*With Hillary Clinton's time as U.S. senator apparently drawing to a close - word this afternoon is that she's accepting the Obama secretary of state offer - a name that keeps popping up as a likely replacement is Kirsten Gillibrand, the congresswoman whose district covers part of our region. Says here she's young, smart, an Upstater and a female, all qualifications that work in her favor for this appointment, if it comes from Gov. Paterson.

*The great Phil Mushnick of the New York Post has it right - again - on the question of those personal seat licenses being foisted on season ticket holders for Jets and Giants games at the new Meadowlands stadium. Here's the way he nails it in today's column.

*If the Yankees were a movie like "The Godfather", Marlon Brando would play Boss George, James Caan would be Sonny Hank and Al Pacino would be Hal, the offspring who didn't want to go into the family business, but now finds himself in charge.

*I'm going to New York tomorrow morning to pick up my son at the airport. I'll take the NY Thruway (not the Tom Dewey Thruway), to the Tappan Zee Bridge (not the Malcolm Wilson Bridge), to the Triboro Bridge (not the just-renamed RFK Bridge). I'll also drive on the Deegan and Van Wyck expressways, because I don't know what they were called before their present names. And, yes, reluctantly it will be JFK Airport, not Idelwild, because that's what I've known it as for decades. I'll also be on the Grand Central Parkway for a stretch. I like that one. No offense to all of the people after whom roads and tunnels and bridges (yes, you, too, George Washington) and buildings have been named, but I prefer geographically correct titles. (Mid-Hudson Bridge, yes. FDR Bridge, no. Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, yes. Gov. George Clinton Bridge, no.)