November 28, 2004

SMALL SHOPS THRIVE, BIG BOYS STRUGGLE

While toy giants clash in a bloody struggle to rule their world, the little toy shops are enjoying a market paradise. Shoppers, particularly in New York and other urban centers,...

NEW TRICKS; OLD DOGS CAN MAKE PERFECT COMPANIONS

November is Adopt-a-Senior-Pet Month, sponsored by the online shelter network Petfinder.com. Sadly, many adopters insist on having a puppy or kitten - and the result is that shelters across the...

STOCKS, BLONDES - NEW MAG TARGETSTRADERS

If Gordon Gekko subscribed to a magazine, this would be it. Trader Monthly, the first issue of which is on newsstands now, simply oozes the "Wall Street" character's philosophy of...

BIZ-MAG BOSS TO 'SHEPARD' CUNY J-SCHOOL STUDENTS

The City University of New York's new graduate school of journalism is expected to say "you're hired" tomorrow to 65-year-old Steve Shepard, as the school makes the longtime BusinessWeek editor-in-chief...

THE DON'T MISS LIST

FASHION Designer duds ONE of the toughest businesses to break into has to be the fashion world. Fashionistas, divas, anorexics, craven "journalists": it can be a lot for the aspiring...

YEAR'S BEST (AND MOSTLY) WORST

SEEING how the Christmas-New Year season now begins two weeks before Thanksgiving, why wait? Let's be the first to run our Best and Worst of the television year. And tune...

LOCAL SPORTSCASTERS KEEP ME SMILING

THE late-news shows may be next to useless, but for sheer entertainment, nothing on local TV beats the nightly sports reports. My nightly sports habit goes like this: At around...

MOVIE PIX - OUR MOVIE CRITIC MEGAN LEHMANN'S BEST FILMS OF THE WEEK

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO Sunday, 6 p.m., TCM A luminous Julie Christie looks snow-meltingly hot in a parade of glamorous furs opposite sex pistol Omar Sharif in David Lean's 1965 romantic epic,...

SPAIN TEEMING WITH CHATTER OF CHEATING

CHARGES of cheating are not unusual in grandmaster chess - but allegations of cheating by an entire team is. The issue was raised last month when the Israeli Chess Federation,...

PLACE IN THE SUN FOR PA

DIRECTOR George Stevens, born 100 years ago on Dec. 18, hasn't enjoyed quite the critical adulation of his contemporaries like Alfred Hitchock, Billy Wilder, William Wyler, Frank Capra and John...

HOT LIST - WHAT WE'RE OBSESSED WITH THIS WEEK

1 Nick & Jessica's "Family Christmas" This generation's soon-to-implode Sonny and Cher put on a dementedly wholesome holiday special set in a magical cabin, with guests like Nick's failed boy...

HEAR THIS

IN CONCERT * At Bowery Ballroom: Emo rockers Straylight Run and Hot Rod Circuit today. Indie bands Inouk and Phoenix on Thursday. At Irving Plaza: Death metal's Shadows Fall on...

THIS WEEK'S CDS

LINKIN PARK & JAY Z "MTV Ultimate Mash-Ups Presents Jay-Z/Linkin Park: Collision Course" (three stars) Warner Bros. WHOEVER figured out that the heaviness of Linkin Park rock would combine so...

IT'S AN ALISON WONDERLAND - GRAMMY TOPPER KRAUSS FIDDLES WITH NEW STYLES

Take a guess: Who is the queen of the Grammys? You might think Aretha Franklin or Madonna has the most awards from the Recording Academy ... and you'd be wrong....

VOICE, OVER: INDIE ROCK BAND GBV CALLS IT QUITS - AND THIS TIME THEY SWEAR IT'S FOR REAL

Robert Pollard digs karaoke, particularly when he's singing the words to his own tunes. The famously drunk founder of indie rock band Guided by Voices didn't need the lyrics cheat...

MISS ZHANG - ANGELIC 'FLYING DAGGER' STAR MAY BE THE CROUCHING STARLET, HIDDEN DIVA

Mischa, Paris, Tara . . . Ziyi? Despite her angelic face and heavyweight martial-arts roles, "House of Flying Daggers" star Ziyi Zhang is developing a reputation as China's No. 1...

HOW 'GEISHA' GOT BOUNCED AROUND

It's a miracle that "Memoirs of a Geisha," Ziyi Zhang's new movie, is actually getting made. Like the famously unlucky "Superman Returns" - which went through countless directors before landing...

THIS WEEK'S MOVIES

AMNESIA Dark Dutch mystery explores the relationship of a pair of very different twins who return home as their mother lays gravely ill. HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS Period piece about...

REQUIRED READING

If you think Lemony Snicket is just for kids, well, you're right, technically, but "The Grim Grotto," like the previous 10 books in the "Series of Unfortunate Events" has something...

MATCHES ARE MADE

Do you fancy yourself a bit of a matchmaker? Then you're bound to love "Emma," Jane Austen's witty, poignant social comedy that inspired the 1995 film "Clueless." When the book...

HOW NOT TO LOOK FAT - TRICKS AND TIPS FOR A SKINNY PHOTO EVERY TIME

Rampant picture-taking is one of the greatest fat traps of the holiday season. There's nothing more demoralizing than dieting all year long, putting on a pretty frock and winding up...

MEET MARKET - THE PLACE WHERE THE POST HOOKS YOU UP AND SENDS YOU OUT

THIS MAGAZINE MAN SEEKS LITERARY MUSE THIS week, our Meet Market challenge is to find a great match for Eric, a 25-year old magazine publisher and creative director. Eric's a...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

BROOKLYN *** The discovery of an inert grenade inside a Sheepshead Bay apartment yesterday sparked some uneasy moments for residents and cops. At about 3 p.m., a man cleaning out...

LIVERY CABBY HELD IN 2 RAPES

A Brooklyn livery driver was busted yesterday in the knifepoint rapes of two women, cops said. Joel Lafayette, 24, picked up a 21-year-old woman, whose name was withheld, at Nostrand...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

Environmentalists last week built a giant Christmas tree out of garbage in Beirut to pressure the government into cleaning up Lebanon's waste problem. Campaigners from Greenpeace erected a 20-foot-tall "tree"...

MARTHA INMATES STEWING ; SLAM HER 'SPECIAL' DIGS

Seven weeks after her arrival at a West Virginia women's prison, Martha Stewart is still sleeping in digs meant for new inmates - leading fellow inmates to gripe that she's...

HERO'S FAREWELL; TEARS FOR COP WHO FELL DURING CHASE

A decorated police officer who died from injuries incurred in a dramatic rooftop chase was laid to rest before thousands, including his only child, at a tearful ceremony in Queens...

PM ALLAWI NIXES DELAY OF ELECTIONS

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi steadfastly refused to delay elections amid a growing sectarian division that is threatening the country's burgeoning democracy. Seventeen Sunni Muslim politicians urged a postponement yesterday,...

WORKER IN MEAT-GRIND HAND HORROR

A worker at a swank Chelsea food shop had four fingers severed in a terrifying meat-grinder accident yesterday, cops said. The panic-stricken employee got his right hand caught in the...

NEWARK COPS HOT ON TRAIL OF 'MASS EXECUTION' SLAYERS

Newark police yesterday said they had several promising leads in the murders of four people who were found shot execution style in a vacant lot next to a church. The...

SHARON'S POST-YASSER WISH

JERUSALEM - Israel's relations with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's successors will hinge on whether a new Palestinian government stops inciting terror against the Jewish state, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said...

A 'NATIONAL' BOX-OFFICE CHAMPION

Walt Disney's "National Treasure" struck gold on Black Friday. Although critics tried to bury it, the new Nicolas Cage flick remains the nation's top grossing film. The movie racked up...

PREZ WAS A SLAY TARGET ; COLOMBIAN REBELS' EVIL PLOT

Leaders of Colombia's largest rebel group ordered the assassination of President Bush while he visited the city of Cartagena last week, a top Colombian official said yesterday. A U.S. intelligence...

MIKE'S JUST SO INVITING

Mayor Bloomberg is a wanted man: Every month, he's invited to 1,500 events all around the town, from black-tie galas at the Met to block-association meetings in people's living rooms....

"BLACK FRIDAY"

Shoppers spent a estimated $8 billion across the nation the day after Thanksgiving, making it a "Black Friday" of mixed economic news. The figure represents an 11 percent increase in...

TOXIC SHOPPING SPRAY - PEPPER PANIC ROCKS TOYS 'R' US

More than 3,000 joyful holiday shoppers were forced to flee the Toys 'R' Us store in Times Square yesterday when some people suddenly were blinded by tears and started gasping...

TRUMP 'TOPPLES' WOMEN'S SHELTER

A group of homeless women who are on parole, battered, jobless or struggling with mental illness have gotten bad news from a shelter known for 25 years as an "oasis...

PORN-AGAIN GALS; LADIES ALSO LUST AFTER SEEDY SIDE OF 'NET

Women are just as likely as men to become smut junkies - a habit as potent as heroin addiction - and it's causing many to download themselves out of house...

GIFF'S PHANTOM MENACE

DON'T look now, but a new social "blight" is threatening the city. It's called: "The Digital Divide." Never fear, Gothamites - your City Council is on the case. What exactly...

'TRICK PLAY' IN GRID SLAY - HOW DA EXPLOITED GRAND JURY

A rarely used investigative tool helped cops and prosecutors finally shatter the conspiracy of silence surrounding the murder 13 months ago of college student Mark Fisher, a strapping college football...

TOXIC SHOPPING SPRAY; PEPPER PANIC ROCKS TIMES SQ. TOYS 'R' US

More than 3,000 holiday shoppers were forced to flee the Toys 'R' Us store in Times Square yesterday when some people suddenly were blinded by tears and started gasping for...

WRISTBAND RIPOFF; EVIL $CAMMERS LIVING OFF LANCE

Scam artists are trying to make a buck off cancer survivor and champion cyclist Lance Armstrong's good deeds by selling knockoffs of his famed "Live Strong" rubber wristbands for $5...

EX-COP FACING RAP IN BODEGA MURDER

A sealed indictment is awaiting the retired cop who allegedly killed a teenaged store clerk while fiddling with his gun inside a Queens deli last month, sources told The Post....

GIFFORD'S GOFERS LIVID AS CITY PROBERS DIG FOR DIRT

QUESTIONS from city Department of Investigation probers looking into alleged City Council misconduct are infuriating aides to Council Speaker Gifford Miller. The probers are looking into phony calls made by...

FIRE-DAD FEARS; KIN CONCERNED FOR MAN WHO LOST KIDS IN BLAZE

The bewildered Bronx man whose wife was critically burned and whose two children were killed in a fierce blaze in their family home was so distraught over the tragedy that...

TOXIC SHOPPING SPRAY ; PEPPER PANIC ROCKS TOYS 'R' US

More than 3,000 joyful holiday shoppers were forced to flee the Toys 'R' Us store in Times Square yesterday when some people suddenly were blinded by tears and started gasping...

2 SHOT IN B'KLYN CROSSFIRE; EAST N.Y. TEEN HIT IN CHEST

A Brooklyn teen was caught in a crossfire last night, leaving him with a bullet in his chest, and another man was shot in the leg, cops and witnesses said....

SEX VIDEO DOING TO R. KELLY WHAT HE DID TO GIRLS ON TAPE

RANDY R&B star R. Kelly was so fond of videotaping himself having sex that pals saw him as an amateur porn king - but his sloppy handling of his private...

HARLEM GIS: HELP US HELP IRAQIS

A Harlem-based National Guard battalion bringing humanitarian aid to Iraq needs New Yorkers' help. The 369th Corps Support Battalion is asking New Yorkers to donate warm clothes, school supplies, sneakers...

MILLION TO NONE; CAREFUL, JUAN: LOTTERY WINNERS OFTEN GO BUST

A two-time lottery winner has four words of advice for Juan Rodriguez, last week's $149 million New York Lotto winner: "Learn to say no." Evelyn Adams knows too well. She...

PLAYERS HAVE A PROPOSAL ; UNION HOPES GIVEBACKS WILL SALVAGE SEASON

THERE will be one last, honest attempt made to save not only the season, but to save the NHL from itself, and it will come in the form of a...

FB SOWELL IN PRO BOWL FORM

JET NOTES TEMPE - At last check, Jet fullback Jerald Sowell, perhaps the most anonymous starting player on the team, was the leader in the clubhouse in Pro Bowl votes...

JUST PLAIN OFFENSIVE - 2-10 NETS HIT NEW LOWS ON ROAD TRIP

PORTLAND - The Nets better be careful. If they don't snap out of this funk, they're going to blow their shot at the No. 1 seed in the East. With...

WOEFUL NETS: HEY, IT COULD BE WORSE

PORTLAND - There is consolation for the Nets these days. It could always be worse. OK, so maybe it's not a whole lot of consolation. For example, their 2-10 record...

MCCAREINS GROWS INTO TOP-NOTCH WR

YOU can't teach size. Or, some guys, how to use it. "People say, 'Get past the stick and catch the bal for the first down, what's hard about that?' "...

CARTER DEALS WITH THE VIN-SANITY AROUND HIM

Through all the off-court distractions Vince Carter brings with him into the Toronto locker room, the one thing that keeps him grounded, the one place he said none of it...

JOHNNIES COUNT ON EPPERSON

NIAGARA FALLS - For a while, Rodney Epperson dwelled on the final score. He hadn't come home to Queens, hadn't spurned all those other scholarship offers to participate in St....

LION TAMER DENIES 'PICO'

Striking a blow for his stablemate Speightstown, trainer Todd Pletcher's Lion Tamer, ignored at 12-1 under Jose Santos, charged from last down the backside in the field of eight and...

SKY'S THE LIMIT FOR HIGH-FLYING JAMAL ; HOUSTON'S RETURN SHOULDN'T CHANGE CRAWFORD'S ASCENT

THE Knicks are eagerly awaiting Allan Houston's return to the active roster, an event that could take place next Saturday in Charlotte. As raw and inconsistent as these Knicks are,...

PEDRO, METS BREAK BREAD

When it comes to New York, Pedro Martinez really is seeing double. Or maybe he's just seeing dollar signs. Following up a ballyhooed meeting with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, Martinez...

TIM THOMAS HELPS WITH HIS BEST GAME

Knicks 108Raptors 102 Tim Thomas' best game of the season began with a little hustle play. Thomas batted back a loose ball to the perimeter for Stephon Marbury, who drilled...

MEDALLIST HEADS HIGHWEIGHT FIELD

Today marks the final day of racing on Aqueduct's main track until March; scene shifts to inner dirt track Wednesday. Ten-race getaway card of Big A fall meet includes pair...

SHARKS ATTACK WAGNER ; SHEEPSHEAD TO FACE SOUTH SHORE FOR TITLE

PSAL SEMIFINALSSheepshead 56Wagner 6South Shore 12Kennedy 6 As Sheepshead Bay continued to score seemingly at will against Wagner yesterday, Jonathan Foster watched from the sideline, still wearing his No. 5...

MARBURY: CARTER'S A GONER

KNICK NOTES Stephon Marbury ain't complaining. He just feels the Raptors don't utilize Vince Carter to his fullest extent. Perhaps they already are moving on without Carter, whose likely to...

MCNABB A MODEL FOR ELI'S NFL EDUCATION

GIANT NOTES Enhanced greatly by the arrival of Terrell Owens, Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb is enjoying the finest season of his career. McNabb comes into today's game against the Giants...

JUST PLAIN OFFENSIVE; 2-10 NETS HIT NEW LOWS ON ROAD TRIP

BEAVERTON, Ore. - There are new faces learning one another. There is an often-complex system that is taking time to master. There are injuries. But of all the obstacles in...

METS PREPARE PEDRO PITCH

Omar Minaya is hungry for a winner - so hungry that an offer to Pedro Martinez is reportedly forthcoming. Following up a ballyhooed meeting with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, Martinez...

TAKE A MULLIGAN!

Manhattan 76Fordham 60 Just before Manhattan took the court in Rose Hill Gym last night, Bobby Gonzalez pulled Peter Mulligan aside and broke one of the oldest coaching axioms in...

OVER THE FALLS IN A BARREL; NIAGARA DUNKS STORM

Niagara 102St. John's 81 LEWISTON, N.Y. -Take these five fateful days and stick them in the time capsule. The week that was at St. John's provides a synopsis that will...

BEAR-HUNT RULING PUTS N.J. GOV IN CROSS-HAIRS

THE state Supreme Court ruling that New Jersey may close state lands to bear hunting puts Gov. Richard Codey in the hot seat. DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell wants to shut...

AMERICAN SQUAD IN AWE OF AUSSIE RUGBY ALL-STARS

The Australian Kangaroos fly into Kennedy Airport tomorrow night knowing little about the American rugby league squad they'll be playing only 24 hours later. When you're the No. 1 team...

PLENTY TO GAIN - MARQUEE WIN WOULD RIGHT BIG BLUE'S SHIP

When asked if there was any extra incentive this afternoon attached to preventing the Eagles from sealing up the NFC East title, linebacker Carlos Emmons said, "I could care less...

OFF AND RUNNING - TWO OF NFL'S BEST BACKS SQUARE OFF IN THE DESERT

TEMPE - While watching the Jets play the Cardinals today with frayed nerves as you try willing them to another absolute must victory, take the time to sit back and...

QB HEAVEN & HELL - '99 DRAFT PROVED PERILS OF PICKING A PASSER

"These quarterbacks are so close together, you could just throw their names into a magic hat, pull one out and you'd get a good football player." - Tom Modrak, director...

HEAD TO HEAD: WOULD YOU TAKE YOUR KID TO A GAME?

Post columnist Kevin Kernan, 51 and a father of three, and sports writer Andrew Marchand, 30 and the father of a baby girl, discuss the ramifications of the Palace brawl...

MAYBE HUBIE'S JUST PLAIN SICK OF NBA

SUBJECT: Hubie Retires Due To Health Concerns. I Demand A Second Opinion. Naturally the abruptness of the decision raises suspicion there's plenty more to his departure from the Grizzlies' sidelines...

NOT NEW, JUST WORSE - IN '78, BARRY CHASED FAN TO SCARE, NOT ATTACK

A FEW days after the riot at Auburn Hills, the name Rick Barry came up. Then it struck me: I had seen the future. It was all there, that night,...

SEND IN THE CLOWN - SPORTS NEEDS MORE OF T.O.'S KIND OF FUN

I AM not ashamed to admit this: I can't get enough of Terrell Owens. I watch the Philadelphia Eagles play football, and I can't keep my eyes off him. I...

WORLDS APART & ALL TOGETHER: AT HOME WITH TIKI BARBER'S MELTING POT FAMILY

In that good-natured way, strangers will take a look at Tiki Barber, then at his son, A.J., and remark how alike they look."I say, 'Are you blind?' " Ginny Barber...

SAYING GOODBYE TO THE ONE HE GLOVES

Sometimes a glove is more than a glove. Ed Kranepool decided to put his first baseman's mitt up for bid, the same mitt that he used for 13 of his...

BIDDER-SWEET MEMORIES - ONLINE AUCTION FEATURES MUNSON FAMILY TREASURES

WELCOME to the Memorabilia Road Show and a new age in the skyrocketing memorabilia business. "We're getting the merchandise directly from the players or their families and the fans are...

BLASTS FROM THE POST - A LOOK BACK AT GREAT MOMENTS IN SPORTS: NOV. 28 - DEC. 4

NOV. 30 1976 - BOSS WINS OVER REGGIE - 'I just got a good feeling about him,' says new Yank slugger The Yankees let George do it and Steinbrenner certainly...