*We had Kingston's mayoral candidates in this morning for an editorial board meeting. It got testy between them at times. If Jim Sottile and Rich Cahill have many more of these faceoffs between now and Election Day, they may need someone in a striped shirt to sit between them.

*Ken Burns' 'The War' series on PBS was sobering. I've read about World War II and I've seen newsreel footage and Hollywood's depictions. But this documentary was different in effectively capturing the horror, patriotism and heroism on the front lines and at home. For those of us who weren't around during that trying time, the series tells us a lot about about our country, individually and collectively, from Pearl Harbor Day to VJ Day. Try to find this series in repeats or on DVD.

*Good news for Yankees fans who can't stay up late. Their first-round games against Cleveland begin at dusk. Even a four-hour marathon game will be over before Letterman and Leno.

*As an employer, all I can do is shake my head about the culture at Madison Square Garden, which lost a huge sexual harassment case this week. That what was happening there was allowed to occur -- and even seemed to be excused by Garden apologists -- only goes to show that you don't have to be among the sharpest knives in the drawer to be in positions of power.