The House..built in 1740's

The House..built in 1740's, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

From the pedestrian walkway on the Triboro bridge. it still stands today in Astoria NY. Astoria had mansion all along the East River at that time, this is where the weathly and privilege vacation before the Hamptons

christie brinkley ???

christie brinkley ???, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

this woman resembles the famous model
what do you think ?

Woman looking at the Met.

Woman looking at the Met., originally uploaded by tonylimo.

SKATERS in Central Park

SKATERS, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

this is what they do at the Band Shell at 72st every weekend.

Phil Rizzuto, Yankees Shortstop, Dies at 89

Phil Rizzuto, the sure-handed Hall of Fame Yankees shortstop nicknamed the Scooter who extended his Yankee life as a popular, even beloved, broadcaster, punctuating his game calls with birthday wishes to fans and exclamations of “Holy cow!” died Monday night. He was 89.

Don Imus back ?.....ho,ho,ho

The voice of Don Imus could resurface somewhere on the radio dial as soon as this fall, after he and CBS announced yesterday that they had settled the remaining differences surrounding his firing in April over remarks deemed insensitive to women and blacks.


Neither Martin Garbus, the lawyer representing the radio host, nor CBS, which owns WFAN, the AM station that had been the flagship for his morning talk show, would comment on the terms of their agreement, citing a confidentiality clause. Had he not been dismissed, Mr. Imus would have been paid nearly $40 million over the nearly four years that remained on his contract. While some Imus associates suggested yesterday that his final payment was at least $20 million, Karen Mateo, a spokeswoman for CBS Radio, characterized that figure as too high.

In fact, it was impossible for an outsider to know for sure yesterday how much CBS had agreed to pay him. It was also unclear yesterday where on the radio Mr. Imus might be heard next. Two people who had been apprised directly of his plans, but who would only speak on condition of anonymity, said he had yet to line up a deal elsewhere. But his agreement with CBS does not, apparently, set any restrictions on how long he must wait before restarting his morning show elsewhere. (It does, however, preclude his making disparaging remarks about Leslie Moonves, the president and chief executive of CBS, and vice versa.)

Feds Backing Bloombergs TraFFIC Plan....ouch...

Mayor Bloomberg's plan to charge drivers $8 to drive below 86th Street in Manhattan has taken a big step forward. Washington has agreed to give New York City hundreds of millions of dollars for the congestion pricing plan.

If implemented, the congestion pricing scheme proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg would be the first of its kind in the nation. London and Singapore have similar toll programs.

For weeks, New York officials haggled over whether to approve the mayor's idea in time to qualify for a share of $1.2 billion in federal aid. State leaders eventually struck a compromise keeping the plan alive, but it was unclear if the squabbles and delays soured federal transportation authorities on New York's novel attempt to reduce gridlock.

Bloomberg's plan would charge cars $8 and trucks $21 to enter Manhattan south of 86th Street on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has been considering which five out of nine cities will receive a major infusion of cash for local traffic reduction plans, and Secretary Mary Peters was scheduled to make an announcement Tuesday morning.

Saturday Night Fever (Queens,NY)

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!
This is what tony does on in his spare time.

Any ?? for tonylimo...

If you have any questions about NY for tony to report on just drop me a line.

Hello Moto...

Ad in NYC, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

new ad in nyc on 34st and 8ave.

The NEW MET STADIUM

ON the left is the cranes on the new construction in Flushing, NY..click on pic for better view.

A man name Carey

A man name Carey, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

This is a bus Driver i met from the south, he had a group of people at the theatre on last Thursday. HIs last name was Carey.

Lastest on Yankee Stadium

latest update on the building on the new stadium in the Bronx

Willie Mays in NYC....

Willie Mays, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

Willie Mays in New York today

Willie Mays, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

Willie in town ??.....maybe went to the game last night to see A-Rod hit his 500......

Megu in Tribeca

Megu in Tribeca, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

62 Thomas St. .....is where the big bucks go....bring plenty for lunch and dinner. Stll a hot spot to go....

Magu restaurant

Magu restaurant, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

leaving the event at Magu this afternoon for lunch

LOVE ME DO

YANKEES FANS KEY TO A-ROD’S DECISION

JOE Torre was asked yesterday if he thinks Alex Rodriguez has won over Yankee fans.
“I think so,” Torre said at his Safe At Home Foundation Golf Classic. “Yankee fans like to see explosiveness. They’re used to having big boppers.” Now he imagined A-Rod bopping until the age of 40, probably past Barry Bonds, and said: “God only knows where he’s gonna wind up.”
Torre may as well have been referring to A-Rod’s future home. Because the $30 Million Question hanging high over The Bronx is this one:
Have Yankee fans won over Alex Rodriguez?
After three years of crying and moaning about his October failings, after boobirds mocking him at every opportunity because he is not Derek Jeter, Yankee Stadium gets its chance to show A-Rod the love.
Maybe it’s too late now. Maybe A-Rod has made up his mind to opt out of Pinstripes.

Skyline , NYC

 

Manhatten Skyline

 

Taxi Drivers' Group Upset Over New Technology

NEW YORK -- A major New York City taxi drivers' group says it might strike over new technology that's being required in all the city's cabs.

The executive director of the Taxi Workers Alliance says the group may call for a strike in September -- if city leaders don't address drivers' concerns about their privacy and income. The group has more than 7,000 members.

The city Taxi and Limousine Commission is requiring all 13,000 city cabs to install touch-screen monitor and mapping systems. Taxis must have the systems when they come up for routine inspections, beginning October 1.

The technology allows riders to pay by credit card, check on news, map out where a cab is going and find information about eateries and entertainment.

Many drivers say the systems are expensive and would let officials check up on them. Taxi officials say the new technology could boost ridership by eliminating the need for cash, while giving drivers information about traffic and lost items.

The commission originally called for the technology while approving a 26-percent fare increase in 2004.

Traffic Congestion plan for NYC PT. 2

Tonylimo with limo cam in nyc

talks about Mayor Bloomberg and Leo Laporte,twit

OFFICER LOSES GALLANT FIGHT

DIES FIVE DAYS AFTER BEING HIT IN WILD SHOOTOUT


July 15, 2007 -- Officer Russel Timoshenko, who was shot in the face Monday while confronting a trio of vicious thugs in Brooklyn, ended his brave battle for life yesterday afternoon.
"Officer Timoshenko made the ultimate sacrifice with unflinching bravery and dedication to duty," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said outside Kings County Hospital last night.
His doctor, Robert Kurtz, struggled to hold back tears as he told reporters that the NYPD lawman died while on life support at 4:14 p.m.
In the dramatic final moment of Timoshenko's life, a line of nearly 150 fellow officers filed past him to pay their respects. His devastated family huddled near by.
Friends outside the hospital room could hear his heartbroken mother muttering "god help, god help" between her gut-wrenching sobs.
"People were kissing his hands and his feet," said George Kallaur, an archpriest at the Russian Orthodox Church of the New Martyrs and the Confessors of Russia in Bensonhurst.

Nothing slowing A-Rod's historic march

Yankees slugger still in prime as he nears 500 career homers Life with Alex Rodriguez is loud. It has to be.
From deafening roars after 450-foot home runs to ever-present tabloid turmoil that follows the slugger's every movement, noise is a constant of A-Rod's existence. It's anticipated and expected, with the only sure bet that there will be plenty of it.

Perhaps that's why a man who strides to home plate behind Mims' "This Is Why I'm Hot," a modern rap anthem, spends so much time blocking the world with rubbery plastic earphones, sending his iPod back to a simpler decade with the musical styling of Pat Benatar, John Cougar Mellencamp and Hall & Oates.

iPhone Buyer have no regrets today..at least in NYC !!!

iDay: iPhone Buyer and Fuze Sampler People, originally uploaded by Rukii.

Early iphone owner are very very happy with their devices, which is what i surveyed out in NY TODAY. PLUS APPLE and AT&T are luring customers way, or are they?

lets us know...

Google Lets Users Overlay Data on Personalized Maps

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. will introduce on Wednesday a new feature that lets users create personalized maps which plot the locations of everything from cheap gas locally to the latest earthquakes worldwide.

MyMaps, as the new feature is known, allows consumers to select from more than one hundred mini-applications created by independent software developers. These allow users to overlay data on top of Google's popular online map service.

Visitors to http://maps.google.com after Wednesday at 6 a.m. PDT (1300 GMT) will find a new tab that contains links to dozens of the mini-applications, which Google calls Maplets.

One map application allows users to watch YouTube videos based on the locations where they are uploaded. One could switch from the video confessions of a teenager in Ohio to tourist videos shot in the Andes mountains of South America.

David Wells suspened 7 games for tantrum at ump.

boomer, originally uploaded by Boston Fan in Michigan.

Alex Rodriguez looking for 30million per year..

Alex Rodriguez Arod At Bat, originally uploaded by Joe_Butler.

After the NY Yankee said that they would break tradition and negotiate during the season with Arod on a contract extension, his agent Scott Boras wants 30 million per year

Are they crAZY.....THE market can't demand that much money now.

what do you think ?

email tonylimo@gmail.com

Analyst claims iPhone nano on track for fourth quarter

A researcher from JP Morgan believes that Apple is already on the verge of releasing a second, lower-cost iPhone model based on its most popular iPod.

read more | digg story

Transformers Movie Review

Or, as I like to call it, “GIANT ROBOTS TEARIN’ UP S**T!”

read more | digg story

Socrates Park...

a great place to go..in LIC, Queens

Jersey Beauty Queen Pushes Back after Blackmail Attempt

- Miss New Jersey says someone is threatening to make some personal photographs of her public if she does not give up her crown.

But Amy Polumbo is not just Miss New Jersey, she's also a Jersey girl, and says she has no intention of giving in.

"It would certainly be easier for me to simply succumb to these unlawful and immoral threats, and quietly disappear,'' Polumbo said Thursday at a news conference she called in Asbury Park.

Polumbo, a 22-year-old Howell resident and a senior at Wagner College on Staten Island, won the Miss New Jersey competition last month, giving her the right to compete in the next Miss America competition -- wherever and whenever it may be held. Her platform: Protecting children from online predators.

Polumbo's lawyer, Anthony Caruso, said that starting last week, Polumbo, her family and officials in the Miss New Jersey Education Foundation received packages with pictures of her and the demand that she resign by Friday.

iPhone’s Multi-Touch Technology On MacBooks in October?

"According to CrunchGear's 'trusted source' that the upcoming MacBooks which are expected to be released around October will support the iPhone's multi-touch technology built into their touchpads. The feature will be built into the touchpads, allowing you to navigate through your notebook's files, applications, etc. the same way you can on the iPhone. (Yes, I know you can already scroll with them, that's nothing new. I'm talking about all the other finger gestures that can be done on the iPhone's screen) On June 20th, CrunchGear reported, "The upcoming MacBooks will be about half the thickness of current models (which would be quite the feat) and they'll be made from new plastics/materials"

iPhone sales add luster to Apple stock

Apple's stock soared to a record high Tuesday amid analyst reports that sales of highly profitable iPhones easily rocketed past 300,000 after its US launch.

Apple shares were up nearly five percent, going for 127.17 dollars a piece when the New York Stock Exchange closed. The price slipped a fraction to 126.82 in after-hours trading.

Investors were evidently reacting to reports from analysts that from 310,000 to 700,000 iPhones have been snapped up since the devices began selling on Friday and that the profit margin on the devices is estimated at 55 percent.

Apple and US telecom giant AT&T, the exclusive iPhone service provider, did not disclose sales figures "for competition reasons."

"In its first weekend we sold more iPhones than in the first month of any other wireless phone AT&T ever offered," AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel told AFP. "That's how good it's been. We are simply not releasing figures."

Nearly all of AT&T's 1,800 stores were sold out of iPhones by Monday and new stocks were en route, according to Siegel.

The rush of people activating their iPhones online during the weekend flooded AT&T computers, causing delays in a small fraction of cases, according to Siegel.

WORLD'S FIRST iPHONE REVIEW EVER!!

iphoneNY...6pm line startes going in

iphoneNY3, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

iphone NY

iphoneNY, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

6pm yesterday on 5thave

Gave Up Sleep, but at Least I Have an iPhone

Apple wanted a spectacle when the iPhone went on sale, and it got just that.



Dozens of photographers hovered outside Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue near East 59th Street, waiting to snap pictures of the elated, often sunburned faces of the first iPhone owners. Some Apple faithful had waited in line for days.

At 6 p.m., their patience paid off.

“I guess I didn’t need to get in line because they have thousands of them in there,” said Norbert Pauli, 52, who had waited since Wednesday morning outside the Fifth Avenue store. The sweaty tangle of people who lined up there included a customer service representative for a trucking company who took a vacation day to make her first Apple purchase; a jazz musician who declared, “I don’t stand in line for anything”; and a tourist from Argentina who said he wasn’t even sure the phone would work once he got it home.

1st guy on line

1st guy on line, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

where did he go ?....bathroom

Die-Harder's still there....

IMG_1424, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

Apple workers at 1145pm June 28.

IMG_1423, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

at least they are staying dry out there

5th ave iphone line

IMG_1426, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

1130pm these die- hard geeks are waiting for there phone...

Union Square Limo Cam, NYC

iPhone Commercial Parody

Manhattan iPhone Watch: T minus 1.5 days and counting

On Wednesday, as predicted, the rain came. I must say I don't think I've sported this much Gore-Tex outside of hiking trips. Thunderstorms had been on the horizon for New York, and despite rampant rumors that Steve Jobs can control the weather, they still came. Around the 5th Avenue Apple Store, drainage isn't too good, so parts of the stone courtyard outside the Early Show studios were half an inch deep in water. (Note to self: don't wear flip-flops next time!)

But that didn't do anything to break up the line of enthusiasts waiting for the iPhone launch at 6 PM on Friday.

I hadn't dropped by the Apple Store this afternoon because I was busy talking into a box (there's my shameless self-promotion for the day). So when I showed up again after dark in the rain, the line that had been six people long 24 hours ago had now lengthened to 14. The male-female ratio is about 4:1, and just about everyone is somewhere in their 20s. Everyone was huddled under umbrellas, and thankfully, it looks as though there was plenty of rain gear around.

I'm also hearing that one guy in line knows how to get access to a shower in an apartment nearby, so things haven't been quite as, uh, pungent as they could be

The New Yankee Stadium

Apple Announces IPHONE Service Plans...

Apple has released details of the service plans that will be available for the iPhone. Three special monthly plans are available:

59.99 for 450 voice minutes
- $79.99 for 900 voice minutes
- $99.99 for 1,350 voice minutes

All three plans include unlimited data (email & web), Visual Voicemail, 200 SMS text messages, roll over minutes and unlimited mobile to mobile calling. Plans have a $36 one-time activation fee and are two year contracts. Family plans will also be available, but were not disclosed at this time. In addition, any standard AT&T service plan may be chosen.

Apple also clarified that activation of the iPhone and account setup will be done completely through iTunes.

iphone coming soon

iphone coming soon, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

sign at the Soho Apple store in NYC, taken today on June 24...there getting ready.
..photo by tonylimo

Want to ride my Bike ....

IMG_1345, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

The Bikers where all out ar 3 pm today.

Gay Parade in NY TODAY....

IMG_1382, originally uploaded by tonylimo.

What a scene today in NY on 5 th ave. The annual parade , they where all out in Drag, for more pics of event log on to Tonylimo on flickr

Gay Marriage Bill is New Reason to Celebrate Gay Pride

Religious groups led the city's gay pride parade on Sunday, lending gravity to an often outrageous event that also featured a jumble of drag queens in feather boas, marching bands, motorcycle-riding lesbians, rugby players and samba dancers.

"We stand for a progressive religious voice," said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of New York City's Congregation Beth Simchat Torah. "Those who use religion to advocate an anti-gay agenda, I believe, are blaspheming God's name."

The annual parade, one of dozens around the world, commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots in which patrons at a Greenwich Village gay bar fought back against a police raid.

At San Francisco's festival, the wife of Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards marked the occasion by splitting with her husband over support for legalized gay marriage.

JOE IMPS DAY IN NYC June 9

JOE Imps day in Long Isalnd City, Queens happened on June 9 on a bright beautiful day. A street was named after him at the intersection of 47 ave and Vernon Blvd. All gathered here , community leaders, city councilman leaders and local residents all joined his wife Marie Imparado as they dedicated the block that he was born on and grew up in to be named after him.
Joe a life long resident had a restaurant named " JOE IMPS" that was on Jackson Ave a few blocks away. Joe served the community for all of his life, helping residents and the local church ( St. Mary) when in need.

'GOTTA-SELL' GOTTI UNLOADING PAD

June 17, 2007 -- Make "Junior" Gotti an offer he can't refuse - he could use the cash.
John Gotti, the scion of the Gambino crime family, is so strapped, he's looking to unload his lavish Gold Coast property and head south for the simpler - and cheaper - life.
After burning through more than $1 million in legal fees and another $150,000 in tax-lien payments, the one-time wiseguy told The Post in an interview last week that his leafy, 1.96-acre estate in Oyster Bay Cove, L.I., will be on the market in two weeks.
"We're finishing fixing it up," Gotti said, as he peered around his manicured, lush yard while his wife and kids gathered inside for family dinner.
The gangster who cried poverty during a series of racketeering trials said he hopes to save a few bucks by downsizing.
"I can't afford the upkeep," he confessed about his suburban spread, which costs $16,233 just in annual school and town taxes.

HOW 'SOPRANOS' LOST RAO'S

June 17, 2007 -- PRIVATE eye Bo Dietl badgered the producers of "The Sopranos" so incessantly for a part that they not only stopped taking his calls, but also wrote his friend, Frank Pellegrino, out of the HBO show, a source says. Pellegrino - owner of Rao's, the clubby East Harlem restaurant where Dietl is a regular - played a high-ranking FBI agent on the series. But he disappeared from the show a couple of years ago, and wasn't on stage at Radio City with the rest of the cast for the launch of the final season. Dietl, the former police detective lionized in the book/movie "One Tough Cop," admitted to us, "Anybody would have liked to be in it. I told ['Sopranos' creator David] Chase I'd play anything." But Dietl denied he was responsible for Pellegrino being dropped: "Frankie was sick and he was opening Rao's in Vegas." We tried reaching Pellegrino at Rao's, but the recording says the eatery is fully booked for 2007 and no one would be responding to messages.

Soprano ending 1 week later

Re: Sopranos Ending Explained

James Gandolfini looks beyond Tony Soprano

There was no decisive moment, no seismic shift, no ceremony when James Gandolfini put “The Sopranos” behind him. But he has. Comfortably.

“I was told that it would be a transition,” he says and shakes his head. “Not much. It’s very calming to move on.”

Gandolfini, of course, had played gangster-in-therapy Tony Soprano — earning raves, clout and unsought celebrity — since the HBO drama premiered in January 1999.

“The character has been with me for so long,” he says, “it’s a relief to let him go.”

No wonder. For 86 episodes, Gandolfini submerged himself in that fiendish, tormented character. He channeled the dark world of “Sopranos” creator David Chase. He was regularly summoned to his own psychic danger zone. All in all, the experience was “wearing,” he says.

There also was a physical toll. “The Sopranos” revolves around Tony, which meant Gandolfini had an exhausting workload.

Tonylimo on the last epidsode of Tony Soprano

we got robbed ?!!!!

WHAT A GREAT END FOR TONY SOPRANO !!

I HAVE TO ADMIT I WANTED MORE MUCH MORE OF TONY SOPRANO, I THOUGHT I HIT THE REMOTE BY ACCIDENT,MY MOUTH WAS WIDE OPEN, " THATS IT " I SAID. NO MUSIC TO THE ENDING, JUST A BLANK SCREEN.

Tonylimo predicts what happen to Tony Soprano

Car Crashes Through Sunrise Mall on L.I.

A car reportedly plowed into a large shopping mall in Massapequa on purpose.

Cops say around 7 p.m. Thursday night, a man in his 30s rushed his car through an entrance to Sunrise Mall near a JC Penney store and exited the mall near a McDonalds.

One person suffered minor injuries due to glass shattering everywhere.

Nassau County police have the driver in custody and they are investigating the incident as intentional. No word yet on the driver's motive.

Therapists scratch heads over latest 'Sopranos' move

NEW YORK -- Therapists, we've long known, are among the biggest fans of "The Sopranos."
So pleased were they with the credible therapy scenes between Tony Soprano, pop culture's most famous mobster/patient, and the appealing Dr. Jennifer Melfi, played by Lorraine Bracco, that the American Psychoanalytical Association once gave the show and Bracco an award.

But professionally speaking, they could only scratch their heads at the latest developments on HBO's hit drama, which aired its penultimate episode last weekend.

Just as Tony Soprano's life seemed to be imploding with dangerous speed -- in short, just when he needed some really good therapy -- Melfi and her own therapist made some highly questionable moves.

Not only therapists were distressed. Some patients were actually furious when they showed up for appointments this week, said one New York psychoanalyst.

"You wouldn't believe the outrage I am hearing," said Dr. Arnold Richards, who'd missed the episode, but was filled in by his patients. He was talking Mind-boggling," pronounced Richards. "I do not recall ever being told the name of a patient in treatment."

Colleagues agreed. "That dinner party was just very upsetting to me," said Dr. Joseph Annibali, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in McLean, Va. "What he did was outrageous. He's never had control of himself, and this just fits in with that."

Why did Kupferberg commit such a sin? He didn't think Melfi should be treating Tony, whom he considered a manipulative psychopath. Be that as it may, his disclosure was "a very egregious ethical violation," said Dr. Jan Van Schaik, chair of the Ethics Committee at the Wisconsin Psychoanalytic Institute.

"A patient needs to know that what gets said in the doctor's office stays there," said Van Schaik, who's never witnessed such a violation. "I've been at gatherings where people talk about patients in a more disguised form. Even that can be inappropriate. A good therapist should do the best they can to protect the anonymity of patients."

It's a shame, Van Schaik added, because "prior to Sunday's episode, 'The Sopranos' was the best portrayal in the popular media of a therapist-patient relationship." Annibali agreed: "We're so used to seeing therapists presented as incompetent hacks. Or as people who are more disturbed than their patients!"

What's been nice about Melfi, the Virginia therapist explained, is that she's a complex and caring figure -- she's not ideal, but she tries to help Tony even as she struggles with the idea of treating him.about a serious ethical lapse by Elliot Kupferberg, played by Peter Bogdanovich, at a dinner party full of therapists. Across the crowded table, the character callously revealed -- over Melfi's protests -- the identity of her star patient.

The Pen-Freaking-Ultimate Episode

Before I make a few little points about last night's tense, mind-blowing, excellent episode of "The Sopranos," I have to warn readers that there are SPOILERS in this entry, and they are SPOILERS you will definitely want to avoid until after you've watched.
My whole body was on edge during the show, which built quickly to full-on gang warfare after years of moving in that direction. "Ready for the rapture?" was the FBI agent's comment to Tony, and to us. As soon as I realized it was Phil and his evil-looking goons against the likes of Tony, Sil, Bobby, and Paulie, I knew the New Jersey guys were doomed. I loved the little bit of "Raging Bull" between Tony and Sil while they strategized in the restaurant; another nice passing homage to Martin Scorsese.

Tony is now without his best ally, the comatose Silvio, who'd earlier in the episode made a malapropism about his wife being "terminally" ill. There was a brief moment during the shooting when Silvio was crawling in the car that reminded me of the way Adriana crawled before he shot her (an important reminder, since I tend to romanticize Sil's loyalty). And Bobby was nixed in a great shooting scene that built slowly and eerily at the train store, the center of Bobby's innocence. I loved it that kids were screaming; they were delivering the sounds Bobby, the eternal child, couldn't.

TV REVIEW: The end is near for 'The Sopranos'

Not Sil.

That's all I could think during the white-knuckled final minutes of last Sunday's episode of "The Sopranos."

For a long time, I've thought it would make sense for Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) to die as the series closed (and that's just a guess, I have no inside information).

But I never really pondered the thought that there could be a lot of carnage around Tony as the series' end approached.

Are you, like me, wondering if this episode might be better than next Sunday's series finale? Ever notice that many programs (and so many prior seasons of "The Sopranos") have a second-to-last episode that is much better than the actual finale? I wonder if that'll be the case here.

Regardless, Sunday's second-to-last episode was a classic. As long as you ignore most of the A.J. (Robert Iler) stuff. (Yeah, yeah, the sins of the father are visited on the son. I get it. Enough already.)

But back to Silvio Dante. The dapper, understated linchpin of Tony's crew. Always the one with the perfectly timed shrug. The brow wrinkled just enough for Tony to sigh, "What's wrong?" Silvio wasn't a shouter or a tough guy or a bundle of rage (in other words, he's not Paulie Walnuts).

He was everything Tony needed in a confidante. Wise, trustworthy and loyal. And, as played by the talented Steven Van Zandt, dryly witty when circumstances allowed.

I don't want Sil to be dead. As Sunday's episode closed, doctors didn't think he'd regain consciousness. His near-death is bringing it home to me, finally - "The Sopranos" is ending. For real. Who allowed this to happen?

OK, truth be told, I have long thought that the sixth season (which includes the most recent batch of episodes and the group of episodes before that) has had too many sluggish moments, but hey, it's still "The Sopranos." I can't not watch. And the last few episodes have been really good.

Since the shocking death of Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), a lot of momentum has built up in Tony's world. A world in which all due respect must be paid, but also a world in which no sins are forgotten. The Russian in the forest from so many episodes ago? He's forgotten. But all of Tony's sins have come home to roost now.

Hence Tony finishing out last night's episode sleeping with his gun, just as John Wayne might have in some heroic Western.

On the chalkboard in A.J.'s classroom in a recent episode, a quote from Wordsworth: "Getting and spending, we lay waste to our powers."

Somehow that doesn't strike me as a harbinger of good things to come for anyone in the "Sopranos" family.

And I'll certainly miss the absorbing give and take between Tony and his psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), which, as of Sunday's episode, also appears to be over.

How many silent reaction shots has Bracco filmed over the last eight years? It has to be more than a hundred. But she never made them less than fascinating. But that's nothing compared with scenes in which her character sparred with Gandolfini's - that's some serious, world-class acting there.

Some other things I'll miss:

-The way Paulie Walnuts says, "Eow!," the all-purpose interjection on "The Sopranos," which can be used in any number of sentences: "Eow! There he is!" to "Eow! Did you just disrespect the Bing?"

-The show's opening credit sequence, one of the all-time greats.

-Gandolfini as Tony and Edie Falco as Carmela. Honestly, have two actors playing a married couple ever done more absorbing work or been more perfectly cast?

Lou Piniella kicks dirt on the umpire

way to go Lou,..

iphone ad june 29th never been an ipod

New Yorks New Ticket Scalping Laws..