by Tyco International that had been home to its former chief executive, L. Dennis

Kozlowski, has gone to contract, according to a real-estate source familiar

with the proceedings. The apartment, in the exclusive limestone co-op at 950

Fifth Avenue, carried a $24.95 million asking price and was being shopped by S.

Jean Meisel and Amy Katcher of Brown Harris Stevens. Both brokers declined to

comment on a pending transaction, citing confidentiality agreements.

Gwen Fisher, a spokeswoman for the 260,000-employee manufacturing

and service conglomerate, also declined to comment on the sale of Mr.

Kozlowski's former corporate residence.

But a source close to the proceedings said that after nearly two

years on the market, one of the bubble-burst's most vexing symbols of corporate

profligacy has finally found a buyer.

Other high-profile tenants in the tony building include Daily News owner and real-estate mogul

Mort Zuckerman and Jonathan Tisch, the chairman of N.Y.C. and Company and chief

executive of Loews Hotels. The Tyco apartment has four bedrooms, four and a

half bathrooms, four wood-burning fireplaces and an eat-in kitchen. The

11th-floor residence made headlines last year during Mr. Kozlowski's larceny

trial in State Supreme Court in Manhattan for allegedly looting the company of

$170 million, plus illegally profiting from $430 million in stock sales after

artificially inflating the company's value. In April, the case against Mr.

Kozlowski and Mark Swartz, Tyco's former chief financial officer, ended in a

mistrial. But during the trial, details of Mr. Kozlowski's wanton spending came

to light, including the ornate Fifth Avenue duplex that the company purchased

in 2000 for $18 million from Blackstone Group financier Stephen Schwarzman

(who, in turn, paid a then-record $37 million for his triplex penthouse at 740

Park Avenue). Mr. Kozlowski soon added $13 million worth of gilded finishings

to the apartment, including the infamous $6,000 shower curtain and the $15,000

umbrella stand, as well as a fine-art collection that included a $3.95 million

Monet and a $4.7 million Renoir.

But it wasn't just fine real estate that spurred Mr. Kozlowski's

penchant for wild spending. During the trial, prurient C.E.O.-watchers and the

media learned of the embattled chief's homes in Boca Raton, Fla.; jewelry from

Harry Winston and Tiffany's; and-in what has now become a classic symbol of

corporate avarice-a video of a $1 million birthday fête in Sardinia thrown for

his wife, which featured a private concert by Jimmy Buffett (who played to the

tune of $250,000) and an ice sculpture of Michelangelo's David that appeared to be urinating Stolichnaya vodka while

toga-clad revelers danced in the background.

With a potential closing on the apartment imminent, Tyco may be

hoping to conclude an unfortunate chapter in the company's history. The sale of

the 11-room residence has proved a challenging task for the Bermuda and New

Hampshire–based company. In late 2002, the apartment first hit the market at

$28 million and languished without a buyer. In February, Tyco slashed $3

million off the asking price, and apparently the nearly 10 percent discount has paid off. Moreover, any

confusion over where the funds from a sale would go seem to have been cleared

up: Mr. Kozlowski's attorney, Stephen Kaufman, told The Observer that all proceeds will be directed back into the

company's coffers and not Mr. Kozlowski's wallet. "[The apartment] was always a

company asset. All the proceeds will go to the company. The ownership is Tyco,"

he said.

Riverdance

director John McColgan will soon jig and tap his way into a new duplex

penthouse at 1080 Madison Avenue. Mr. McColgan recently purchased a

four-bedroom, 3,800-square-foot apartment for $5.5 million, city records show,

but the Celtic dance impresario has now decided to rent out his Manhattan perch

with a très cher asking price of

$30,000 a month.

"Basically, he's not moving to New York as quickly as he

thought," said exclusive broker Roger Erickson of Sotheby's International

Realty. "I've had outrageous offers to buy the apartment. But he doesn't want

to sell."

Mr. McColgan has indeed landed a prize possession that would be

hard to part with. The 18th-floor duplex, on Madison Avenue between 81st and

82nd streets, has an entertaining area complete with fireplaces, an eat-in

kitchen that opens onto a terrace, floor-to-ceiling windows with both city and

Central Park views, marble baths and a wood-paneled library.

This isn't the first time that Mr. McColgan has toyed with

high-profile Manhattan real estate. In 2001, he sold his 2,094-square-foot

apartment at 1 Central Park West for $4.75 million to Richard Kashnow, the

president of Tyco Ventures, the venture-capital branch of Tyco International.

Mr. McColgan's former 40th-floor spread at Trump International Hotel and Towers

had two bedrooms, a library, an eat-in kitchen, open Central Park views and a

built-in central stereo system.

But it was his Riverdance

fame that allowed Mr. McColgan to swap seven-figure Manhattan apartments.

Conceived by Mr. McColgan along with Moya Doherty, a Dublin television

producer, and composer Bill Whelan, Riverdance

debuted as a seven-minute "filler" at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. What

started out as a short-term dance routine exploded into an international

entertainment blockbuster. In 1995, the trio expanded the show into a

full-length revue that played first in Dublin and London and then in New York.

During its run in the late 1990's, Riverdance

pulled in a half-billion dollars in box-office sales on four continents, not to

mention the 6.5 million videos and two million CD's sold, making the show one

of Ireland's biggest cultural exports.

Woody Allen's Old Studio Sells For $7.5 M.

The limestone townhouse office building at 41 West 56th Street

that had been Woody Allen's former production offices closed last week at its

$7.5 million asking price. The 25-foot-wide building first landed on the market

at $9 million in October 2003, before recently being sold to a prominent

Italian fashion executive.

"It feels like Tribeca in midtown," exclusive broker Laurance

Kaiser IV, the president of Key-Ventures Realty, said of the building. The

property, on West 56th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, has a 58-seat

screening room on the first floor and open loft spaces that once housed Mr.

Allen's production offices on the upper four floors. The deal includes air

rights to develop five additional floors. Mr. Kaiser said the property could be

converted into a fashion boutique with offices upstairs, or even a lavish

private residence, though he declined to indicate the new buyer's plans for the

space.

According to city records, the building was owned by Sweetland

Incorporated, a firm run by the renowned financier Jaqui Safra. Sweetland

purchased the property for $1.7 million in April 1994, city records show. In

2002, Mr. Safra's girlfriend, the producer Jean Doumanian, made headlines after

she became embroiled in a contentious, and often comedic, nine-day civil trail

with Mr. Allen after he sued his partner over financial squabbles. The two

parties settled for an undisclosed sum.

According to Mr. Kaiser, Mr. Allen's former offices underwent an

extensive renovation in 1996 and feature a spacious, loft-like layout while

retaining several historic details, including an ornate grand staircase.

The building was once the home of the famed Orsini's restaurant,

which in the 1960's and 1970's drew Manhattan's glitterati, including guests

like the Duchess of Windsor. Orsini's closed in 1984, and the Dallas-based Bon

Vivant Properties Corporation purchased the building and unsuccessfully tried

to establish a high-end French restaurant there. The building later became the

home of the Japan Tea Club, which was opened in 1991 by a group of Japanese

investors, before Sweetland purchased the property in 1994.

Upper West Side

303 West 105th

Street Two-bedroom,

one-bathroom co-op. Asking:

$575,000. Selling: $650,000. Maintenance:

$693; no tax deduction. Time on the

market: one week.

GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS! More proof no neighborhood on the island is

immune from frenzied real-estate bidding: This prewar co-op north of 96th

Street attracted 11 offers following an open house that drew 30 prospective

buyers. The buyer eventually secured the 1,150-square-foot spread after paying

$75,000 over the asking price. So much for affordable uptown living! "The buyer

had looked at more than 100 properties and had already lost bidding wars. He

said, 'I'm not going through this again," exclusive broker Amanda Jhones of

Douglas Elliman said of the motivated buyer's aggressive bidding. The seller, a

professor at the University of Michigan, had purchased the property but never

occupied it while he resided in the leafy campus town of Ann Arbor. The co-op board

of this five-unit walk-up building recently instructed the gentleman it was

time to sell if he was going to be an absentee tenant. The buyer is a writer in

his 50's who was renting nearby on Riverside Drive before deciding to purchase

this spread. The floor-through apartment, in an 1890's Beaux Arts brownstone

just off Riverside Park, had two decorative fireplaces, a large south-facing

bay window, and a built-in Bosch washer and dryer. Richard Healy of Halstead

Properties represented the buyer.

Upper East Side

166 East 61st

Street Two-bedroom,

two-bathroom co-op. Asking:

$935,000. Selling: $940,000. Maintenance:

$1,663; 48 percent tax-deductible. Time on the

market: two months.

BIDDING UP FOR BABY After the couple who owned this renovated

East Side co-op decamped to the Connecticut 'burbs so their children could

frolic in a backyard, a growing family decided to trade up from a nearby

apartment on 69th Street and Second Avenue to this spacious spread. In the

competitive real-estate market that has descended over all of Manhattan, the

couple paid $5,000 over the asking price. "They needed more space," said Leah

Ozeri, a broker with the Corcoran Group who represented the buyers. The

apartment, between Lexington and Third avenues, has Upper East Side staples

including marble baths, open southern and eastern views, and a newly renovated

kitchen. The building also offers a full-time doorman and a concierge. "It felt

right for them; they loved it because it was big," Ms. Ozeri said. Anne

Prosser, also of the Corcoran Group, represented the sellers.

Upper West Side

80 Columbus

Circle Three-bedroom,

three-and-a-half-bathroom condo. Asking: $4.7

million. Selling: $4.7 million. Charges $3,888.

Taxes: $36,660. Time on the

market: four months.

THE NINTH-HOME MARKET Already the owners of three homes in New

York, this former computer executive and his wife recently closed on a

2,219-square-foot condo in the vast Time Warner Center that will be their

Manhattan pied-à-terre . The

three-bedroom spread will also be-count 'em-their ninth home. "They have three

children and believe real estate is a solid investment," said exclusive broker

Karen Shenker of Citi Habitats, a recently acquired division of the Corcoran

Group. The house-proud couple, who sold their computer business right before

the Internet bubble burst, had first looked to buy a Manhattan perch at the

Trump International Hotel and Tower, but no apartments were available at the

time. They soon went looking next-door at the Time Warner Center. "They really

wanted something at the center of the universe," Ms. Shenker said. "This will

be more of a weekend place; they like to attend lots of sporting events." The

67th-floor spread now joins their collection of homes, which includes both a

waterfront manse and a condo in Sarasota, Fla. (where the kids come to stay),

and a home in Upper Saddle River, N.J., in addition to the three Manhattan

spreads. But the empty-nesters show no signs of slowing down in their

real-estate acquisitiveness, as they're also in the midst of building a

sprawling 15,000-square-foot French chateau–style mansion near their Saddle

River home.

Her publisher at Miramax Books, Harvey Weinstein, declined to comment on any instances of his foolishness or fanaticism.

"I'm retired," he said, before turning his attention to investment banker Steven Rattner, whose smile clearly meant "no comment." Mort Zuckerman, the third man in the pow-wow, came through, sort of. "How much time do you have?" he asked.

Twenty seconds?

"Not enough time."

"If you don't embarrass yourself every once in a while, then you're not loose enough," Al Franken chimed in. "So I'm trying to think hard. I know-I made a couple mistakes in Lies and Lying Liars. All of it came from British intelligence. For example, I wrote that Sean Hannity lived up Newt Gingrich's ass from 1993 to 1998-I got that from British intelligence. Turns out Sean took residence up Newt's ass only in early '94, early January of '94, so that was embarrassing."

Soon, Ms. Huffington picked up a microphone and started riffing on President Bush.

"George Bush was supposed to be here tonight, but he just sent a little note saying that the directions were not specific enough," she said.

There followed many hearty chuckles and a few "ho-ho-hos."

"He said he knows we gave him the time and the address, but there was no cross street," Ms. Huffington continued to even more laughter. "And he said, 'If there had been a cross street, he would have moved mountains to have been here, but without a cross street, what can he do?"

Silence.

Ms. Huffington moved on to more serious matters.

"We can win in a landslide!" she said, before adding that "when the house is on fire, this is not the time to talk about remodeling. This is the time to put the fire out. And after we put the fire out and send George Bush back to Crawford, Tex., where in any case he seems to prefer to spend his time … until then, we can't talk about remodeling."

Later on in the sumptuous townhouse once owned by Andy Warhol, swanning among such guests as Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Tina Brown, Barbara Walters, Barry Diller and Katrina vanden Heuvel, Ms. Huffington said she made a fool of herself back when she was a Republican.

"That was a very bad idea," she said. "But I think there's a statute of limitations because, you know, when I was a Republican, Dennis Miller was still a liberal-he's still funny. And Michael Jackson was still black. You know, it's a long time ago, but I did make a fool of myself. Hi! Welcome! This is [former Howard Dean consultant] Joe Trippi-you can ask him."

Having a smoke outside was Tony Newman, a bearded 33-year-old originally from the Bay Area who is now the communications director of the Drug Policy Alliance, an organization that Ms. Huffington has worked closely with to end the war on drugs.

"We have drugs all over our society," Mr. Newman was saying. "We got weed, cigs, Prozac, Viagra, steroids, everything. But only certain people are going to jail for certain drugs. I smoke weed on the streets of New York every fucking day, and you know how many times I've been stopped by the cops?"

He pulled out some printouts from a new Web site of his, www.whatifIwereblack.com, which featured photographs of Mr. Newman sparking up all over midtown Manhattan. "You would think that it's easy to smoke weed in New York, but 60,000 get arrested for fucking smoking weed in the city," he said.

Mr. Newman called his friend Ms. Huffington an "amazing woman."

"Not only is she a great writer, she's a great organizer," he said. "She basically pulled together a whole fucking range of people tonight-super big shots, grassroots organizers. She's a connector. You know what, she did it incredibly well when she was conservative and worked with Gingrich-ouch! But we have respect, 'cause she knows how to fucking do it, and now that she's willing to come over …. "

Mr. Newman lit up again and went on, talking about a shadow convention that Ms. Huffington had helped put together to address issues that were missing from the platforms at both parties' conventions in 2000.

"Arianna put together an important segment," he said. "She put together activists in the fucking media world. She pulled together activists working together on issues like drug-policy reform like myself. She pulled together these people and said, 'You know what? Basically the house is on fire,' I heard her say, 'it's not time to fucking remodel.'

Basically, the fucking state of the world is in our hands. There is something exciting about that. We got seven months: We gotta fucking bring down George Bush. This guy is a drunk driver behind the wheel and he is going to take us off the cliff. We gotta fucking remove the fucking drunk driver, man. This shit, this is fucking serious. You know, Arianna is gonna continue doing her thing. She's going to go to fucking cities around the country, she's gonna talk to local media, she's gonna talk to campuses. She's fucking articulate. She can articulate our vision."

Back inside, a dozen or so people were surrounding Ms. Huffington.

"He's fantastic," she said of Mr. Newman. "We worked together at the shadow conventions; he was press secretary for my campaign. We were working together on the drug war. Do you have a copy of my book? If you look at the 'New Contract for a Better America,' one of the items is the need to stop fighting this war on drugs."

She had to introduce someone to Joe Trippi and drifted off.

"She's connecting, she's connecting," Mr. Newman said

-George Gurley

Here, Pussy-Pussy

"That girl is a scandal," Vogue magazine's majestic editor at large, André Leon Talley, once said of Texan super-noodle Erin Wasson. "And she has got to learn how to walk."

Though Mr. Talley has ruled over the fashion world with a steely gaze and finger-snap that left many a model a little wobbly on her turns, the spotlight is now turning on his clever clogs, with his stage debut at the Martha Graham Dance Company's City Center revival of The Owl and The Pussycat on April 14. (The piece was originally narrated by Liza Minnelli in 1978.)

And what do you know: The gatekeeper of poise, style and sartorial je ne sais quoi has-how do we say this? Two. Giant. Left. Feet.

As the narrator of Edward Lear's 1871 nonsense ode, Mr. Talley's molasses-coated enunciation provided the backdrop for the Graham Company's dancers (a diminutive pussy performed by Virginie Mécène, Tadej Brdnik's buff-chested owl) as they leapt and slid effortlessly above the footlights at an open studio rehearsal on April 8.

"The ooooowl and the pussseeecat went to sssssea," he intoned over the jingly-jangly music that always seems to accompany Ms Graham's esoteric compositions. And then, in his trademark Manolo Blahnik spats-thud! plonk! stomp!-he strode around the makeshift stage.

It's possible that his large strides and massive clodding was meant to add some gravitas to the rather flitty business going on about him.

"What a loverrrly pussssseeeee you arrrre, you arrrrre. What a loverrrly pussssseeeee you arrrre."

STOMP! PLONK! THUD!

After the performance, Mr. Talley brushed off the idea that he was maybe a little out of his depth with all this prancy modern-dance stuff.

"Oh, nooooo," he said with a flick of the hand. "I feel so good. I've learned how to breathe better. I've learned how to stand, I've learned how to speak slower, and I've learned to relax in my rich delivery. I always speak so fast, almost like ticker tape or like typing on the computer board, and it's just a whole world that's opened up to me."

At tonight's performance, the neophyte performer's fashionista friends-Oscar De La Renta, Ralph Lauren, Anna Wintour-will get to see that new world of Mr. Talley's for the first time.

"Martha Graham was all about grace, gratitude and giving," he told The Transom. "I call it the 'three G's.'"

-Shazia Ahmad

It's Curtains for Tyco

On Nov. 25, jurors in the trial against former Tyco chief executive L. Dennis Kozlowski and former chief financial officer Mark Swartz were shown a videotape of the interior of Tyco's corporate residence at 950 Fifth Avenue.

They craned their necks and cooed as they caught glimpses of the infamous $6,000 gold-threaded shower curtain and $15,000 umbrella stand that became potent symbols of Mr. Kozlowski's corporate excess. But those baubles may now be history.

According to a source who recently toured the 4,500-square-foot duplex, which is listing for $24.99 million, the extravagant items have been removed from the apartment's ornate interior.

"My client and I were looking for them. We started laughing when we didn't see any shower curtain at all. It doesn't have the accouterments that it had before," the real-estate source, who asked to remain anonymous, said.

The 11-room apartment is represented by a quartet of brokers from Brown Harris Stevens, including Elizabeth Sample, Jean Meisel, Amy Katcher and Brenda Powers.

Ms. Meisel declined to comment or acknowledge any details concerning the interior of the apartment. Her partners on the $24.99 million listing didn't return calls for comment.

So where was the infamous curtain? Could it be that the expensive curtain was actually considered a turnoff in Tyco's bid to sell the apartment and recover some assets out of the whole Kozlowski-Swartz scandal?

"A lot of people would do the same," The Transom's real-estate source opined. "When a person is there to buy the apartment, they're there to see the apartment, not the decorations.

"It was source of embarrassment," the source continued. "Why have [the shower curtain] in there?"

A Tyco spokeswoman declined to comment on the whereabouts of Mr. Kozlowski's former baubles or to confirm, if the items were sold, that the proceeds would be returned to Tyco coffers.

"In anything related to that apartment-because it relates to matters that are pending litigation-it is inappropriate for us to comment at this time," said Gwen Fisher, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey– and Bermuda-based conglomerate.

Mr. Kozlowski's lawyer, Stephen Kaufman, was traveling and unavailable for comment.

If Tyco did sell off some of Mr. Kozlowski's ornate decorations, the cash would come in handy, as the company hasn't seen any from the apartment. In November, Tyco listed the 11-room spread for $28 million-a sum viewed as outlandish by real-estate watchers, and one that indeed failed to garner interest among potential buyers. After three months and no sale, Tyco slashed $3 million off the asking price in March, hoping to lure a flush tenant. The apartment has yet to find a purchaser.

Perhaps the apartment's more modest maquillage will help to win over reticent buyers.

-Gabriel Sherman

Mile-High Club

Three days after the final episode of Average Joe: Adam Returns, Adam Mesh and his chosen one, Samantha Trenk, could finally walk down the street together.

On Thursday, April 8, the lovebirds were walking hand in hand through midtown. "It's a good thing we're not married," said a scruffy-faced but smiling Mr. Mesh, holding the hand of his chosen one. "Everyone says congratulations and good luck …. We feel like we've been walking around with just-married stickers on our backs."

That's because 10.9 million people watched as the two paired off in the final episode of the Average Joe sequel. But filming had been completed three weeks before-and the two were not allowed to contact each other in the meantime, lest office betting pools all over America about whom Ms. Trenk would select be spoiled.

How did they ever bear the time apart?

"We talked on the phone everyday," said Ms. Trenk, her head peeking out of a chunky turquoise scarf.

Mr. Mesh was more specific.

"Phone sex," he said. And then, face reddening-as if sensing he'd said something that might get picked up in Star-he added lamely: "I'm just kidding."

The couple only saw each other once for a photo shoot while the show was on television. All they had left to remember each other by was that last plane ride at the end of the final episode, where the loser (Rachel Goetz) drove away in a limo and Mr. Mesh and Ms. Trenk ascended the steps of the jet, which flew off into the sunset.

But Mr. Mesh, who was the loser himself on the first season of Average Joe, didn't even get to relish his maiden voyage with the mile-high club.

"The plane wasn't all it was cracked up to be, right?" he said, casting a conspiratorial eye upon Ms. Trenk. "I mean, it's like-a plane! We went half an hour away, and then instead of [flying] a half-hour back, we got off and drove three hours back."

Ms. Trenk rolled her eyes and added, "Yeah, it was like 4 o'clock in the morning. We could've just sat on the plane for a few minutes, then gotten off."

No pun, The Transom thinks, intended.

-Alexandra Wolfe

The Transom Also Hears …

That if you work for Missy Elliott, you'd better be prepared to have her on your back 24/7. At the April 13 launch of her clothing line, which will be produced by Adidas, the hip-hop star revealed that her signature logo-a queen's crown above the words "Respect M.E."-can be found on birthday suits as well as her new track suits. "I took my dancers yesterday to go get them tattooed," she confessed at a press conference on April 13. "All my dancers are getting it on their backs-Claudine, where you at?" The rapper then brought onstage product manager Claudine Joseph, who gamely pulled up a pant leg to show off her newly inked ankle (the dancers were off rehearsing for the "Ladies First" tour, which also features Beyoncé Knowles and Alicia Keys). "Aww, she's so dedicated!" Ms. Elliott purred. "The crown is fitting for a queen, and 'Respect M.E.,' of course, is the name of the line. Oh, and the M.E., that's me-Missy Elliott!"

-Noelle Hancock

Mr. Kozlowski and Mark Swartz, Tyco's former chief financial officer, are now standing trial at the State Supreme Court in Manhattan for allegedly looting the $36 billion manufacturing conglomerate of $170 million, plus illegally profiting from $430 million in stock sales after artificially inflating the company's value; and while the prosecutors attempt to show how the two indicted executives found profligate ways to spend Tyco shareholders' money, earning it back through the sale of Mr. Kozlowski's executive residence is proving a harder task.

In March 2000, according to Mr. Kozlowski's attorney, Stephen Kaufman, Tyco purchased the apartment at 950 Fifth Avenue, which was owned by financier Stephen Schwarzman (who, in turn, paid a then-record $37 million for his triplex penthouse at 740 Park Avenue). Mr. Kaufman said the apartment is an asset of Tyco, and because the board at 950 Fifth Avenue didn't allow corporate ownership, the shares in the co-op were listed in Mr. Kozlowski's name. His high-profile neighbors in the limestone co-op, on Fifth Avenue and 76th Street, include Daily News owner and real-estate mogul Mort Zuckerman and Jonathan Tisch, chairman of NYC and Company and chief executive of Loews Hotels.

The 4,500-square-foot apartment is represented by a quartet of brokers from Brown Harris Stevens, including Elizabeth Sample, Jean Meisel, Amy Katcher and Brenda Powers.

Ms. Sample declined to comment on the recent price drop of more than 10 percent to $24.99 million, and her partners didn't return calls for comment.

"They're ludicrous for asking that kind of price," sniped one broker from a competing brokerage who is familiar with the property. "It's like two floors of a townhouse. Anyone with a large art collection can't get their paintings in there. And you have to walk through the dining room to get to the kitchen, so I wouldn't say it has an ideal layout, either. It's more like a $15 million apartment."

Mr. Kaufman said his client retains no rights to the apartment, and proceeds from any pending sale would go to Tyco.

"The apartment is an asset of Tyco. It always was, and is, an asset of Tyco. And it is carried on the books as such, as an asset of the company," he said. "The furnishings will go to Tyco, and some, but not all, of the artwork. The personal artwork belongs to him."

A spokeswoman for Tyco declined to comment on the ownership or pending sale of the 11-room duplex.

"Since there is ongoing litigation, at this point we cannot confirm details concerning the apartment's ownership," Tyco spokeswoman Gwen Fisher said.

With the reduced asking price, Tyco is hoping to unload one of the most envied-and detested-baubles of executive greed to come out of the latest round of corporate scandals, including Martha Stewart's ImClone stock sale and the trial of John Rigas and his two sons, who are charged with illegally acquiring $2.3 billion in stock from their company, Adelphia Communications, which began on March 1. The Tyco apartment made headlines last year when the public learned of its ornate decorations, including the infamous $6,000 shower curtain and the $15,000 umbrella stand that Mr. Kozlowski purchased, along with his fine-art collection, which includes a $3.95 million Monet and a $4.7 million Renoir.

On Feb. 25, Mr. Swartz, 43, told the jury in State Supreme Court in Manhattan that his boss, Mr. Kozlowski, 57, had the board of directors' permission to spend $200 million annually on corporate acquisitions.

"He [Mr. Kozlowski] did have authority to make acquisitions of businesses and capital expenditures," Mr. Swartz said on the witness stand.

These "acquisitions" by Mr. Kozlowski included the $18 million duplex at 950 Fifth Avenue, which was finished with a $13 million decorating job; homes in Boca Raton, Fla.; jewelry from Harry Winston and Tiffany's; and, most infamously, a $1 million birthday party in Sardinia thrown for his wife, which featured a private concert by Jimmy Buffett (who came for just $250,000) and an intricate ice sculpture of Michelangelo's David that seemed to urinate Stolichnaya vodka while toga-clad guests danced around.

Mr. Kozlowski's finance executive was no penny-pincher himself. Mr. Swartz, who left Tyco with a $50 million severance package in September 2003, is also being tried on charges that he used the Bermuda- and New Hampshire–based company as his personal piggy bank.

In May 2000, he reportedly used Tyco funds to purchase a 5,188-square-foot duplex at 30 East 85th Street for $7.7 million, and then promptly listed the place for $12.5 million in September of that year. In November 2003, he sold the 28th-floor duplex with four exposures for $15.9 million to former Sony Music chief Tommy Mottola (Mr. Mottola's four-floor condo at 9 East 64th Street traded for close to $20 million in December 2003)-but because the Manhattan district attorney froze Mr. Swartz's assets, he hasn't been able to gain access to the money from the sale. Testimony from the trial also showed that Tyco paid private-school tuition for Mr. Swartz's three children.

But while the price drop at 950 Fifth Avenue may help generate interest in the 11th-floor duplex among well-heeled buyers, Mr. Kozlowski has more to worry about than any real-estate troubles. If convicted on the 35 counts of grand larceny, enterprise corruption, violations of state business law and falsification of business records, Mr. Kozlowski and Mr. Swartz face up to 30 years in prison.

RECENT TRANSACTIONS IN THE REAL ESTATE MARKET

Upper East Side

1 55 East 76th Street

Two-bedroom, two-bathroom co-op.

Asking: $699,000. Selling: $699,000.

Maintenance: $1,079; 58 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: four months.

QUEEN ANNE'S PLACE For the past 30 years, a gentleman occupied this two-bedroom co-op in the Queen Anne building between Lexington and Third avenues, where he amassed a collection of fine-art books. In fact, he was one of the first residents to move into the building, which dates to 1958. But last year, well over the age of 90, he passed away, and his estate had to sell off his longtime Upper East Side home (though his art-book collection was generously donated to the New York Public Library). When the news broke that the apartment was on the market, a cascade of eager young buyers washed over the place, and a doctor and his wife snatched the apartment just as the real-estate market was heating up at the end of last year. "They were absolutely ready to buy; the timing was just as the market was beginning to turn," said broker Anne Snee of the Corcoran Group, who had an exclusive on the place. Ms. Snee noted that a similar apartment in the building recently listed for $200,000 more, making the family's purchase a steal by Manhattan's exuberant real-estate standards. The clan (they have two children) plan a renovation to the 1,300-square-foot spread and will now enjoy the apartment's fine details, which include hardwood floors, a windowed kitchen, walk-in closets and northern exposures. "Their children are young now, but the many private schools in the neighborhood are a plus," Ms. Snee said.

Soho

93 Mercer Street

Three-bedroom, two-bathroom co-op.

Asking: $1.5 million. Selling: $1.295 million.

Maintenance: $606; 45 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: seven weeks.

ARRANGERS ON A TRAIN The sellers of this Soho loft, a cancer doctor and his nutritionist wife, met a broker by chance on a train and began chatting about their plans to move to the East Village. The broker promptly put them in touch with Mary Anne Fusco, an associate broker with Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy, who sold their spacious loft, between Broome and Spring streets. "My colleague met the sellers on the train and got the listing," Ms. Fusco said. "The seller was interested in purchasing a space with a garden that she found in the East Village. She had a miniature Schnauzer and wanted a ground-floor apartment with a garden." While the couple found an unlikely slice of bucolic bliss in the East Village, the buyers, a finance executive and her photographer husband, scored their prime 2,200-square-foot loft with Soho staples like a stainless-steel kitchen and private elevator that opens onto the second-floor apartment. Mark Schoenfeld at the Corcoran Group represented the buyers.

Tribeca

124 Hudson Street

Four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom condo.

Asking: $3.25 million.

Selling: $3.2 million.

Time on the market: three weeks.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN While real-estate developers lament what they perceive as the city's draconian enforcement of building specifications in landmarked districts, some enterprising developers have built new properties, including this three-year-old loft development in Tribeca, that cleverly mirror their more historic counterparts while offering 21st-century amenities. "This is an interesting building. It was the first building built in Tribeca that subscribes to landmark specifications," said Leonard Steinberg of Douglas Elliman, who sold this 3,170-square-foot loft along with fellow Elliman broker Hervé Senequier. "The lobby has a fireplace and a lounge area. It's like walking into an Ian Schrager hotel. This building is about the whole environment, not just the apartment." But the apartment's stature is no less august. And it must have been hard for the sellers, a couple with two children, to relocate their family to Europe when the Wall Street husband got transferred. The buyers, a manufacturing entrepreneur and his wife, were relocating from New Jersey. But unlike the sellers, they weren't leaving their former abodes behind; they just added the Tribeca loft to their portfolio of homes, which includes a summer spread in the Hamptons as well as their Garden State refuge. Judith Karnas of Douglas Elliman represented the buyers. "They wanted to be in a cool area, especially Tribeca. The J.F.K. Jr. bubble was very attractive to them," Mr. Steinberg said of this sixth-floor loft, which has a stainless steel kitchen, security system and open northern exposures with views of the Empire State Building.

Singleton, longtime chief executive of Teledyne Inc., was one of the greatest of modern American capitalists. Warren Buffett, quoted in John Train's The Money Masters , virtually crowned him king. "Buffett," Train reported, "considers that Henry Singleton of Teledyne has the best operating and capital deployment record in American business."

A recent conversation with Leon Cooperman, the former Goldman Sachs partner turned portfolio manager, was the genesis of this essay. It happened in this fashion: Mr. Cooperman was flaying a certain corporate management for having repurchased its shares at a high price, only to reissue new shares at a low price. He said that this was exactly the kind of thing that Singleton never did, and he lamented how little is known today of Singleton's achievements as a capital deployer, value appraiser and P/E-multiple arbitrageur. Then he reached in his file and produced a reprint of a critical Business Week cover story on Teledyne. Among the alleged missteps for which Singleton was attacked was his heavy purchase of common stocks. The cover date was May 31, 1982, 10 weeks before the blastoff of the intergalactic bull market.

The wonder of Singleton's life and works is the subject under consideration-admittedly a biographical subject, as opposed to a market-moving one. We chose it because Singleton's genius encompassed the ability to make lemonade out of lemons, a skill especially valuable now that lemons are so thick underfoot.

Singleton was born in 1916 on a small farm in Haslet, Tex. He began his college education at the U.S. Naval Academy but finished it at M.I.T., earning three degrees in electrical engineering: bachelor's and master's degrees in 1940, and a doctorate in 1950. In 1939, he won the William Lowell Putnam Intercollegiate Mathematics Competition Award. In World War II, he served in the Office of Strategic Services. At Litton Industries, in the early 1950's, he began his fast climb up the corporate ladder: By 1957, he was a divisional director of engineering. In 1960, with George Kozmetsky, he founded Teledyne.

Anyone who was not reading The Wall Street Journal in the 1960's and 1970's missed the most instructive phase of Singleton's career. When the Teledyne share price was flying, as it was in the 1960's, the master used it as a currency with which to make acquisitions. He made about 130. Many managements have performed this trick; Singleton, however, had another: When the cycle turned and Teledyne shares were sinking, he repurchased them. Between 1972 and 1984, he tendered eight times, reducing the share count (from high to low) by some 90 percent. Many managements have subsequently performed the share-repurchase trick, too, but few have matched the Singleton record, either in terms of market timing or fair play. Singleton repurchased stock when the price was down, not when it was up (in the 1990's, such icons as G.E., I.B.M., AOL Time Warner, Cendant and, of course, Tyco paid up-and up). He took no options awards, according to Mr. Cooperman, and he sold not one of his own shares. Most pertinently to the current discussion of "corporate governance," he didn't sell when the company was buying (another popular form of managerial self-enrichment in the 1990's).

The press called him "enigmatic" because he pursued policies that, until the mists of the market lifted, appeared inexplicable. For example, at the end of the titanic 1968-74 bear market, he identified bonds as the "high-risk asset" and stocks as the low-risk asset. Accordingly, he directed the Teledyne insurance companies to avoid the former and accumulate the latter. To most people, stocks were riskier, the proof of which was the havoc they had wreaked on their unlucky holders during the long liquidation.

Some were vexed that, for years on end, Teledyne paid no dividend. The master reasoned that the marginal dollar of corporate cash was more productive on the company's books than in the shareholders' pockets, and he was surely correct in that judgment. Teledyne's stable of companies (many in defense-related lines, others in specialty metals, offshore drilling, insurance and finance, electronics and consumer products, including Water-Pik) generated consistently high margins and high returns on equity and on assets.

Singleton made his mistakes, and Teledyne's portfolio companies made theirs. A catalog of some of these errors, as well as not a few triumphs misclassified as errors, appeared in the Business Week story. We linger over this 21-year-old piece of journalism because it illustrates an eternal truth of markets, especially of markets stretched to extreme valuations. The truth is that, at such cyclical junctures, doing the wrong thing looks like the right thing, and vice versa. In the spring of 1982, few business strategies appeared more wrongheaded to the majority of onlookers than buying the ears off the stock market.

On the BW cover, the handsome Singleton was portrayed as Icarus in a business suit, flying on frail wings of share certificates and dollar bills. The article conceded that the master had done a pretty fair job for the shareholders, and it acknowledged that the share repurchases had worked out satisfactorily-to date. They had, in fact, boosted per-share earnings, "and also enabled Singleton, who held on to his own Teledyne shares, to amass 7.8 percent of the company's stock." He was the company's largest shareholder and its founding and indispensable brain.

Yet the magazine was not quite satisfied, for it perceived that Singleton had lost his way. For starters, it accused him of having no business plan. And he seemed not to have one. He believed, as he later explained at a Teledyne annual meeting, in engaging an uncertain world with a flexible mind: "I know a lot of people have very strong and definite plans that they've worked out on all kinds of things, but we're subject to a tremendous number of outside influences and the vast majority of them cannot be predicted. So my idea is to stay flexible." To the BW reporter, he explained himself more simply: "My only plan is to keep coming to work every day" and "I like to steer the boat each day rather than plan ahead way into the future."

This improvisational grand design the magazine saw as the "milking" of tried-and-true operating businesses and the diverting of funds to allow the chairman to "play" the stock market. A BW reader could imagine Singleton as a kind of Nero watching Rome burn while talking on the phone with his broker. He didn't invest in businesses, the magazine suggested, only in pieces of paper. He either managed too little (as with the supposedly aging and outmoded operating companies) or too much (as with the insurance businesses, where, according to BW , he managed to no great effect). His reserve was "icy."

Singleton's disdain for the press was complete and thoroughgoing: The BW article just rolled off his back. It puzzled him that his friend Cooperman would bother to draft a nine-page rebuttal, complete with statistical exhibits. Why go to the trouble? Mr. Cooperman, who has fire where Singleton had ice, wanted the magazine to know that, during the acquisitive 1960's, Teledyne's sales and net income had climbed to about $1.3 billion and $58.1 million, respectively, from "essentially zero," and that during the non-acquisitive 1970's, profit growth had actually accelerated (with net income of the 100-percent-owned operating businesses rising sixfold).

As for those share repurchases, Mr. Cooperman underscored an achievement that appears even more laudable from the post-bubble perspective than it did at the time. "Just as Dr. Singleton recognized [that] he had an unusually attractive stock to trade with in the 1960's," wrote Mr. Cooperman, "he developed the belief that the company's shares were undervalued in the 1970's. In the period 1971-1980, you correctly point out that the company repurchased approximately 75 percent of its shares. What you did not point out is that despite the stock's 32 percent drop from its all-time high reached in mid-1981 to the time of your article, the stock price remains well above the highest price paid by the company (and multiples above the average price paid) in this ten-year period." And what Mr. Cooperman did not point out was that none of these repurchases was earmarked for the mopping up of shares issued to management. He did not point that out, probably, because the infamous abuses of options issuance still lay in the future.

Business Week , however, was right when it observed that nothing lasts forever and that Singleton couldn't manage indefinitely. In 1989, he formally relinquished operating control of the company he founded (and, by then, owned 13.2 percent of). Even then, it was obvious that the 1990's were not going to be Teledyne's decade. Appended to The Wall Street Journal 's report on Singleton's withdrawal from operations was this disapproving note: "The company hasn't said in the past what it plans to do. It doesn't address analyst groups or grant many interviews. Teledyne's news releases and stockholder reports are models of brevity. Some securities analysts have given up following the company because they can't get enough information." Imagination cannot conjure a picture of Singleton on CNBC.

The dismantling of Teledyne began in 1990 with the spin-off of the Unitrin insurance unit (later came the sale of Argonaut, another insurance subsidiary). Singleton resigned the chairmanship in 1991, at the age of 74. Presently, the financial results slipped, the defense businesses were enveloped in scandal, and Teledyne itself was stalked as a takeover candidate. Surveying the troubles that came crowding in on the company after the master's departure (and-unhappily for the defense industry-after the fall of the Berlin Wall), Forbes magazine remarked: "For many years Henry Singleton disproved the argument that conglomerates don't work. But it turns out Teledyne was more of a tribute to Singleton than to the concept."

In retirement, Singleton raised cattle and became one of the country's biggest landowners. He played tournament chess. "Most recently," according to a tribute published shortly after his death (of brain cancer, at age 82), "he devoted much time to computers, programming algorithms and creating a fine computer game of backgammon …. "

To those not attuned to the nuances of corporate finance, Singleton's contribution appeared mainly to concern the technique of share repurchases. Thus (as an obituary in the Los Angeles Times had it), Teledyne was the forerunner to the white-hot growth stocks of the Clinton bubble, including Tyco International and Cendant. Singleton knew better. To Leon Cooperman, just before he died, the old conglomerateur confided his apprehension. Too many companies were doing these stock buybacks, he said. There must be something wrong with them.

© Grant's Interest Rate Observer, 2003

The co-op building is considered one of the four or five most exclusive addresses in New York. There is only one apartment on each of the building's 12 stories, and each unit has a 44-foot-long gallery, five bedrooms, six-and-a-half bathrooms, seven servants' rooms, five fireplaces and large entertainment areas. In 1984, Mr. Niarchos hired famed Italian interior designer Renzo Mongiardino to lay out the apartment.

After two failed marriages, the 56-year-old Mr. Niarchos married Charlotte Ford, the 24-year-old daughter of Henry Ford II. That union dissolved after two years. The next year, Mr. Onassis was declared the unconditional victor in the marriage race by marrying Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of John F. Kennedy. Mr. Niarchos answered back by marrying one of Mr. Onassis' previous wives, Tina Livanos, who was herself the daughter of another Greek shipping magnate.

When Ms. Livanos died in 1974 from an overdose of sleeping pills, her daughter created a scandal by implying that Mr. Niarchos had something to do with the death. A subsequent investigation cleared him of wrongdoing.

Vacancies are rare in Mr. Niarchos' old building, and brokers estimate that potential buyers at 820 Fifth would need to have at least $100 million to even be considered by the co-op's notoriously fussy board.

Current residents include socialite and board president Jayne Wrightsman, gallery owner William Acquavella, Yahoo chief Terry Semel, and Lily Safra, widow of slain international banker Edmond Safra. Ms. Safra lives in the penthouse, but she is currently listing for $30 million the fourth-floor unit that she bought from Tommy Hilfiger, who flipped it in 2000.

The apartment's listing broker at Sotheby's International Realty declined to comment, and Ms. Niarchos was unavailable for comment.

Noho Eats Crow: Rocker Drops $2.4 M.

When Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz told his fans at the Hammerstein Ballroom in October that he had just decided to buy an apartment in Manhattan, the crowd let out a roar of approval. Last week, the throaty, dreadlocked crooner-who for years has used Manhattan as a backdrop for many of his songs-made it official, closing on a $2.4 million, 4,952-square-foot condo loft near Cooper Union.

Mr. Duritz bought the space raw, but the building's developers say that it could easily accommodate up to five bedrooms.

"It's L-shaped," said one of the unit's exclusive brokers, Robert McCain, of Stribling Marketing Associates. "So it would really work well if [Mr. Duritz] wanted to put any sort of music-related recording equipment on one side, and have the other side for living space."

Although the 38-year-old Mr. Duritz grew up in Baltimore and California, he has apparently always had a soft spot for New York-as evidenced by the song "Sullivan Street," and the album Across a Wire: Live in New York City .

He'll certainly be getting an eyeful of the city from his fifth-floor condo. The sprawling, almost-trapezoidal-shaped apartment has east, south and west exposures, all of which have unencumbered open city views.

Neither Mr. Duritz nor his broker at the Corcoran Group could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Duritz is perhaps as well known for the "friends" he keeps as his music: At different times in the 1990's, he was reportedly involved with Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox.

New York Observer 15th Anniversary

It's The Observer's 15th anniversary, so this week, in addition to "recent transactions in the real estate market," Manhattan Transfers offers some of its accumulated wisdom about the buildings you'll never qualify to live in, and the sale of the century, as well as a sampling of the deals that have made Manhattan Transfers headlines over the years.

1996

April – Bette Midler buys a 12-room triplex co-op at 1125 Fifth for $3.5 million.

June – Universal co-chairman Terry Semel buys a 7,000-square-foot co-op at 820 Fifth Avenue from Ann and Gordon Getty. He almost doesn't make it into the building when board member Jayne Wrightsman voices reservations about the deal.

July – Jann Wenner buys a five-story townhouse at 57 West 69th Street. It listed for $4.25 million.

1997

June – Graydon Carter leaves the Dakota-where it's rumored that Si Newhouse had eased the way financially-for a four-story townhouse on Bank Street that listed for $2.5 million.

November – Harvey Weinstein buys a 7,000-square-foot, six-bedroom townhouse on the Upper East Side, near Central Park. He pays the asking price of $3.95 million.

1998

January – Jerry Seinfeld buys a 3,400-square-foot duplex co-op at the Beresford from Isaac Stern. It listed at $4.35 million. He later pays about $1.4 million to build a 20-car parking garage nearby to house his Porsches.

March – Sean (Puff Daddy) Combs buys a $2.7 million beach house on Hedges Banks Drive in East Hampton, complete with pool and hot tub.

June – Richard Gere pays $2 million for a 5,000-square-foot townhouse that is part of the Macdougal-Sullivan Gardens Historic District. He is later fined for erecting a meditation temple on the roof without a permit. According to a local broker, Mr. Gere, a Buddhist, built the temple to give the Dalai Lama a place to pray when he came into town.

July – Spike Lee makes a final break with his home neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and buys a 32-foot-wide townhouse at East 63rd Street, between Lexington and Third avenues. He buys the 9,000-square-foot mansion from Jasper Johns for $7.2 million.

August – Gwyneth Paltrow purchases a landmark three-story townhouse in the West Village for $1.6 million.

1999

February – Karenna Gore Schiff and her husband, Andrew Schiff, buy a $2.5 million East 66th Street duplex co-op; Anne Bancroft and her husband, Mel Brooks, longtime Hamptons fixtures, finally put down roots of their own. They pay W magazine editor Etta Froio $900,000 for a cottage on East Hampton's Meadow Lane.

March – Jerry Seinfeld gets outbid by designer Helmut Lang for an East Hampton beach house. Mr. Seinfeld bid $14.5 million on the three-acre Tyson Lane home, but Mr. Lang takes the deed with a bid of $15.5 million. "Business is business," a Seinfeld rep says.

July – No Central Park West co-op board is going to stand between Mariah Carey and a penthouse triplex. Weeks after being rejected by the board of the Ardsley, where she offered to buy Barbra Streisand's three-tiered penthouse for $8 million, Ms. Carey is throwing $9 million at a new condominium development at 90 Franklin Street, where she is fashioning a downtown version.

August – Woody Allen sells his longtime home-a duplex penthouse at 930 Fifth Avenue-and pays $17.7 million for a five-story, double-wide townhouse on East 92nd Street, near Madison Avenue. He decided to sell his old place when he realized that the one-bedroom space was inadequate for his young wife, 28-year-old Soon-Yi Previn, and new baby, Bechet Dumaine Allen.

September – Just a few months before rehearsals begin for Wiseguys , a new Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim, star Nathan Lane buys a $1.7 million, 3,000-square-foot condo on N. Moore Street in Tribeca, on the block where John F. Kennedy Jr. lived. The condo had been rented out for the last two years by Marc Weill, the 42-year-old son of Citigroup Inc. chairman Sanford Weill.

October – At long last, media baron Rupert Murdoch buys a new home for his new wife. The News Corporation chief, who in June married girlfriend Wendy Deng, a former executive with his Asian satellite-television conglomerate, pays $6.5 million for a triplex penthouse loft at 141 Prince Street near West Broadway.

2000

January – MTV chairman Tom Freston buys the former mansion of Andy Warhol. The celebrated painter lived at the townhouse, located at 57 East 66th Street, from 1974 until his death in 1987. The 8,000-square-foot building, for which Mr. Freston paid around $6.5 million, has a secret trap door in the master bedroom.

March – Stephen Schwarzman buys Saul Steinberg's triplex at 740 Park Avenue. (See box.) Also, Tyco chief executive Dennis Kozlowski beats out Adam Dell to buy Stephen Schwarzman's 12-room apartment at 950 Fifth Avenue. Mr. Kozlowski pays $18 million for the 10th- and 11th-floor duplex. Later, when Mr. Kozlowski gets indicted for fleecing his company out of $650 million, questions arise as to whether Mr. Kozlowski or Tyco actually owns the apartment.

April – Three years after they were secretly married at a Lower East Side synagogue, New York darlings Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker buy a quintessential West Village townhouse. They pay around $3 million for the three-story, 20-foot-wide building.

November – Libbet Johnson, an heir of the Johnson & Johnson family, puts a price tag of $62 million on the five contiguous apartments she owns at Trump International Hotel and Tower at 1 Central Park West. It's the highest-ever asking price for a piece of residential Manhattan real estate. Ms. Johnson was in the middle of combining the apartments, more than 20,000 square feet spread over the 49th, 50th and 51st floors, when she fell in love with celebrity hairdresser Frédéric Fekkai, who convinced her to seek out more modest-or cozy-dwellings.

Reversal of Fortune Steinberg Woes Yield Manhattan's Record $37 M. Sale

In March of 2000, financier Stephen Schwarzman paid $37 million for the 34-room triplex penthouse at 740 Park Avenue that was originally built for John D. Rockefeller Jr. Mr. Schwarzman, chief executive of the Blackstone Group L.P., one of the world's largest private-equity groups, bought the 20,000-square-foot mansion from Saul Steinberg, chairman of the Reliance Insurance Company. Mr. Steinberg and his wife Gayfryd had held court in the Rosario Candela–designed mansion since 1971, when they reportedly bought the place for $285,000. But by the time Mr. Schwarzman took over the deed, Mr. Steinberg's Reliance was nearly insolvent, and he was under assault by creditors, in dire need of cash. The Park Avenue spread includes a 60-foot-long entrance gallery; a library with 1760 English pine paneling; a dining room that seats 48; an enormous kitchen; a drawing room leading onto a terrace guarded by a Romanesque lion; five master bedrooms; a study; two sitting rooms; a governess' suite with two bedrooms and a small kitchen; servants' quarters that include a dining room, three bedrooms and two bathrooms; a steam room; a gym; a sauna; and a billiards room and screening room.

2001

March – Jean-Marie Messier, the chairman of Vivendi Universal, buys a $17.5 million condo at 515 Park Avenue, proving that he's officially become a player in New York. The 5,300-square-foot duplex was previously owned by Sidney Kimmel, chairman of the Jones Apparel Group, who sold the apartment-for a $2.5 million profit-without ever moving in.

August – Alexandra von Furstenberg joins her sisters, Pia Getty and Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, as the owner of an Upper East Side townhouse. Ms. von Furstenberg and her husband, Alexander von Furstenberg, pay $12 million deal for an 8,500-square-foot former headquarters of the New York Board of Rabbis at 10 East 73rd Street, right off Fifth Avenue.

2002

January – Harrison Ford, who says he's most comfortable on his ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyo., buys a 5,000-square-foot penthouse near Sixth Avenue in Chelsea (it was asking $6.25 million) and files plans to add a 3,500-square-foot roof deck.

April – A busy month! After years of frustration, Barbra Streisand finally unloads her duplex penthouse at the Ardsley, 320 Central Park West, to the tune of $4 million. It was originally asking $10 million, but after the co-op board turned down several interested buyers-most memorably, Mariah Carey-Ms. Streisand reportedly got so fed up that she considered donating the property to charity. That same month, Sopranos stars James Gandolfini and Edie Falco both buy property in the far West Village. Mr. Gandolfini pays just over $1 million for a 1,367-square-foot condo at 99 Jane Street, just three days before he filed for divorce from his wife, Marcy. Ms. Falco buys a townhouse at 97 Barrow Street, between Hudson and Greenwich streets, for $2.55 million. Diane Sawyer and Mike Nichols buy Robert Redford's eight-room apartment at 1030 Fifth Avenue. No moving trucks are required; Mr. Redford lives a few floors away from Ms. Sawyer and Mr. Nichols in the same building. They pay a bit under $10 million for the duplex penthouse. The reason for their move: They like Mr. Redford's terrace.

June – Mike Tyson puts in a bid on one of the Upper East Side's most lavishly decorated townhouses. The rococo-style residence on East 64th Street belongs to an Austrian developer who spent seven years transforming it into what one broker called "a little Versailles." The townhouse has an eight-person Jacuzzi surrounded by a tile mosaic reminiscent of the Pompeian baths. Mr. Tyson, who is deeply in debt, subsequently backs out of the bidding when he loses his title fight to Lennox Lewis.

September – Edison School founder Chris Whittle puts his legendary East Hampton estate on Georgica Pond on the market for $46 million. The announcement of the sale comes less than a week after Nasdaq threatened to de-list the embattled Edison School stock. Late in September, two years after selling his East Hampton beachfront home to Jerry Seinfeld for a record $32 million, Billy Joel completes his well-publicized house hunt with the purchase of a $12 million waterfront home in his hometown of Oyster Bay, Long Island. "Billy Joel's real estate-I need a separate career just for that," Mr. Joel's publicist jokes.

November – Sony music chief Tommy Mottola buys the East 85th Street duplex penthouse that belongs to Mark Swartz, Tyco's ex–chief financial officer, whom the government previously indicted for conspiring with Tyco's ex–chief executive, Dennis Kozlowski, to fleece the company for over $650 million. With his assets frozen by the Manhattan D.A.'s office, Mr. Swartz can liquidate the apartment, but he can't pocket the proceeds-somewhere around $15.9 million. As is also the case with Mr. Kozlowski's place at 950 Fifth Avenue, Tyco claims ownership of the apartment.

The Nine-Figure 'Middle Class'

"If you had less than $100 million, you'd be considered poor," said Larry Kaiser, president of Key Ventures Realty, of the rarefied air of 960 Fifth Avenue, which wins the Manhattan Transfers award for most exclusive co-op building in the city. Mr. Kaiser, who has sold several apartments in the building, mused: "You'd have to be the sun, the moon and the stars to get in."

Built in 1927 by celebrated luxury-apartment architect Rosario Candela, 960 Fifth Avenue occupies that stratospheric niche of the so-called "A-plus level," über -exclusive Upper East Side co-ops. It's probably impossible to get a consensus on the issue, but most brokers agree that 960 Fifth just barely nudges out peer buildings like 820 and 834 Fifth, and 720 and 740 Park, as the city's most exclusive address. The 19 apartments at 960 Fifth-most of which have different layouts-are basically mansions stacked atop one another. The unit belonging to socialite Anne Bass, for example, approaches 10,000 square feet.

"Some of the apartments have ballroom-sized proportions," said Kirk Henckels, director of Stribling Private Brokerage.

Between 77th and 78th streets along a leafy park block, the co-op has a private restaurant open only to tenants-and the chef trains in Paris each summer to pick up the latest culinary trends.

"You add in an exercise room that boasts a terrace with Central Park views-how could you possibly top that?" Mr. Henckels said.

Sales in the building, which are rare, have in recent years topped $10,000,000. Current and past residents include Edgar Bronfman Sr., George Cisneros, Bob Elsworth and Richard Feigen, and Claus von Bülow.

But the apartment's current occupant won't be seeing a penny of that money anytime soon, if Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau has his way.

The five-bedroom condo is home to Tyco International's ex–chief financial officer, Mark Swartz, the man who the government claims conspired with Tyco's ex–chief executive Dennis Kozlowski to fleece the company for over $600 million. The Manhattan D.A.'s office has indicted Mr. Swartz and frozen all his assets; this means that while he's allowed to liquidate the apartment, he can't pocket the proceeds.

"We're aware that a sale is in the works," said Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for the D.A.'s office. "There is a freeze order in effect, and if the apartment is sold, we'll seek to freeze those assets."

Not that this matters much to Mr. Mottola, who is breathing easy now that both of his sisters-in-law are out of harm's way. Over the weekend, kidnappers released Ernestina Sodi-sister to Latin pop star Thalia Zapata, Mr. Mottola's wife-more than a month after she and her sister, Laura Zapata, were kidnapped in Mexico City. Laura Zapata was released on Oct. 10, apparently as a show of good faith, and it appears Ms. Sodi was released after the family paid a $1 million ransom. The police never intervened in the drama because the family did not report the kidnapping; Mexican authorities said they respected the family's wish to handle the situation themselves.

If the government wants to freeze the near-$16 million that Mr. Mottola is paying Mr. Swartz for his new home at 30 East 85th Street, prosecutors are probably going to have a tug-of-war on their hands. Tyco officials told The Observer that Mr. Swartz's penthouse actually belongs to the New Hampshire–based company-and it's therefore not the government's to seize.

"That is a Tyco apartment," said Tyco spokesman Gary Holmes. "[Tyco] has always owned the apartment. It was in Mr. Swartz's name because that was necessary for condo [regulation] purposes. But Tyco owns the apartment."

Ms. Thompson in the Manhattan D.A.'s office said the ownership question is a matter of ongoing legal wrangling.

"It's under negotiation by all the parties," Ms. Thompson said, "by his attorney, us and the court. It's a matter we're aware of."

Mr. Swartz's lawyer, Charles Stillman, declined comment.

Records show that Mr. Swartz put his 5,188-square-foot apartment on the market only a few months after purchasing it in early 2000-long before news of the Tyco scandal broke. City records list Mr. Swartz as the buyer of the condo, and date the purchase to May of 2000, in the amount of $7.7 million. Mr. Swartz then listed it in September of that year for $12.5 million. By March of 2001, that price had spiked to $16.5 million, and by September of 2001 it had come down to $15.9 million, where it stood when Mr. Mottola purchased the apartment.

The condo has four exposures on the 28th and 29th floors, as well as seven bathrooms, a private landing and an eat-in kitchen.

Mr. Mottola, one of the most powerful people in the entertainment business, is currently selling his condo in an East 60's townhouse for $45 million.

All in the Family: imclone Shares Feather Waksal Daughter's $1.42 M. Tribeca Nest

When former ImClone Systems chief Sam Waksal learned in December that the Food and Drug Administration was poised to reject his company's experimental cancer drug, he allegedly made several panicked calls to friends and family members (including his daughter Aliza), instructing them to dump their ImClone shares immediately. Ms. Waksal sold 39,472 shares, with gross proceeds of $2.46 million.

Mr. Waksal-who pled guilty on Oct. 15 to charges including securities fraud, perjury and obstruction of justice-contended that he didn't disclose any insider information to Ms. Waksal. Rather, he said in court, he told her to sell the shares so that she would have enough cash to purchase an apartment.

Seven months later, Ms. Waksal closed on a 3,752-square-foot loft in a Tribeca building owned by her family's development company. And it looks like the family connections paid off here, too: According to city records, Ms. Waksal paid $1.42 million for an apartment that listed at $1.95 million. Ms. Waksal could not be reached, and her lawyer, Abbe Lowell, did not return calls for comment.

In his guilty plea, Mr. Waksal took great pains to avoid implicating any of his friends or family in his fraudulent dealings. Nevertheless, investigators still haven't ruled out filing criminal charges against Aliza Waksal, or any other people who may have benefited from Mr. Waksal's inside information.

Ms. Waksal, 28, is a graduate student at New York University and starred in an off-Broadway play called Spine in November of 2000. Her new home, at 169 Hudson Street (between Vestry and Laight streets), was a former equipment warehouse that was converted into 12 luxury lofts in mid-2000. The company responsible for the conversion was BDB Development, of which the principals are Mr. Waksal, his brother Harlan, his daughter Elana and her husband, Jarrett Posner-all of whom are being eyed by prosecutors in the insider-trading scandal, along with Martha Stewart and Peter Bacanovic, the former Merrill Lynch broker who pushed through Ms. Stewart's and Ms. Waksal's sales of shares.

BDB Development has converted several other buildings in the city, including one at 60 Warren Street. The New York Post reported on Oct. 28 that the owners of a quadruplex penthouse at 60 Warren are threatening to sue the Waksals if they don't compensate the owners for allegedly poor construction on the apartment.

Back at 169 Hudson Street, the previous occupant of Ms. Waksal's apartment was also connected to the Waksal clan. The old owner, Andrew Peltz, is the son of Wall Street giant and Triarc Companies chief Nelson Peltz-a friend of Mr. Waksal's and an investor in another one of his start-up companies, Scientia Health Group.

Nelson Peltz, incidentally, is currently listing what Fortune magazine recently called the most expensive home in America: He's asking $75 million for his 44,000-square-foot oceanfront estate in Palm Beach, Fla.

upper east side

8 East 83rd Street

Two-bedroom, two-bathroom co-op.

Asking: $895,000. Selling: $900,000.

Maintenance: $1,281; 50 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: two weeks.

BIDDING WAR SPARKS FIRE SALE When the woman who owned this co-op died, she left behind an apartment filled with art, antiques, furniture and various knickknacks. And when her place hit the market, the bids came in fast, and over the asking price. Gold Coast two-bedroom apartments for under $900,000 are a rarity these days. In fact, things happened so fast that the woman's far-flung children had to make an emergency trip to the apartment to sell all its furnishings before the buyers made a final walk-through. "They came from Florida, California and Nevada," said the apartment's listing broker, Barbara Schwartz of the Corcoran Group. "They took a week to get everything sold and moved-researching antiques specialists, selling art work and shipping furnishings across the country. They did a Herculean job." In the midst of all the hubbub, the frenzied children met the new buyers: He's in financial services, she does volunteer work for New York Fire Department families affected by Sept. 11. The two parties hit it off so well that the children left an orchid for the buyers during the closing. "There are so few nice stories about real estate in this city," said Ms. Schwartz. "This was kind of different."

upper west side

239 Central Park West

Two-bedroom, three-bathroom co-op.

Asking: $1.25 million. Selling: $1.23 million.

Maintenance: $1,750; 44 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: 28 months.

ORDEAL OF THE YEAR "It was an impossible deal to close," said broker Haidee Granger, of Fox Residential Group, about this Central Park West co-op. "It left my head spinning." When the apartment first hit the market in January of 2000, the problem seemed run-of-the-mill enough: The sellers' dark-colored, Zen-like furnishings scared off prospective buyers. Over the next few months, Ms. Granger gave open house after open house-to no avail. "I began to get rather desperate," she said. But by early 2001, Ms. Granger had at last lined up a buyer. The co-op board accepted the application and set an interview date for early fall-Sept. 11, to be exact. That day, the buyer's husband died in the terrorist attack; his office was on the 104th floor of Tower 2 at the World Trade Center. Ms. Granger took the apartment off the market for a few months, and began to market it aggressively again in November. Another potential buyer emerged-but she went on a European vacation at the last minute, and Ms. Granger has not heard from her since. "By now, I'm getting really, really desperate," Ms. Granger said. The people who ended up buying the place surfaced in May of this year. They cleared the co-op board without incident, but on the day of the closing, one of the lawyers noticed a clerical error that ended up postponing the closing for another three weeks. Of course, the seller had already moved out of the apartment by that time, and she couldn't find a cheap hotel that could accommodate her large pit bull. She asked Ms. Granger if there was room in her place. "My daughter's room was available, so I said, 'Yes, but the dog can't come,'" recalled Ms. Granger, who was worried that the pit bull might eat her tiny bichon. "So she checked into my apartment, and the dog checked into Biscuits & Bath"-a dog spa on 44th Street, between Second and Third avenues. That arrangement held until the final closing. "People behave in the most bizarre ways," said Ms. Granger. "It was a real New York real-estate saga." But as in most sagas, the hero reaped a rich reward: Ms. Granger received the Real Estate Board of New York's coveted "Deal of the Year" award last week.

tribeca

53 N. Moore Street

Two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo.

Asking: $1.595 million. Selling: $1.565 million.

Charges: $1,102; taxes: $1,200.

Time on the market: two months.

OLD TIMER'S RETURN This loft's previous owner was a deputy mayor in the Koch administration who had lived in Tribeca since the pioneering mid-70's. "He came here the same time as Bob De Niro," said the apartment's listing agent, Elaine Schweninger, a senior vice president at Insignia Douglas Elliman, herself a longtime Tribeca resident. "He even had an old T-shirt from a bar called Barnabus Rex, which was where the Duane Park Café is now." The ex-politico's loft has classic Tribeca features like beamed ceilings and oversize windows, but also some new touches like stone bathrooms and a stone and steel kitchen. The owner was well-liked and known among neighborhood residents for his penchant for outdoor exercise. So when Ms. Schweninger heard that her neighbor's apartment was on the market, she thought he was off to sunny Florida or some such. But the call was from building's condo board. "They said he had died," said Ms. Schweninger. "It had been a short, unexpected illness. I can't tell you how shocked I was." The current owners are looking forward to having a family. "It's the end of one Tribeca era and the beginning of a new [one]," said Ms. Schweninger, who worked on this deal with Insignia vice president Craig Liddle.

The numbers tell the story. The Dow Jones industrial average has traded at a mean price/earnings ratio of about 14. At the Dow's peak in 2000, it was trading at over twice that average, indicating that investors were making optimistic assumptions about the market's future. Currently the Dow is trading at a p/e of about 20-still a lot higher than the norm. A look at the S&P 500 tells the same story: a historical p/e of 14 that climbed as high as 46 earlier this year and is still trading at about 20 times earnings.

The Nasdaq at its peak was selling at p/e ratios anywhere from 165 to 400-even beyond the stratosphere compared to its historical norm of about 52. At the moment, the Nasdaq still has a ways to go before any semblance of reality returns.

But whatever happened to those old-fashioned Ben Graham 10 times p/e ratios and book values? Why of course, they were replaced by the new parading-dong known as EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization), invented by the folks on Wall Street known as investment bankers. Pretty soon it was EBITDA this and EBITDA that, and everywhere you looked it was EBITDA DA. The I.B.'s knew they could not M&A anything at 150 times earnings, but at 20 times EBITDA, there were many fish to fry. And why ruin a beautiful earnings growth trend with those pesky nuisances such as interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization? And just before the bubble burst, the I.B.'s started to think that EBITDA was too soft, too romantic, too Italian. Why not throw in salaries, and now we have a stronger, more Germanic formula known as EBITDAS. Now ve can really find some cheap stocks out there.

And not to be left out, the accountants, with P&L's and balance sheets not worth a tinker's dam, had little to do. And tired of Cleaning, Pressing and Alterations, they decided to consult-and did they ever. After all, they wanted Armani suits and Hermès ties, too.

Schneiderman Fights For His Political Life

It's rare that a young, energetic and bright politician manages to create a little noise in that sleep-away camp for mediocrities, the State Legislature, but Eric T. Schneiderman has done just that in the 31¼2 years he has served in the State Senate. The Upper West Side resident has thrown himself into both politics and public policy with impressive passion, and needless to say, he has made a few enemies along the way. Envy is the price one pays for being talented and a state legislator.

Just as Mr. Schneiderman ought to be preparing to gain some important seniority in a body that seems to regard gray hair and wrinkles as a sign of wisdom, he is fighting for his political life. The challenge, oddly enough, comes not from the Republicans he has tortured for several years, but from within his own Democratic Party. After watching the boundaries of his State Senate district shift northward, towards the Latino neighborhoods of upper Manhattan, during redistricting, Mr. Schneiderman now is trying to fight off a primary challenge from former City Council member Guillermo Linares. Mr. Linares is trying to become the first native of the Dominican Republic to win a State Senate seat. Because the district now holds a large number of Dominicans from Washington Heights, Mr. Linares stands a chance of upsetting the incumbent.

This is an absurd development, and Mr. Linares and his supporters should be ashamed of themselves. There is no reason for any Democrat to oppose Mr. Schneiderman, who has been a strong voice for his party in Albany. The basis for the challenge, it seems, is brass-knuckle, Tammany-style ethnic politics.

During his 10 years as a City Council member, Mr. Linares fashioned an admirable record as an independent politician who took orders from nobody. In the current race, however, he seems to be a willing tool of people like Bronx Democratic boss Roberto Ramirez, who knows how to play the ethnic card. What's so disappointing is that Mr. Linares and Mr. Schneiderman probably agree on 90 percent of the issues they would confront in the Senate and in the community. The main difference between them, then, is their ethnic background.

Political races based on ethnicity are hardly unheard of in New York City. But this one is particularly destructive. Mr. Schneiderman has done nothing to deserve this challenge to his career.

He's smart and he's effective. No wonder the bosses would like him removed.

Executors of Moss' estate signed a contract on Aug. 7 to sell his 10-room apartment on the 17th floor of the Beresford for $7 million. Moss bought the 3,800-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment–with two maid's rooms, wood- burning fireplaces in the library and living room and 12 windows facing Central Park–for $1.8 million in 1991. He later annexed two rooms from an adjacent apartment. In September 1998, Moss died of cancer at age 56.

His former apartment, 17E, was put on the market in late February in combination with the adjacent apartment, 17F, for $12.4 million. Together, the apartments would have created a 7,000-square-foot, 16-room apartment with six rooms facing Central Park. The price was reduced to $11.9 million a few months later.

But on June 13, the owner of 17F took that apartment off the market. One broker familiar with the two apartments said the combination wasn't such a great idea, although it offered sexy square footage. But ultimately, even at $11.9 million, brokers said the larger apartment was overpriced. "If you joined the two apartments, it really wouldn't have had the kind of gracious flow you would want if you paid that much money," said a broker.

"Brokers push this kind of situation," said the broker. "But they don't always work out."

The Moss apartment went on the market on its own for $8.6 million in April; the price was reduced to $7.295 million on July 18. The deal is expected to become final in early September, when building residents–including tennis commentator John McEnroe, David and Helen Gurley Brown, Tony Randall and opera singer Beverly Sills–have returned from summer vacations and the building's board can meet the buyer. The exclusive broker on the deal, Dan Douglas of the Corcoran Group, didn't return calls.

TYCO TAKES NEW YORK: FOLLOWING C.E.O.'S LEAD, C.F.O. SWARTZ BUYS $7.7 MILLION PAD Just a few months after the chief executive of Tyco International Ltd., Dennis Kozlowski, signed a deal to buy an $18 million apartment at 950 Fifth Avenue, the company's chief financial officer, Mark Swartz, has laid out $7.7 million for a condo at 30 East 85th Street.

Swartz's purchase of the 15-room, 5,868-square-foot apartment came just a month before Bermuda-based Tyco, an electrical and safety equipment manufacturer, bought Mallinckrodt Inc., the world's largest maker of respiratory monitoring equipment. According to analysts, Tyco's acquisition of Mallinckrodt (for $3.2 billion) made the company the second-largest maker of medical devices, following only Johnson & Johnson. But $1 billion in debt came with the acquisition.

Still, Tyco's No. 1 and No. 2 guys have spent a bundle in New York's real estate market. Mr. Swartz's new pad is larger than Mr. Kozlowski's 12-room duplex (formerly owned by the Blackstone Group's Stephen Schwatzman, who has leapfrogged over to Saul Steinberg's 740 Park Avenue penthouse mansion), but he didn't have to pass a board to get in. Mr. Swartz's new place features seven balconies and a 360-degree view of the city. According to brokers, the high-floor apartment originally came on the market in 1998 and the most recent asking price was $8 million.

The new building, constructed in 1987, has a health club, pool and sun deck. Located on the southwest corner of 85th Street and Madison Avenue, 30 East 85th is only 11 blocks from Mr. Kozlowski's new home. Awfully convenient for late-night takeover schemes.

UPPER EAST SIDE

16 Sutton Place

Two-bed, two-bath, 1,600-square-foot co-op.

Asking: $875,000. Selling: $875,000.

Charges: $1,895; 62 percent tax deductible.

Time on the market: four days.

EAT ALONG THE RIVER It took a retired gentleman in his 60's over a year to find this apartment between 57th and 58th streets. It has five rooms, a dining room, a large kitchen and two bedrooms, both overlooking Sutton Place. In the end, his dream apartment was all about configuration. "He really wanted a formal dining room," said his broker, Norma Hirsh of Douglas Elliman, "but most of the apartments he had seen that had separate formal dining rooms didn't have as much of a view." This apartment, which is on a high floor of the 20-story 1966 building, has views of the East River from the dining room. But don't dismiss the doorman and the elevator operator as downright perks.

MIDTOWN

171 West 57th Street (The Briarcliffe)

Two-bed, two-and-a-half bath, 1,945-square-foot condo.

Asking: $1.425 million. Selling: $1.425 million.

Charges: $1,345. Taxes: $287.

Time on the market: three weeks.

HOW DO YOU GET TO CARNEGIE HALL? CROSS THE STREET! Right across the street from Carnegie Hall, the 13-story Briarcliffe was for a long time the rent-stabilized home of prominent New Yorkers: Peter Jennings, Barbara Walters and Anita Loos (author of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ) all lived there over the years. In 1998, the building was purchased by Property Markets Group for $32 million, and the apartments have been converted into condominiums as they have been vacated. The company did not change the configuration of the building–with three apartments per floor, ranging in size from 1,945 square feet to 2,700 square feet–or its original details, including moldings and parquet floors. "We do all new electric and plumbing, redo the bathrooms, and put in new kitchens with a lot of granite and stone," said Iva Spitzer of Doulgas Elliman, the broker in charge of selling the Briarcliffe. This apartment is one of the smallest in the building. The largest is the 5,500-square-foot, 10-room penthouse that once belonged to best-dressed chronicler Earl Blackwell. So far, Ms. Spitzer has sold six apartments in the building, and five former renters have bought as well.

WEST VILLAGE

822 Greenwich Street

Two-bed, three-bath, 1,750-square-foot co-op.

Asking: $1.2 million. Selling: $1.125 million.

Maintenance: $2,242: 66 percent tax deductible.

Time on the market: six months.

MARKDOWN ATTRACTS START-UP GUY It was their dream apartment–two stories, three fireplaces, a balcony and a garden, all in the West Village near the border of the meat-packing district. But the dream job was in California. "They were devastated," said Deirdre Poe of the Corcoran Group about her clients, who had to leave this co-op for the West Coast. It took five months, but they got $1.1 million for the place, which helped them get over leaving. The apartment is in great shape, a mixture of old and new: exposed brick walls, "gorgeous" kitchen, brownstone details, new bathroom. But "the maintenance was kind of high and we figured that might be a block for somebody," said the broker. They dropped the asking price from $1.3 million to $1.2 million, then settled for even less from an Internet start-up guy who thought he had plenty of cash to spend on hefty maintenance fees.

Sometimes it seems that the rich are concerned that the non-rich are getting, well, hardly rich, fella, but uncomfortably, nay, dangerously prosperous. Full employment with its attendant danger of people taking days off, writing private e-mails and telling the boss person where to put this lousy job, all that is agitating the minds and emotions of the opulent. The politicians may talk about jobs, jobs, jobs, but in some circles, jobs, at least too many jobs, are nothing to cheer about. You may rely on it-after the government announces unemployment has dropped, the stock market does the same. Among the monetarily corpulent, full employment is bad news.

You might have anticipated that since the crime rate has fallen pari passu with the diminution of unemployment, the rich would be wearing smiles on their pomaded and perfumed faces. You'd think the disappearance of muggers, burglars and other persons waiting in the dark with evil intentions would allow the rich to sleep better and dream happier dreams. But property breeds perpetual anxiety.

The rich worry, lest, in a tight labor market, they themselves will pay too much to their employees, thereby setting off inflation. Inflation, let us hasten to note, is never a danger when the rich get richer, which they have been doing at a handsome clip of late. According to one study commissioned by The Wall Street Journal , last year, the income of 350 C.E.O.'s of major corporations increased 11 percent, or slightly less than three times the consumer price index, to $2,782,482 and nary a word about the dangers of inflation. Although flight attendants' pay demands are deemed inflationary, the $128 million remuneration received by David S. Pottruck, the co-C.E.O. of the Charles Schwab Corporation, isn't. The eye-popping pay raises given C.E.O.'s are thought to be deserved because they contribute so much to raising productivity, whilst employees lower in the organizational charts never or hardly ever contribute to high productivity so they should never or hardly ever be given pay raises. It is axiomatic that it is to the C.E.O. we owe our prosperity, so let's banish talk about how rich they have become.

Rather, let us rejoice that the rich, in relationship to the rest of us, have never been richer. The top 1 percent of households now owns about 40 percent of the wealth. Last year L. Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco International was paid $170 million by his company. New York's own Sanford I. Weill, the big kahuna at Citigroup, was paid $90 million in 1999, with another $183 million promised him. Sandy, however, may have been more than outcompensated by General Elecetric's Jack Welch, who got to take home more than $93 million plus another potential half-billion, if his stock options and such come to fruition. There are many, many more whose emoluments offer pecuniary proof that the free-market goose has gone and swallowed a bottle of golden egg hormones.

The disproportionalities of income and wealth are ordinarily ignored except by the corporal's guard of old-time lib-labs who discuss the subject in the context of the poverty line and people living below thereof. That doesn't carry much weight in an era when poor people have refrigeration, sometimes even air-conditioning and always color TV. If the rich have never been richer, neither have the poor, so unless you are a leveler, bringing up the poor in this discussion doesn't serve the cause of proportionality and moderation. The fact that our poor are too comparatively well-to-do for much in the way of sympathy and indignation may explain why such idealism as is left in the United States often looks overseas to express itself. There still are the poor in other places, where saying the children aren't getting enough to eat means no food in the belly, not too many Frito-Lays, Cokes and triple-decker burp-o-burgers.

Nonetheless, without resorting to the language of the 1960's and the War on Poverty, or stirring up class warfare, as Republicans say when bloodying the heads of old-time bleeding hearts, there is yet reason to nurse forebodings when thinking of a John T. Chambers, the top whip-cracker at Cisco Systems Inc. who pulls in nearly $122 million for a year's work though we are positive that the dear soul is worth every penny of it and more. Even so, if you step back and think in terms of the commonweal, chaps like Mr. Chambers may pose a problem, and I'm not referring to recent accusations in Barron's that the company has misstated its profitability. Whether or not there is a shady side to the entirely laudable Mr. Chambers we'll leave to the day traders, market touts and stock plungers to sort out.

The problem with Mr. Chambers is that he and those like him have become too numerous, too too rich and too too too conspicuous. Our political system was built on the assumption that the United States, being a rural society of smallish farmers, would have an electorate with more or less the same material stake in the nation's well-being. Now we're trying a new experiment. Now we're trying to run a democracy in which a tiny percentage of the population owns most of the wealth and has a chattel mortgage on most of the population. Can a democracy, owned and operated by C.E.O.'s and the inherited rich, who have little materially in common with the great majority, happily reflect the people's will over an extended period of time? Or is this the dry underbrush of an uncontrollable class warfare wildfire somewhere down the road?

Beside the political considerations in the transformation of the American system into the rule of the rich, there are cultural and moral factors. When the rich stay in the background and flaunt it so the rest of us don't see it, they have their place and their uses, but now, like a vermicular insect that lives in the ground and corkscrews up into light and air in 100-year cycles, the rich have emerged again and are swarming over the trees and the rooftops of automobiles, covering every surface, crawling over each other, entwining, sliding, an aureate mass heaving, swaying, climbing and sliming. It's been a full century since the golden calf crowd has so dominated daily life in America. Again Dives is courted, made way for, deferred to and fussed over and glorified to the exclusion of all but movie stars and athletes who are, of course, as rich as the ordinary, run-of-the mill business richie. And in Manhattan! It has become an island of modern maharajahs trailed by their processions of body servants, couturiers, accountants, drug pushers, personal trainers, closet arrangers, chefs, plastic surgeons, architects, lawyers, interior designers, head waiters, pimps, estate planners, therapists, jewelers, flatterers and flunkies. We may not be saddled with a class system like the one the Brits have, but the behavior of Manhattanites in a society in which money orders status, opinion and rank of every kind leaves not much to choose from between the two places. Money corrupts and lots of money corrupts lots as the bowers compete with the scrapers for stock tips and other gratuities in a city now divided between the purse-proud and the slobbering, envious masses who, in the midst of such show and wealth, have lost their way, their values and their dignity.

New York has mutated from mere money mania to money idolatry. Money is the extra molecule in the air New Yorkers breathe, the ugly free radical for which there is no antioxidant, the subject of every conversation, the standard of every judgment. If you don't have 5 million bucks to your name in New York you are dog shit on the sidewalks, ripe for the pooper scooper, for the reign of the rich and the rule of the wealthy is here.