*Is there anyone who doesn't believe the Caroline Kennedy appointment to the Senate is a done deal? Seems to me the only way it won't happen is if Kennedy changes her mind and withdraws her name from consideration after encountering reporters from one end of the state to the other who appropriately ask her if she's qualified.

*Maybe you have no sympathy for those who lost their life savings in the Wall Street Ponzi scheme, but I do. You didn't have to be a millionaire to be vulnerable. And this scandal, many fear, may be just the tip of the iceberg.

*To all those who are lambasting Gov. Paterson's proposed budget, haven't you heard, the nation is in a recession, the worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression? It's been in all the papers.

*If you get the Sundance Channel, zero in on Elvis Costello's weekly talk-music show "Spectacle". Guests so far have been Elton John, Lou Reed and Bill Clinton. Next week it's James Taylor.