is the area designated for the bedroom, then I have a conversational grouping, then I have my office. I did put different shades of green on a lot of different walls, but I didn’t paint everything, because that would close up the space. Plus I know when I get ready to leave, I will have to paint all this back.

Why so much green?

About eight years ago in commercial environments, sage was really popular. I decided this was a color I can incorporate. Then I introduced aubergine. Those are my two foundational colors. I swap out chocolate or mint green, but never lose the sage.

You sound like you love decorating. What was the last thing you bought?

I just bought a huge sage and chocolate plate. And pillows. I love pillows. In fact, when I came in, the doorman said, “More pillows?” I got upstairs at 9:30 or quarter to ten, I wound down for a little bit, and then I had to do my little decorating. I could not wait for morning. It is all about the details.

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Currents | Online

Designed (and Now Sold) in the U.S.A.

By JILL SINGER

Since its founding in 2008, the American Design Club has curated nearly a dozen exhibitions to promote the work of young American product designers. Starting today, the group is hoping to add profit to their activities. A new Web store will sell a sampling of its designers’ jewelry, housewares and furniture, selected by the club’s five managing members, including their de facto leader, Kiel Mead. In deciding to go retail, Mr. Mead, a Brooklyn-based designer, said, “We didn’t look at spreadsheets and say, ‘Hey this one sells great.’ Everything had to fit our aesthetic.”

So what exactly is the look? While it’s certainly “not D.I.Y.,” Mr. Mead said, the club’s work has a handmade quality. Items range from Ladies & Gentlemen Studios’ Superior Server utensils ($30 each), left, to Fort Standard’s exposed-tenon stools ($250). There’s an easy accessibility — even to Reed Wilson’s doormat, right, which encourages burglars to move on down the hall ($50). Americandesignclubshop.com.

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/garden/american-design-clubs-new-retail-site.html?pagewanted=all

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Currents | Tile

Stone in Looks Alone

By STEPHEN MILIOTI

If you love the look of marble tile but balk at the maintenance requirements and potentially staggering price, you’ll find Mistery, a new tile from Rosa Gres, pretty chill: it looks like polished stone, but it’s really digitally printed ceramic. The easy-to-clean tile is produced in four colors (gray, white, sand and “blue stone”) and is equally suitable for interiors or a deck. “We’re already seeing many clients request a flow of color from inside to outside,” said Jason Quimby, who oversees the United States division of the Barcelona-based company. Even raised pool trims are available. The tile comes in two generous sizes, about 12 by 25 inches and about 19 by 31 inches, and is $3.99 to $5.79 a square foot. It will be in stores in January; until then, you can order it by phone. Information: (305) 591-3880 or rosagres.com/en.

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Currents | Goods

A New Kind of Pure Design

By RIMA SUQI

In an earlier life, Geoffrey Lilge was at the helm of Pure Design, a company that made modern furniture.

Since selling it 10 years ago, Mr. Lilge, an industrial designer based in Edmonton, Canada, has narrowed his focus to food. He and his wife, Cindy Lazarenko, who is a chef, have a new kitchen products company, On Our Table, which sells Mr. Lilge’s cutting boards, boxes for utensils and knife racks. All of the products are made in Edmonton, by hand, from wood. Mr. Lilge favors walnut. He also likes the big loop-shaped handle of the cane carried by the German designer Dieter Rams, a form Mr. Lilge has incorporated into his products.

“Some of these slabs are so big that to have that handle to help pull it out of your cupboard and onto your countertop works fabulously,” he said. Prices start at about $55 for an 8-by-18-inch charcuterie board. Information: (780) 695-0994 or onourtable.ca.

This article was downloaded by calibre from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/garden/handmade-walnut-cutting-boards-and-other-kitchenware.html?pagewanted=all

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Currents | Furniture

Evoking Decadence With a Wild Touch

By ELAINE LOUIE

Classical from a distance, furry up close, the limited edition Anhanguera sofa by Fernando and Humberto Campana is Mongolian lamb girded by ribbons of bronze sculpture. The sofa is part of the Campana brothers’ Brazilian Baroque collection, which was commissioned by Galleria O in Rome as an exercise in reimagining the Roman Baroque period. It can be seen at the gallery Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris until Feb. 24.

The Campanas collaborated with artisans in Rome to cast the bronze ornaments that add to the sofa’s lively appearance. “It’s a completely animated sofa, an alligator on top of the spider, the spider on top of a toothbrush,” Fernando Campana said, itemizing a few of the sculptures. “It’s a very deceptive sofa,” he added.

The name, however, is straightforward: Anhanguera is the road linking Saõ Paulo to Brotas, the Brazilian town where the brothers grew up.

The sofa is $193,000, at Les Arts Décoratifs, 107 rue de Rivoli, Paris; 011-33-1-44-55-57-50.

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Currents | Deals

Sales at Broadway Panhandler, Artek and Others

By RIMA SUQI

During Broadway Panhandler’s Columbus Day sale, through Monday, cookware is up to 70 percent off (the All-Clad stainless-steel petite Roti with rack, originally $245, is about $130); 65 East Eighth Street, (Mercer Street), (212) 966-3434, broadwaypanhandler.com.

Many items are 50 percent off during Mxyplyzyk’s sidewalk sale, Saturday to Monday (the 12-inch Tek Disco Ball wall clock, regularly $30, will be $15); 125 Greenwich Ave (13th Street), (212) 989-4300, mxyplyzyk.com.

Artek’s sample sale starts Saturday with up to 80 percent off furniture, lighting and decorative accessories through Monday (the white lacquered Stool 60 by Alvar Aalto, usually $310, will be $62); 199 Lafayette Street, Suite 5D (Kenmare Street), (212) 219-0589, artekfurniture.us.

All indoor lighting is 20 percent off during the Flos annual sale, through Oct. 15 (the Arco LED by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, left, was $3,250, now $2,600); 152 Greene Street (Houston Street), (212) 941-4760, flosusa.com.

Good deals may be reported to deals@nytimes.com.

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The Pragmatist

Extended Shelf Life

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

WALLFLOWERS Shelves built from old skis (top left), golf clubs (bottom left) and leather belts and lumber (right).

By BOB TEDESCHI

LIKE a lot of people, I entered the world of home maintenance when I installed my first set of shelves. It was just me, a screwdriver, screws, wall anchors, wood scraps and a set of directions evidently written by someone with a sick sense of humor.

D.I.Y. Shelves

After an hour of ineptitude and a monologue that would have made George Carlin blush, I beheld my first big-boy project, then promptly filled it with junk and checked off “shelves” as something I had learned enough about.

And for 20 years, I was right.

Then, in the last year, I’ve watched a steady stream of images course through Facebook, Pinterest and Houzz suggesting that shelves, of all things, have entered a new era of Marthafication.

“People are starting to use bookcases and shelving almost as a design element,” said Jordan Parnass, a Brooklyn-based designer and architect. “It lets you think about how to have something that becomes an interesting object that still serves a purpose.”

A quick trip through design blogs reveals shelves made from grand-piano cases, leather belts, 35-millimeter film, skateboards, snowboards and just about anything else you can screw to a wall.

O.K., I figured. If this trend represents Shelving 102, let’s make a run at it.

In addition to Mr. Parnass, I called on Barry Katz, a Connecticut-based designer and builder, and Ronique Gibson, publisher of the Stagetecture home design blog. Their counsel: if one approaches the project with a modest appreciation for aesthetics and home construction, a shelf can move beyond its lowly Sherpa status.

To that I’ll add one thing: namely, don’t try to get too cute too quickly while recycling flat old toys for the project. I did, and nearly crossed the DMZ separating cool from dangerously ugly.

But more on that later. To start, it helps to understand the basics of home construction.

Many homeowners know that modern houses are framed with two-inch-by-four-inch lengths of wood or steel called studs, and these studs are generally 16 inches apart. If the framers built your home on the cheap, the studs might be 24 inches apart.

You can secure a shelf on a wall by attaching it to the drywall with anchors, but my panelists said you’re much better off screwing through the wallboard and directly into the center of the stud because drywall, unlike wood, can crumble.

You may not need such strength for displaying ceramic replicas of endangered tree frogs, but should you ever replace them with other endangered species (like, for instance, books), the added stability will be useful.

Unfortunately, finding a stud poses challenges that will be familiar to anyone who has ever tried to locate something on the other side of a wall.

Mr. Katz recommended using electronic stud finders. “But I regard them as a step up from divining rods,” Mr. Katz said. “I’m not sure how they work.”

I found an old entry-level Zircon stud finder, which I compared to a new $30 Zircon that purports to find the center of the stud. It’s an important nuance, since you don’t want to be alerted, by the sound of crashing ceramic frogs, that you drilled into the edge of a stud.

In my younger daughter’s room, I tried to attach a so-called floating shelf (Lack, from Ikea, $15), which has no diagonal support and must therefore be anchored to a stud. The stud finders disagreed on all but two of the nine likely stud locations along a 35-inch span of wall between a door and a closet. With all the pencil markings, the wall looked like a scratch pad.

What to do?

I chose the thinnest drill bit I could find and poked holes into the wallboard at the likeliest spots, hoping to feel the resistance of the stud at some point. No luck.

I tried the other seven spots, figuring the shelf would conceal the holes. Still nothing.

This span of wall, it turned out, had no stud. (I still don’t know what set off the stud finders.) Meanwhile, the shelf wasn’t wide enough for me to screw its edges into the wall’s outer frame, so I put that particular plan on the, uh, back burner.

Ms. Gibson pointed out that stud finders are often unnecessary anyway. Some people, she said, can rap their knuckles along the wall and find studs by sound.

They’re probably the same people who can pick combination locks using their ears, or tune gongs. I tried Ms. Gibson’s suggestion and got sore knuckles and no studs.

Ms. Gibson said if you start at the edge of a wall and measure 16 inches in, then in 16-inch spans beyond that — allowing for the roughly 1 ½-inch width of a common stud — you have better chances of scoring. Look closely at the wall from different angles, too. Beneath the paint, you might see markings where the builder screwed the drywall to the studs.

Apartments with brick or concrete construction can carry heavy shelves nearly anywhere, since masonry anchors are extremely stable. This is especially good news for those in small apartments, Mr. Parnass said.

“Walls are one of your greatest assets in reducing the amount of stuff you have in the way, and making the room as open and spacious as possible,” he said.

Assuming you can find a stable platform and firmly anchor it to a wall, a shelf’s design can take nearly any form, my panelists said.

“I like the idea of making shelves out of reclaimed materials, especially if it’s something that was going to end up in a landfill,” Mr. Katz said. “If you have a family that skis, there might be a leftover pair that you could turn into a shelf in a kid’s room.”

With no skiers in my family, I trekked last week to the local antique warehouse, where I found a splintered wooden pair that most likely never felt the chill of artificial snow. I also grabbed a pair of old wooden golf clubs, thinking I could lay them across shelf brackets and prop a row of books on top. Finally, I stopped at a nearby Salvation Army, where I picked up some old leather belts.

I then bought some basic metal shelving brackets and some good quality screws (Power Pro brand, 2 ½-inch wood screws, $6 for a 1-pound box). At home I pulled out my cordless drill, a level and a pencil, and set to work.

The ski shelves turned out fine, if not downright cool. They screwed easily into brackets, and the profile was subtle but interesting on the wall. (I plan to swap out the new metal brackets, which were a poor match for vintage skis, for more rustic wood.)

The leather belts worked well, too. Using passable directions from Ms. Gibson’s site, I attached the belts to a piece of reclaimed barn lumber from my garage, then screwed the belts into the wall. One big caveat: use sturdy, solid belts. The first one I tested ripped at a seam, and the second was so thin the screw tore it open.

The old golf clubs were a bad idea, mostly because the “wood” shafts were really just plastic veneer covering extremely hard metal. With woefully inadequate drill bits and no vise to secure the squirming clubs, I needed around 40 minutes to drill four holes.

It got worse. I couldn’t find screws that would thread through the metal and into the shelf brackets (nor could my go-to hardware store manager), so I wedged dowels into the holes, then slipped shims under the skinny parts of the clubs to keep my “shelves” level. Later I swapped the metal brackets for wooden ones (Truwood 7-inch bracket, $10.50) and cut channels to hold the shafts more securely.

After all that work, I stepped back and thought, “Meh.”

At least I had managed to attach them to a stud.

As far as I know.

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Market Ready

By TIM McKEOUGH

Q. Our house has a dirt driveway. Would it pay to put in something more permanent?

A. “The condition of the driveway sets the tone for the condition of the home,” said Amanda Miller, a real estate agent with Sotheby’s International Realty in Greenwich, Conn. If you have a driveway that’s in poor repair, buyers may immediately assume the rest of the house needs work as well.

It’s important to consider the context. If your home is in a secluded, wooded area, she said, “a dirt driveway would add allure and charm to the approach” and could probably be left as is. But if you’re in a more populated, manicured area, putting in something more permanent, in a material like asphalt, stone or concrete, she said, “would be a wise investment.”

A driveway can be an appealing design feature when done well, said Joe Weuste, the owner of the landscape design firm Summerset Gardens, in Warwick, N.Y.

“One mistake I see people make is that they don’t think the driveway needs to be designed like the rest of the yard,” he said. In fact, it deserves as much attention as the front walk or the front steps.

The most economical material for a new driveway, and a very attractive option, is gravel, Mr. Weuste said. (His driveway at home is gravel, as it happens.) It may require some maintenance, he said, as snowplows can push the gravel to one side during the winter, and weeds can grow up from time to time.

“But to me,” he said, “it’s worth it for the look and feel.”

Gravel is best in a somewhat rural setting, he said, and owners of homes in urban settings might prefer asphalt, which tends to be more expensive, or concrete pavers, which can cost even more. The most high-end option, he said, is cobblestone, but it might be worth the expense for an upscale property.

“Cobblestones are so elegant and timeless,” he said. “They worked hundreds of years ago and they’re still around. There’s something so charming when you pull into a cobblestone driveway.”

To create a similar effect on a budget for a number of his projects, Mr. Weuste has installed cobblestones along the edges of the driveway and as a “driveway apron” (covering the first few feet of the driveway, where it connects to the road) and then used gravel for the rest. “That adds some visual appeal to the driveway, while keeping costs down,” he said.

But if you plan to stay in your home for a few more years, Ms. Miller suggested thinking carefully about the functional requirements of your driveway. The crunch of gravel under tires “sounds great when you’re approaching,” she said, and could help create a positive impression. “But it’s tough to walk on in heels,” she added, and makes it “difficult for the kids to ride bikes.”

Questions about repairs or redecorating in preparation for putting a home on the market may be sent to marketready@nytimes.com. Unpublished questions cannot be answered individually.

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Shopping With Rich Thrush

Power Strips

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

ZAPPED Rich Thrush ponders the merits of a Lightning Bolt power strip at AC Gears in the East Village. He tends to favor the more discreet strips that you rarely, if ever, notice.

By RIMA SUQI

RICH THRUSH has a strategy when it comes to power strips, one he practices religiously at home and at work: “I have one strip for devices that need to be on all the time and another for devices that can be shut off periodically, like backup camera batteries and phone chargers.”

Multimedia

And all of those power strips are hidden from view. “They’re under the bed, and under the sofa in the living room,” he said. “And in my office, they’re hidden behind rows of models on the windowsill.”

An avowed minimalist, Mr. Thrush, 36, is the director of industrial design at Kaz Inc., a company that makes products for brands like Braun, Vicks and Honeywell. He had agreed to shop for interesting-looking power strips, despite his own predilection for hiding them. But he began by offering a word of warning.

Making a statement is fine, he said, standing in the middle of AC Gears, the electronics and gadgets store, holding a lightning bolt, a bright yellow power strip that demanded to be put on display. “Just don’t fill a room with statements,” he said. “It’s annoying and confusing when everyone speaks at once.”

While the lightning bolt might not make its way into Mr. Thrush’s home or workplace, the Pivot Power Strip, which he found at the Museum of Modern Art Design Store in SoHo, was a stronger candidate. “I often find myself modifying products to fit specific situations, but not everyone is handy,” he said. “This allows for a consumer to modify it to fit specific situations, or just to noodle around.”

Scott Wilson’s Power Pod, which Mr. Thrush spotted online at Coalesse, was a favorite because it combined two things everyone needs: a pencil cup and power.

“Instead of trying to hide the outlets under the desk where they’re difficult to deal with,” he said, “they’re right there where you need them” — under the pencil cup. Even better, he added, is “the option to make them less unsightly when not in use,” by hiding them under the cup.

The Blue Lounge cable box, which he also found online, offered a different version of a similar strategy.

“It takes the power strip and changes it into something else,” Mr. Thrush said. “It’s almost like a little storage box or a landing spot for your phone.”

But for a minimalist like Mr. Thrush, there was one obvious choice: the Belkin Conceal surge protector.

“I love the orderliness of the cords and the ability to hard-mount it,” he said. And “if you hard-mount it in an inconspicuous spot, it just becomes part of the architecture.”

RIMA SUQI

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Thursday Styles

- Paris Fashion Show(down)

- When Branches Tangle in a Stepfamily Tree

- Echoes of Studio 54

- Boîte: Toy

- One Hand Washes the Other, to Soap Sellers’ Benefit

- Critical Shopper: A Leopard in a Cage at the Shoe Zoo

- Front Row: Monet Along the Runway

- Scouting Report

- Blue State or Red? Look at the Fingers

- The Gospel According to Pinterest

- Noted: And What About My Broken Nail!

- Scene City: Paris Sighs, Then Celebrates

- Designer Confections

- Up Close: Leaving the Shop, Not Curating, Behind

- The Evening News

- Moss on Moss

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Paris Fashion Show(down)

Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times, Gio Staiano/Nowfashion

RAF Raf Simons brought a new modernity to the house of Dior, while shaking up the rules of minimalism and wiping away the specter of the John Galliano scandal.HEDI At the newly renamed Saint Laurent, Hedi Slimane was surprisingly reverential to the historic codes of the master of the house, even if not exactly so to the guests.

By ERIC WILSON

PARIS

Multimedia

ON the morning of Sept. 26, at the beginning of the spring collections, the cover of Women’s Wear Daily arrived at fashionable hotels across this city bearing a composite image that pitted the designers Raf Simons and Hedi Slimane against each other, with a headline in bold type that declared a “Paris Face-Off.”

For months, the industry had been buzzing about the arrival of the popular designers at two of the biggest houses here on the world’s greatest fashion stage. Mr. Simons, after a well-received couture collection in July, would show his first women’s ready-to-wear for the house of Dior on Friday; and Mr. Slimane, whose slimmed-down suits for men were wildly influential during his years at Dior Homme, in the early 2000s, would have his first runway show for Yves Saint Laurent on Monday. The label is now called simply Saint Laurent, at his direction.

Suzy Menkes, writing in The International Herald Tribune that morning, described the competition as “the clash of two new titanic designers.” Mr. Simons and Mr. Slimane are the same age, 44, and they established their reputations in men’s wear at roughly the same time. This has contributed to the impression that they would again be competitors.

Nevertheless, the news of their debuts this week has, in its drama, approached the Shakespearean. For it is an ancient grudge — or at least a verifiable rivalry between the two households of Dior and Saint Laurent, and the luxury conglomerates that own them — that has made this story so fascinating to behold. At the very least, theirs had been the two most anticipated collections of the season that ended here on Wednesday.

“I saw fashion people starting the week in New York thinking, ‘Oh, the clock is ticking, three more weeks of waiting until tonight,’ ” said Virginie Mouzat, an influential critic who is ending her role as the fashion editor for Le Figaro this week to become an editor at the about-to-be-introduced Vanity Fair France.

The arrival of Mr. Simons at Dior and Mr. Slimane at Saint Laurent coincided with a prolonged period of intense change in fashion, as the great couture houses established in the 20th century, while still powerful, seek to find critical paths to relevance with a new generation of consumers. Both labels have undergone considerable strain in recent times: Dior, with the career-derailing implosion of John Galliano; and Saint Laurent, with a culture of resistance to attempts by any designer to create a look that is not in keeping with the tradition of Mr. Saint Laurent, who died in 2008.

Ultimately, the approaches of Mr. Simons and Mr. Slimane proved to be more different in nature, and less illustrative of a rivalry, than anyone had expected. And their differences could be seen, literally, in spaces that were black and white.

MR. SIMONS went first.

His show took place not far from the Rodin Museum, the site of many recent Dior shows by Mr. Galliano and by the design team that filled in during the arduous search for a new designer. It was held in a vast white cube that had been erected on one side of the Hôtel National des Invalides, practically at the doorstep of Napoleon’s tomb.

Inside, the space was divided into more-intimate rooms, with bright lighting, white carpeting and pastel-curtained windows placed randomly in the walls so that guests could see into the neighboring rooms.

Mr. Simons told reporters in advance of the show that he was interested in breaking free of the restrictions of minimalism, an aesthetic with which he is often associated, by “embracing the sexual, emotional, sensual and feminine in the collection.”

Valerie Steele, the director of the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology, was one of many guests at the show who said that Mr. Simons was an inspired choice for Dior. There had been a widespread impression that Mr. Galliano’s collections had not really changed in years, and that the company had become almost singularly focused on the sales of lucrative accessories and cosmetics.

“Dior was not just about the hourglass,” Ms. Steele said. “He did the ‘H’ line, the ‘A’ line, the ‘Y’ line, and that’s perfect for Raf, who is all about line.”

In many ways that day, Mr. Simons sought to break free of the past (both of Dior and his own) with clothes that had more freedom of movement, creating new shapes and jackets, some based on a tuxedo, that were long enough to be worn as coats. And he conveyed the sexual notion he had cited through short dresses in a combination of electric and pastel colors, some made of a fabric that looked like cellophane.

The reviews were exceptional. Bridget Foley, in WWD, wrote that it was “well worth every drop of anticipation and every second of the wait.” Ms. Menkes called it “a triumph of 21st century modernism.”

At the show, Sidney Toledano, the chief executive of Dior, looked like a proud father. Retailers who had never carried the line have been sending him notes asking for appointments.

And the mood in the atelier, he said, has been remarkably light and open, not only because Mr. Simons had succeeded in wiping away the gloom left by Mr. Galliano’s unceremonious exit, but also because, as the critics said, he understood the vision of Christian Dior and interpreted it in his own modern way.

Just as important, Mr. Toledano said, “he respected the people inside the atelier, from the first moment he joined the company.”

THE phone calls came late Monday morning, on the day of the Saint Laurent show. In turn, reporters and critics from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Style.com, WWD and other publications were each presented with what amounted to ground rules for covering the collection, which is highly unusual.

There would be no backstage access before the show, they were told. Afterward, they were welcome to talk to Mr. Slimane, but they were not allowed to ask him questions, or use anything he might say in their coverage.

In the months before the show, virtually every action by Mr. Slimane, who had mostly been working as a photographer, had been weighted with significance. He changed the name of the house, designed a new logo and, most controversially, decided to base his studio in Los Angeles, rather than the Paris atelier.

But the handling of invitations and access to the show (as many editors, including some editors in chief, privately grumbled) left a feeling of ill will. Stylists and editors who are normally in the front row were given seats in the second, third or fourth, including the stylist Karl Templer, several magazine fashion directors and many editors from Vogue.

Several journalists, including Cathy Horyn of The Times, were not invited (although this reporter was); others, including veteran writers like Marylou Luther, who was present when Yves Saint Laurent showed his first collection for Christian Dior in 1958, were given a standing ticket.

Of course, intrigue and mystery have surrounded the house of Saint Laurent since its founding in the early 1960s. And for all of the complaints about their treatment, some found it amusing. “There isn’t enough theater in fashion right now,” said Ingrid Sischy, the international editor for Vanity Fair Europe.

The show, held in a black-swathed gallery in the rafters of the Grand Palais, so dark that it was difficult to read the names on the seats, was attended by an impressive list of designers, including Marc Jacobs, Azzedine Alaïa, Vivienne Westwood, Riccardo Tisci and Alber Elbaz (many of whom also attended Mr. Simons’s couture show in July). Valérie Trierweiler, the partner of French president François Hollande, told WWD she was there “to discover this show that has everyone talking before they even see it.”

In fact, there was more anticipation for Mr. Slimane’s show than that of Mr. Simons, namely because Mr. Slimane has been absent from the runways for more than five years, and he had never before shown a complete collection for women.

“I remember the Dior Homme shows that Hedi did, and instantly, within six months, one year, everyone wanted to wear the jacket and the slim jeans, whether they were boys or girls,” Ms. Mouzat said. “This is another interesting point of the legacy of Mr. Saint Laurent, the crossing between the men and women with pants and black tie. I think in Hedi’s mind, this was a very strong statement that he did with Dior Homme. Even though it was labeled for men, lots of girls wanted to wear it, too.”

Mr. Slimane also has the support of Pierre Bergé, the co-founder of the house of Saint Laurent, who has championed the designer since he worked on YSL’s men’s wear early in his career, and has criticized everyone else who succeeded Mr. Saint Laurent. The contract of the most recent designer, Stefano Pilati, had not been renewed, partly because of Mr. Bergé’s frequent complaints that his work was not respectful enough of Mr. Saint Laurent.

As Mr. Bergé said after the show, Mr. Slimane’s collection had indeed paid homage to the codes established by Mr. Saint Laurent, something that was also not lost on the audience, for better or worse.

Mr. Slimane’s look echoed the sort of bohemian chic of long caftans, peasant blouses, frilly bows, tiered skirts and fringed jackets that Mr. Saint Laurent designed in the 1970s. His fellow designers praised the collection for being “very Saint Laurent” (Diane von Furstenberg said she completely identified with the look because she wore the same thing in her youth). And it should be noted that retailers appeared enthusiastic.

But the collection was not entirely well received. Although Mr. Slimane’s signature skinny suits were there, in the form of tuxedos, the collection was not what critics expected.

Sarah Mower, writing at Vogue.com, said his women’s wear debut “shone an unexpected light on him, not as a raging rebel, but as someone who declares himself, first and foremost, loyal to the house’s founding principles.”

WWD said, “It was interesting to the point of odd.”

In the end, there was no chance to not ask Mr. Slimane a question. About two dozen guests waited at a backstage door, then were roughly ushered to another exit and told that he had left.

After the show, many online commenters, perhaps unaware of Mr. Saint Laurent’s influences and his close study of the bohemian style of the eccentric heiress Talitha Getty, among others, noted the similarity of Mr. Slimane’s style with a contemporary one that was probably not as Mr. Slimane intended: that of the Hollywood stylist Rachel Zoe, who more than anyone is responsible for reviving that Saint Laurent look in celebrity fashion, especially in Los Angeles.

Tuesday morning, at the Chanel show, someone handed Ms. Zoe a copy of that day’s WWD, with pictures of the collection. Even from across the runway, she looked to be floored.

“You’re the talk of the town,” Joe Zee, the creative director of Elle, told her.

“I literally received 20 phone calls last night in the span of 20 minutes,” Ms. Zoe said with a cackle. “I don’t know what to say. I doubt I really was an influence, but I think it’s the most unbelievable collection. I literally want every single piece.”

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When Branches Tangle in a Stepfamily Tree

Cindy Luu

By ELISSA GOOTMAN

HERE’S a not-so-uncommon predicament: A divorced man with kids marries a woman who also has children. At the wedding, their respective constellations of relatives — siblings, parents — get to know one another. Over the years, they start to bond as an extended family. Homes are shared for weekend and holiday visits. Gifts are exchanged, relationships forged.

Then the couple splits.

Suddenly these step-relatives, unbound by biological or legal ties, are former step-relatives, left to puzzle over the sorts of questions that can require a whiteboard to explain.

Do you invite your ex-stepsister to your wedding, given that you shared a bunk bed with her for seven formative years? How long should you continue texting your ex-stepson if he doesn’t text back? And what, if anything, do you call your ex-stepgrandmother?

For thousands of people, such questions are not hypothetical. While the number of people with former step-relatives is not tracked, researchers agree that it is substantial, with no indications of shrinking.

In a 2010 study by the Pew Research Center, 42 percent of adults surveyed said they had at least one step-relative. Studies have shown that second marriages are more likely to end in divorce than first marriages. And a rise in births among cohabitating couples could lead to more situations in which people are effectively ex-steps, even if their relationships were not legally sealed through marriage.

There are books offering help adjusting to stepfamily life, with optimistic titles like “The Smart Stepdad,” “The Happy Stepmother” and “The Step-Tween Survival Guide.” But when stepdads aren’t smart, stepmothers aren’t happy and the marriages that brought them together do not survive, there are no road maps for the dos and don’ts of ex-step etiquette.

“This is a new area, really on the frontier of American family life and kinship,” said Andrew J. Cherlin, a professor of sociology and public policy at Johns Hopkins and author of the 2009 book “The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today.” “We don’t really know whether there is enough bonding to make a step-relationship survive the breakup of the family.”

In a recent study, Marilyn Coleman and Lawrence H. Ganong, professors at the University of Missouri, interviewed 29 people ages 18 to 32 who have former stepparents.

They found that relationships fell into three categories: “never claimed” (those who never embraced their stepparent as a family member), “unclaimed” (those who considered the stepparent to be a parent figure during the marriage, but not afterward) and “claimed” (those who continued to consider their ex-stepparent as a family member after the divorce).

But how do the dynamics play out within those categories? Below, an alternative (and thoroughly unscientific) taxonomy, compiled after interviews with researchers, therapists and ex-step-everythings.

PROBLEM SOLVED

When parents divorce for the first time, they often try to reassure their children that they are not responsible for the breakup. When second marriages end, it can be hard to make such assertions with a straight face. “A lot of the tension may have been over the children,” said Mary T. Kelly, a marriage and family therapist in Boulder, Colo., who leads “Married With Baggage” workshops for remarried couples.

When stepfamilies are ravaged by fights over how to discipline the children (fathers tend to be more lenient than their new wives), or between teenagers and their stepparents, those involved may be relieved to go their separate ways.

“It’s the reality we don’t like to talk about,” Ms. Kelly said. “We’re very addicted to happy endings in this culture.”

Paul Hokemeyer, a Manhattan therapist, said he had seen plenty of “situations where the kids say: ‘Get out of here! I don’t want you here!’ ” to their stepparents.

But haven’t children been known to direct such comments at their own parents? “They don’t mean it,” he said. With stepparents, apparently, they often really do.

FORCED OUT

Not surprisingly, divorcing couples may not agree on the matter of whether certain relationships born of the defunct marriage should continue.

Gretchen, a 39-year-old sales representative (who, like many people interviewed for this article, did not want her last name used), lived with her fiancé and his two sons for a year and a half. She grew close to them, she said, seeing them as the future half-siblings of the children she one day hoped to have. Then the fiancé broke off the engagement, forbidding Gretchen, she said, from having any contact with the boys. “I begged and pleaded and tried to state my case,” she said. “To no avail.”

Even if her ex-fiancé had been an ex-husband, Gretchen’s situation might not have changed.

“You have no legal ties to an ex-stepkid,” Professor Coleman said, adding that the parent “can stop you from seeing that child again.”

But Gretchen’s former fiancé saw things differently than she did. In his view, the breakup was accompanied by such animosity that, he said, “I made a judgment call that it wasn’t in the kids’ best interests” for them to maintain contact with her. The boys “liked her a lot,” he said. “I gave it a lot of thought.”

Denise, 43, a banker, said that when her first marriage dissolved, her parents were distraught over losing her ex-husband’s daughter, whom they treated as a granddaughter. “You know the movie with Tom Hanks, where he goes back and he’s a kid and he goes to F. A. O. Schwarz and dances on one of those keyboards?” she said, referring to a scene in the film “Big.” “My parents bought her one of those.”

Denise has three stepchildren from her current marriage; her parents are kind to them, she said, but “this time around they’ve been a little more cautious.”

DRIFTING APART

If you don’t talk to your brother for 20 years, he’s still your brother. Don’t talk to your ex-stepbrother, and he becomes just another former acquaintance.

Former step-relationships take work, planning and juggling. Drop the ball, and there’s no guarantee that anyone else will pick it up.

Many a stepmother would be thrilled to be described the way Graham McCaulley, a graduate student at the University of Missouri, speaks of his: as “one-third of my parents” during the years she was married to his father. “Being in that stepfamily was a really positive experience,” he said.

Post-divorce, Mr. McCaulley and his former stepmother tried to get everyone together: there were monthly sibling dinners, annual family barbecues, holiday reunions.

“It went from every Christmas, every birthday, to a little more sparingly, maybe just a call, and then everybody just kind of doing their own thing,” he said. “With my mom, it was never in question: you’re going to go over there for Christmas. But with this, there were no rules. It was: ‘Oh, I guess we’re going to go over there. We need to talk about this and figure it out.’

“We just kind of separated over time. There were no heated words. You’re talking 10 years later under these ambiguous circumstances.”

Mr. McCaulley’s former stepmother, Sheila Martin-McCaulley, agreed. “I always felt like I didn’t want to interrupt,” she said. “An ex-stepmom — where in the world does that person fit in?”

ONE-WAY STREET

Sometimes one person shoulders the burden of maintaining a step-relationship. Patricia Papernow, a Massachusetts psychologist, has seen clients grow distraught after former stepchildren refused to return their phone calls.

“They wanted to go talk to them,” she said. “There was one who wanted to fly on a plane to another state.” She counseled them to write letters instead, sending the message that “I know it’s hard for you to be connected to me right now, but when you’re ready, I’m here.”

After writing such a letter, Dr. Papernow advises, send cards on major holidays, and keep the messages brief. “Resist the temptation to leak your despair onto the child,” she said.

For years, Elizabeth Einstein, a marriage and family therapist in Ithaca, N.Y., who has written books about stepfamilies, worked to maintain her relationship with two ex-stepchildren, despite the fact that the divorce was not a happy one.

“I had a deep emotional investment, and they with me, because I had raised them,” she said. Over 30 years, she grew to feel “tired of being the only one doing all the work.”

“I loved these kids,” she said. “But they weren’t kids anymore.”

A FRIENDLY OUTCOME

When Greta Russell started dating her first husband, she was closer in age to her teenage stepdaughter, Kim Marshall, than to him. The mother-stepdaughter relationship was “kind of rocky” at the outset, she said. “Very odd,” Ms. Marshall agreed. With time, things shifted. “She got over the, ‘Oh, my dad is with this really young person,’ and we started to get to know each other,” Ms. Russell said.

After four years, the marriage fell apart, and Ms. Russell, now 36, was unsure what would happen to her relationship with Ms. Marshall. “When you’re dealing with a divorce, everything gets shaken up, and you’re never quite sure how other people are going to take that decision,” she said. But by then, Ms. Marshall, now 25, was in college; they were two adults, bound not by the legal ties that had brought them together but by the friendship they had cultivated.

It is still “the best thing that came out of that marriage,” Ms. Russell said.

WHAT’S YOUR MOTIVE?

The decision to nurture former step-relationships can mean accepting certain awkward situations, like waiting in the same hospital as your former husband while your former stepdaughter-in-law gives birth to a baby who would have been your stepgrandchild.

When a client of Dr. Hokemeyer’s expressed a desire to be present at the hospital while the daughter of her longtime but now former husband gave birth, the therapist worked with her to answer what he considered the key question: what was her motive?

“When there’s a divorce, there’s a profound sense of loss, and people try to mitigate that loss by holding on to relationships that they would be better off letting go,” Dr. Hokemeyer said. “Make sure that you are acting out of genuine love and concern for the other person, and not out of anger and attempts to manipulate.” In the birth case, Dr. Hokemeyer and his client determined that her motives were pure. She genuinely cared for her ex-stepdaughter-in-law and wanted to preserve their relationship, which was meaningful and deep, though convoluted to describe.

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Echoes of Studio 54

Deidre Schoo for The New York Times

Frankie Sharp (center), party promoter, with dancers at Westgay at the Westway, a West Village club.

By WILLIAM VAN METER

THE mercurial promoter behind the city’s “It” club night, Westgay at the Westway, was giving the go-go boys a pep talk.

“You’re all big whores,” Frankie Sharp said, “but I want you to be even bigger whores.”

It was almost midnight on a Tuesday last month, and the four young men with ample physiques wore briefs, jean vests, trucker hats, nerd glasses and high-tops. Their attire was from Mr. Sharp’s closet.

Mr. Sharp had on a Jeremy Scott sweater and matching knit leggings covered in images of Bart Simpson. Mr. Sharp is a friend of the designer and has modeled in ads for Mr. Scott’s Adidas line. Later, for comfort, Mr. Sharp, 32, switched out of the sweater and donned a plastic “Blade Runner” raincoat.

Since it began in February, Westgay, on Clarkson Street in the far West Village, has been a filled-to-capacity nexus for all strata of gay society.

“A spectrum of boys come,” Mr. Sharp said. “Chelsea queens, Hell’s Kitchen dudes and leather daddies.” It is also a fashion industry magnet with habitués like Alexander Wang, Nicola Formichetti and Prabal Gurung.

“Social hierarchy is left at the door,” said Stevie Huynh, a makeup artist and weekly visitor. “It’s feels like the authentic New York of the ’70s and ’80s.”

In the regimented club scene, a casteless society, à la the disco equalizer Studio 54, is a singular accomplishment. Each Tuesday there is a performance, ranging from Willam, an alumnus of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” to the underground rappers House of Ladosha and the pop singer Natalia Kills, usually culled from Mr. Sharp’s personal contacts. The debauchery peaks between 2 and 4 a.m.

“People get wasted and it turns rowdier,” Mr. Sharp said. “Every Wednesday I check Craigslist’s Missed Connections. My favorite was, ‘We met in the bathroom and I spilt poppers on you.’ That is great advertising.”

In an era in which the decadent aspects of gay night life have been co-opted by hookup apps, and D.J.’s spin pop suitable for a taxi ride, the risqué and progressive ambience at Westgay is a throwback to a halcyon era.

“I keep it a visceral experience,” Mr. Sharp said, “an environment you commit to. Once you’re at the West Side Highway, you’re not going anywhere else.”

All of this for a $5 entrance fee.

Mr. Sharp’s assistant, Amy Cakes, who has sherbet-colored hair and was wearing biker shorts with a French-fry pattern, is in touch with him throughout the night by text to coordinate the mayhem.

“I’ve worked with a lot of people who are only in it for the money,” Ms. Cakes said. “Frankie is in it for the fun and to put on something that’s different.”

In his East Village apartment a couple of weeks later, Mr. Sharp reclined on his bed in a T-shirt emblazoned with a pentagram. Recovering from a series of late nights, he sipped water mixed with multiple packets of Emergen-C. The wall was decorated with a shooting-range target depicting a thug holding a gun to a woman’s head.

“She looks like Dorothy from ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ” he explained, “and I’m a friend of Dorothy.”

MR. SHARP was born in the Philippines to a local woman and a man in the United States military. When he was 5, the family, which includes two sisters, relocated to the United States and moved frequently for the father’s job. Young Frankie attended a performing-arts high school in San Diego and was out of the closet his freshman year.

“I’d go to this cafe called Old Vienna,” he said. “It was sort of gothic, and a lot of Navy guys used to go. There’d be sailors in uniform but with Marilyn Manson face paint. It was the hottest combination, these weird bisexual rad sailors.”

This appreciation of the juxtaposition of the absurd and sexy clearly influenced Mr. Sharp’s meticulous curation of Westgay, where he handpicks the staff, including the cocktail waiter he requires to dress in drag.

Mr. Sharp briefly studied film at San Francisco State University but dropped out to work in a Diesel store and be a perennially late receptionist.

“San Francisco has a weird way of keeping you there when you’re not doing anything,” he said. “Essentially, I was partying and lying in the park for eight years.”

In 2007, he began a club night, “Work Me, Goddammit,” named after an old house track, with Brontez Purnell.

“We were out every night,” Mr. Purnell said. “If you’re going to be a scenester, you might as get paid for it. We were broke and would split sandwiches.”

“It stood out,” Mr. Purnell said of the party. “Here was a black boy and an Asian having a crazy hipster party, and we’d walk around naked. At the time, San Francisco was blasé and underground with instrumental house music. We played soul and top 40.”

Before the pair turned the club around, it had not been the chicest establishment.

“It was a dilapidated dive bar,” Mr. Sharp said. “It was old men in wheelchairs and crackheads. It was a smaller-scale version of Westgay. I’d fly in YouTube stars and reality-TV people, things I’m still doing.”

Mr. Purnell added, “There started to be Frankie clones, these boys rocking looks directly copied from him.”

In 2009, Mr. Sharp moved to New York.

“The idea was to be a stylist,” he said. “I assisted people and learned you don’t get paid.” He found the clubs lacking. “It was a bunch of people in black staring at each other,” he said. “There was a void that needed to be filled.”

He began a successful yearlong fete at the East Village haunt Bedlam before being recruited by the Westway, which is owned by the entrepreneurs Matt Kliegman and Carlos Quirarte, owners of the Smile and operators of the Jane Hotel’s ballroom, and their director of night life, Lyz Olko.

“We needed something beyond a straight hipster crowd,” Ms. Olko said. “Frankie is current but can also reference the Tunnel or the club-kid era or the ’80s. I introduced him to Matt and Carlos, and they were impressed that he had everything outlined on paper. He is actually very professional.”

Star party promoters like Susanne Bartsch, whose profiles are derived from the largess of their personalities and their Pied Piper social abilities, have become rare birds. Mr. Sharp would seem to possess those qualities as well as a pop sensibility that is more in tune with the masses than a Bushwick warehouse party, the music more party jam than underground techno.

Mr. Sharp intends to use his balance of shenanigans and business acumen for bigger projects. Next year, he plans to produce one-off Westgays in Hong Kong and at Art Basel Miami Beach.

“I don’t just want to do fun seedy parties,” he said. “I don’t take it too seriously, but it’s my main source of income. I get off on putting these people together and making a family and creating a fun place. I’d like to do that on a bigger scale.”

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Boîte

Toy

By JOSHUA DAVID STEIN

IT’S the mark of a hot room when a nightclub rivals Lindsay Lohan for mention on Page Six. Such is the case with Toy, a bombastic new club in the meatpacking district owned by Jeffrey Chodorow and the Koch Brothers (not the Tea Party ones, the nightclub ones). Since opening in August, the 1980s-inspired club has had a red carpet’s worth of celebrity sightings, including Wilmer Valderrama, Demi Lovato, Kenan Thompson and Channing Tatum.

Toy, a 1980s-inspired nightclub in the Gansevoort Hotel.

Toy nightclub.

Other less boldface names are in attendance, but they are overlooked by the gawking crowds that form on weekends.

THE PLACE

On the ground floor of the Gansevoort Hotel. It evokes a less whimsical version of a “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” Instead of Chairy and Clocky, there are spindly limbed hostesses, pebbled leather banquettes and fractured mirrors, in a space designed by Jeffrey Beers. A mural of an Asian woman with a face tattoo dominates the front bar. (It depicts a dragon, naturally.)

THE CROWD

Every night is Girls’ Night Out. Packs of young women, in groups of twos and threes, are seen in short tight skirts and negligible tops, sipping sugary drinks and poking at sushi. They are joined by young couples on dates, who neck in the banquettes, after sharing a Toy Boat, a $400 sushi platter delivered in an LED-covered Day-Glo ship, brought by waitresses holding sparklers aloft. “Sushi is the new bottle service,” said Derek Koch, a co-owner of Toy.

GETTING IN

Men, gird yourselves with women. Or if you can, make a table reservation. To gain entry into the private upstairs mezzanine, one must pass muster with Fabrizio Brienza, the flamboyantly dressed Italian doorman, who stands guard like Cerberus.

THE PLAYLIST

D.J.s play Thursday to Sunday. On other nights, the soundtrack could be called 1980s and ’90s bar mitzvah classics. (Think Gloria Estefan’s “Conga” or Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero.” “The only thing missing,” one patron said, “are the old relatives you have to kiss.”

DRINKS

The cocktail list is heavy on clear liquor and produce, like the slightly spicy Magic 8 (made with Avión Silver, Cointreau, lemon, lime, guava, habanero and sriracha) for $15.

Toy, 18 Ninth Avenue (entrance on 13th Street), (212) 660-6766, toyrestaurant.com. Open Sunday, 6 to 11 p.m.; Monday and Tuesday, 6 p.m. to midnight;  Wednesday to Saturday, 6 p.m. to 4 a.m.

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Skin Deep

One Hand Washes the Other, to Soap Sellers’ Benefit

By DOUGLAS QUENQUA

IF you’re looking to sell fancy soap, best to put it right into the hands of the customer. While you’re at it, why not oil, massage and compliment those hands, too?

L'Occitane handwash.

Sabon handwash.

For retail chains offering fragrant soaps and scrubs, the free luxury hand wash has become a popular way to lure in soiled, stressed-out New Yorkers. The idea is to spoil the customer, who might be not-so-fresh after time spent on the subway, street or playground, and hope she’ll fall in love with a product enough to take it home.

“We want people to come in and experience a little taste of Provence,” said Angela Snellen, general manager of the French beauty retailer L’Occitane’s Upper East Side store. “If they want to buy something, fantastic. But if they don’t, that’s O.K., too.”

At any L’Occitane store in Manhattan that has a sink (that’s most of them, Ms. Snellen said), staff members invite customers to enjoy a five-minute regimen that includes a scrub, a rinse, a lather of the brand’s much-beloved shea butter liquid soap ($24 for a 16.9 ounce bottle), a massage, a dollop of shea butter nail and cuticle cream ($18 for a half-ounce tube) and a splash of Verbana eau de toilette ($50 for a 3.4 ounce bottle).

Sabon, an Israeli beauty retailer with 11 locations in New York City, has also earned a reputation for spoiling tired hands.

“Oh, my goodness, my rough hands now feel like a baby’s bottom,” said one Yelp review of the treatment at Sabon’s Chelsea store. “I walked in and the super friendly sales associate offered us a complimentary handwash.”

Be warned: some hand washes require elbow grease. At the SoHo outpost of Sabon, customers who sidle up to the giant stone sink in the center of the store — picture an indoor wishing well with protruding copper spigots — are invited to wash their own hands using a selection of aromatic balms, including the Fig Coco body scrub ($30 for a 36.8-ounce jar) and the Rose Tea shower oil ($18 for a 27.2-ounce bottle).

The salesclerk will cheerfully apply the products and explain their benefits, but the pampering stops there. For a hand massage, bring a friend.

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Critical Shopper

A Leopard in a Cage at the Shoe Zoo

Deidre Schoo for The New York Times

By ALEXANDRA JACOBS

THE Condé Nast shopping magazine Lucky recently ran an advertisement for itself that I found perfectly chilling. “My kids call the nanny Mom” was the opening line, and then, above a picture of blue Isabel Marant suede shoes ($990), the words “Fill the Void.” Behind the ad was a row of stickers a reader could unpeel and stick on items featured in the magazine that she might wish to purchase. “Fill the Void,” the stickers urged. “Fill the Void. Fill the Void.”

For some reason this reminded me of Pillsbury’s old “Nothin’ Says Lovin’ Like Somethin’ From the Oven” campaign, in which a career woman would stride home, kick off her Easy Spirit pumps, pop a premixed chocolate Bundt cake into the microwave for a few minutes, then feed it in forkfuls by candlelight to her pleasantly surprised hubby.

Now, Lucky seems to be suggesting, there are not even these sad crumbs of lovin’ for the guilty career woman. There is only the great existential nothin’ within, and the possibility of assuaging it with shoes. Piles and piles of shoes.

This idea that a female shopper simply cannot have enough ways to adorn her feet has been around for at least a decade in retail and shows no sign of abating. Partly in response to Zappos, the online behemoth owned by Amazon, department stores of late have made a great show of shoring up their turf in this area. Saks acquired a special ZIP code suffix for its shoe department, 10022-SHOE. Barneys has blown out the fifth floor of its Madison Avenue flagship. And now even good old Macy’s — parade purveyor, coupon dispenser, sepia-toned setting for “Miracle on 34th Street” — has entered the fray with a makeover of its second floor into a “shoe salon.”

I don’t know about you, but I tend to think of a “salon” as an intimate pastel-carpeted, gilt-edged place with soft lighting, murmuring clerks and perhaps the pleasant tinkle of teacups in the background. This is not that. It might be better described as a “shoe zoo.” It is enormous: 39,000 square feet, according to the company. It is packed with international tourists. And it can take some patience to coax out the attractions.

In vain I waited by a plexiglass cage encasing a leopard-print platform sling-back by Guess with red heels (pure Louboutin lawsuit bait), trying to find out price and availability. Though plentifully staffed, the new section suffers from an overall harried feeling, perhaps because of the temple-thrumming contempo-disco mix that blasts from 9 a.m. onward.

Or it might be a new inventory system, which a salesman told me was implemented after $20 million worth of merchandise was stolen last year. Inquiries about model and size are pecked into a tracking device, which transmits a message to unseen runners in a hidden warehouse somewhere deep in the Macy’s infrastructure. Customers are then advised of the wait time to get their shoes: around 10 minutes on a recent visit.

This meant a lot of people parked on squishy Naugahyde divans with rolling suitcases betwixt their knees and sour expressions on their faces.

“I’ve been standing here 15 minutes waiting for Julio — he has, like, seven shoes,” was a typical ejaculation from an exasperated floor manager.

“Everybody that’s with me here, you definitely need to help me put this back!” roared another, referring to the opened boxes and pieces of tissue paper scattered on the floor.

There are pockets of calm, including sales nooks with well-organized racks of discounted shoes that seem as if they would cost practically nothing were one to take advantage of Macy’s infinite discount opportunities: coupons, price adjustments, store events. At one terminus there is a cafe serving chocolate and Champagne, so you can kick back with your sister girlfriends after a Crazy Shoe Binge, like a Cathy Guisewite comic-strip character.

AS a visitor progresses from west to east, there is a slow build from mass to class; from two-figure comfort (Clarks, sneakers, Ugg knockoffs) to variations of hooker chic like lace-up, over-the-thigh boots in Madonna’s Truth or Dare collection ($360), so fresh from the factory that lifting one off a pedestal caused me to sneeze. There are also selections from Carlos Santana, Fergie and L.A.M.B., Gwen Stefani’s line.

“Beautiful!” a salesman proclaimed after ushering me into one of Ms. Stefani’s six-inch wedges, though he ruined the bonding moment crucial to commissions by disappearing immediately afterward.

In short, if you are a fan of pop stars who dabble in shoe design, you will have a simply grand time at Macy’s new shoe salon. Needless to say, it is not the place to find Isabel Marant. But there is a wide selection of Easy Spirit.

Macy’s Shoe Salon

151 West 34th Street, second floor, (212) 695-4400; macys.com.

MESSY The venerable retail behemoth Macy’s has introduced what it is billing as the world’s largest shoe department. The huge volume of stock presents some service challenges that are still being addressed.

MASS-Y There is plenty of footwear suitable for proms, football games and other comforting rituals of middle-American life.

MACE-Y Staff is ample, but because of the nonstop influx of tourists, you might have to be somewhat aggressive to get the assistance you require.

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Front Row

Monet Along the Runway

By ERIC WILSON

PARIS

“Impressionism and Fashion,” Musée d’Orsay.

JUST in time for Paris Fashion Week, the Musée d’Orsay opened “Impressionism and Fashion,” an expansive exhibition examining the depiction of contemporary dress in paintings and portraiture in the second half of the 19th century, when fashion here became both a booming industry and a leisure pursuit.

The show, a collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, includes paintings and costumes and will travel stateside next year. But it is best seen here and now to spot unexpected parallels between the subject matter of the Impressionists, from roughly the 1860s to the 1880s, and that of the street-style photographers who document the exotically dressed creatures outside the fashion shows across the Seine in the Tuilleries.

It is the same as when Baudelaire described “the daily metamorphosis of exterior things,” only instead of the changing shape of bustle skirts, as the pouf derrière became wider in the 1870s and more decorative in the 1880s, the photographers document the exaggerated round shoulders of a Comme des Garçons coat in the 2010s. The thought occurs, while regarding a painting of a man holding an umbrella, standing just so in the bright daylight, that perhaps Claude Monet was The Sartorialist of 1868.

Visiting the exhibition with the Times photographer Bill Cunningham, we were fascinated by the clever staging of the show, with portraits arranged in galleries that are filled with gilded chairs, as if for a défilé. Place cards tied with tiny ribbons to each seat were inscribed with the names of guests. Charles Frederick Worth was seated between Mademoiselle Marie Duplessis and the Comtesse Clotilde Bonaparte.

The incorporation of fashion was thrilling, with a case of hats placed next to the millinery paintings of Degas, and a display of intimates laid out before “Rolla,” a painting by Henri Gervex that shows a naked woman asleep, observed by a man standing at a window.

As we entered the final gallery, designed to evoke Monet’s park settings with walls painted sky blue and the floor covered with a carpet of fake grass, Bill saw a group of children in schoolboy blazers sitting on the ground, and some tired tourists relaxing on a bench, and said, “Now that’s a picture.”

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Scouting Report

The first Ippolita store.

By JOANNA NIKAS

OPENINGS

Multimedia

The jewelry company IPPOLITA has set up its first brick-and-mortar store, on the Upper East Side. The space, decorated with an impressive porcelain chandelier, stocks the creations of Ippolita Rostagno, who was inspired by Henry Moore sculptures. Known for its signature use of colored stones, the company will sell pieces from its silver, gold and rosé collections. Ippolita is also introducing a handbag collection, sold at the new boutique, with pieces like python clutches with gold chain straps and wood details. At 796 Madison Avenue, (646) 664-4240; ippolita.com.

POP-UPS

Admirers of Kate Middleton’s style can now sample the designs of KATHERINE HOOKER, one of the duchess’s favorite designers. On Saturday, Ms. Hooker is opening a pop-up shop in SoHo, stocking classic A-line wool coats, tailored plaid jackets and floral-print silk dresses no doubt fit for royalty. Until Oct. 14 at 436 West Broadway; katherinehooker.com.

EVENTS

CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN will be speaking at The New Yorker Festival this Saturday, with the fashion writer Lauren Collins. Mr. Louboutin, who started designing footwear when he was a teenager, will speak about the shoe empire he built around his signature red soles, an empire that now includes men’s shoes and, as of next fall, will venture into the world of beauty. On Sunday, ISABEL AND RUBEN TOLEDO will speak at their atelier. (Ms. Toledo may be best known for designing the ensemble that Michelle Obama wore at the inauguration.) Tickets for each event will be on sale Friday from noon to 4 p.m. at the School of Visual Arts Theater, 333 West 23rd Street. The Louboutin event, at the Director’s Guild Theater, 110 West 57th Street, is $30; the Toledo event is $100, which includes Champagne and hors d’oeuvres. (The address for the Toledo festivities will be given to ticket holders.) Information: newyorker.com/festival.

HITTING THE RACKS

James Bond fanatics will be delighted to know that, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the action franchise, SWAROVSKI has created a line of jewelry. The collection, on sale next Monday at Swarovski stores nationwide and online, will include pieces inspired by various Bond movies: say, a necklace that riffs on the shell Ursula Andress holds in “Dr. No” and cuff links designed after Roger Moore’s gun in “The Man With the Golden Gun.” For stores: swarovski.com.

Send shopping suggestions to Browsing@nytimes.com.

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Blue State or Red? Look at the Fingers

Eric Thayer/Reuters

Michelle Obama’s bluish-gray nail polish at the Democratic National Convention inspired supporters to wear similar colors.

By CELIA McGEE

THE wedding invitation was for 6:30 p.m.; the attire, black-tie. Still, the Broadway producer Margo Lion was not about to alter her light-blue nail polish.

The Artistic Colour Gloss shade that she wore.

Bobbi Brown’s Desert Twilight Turquoise.

Four days earlier, during Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention, the first lady’s bluish-gray nail polish (soon identified as Vogue, part of the Artistic Colour Gloss line by Artistic Nail Design of Beverly Hills) had set off a frenzy in the mediasphere and, among style seekers, a stock-depleting run on the lacquer.

“Colour Gloss is a smaller company and is adapting to the huge demand for the color Vogue after the first lady wore it at the DMC,” read a message at enailsupply.com, urging patience and assuring that orders would be fulfilled in the order received.

(Red being a more conventional manicure choice, it’s not surprising that no such stampede was reported on the shade worn by Ann Romney at the G.O.P. convention.)

Ms. Lion, a major Obama supporter and a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, had had a pragmatic partisan response. The idea came to her, she said, the day after Ms. Obama’s speech, “to show solidarity with the first lady and the president by wearing some shade of blue or silver polish from now until Election Day.” She sent off an e-mail to several dozen friends and acquaintances urging them to follow suit. The responses were near-instantaneous, and the e-mail network started to expand.

It did not go unnoticed that Ms. Lion was proudly flashing her blue nails at the wedding of Jordan Roth, the president of Jujamcyn Theaters, and the talent manager Richie Jackson — a marriage made possible in New York State by the Marriage Equality Act and supported by the Democratic platform of Mr. Obama’s party.

Light blue was already the summer’s color of choice for many women in the under-40 range (one blogger described it as “equal parts Katy Perry and high school goth”), but Ms. Obama is 48, and many of her new nail followers are around the same age. The San Francisco-based writer Ayelet Waldman, 47, who is married to the novelist Michael Chabon, said: “I just ordered the color online, so it’s not yet on my nails. But I’ll be rocking it, as will at least a few of my kids. And we’re going to make their father wear it.”

The lyricist Susan Birkenhead, 68, who lives on the Upper West Side and has worked with Ms. Lion in the theater, gets her Obama-blue nails done at either Pinky on Columbus Avenue or Dashing Diva on West 72nd Street, which stocks its own brand’s Pier 39 — a light turquoise — and the gray Concrete Playground, as well as colors by others. (The designer Bobbi Brown has just made her nail-varnish debut with a Desert Twilight Turquoise, and Revlon makes the suggestively named Blue Slate.)

Not that high-end salons are being snubbed as elitist by the Democrats: a New York arts administrator, who declined to give her name because she works for a publicly financed institution, described striding into Elizabeth Arden the morning after the convention to declare her solidarity, and saying, “I want a blue as close to Michelle Obama’s as possible.”

And it didn’t take long for the official Obama camp to pick up on the trend. On Sept. 19 the campaign’s Web site unveiled the so-called For All initiative to engage young people between ages 18 and 29. It featured celebrities photographed demonstrating instructions for writing a personally meaningful word about progress on their right hands, then tweeting or Instagramming the hashtag #forall. As soon as the campaign heard about Ms. Lion’s blue-nailed cohort, an invitation went out to send photos to the For All brigade’s barackobama.com/photos-from-the-field/forallcom.

“The power of an image is enormous,” Ms. Lion said. “We can’t just sit around with clear nail polish on our hands.”

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The Gospel According to Pinterest

The visual Pinterest has emerged as an unlikely fount of life lessons, inspirational homilies and high-minded quotations.

By ALEX WILLIAMS

“KEEP Calm and Carry On?” Sorry, that was 2009.

Sarah Kieffer, a baker in Minneapolis who runs a blog called The Vanilla Bean Blog.

Ever since the wartime British propaganda poster bearing those soothing words went viral a few years ago, ending up on iPhone cases and coffee mugs, design types have been searching for the next great hyperlinked homily.

Lately, the leading candidates are popping up in the most unlikely of places: Pinterest. The explosively popular image-sharing site has fallen under the spell of words — that is, quotes from the great minds that offer lessons to live by.

In addition to sumptuous pictures of platform pumps, chalkboard-painted refrigerators and salted caramel shortbread, Pinterest is now jammed with inspirational quotes, some of which could have been lifted from fortune cookies.

“Love All, Trust a Few, Do Wrong to No One” (by William Shakespeare), is making the rounds these days. So is: “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious” (Albert Einstein).

Such pop-philosophy quotes, which seem to emanate from design-driven corners of the Web, serve as a form of group therapy on Pinterest. They have become so popular that a Quotes category was spun off in July, and now accounts for about 10 percent of Pinterest’s traffic, according to estimates by Repinly.com, an independent online directory that compiles data on Pinterest trends (Pinterest does not release such data).

Virtual verities, it seems, are as hot as ombré hair and fingernail art. It’s as if Hallmark greetings suddenly got hip.

“Inspirational quotes are wildly popular on Pinterest right now,” said Christine Martinez, 31, who runs a design blog, Miles to Style, in Oakland, Calif., and has 3.7 million followers on Pinterest. Repinly currently ranks her as the ninth most popular pinner on the site.

A pithy quotation with compelling visuals can boost Web traffic, added Ms. Martinez, who, like a lot of Pinterest users, maintains a “Words to Live By” section on her Pinterest page, featuring quotations by E. E. Cummings, Picasso and, yes, Rachel Zoe.

This summer, she pinned a quotation from Elizabeth Taylor (“Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together”) from a Tumblr called Sequins & Stripes. It was rendered on a poster-style graphic in cursive, and was “repinned” — that is, reposted by other users — 10,000 times, more than 20 times her typical street-style pin.

It is not a trend that Pinterest executives foresaw. “Pinterest is designed to be a visual experience,” said Barry Schnitt, a spokesman for the San Francisco-based company, adding, “We were surprised by the popularity of these quotes.”

This being Pinterest, these homilies were given graphic design makeovers, either on actual posters, greeting cards, T-shirts or often as JPEGs that show up first on Tumblr or other blogs. Then they get picked up and passed around on Pinterest, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Typical examples include Barbara Kruger-inflected diktats (“You Are Not Famous. Get Over It.”) delivered in bold white letters against a red background. Other hot text-based pins are images of tattoos with thought-provoking messages (say, “Choose Not a Life of Imitation”) or uplifting mantras (“The Pressure Is Good for You”) expressed as neon art, with a nod to Bruce Nauman.

Bonnie Tsang, 38, a photographer and blogger in Los Angeles who ranks as Pinterest power-user No. 4 with more than 5.6 million followers, sees heavy traffic with these dressed-up quotations. A recent repin showing a black-and-white photo from the early ’70s of John Lennon and Yoko Ono holding a white placard that reads “Don’t Hate What You Don’t Understand!” was then passed along more than 1,600 times.

“The ones that get many repins usually have to do with boosting our self-esteem and self-love,” Ms. Tsang said. Her favorites include “I Think I Like Who I Am Becoming,” which she herself turns to as a pick-me-up when things get tough.

For Sarah Kieffer, a baker in Minneapolis who runs a blog called The Vanilla Bean Blog, the quotes can be so moving that she sometimes prints and tapes them to her bathroom mirror and refrigerator. A recent favorite was uttered by Hazrat Inayat Khan, the Sufi teacher: “Some people look for a beautiful place, others make a place beautiful.”

“I know Pinterest is seen by many as a big time-waster,” said Ms. Kieffer, 35. “But I’ve found it to be a great place to find inspiration that goes beyond pretty pictures and beautiful homes.”

One problem with Pinterest is that every fresh idea spreads so quickly that it soon becomes its own cliché (think French braids, Nutella brownies). Even within the emergent micro-genre of the Pinterest quotation, some messages have already become so overused, they produce eye rolls.

Lately, for example, there are endless variations on “YOLO” (“You Only Live Once”), said Kate Arends, 28, a graphic designer in Minneapolis who runs a blog called Wit & Delight. The Steve Jobs quotation “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish” lost its power, she said, when it started to pop up on seemingly every Pinterest board.

Arguably, none of this might have happened without the popularity of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster. Commissioned by the British government in 1939 to ease fears of a possible German invasion, it enjoyed an unlikely renaissance seven decades later as an objet in design blogs and Domino magazine. That poster showed that a simple, uplifting edict packaged in the form of visual art could hit the sweet spot for urban creatives who desired a little pick-me-up, but were too cool to display self-help books on their Vitsoe shelves.

These philosophical nuggets on Pinterest serve a similar function, particularly for heavy users, who include many at-home types who could use the occasional pat on the back. “Because we work day jobs and a night job — blogging — these kick-in-the-pants quotes help keep each other motivated to keep working on what we love,” said Caitlin Flemming, 27, who runs a design blog called Sacramento Street in San Francisco.

Skeptics may scoff at searching for deeper life lessons among the hair-tutorial photos. But on Pinterest, the pretty graphics can function as the proverbial spoonful of sugar. Advice that might seem hectoring coming from a loved one, like Ms. Taylor’s credo, seems more palatable when rendered as wall decoration.

“It’s one thing for a family member to tell you to get yourself together,” Ms. Martinez said. “It’s quite another when a person you follow on Pinterest presents some sound advice with a great typeface on a pretty background.”

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Noted

And What About My Broken Nail!

By AUSTIN CONSIDINE

IT’S tough being a fashion model. The hours are grueling. Job security is nil. And while it’s flattering to be paid for your looks, the average gig won’t make you rich.

Frida Munting has used Twitter to express her complaints.

Jourdan Dunn has also used Twitter.

On top of that, there’s also no place to turn when you want to complain. Until now.

Thanks to Twitter and the smartphones that seem glued to their palms, models can now air their grievances — like the bizarre dress that they had to wear, or the lack of food at chic parties — followed by the hashtag “#ModelProblems.”

That came in handy for Jourdan Dunn, the 5-foot-10 model from London, during the hustle of Milan Fashion Week last month. She posted a series of complaints, including one that read: “When you are getting interview backstage and the journalist asks you to describe the collection and you haven’t got a clue #ModelProblems.” Another read: “Not knowing how to pronounce the designer name.”

Ms. Dunn was probably joking, since a little digging reveals that she sent that last Twitter message — about not knowing how to pronounce a designer’s name — on the same day that she walked the Alessandro Dell’Acqua show in Milan. (She has also repeated that joke in interviews.)

Lesser-known models seem to use #ModelProblems to voice more workaday worries. “Lingerie shoot and its freezing #ModelProblems,” wrote Frida Munting, a British model who has done ads for Topshop and United Colors of Benetton. “A makeup artist has just spent close to an hour painting my lips and now I really, really want some sushi,” wrote Holly Kagis, a model from Sydney, Australia, before a runway show at the Perth Fashion Festival on Sept. 22.

But most models seem to have taken to the hashtag with a measure of irony. There is even an anonymous Twitter handle named Model Problems, started last December, that is devoted to airing modeling grievances. (Its tagline: “I can’t find pants long enough, champagne is a food group, I’m so pretty that it hurts.”)

A posting on Sept. 8, in the middle of New York Fashion Week, read: “3 hrs of prep for 30 seconds of walking.” Another, posted about a week earlier, read: “Can some 16 year old model please teach me how to put my book on this iPad, argh.”

The popularity of #ModelProblems follows a familiar trope in popular culture that serves as a wink of self-awareness about the everyday complaints of otherwise privileged people. “White People Problems” is the running joke of several humor blogs — a theme that found its pop culture apotheosis in 2011 when it was used by the comedian Louis C. K. in one of his standup routines (most of which can’t be reprinted here).

And while the device has been used by comedians and bloggers to make fun of themselves and others, Twitter users have added their own sly, ironic twist to the self-effacement.

Hashtags like “#FirstWorldProblems” are regularly appended to Twitter complaints like “Can’t use the bathroom because the cleaning lady is cleaning it,” or “Too many clothes, not enough hangers.” Twitter handles like White Whine and First World Life are dedicated to these jokes, and have thousands of followers.

Few would expect these whiners to garner much sympathy, whether they are complaining about their lives of privilege or their good looks. But the opposite seems to happen, according to Paul Levinson, a professor of communication and media studies at Fordham University in New York.

People enjoy reading these grievances because it can make the complainer “seem more human, someone that can be related to,” Professor Levinson said.

Indeed, the responses to Ms. Dunn’s Twitter complaints have been overwhelmingly positive. The Huffington Post even featured one of her Twitter messages (“When the 40 or 41 size shoe doesn’t fit #ModelProblems #BigFootModelProblems”) among its “best (and funniest) fashion-related tweets” of the week in September.

Her Twitter followers expressed sympathy. “I have the exact same problem,” wrote a self-described student with fashion aspirations who goes by @teearghh. “Same shoe sizes too & im not even a model.”

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Scene City

Paris Sighs, Then Celebrates

Gio Staiano for The New York Times

A black-tie crowd celebrated the end of Paris Fashion Week on Tuesday at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild in Paris.

By ERIC WILSON

PARIS

Multimedia

YOU know that funny feeling of déjà vu? Well, for a real mind binder, try having it in France.

There we were again on Tuesday night, at the end of another Paris Fashion Week, inside yet another fantastic hôtel particulier (this one the Salomon de Rothschild), attending another of Carine Roitfeld’s outrageous black-tie and masquerade parties, which she has given, with exceptional success, for the last two years. The theme this time was “smoky eyes,” in honor of the hostess’ signature look, which has now spawned a MAC makeup collection.

“You’re not wearing any makeup,” she scolded a guest.

Oh, but Ms. Roitfeld looked so beautiful, who could compete?

“It’s free to look,” she said.

Although Ms. Roitfeld’s job has changed (she was the editor of French Vogue and now has her own magazine), the names and faces and music and models and Champagne that surrounded her were exactly the same. At the stroke of midnight, when “Beat It” was playing, the editor Giovanna Battaglia, her eyes veiled with what appeared to be adhesive bats, was sitting on a decorative piece of furniture, twirling her long legs like a windmill for the benefit of a photographer.

Even less discreet was Susanne Bartsch, the club promoter, wearing a pink tutu as a veil, lying flat on her back with her legs spread open and her areolae rising above the top of her black corset.

The usual incredible cast of designers poured into the party. Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti were there on the early side, when the British singer Paloma Faith, who was giving a performance, tried to quiet down the audience by saying, in her squeaky speaking voice, “Je ne parle pas Français, but, shhhhh.”

Then the late crowd arrived, including Karl Lagerfeld, Haider Ackermann, Peter Dundas and Nicolas Ghesquiere, the Balenciaga designer, wearing a T-shirt and letting loose.

Kanye West was there, of course, scanning the room for Ms. Roitfeld, who was saying that she had selected her jumpsuit from her friend Riccardo Tisci’s fantastic Givenchy collection, which was shown just two nights earlier.

“I think it was look No. 24,” she said.

Another large group arrived from a Moncler dinner of caviar-stuffed baked potatoes at Caviar Kaspia with the designer Giambattista Valli, who said the highlight of his Fashion Week, which included two shows, would be making it to Saturday, when he can sleep. As if to recognize the intense stamina that is required of the fashion crowd to make it through a solid month of shows, dinners, parties and air kisses, the D.J. played “Stayin’ Alive,” followed by “Another One Bites the Dust.”

Just then, there was a major commotion in the next room. An overly enthusiastic guest, it turned out, had grabbed a bottle of Champagne and shaken it so much that it exploded over the dance floor. It made such a mess that some witnesses insisted that the man had sprayed a fire extinguisher. Then a fight broke out, and several guests made their way out of the room with their hair matted down to their heads. They were not meaning to go for the wet look.

“I guess someone thought it was hot in there,” said the writer Derek Blasberg, still dripping.

“It was the climax of the night,” said the designer Alexander Wang.

“And it was all over Alex,” said the model Karlie Kloss.

Then they stepped outside to dry off.

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Designer Confections

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images; Foc Kan/WireImage; George Pimentel/WireImage

Laetitia Crahay, creative designer of Maison Michel in a house design, center, as are Poppy Delevigne, left, and Katy Perry, right.

By BENJAMIN SEIDLER

PARIS

WITH handmade pieces in pop styles, like its signature headband attached to lace-covered Mickey Mouse-style ears, Maison Michel is carving a place in the headwear renaissance.

But in a market dense with labels selling lifestyles, how does an accessories-only brand make its mark?

“I think it is better to do one thing and to do it well, instead of going into all these different ideas and products when you have no idea what you are even doing,” said Laetitia Crahay, the Paris house’s creative director. “Most of the time that is done for commercial reasons, but I have no intention of making branded Maison Michel key chains.”

Founded in 1936 by the hatmaker Auguste Michel, Maison Michel earned its reputation by making couture creations for the likes of Christian Dior and Christian Lacroix. In 1996, Chanel bought the house for its Métiers d’Art group of heritage craft workshops. And in 2006, the house was well and truly revived when Karl Lagerfeld gave creative direction of the house to Ms. Crahay, then head of accessories at Chanel.

Ms. Crahay continues to use classic materials like feathers, felt and lace, but in a playful way. So small silk flowers might pour out from under a boater’s ribbon or pearls could festoon a headband. And, as part of the Métiers d’Art network, Maison Michel can use the skills of houses like Lesage, known for fine embroidery (so that’s not just any lace on those mouse ears).

Today, the house “is about modernity with a mix of wit and elegance,” Ms. Crahay explained. “The hats that I make are easy to wear, with less extravagant volumes.”

Susanna Lau, also known as the journalist and fashion blogger Susie Bubble, said that Ms. Crahay herself may be just as relevant as her designs. “Laetitia Crahay is a well-known figure in Paris,” she said, “and I think she lends a lot to the ‘coolness’ of the brand.”

Ms. Lau also noted a continuing mini-trend of fashion bloggers trying to make their own versions of the house’s 2009 cat-ears headband.

Maison Michel has maintained a made-to-measure service here at its historic home at 65, rue Saint-Anne, but some of its creations are not as costly. A cat-ear headband costs 250 euros, or $322.45, while a rabbit-felt fedora is 570 euros.

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Up Close

Leaving the Shop, Not Curating, Behind

Danny Ghitis for The New York Times

Murray Moss.

By BOB MORRIS

WHEN Murray Moss started taking medication for Parkinson’s disease two years ago, his doctor told him that high-risk behavior could be a side effect and that he might want to start gambling.

He told his doctor he didn’t gamble. But soon enough he found himself bidding against other compulsive collectors on eBay for quirky vintage American office chairs.

“This one looks like a Prouvé,” he said the other day, about a diminutive brown chair at Moss Bureau, his new office and showroom in the garment district, where 17 various and quirky chairs line tables and compete for attention. “I do the same thing with glasses. I buy brilliant water glasses.”

Those line a wall of his Midtown apartment, where he constantly rearranges things with the urgency of a pushy shopkeeper looking to display his wares. “I just can’t stop myself,” he said. “I miss the store so much.”

The store: Anyone who fetishizes design knows it

Moss in SoHo was a mecca from 1994 until last winter for lovers of “narrative” products that were as provocative and expensive as they were functional. Mr. Moss and Franklin Getchell, his partner in business and in life for 40 years, closed it for financial and emotional reasons, and quickly opened their “bureau,” a floor-through office on West 36th Street, where they do as much curating and consulting as selling.

“I hate retail and always wanted to put up a sign in SoHo telling people not to come in,” said Mr. Moss, 63, as he passed a vitrine displaying rings made from doll eyes and a brightly painted door hanging midair in his 10th floor loft-like emporium. “One customer didn’t see why I’d sell a glass that broke if you dropped it. The trouble with owning a store is that too many people have opinions.”

They are bound to have plenty more at an Oct. 16 auction he has spent the last seven months curating for Phillips de Pury & Company. Titled “Moss, the Auction: Dialogues Between Art and Design,” the show, which opens this week at Park Avenue, pairs objects from the personal collection of Mr. Moss and Mr. Getchell with art. Designers include many shown at his store, including Maarten Baas, Hella Jongerius, Marcel Wanders and Giò Ponti. Artists include Frank Stella, Louise Nevelson, Alberto Giacometti and George Condo, among others. Mr. Moss wants to educate the public.

Why shouldn’t a table be admired for both its sculptural and functional values?

“I don’t see things as commodities, I see them as ideas,” he said with an idealism that seemed a cross between that of Frank Gehry and Willy Wonka, and whose green eyes spark. “When I look at design, it isn’t about functionality. It’s the narrative that interests me.”

His own narrative goes like this: Born to Russian immigrants in Chicago (his father was a successful engineer) who wanted him to have a cultured life, he had a piano teacher who came to his home and always placed a little bust of Mozart on the piano. “It was ceremonial and carried such value that it was an inspiration,” he said. So was the chance his parents gave him to decorate his room, which he did with objects from the gift shop of a Chinese restaurant.

After getting a B.F.A. in theater from New York University in 1971, he threw himself into acting in experimental productions, and became known for playing mad men and wearing straitjackets. “I would do anything onstage, and go so far, I’d pass out,” he said, “which was interesting because I was in a serious relationship with a respected psychiatrist at the time.”

When he came into some family money, he started to buy objects. Then a friend introduced him to Ronaldus Shamask, whose architecturally innovative drawings of clothes inspired Mr. Moss to help him start a curious retail line that Mr. Moss owned from 1978 to 1990. But while he was in Italy overseeing the manufacturing of clothes, he started to notice cool modern objects like lamps and vases integrated into daily life, often in historic buildings.

“It’s an object-oriented culture over there and it was very inspiring,” he said.

He shed fashion, opened his shop when SoHo was more about art than design, and the rest is history, including his recent shuttering because of economics (people treated the shop as if it were a museum, he griped) and the fact that many of the designers he championed went on to compete with him by opening stores nearby. But for a charmingly childlike man so good at reinvention (who also seemed sanguine about his illness and called it “no big deal”), lamenting the past isn’t an option.

Among his things, he is nimble and sprightly. Zipping around the bureau, he wound up a bronze alligator toy by Cathy McClure, placed it on an Alberto Meda table, watched it crawl and laughed at its $6,500 price with maniacal glee. Then he gloated about the six-foot-high metal carousel ($175,000) by the same artist, which occupies one end of the office and rattled like skeleton bones when spinning in a strobe light.

And when he sat down to look at photographs of objects in the upcoming auction, he couldn’t contain his pride, even as his hand shook a little when manipulating his iPad.

On it, 45 e-mails were unanswered. He didn’t care and said so.

“I don’t know how to use this thing,” he said. “But I love changing the screen saver.”

On it was a perfectly arranged tableau of his beloved objects. Of course.

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The Evening News

NowFashion

Looks from spring 2013 collections, from left, Lanvin, Stella McCartney, Christian Dior.

By ERIC WILSON

PARIS

Multimedia

TUXEDOS have been a major trend in the spring collections, with designers offering versions both traditional and unconventional throughout the Paris shows. Maybe the look is so prevalent because there have been no fewer than six big black-tie events scattered throughout the fashion calendar this season, or maybe designers are just seeing it as an occasion to dress up.

Another theory is that, with Hedi Slimane making his debut this season at the house of Saint Laurent, other designers have had “le smoking” on the brain.

Black-and-white graphics have been a major trend of the season, and what better outfit to express such contrasts than the tuxedo? In the women’s spring collections, though, many designers went so far as to explode the elements of a traditional men’s monkey suit, then recombine them into something entirely wearable, and in some cases more wearable.

In reviewing the Chloé archives in anticipation of the label’s 60th-anniversary exhibition that opened last week at the Palais de Tokyo, the designer Clare Waight Keller came upon a 1970s dress by Karl Lagerfeld that had silver-sequined arrows running down the sides. She decided to incorporate the arrows in her collection, but now as tuxedo stripes running down a casual pajamas-style ensemble. Ms. Waight Keller said she had comfort in mind.

And there were plenty of other black-tie options on the Paris runways. Anthony Vaccarello started his collection with a white-jacketed version, on the model Anja Rubik. Olivier Rousteing at Balmain showed an elongated tuxedo jacket as a coat, over a more casual outfit. There were several black-and-white satin looks in Lanvin, and a long black vest that served as a dress at Dior. Other designers merely hinted at the look, including slouchy black pants that appeared to have a satin waistband at Céline, obi belts that could have been cummerbunds at Haider Ackermann, and a black pantsuit with tuxedo stripes on the legs at Givenchy.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Slimane included many versions of the tuxedo in his reverential Saint Laurent collection, but at least one designer bucked the trend. Mr. Lagerfeld, in anticipation of his Chanel show, handed out humorous fliers during previews noting that at his collection, there would be “No Smoking Here.”

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Moss on Moss

Panda Banquette by Fernando and Humberto Campana (2006).

By BOB MORRIS

LIKE everything else that Murray Moss does, the auction he curated for Phillips de Pury & Company, “Moss, the Auction: Dialogues Between Art and Design,” is highly subjective and personal. Mr. Moss has a fraternal twin (a sister, Fern Moss Kalai) and has always had an interest in genetics.

“Composition” by Henri Michaux (1959).

“Rosa Nackte (Red Nude)” by Luciano Castelli (1982).

Velvet Sofa by Mattia Bonetti (2002).

Here are some lots from the auction, which pairs design objects (some from his private collection that he owns with Franklin Getchell) with art from various collectors.

The auction is on Oct. 16; the viewing starts on Saturday at the Phillips uptown location, 450 Park Avenue.

Pandamonium

Panda Banquette by Fernando and Humberto Campana (2006) and “Composition” by Henri Michaux (1959). “A variation of a Rorschach test?” Mr. Moss wonders in the catalog.

Lounge Act

Velvet Sofa by Mattia Bonetti (2002) and “Rosa Nackte (Red Nude)” by Luciano Castelli (1982). “Doesn’t the velvet-skinned sofa suggest the elongated, welcoming lap of the sleeping red Siren?” Mr. Moss muses. “Couldn’t each be a portrait of the other?”

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Elections

- Ann Romney Takes Bigger Role on Behalf of the Man She Knows

- Tester and Rehberg Fight Over Outsider Label in Montana

- Check Point: Taking Stock of Some of the Claims and Counterclaims

- The TV Watch: The Choirboy and the Headmaster, and a Faceoff Without Fireworks

- At Debate-Watching Party in Suburban Ohio, Voters Are Less Than Thrilled

- Not Waiting for Pundits’ Take, Web Audience Scores the Candidates in an Instant

- Resurfaced ’07 Talk by Obama Renews Questions on Race

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Ann Romney Takes Bigger Role on Behalf of the Man She Knows

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Ann Romney after speaking in Lakeland, Fla., in August. Many attendees said her speech was the highlight of the Republican National Convention.

By MICHAEL BARBARO, ASHLEY PARKER and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

LAS VEGAS — Ann Romney sounded like a seasoned political operative. Backstage at a rally in Iowa recently, she delivered instructions to Renee Fry, a former aide to Mitt Romney who is now campaigning for him: Tell the Bristol-Myers story.

Ann Romney greeted supporters after speaking in Littleton, Colo., on Tuesday.

Ann Romney said goodbye to her husband between campaign events in Florida last month.

Ms. Romney gave Welsh cakes to reporters flying with the campaign.

As governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Romney had negotiated a major deal to persuade Bristol-Myers Squibb to open a factory in the state, luring hundreds of jobs. “No one would have thought about relocating to Massachusetts before that,” Mrs. Romney told her. “Tell them what Mitt can do for the economy.”

Once in the background, more cheerleader than consultant, Mrs. Romney is asserting herself with new force as the campaign enters its final weeks, publicly scolding Republicans who second-guess her husband and privately pushing for ways to recast him in her own terms.

She regularly sits in on high-level strategy sessions, weighs in with candid opinions for her husband and calls senior advisers to share her views, according to campaign aides, who are reluctant to discuss her private conversations.

On the road, Mrs. Romney notes voters’ worries, complaints and suggestions, which she passes on to the campaign.

“She is collecting information and suggesting action about it,” said Ms. Fry, who has campaigned with Mrs. Romney in Iowa and Wisconsin recently.

At a time when some Republican operatives say the Romney campaign is foundering because of the candidate’s weaknesses or missteps, his wife of 43 years is a relentlessly upbeat figure inside the Boston headquarters, pushing back against that line of thinking. Her message: the story of the Mitt Romney she knows — an empathetic man who has cared for suffering families, nurtured women’s careers and given up riches to serve the public — has not reached the electorate.

With her husband reluctant — or unable — to tell his own story in a compelling way, she has made the task of humanizing him a personal mission. But it is late in the game, and polls show that the Obama campaign has effectively substituted its own, unflattering version of Mr. Romney.

Mrs. Romney’s frustration with the popular image of her husband is at times palpable. During his trip to Europe in August, when he seemed to cast doubt on preparations for the Olympics and suggested that culture explained Palestinian economic woes, Mrs. Romney was so livid about the news media’s coverage that she had to be persuaded not to walk to the back of the campaign plane to upbraid reporters, according to multiple aides.

In Iowa last month, she admonished Republicans who question her husband’s strategy and performance. “Stop it,” she said. “This is hard.”

Internally, Mrs. Romney insists that the campaign allow Mr. Romney to be himself and that those around him provide positive reinforcement. “Encourager in chief,” an aide calls her.

Laraine Wright, a close friend of Mrs. Romney’s, put it this way: “Everyone wants to give them advice, and she said it’s very nice, but Mitt is who Mitt is.”

That has led some close to the campaign to suggest that Mrs. Romney’s approach might discourage constructive criticism from reaching Mr. Romney, a worry at a time when his campaign is lagging in some swing states, according to recent polls. Two Republican strategists who do not advise Mr. Romney but who are familiar with the workings of his campaign said that Mrs. Romney’s defense of her husband’s instincts had blunted negative — but necessary — feedback.

Campaign aides, though, dismissed that claim as carping from misinformed outsiders.

Mrs. Romney has encouraged those who have worked with Mr. Romney in the past, in the governor’s office or at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, to publicly recount their experiences with him. The idea, she has said, is to both familiarize voters with the her husband’s softer side and counter claims that his agenda would set women back.

Beth Lindstrom, the secretary of consumer affairs under Mr. Romney in the governor’s office, said Mrs. Romney urged these women to discuss how family friendly he was as a boss. Ms. Lindstrom, who had three small children when she went to work for Mr. Romney, has told audiences about how Mr. Romney told her, at their first cabinet meeting, that he his approach was “family first.”

“I think we all feel frustrated and I’m sure Ann specifically because she sees the fellow that he is and knows his skill set and knows how he is being portrayed as being unfriendly to women and it’s just not true,” Ms. Lindstrom said.

Mrs. Romney has long served as an informal adviser for her husband, a calming presence and a gut-check barometer. She has played those roles since his days as governor, when aides used to invite her to into the office for lunch on days when Mr. Romney was in a dark mood. As Ms. Fry recalled, her presence alone made him forget whatever was bothering him.

Inside the campaign these days, said a top Romney adviser, “it’s very positive, and Ann helps us keep it that way.”

During campaign debates, Mr. Romney routinely looks to his wife after delivering answers to gauge her reactions, sometimes conferring with her during commercial breaks. After Mr. Romney gave Newt Gingrich a drubbing during a primary season debate, Mrs. Romney telegraphed her views in a brief conversation: enough. Mr. Romney had made his point, an adviser recalled.

Her place in the campaign has grown as she hits the trail with her own team of staff members, evolving from occasional stand-in to full-blown campaigner in her own right. On Monday, she read Dr. Seuss’ “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” to a kindergarten class in Henderson, Nev., then spoke to a crowd of about 1,000 at a local convention center. On Tuesday, she held a rally in Denver and sat down for six local television interviews.

At a Las Vegas event on Tuesday, Mrs. Romney was introduced by an old friend, who recalled how Mr. Romney, then a local Mormon leader, all but adopted her family when a daughter became gravely ill. Images of faded photographs of Mr. Romney cradling the girl and a handwritten thank you card flashed on a big screen.

As she took the stage, Mrs. Romney looked relieved, as if somebody had finally captured her husband as she sees him.

“I love the fact that people are standing up and saying this is the Mitt Romney I know,” she said.

Mrs. Romney acknowledged that her husband does not excel at telling stories. “He doesn’t talk. He does,” she said to applause. “You’ve got to find voters who voted for Obama,” she told well-wishers along a rope line in Nevada, as she posed for photographs and signed T-shirts. “We’ve got to win this.”

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Tester and Rehberg Fight Over Outsider Label in Montana

By JACK HEALY

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — It is more than 2,000 miles from Washington to this old industrial city tucked along a bend in the Missouri River. But that distance still seemed uncomfortably close for the two men locked in a tight race for Montana’s potentially pivotal Senate seat.

Representative Denny Rehberg, campaigning Tuesday at Dimitri’s Restaurant in Great Falls, Mont., is challenging Senator Jon Tester, a Democrat.

As they worked their way through town this week, shaking hands at the Staggering Ox restaurant and answering questions from 12th-grade government students, Senator Jon Tester, a first-term Democrat, and Representative Denny Rehberg, his Republican challenger, did their best to put another few miles between themselves and Washington, polishing their own Western credentials while hammering each other as Beltway partisans.

The mustachioed Mr. Rehberg campaigns in cowboy boots and denim, telling stories about his family’s old ranch and his days at Billings West High School. His speeches and advertisements are aimed at yoking Mr. Tester to President Obama, bailouts, deficits and health care reform — none of which are popular here.

“They’re trying to convert me into President Obama,” Mr. Tester said one evening at his campaign office here, while a few volunteers made phone calls to voters. “There are plenty of things I’ve done that have been different from the president.”

Mr. Tester, sporting an $8 buzz cut, argues he is the real agrarian. His family runs an organic millet and alfalfa farm near Big Sandy, and in his campaign ads, he drives a red combine across his fields and talks about understanding the lives of farmers. He has dismissed Mr. Rehberg as a “mansion rancher” who converted much of his ranchland to housing developments.

The race is one of a handful of contests that could tilt the balance of the Senate this November. And from the wildfire-hazy mountains in Missoula to the state’s yellowing eastern plains, it is playing out as a bitter, personal contest between two men trying to out-Montana each other.

“It’s about identity, about who Montanans are more comfortable with, as much as it is about politics,” said David C. W. Parker, an associate professor of political science at Montana State University who is writing a book about the race. “The question is, who is seen as more like the average Montanan?”

Both Mr. Tester and Mr. Rehlberg have reason to run from Washington on a few crucial issues. Although Mr. Tester voted for the stimulus and health care laws, he broke with the president on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and says he favors removing gray wolves from the endangered species list.

Mr. Rehberg, in his sixth term, points out that he voted against the budget put forth by Representative Paul D. Ryan, the Republican vice-presidential candidate. And he joined other rural Republicans in urging House leaders to pass a farm bill that would provide help to farmers and ranchers after one of the worst droughts in American history. The Senate has passed its own version, but the House declined to take up a vote before it adjourned last month.

“I’m fighting my own leadership,” Mr. Rehberg said in a question-and-answer session with students at Great Falls High School.

Despite the state’s Republican tilt in presidential elections, Montana voters have an independent streak, for years sending Democrats to the Senate. To win with Mr. Obama at the top of the ticket, Mr. Tester will need a good chunk of Mitt Romney voters to split his way, including some members of his own wife’s family, who vote Republican.

To his supporters, Mr. Tester still represents the New Western Democrat — a straight-talking rural politician who supported hunters and energy development in addition to more traditional liberal positions.

Eli Parker, a lawyer in Missoula, recalled seeing Mr. Tester sitting alone in a cafe, like any other patron. Ingrid Lovitt, who works at a bakery in Missoula, met Mr. Tester at a dinner, and said he was “just a nice, folksy kind of dude.”

But other Montanans said that Mr. Tester was just a liberal in populist clothing. Greg Philpott said he voted for Mr. Tester in 2006, but on Tuesday morning, he was one of 20 people sitting in the back room of a Greek restaurant in Great Falls, applauding Mr. Rehberg’s promises to cut government spending, help small businesses and undo some of Mr. Obama’s key domestic achievements.

“He looks like a good redneck Montanan,” Mr. Philpott said of Mr. Tester. “But if you’re just going to toe the party line, you’re not really speaking for Montanans.”

As the race intensifies, both campaigns are looking outside Montana for help. Big-name supporters like the Republican governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, and Senator Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, are flying into town, and outside groups are deluging voters with ads — a total of 45,000 spots were shown from June to mid-September, according to the Wesleyan Media Project.

So far, the fierce attacks and $3 million in advertising have done little to break the race open. In  a Mason-Dixon/Lee Newspapers poll conducted Sept. 17-19, the candidates were essentially tied, with 45 percent of likely voters supporting Mr. Tester, and 48 percent supporting Mr. Rehberg. The difference is within the poll’s margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points.

If voters are split, it may be because they have voted for both men at the same time. In 2006, when Montana narrowly ousted the incumbent Republican, Conrad Burns, in favor of Mr. Tester, voters on the same ballot also sent Mr. Rehberg back to another term as the state’s lone congressman.

At Spas of Montana in Missoula, the manager, Russell Moody, has put up red Rehberg yard signs, but said he doubted the election would do much to undo years of political paralysis in Washington and stagnant economic growth. His company recently closed a hot-tub factory in Stevensville, adding another few dozen people to the state’s 6.3 percent unemployment rate.

“Something’s got to change, no matter what,” Mr. Moody said. “People are disgusted with how things are going.”

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Check Point

Taking Stock of Some of the Claims and Counterclaims

By MICHAEL COOPER, JACKIE CALMES, ANNIE LOWREY, ROBERT PEAR and JOHN M. BRODER

Mitt Romney repeatedly questioned President Obama’s honesty at Wednesday night’s debate — likening the president and vice president at one point to his five sons repeating things that were not true — but he made a number of misleading statements himself on the size of the federal deficits, taxes, Medicare and health care.

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“I will not reduce the share paid by high-income individuals,” Mr. Romney said to Mr. Obama, describing his plan to cut tax rates by 20 percent. “I know that you and your running mate keep saying that, and I know it’s a popular thing to say with a lot of people, but it’s just not the case. Look, I’ve got five boys. I’m used to people saying something that’s not always true, but just keep on repeating it, and ultimately hoping I’ll believe it. But that is not the case, all right?”

But among other misleading statements, Mr. Romney falsely stated that Mr. Obama had doubled the deficit. “The president said he’d cut the deficit in half,” Mr. Romney charged. “Unfortunately, he doubled it.”

Mr. Obama made a number of misleading statements of his own — mainly by filling in the blanks of some of Mr. Romney’s vague plans, usually in the least politically palatable way. He described Mr. Romney’s tax plan as a $5 trillion tax “cut” and said the average middle-class family would pay more, contrary to Mr. Romney’s pledges.

Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama are hardly the first presidential candidates to use debates to challenge the honesty of their opponents.

But this year, as the line between acceptable political debate and sophistry has often been crossed, the accuracy of campaign statements has emerged as a campaign issue. Here is an examination of some of the claims and counterclaims.

Doubling the Deficit

Mr. Romney said Mr. Obama had doubled the deficit. That is not true. When Mr. Obama took office in January 2009, the Congressional Budget Office had already projected that the deficit for fiscal year 2009, which ended Sept. 30 of that year, would be $1.2 trillion. (It ended up as $1.4 trillion.) For fiscal year 2012, which ended last week, the deficit is expected to be $1.1 trillion — just under the level in the year he was inaugurated. Measured as a share of the economy, as economists prefer, the deficit has declined more significantly — from 10.1 percent of the economy’s total output in 2009 to 7.3 percent for 2012. JACKIE CALMES

The $5 Trillion Tax Cut

Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney repeatedly sparred over whether Mr. Romney has proposed a $5 trillion tax cut.

It is true that Mr. Romney has proposed “revenue neutral” tax reform, meaning that he would not expand the deficit. However, he has proposed cutting all marginal tax rates by 20 percent — which would in and of itself cut tax revenue by $5 trillion.

To make up that revenue, Mr. Romney has said he wants to clear out the underbrush of deductions and loopholes in the tax code. But he has not yet specified how he would do so.

This week, in a television interview, Mr. Romney did shed some light — floating the idea of capping each household’s deductions at $17,000.

“As an option, you could say everybody’s going to get up to a $17,000 deduction. And you could use your charitable deduction, your home mortgage deduction, or others, your health care deduction, and you can fill that bucket, if you will, that $17,000 bucket that way,” he said. “Higher-income people might have a lower number.”

The deduction cap has the virtue of avoiding the tough negotiations over which tax expenditures to unwind. Many tax expenditures are highly popular, like the deduction for charitable giving. Moreover, many are important to the stability of the economy. Suddenly ending the home mortgage interest deduction, for instance, would threaten to destabilize the housing market.

But a number of unanswered questions about Mr. Romney’s tax plan remain.

For instance, Mr. Romney did not address how his proposed cap on deductions would affect tax credits. (Generally, deductions lower a family’s level of taxable income and credits erase part of their overall tax bill.)

It is also unclear whether his proposal to cap deductions would raise enough revenue to pay for his income tax rate cuts — at least not without increasing the tax burden on families making less than $200,000 a year, which Mr. Romney has vowed that he will not do. ANNIE LOWREY

Government ‘Takeover’ Of Health Care

Mr. Romney said that Mr. Obama’s health care overhaul would allow the federal government to “take over health care,” an assertion rejected by the president.

The 2010 health care law clearly expands the role of the federal government. But it also builds on the foundation of private health insurance, providing subsidies for millions of low- and moderate-income people to buy private insurance.

Under the law, close to 30 million Americans are expected to gain health coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Many of them would receive insurance through the expansion of Medicaid. The federal government will initially pay the entire cost of Medicaid coverage for newly eligible beneficiaries and would never pay less than 90 percent.

In addition, the federal government would subsidize the purchase of private insurance for millions of people with incomes up to four times the poverty level (up to $92,200 for a family of four). Private insurers would thus have many new customers.

Projections by the nonpartisan office of the actuary at the Department of Health and Human Services show that federal, state and local government health spending will account for nearly 50 percent of all health spending in the United States by 2021, up from 46 percent in 2011. The federal share of all health spending is expected to rise to more than 31 percent, from slightly less than 29 percent.

The changes reflect the expansion of Medicaid eligibility and the new subsidies for private insurance, as well as the increase in Medicare enrollment as baby boomers join the program.

When Mr. Romney and other Republicans complain of a federal takeover, they are referring to more than spending and enrollment in government health programs. They say the new health care law will require most Americans to purchase “government-approved insurance” or pay a new tax. The tax issue was at the heart of the Supreme Court’s much-debated 5-to-4 decision in June to uphold the president’s health care overhaul law, the Affordable Care Act. ROBERT PEAR

Green Energy

Mr. Romney said that half the companies backed by the president’s green energy stimulus program have gone out of business. That is a gross overstatement. Of nearly three dozen recipients of loans under the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program, only three are currently in bankruptcy, although several others are facing financial difficulties. Mr. Romney also said that “many” of the companies that received such loans were supported by campaign contributors. George Kaiser, a major fund-raiser for Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign, was an investor in Solyndra, the failed solar panel maker, but there are also examples of Republican and Democratic campaign contributors who also invested in firms supported by the loan guarantee program. JOHN M. BRODER

The $716 Billion Cut From Medicare

Mr. Obama first brought up Mr. Romney’s frequent criticism that the president cut $716 billion from Medicare, by saying the cost savings were from reduced payments to insurance companies and other health care providers. But Mr. Romney repeated the claim, suggesting that the $716 billion in Medicare reductions would indeed come from current beneficiaries.

While fact-checkers have repeatedly debunked this claim, it remains a standard attack line for Mr. Romney.

The charge that Mr. Obama took $716 billion from Medicare recipients to pay for “Obamacare” has several problems — not least the fact that Mr. Romney’s running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan, included the identical savings in his budget plans that House Republicans voted for in the past two years.

Mr. Obama did not cut benefits by $716 billion over 10 years as part of his 2010 health care law; rather, he reduced Medicare reimbursements to health care providers, chiefly insurance companies and drug manufacturers. And the law gave Medicare recipients more generous benefits for prescription drugs and free preventive care like mammograms.

According to nonpartisan analysts, it is Mr. Romney who would both cut benefits and add costs for beneficiaries if he restored the $716 billion in reductions. Restoring higher payments to insurers and other companies would in turn increase Medicare premiums because beneficiaries share in Medicare’s total cost. Marilyn Moon, a vice president at the American Institutes for Research, has calculated that a Medicare recipient’s out-of-pocket expenses would increase $577 a year on average by 2022.

Also, the Obama reductions added eight years to the life of Medicare’s financially troubled trust fund, to 2024, according to Medicare trustees. If the cuts were restored, the insolvency date would revert to 2016.

But the cuts to providers could cause private Medicare plans to raise their premiums, which is expected to reduce enrollment in them. Those changes have not materialized yet.

JACKIE CALMES

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The TV Watch

The Choirboy and the Headmaster, and a Faceoff Without Fireworks

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

It was death by a thousand smiles: the first presidential debate, on Wednesday night, was perhaps the most genial exchange of enmity in memory. President Obama and Mitt Romney did not just spar over tax policy and deficit reduction, they fought to see who could keep a look of amused, there-you-go-again contempt for the longest number of minutes.

The crowd watching the first presidential debate at Crimson and Gold bar at the University of Denver. More than 50 million people were expected to tune in.

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Wary of split screens on CNN and other networks, Mr. Romney managed, despite a dry throat and some rapid blinking, to keep a choirboy smile pasted on his face while Mr. Obama spoke; Mr. Obama was quicker to drop his bonhomie and adopt the look of a long-suffering headmaster enduring the excuses of a bright student he is going to expel.

Theirs was a glaringly public confrontation that looked oddly intimate and personal. And that may help explain why tens of million of people tune in — there is nothing else like it on television. It’s not a gladiator fight, or a boxing match or the Super Bowl; it’s not a quiz show, a singing competition, a beauty pageant or a finale of “Survivor.” If anything, these confrontations look more like a dispute in couples therapy: neither partner can really win, but either one could get rattled and blurt out something unforgivable.

That scale-tipping moment didn’t happen.

After an opening handshake that included a fake-friendly double arm grab, Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney were politely, unfailingly hostile, both men as attentive to body language and demeanor as to substance. There were not many personal jabs, but Mr. Romney did manage to work in a line that sounded rehearsed: “Mr. President, you’re entitled, as the president, to your own airplane and to your own house, but not to your own facts — (laughter) — all right?”

He sounded more spontaneous when he reacted to Mr. Obama’s opening mention that the debate coincided with his 20th wedding anniversary. Mr. Romney joked that it was surely the most romantic place Mr. Obama could imagine, “here with ME.”

There were moments when both men inadvertently slipped into the quirks they were supposed to suppress. Mr. Obama, known for acting a little superior and blasé about his opponents, soon began scribbling notes while his rival spoke, looking down and avoiding eye contact, even with the camera. At times he winced as if his opponent were causing him indigestion, but he didn’t return fire, and never mentioned “47 percent,” let alone Mr. Romney’s houses and planes. Mr. Romney had an easier time acting like he was pleased to bring a Bain boardroom intensity to the discussion; Mr. Obama couldn’t stop himself from looking annoyed not to have the  podium to himself, like lecturers do.

Mr. Romney still seems to believe in the rules of the country club. In one of the Republican primary debates, he famously turned to the moderator for help when he could not stop a rival from interrupting. (“Anderson, Anderson.”) On Wednesday he again beseeched the moderator, Jim Lehrer of PBS, for an intervention.

Mr. Obama was less deferential; when Mr. Lehrer tried to speed him up, Mr. Obama said, “I had five seconds before you interrupted me,” and went on and on.

Over all, it was civil, interesting and not at all exciting. It certainly did not look like a historic encounter. Yet the first black president shared a stage with the first Mormon presidential nominee in a television event disseminated on almost every imaginable digital avenue — even Hulu caught debate fever.

It looked less like a historic first than a rerun, an archival clip. Mostly, the subdued, old-school tone was helped along by Mr. Lehrer, who was moderating his 12th presidential debate. He presided over this one with courtesy, fairness and absolutely no flair for enlivening the discussion. Mr. Romney said that despite his personal fondness for Big Bird and Mr. Lehrer, he would reduce government spending by cutting financing for PBS.

Mr. Lehrer may have helped make his point.

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At Debate-Watching Party in Suburban Ohio, Voters Are Less Than Thrilled

By SUSAN SAULNY

WORTHINGTON, Ohio — Theater seats? Check. Shrimp cocktails and crudités? Check. Flat-screen television with the volume low just waiting for the big show to start? Check.

From left, Heather Jernigan, Megan Gardner and Brent Jernigan watching the debate in Worthington, Ohio.

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People who have been un-friended on Facebook by relatives because of their political views? Oh, yes.

The first night of truly must-see TV this fall season for the Gardner and Jernigan families in this suburb of Columbus was the first presidential debate Wednesday evening between President Obama and Mitt Romney, the Republican challenger.

Jeremy Gardner, 32, a software developer and independent voter, hosted a small viewing party in a cozy living room where his two Chihuahuas were jumping around, looking truly excited.

Before the debate, the tensions were building. (There were partisans in the room.)

“I’m getting an eye twitch!” said Heather Jernigan, Mr. Gardner’s sister-in-law. An Obama supporter, she worried that even if he did well, his opponents would give his performance a negative review. “Rainbows could shoot out of his ears and it wouldn’t matter,” said Ms. Jernigan, who works for an insurer.

Mr. Gardner was open to being swayed, but said he was leaning toward Mr. Obama.

Brent Jernigan, 48, a business consultant who is married to Ms. Jernigan and likes Mr. Obama, is the ultimate solo fact checker. It was his fact-checking on Facebook that cost him his aunt’s friendship. What did those gathered here want out of the candidates’ performance?

“I want to see an actual plan from Romney,” Mr. Jernigan said. “I’d like to see Obama be very forceful in defending his own actions as president. And I wouldn’t be opposed to a highly entertaining moment from Romney, something like, ‘I can see Russia from my house!’ ”

After the debate, the group did not shift their views. “I don’t know the specifics of these things, so some of it didn’t mean a lot to me,” said Mr. Gardner, the host. “Like I said before we started, I hate the ‘I’m going to repeal what you did and do something that’s better!’ Who doesn’t want to hear that? Basically nothing changed for me.”

Scenes from the evening:

9:02 p.m. President Obama’s opening lines, wishing Michelle Obama a happy 20th anniversary, earned him a few sympathetic “awwws” from the women in the room. But Mr. Romney got a good reaction, too, when he joked about the debate being a “romantic place” for him and the president.

Then, it was on to the economy.

Mr. Romney’s contention that he would reduce the tax burden on the middle class and reduce the deficit confused some of the debate watchers here in Worthington.

“But what about his own statements about the across-the-board 20 percent tax cuts?” Mr. Jernigan asked out loud.

Mr. Romney repeated his claim that his tax plan would not add to the national debt, and that income earners at the top would not get extra breaks. “Well, then you can’t accomplish the things you promise,” Mr. Jernigan said to the television. “He’s basically completely backed off saying he’s going to do an across-the-board tax cut.”

Mr. Gardner’s wife, Megan, added, “Is this him not standing by his word?”

9:56 p.m. Is Medicare changing? Both candidates insisted that nothing would change for seniors today. “Future seniors” got a lot of attention. From the audience here, so did the personal style of the candidates as they answered the Medicare questions.

When Mr. Romney interrupted an answer by Mr. Obama, it didn’t go over well.

“Tell him to shut up!” Mr. Jernigan said to the television. “He keeps inserting himself.”

Mr. Gardner said, “Can Obama speak? He’s just been standing there for a few minutes.”

Mr. Jernigan did not reply; he was busy fact-checking.

10:08 p.m. Numbers. Numbers. There were so many numbers. What was the impact of the figures overload?

“I think that these figures will be lost on a lot of people who aren’t paying careful attention,” Mr. Jernigan said.

Mr. Gardner added, “And the numbers are so specific. But what’s a trillion dollars over 10 years? It’s an arbitrary number. What does that mean?

“Seems like it’s more impactful or might seem more believable to some people to hear specific numbers,” Mr. Gardner said. “But if these numbers are false, it’s going to be off-putting.”

10:43 p.m. Ms. Gardner and Ms. Jernigan both felt frustrated at the end of the debate, despite Mr. Obama calling it “terrific” in his closing statement.

“I was really kind of hoping Romney would say some stuff that I’d understand, as far as what his plans are,” Ms. Jernigan said. “And I don’t feel that this has clarified anything for me.”

Ms. Gardner, a homemaker and dog breeder, said, “I felt that Obama lost some of his passion. This time, when he was speaking, he just didn’t have that.”

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Not Waiting for Pundits’ Take, Web Audience Scores the Candidates in an Instant

By BRIAN STELTER

Presidential debates are customarily scored and picked apart the instant the moderator says “good night” at 10:30 p.m. But the Web is speeding up time. When the first of this season’s debates started on Wednesday in Denver, the scoring began at 9:01 p.m., as soon as Jim Lehrer, the moderator, said “Good evening.”

Jim Lehrer, the moderator, during the debate on Wednesday night in Denver. After the debate, television commentators tapped into social networks to gauge immediate reactions.

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Mr. Lehrer’s open-ended questions, Mitt Romney’s plan to end the federal subsidy for PBS and Mr. Romney’s high energy level — against President Obama’s comparatively low energy level — all received spikes of attention from viewers who were chatting online along with the debate. The instant feedback helped harden conventional wisdom that Mr. Obama had turned in a weak performance, even before he had finished speaking.

On MSNBC, liberal hosts like Ed Schultz were taken aback by Mr. Obama. Mr. Schultz threw up his arms at one point after the debate and asked, “Where was the president tonight?”

His colleague, Chris Matthews, loudly suggested that Mr. Obama watch MSNBC’s programs for debating advice. “He will learn something every night on this show and all these shows,” he said.

After Mr. Obama was pronounced “rusty” by CNN hosts, the analyst David Gergen said, “I didn’t think he was rusty so much as I don’t think anybody’s ever spoken to him like that over the last four years. I think he found that not only surprising, but offensive in some ways.”

The recent surge in so-called second-screen behavior was vividly on display during the debate, both on social networking sites like Twitter that barely existed four years ago and on all manner of even newer apps promoted by media companies. At least half a dozen outlets, as varied as CNBC and The Huffington Post, had debate drinking games ready to go beforehand.

Afterward, the television networks that used to have a monopoly on pre- and postgame shows tapped into the torrent of online opinions. On NBC, Brian Williams quoted from the instant reactions of the journalists Ron Fournier and James Fallows. Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren cited Twitter messages from the progressive HBO host Bill Maher (“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Obama looks like he does need a teleprompter”) and the Republican strategist Mike Murphy (“It’s funny; tonight Romney is much better than his campaign; Obama is far worse”).

Mr. Romney’s mention of Big Bird — in the context of ending federal funding for PBS — stirred an enormous amount of online attention, as well as a few parody accounts on Twitter, with made-up names like “Fired Big Bird.” Hours after the debate concluded, Big Bird was still a trending topic on Twitter.

Outlets like NBC used the debate, the first of four this month, as a test bed for new online tools. Reflecting the changes in consumer behavior, Vivian Schiller, the chief digital officer for NBC News, said, “I can’t watch a debate anymore without having my iPhone in my hand. I don’t feel like I’m having the full experience if I’m not reading the reaction in real time.”

For the duration of the debate, many of the reactions were cynical, particularly on Facebook, far preferred over Twitter by normal viewers at home. Users there accused both candidates of dodging questions and lying their way through the 90-minute session. Joked one Facebook user afterward, “I should have played the debate drinking game!”

And in something of a Rorschach test, Votizen, a technology company, tracked Twitter messages from registered voters. Minutes after Mr. Lehrer ended the debate, Votizen found “love” to be the top term used by Republicans and “tax” to be the top term by Democrats.

And independent voters? The top term was “LOL,” short for laugh out loud.

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Resurfaced ’07 Talk by Obama Renews Questions on Race

By JEREMY W. PETERS and JIM RUTENBERG

In the summer of 2007, his campaign for the White House well under way, Senator Barack Obama waded into the minefield of racial politics and accused President George W. Bush of sitting idly by as a “quiet riot” simmered in black communities.

The news created a stir. NBC News featured it on its “Nightly News” broadcast. The Washington Post and The Chicago Tribune wrote about it, and it was mentioned in a New York Times Op-Ed column. The conservative writer and pundit Tucker Carlson devoted an entire segment to it on his MSNBC program.

Then the speech largely faded away — until last month, when someone calling himself “Sore Throwt” started e-mailing conservative activists and news media outlets claiming to have a bombshell video that would jolt the presidential election.

On Tuesday, the eve of the first presidential debate between Mr. Obama and Mitt Romney, Mr. Carlson’s current venture, The Daily Caller, a Web site started with financial help from the conservative donor Foster Friess, put the video back in circulation.

And its report brought to the forefront a wave of questions that have long been favorite topics in conservative circles: about Mr. Obama’s views on race; his associations with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.; and whether the mainstream media was willfully ignoring embarrassing episodes from Mr. Obama’s past.

The video of Mr. Obama’s 2007 remarks shows him saying complimentary things about Mr. Wright, questioning whether race was a reason that federal aid was slow to reach New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and speaking in a more distinctly African-American cadence than he normally uses in public addresses. By Wednesday morning, it had mushroomed into a lead story on the network news programs, a dominant theme of cable news coverage and a developing story online.

For conservatives like Mr. Carlson, the episode was complete vindication. Months ago, many Republicans rushed to distance themselves from an aborted plan by another conservative donor, Joe Ricketts, to finance a campaign that would have touched on similar themes, and Democrats dismissed the video this time as old news. Yet with the campaign moving into its final stages, and Republicans struggling to overcome the fallout from a video in which Mr. Romney was secretly taped making disparaging comments about the “47 percent,” the Obama video quickly caught fire.

Mr. Carlson and the editors of his Web site, which was founded with $3.5 million in seed money from Mr. Friess, who was a leading backer of Rick Santorum’s “super PAC,” immediately saw the relevance of the tape to their conservative audience. To them, what Mr. Obama said in the video was a perfect confluence of all their complaints about the way the mainstream media has covered Mr. Obama: credulously and insufficiently.

The Drudge Report picked up word of the news before it broke, alerting readers on Tuesday afternoon that a major scoop was coming. “The Accent ... The Anger ... The Accusations,” the headline teased.

After Mr. Carlson posted the article on his Web site, timed for the prime-time Fox News programming lineup, he appeared on the Sean Hannity program on Fox to explain what he had found. More than three million people tuned in, a substantially larger audience than usual. There was the president, speaking in a way that he usually does not in public, telling a black audience, a group of clergy members at Hampton University in Virginia, that the government did not care about them.

The president was using racial tensions to try to divide America into different classes of people, Mr. Carlson argued. And the accent? To him, it was further evidence of the argument that many Obama opponents on the right have been pushing in their writings, talk shows and films for years: We don’t really know who this man is.

A conspiracy theory cottage industry has sprung up around the notion that Mr. Obama is somehow foreign, if not by birth than by ideology. Donald Trump breathed new life into a career as a cable news pundit by repeatedly questioning if the president’s birth certificate was authentic.

Dinesh D’Souza, the conservative author and filmmaker, has a new movie in theatrical release called “Obama 2016” that argues that Mr. Obama’s father, a Kenyan, instilled anti-Americanism in his son at an early age.

One of the film’s financial backers was Mr. Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade, who considered getting behind a multimillion-dollar ad campaign that would have linked Mr. Obama to his former pastor, Mr. Wright, who became a source of embarrassment for the president.

In many ways, Mr. Hannity was an ideal first stop for Mr. Carlson. Throughout the year Mr. Hannity has featured a segment called “Vetting the President,” often focusing on foibles from Mr. Obama’s past or over his tenure. As Mr. Hannity said in March, “We call it ‘Vetting the President.’ Because the mainstream media, they’re not going to do it. They helped elect him. They hid a lot of things about his past.”

And after the video’s release on The Daily Caller and Mr. Hannity’s program, it was the talk of the rest of the conservative news media. “Clearly race-baiting, clearly angry, and I’m telling you: This is who he is to this day,” Rush Limbaugh told his radio audience on Wednesday. Mr. Carlson declined to say on Tuesday how he acquired the video, which news networks have had in their libraries since it was shot. He said only that he had received the video in the last few days.

The video had apparently been circulating in conservative circles at least a week. One person contacted about it described receiving an e-mail pitch from someone calling himself Sore Throwt, a pun on Deep Throat, who helped uncover the Watergate scandal.

Sore Throwt wanted to be paid in exchange for handing over the video, this person said, speaking anonymously in order to divulge a conversation he had promised to keep confidential.

Mr. Carlson would not say whether he paid for the tape.

But he scoffed at the notion that he was merely recycling old news. What he thought was most provocative about it — Mr. Obama’s apparent attempt to link race to the slow Katrina recovery effort — did not, he said, receive coverage at the time, including on his own program. “We’ve already seen this? Really? That’s untrue,” he said, objecting to criticisms that the tape offered little new. “I feel like I’m in an alternative universe.”

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Corrections

- Corrections: October 4, 2012

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Corrections: October 4, 2012

FRONT PAGE

An article on Monday about the children and grandchildren of Auschwitz survivors who are tattooing their bodies with the same number that was branded on their relatives at the Holocaust death camp contained several errors.

The tattooed number that Ayal Gelles, 28, shares with his 86-year-old grandfather, Avraham Nachson, is A-15510, not A-15520.

An Ottawa glass artist and his mother, who have matching tattoos of her number, are Oded and Livia Ravek — not Rebak. Mr. Ravek’s son, who is tattooed with the same number, is Daniel Philosoph, not Philosof. The misspelled surnames were repeated in a picture caption.

And Michael Berenbaum, a professor at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles and a leading scholar of the memorialization of the Holocaust is not the son of Holocaust survivors. His grandparents immigrated to the United States from Poland, Russia and Austria decades before the German occupation.

NATIONAL

An article on Wednesday about a report criticizing a major domestic counterterrorism program misstated the given name of a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security in some editions. He is Matthew Chandler, not Michael.

NEW YORK

An article on Wednesday about New York City’s effort to obtain outtakes of a new documentary film by Ken Burns, “The Central Park Five,” misstated the amount of money being sought in a federal lawsuit by the five men who were convicted, and then exonerated, in the 1989 jogger rape case. They are each seeking $50 million, one of their lawyers said; it is not a $50 million lawsuit. The article also misspelled the surname of a lawyer for the filmmakers in some copies. He is John Siegal, not Siegel. And because of an editing error, the article referred imprecisely to the tenure of former Mayor David N. Dinkins. While he was mayor at the time the five were convicted, he was not mayor at the time the attack occurred.

BUSINESS DAY

An article last Thursday about Russians’ willingness to volunteer for clinical drug trials misstated the percentage increase in clinical trials in Russia in the first six months of 2012 compared with the first six months of 2011. It is 123 percent, not 96 percent.

SPORTS

Because of an editing error, an article on Tuesday about Winnipeg Jets forward Evander Kane’s activities during the N.H.L. lockout before signing with Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League referred incorrectly to Dinamo Minsk’s schedule this week. Besides having played on Tuesday, the team will also play today; it did not play on Wednesday.

THE ARTS

An article on Monday about “The Impossible Wardrobe,” a performance-art piece at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, omitted credits for the creation of the gestures used by Tilda Swinton during the performance. Ms. Swinton and Olivier Saillaird developed the gestures, with assistance from the model Axelle Doué during rehearsals; Ms. Doué was not solely responsible.

SCIENCE TIMES

An excerpt on Tuesday from Simon Winchester’s new book, “Skulls,” about what can be learned by studying the thousands of skulls gathered by the British collector Alan Dudley, described incorrectly in some copies a type of behavior by rams and deer. They butt their rivals’ heads in the fall, not in the springtime.

•

A picture in the Observatory column on Tuesday with an article about hummingbirds’ flight patterns was published with an incorrect orientation. It should have been rotated 90 degrees, so the bird was shown feeding with its beak parallel to the ground, not facing downward.

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Table of Contents

New York Times

The Front Page

Obama and Romney, in First Debate, Spar Over Fixing the Economy

Turkey Strikes Back After Syrian Shelling Kills 5 Civilians

A Clash of Philosophies

Infant DNA Tests Speed Diagnosis of Rare Diseases

Undocumented Life Is a Hurdle as Immigrants Seek a Reprieve

Drama on Baseball’s Final Day as a Star Completes a Crown

International

Violence and Protest in Iran as Currency Drops in Value

In Organic-Hungry Hong Kong, Corn as High as an Elevator’s Climb

Internet Law in Philippines Takes Effect, Raising Fears

France: President’s Partner Cancels Plans to Host TV Program

Sudan: Peacekeepers Killed in Ambush

France: Government Introduces Terrorism Legislation

Georgian Politician Rescinds Call for President to Quit

2 Coptic Christian Boys Held in Egypt on Charges They Defiled a Koran

Europe’s Nuclear Reactors Need Repair or Upgrades

With Cuts, Free Education Is No Longer a Cuban Birthright

Birobidzhan Journal: Despite Predictions, Jewish Homeland in Siberia Retains Its Appeal

China Jails 4 Tibetans Linked to Self-Immolation Protests

In Philippines, Warrant for Former President

Rights Group Criticizes Hamas-Run Justice System in Gaza

Cajoling, Drugging and More as Rebels Try to Draw Defectors

Rift Grows Between Israeli Leaders Over Relations With U.S.

National

Drought Leaves Cracks in Way of Life

Bizarre Species of Miniature Dinosaur Identified

In Outbreak, Meningitis Is Reported in 5 States

Sioux Racing to Find Millions to Buy Sacred Land in Black Hills

The Lede Blog: TV Anchor Takes on Viewer Who Complains About Her Weight

Benefits Seen in Considering Income for College Admissions

South Carolina: Citadel Vows Steps Against Sex Abuse

Texas: Executive Accused of Illegal Exports to Russia

Arizona: Wright House Wins Some Time

Pennsylvania Justices Back Stay of Murderer’s Execution

Obituaries

Robert J. Manning, Former Editor of The Atlantic, Dies at 92

Irving Cohen, Major-Domo in Catskills, Dies at 95

Editorials, Op-Ed And Letters

Editorial: An Unhelpful Debate

Editorial: Contraception and Religious Liberty

Editorial: Georgia Speaks Its Mind

Nicholas D. Kristof: Why Let the Rich Hoard All the Toys?

Gail Collins: The Season of Debates

Op-Ed Contributor: We’re Here, We’re Queer, Y’all

Op-Ed Contributor: Understanding Kids, Gangs and Guns

Letters: How Useful Are College Rankings?

Letter: Bias in the Media

Letter: Donations From Lawyers

Letter: Garden Days in England

New York

Rolling Past a Line, Often by Exploiting a Rule

Cartier Jewelry Disappears From an Actress’s Home

Competitive Races Put New York State in Thick of the Fight for Congress

Wanted Man Could Survive in Wilderness

Man Accused of Plot on Envoy Wasn’t Mentally Ill, U.S. Argues

Romney Dials Back Acceptance of Obama Immigration Program

2nd U.S. Inquiry Centers on ‘Rebecca’ Go-Between

That Name for a Storm? It’s Inspired by a Train

City Room: An Island of Tranquillity Is Reclaimed in Prospect Park

Business Day

Fan Sites Settle Children’s Privacy Charges

Bits Blog: H.P.’s Chief Says a Revival Is Unlikely Before 2016

State of the Art: Newly Enlightened E-Readers

Scardino, Chief of Pearson, to Step Down

Japan’s New Tech Generation

Multinational Crackdown on Computer Con Artists

Advertising: From Hamsters to Wizards, Weirdness That Succeeded

Drug Shows Promise in Treating a Type of Muscular Dystrophy in Boys

Bits Blog: Bias Plaintiff Says Venture Firm Fired Her

Euro Watch: Survey Signals That Euro Zone Has Entered Recession

DealBook: T-Mobile Deal for MetroPCS Increases Pressure on Sprint

App Smart: Map Apps to Bypass the Rivalry of Google and Apple

Gadgetwise Blog: The RAZR M Is a Sharp Droid Phone

Gadgetwise Blog: Device Protection, Without the Armor Plating

Gadgetwise Blog: Furniture That Is Quirky but Functional

Start: What if Web Users Could Sell Their Own Data?

You're the Boss Blog: How a Diner Gets the Most Out of Social Media

You're the Boss Blog: A High-End Brand Tries a Different Sales Channel

Jobs and Service Sector Data Point to Modest U.S. Growth

Markets Close Slightly Higher on Labor Report

Nasdaq Cancels Some Kraft Trading

South Koreans Resist Hypermarkets’ Intrusion on Small Businesses

Sports Thursday

Yankees 14, Red Sox 2: Yankees Finish With a Flourish, Capturing East

N.B.A. Outlines Policy to Try to Stop Flopping

On Baseball: Disappointed, Orioles Still Have a Game to Play

As Chaos Subsides, a Schedule Emerges

Djokovic Advances

Lawrie Critical of Ryder Fans

A.C.C. Drops 9-Game Plan for Football

Another 3 Goals for Ronaldo

Star May Return to England

Athletics, 12, Rangers 5: A’s Win the A.L. West With One Final Rally

Mets 4, Marlins 2: Alderson Says Money Is an Object to the Mets

Valentine’s Season Is Turbulent to the End

Self-Made Runner Remains in the Lead 27 Years Later

With Coach Ill, Colts Try to Focus

Jets Sign a Wide Receiver as the Names on Their Roster Keep Changing

N.F.L. Roundup: Chiefs Tight End Is Out for Season With Head Injury

The Fifth Down: Thursday Matchup: Cardinals vs. Rams

The Fifth Down: Kicker Says Giants Considered a Fake in Final Seconds

Off the Dribble: Wallace Ends Retirement to Join Knicks

L.S.U. Has Quaked in Recent Weeks, but 5-0 Tigers Haven’t Cracked

The Arts

A United Nations of Music

Critic’s Notebook: Late at Night, Comedy Gets Pointed and Political

Flaws Seen in New Rules for Oscars

Digital Roots to Dead Trees

Books of The Times: ‘Live by Night’ by Dennis Lehane

Bridge: World Mind Sports Games in France

Theater Review | 'Hamlet': Yes, a Blended Family Can Be a Pain, but That Danish Prince Tries His Best

ArtsBeat: A $10 Million Gift for Museum of Natural History

ArtsBeat: Ari Emanuel Joins Board of Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles

ArtsBeat: Roster of Stars to Celebrate Twain Prize for Ellen DeGeneres

ArtsBeat: Mumford & Sons Rules the Pop Chart

A Roman Rapper Comes to New York, Where He Can Get Real

Dance Review: Tapping Glory From a Soviet Past, Supercharged With Precision and Vigor

Music Review: Breaking Into Machismo After Playing It Cool

Music Review: Fighting for Survival, Like Animals

Home

Domestic Lives: Bumping Into the Characters

Q&A;: Home Sweet Architectural Masterpiece

Online: Designed (and Now Sold) in the U.S.A.

Tile: Stone in Looks Alone

Goods: A New Kind of Pure Design

Furniture: Evoking Decadence With a Wild Touch

Deals: Sales at Broadway Panhandler, Artek and Others

The Pragmatist: Extended Shelf Life

Market Ready

Shopping With Rich Thrush: Power Strips

Thursday Styles

Paris Fashion Show(down)

When Branches Tangle in a Stepfamily Tree

Echoes of Studio 54

Boîte: Toy

One Hand Washes the Other, to Soap Sellers’ Benefit

Critical Shopper: A Leopard in a Cage at the Shoe Zoo

Front Row: Monet Along the Runway

Scouting Report

Blue State or Red? Look at the Fingers

The Gospel According to Pinterest

Noted: And What About My Broken Nail!

Scene City: Paris Sighs, Then Celebrates

Designer Confections

Up Close: Leaving the Shop, Not Curating, Behind

The Evening News

Moss on Moss

Elections

Ann Romney Takes Bigger Role on Behalf of the Man She Knows

Tester and Rehberg Fight Over Outsider Label in Montana

Check Point: Taking Stock of Some of the Claims and Counterclaims

The TV Watch: The Choirboy and the Headmaster, and a Faceoff Without Fireworks

At Debate-Watching Party in Suburban Ohio, Voters Are Less Than Thrilled

Not Waiting for Pundits’ Take, Web Audience Scores the Candidates in an Instant

Resurfaced ’07 Talk by Obama Renews Questions on Race

Corrections

Corrections: October 4, 2012