December 4, 2007
Ward placed on IR
The Giants placed RB Derrick Ward (broken leg) on injured reserve today, ending his season.Ward done for season
Holiday Gift Guide: Jewelry
The Post's Holiday Gift Guide is packed with 12 days of 144 gift ideas.Click here for today's Jewelry Gift Guide
Stefanski Farewell Edition
By FRED KERBERThe Nets lost a good executive and a great guy when Ed Stefanski went to Philadelphia as team president/general manager/bigwig."I'm very happy for Ed. I think it's a...
Sample Sales!
It's a crazy week for sample sales! Check out sales that are starting today:ADRIENNE LANDAU 519 Eighth Ave., 21st floor, between 35th and 36th streets; (732) 539-8750Sale: Dec. 4, 5....
Deal of the Day
Show some solidarity with OJ and pick up a pair of black leather gloves (sorry, black gloves will never be the same for me).Or just snatch up these 4-Button Napa...
Day 2 at the Winter Meetings
The Post has all your bases covered at the Baseball Winter Meetings, with Joel Sherman, George King and Mark Hale on the scene in Nashville.INSIDE THE WINTER MEETINGS
Starr Report
Diane Sawyer (right) was interviewing diminutive Mayor Bloomberg about the city's holiday activities yesterday around 8 a.m. on "Good Morning America.""And as a little munchkin, did you come into New...
Steph: I'll get through this
By MARC BERMANA lot of people were skeptical when Stephon Marbury claimed on Media Day that he became a born-again Christian on June 29th. But whatever the cynicism, it is...
Pressure on prospects
By JOEL SHERMANThere is always pressure on touted prospects with the Yankees. But this will be different for Ian Kennedy, Austin Jackson and Alan Horne.Right now, that is the trio...
Lessons
Being blanked by the team with one of the league's worst goals-against averages is a sign that something is wrong. But we knew that. We've seen the Ranger offense fail...
Oscar Watch: The Early December List
In The Post today, my annual early Oscar overview focusing on Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress. My picks in other major categories are listed below: BEST SUPPORTING ACTORMost...
CHRISTMAS IN MEXICO
Feliz Navidad! With the holidays happily upon us, we'll take a look at how other countries celebrate the season. Today's page looks at some Mexican holiday traditions. In Mexico, Christmas...
IT'S A CASHMIRACLE!
Throughout the ages, cashemere has been the gist that says luxury, that says privilege, that says "See how much I spent on you?" Until now. This year, it seems like...
IRON CITY RAPPER HOPES TO KISS AND EXCEL
PITTSBURGH Slim is clear about girl-on-girl action. "I like it," Slim says from LA, where he's rehearsing for his upcoming tour that lands at the Knitting Factory Dec. 17. He's...
FACING A FRIENDLY GHOST
GHOSTFACE Killah doesn't spend his time lounging on yachts off St. Tropez, starring in reality shows, dating famous chicks, opening nightclubs or starting clothing lines. Instead, the Staten Island-born rapper...
MPFREE
Download these free MP3s now through Friday at nypost.comPittsburgh Slim, "Girls Kiss Girls" This fun and goofy, synth beat-filled hip-hop track is the sonic equivalent of a Skinemax soft-core porn...
BLVD. OF BROKEN SCHEMES
ANYONE who's navi gated the teeming streets of Queens Boulevard knows it can be a slog. The same is true of "Queens Boulevard (the musical)," the outlandish extravaganza by Charles...
BACK TO B'WAY WITH MADE-FOR-TV TALE
AARON Sorkin clearly owes a little something to television, and "The West Wing" creator has decided to pay some of that little something back in "The Farnsworth Invention." Sorkin's tale...
STARR REPORT
'D'oh!' momentDiane Sawyer was inter viewing diminutive Mayor Bloomberg about the city's holiday activities yesterday around 8 a.m. on "Good Morning America." "And as a little munchkin, did you come...
CALL THIS 'REHAB'?
OOPS! Looks like former "American Idol" star Jes sica Sierra's visit to "Celebrity Rehab," the controversial new VH1 reality show, was a waste. Sierra was arrested early Sunday morning during...
TINA: ALEC PLAYS LORNE
'AMERICAN Idol" judge Paula Abdul left be hind some bad blood with "30 Rock" star Tina Fey, following a "disastrous" turn as a guest host on "Saturday Night Live" in...
ASHLEY GETS A NOSE JOB
'HIGH School Musi cal" star Ashley Tis dale got a nose job last Friday. The 22-year-old says she needed the procedure because for, ahem, medical reasons. "Growing up, I always...
THE LATE $HIFT
IT sounds like a grand gesture - the stars of TV's late-night shows picking up the salaries of their staffs idled by the writers' strike. Try a 200-grand gesture. According...
'L&O' HASN'T STARTED YET
LAW and Order" is on so many times a day, on so many channels, that no one really noticed the original show on NBC was not on this fall. It...
IT'S OSCAR SEASON
OSCAR prognostication is not a sport for the faint of heart - at this point last year, it looked like "Dreamgirls" would win Best Picture, and it ended up not...
AND THE NOMINEES WILL VERY LIKELY BE...
BEST ACTOR Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood.'' There is his extraordinary, visceral turn as an early 20th-century oilman and there is everyone else. A winner for "My Left Foot,''...
FORGET IT, SAM. IT'S KOREATOWN
UNDOING ** IF the Korean-American neo-noir "Undoing" was being judged just on style, it would rate three stars. But there's a small matter of plot that has to be considered,...
IF IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY
You are under no illusions that life owes you anything. You are also well aware that to get from where you are now to where you would like to be...
SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT
THE age-old taunts of "metal mouth" follow every child, young adult and older person forced to brandish wires, visible bands and dental braces. So long, metal mouth. Hello, straight smile....
QUINN NOW WON'T FIGHT TERM LIMITS
There are apparently no limits to flip-flopping. Council Speaker Christine Quinn yesterday backed out of her longstanding promise to work on overturning term limits for herself and her legislative colleagues....
CRIMINAL ERRORS
The former head of the NYPD lab and three technicians could face criminal charges over a scandalous 2002 integrity test that found they cut corners while analyzing evidence and may...
HE'S A TOTAL 'ROONY'
He didn't "kirr" anybody. Accused serial killer Stephen Sakai made a bizarre spectacle of himself on the stand at his trial yesterday - affecting a farcical Asian accent and claiming...
CITY ASKED FOR ITS 'FARE' SHARE
Lawmakers and the subway workers' union yesterday blamed the looming public transportation fare hike on Mayor Bloomberg, saying the city should increase its MTA contribution. The city pays just 4...
UFT'S CONSTRUCTION CREW IS NON-UNION
Teachers-union President Randi Weingarten has found herself caught between a rock and some hard hats over a $28 million project to develop affordable housing for her members - because it's...
COLORING BOOK TELLS KIDS TO . . .
A new coloring book being distributed by the Archdiocese of New York teaches children to protect themselves from adults - including, apparently, priests - who cannot stay within the lines....
SHOCK RAPE SURGE AMONG CITY HS KIDS
Rapes among city high-school kids have spiked dramatically, with a 34 percent jump in the number of reported incidents, a shocking new study shows. The study - based on the...
DEAD WOMAN FOUND IN HOME AFTER 2 YEARS
The skeletal remains of a reclusive elderly woman, fully clothed as if she'd been about to go out, were found in her Brooklyn home yesterday - two years to the...
IT'S HANUKKAH!
Hanukkah - the Jewish "festival of lights" - begins tonight, and New Yorkers spent yesterday preparing for the holiday. "It's about the family getting together and thanking God," said a...
NJ PILEUP KILLS BALLERINA
A dancer with the American Ballet Theatre was killed and her husband, a fellow member of the New York-based troupe, was paralyzed Sunday night in a 10-car pileup in New...
LESBIAN 'KILLER'S' BITER TRUTH
A Brooklyn student accused of stabbing to death the husband of her reputed lesbian lover bit a nurse while receiving mental tests at Roosevelt Hospital and had to be tied...
BEAUTIFUL MINDS IN A BIG WIN
Girl power dominated the ninth annual Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology this year, with a female duo from Long Island and a teen from Bethlehem, Pa., snagging the...
HEISTED HORSE BACK IN SADDLE
"Stu," the beloved plastic mascot of a Long Island stable, is safe and sound yesterday after a harrowing kidnapping by some rustlers. The 250-pound statue, here under the watch of...
MEAN GIRLS BRUTALIZE SICKLY MAN, 84
An ailing 84-year-old man had his piggy bank looted after being beaten and tied up with the cord from his emergency phone during a brutal push-in assault by three young...
2ND REALTY 'ROBBER' IS CUT LOO$E
Look out, homesellers - now they're both on the loose. The second woman in a pair of wig-wearing, accused open-house thieves was freed on bail yesterday. Jennifer Jones, 33, was...
ODD CAMEO IN LI RACE CASE
A man at the center of one of Long Island's most controversial murder cases made a bizarre appearance yesterday at an unrelated trial to support the family of a white...
LEONA MAID HOPES TO FETCH $12M WITH POOCH SUIT
Leona Helmsley's pooch will have to be on the lookout for more than would-be assassins and dognappers when she comes back to New York - she'll have to watch her...
SUNY TRAGEDY
BINGHAMTON, NY - An engineering student from The Bronx died "playing around" while boxing in a friend's Binghamton University dorm room, students and officials said yesterday. Freshman Anders "Andy" Uwadinobi...
ADVERTISERS ARE STILL GUNG-'HO' ON SHOW
Radio rabble-rouser Don Imus had no shortage of advertisers in his return to the airwaves yesterday. While many of the big-name advertisers that pulled out of Imus' old show and...
RADIO REVIVAL
Repentant Don Imus pledged yesterday to change his racist, sexist ways, but still launched patented pot shots at "war criminal" Dick Cheney and "Satan" Hillary Rodham Clinton. In his WABC...
HATE-ATTACK TEENS GO FREE
Four Orthodox Jewish teens pleaded guilty yesterday to a hate-fueled attack on a Pakistani man in Brooklyn, but escaped with no-jail sentences because of their ages. David Brach, 17, and...
$TARVED CHURCH SUES CITY
A landmark church on Park Avenue hasn't got a prayer of staying open without extra income from renting the historic building as a catering hall, and is suing the city...
'GHOUL' WON'T STAND TRIAL
The former owner of the Brooklyn funeral home where prosecutors claim a ring of organ thieves harvested bones and tissue from cadavers is unfit to stand trial with his co-defendants,...
TRAFFIC-COP MIKE
Mayor Bloomberg tried to put the kibosh yesterday on a plan reportedly being considered by his own appointees to exclude neighborhoods above 60th Street from a proposed $8 congestion fee....
SI WOMAN SURVIVES FREAK COAT-HOOK IMPALING
A doctor's staffer whose eye socket was impaled on a metal coat-rack hook in a freak accident is celebrating a miraculous happy ending. "I'm just so happy to be OK,"...
ED. BIGS BACK CHESS MOVE
The Education Department is letting stand a Bronx principal's decision to bar her chess team's coach from traveling to this week's national championships in Houston. PS 70 Principal Kerry Castellano...
2 INDICTED IN DRAG-RACE DEATH
Two Staten Island teens were indicted yesterday in a high-speed drag-racing stunt that killed a 17-year-old girl and critically injured her beau. Joseph Donovan, 17, and Anthony Reis, 18, were...
NYRA LOAD OF HORSE $#!@
ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer's choice to run New York's thoroughbred racing tracks for the next three decades has stiffed the state of nearly $11 million in fees over two years,...
DEBT CRISIS LIKELY TO DO JOB ON CITY
Layoffs stemming from the subprime mortgage mess are "likely to fall disproportionately" on city workers and firms, Comptroller Bill Thompson warned yesterday. Thompson issued his warning in a 48-page review...
PRAY 'N' PREY
The married bishop of a small Bronx church is being accused of crying poverty to bilk female congregants - some of whom say they dated him - out of nearly...
FIRE MARSHAL EXECUTED IN SI HOME
A city fire marshal was shot execution style in the Staten Island home in which he was born and raised and where he was bringing up his two little girls,...
MAGNIFICENT 7
Tunneling work is expected to begin next week on the city's $2 billion subway extension to Manhattan's far West Side. The 1.5-mile expansion of the No. 7 line is expected...
AMY JUST CAN'T GET HER SHIRT TOGETHER
Oh, no, no, no. Troubled "Rehab" singer Amy Winehouse takes a barefoot walk around chilly East London at 5:40 a.m. on Sunday, while wearing only a bra and jeans. Winehouse,...
MAGNA CARTA ON THE BLOCK
It's the perfect holiday gift for the unpopular, overtaxing monarch in your life, and it'll cost you only about $20 to $30 million. That's the estimated worth of a copy...
JOY IN VENEZUELA
Venezuelan voters reveled yesterday in the stunning rebuff they gave loony-for-life President Hugo Chavez on Sunday, showing the tough-talking strongman that he wasn't that mighty after all. But the thwarted...
TEDDY, SET . . . GO
A British teacher yesterday escaped angry calls for her death when Sudan's president pardoned her for insulting Muslims by allowing her students to name a teddy bear after Islam's revered...
KIDNAP KOOK HAS LONG RAP SHEET
The deranged hostage-taker who threatened to blow up a Hillary Clinton campaign office in New Hampshire has a long criminal history - including a rape he committed while on the...
GIULIANI AND PALS TARGETED
Rudy Giuliani's dirty laundry is being aired all over Iowa in a slew of phone calls and e-mails to potential voters. The messages mention the indictment of Giuliani's ex-business pal...
HILL, RUDY POLL FAULT
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa - Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudy Giuliani have seen their once-formidable leads over top opponents sliced in a new national poll - she has lost 11 points...
TRIBUTE TO SLAIN NFL STAR
MIAMI - Some 3,000 family, friends, fans - and a galaxy of civic and sports stars, including Jesse Jackson and OJ Simpson - packed a university arena for an emotional...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
BROOKLYN A man was beaten and stabbed to death in a Bay Ridge hotel yesterday. David Diaz, 26, and a woman checked into the Best Western Gregory Hotel on Fourth...
LEPER DIDN'T CHANGE HIS SPOTS
IMUS? More like I mustn't . . . listen to the rants of that giant gasbag, Imus, ever, ever again, I mean. I had no choice yesterday. I was assigned...
LOTTERY
NEW YORK Midday Nos. Mon.: 041; Lucky Sum: 5 / Midday Win-4 Mon.: 5108; Lucky Sum: 14 / Evening Nos. Mon.: 839; Lucky Sum: 20; Evening Win- 4 Mon.: 0907;...
A LOSS FOR EL LOCO
World-class blowhard Hugo Chavez is eating humble pie this week, thanks to the good sense of the Venezuelan people. On Sunday, voters in that country firmly rebuffed their "revolutionary" strongman's...
ELIOT & ANDREW'S PANDER-PATTER
Gov. Spitzer and Attorney General An drew Cuomo yesterday filed papers to block the relicensing of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester - a breathtakingly irresponsible act by...
NO TEST ON TERM LIMITS
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn yesterday declared dead any effort to overturn or extend term limits for New York elected officials. Bowing to reality, Quinn said that - despite councilmembers'...
THE NO. 7 GROWS
Dig this: Work this month will begin on a new tunnel that will let the No. 7 subway line stretch west - spurring growth in one of the last neglected...
DEMOCRACY PAINS
OUR instinctive response is to praise the results of Sunday's balloting in Venezuela and question the same day's results from Russia. But, dirty politics notwithstanding, democracy worked in both places:...
MITT'S REAL MESS
ON Thursday, at the George H.W. Bush presidential library in College Station, Texas, Mitt Romney will deliver what's being called his "JFK speech." Unfortunately for Romney, he's trying to deal...
HUCK'S SALES-TAX LUNACY
MIKE Huckabee isn't running a substance-free campaign based on biography and ap plause lines. No, the former Arkansas governor has the distinction of advocating the most radical - and politically...
THE CITY COUNCIL ATE MY HOMEWORK!
THE ISSUE: Peter Vallone Jr.'s resolution seeking to limit for city students. Councilmember Peter Vallone's call for legislation to reduce homework for school children is crazy ("Peter Vallone's Homework Horror,"...
ADJUSTABLE FATE
Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's new safety net to prevent a flood of home foreclosures could actually drown many hard-working homeowners who never missed a mortgage payment, experts say. "This is...
MOZILO, TOP BANKER BACK SUBPRIME HELP
The top regulator of the nation's home loan banks and the embattled chief of Countrywide Financial both went on the offensive yesterday in support of government help for the sinking...
WHY IT'S LIKELY ECONOMY IS IN A RECESSION NOW
WILL the U.S. be in a recession in 2008? Don't know. But a good case can be made that the economy is in a recession right now, despite some statistics...
FED-ING FRENZY
A pair of Federal Reserve officials yesterday expressed a bit of doom and gloom about the economy and the housing-market crisis, which heighten The Street's hopes for another interest rate...
SUNNY DAYS SHINE ON MARTS: STUDY
Maybe the Dow was down yesterday for a good reason - the weather. Over the years, studies, including one from an acclaimed professor of finance at the University of California...
WEB SITE GETS DEAL IN CHINA
In another sign that China's Internet surfers are hungry for more Western music, one of the country's popular social networking sites has struck a unique deal with a US Web...
NBC'S SILVERMAN EYES $200M SALE
Ben Silverman won't need his paycheck as co-chairman of NBC Entertainment after he sells his Reveille production studio to Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine Group. Two sources involved in the talks confirmed...
DVD-ISASTER SALES
Just in case Hollywood didn't have enough to worry about with the writer's strike, here comes the latest horror to scare Tinseltown: Shrinking DVD sales. The DVD businesses, one of...
L&T TO STARRETT-LEHIGH
LORD & Taylor is clear ing the decks for the planned $100 million renovation of its Fifth Avenue flagship. The luxury department store, now owned by NRDC Equity Partners, has...
TENANTS WIN ROUND
The city's costliest condo conversion just got costlier. The holdover tenants who had been facing eviction from Manhattan House, the five-building, 20-story complex where Grace Kelly once lived, have won...
LEADING BALLET DANCER KILLED IN CAR CRASH
A leading dancer with the American Ballet Theatre was killed and her husband, a fellow member of the New York-based troupe, suffered a broken leg Sunday night in a 10-car...
WIFE NAMED SUSPECT IN SI FIRE MARSHALL'S DEATH
The estranged wife of a city fire marshal, who was shot to death in his sleep in his Staten Island home on Sunday, is the prime suspect in his execution-style...
EX-TEACHER DEBRA LAFAVE BUSTED AGAIN
Tampa cops today busted teaching temptress Debra Lafave for allegedly having illegal contact with a teenager at their job. Lafave, 27, is best known for having a lewd-and-lascivious affair with...
SPORTS SHORTS
NFL: Favre Sportsman of the YearBrett Favre's standout season for the resurgent Packers has earned him the title of 2007 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, making him the fourth...
DON'T EVER FORGET JIMMY V
THE images come to me at incongruous moments, like when I'm driving down the Jersey Turnpike to Exit 9 for a Rutgers football game and remember that Jimmy Valvano was...
EYEING A'S, O'S
NASHVILLE - The Mets are prioritizing Oakland's Dan Haren and Baltimore's Erik Bedard. The problem is at least eight to 10 other teams also are waging battle for the two...
BEAR ESSENTIALS
QUARTERBACKS B On most days, two interceptions and one lost fumble for three turnovers isn't going to get it done for Eli Manning (16 of 27, 195 yards, 1 TD)....
GLORY ROAD
The way this season is shaping up for the Giants, it appears as if they will be able to count on an NFC wild card playoff game on the road,...
ISLANDERS STILL THIRST FOR PUNCH
Ted Nolan has shifted lines and changed personnel. And still, the Islanders just can't score. For the 13th consecutive time, the Isles failed to get more than two goals in...
ANOTHER GOOD 'BYE' FOR MANGINI & JETS
The evasive Eric Mangini would rather give a quart of blood than a hint of what goes on in the Jets' film rooms, so getting an answer on what kind...
NOT DOGGING IT
QUARTERBACKS B Kellen Clemens (15-23, 236 yards, one TD, one INT, 91.7 rating) bounced back well after his Thanksgiving clunker, managing this game well. He was very good on third...
THE UNTOLD STORY
IN theory, Cablevision is a communications conglomerate. Daily we're bombarded with commercials boasting about its capability of putting subscribers in instant touch with the world by phone, TV and the...
PAINFUL LOSS FOR MARBURY
The Knicks grieved along with Stephon Marbury yesterday, one day after the beleaguered point guard's father passed away. Donald Marbury Sr. died of a heart attack at St. Vincent's Hospital...
METS MAKE MOVE TO ADD JAPANESE RIGHTY KURODA
NASHVILLE - The Mets are very much in the mix for Japanese righty Hiroki Kuroda, to the point they have moved past what was essentially an opening round of bidding,...
NETS' STEFANSKI NEW SIXERS' GM
CLEVELAND - The Nets' loss will be the Sixers' gain. Ed Stefanski, the Nets' general manager, draft sage and a man who helped engineer the trades that landed Vince Carter...
NETS MAY GET DOSE OF LEBRON
CLEVELAND - When the Nets last came through here, the Cavs were doing a playoff dance on their heads. Defensively, the Nets were superb last May. Offensively and off the...
RANGERS BELLY FLOP
Tom Renney didn't mince words, either when delivering a lecture to his team immediately following the Rangers' pathetic performance in last night's 4-0 Garden loss to Carolina or when speaking...
CASHVILLE TENNESSEE
NASHVILLE - Hank Steinbrenner's self-imposed deadline of midnight last evening passed without the Yankees acquiring Johan Santana from the Twins. What that meant in the overall picture wasn't clear, since...
BIGGEST BUZZ SO FAR CREATED BY HANK-EES
NASHVILLE - Hank Steinbrenner has talked and talked and talked, and if the idea was to become the talk of baseball, he sure has succeeded. Hardly a familiar face passes...
ANDY TAKES THE MONEY; YANKS WAIT ON JOHAN
NASHVILLE - Andy Pettitte wanted the Yankees to know they could count on him with or without Johan Santana. "Andy talked to [Derek] Jeter, [Jorge] Posada, [Joe] Girardi and [Brian]...
YOU WANNA LIFT?
SO you have yourself an itch only a Rossignol pole can scratch - who doesn't? But you might want to skip over most of those Craigslist ads about "skiing" unless...
NEWS + NOTES
* HOT TRAILS SKI magazine has unveiled a list of New Yorker's favorite slopes. Turns out, we're very la di da, preferring Aspen and Snowmass over all others - Vail,...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
Life imitating art imitating life. Cops busted a suspected Italian mobster in his room in Sicily as he watched a television mini-series about the 1993 arrest of a notorious Mafia...
SKI TO PHILLY
By FRED KERBERGeneral manager Ed Stefanski is leaving the Nets after eight-plus seasons with the organization to take the GM post with the Philadelphia 76ers, league sources confirmed Monday night.Stefanski...