Been thinking about Ed Koch today. We were at the same law firm for a time and he was a nice man. He was taller than you might think, and with a very expressive face whether he was "on" or not.

I was actually crammed into his office watching his TV when the first tower collapsed. The whole surreal experience was made even moreso by the fact that when our hearts broke and it etched onto our faces one of those faces belonged ON the television... We were all so stunned that when someone said "let's get back to our desks" we all just did. We basically spent the day finding out who was down at the courts, when they got back, telling their loved ones they were ok, finding our loved ones, figuring out how to get home, and waiting with bated breath for all the planes to be grounded because we were adjacent to Rockefeller Center. At some point his assistant Jody walked out of his office white as a sheet and said "the second tower just fell". I asked her "did you see it fall?" (there had been so many rumors) and she snapped "No I didn't see it. It's gone." His TV was broadcast and had been receiving from the second tower, the screen just went black. He had cable by the time we were back at the office a few days later. (One of the perks of being Ed Koch :) I had one fuzzy channel for a month until I could get an appointment).

Like I said, he was a nice man. I got two copies of Giuliani: Nasty Man for my father and myself and Jody said she'd be happy to get them signed for me. When she buzzed me to come pick them up she told me to go on in. He offered me a seat and we chatted for a while as he inscribed them. It was a large office and he didn't know me from Adam, I felt it was particularly gracious and appreciated the gesture.

My sweetest memory is the one my thoughts most turn to now. Our holiday party was in the Sky Room on top of the Met Life (formerly Pan Am) building. The Mayor (which is how we generally referred to him, we tended to address him as Mr. Mayor) and I were gazing wistfully down on the sparkling city at our feet, talking about ow we loved it, how beautiful it was even if you'd seen it a thousand times. I asked him if he thought it was different for him... somehow better... since, you know... He sighed wistfully, smiled, and said "Nothing is ever as good again."

He was quite the character and he certainly wasn't a perfect human being or mayor but who is? He loved this city. Arguably, he saved it. I quite literally picture him smiling down on it, and I hope everything is good again.

Thank you, Trudy.

Trudy, thank you for that beautiful memory. I grew up in the burbs of NYC. While he wasn't my Mayor, all we had was NYC tv, so, he was the only mayor I knew. He really did help NYC. He was a great man.

He seemed like quite a guy.

Oh Trudy, that was lovely. Thank you for typing all of that out.

From a distance, he seemed like quite a character.

From close up he was quite a character!

I wish he'd done better in the initial stages of the AIDS crisis. One article talked about how much better Bloomberg would have handled it 30 years later... As if anyone wouldn't have after what ACT/Up did for the world? As if Bloomberg would have been like this 30 years ago? I assume he was, in fact gay. Yes, it would have made huge strides had he been out, but do you know many out and proud octegenarians? My own personal take - based on nothing but gut and his support of gay rights even 30 years ago - is that his closet had more to do with self-acceptance than politics.

Thanks to legal secretarying in NYC I've worked with a couple of people who were Al Hirschfeld caricatures. It's been a treat.

Yes, it would have made huge strides had he been out, but do you know many out and proud octegenarians?

I actually know three, but none of them are politicians.

There are certainly a handful of them, they're remarkable and the world owes them a debt - but they're remarkable because most people couldn't do what they did.

Jim Nabors!

The local animal shelter, where I submitted an application to adopt a dog, has contacted my references and asked them questions about how flexible my schedule is and how financially stable I am. These seem like questions that it would make more sense to ask me, rather than them, but I'll wait and see what happens.