Contra N.B.A.: Orchestra Executive Moves from Brooklyn to New Jersey

The basketball Nets moved from New Jersey to Brooklyn. Richard Dare, an entrepreneur turned orchestra executive, is making the opposite journey. Mr. Dare, the chief executive and managing director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, will become president and chief executive of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in January, the symphony is expected to announce on Tuesday.

Mr. Dare founded and led Pacific Rim Partners, a private investment firm focused on Japan. He entered the nonprofit world in taking over the Brooklyn Philharmonic in 2011. After running low on funds, that orchestra tried to reinvent itself under Mr. Dare with eclectic programs seeking to appeal to non-classical music audiences. He created a stir earlier this year with an article for The Huffington Post suggesting that traditional cl assical music concerts are stifling affairs and that audiences should be allowed to express their enthusiasm more during performances.

Mr. Dare succeeds André Gremillet, who left in September to become managing director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Australia,

Cooper Union Students End Occupation of Suite After a Week

Colin Moynihan Cooper Union students on Monday after they ended a weeklong sit-in to protest the possibility that undergraduates will eventually be charged tuition.

Just before noon on Monday, a group of Cooper Union students picked up their blankets and sleeping bags and left the Peter Cooper Suite on the eighth floor of the institution's Foundation Building, where they had barricaded themselves a week earlier to protest the possibility of undergraduates being c harged tuition for the first time in at least 110 years.

The 11 students told supporters that while the administration had not granted their demands - that Cooper Union's president resign and that it “publicly affirm the college's commitment to free education” and “democratic decision-making structures” - the weeklong occupation had helped focus attention on the tuition issue, which they said they would continue to address.

“We live in a world where massive student debt and the rising cost of higher education remain unchecked, where students are treated as customers and faculty as contractors,” Kristi Cavataro, one of the student occupiers, read from a statement. “Cooper Union's mission of free education affords quality and excellence and offers an alternative for a better future of higher education.”

For the institution's part, a Cooper Union spokeswoman, Jolene Travis, said in a statement: “We are pleased that the 11 Cooper Union art students have ended their lock-in and left the eighth-floor Peter Cooper Suite space peacefully and without further incident. We are continuing the responsible process needed to assure the future of the Cooper Union for generations to come.”

Cooper Union was founded in 1859, and since at least 1902 it has granted full scholarships for students in degree programs, financed by an endowment, to all students. In April, Cooper Union decided to begin charging tuition to at least some graduate students.

Although the president, Jamshed Bharucha, said he was searching for ways to keep undergraduate education free, some students and faculty members said they feared that Cooper Union would begin charging undergraduates.

As evidence, a student group, Cooper Union Student Action to Save Our School, presented a document by a group called the Undergraduate Tuition Committee, which appeared to suggest charging undergraduate tuition.

Alan Wolf, the acting dean of Cooper Union's engineering school, said that he had overseen two tuition committees, with one examining potential revenue streams from undergraduate programs and the other looking at possibilities in all other programs, including graduate programs. He said the Undergraduate Tuition Committee report was merely “exploratory” in nature. The board of trustees is expected to respond to the reports in early 2013, he said.

Last Friday, the administrators issued a statement about the occupation that said: “We are in the midst of a deliberative process designed to position the Cooper Union for a future characterized by true distinction, the highest standards of merit-based access and scholarship support, academic excellence and financial sustainability. We must explore and evaluate a range of options - without prejudging any.”

The occupation of the Peter Cooper Suite was longer and less dramatic than similar protests carried out in 2009 at New York University, where 18 students who occupied a cafeteria for two days were suspended, and at the New School, where the police used pepper spray and arrested 22 people who university officials said had entered a building unlawfully.

Still, there were moments of mild confrontation. Some students entered a meeting of the Cooper Union board of trustees last week and wept in front of board members while imploring them not to depart from the tradition of providing undergraduate scholarships. Outside the meeting, students held up a long piece of clear plastic and called for transparency.

On Monday, another student who had participated in the lock-in, Victoria Sobel, said that students and faculty members would continue to attend board meetings. Nearby, an engineering student, Rob Brummer, 19, collected signatures on a petition asking that s tudent representatives be permitted to attend those meetings.

Among those who gathered outside the Foundation Building on Monday were alumni and faculty members who said the tradition of free education was an integral part of the institution.

“They have brought an incredible light to our mission,” said Mike Essl, an associate professor at the School of Art. “I really believe in that mission and I support them because they believe in it, too.”

What if, You Say, the \'Seinfeld\' Gang Were Still Around?

Agence France-Presse Picture us Yelp-ing.

Further proof that nothing does indeed live forever has arrived in the form of the SeinfeldToday Twitter feed, which imagines 21st-century scenarios for the 20th-century quartet and has accumulated more than 50,000 followers since its start on Sunday.

And because there is so, so, so, so much more nothing than there used to be, the scenarios are all too plausible. Here are a few of our favorites. Please add your own in the comment box below.

Jerry breaks up with his girlfriend (Rashida Jones) because she Instagrams everything she eats. George tries to get a job with the N ets.

- Modern Seinfeld (@SeinfeldToday) 10 Dec 12

George's parents claim their house was destroyed by “Sandy,” move in with George. He discovers the house is fine. Sandy is a loud neighbor.

- Modern Seinfeld (@SeinfeldToday) 10 Dec 12

Jerry trips when walking out to perform on The Tonight Show. The GIF goes viral on Tumblr. Elaine dates a freegan.

- Modern Seinfeld (@SeinfeldToday) 10 Dec 12

George tries online dating, meets a gorgeous woman but breaks up with her because she needed online dating. Elaine gets into SoulCycle.

- Modern Seinfeld (@SeinfeldToday) 10 Dec 12

Police Commissioner Hits the Street and Cuts a Ribbon

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, center, with Dr. Mehmet Oz, touching upper ring of scissors; Zane Tankel, owner of dozens of Applebee's franchises, touching lower ring; and others on Monday morning at the opening of an Applebee's on 117th Street. Conspicuously absent: Tiki Barber.

It was meant to be a quick appearance for the police commissioner, a ribbon-cutting at a new Harlem outpost of Applebee 's.

Only Tiki Barber was running late.

The television host Dr. Mehmet Oz was already there, the third member of the slated crew of celebrities that included Mr. Barber, the former Giants running back, and the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly.

The event on Monday was among the more banal in Mr. Kelly's recent public schedule, a smile-for-the-cameras photo opportunity that prompted the question: Why was he there at all?

The declared reason for the news event was the opening of the 117th Street restaurant that had been certified as very green by the U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington-based group that administers such certifications. A moss-green ribbon hung across the entrance. Dr. Oz called it “a huge achievement.”

Randee Cal dwell peered in the window of the restaurant hoping to catch a glimpse of the celebrity doctor. “I watch him everyday before work,” said Ms. Caldwell, a 54-year-old home health aide. “I love Kelly, too.”

Was she glad to see a new Applebee's opening?

“I usually eat at the one on 125th Street,” she said.

Finally it was decided to proceed without Mr. Barber. Mr. Kelly approached the ribbon first, standing at the center of the doorway flanked by Dr. Oz and Zane Tankel, the owner of dozens of Applebee's franchises in New York. Mr. Kelly held the oversize black scissors with both hands as the other men reached in.

“I am a big fan of Applebee's - as I am of every restaurant in New York,” Mr. Kelly said, smiling, after the ribbon fluttered to the ground in two pieces. “Zane and I go way back, too,” he added, saying Mr. Tankel was “very supportive of law enforcement organizations.”

The two dined together on Wednesday, he said, though they were not able to eat at the new restaurant on Monday because it had yet to open. They instead shared lunch at the Waldorf-Astoria.

“Tiki Barber!” someone called out suddenly. “There he is,” another said. The running back strolled up and smiled for the cameras under the chain's awning that exclaimed “Welcome Back!” Cameras flashed away.

After the news conference ended, Mr. Kelly was approached by a tall man in a bright hat.

“Commissioner Kelly, I hope you run for mayor next year,” said the man, P.J. Dooley, as he grasped the commissioner's hand. Mr. Kelly thanked him, but did not respond to the suggestion.

When later asked by a reporter about the encounter, he demurred. “I don't have a reaction to that,” he said before hopping into a car. He was late to the next scheduled event, the details of which the police did not des cribe.

A Dark and Stormy Fall Season for Broadway

The fall theater season on Broadway has been one of the weakest in recent memory, to judge by box office receipts and critics' reviews, with only a handful of potential hits â€" none of which received very strong reviews. Indeed, the two best-reviewed shows of the fall have emerged as two of the worst sellers on Broadway.

The acclaimed revival of Edward Albee's play “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” grossed only $264,854 last week, or about 40 percent of the maximum possible amount, according to box-office data released on Monday. Critics have raved about the play's four actors, yet none are the kind of big-name stars whose celebrity can help sell a play to the tourists who buy many Broadway tickets. Another highly praised but starless revival, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” has also struggled through the fall; it grossed $398,767 last week, one of the lowest amounts of any musical running on Broadway.

With the final two show openings of the fall season last week â€" revivals of the plays “Golden Boy” and “Glengarry Glen Ross” â€" some relatively gloomy verdicts can be rendered. Of the 19 plays and musicals that opened on Broadway during the second half of 2012, only 2 have caught fire with ticket buyers, in large part thanks to a famous star in the cast (Al Pacino of “Glengarry”) and a famous title (the musical “Annie”). Both “Glengarry” and “Annie” made more than $1 million last week; other modestly reviewed new shows that sold well last week were “A Christmas Story,” “Elf” and “The Heiress.”

By contrast, the last few fall seasons have had at least a few critically acclaimed shows that generated buzz as well as solid-to-strong ticket sales; last fall, those productions included “Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway,” “Follies,” “Other Desert Cities,” and “Venus in Fur.” A couple of shows flopped last fall too, like “Bonnie & Clyde” and “Private Lives,” but this fall has had more duds: “Scandalous,” “The Anarchist,” and “The Performers” opened to negative reviews and quickly announced closing dates, while “Chaplin” has been selling modestly and another musical, “Rebecca,” never opened after its financing fell apart.

Some producers have blamed Hurricane Sandy for a drop in ticket sales, but popular musicals on Broadway â€" like “Wicked,” “The Lion King,” and “The Book of Mormon” â€" weathered Sandy with little damage at the box office. Over all last week, Broadway musicals and plays grossed $23.8 million, compared to $22.2 million for the previous week and $25 million for the same week last fall.

South Street Seaport Museum to Reopen Friday

The waterlogged South Street Seaport Museum has dried out and is coming back to life. Having been closed by Hurricane Sandy, the museum will reopen on Friday, officials announced Monday.

The museum, on Fulton Street, will reopen with the exhibitions, “A Fisherman's Dream: Folk Art by Mario Sanchez” and “Street Shots NYC,” featuring New York street photography. They will join the continuing exhibitions “Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions,” organized by the American Folk Art Museum, and “Romancing New York: Watercolors by Frederick Brosen.”

“Visitors will have to use stairs and accept heat blown-in from heaters sitting on the sidewalk,” Susan Henshaw Jones, director of the museum, said. “But we are ready to welcome all comers.”

Ms. Jones is also the director of the Museum of the City of New Yo rk, which last year agreed to run the Seaport Museum on a trial basis.

The storm, in October, flooded the museum, damaging its café and gift shop, electrical system, elevators, escalator and historic letterpress show.

The museum also announced the formal opening of Bowne & Co., Printers, a custom print shop, which joins the Maritime Craft Center and Mast Brothers Chocolate on Water Street's cobblestoned “artisan row.”

Man Shot in Head on Midtown Street

A man was shot in the head on a Midtown street a block south of Central Park Monday afternoon, the Fire Department said.

The shooting occurred shortly before 2 p.m. near 58th Street and Seventh Avenue and the Petrossian caviar emporium.

The man, who appeared to be in his 20s, was taken to St. Luke's Hospital in critical condition, a fire official said.

Your \'Modern Family\' Questions Answered

Peter “Hopper” Stone/ABC From left, Eric Stonestreet, Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell in “Modern Family.”

Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, the co-creators of the hit ABC comedy “Modern Family,” answered questions posed by Times readers. (Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, the creators of Showtime's “Homeland,” are taking queries now.)

Below, the producers share their favorite episodes, address charges about a perceived lack of “heat” in the show's central gay relationship and explain why they avoid sex jokes (Mr. Lloyd: “It's just too easy - like being a Lakers fan, or a Republican.”)

Q.

When you look back over the first three seasons, which episodes please you most, make you feel like you've done exactly what you set out to do with the series? And what specific ideas and elements came together to create those shows? - Beth, NH

A.

MR. LLOYD: It's hard not to start with the pilot. When we wrote it, I was pretty convinced it was a good piece of writing, but had no hope it would turn into a good series. I offered the rights to it to a friend of mine for five dollars. Then we cast it (the big turning point) and shot it, and the first time we watched it on film, and got a sense of the documentary style, and the vivacity of the characters - all the elements coming together - I remember thinking, “This could be a really good series.”

Since then, the episodes I am most proud of are the ones with a mix of great comic moments and surprising emotion. An example might be “Starry Night,” which starts out being a story about Mitchell's frustration at having a stargazing trip with his Dad spoiled by the arrival of Manny, but which ends with Mitchell (albeit, in a dress) giving Manny a pep talk about being an outsider in school (“in high school, everyone starts out wanting to be the same … and then, almost overnight, suddenly everyone wants to be different, and that's where we win”). I think “Virgin Territory” and “The Butler's Escape” fit this mold as well. “Virgin Territory” has some great physical laughs (Luke gulling Manny into driving a car to impress a girl), but it also has a touching scene where Phil reacts to hearing that his daughter isn't a virgin anymore, and feeling he's made a terrible mess of it, and Haley telling us he's handled it just the way she would have liked. “The Butler's Escape,” similarly, has what seems to be a silly story about Phil not allowing Luke to give up magic, but which leads to an affecting scene between the two of them where Phil discerns that Luke only wants to quit because he's getting made fun of at school, much as Phil was. I think all these scenes work as much because of what they don't say as what they do - there is great credit due our actors here - and the episodes work because of the range they cover from fairly broad comedy to small, emotionally powerful, scenes.

MR. LEVITAN: Some of my favorite episodes include: “The Pilot,” “Caught in the Act,” “The Kiss,” “Baby On Board,” “Starry Night,” but there are moments in almost all of the episodes that I love. The common thread for me is memorable moments tha t played well both comedically and emotionally.

Q.

Big fan here! What television shows do you watch? Do they influence “Modern Family”? Ever see another show and say, “We should have thought of that!” - Molly Messana, Philadelphia

A.

MR. LLOYD: I don't watch too many other shows because I am busy watching sports and not improving my mind. I admire “30 Rock” and “Parks and Recreation,” but in general I don't think it's a good idea to watch other sitcoms because a.) a great joke or scene has a way of worming its way into your brain and influencing you in a bad way, and b.) most sitcoms are terrible.

MR. LEVITAN: Yes, I see things I wish I had written all the time. I don't like to comment on which shows I watch because I don't want to offend anyone by omission.

Q.

I wonder if there are any subjects yo u won't consider tackling? Anything taboo? - Cynthia, Oslo

A.

MR. LLOYD: In general, we tend to avoid politics and religion because they divide people. We'd rather tell a story, or even a joke, that has a chance of rousing everyone in our audience, rather than half of it (or less).
Even in telling stories about a gay couple with an adopted daughter, we seldom make any kind of overt political statement, because those things tend to seem sanctimonious. Our mission is really about telling small, relatable stories about what it's like to be in a family - the highs and lows of that - and if along the way some audience members find themselves relating to people they don't normally relate to (“hey, we went through the same thing those gay guys are going through … hmm”) then that's a good thing.

MR. LEVITAN: Well, not that we'd want to, but I don't think you'll be seeing an incest storyline anytime so on.

Q.

Hi, wonderful show and great characters. Were these characters based on anyone you know? I have met Jays, Phils and Mitchells in my life. - Priscilla, Melbourne

A.

MR. LLOYD: Glad to get a chance to answer this one. Contrary to what is often written, the characters are not based upon Steve's family or my family. There were certainly influenced by family and friends, but more importantly by a desire to create a big, ungainly family, with a lot of disparate parts, that would bring us conflict in our story telling. It's important to remember that Steve and I wrote the first chapter in what is now an 85 chapters-long book, and those subsequent chapters have been co-written by about a dozen other very talented writers whose lives, like ours, have been strip-mined for stories of family life. A favorite compliment we get is when people tell us they are sure that characters in the show must have be en based upon their family. It tells us we've captured something that feels real to them.

MR. LEVITAN: Some are, some aren't. The Dunphy kids are very loosely based on my own children. There's a lot of my wife and I in Phil and Claire - although I see myself represented more in Claire these days than Phil. Manny is loosely based on one of Chris Lloyd's children. Mitchell and Cameron are based on many gay couples that Chris and I know.

Q.

So many sitcoms today revolve around sex and crude humor, but Modern Family has stayed pretty clean. Was there a conscious decision from the beginning to make it more family friendly? Why? - Jade, Oregon

A.

MR. LLOYD: Yes, there was a conscious decision not to do a lot of sex jokes and that is because it's just too easy - like being a Lakers fan, or a Republican. Comedy on television got very sloppy in recent years because it was nothing but cynicism and shock value jokes which were, once they became commonplace, anything but shocking. We are not above the very occasional, very subtle, sex joke, but we are also mindful that there are families watching our show. We truly prize the fact that people watch the show with their young children and with their great grandparents and we are loathe to alienate anyone in that bunch.

Q.

Which actor is most like their character? Which actor is most different? - Lisa, previously NYC, currently California

A.

MR. LEVITAN: I would say that Eric Stonestreet is the least like his character. Otherwise, most of the other actors are a lot like their characters. Typically in TV, the writers begin to incorporate the funniest aspects of an actor's personality into their character and that is certainly the case around here. Over time, the actors and characters tend to blend into one. It's almost inevitable.

Q.

The cast on “Modern Family” seems absolutely perfectly cast! Were there other actors in consideration for these roles? - Walt, from next door, Los Angeles

A.

MR. LEVITAN: Yes, but the universe smiled on us and prevented us from casting the wrong people.

Q.

I am curious about how the writers balance at least three story lines and crossover elements. It is one thing to carry a one story line through roughly 22 minutes but to carry three or more and then integrate them creates a greater challenge. Do the writers approach the process any differently? - B.J. Reed, Omaha

A.

MR. LLOYD: It is certainly one of our greatest challenges to service eleven (soon to be twelve) characters. Often, as you say, this involves telling five different stories in a 22 minute space. Usually, we will have one or two stories that have a li ttle more emotional heft to them, and the others are mostly there for comic value, and we try to shift the burden, week to week, as to which actors are playing the more emotional stories. It is definitely a hard show to figure out stories for - the hardest one I've ever worked on - but I do think the style of our show, where we go rapidly from story to story to story, creates a liveliness that people really respond to, and that makes it worth it.

Q.

I like “Modern Family” well enough but my biggest gripe with the show is the depiction of the gay couple. There just doesn't appear to be any trace of “heat” in their relationship. From the beginning, I've wondered what in the heck it was that got them together in the first place? As the co-creators, what is your take on this? - ShawnA New Hope, PA

A.

MR. LEVITAN: I would argue that you see the same amount of heat between Cam and Mitch as you do between Jay and Gloria. The actors play it the way that feels right to them. Julie Bowen is a particularly affectionate person so she brings that to Claire, which is why Claire is always kissing everyone. We typically don't script that kind of thing. Besides that, as we covered in “The Kiss,” Mitchell is not particularly comfortable with public displays of affection.

Q.

Is there a character that is more difficult for you to write than others? - Michelle Duque, Colombia

A.

MR. LLOYD: The hardest character to write for used to be Lily, until this year when she became kind of wizened and conspiratorial and now she's almost as much fun to write for as Phil.

Q.

How deep is each character's personality, goals, defined? Does each character have a writer that focuses part-time on developing that character's “ways?” (For example, Alex adopted Claire's embarrassment twitchy-ness just like a kid eventually adopts some physical aspects of a parent in reality). - Charlie Pickett, Boynton Beach, Florida

A.

MR. LEVITAN: No writers focus on just one actor. We all think about the series as a whole. That said, we spend countless hours talking about all the characters and with every new episode, we understand them a bit more. As for Alex adopting Claire's embarrassment twitchy-ness, I honestly never noticed it.

Q.

How can Phil and Claire's family be so unaffected by the Recession? He was a realtor three years ago when the housing market was a wreck, and it's not much better now. Shouldn't Claire have had to get a job at some point to get them by or maybe get them health insurance? And shouldn't getting health insurance have been part of Cam finally getting a job? I like the writing and actors, but the show is stuck in the typical upper middle-class world of the avera ge sitcom. - Paul, Saint Paul

A.

MR. LLOYD: Jay and Gloria may be wealthy; the other two families are solidly middle class. Mitch and Cam, for example, live in a duplex. And the five Dunphys live in a three bedroom house. While we have not dwelled upon economic hardships, we haven't skirted them either. We have alluded to Phil's concern about being able to provide for his family (his philosophy is that he must leave his work concerns at the door) and we showed a near cataclysmic level of panic in Mitchell when he decided to leave a comfortable job at a law firm for a less well-paying but more rewarding job. Probably financial concerns figured in Cam's decision to return to teaching this year. You are correct that we haven't voiced these concerns often, and mostly for two reasons: financial trouble is not the happiest topic, and stories about money on comedies tend to not work because they tend to shine a light on people's less likeable qualities. It was always our sense, early in the series, that “Modern Family” was appealing to people because, among other reasons, it was providing a respite during a challenging time in the country. People liked to laugh, and they liked to see genuine warmth among characters they enjoyed, because it took their minds off of their problems. It didn't seem wise to remind people of their troubles by alluding too heavily to those in the show.

Q.

A lot of people have been asking about your decision not to use a laugh track. Something I commend you for too! Why are so many TV comedies nowadays pressured into using laugh tracks? - David S., Chicago

A.

MR. LLOYD: There was really never a consideration of using a laugh track because it would have been very jarring. We are in a documentary style - much of the show is set outdoors - and viewers would certainly have been asking “where are all those laughing people I hear?” In point of fact, I'm not sure there are too many comedies with laugh tracks anymore. Most of what you hear is live studio audience laughing as a show is filmed. If this prompts you to wonder who those actual human beings are who are laughing at some of this stuff, that is a mystification I share.

Q.

Do the actors physical comedy abilities factor into the writers' choices for certain scenes? - Donna Novi, Michigan

A.

MR. LLOYD: Yes, we are graced with a cast of excellent physical comedians and it is a well we must remind ourselves not to go to too often. In shooting the pilot, we noticed, in the backyard of the house we were filming at, a trampoline next to a small basketball court. We put the basket inside the trampoline, said to Ty Burrell “get in there, play one-on-one with Luke, and don't let him win no matter what.” He did this eagerly, and was hilarious w ith it. It was all unscripted and made it into the final scene of the pilot. We've done similar things throughout the show: Ty and Julie insisting on rolling down a hillside at Alex's graduation; Eric falling down multiple times trying to save Lily; Julie catapulting herself down the stairwell slipping on Phil's unfixed step (and almost maiming herself in the process); Ed O'Neill wrestling his brother to the ground (broken rib from that one); Ty falling in the garage and bringing the garage down upon himself. My favorite might be Julie slipping in a dozen eggs dropped by her son - a painful, unscripted moment that nonetheless played hilariously well.

We try not to overdo this as viewers might start to wonder what kind of insurance policies cover these people; that said, we have an upcoming episode where Cam injures his daughter four different ways.

Cuomo Rejects Criticism for Avoiding Senate Leadership Dispute

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, criticized by black and Hispanic lawmakers for not objecting to a proposed governing coalition in the State Senate between Republicans and a group of dissident Democrats, insisted on Monday that it was not his place to get involved in what he called “a schism within the Democrats” in the chamber.

Mr. Cuomo, speaking on an Albany radio program, brushed off suggestions by two black senators at a rally organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton on Saturday that the governor did not want non-white lawmakers in positions of power. All but one of the members of the ann ounced coalition are white, while the Senate Democratic caucus has 14 black and Hispanic members.

“Let's just say the Senate has had a long tradition and flair for the dramatic, both in statements and action,” Mr. Cuomo said on WGDJ-AM.

Some Democrats have expressed frustration with Mr. Cuomo for not trying to elect more of his fellow Democrats to the Senate, and, more recently, for not pushing for Democratic leadership of the chamber.

While Democrats appear to have won a numerical majority in the Senate, five Democratic senators, who make up the Independent Democratic Conference, agreed last week to form a power-sharing coalition with the Senate Republicans, and a sixth Democrat has said he will caucu s with the Republicans.

“A governor's job is not to involve himself or herself in the internal power dynamic or leadership of the Legislature,” Mr. Cuomo said. He raised the example of what would happen if he went to the State Assembly and tried to oust the speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, saying such a move would prompt widespread outrage.

“I could just see what those guys would write,” the governor said of the news media. “‘Cuomo wants to control everything' is where they would go.”

Some black and Hispanic leaders have urged Mr. Cuomo to lobby the leaders of the new Senate coalition â€" Senators Jeffrey D. Klein, a Bronx Democrat, and Dean G. Skelos, a Long Island Republican â€" to appoint multiple non-white Democrats to committee chairmanships in order to improve the diversity of the chamber's leadership. But Mr. Cuomo said it was not his job to suggest who should receive different positions within the Senate.

“I'm not going to meddle,” he said.

Mr. Cuomo, who has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2016, was also asked on the radio program about the White House prospects of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“There is no doubt that she is incredibly popular,” Mr. Cuomo said. “She has great experience, and there's going to be all sorts of speculation about her political future. She's the person who's going to make the decision.”

Asked if he would support Mrs. Clinton in a Democratic primary should she decide to seek their party's nomination, Mr. Cuomo, who was federal housing secretary in Bill Clinton's administration, responded, “Oh, it's a long way away.”

\'In the Heights\' Coming to the Heights

“In the Heights” will finally be coming to the Heights. The rap-salsa-pop musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, which won the 2008 best musical Tony for its jaunty exploration of the lives of Dominican-American characters living in Washington Heights, will be restaged in the form of a one-night-only concert Feb. 11 at the United Palace of Cultural Arts at 175th Street and Broadway.

The event â€" organized by the Broadway League's Viva Broadway initiative, which was begun this year to try to increase Latino audiences for theater around the country â€" will include members of the original Broadway and national-tour cast, including Mr. Miranda, Karen Olivo, Chris Jackson, Olga Merediz, Mandy Gonzalez, Robin De Jesús and Janet Dacal.

Some of the proceeds from tickets sales for the event, “In the Heights: In Concert,” will go to support local arts programs in Washington Heights and the Broadway League's Family First Nights, which the league describes as “a nationwide program specifically designed to encourage at-risk families to attend theater on a regular basis.”

Video Shows Man Mugging 85-Year-Old Woman in Elevator

The police are looking for a man who was captured on video knocking down an 85-year-old woman in the elevator of her West Village apartment building and stealing her bag. The man is at least six feet tall and weighs at least 200 pounds, the police said.

The mugging happened at 305 West 13th Street on Saturday around 10:50 p.m. In surveillance video released by the police, the man, who towers over the woman, enters the lobby just behind her, waving at her as he walks past her.

He then settles into a chair in the lobby, gets up and speaks to the woman, and eventually follows her to the elevator.

N.Y.P.D. Surveillance still showing an 85-year-old woman struggling with a mugger in a West Village elevator.

She tries to leave the elevator as he advances on her, but he grabs her and shoves her to the floor of the car, then straightens up, holding her handbag, which he stuffs in his sweatshirt or coat as the woman lies on the floor.

The woman was not injured, and the mugger made off with an undetermined amount of money, the police said. The man is described as black, about 35, between 6 feet tall and 6-foot-3, and weighing 200 to 230 pounds. Anyone with information about him is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on line or by texting tips to 274637 and entering TIP577.

Baryshnikov Arts Center Announces 2013 Season

The Baryshnikov Arts Center has announced its spring 2013 season lineup, a schedule of performance and dance that will focus on new works by choreographers relatively new to the New York scene.

As part of PS122's COIL festival from Jan. 9-12, Emily Johnson and her company, Catalyst, based in Minneapolis, will present “Niicugni,” the second in a trilogy of works â€" the first, “The Thank-you Bar,” premiered in New York last year â€" that relate to Ms. Johnson's Yup'ik Alaskan heritage.

Rashaun Mitchell, the acclaimed alumnus of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, will perform a new work, “Interface,” which will have its world premiere Mar. 14 at the Baryshnikov center, where the piece was developed in residence.

The following month, on April 18-19, Rosie Herrera, an emerging Miami choreographer, will perform the New York premiere of “Dining Alone,” a gustatory dance work co-presented by American Dance Festival and Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.

In addition to theatrical pieces based on works by Tolstoy and Beckett, the center, will present, April 3-17, “Kafka's Monkey,” an adaptation by Colin Teevan, in association with the Theater for a New Audience, of Kafka's 1917 short story “A Report to an Academy,” about a newly civilized ape asked by a group of scientists to recount his bestial, pre-verbal past.

7 Score and 7 Years Ago, a Similar Albany

David James/DreamWorks and 20th Century Fox Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in a scene from the film “Lincoln.”

New York's capital city can't seem to catch a break. A string of corruption and sex scandals and byzantine power struggles have frustrated would-be reformers; the State Senate is so divided that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said last week that “I expect the leadership situation to be fluid and subject to influence for some time.”

Now comes Steven Spielberg with a reminder that legislative high jinks have a long and co lorful history in Albany. In his new film, “Lincoln,” which is performing well at the box office, Albany has a brief but telling mention, in which the secretary of state, William H. Seward, tells President Lincoln that if he is serious about passing the 13th Amendment, to abolish slavery, it would require unseemly arm-twisting and patronage promises best left to the experts in such skulduggery.

“I'll fetch a friend from Albany,” says Seward, who before serving in the Lincoln administration had been the governor and then a United States senator from Ne w York.

“He can supply operatives for the field work, spare me the indignity of actually speaking to Democrats,” Seward says. “Spare you the exposure and liability.”

The reference is historically accurate, according to Harold Holzer, a Lincoln historian who wrote the young adult official companion book to the movie, called “Lincoln: How Abraham Lincoln Ended Slavery in America.” Mr. Holzer said that “Lincoln was behind all the arm-twisting, deals, job offers, near-bribes and legislative trade-offs that made passage of the 13th Amendment happen in the House,” but that Albany helped with the mechanics.

“The reference is to former Governor and Senator William Seward's longtime reliance on the Albany machine run by his mentor-guru, publisher and political boss, Thurlow Weed,” Mr. Holzer said in an e-mail. “It's a nice inside message to the days when Albany was fully functional, if barely legal.”

The author of the “Lincoln” screenplay, Tony Kushner, said parallels to Albany today were unintentional, but not unwelcome.

“I didn't include it as a comment on any current situation - I really tried to stay very specific and true to the place and moment about which we made the movie - Washington, January 1865,” Mr. Kushner said in an e-mail. “But of course as a proud New Yorker, I was delighted that when proto-lobbyists capable of stealth and sleight-of-hand were needed, Lincoln and Seward turned at once to Albany!”

Mr. Kushner said of Albany, “As it is today, it was in the mid-19th century a boot camp for an unapologetically, um, pragmatic brand of politics.” And Seward and Weed, he said, “were experienced Albany hands, which from what I've read hasn't changed a whole lot in the past 113 years.”

Springsteen, Lady Gaga and the Black Keys to Join the Stones

Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga and the Black Keys will be guest artists when the Rolling Stones play on Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark, the last scheduled concert in a mini-tour to celebrate the band's 50th anniversary.

The Stones have been bringing guests in at each of the concerts in the “50 and Counting” series that they have played so far.

The first concert in London featured a reunion with Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor, former members of the band, and an appearance by the guitarist Jeff Beck and the singer Mary J. Blige. During a second London show, the guitarist Eric Clapton and the singer Florence Welch, of the British group Florence and the Machine, lent the Stones a hand.

And at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn last Saturday, Ms. Blige made another appearance along with the guitarist Gary Clark Jr.

The concert in New Jersey on Saturday will be telecast live on pay-per-view. The Stones are also playing a show at the Prudenti al Center on Thursday night, and have been added to the bill of the “12-12-12″ concert on Wednesday at Madison Square in New York City to raise money for Hurricane Sandy victims.

Feeling the Heat, Yoga Chain Bows to Bikram, Despite Federal Ruling

Casey Kelbaugh for The New York Times A Yoga to the People class in the East Village in 2010.

A popular New York-based chain of hot-yoga studios accused by Bikram yoga of copyright infringement has decided to let go, despite a copyright-office ruling that seemed to support its position.

The chain, Yoga to the People, has agreed to stop offering its high-temperature classes that are patterned after Bikram yoga in order to settle a federal lawsuit filed by Bikram, according to a joint press release issued by both parties last week.

Yoga to the People, which charges $8 a class at its six studios in New York City - compared with as much as $25 at Bikram studios â€" will stop offering its hot yoga classes by Feb. 15.

Bikram's numerous suits against its imitators, including the one filed in California last December against Yoga to the People, have drawn criticism for their claims that yoga postures, which are thousands of years old, could be anyone's property.

The current suit charged that the sequence of 26 postures and two breathing exercises, performed in a room heated to 105 degrees, formulated by Bikram's founder, Bikram Choudhury, were Mr. Choudhury's intel lectual property, and that Yoga to the People's founder, Greg Gumucio, a former student of Mr. Choudhury's, stole it from him.

In June, the federal copyright office ruled that arrangements of preexisting exercises, such as yoga poses, could not be copyrighted:

While such a functional system or process may be aesthetically appealing, it is nevertheless uncopyrightable subject matter. A film or description of such an exercise routine or simple dance routine may be copyrightable, as may a compilation of photographs of such movements. However, such a copyright will not extend to the movements themselves, either individually or in combination, but only to the expressive description, depiction, or illustration of the routine …

The Copyright Office wrote t hat copyright registrations that were issued in the past “were issued in error.” Mr. Choudhury obtained a copyright for his sequence in 2003.

The Copyright Office ruling does not mention Bikram yoga but says that “an example that has occupied the attention of the Copyright Office for quite some time involves the copyrightability of the selection and arrangement of preexisting exercises, such as yoga poses.”

Casey Kelbaugh for The New York Times Greg Gumucio, founder of Yoga to the People, standing, teaches a class in New York in 2010.

Nevertheless, Mr. Gumucio wrote in a letter [pdf] posted on Yoga to the People's Web site, he decided to settle the suit by agreeing to stop offering the course patterned after Bikram.

The Copyright Office ruling, which Mr. Gumucio called “an important victory,” would still have required him to fight the matter in court, and, Mr. Gumucio wrote, “Intuitively, I no longer felt the need to be entangled in the Bikram battle.”

Mt. Gumucio, who opened his first Yoga to the People studio in 2006 in the East Village, added that reading a book by another former Bikram disciple-turned-competitor, “Hell Bent,” by Benjamin Lorr,

forced me to consider deeply why I continue to maintain an association with Bikram the man and Bikram the yoga sequence â€" even if from a distance. There i s so much good yoga to be explored, played with, and created! Why have a connection with someone with whom I disagree with on so many levels?

Yoga to the People, which also have four studios on the West Coast, offers “Power Vinyasa” classes in addition to the hot-yoga classes.

A lawyer for Mr. Choudhury, Robert Gilchrest, did not return a call to California seeking comment Monday morning.

Everyone\'s a Critic: Turkish Lawmaker Joins Prime Minister in Attack on Soap Opera

The culture clash between a steamy Turkish soap opera and the country's conservative governing party shows little sign of abating.

“Magnificent Century,” a sort of Ottoman-era “Sex and the City” set during the 16th-century reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and featuring intrigues of the royal court and harem, is hugely popular with ardent fans across Turkey and the Middle East.

But after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month lambasted the series and threatened legal action over its debauched depiction of the heroic sultan, a member of parliament from his Justice and Development party, Oktay Saral, said last week that he was seeking a new law banning the soap opera. The law, he said, aimed to forbid historical figures from being h umiliated and to prevent the “perversion” of the facts, The Hurriyet Daily News reported. It would also cover fiction.

The newspaper said Mr. Saral had justified the proposed ban on the grounds that the show â€" which depicts the Sultan cavorting with women and drinking alcohol - flouted the values of the Turkish family and morality. He said that his push for the law predated the prime minister's objections and was in response to longstanding complaints from the Turkish public.

The latest move against the series, which features sumptuous costumes and sets and attracts a third of the prime-time audience in Turkey, comes amid a growing culture war between the governing party, which has Islamic roots, and the country's more secular purveyors of culture in film and television.

Earlier this month Turkey's media watchdog fined a television channel about $30,000 for broadcasting episodes of “The Simpsons” that mocked God by, among other things, depicting God serving Satan a cup of coffee. The Turkish media reported that “The Simpsons” had also come under scrutiny for showing scenes in which copies of the bible are burned and for encouraging youth to drink alcohol.

Mehmet Y. Yilmaz, a columnist for Hurriyet, which is widely read by the country's secular elite, mocked the fine in one of his columns, questioning the sense of humor deficit among the finers. “I wonder what the makers of ‘The Simpsons' would say when they hear their jokes are taken literally in a country called ‘Turkey',” he wrote, questioning whether Homer would get a Muslim neighbor.

In the case of “Magnificent Century,” Prime Minister Erdogan had expressed annoyance that the series was “toying” with Turkish values and presenting an image of the valiant Sulta n that did not correspondent to reality. He said that the authorities had been alerted and that a judicial decision was expected.

Some cultural critics have taken Mr. Erdogan to task, arguing that he is encouraging censorship and seeking to recast Turkey in a more conservative and religious mold. They see the latest signs of cultural conservatism as part of a larger trend of the government seeking to have its sway everywhere from the bedroom to the television set. Mr. Erdogan has previously come under criticism from women's advocates for pledging to crack down on abortions and caesarean-section births, and for advising Turkish women to have at least three, preferably five, children.

Mr. Saral told The Hurriyet Daily News that his move to censor “Magnificent Century” had received support from both Turkish nationalists and the opposition Republican party, suggesting that annoyance about the depiction of Suleiman was not limited to religious conservatives.

Defenders of the show, including at least one descendent of the Sultan who doesn't like its raunchy depiction of his ancestors, have retorted that criticism is unwarranted since the show is plainly a soap opera aimed at entertainment. Others say that the Turkish prime minister is adeptly stirring controversy over the soap opera to distract from Turkey's geopolitical challenges, including the growing conflict in neighboring Syria.

A \'Girls\' Soundtrack Album Is On the Way

Anyone who feels their approximation of the life of 20-something Brooklyn ladies is incomplete without a musical accompaniment can ready their headphones. The HBO series “Girls” will have an official soundtrack, released by the label Fueled by Ramen on Jan. 8, just before the second season's premiere. Contributors include a who's who of pop acts and the contemporary indie scene like Fun., Icona Pop, Fleet Foxes, Robyn (whose “Dancing on My Own” helped fuel a plot point in an early episode), and Sleigh Bells. A track by Santigold called “Girls” is the lead single.

Lena Dunham, the creator and star of “Girls,” who previewed the album's cover art on her Twitter account on Sunday night, worked with the show's music supervisors, Manish Raval and Tom Wol fe (“Community,” “New Girl”), and the soundtrack producer Kevin Weaver (“Boardwalk Empire,” “True Blood”) to put together the compilation.

“I make playlists to write by and listen to as I head to set in the morning,” she said in a statement announcing the album, “and I experiment in editing with songs that the characters would love and that accurately reflect their struggles.”

The soundtrack is called “Girls â€" Volume 1,” so expect more dance parties in Hannah, Marnie, Shoshanna and Jessa's future. The second season of “Girls” begins on Jan. 13.

Ask Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon About \'Homeland\'

Ronen Akerman/Showtime Mandy Patinkin and Claire Danes in an early episode from Season 2 of “Homeland.”

“Homeland” began last fall with a desperate charge through an Iraqi prison and has barely slowed down since, stacking up an impressive array of twisted plots, dead bodies and tortured love triangles as it has become television's top drama and arguably the biggest hit ever for Showtime. The second season has found its damaged protagonists, played by Claire Danes and Damian Lewis, dodging assorted mortal thr eats and strengthening their bond as geopolitical intrigue swirls all around them.

As anticipation builds for Sunday's season finale, Alex Gansa, the show runner and co-creator of “Homeland,” and Howard Gordon, the other co-creator, are taking questions from Times readers. As former members of the “24″ braintrust, the producers knew a thing or two about crafting intense counterterrorism narratives and previously pledged that the second season of “Homeland” would be just as gripping as the first. “That's the contract with the audience,” Mr. Gordon said.

Has that contract been fulfilled? What else do you want to know about “Homeland” - aside from, presumably, any spoilers about the finale? Please post your questions about the show in the comments below. We'll pose some of them to Mr. Gansa and Mr. Gordon and post their answers here later this week.

Not Silenced, 33 Years After Her Own Subway Nightmare

On the second night of Hanukkah, Renee Katz lit the menorah candles Sunday evening at her home in Queens, using her right hand a bit tentatively. Hanukkah candles are slender. They are not easy for Ms. Katz to grasp with the right hand. “I don't have great dexterity,” she said. “Anything that requires fine motor skills is hard.”

The menorah sat atop a piano in the living room. Time was when she played a splendid piano as well as an inspiring flute. She still gives the piano a try at times, playing music that her mother, Rose, wrote - “wild gypsy songs,” the daughter said. But she cannot play for long stretches. As for the flute, it is far back in her past. She can't properly hold the instrument, not with that hand.

Renee Katz. If you've lived in New York for quite a while, the name may now be coming back to you. You remember.

You remember a June morning in 1979. Ms Katz was a few weeks shy of her 18th birthday, bl essed with talent and about to graduate from the High School of Music and Art. That morning, some miserable lowlife pushed her from the platform to the tracks in the subway station at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue.

Ms. Katz instinctively rolled to her left to avoid an oncoming train. She saved her life. But she could not save her right hand. The train sliced it off. The police found it, though, packed it in ice from a nearby bar and rushed it to Bellevue Hospital. There, the hand was reattached after 16 hours of microsurgery, a procedure not routine in those days. But her future as a flutist or a pianist? That was gone.

No one ever paid for that crime. A suspect was put on trial, but a jury acquitted him. The attacker, whoever he was, is “still out there,† Ms. Katz said, and that presumption makes her wary of sharing too many specifics about her life.

Through the years, she has remained an enduring symbol of how even though the city is now much safer than it was in 1979, the normal order can come unglued without warning. It did so once more a few days ago when another person from Queens, Ki-Suck Han, was shoved to the tracks in Midtown, into the path of a Q train pulling into the 49th Street station. Mr. Han did not have Ms. Katz's luck. A man named Naeem Davis is now charged with murdering him.

“It's always so shocking when it happens,” Ms. Katz said of this latest subway nightmare. “It triggered the memories again.” Watching television reports of the horror, “I felt like I was under the train,” she said. “It wasn't easy for me to watch.”

How could it have been? But she has not spent the past 33 years being a victim. Far from it. Right at the start, a nurse at Bellevue told her, “You have five minutes out of every day to feel sorry for yourself. The rest of the time you've got to get up and do something.”

Ms. Katz also absorbed lessons from her Hungarian-born father, Isidore, a survivor of the Holocaust and Nazi camps. “You have to understand,” she said, “if he could get through what he went through, I certainly can try to get through what I've been through.”

That she has. At 51, she has been through life's familiar cycles: marriage, the birth of a son, divorce, new love. She went to work as an occupational therapist, mostly treating young people whose lives had been shattered, as hers was in her teens. Her own experience can be useful for them to hear, but she tells it only when the time is ripe.

“I have to b e careful,” Ms. Katz said. “They're wrapped up in their own misery. Listening is the most important thing for me at that point.”

And then there's the music. It never stopped. Maybe it no longer flows on the piano or the flute, but she has a voice, put to sweet use in choral groups, in occasional appearances at Manhattan clubs and in a CD that leans on a Carly Simon song for its title, “Never Been Gone.” She has also written poetry reflecting a spectrum of her emotions across the years: anger, grief, regret, vulnerability, hope and, for sure, love.

“I vowed that nobody would silence me,” Ms. Katz said.

Sure, she had a bad break, and sometimes it's tough out there. “Riding the subway is still hard,” she said. “Being in crowds is hard. My body overreacts to stress. I startle quickly.” But there is so much else, and she ticked off a list that included “a strong desire to give back, ” “a sense of gratitude,” “a perspective on what's important in life.”

All that and the ability use her right hand to light a candle on Hanukkah, a festival that, like her, is about resilience, renewal and, yes, miracles.

E-mail Clyde Haberman: haberman@nytimes.com

Near Aisle Rage at Gristedes

Victor Kerlow

Dear Diary:

She was blocking the aisle
in Gristede's on West 86th Street,
inspecting a cereal box.
He was urgent to pass,
wondering if he should
run her over with
his shopping cart.

She was about 8.
He was about 6.
His father said,
“Excuse us, miss,”
and the gentle voice
of civilization
averted mayhem.

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