In Today's News

I saw a couple of articles in today's New York Daily News today that I thought I'd comment on, on two different topics of interest to me.

I was saddened to read that the StoryCorps booth down by the World Trade Center will be closing there for a number of months. The Port Authority is completing a number entrance for a new Church Street entrance to the PATH station, so the booth will have to be shut until June.

Six months ago, I was at a ceremony that Mayor Bloomberg attended encouraging people to come down to the recording booth to do remembrances of the 9/11 victims. (There was just under 200 on file when the call went out for more.There are now currently about 500 they've made.) I did one back in July 2005, and it was an incredibly moving hour-long session I spent there. StoryCorps does varied oral-history projects, and they want to get at least one for each of the 9/11 victims. All the remembrances will become a permanent part of the WTC Memorial Museum.

StoryCorps also has a booth at Grand Central Terminal to do these beautiful remembrances.

I was dismayed to read that the FDNY has been relegated 40 minutes to the back in next Saturday's St. Patrick's Day Parade. Apparently, the chairman of the parade is envious and jealous of the FDNY, and is pissed that firefighters from New Orleans last year unfurled a banner thanking the FDNY for their help during the Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2005.

I will be marching for the first time in the parade this year (not with the FDNY). Boy, talk about petty little BS. The FDNY usually marches behind the Fighting 69th Infantry Regiment, but as Michael Daly's fine column concluded today, no matter where they are in the parade, the FDNY usually gets the biggest reception of anyone in the parade. Michael's article is definitely worth the time to check out: http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/503545p-424603c.html