It was a week for struggling to maintain control. Hillary Clinton swerved all over the road at the Democratic debate, explaining how she supported Governor Spitzer’s licenses-for-immigrants plan while simultaneously opposing it. Mayor Bloomberg, anticipating a drop in tax revenues, instituted a preemptive hiring freeze. Vice-President Dick Cheney spent a day hunting near Poughkeepsie, withholding comment about his hosts’ Confederate décor. The staph-superbug scare (and the death of a 12-year-old Brooklyn boy) inspired fear, loathing, and hand-washing. Former lawyers for ex–police commissioner Bernard Kerik sued him for $200,000 in unpaid fees. Four Halloween revelers were shot and one stabbed in Union Square. Jacob the Jeweler pleaded guilty to lying to the Feds and is headed to prison. The Landmarks commission preserved eight architectural gems, including the East Side’s Manhattan House, the Lord & Taylor building, and Greenpoint’s Eberhard Faber complex. Feline fans protested the roundup of feral cats at JFK. A weekend marathon doubleheader—autumn’s annual 26.2-mile race and the Olympic trials—clogged streets with skinny people in shorts. (Competitor and recent Big Apple arrival Lance Armstrong was spotted carbo-loading with new pal Ashley Olsen.) Meatless temple Zen Palate shut its Union Square doors. Buttoned-up NBA commissioner David Stern described the Knicks’ front office as “not a model of intelligent management.” Joe Girardi signed on as Yankees manager, while newly unemployed Joe Torre lined up a job at Dodger Stadium (and found a coaching gig for pal Don Mattingly). Rumors flew of an Amy Fisher sex tape, mercifully Joey Buttafuoco–free. And Linda Stein, whose career included both managing the Ramones and brokering the sale of Billy Joel’s uptown apartment to Sting, was found murdered in her Fifth Avenue home.
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