New York’s currently: way way way overworked

 Ali Sistani’s Najaf truce holds, Imam Ali shrine opens up to worshippers, men in surgical masks collect the dead from the streets.

 White House preparing orders for intelligence overhaul, considering new spy-czar.

 In measuring the state of the union, Gore Vidal asks you not to hate our government too much.

 World’s largest pink ribbon to be constructed from post-it notes in Times Square.

 It looks as if everything will be so easy that people will probably die from sheer boredom. Life in the year 2000, as imagined in Weekend Magazine, 1961.

 Turner-winning artist Grayson Perry takes sketchbook to Glyndebourne, the outdoor seat for U.K. opera and nasty looking people.

 1.3 million added to U.S. poverty rolls this year, plus 1.4 million more uninsured.

 Today’s favorite headline: New jaw grown on patient’s back. Number two, anticipating next week: They’re nude, they’re rude, get used to it!

 Howell Raines: Keeping Reagan’s mysterious brain in mind, let’s ask: does anyone really care if the President is an idiot?

 Recollections of time spent with Fela Kuti, king of Afrobeat, polygamy, and teaching London white boys to dance.

 Duck shield, Phone gas, Man-catching tank. Absurd inventions and patents.

 Harper’s Lewis Lapham apologizes for traveling in time.

 Fall concert preview for New York, and fall opera preview.

 Changes as made to: Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi.

 How to build a tiled pizza hearth in your oven.

 Five gallons of cheer for this week’s fine supporters of TMN.