Manilow\'s Magic, Back on Broadway

“I was the Justin Bieber of the ’70s. Really. Just ask your mother,” Barry Manilow joked from the stage of the St. James Theater early in Monday’s opening-night show of his return to Broadway for the first time in decades.

Mr. Manilow was still recovering from the flu, which had caused him to cancel several preview performances, and the front of the stage was lined with boxes of tissue in case he needed them. (He didn’t.) In the past few days, he said, he had coughed up enough phlegm “to float Fire Island.”

It is worth noting that unlike Mr. Bieber, Mr. Manilow was no teenager when he hit it big. Puppylike he may have seemed, but he was already in his 30s. Whether or not Mr. Bieber can sustain the kind of stardom Mr. Manilow still enjoys remains to be seen.

Mr. Manilow is now 69 and after nearly four decades in the limelight has crossed the invisible line from pop star to pop institution. His voice, while instantly recognizable, is not what it used to be. High notes have diappeared, and a certain unsteadiness has crept into his delivery. But for the fans who sang along with his hits, that didn’t matter. He was present. As he sang many of his greatest hits in a one-hour-and-50-minute concert without an intermission, his brand was intact.

A Jazz Reunion at the \'Fame\' School

Robert Caplin for The New York Times Don Byron, center, and dozens of other former students of Justin DiCioccio, some of them jazz stars, serenaded Mr. DiCoccio Monday at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, where he founded the jazz program.

This is about jazz, so we’ll improvise, starting with Jimmy Owens, the renowned trumpeter, composer and bandleader. In cool threads (red jacket and green scarf), he’s remembering back more than 50 years to his days at the city’s High School of Music & Art, before it merged with the High School of Performing Arts â€" the “Fame” school â€" and before they moved together to Lincoln Center â€" before there really was a Lincoln Center.

“If I got caught playing jazz in the practice room, I got sent down to the dean’s office,” he recalls with a chuckle. He got caught doing that a lot, so, he says, “I had a permanent seat outside Dean Kane’s office.” Many others, like Freddy Lipsius, later of Blood Sweat and Tears, sat with him.

Jazz hadn’t ! yet come up the river â€" the Hudson River â€" to public schools anywhere in the nation, and youth rebelliousness was widely viewed with suspicion, even at the progressive Music & Art, founded in 1936 by Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, who called it “the most hopeful accomplishment of my administration.”

But in 1971, a drummer who had played in the Marine band at President Kennedy’s funeral was recruited to the faculty with the radical mission of turning the dance and stage bands into a jazz ensemble.

“I had no idea what the hell I was talking about,” recalled the percussionist, Justin DiCioccio.

Robert Caplin for The New York Times Justin DiCioccio

There was a lot of remembering like this going on Monday night as the school, now the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts on Amsterdam Avenue at 65th Street, brought together 37 celebrated jazz alumni and friends for a reunion/benefit concert and jam session to honor Mr. DiCioccio, who went on to lead the jazz program at the school for the next two decades.

He instructed, among others, the drummer Kenny Washington, the clarinetist Don Byron, the guitarist Bobby Broom, the bassist Marcus Miller and the vibraphonist Mark Sherman, all of whom, with several dozen others, flocked in from around the country to play for their former teacher.

The guitarist John Pizzarelli, who has a daughter at the school, joined the jam fest, along with the pianist Arturo O’Farrill, also a parent of a Music & Art student, and the Cuban-born, nine-Grammy-winning, alto saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera.

Mingling with fellow musicians at a preconcert dinner of kale, chicken and pasta salad in the school cafeteria, Mr. Washington (class of 1976) recalled the day at school tha he faced a sheet of music and quailed. “I took my sticks out and saw bars of 4/4 to 3/4 to 5/8 to 3/16 and I looked at that and my eyes bugged out,” he said. “I put my sticks away,” he told Mr. DiCioccio. “I can’t play this.”

“He says: ‘You can learn how to play this. If you couldn’t play it, you wouldn’t be here.’” The next day, Mr. Washington said, Mr. DiCioccio (pronounced de-CHO-chee-oh) dropped a book on his desk, Charley Wilcoxon’s “Modern Rudimental Swing Solos” for drums. “Don’t worry,” Mr. DiCioccio told him. “I’ll teach you.” It changed his life, he said.

From the stage, the bassist Mr. Miller, in a black gaucho hat, also hailed Mr. DiCioccio as someone who saved lives as surely as any pediatric surgeon. “He would change trajectories,” he said. “ ‘Stead of being here! ,” â€" ! he held a hand waist-high â€" “you’d be here,” moving his hand above his head.

The man who brought Mr. DiCioccio to Music & Art was also there, Gabriel Kosakoff, 86, the former head of the instrumental music department.

Mr. DiCioccio came to the school as a part-time percussion teacher in 1971. He had grown up in Buffalo, attended the Eastman School of Music and, to escape the Vietnam draft â€" “I didn’t want to kill people” â€" signed up for an opening on the White House Marine band, The President’s Own.

He ended up in the Kennedy funeral cortege in 1963. “In the pictures with the riderless horse, the first snare drummer, that’s me,” he said. He stayed to play for President Lyndon B. Johnson and then made his way to New York to play jazz.

When Mr. Kosakoff sought to hire himfull time, he balked. “I’m a player, not a teacher,” he said. What would it take to change his mind “Off the top of my head, I said, ‘Let’s start a jazz band,’” Mr. DiCioccio recalled. Mr. Kosakoff was taken aback. “It’s not a college,” he said.

The upstart would not be put off. “I thought you said this was a specialized high school for special students,” Mr. DeCioccio replied. “You should do something special.”

Producers Scramble After Investor Withdraws From \'Breakfast at Tiffany\'s\'

The Broadway producers of “Truman Capote’s ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’” are scrambling to raise $1 million after an investor pulled out of the $4 million show, according to a spokesman for the production, which began rehearsals on Monday and is scheduled to begin performances on March 4. The cast, led by Emilia Clarke (HBO’s “Game of Thrones”) as Holly Golightly, have been told that the production would be in jeopardy if the money was not replaced quickly. The play’s spokesman, Rick Miramontez, declined to identify the investor who dropped out, but said some additional money had already been raised and the producers were working hard to find the rest. Another Broadway-bound show this season, “Rebecca,” fell apart because of money problems after four of itsinvestors were revealed to be phantoms. The producers of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” - Colin Ingram Productions Limited, Donovan Mannato and Dominic Ianno - are relative newcomers to Broadway.

Producers Scramble After Investor Withdraws From \'Breakfast at Tiffany\'s\'

The Broadway producers of “Truman Capote’s ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’” are scrambling to raise $1 million after an investor pulled out of the $4 million show, according to a spokesman for the production, which began rehearsals on Monday and is scheduled to begin performances on March 4. The cast, led by Emilia Clarke (HBO’s “Game of Thrones”) as Holly Golightly, have been told that the production would be in jeopardy if the money was not replaced quickly. The play’s spokesman, Rick Miramontez, declined to identify the investor who dropped out, but said some additional money had already been raised and the producers were working hard to find the rest. Another Broadway-bound show this season, “Rebecca,” fell apart because of money problems after four of itsinvestors were revealed to be phantoms. The producers of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” - Colin Ingram Productions Limited, Donovan Mannato and Dominic Ianno - are relative newcomers to Broadway.

Ex-Janitor Convicted of Raping Girl in School Basement Repeatedly

A former Brooklyn middle-school janitor was convicted Tuesday of repeatedly raping and sexually abusing an eighth-grade girl, the district attorney’s office said.

The man, Ambiorix Rodriguez, 34, had been accused of sexually attacking the girl over the course of five months in 2010 and 2011 in the basement of the Middle School for Marketing and Legal Studies in East Flatbush, where he was the head custodian until his arrest in April 2011.

In the first episode, Mr. Rodriguez inappropriately touched the girl, who was then 12, prosecutors said. The next day, he repeated the offense, and over the next months he continued to grope and force sexual relations on the girl, often on a couch in the basement, as often as several times a week, according to prosecutors.

Mr. Rodriguez was convicted of four counts of predatory sexual assault against a child, two counts of second-degree rape and six cunts of second-degree sexual abuse.

He is to be sentenced Feb. 20. He has no prior record but faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Alvin Ailey Troupe Headed to the David H. Koch Theater

The march to the Koch continues. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has become the latest dance company to take up residence at the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center. Ailey said on Tuesday it would present seven performances at the Koch from June 12 to June 16, in addition to its touring and regular season at City Center.

At the Koch, the company will present a new work by Ronald K. Brown; the Ailey staple “Revelations;” and repeats of new works performed this season. Ailey officials cited a successful City Center run in making the announcement. The Ailey company last appeared at the Koch, which was then called the New York State Theater, in 2000. It also danced there in 1976 and 1996, and at the Metropolitan Opera house in 1984.

Since the New York City Opera left the Koch in 2011, dance has been filling the void, a natural fit given that the stage was designed for the New York City Ballet, the main resident. American Ballet Theater has signedup for two weeks each fall through 2015 starting this year. The Paul Taylor Dance Company has begun regular appearances and foreign companies are making their way to the Koch, including Nederlands Dans Theater in April.

Alvin Ailey Troupe Headed to the David H. Koch Theater

The march to the Koch continues. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has become the latest dance company to take up residence at the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center. Ailey said on Tuesday it would present seven performances at the Koch from June 12 to June 16, in addition to its touring and regular season at City Center.

At the Koch, the company will present a new work by Ronald K. Brown; the Ailey staple “Revelations;” and repeats of new works performed this season. Ailey officials cited a successful City Center run in making the announcement. The Ailey company last appeared at the Koch, which was then called the New York State Theater, in 2000. It also danced there in 1976 and 1996, and at the Metropolitan Opera house in 1984.

Since the New York City Opera left the Koch in 2011, dance has been filling the void, a natural fit given that the stage was designed for the New York City Ballet, the main resident. American Ballet Theater has signedup for two weeks each fall through 2015 starting this year. The Paul Taylor Dance Company has begun regular appearances and foreign companies are making their way to the Koch, including Nederlands Dans Theater in April.

Nail It Down, Tie It Down or Hold On Tight

Don Emmert/Agence France-Presse â€" Getty Images Like this, only rainy: flags whipped in the wind at Rockefeller Center last Thursday.

New Yorkers, who have been enjoying a brief respite from the bitter cold of recent days, are being warned to batten down the hatches as weather forecasts predict strong winds and fierce thunderstorms across the city for Wednesday.

The gusts could exceed 65 miles an hour, according to the National Weather Service.

Joe Pollina, a Weather Service meteorologist based on Long Island, said that the high winds were a result of the convergence of a cold front approaching the region tomorrow and a low-pressure system that will be assing to the north of the city.

“As the low-pressure system strengthens, the winds pick up,” Mr. Pollina said.

While he cautioned that the forecast could change, he said that any thunderstorms could also add to the strength of the winds.

The city’s Department of Buildings, which issues construction warnings whenever high winds are forecast, sent one out on Tuesday afternoon, ordered developers to safeguard construction sites and directed homeowners to secure their patio furniture and potted plants.

Grand Central\'s Flesh-and-Blood Landlord

Robert Mecea/Getty Images The spotlight-shunning owner of Grand Central, Andrew S. Penson, right, in 2002, with a Bank of America executive, Richard M. DeMartini, left, and Senator Charles E. Schumer.

There is some confusion over whether Andrew S. Penson had even been invited to the gala celebration of Grand Central Terminal’s centennial on Friday night. Regardless, Mr. Penson says characteristically, he will be the man who didn’t come to dinner.

Ordinarily, the balding 52-year-old Mr. Penson might barely be noticed at such a star-studded event, much less missed. But his absence rom the terminal’s birthday dinner, at the Oyster Bar, will strike New Yorkers in the know as a particularly glaring omission.

After all, Mr. Penson owns Grand Central.

Ask most New Yorkers to identify the terminal’s landlord and they will most likely reply that it must be the state or the Metropolitan Transportation Authority or its Metro-North subsidiary.

As is typical when it comes to complex real estate transactions, though, things are not what they seem to be at first blush. Moreover, Mr. Penson goes out of his way to remain unnoticed.

“I don’t look for publicity,” he says.

He and his wife apparently were not invited to the dinner until Monday, after a reporter asked the centennial committee whether he had been. He will not attend if for no other reason than the dinner falls on the Jewish Sabbath.

The son of a businessman who specialized in converting rental apartments into co-ops, Mr. Penson, who grew up on Manhattanâ€! ™s East Side, is a graduate of New York Law School (he sits on its board of trustees and is a prodigious fund-raiser for the school and for the United Jewish Appeal) and a former lawyer at Jones Day.

He plunged into real estate in earnest in the mid-1990s by buying the debt on distressed properties, especially mortgages owned by Japanese banks. In 1998, he made an unsuccessful $450 million bid for the Washington Redskins football franchise.

He is the managing member of a Delaware-based limited liability company, Midtown Trackage Ventures, which includes his partners in Argent Ventures and two outside institutional investors. Argent once owned an interest in the Chrysler Building and still has a stake in the Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood.

Argent has invested more than $2.5 billion in real estate, primarily in New York, California, Florida and Washington, D.C., with partners that have included Morgan Stanley, Tishman Speyer, Oaktree Capital Management, Millennium Partners, Fortress Invetment Group, Lehman Brothers, LCOR, iStar Financial, RBS Greenwich Capital and HRO. At various times, Argent owned 1,000 apartments in New York City (through ALTA/Park City), as well as an interest in the Starrett Corporation.

In 2006, Argent sold Manhattan Mall, a so-called vertical shopping center in Midtown West, for $689 million.

His interest in buying Grand Central was piqued in 2002 when the Roosevelt Hotel over the terminal’s tracks was put up for sale.

In 2006, Midtown Trackage Ventures, which included two institutional investors that he would not identify, bought Grand Central and 75 miles of track to Poughkeepsie and 82 miles to Wassaic, in Dutchess County, from American Premier Underwriters; American Premier’s parent, American Financial Group (which had acquired the bankrupt Penn Central’s real estate); and the Owasco River Railway (a company that once operated switching facilities upstate and was later acquired by the New York Central Railroad) for about $80 millio! n.

! The sale included about 1.3 million square feet of air rights over Grand Central, which could become more valuable if the Bloomberg administration’s proposed higher-density Midtown East rezoning plan is approved.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which assumed potential environmental cleanup costs, pays $2.24 million in annual rent on a lease that expires Feb. 28, 2274. The authority has an option to buy the terminal and the tracks in 2017, which it is expected to exercise, although the landlord can extend that date to 2032.

Mr. Penson is not a railroad aficionado. As a lifelong Manhattan resident, he has never been a commuter. Nor, as a child, did he play with model trains. Few M.T.A. officials have ever met him. He took a tour of the terminal before he bought it, but his occasional visits to Grand Central, a few blocks from his Fifth Avenue office, are to play at the Vanderbilt Tennis Club (court time rates range up to $225 an hour, or $15,000 annually).

Still, while he has no framed the deed (“It’s just a piece of paper”), the thought of owning Grand Central Terminal had instantly appealed to him.

“It was the right time when the opportunity presented itself,” Mr. Penson recalled, “although I immediately thought of the old joke about buying the Brooklyn Bridge.”

Good News for Bad People as Showtime, Cinemax and BBC America Renew Series

Tuesday was a good day for being bad, especially if you do so in the context of cable-TV comedy or drama. Showtime said that it had ordered new seasons of its dark comedies “Shameless” (about a Chicago family gone to seed); “Californication” (about an author struggling â€" and sometimes not struggling â€" with his sex life); and “House of Lies,” about a group of unscrupulous management consultants. All three series have seen their viewership grow over previous seasons, Showtime said, and will resume production later this year in Los Angeles to begin new seasons in 2014. Don Cheadle, a star of “House of Lies,” was a surprise winner of the Golden Globe for lead actor in a comedy or musical series earlier this month.

Separately, Cinemax announced that it was ordering a second season of “Banshee,” its action thriller about an ex-con masquerading as he new sheriff of a Pennsylvania town. The new season of “Banshee” will be shown in 2014, Cinemax said.

Additionally, BBC America said it had renewed “Ripper Street,” its crime drama set in late 19th-century London. The series, which is a coproduction with the BBC, will have its second season shown in 2014 as well.

\'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike\' Moving to Broadway

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times From left, Kristine Nielsen as Sonia, Sigourney Weaver as Masha and David Hyde Pierce as Vanya play hapless stay-at-homes.

Christopher Durang’s latest Off Broadway play “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” starring Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce, will transfer to Broadway’s Golden Theater in March with the original cast intact, the producers announced on Tuesday.

The play adds to an already starry spring on Broadway. Ms. Weaver, who last performe there in 1996 in Mr. Durang’s “Sex and Longing,” and Mr. Hyde Pierce (a Tony and Emmy winner, best known for NBC’s “Frasier”) will join a springtime lineup that already includes Tom Hanks (“Lucky Guy”), Bette Midler (“I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers”), Scarlett Johansson (“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”), Alec Baldwin and Shia LaBeouf (“Orphans”), Nathan Lane (“The Nance”), and Cicely Tyson (“The Trip to Bountiful”).

“Vanya and Sonia…,” which draws on themes from Chekhov plays like “Uncle Vanya” and “The Seagull” for a black comedy about unhappy siblings in present-day Bucks County, Pa., opened at Lincoln Center Theater in November to generally good reviews. Joining Ms. Weaver and Mr. Hyde Pierce in the Broadway transfer are the other members of the orig! inal cast: Kristine Nielsen, Genevieve Angelson, Shalita Grant and Billy Magnussen.

The play, directed by Nicholas Martin, is scheduled to run for 17 weeks, beginning performances on March 5 and opening on March 14. The producers are Joey Parnes, Larry Hirschhorn, and John O’Boyle. Mr. Durang’s plays include “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You,” “Betty’s Summer Vacation,” and “Miss Witherspoon,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2006.

As Election Nears, Release of Quinn Memoir Does, Too

Christine C. Quinn is publishing a memoir in May, just in time for the heat of the mayoral race.

Its title could double as a campaign mantra: “With Patience and Fortitude.” And its cover has a warm, meet-the-candidate vibe, including faded snapshots of the author as a child and a smiling portrait complete with wedding ring and nonthreatening sweater.

The 352-page memoir of Christine C. Quinn, City Council spaker and mayoral contender, has been pitched as an intimate account of a middle-class Irish Catholic daughter who ascended New York politics while coming to grips with her sexuality and the early death of her mother from cancer.

But it could be tough to separate the personal from the political when it comes to the highly anticipated book, which Ms. Quinn’s publisher, William Morrow and Company, said would be released on May 14, less than four months before the Democratic primary election for mayor.

A spokesman for the publisher said “a big publicity outreach” was planned, and aides to Ms. Quinn said she would juggle a book tour with her political and public responsibilities.

“Chris is an expert multitasker and will be able to simultaneously be speaker, be a candidate, and be an author,” her chief campaign strategist, Josh Isay, said on Tuesday.

Ms. Quinn wrote the memoir with Eric Marcus, who writes frequently on gay issues and helped write the 1995 autobiography of Greg Louganis, the Olympic diver, who is gay.

The title of Ms. Quinn’s memoir alludes to the two marble lions that guard the Fifth Avenue building of the New York Public Library, named Patience and Fortitude by Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia in the 1930s.

Ms. Quinn is fond of the sculptures, which she often passes during parades. The lions were also well liked by the Rev. Mychal F. Judge, the Fire Department chaplain who was killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Father Judge was gay and an inspiration for Ms. Qinn, who recently read his biography.

Her book, which has an undiscounted price of $27.99, has roots in Ms. Quinn’s close-knit political circle: Mr. Isay introduced her to her literary agent, David Black, whose clients have included Mitch Albom and Representative John Lewis of Georgia.

Ms. Quinn’s editor, Henry Ferris of HarperCollins, also edited Barack Obama’s memoir of family and personal change, “Dreams of My Father.”

A pre-election memoir from a major publisher is a common accouterment of a high-profile political candidacy, and Ms. Quinn’s editor has said he expects the book to attract a national audience, with women and gay men a particular focus.

Ms. Quinn’s unusual life story and the historical pr! ecedent i! f she is elected â€" becoming the first female and first gay mayor of New York City â€" are considered significant assets of her campaign; she has already been the subject of glossy profiles in Elle and The New Yorker.

None of her rivals in the Democratic primary have announced plans for books of their own.

New Novels on the Way From \'Schindler\'s List\' Author

Thomas Keneally, the bestselling author of “Schindler’s List,” will be releasing a new book with a new publisher this summer, Atria Books announced Tuesday.

Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, said it had acquired United States rights to two new novels from Mr. Keneally, who has already published 25. The first, “The Daughter of Mars,” is drawn from actual diaries and is about two sisters from Australia, both nurses, whose lives are transformed by World War I. It is scheduled to come out this August.

The second book will be a novel involving the stories of prisoners of war during World War II, the publisher said.

In addition to “Schindler’s List,” which under its original title, “Schindler’s Ark,” won the Man Booker Prize in 1982 and was turned into a 1993 Oscar-winning film by Steven Spielberg, Mr. Keneally wrote “The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith,” “Confederates,” and “Gossip from the Forest,” all of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Scarborough Metro-North Station, 8:59 A.M.

Mary Ann Giordano/The New York Times

Laurents/Hatcher Award Goes to Daniel Pearle for \'A Kid Like Jake\'

The new play “A Kid Like Jake,” about raising a child in the world of Manhattan privilege, has won the 2013 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award, an unusually structured prize that provides $50,000 to the writer and an additional $100,000 toward the production costs for the show’s premiere. The playwright is Daniel Pearle, and Lincoln Center Theater has already announced that it will mount “A Kid Like Jake” at the Claire Tow Theater in June through its LCT3 program, which provides tickets for $20.

Trustees for the foundation of the writer and director Arthur Laurents (“West Side Story,” “Gypsy”) and his partner of 52 years, Tom Hatcher, announced the selection of Mr. Pearle on Tuesday; he recently earned a master’s in fine arts from the New School of Drama.

“A Kid Like Jake” focuses on a husband and wife applying to New York’s elite private schools for admission of their 4-year-old son, and how they deal with concerns abot his idiosyncrasies like a passion for Cinderella and dress-up. Evan Cabnet will direct the play for LCT3.

The award was first presented in 2011 to Jeff Talbott for his play “The Submission,” which was produced at MCC Theater in New York, and last year the prize went to Jon Kern for “Modern Terrorism,” which was mounted at Second Stage Theater.

Frank Ocean Wants to Press Charges Against Chris Brown

Frank Ocean, the R&B singer and songwriter, wants to press charges against Chris Brown after the two fought over a parking spot near a Los Angeles recording studio, a move that could jeopardize Mr. Brown’s probation on a previous assault conviction, Reuters reported. Mr. Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting Rihanna in 2009.

The altercation with Mr. Ocean took place on Sunday outside the Westlake Recording Studios in West Hollywood. Though no charges had been filed as of Tuesday morning, Stve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said Mr. Ocean “is desirous of prosecution in this incident.” Both men are nominated in the Best Urban Contemporary Album category at the Grammy Awards, which will take place on Feb. 10 in Los Angeles.

At a Library, an Outpouring of Support, and New Dolls

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times Thea Taube, the children’s librarian at the Ottendorfer branch in the East Village, has received several donated American Girl dolls since an article appeared last week about the American Girl doll that library allows children to borrow.

Thea Taube â€" much like the Ottendorfer library’s suddenly famous doll mascot â€" has been inundated with such an outpouring of love and appreciation lately that she is nearly coming apart at the seams.

“It has been quite a week,” said a harried Ms. Tube, the children’s librarian at the Ottendorfer branch of the New York Public Library, in the East Village.

Readers of an article in The New York Times last week will recognize Ms. Taube as the resourceful children’s librarian who, after she was hired in 2004, rescued an American Girl doll named Kirsten Larson from a storage shelf and began lending it out to girls, elevating Kirsten to mascot status at the branch.

The article described Kirsten’s journeys to the homes of a diverse group of girls who use the branch and the recent send-off party as a worn-out Kirsten was packed up for shipping to the American Girl’s doll hospital in Middleton, Wis.

News of the doll available for loan was referenced on the Weekend Update segment on “Sa! turday Night Live,” as the host Seth Meyers joked sarcastically that the doll was being lent out “because some people haven’t gotten the flu yet.”

Kirsten’s story elicited many offers to donate dolls or money to libraries, in New York and elsewhere. American Girl dolls retail for $110.

But officials at the New York Public Library’s main press office said they could not accept doll donations. They released a statement from Anne Coriston, vice president of the system’s public programs and manager of the 87 branch libraries.

“The incredible outpouring of support we have received in response to Kirsten’s story, both from N.Y.P.L. patrons and others across the country, has been heartwarming and inspiring,” the statement read. “Due to the overwhelming number of offers we’ve received in the past two days, the library is simply not able to manage such a great number of donations and therefore, we kindly ask those who have generously offered their dolls to consider donatng them to their local child welfare organization.”

This policy presented a problem for Ms. Taube, who was flooded with e-mails and phone calls from people offering to send her branch new and used American Girl dolls.

“I had to tell them I couldn’t accept them,” she said of the dozens of offers she received. She was, however, allowed to accept money donated to the branch, including a $1,000 check for the branch in a letter that arrived by mail on Monday.

There were those - bless them â€" who simply sent dolls without asking. So far, five new dolls have arrived in packages addressed to the library: three for the branch and two addressed by name to girls mentioned in the article whose parents were unable or unwilling to splurge for a doll.

Ms. Taube plans on loaning out a roster of dolls, including a rehabilitated Kirsten and the three new dolls: Rebecca, Saige and Kit. She plans on putting each doll in a backpack with the corresponding books that provide their biography, and a diary to accommodate each girl’s description of the visit. Ms. Taube then plans on running monthly discussions for the children who borrow the dolls.

The other offers Ms. Taube has received included one from a teenage girl from the Upper East Side who offered to take a group of friends to the branch to volunteer. A professor of American studies at Yale said he would travel from Connecticut and run a junior writers group. A literary agent suggested Ms. Taube write a children’s book about Kirsten, and Ms. Taube was to appear on Tuesday on the daytime talk show, “Live From the Couch.”

“What am I going to wear” she said, looking down at her usual outfit of a sweater and jeans and sneakers, in the branch on Monday afternoon. “My wadrobe consists of three pairs of jeans.”

Ms. Taube had just run a toddlers group, and a woman walked up and thanked her for making Kirsten available for lending.

“You are appreciated, and not just by mothers of daughters who borrow the doll,” said the woman, Beth Weiner, who lives in the neighborhood.

Ms. Taube said she had also played the role of therapist to callers who wanted to relate their poignant doll stories, including tearful reminiscences of daughters who have outgrown the dolls

“I’ve gotten calls from across the country â€" California, North Carolina, the Midwest, down the street, Long Island,” she said. “It’s just been so moving.”

Treat Yourself to a New Book by Amy Poehler

Chris Pizzello/Invision/Associated Press Amy Poehler at the Golden Globes ceremony in January.

When she’s not helping to govern the fictional city of Pawnee, Ind., or presiding over the Golden Globes ceremony with her pal Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, it seems, harbors literary aspirations: dreams that will be fulfilled in a new memoir she is writing for the It Books imprint of HarperCollins.

It Books said that it had acquired this first book from Ms. Poehler, a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade and an alumna of “Saturday Night Live” who now stars on the NBC comedy “Parks and Recreation.” The publisher said in a statement that the as-yet untitled book, planned for a fall 2014 publication, was “inspired in part by Poehler’s interest in helping young women navigate the adult world,” adding that the memoir would be “an illustrated, non-linear diary full of humor and honesty and brimming with true stories, fictional anecdotes and life lessons” and will offer “a unique and engaging experience from one of today’s most talented and beloved stars.”

Books by TV comedy stars have become increasingly hot commodities: “Bossypants,” by Ms. Fey, the “30 Rock” creator, has been a best seller since its release in 2011, and a new book by Lena Dunham, the creator of “Girls,” was acquired in October by Random House for more than $3.5! million.

Terms of Ms. Poehler’s deal were not disclosed, but she probably stands the best chance of getting a blurb from Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Biography of J. D. Salinger Coming in September

Lotte Jacobi (left) A rare photograph of the author J. D. Salinger, and the cover of his novel “The Catcher in the Rye.”

J. D. Salinger, one of the most reclusive authors of the modern era, will be the subject of a new biography written by David Shields and Shane Salerno and released by Simon & Schuster, its publisher, Jonathan Karp, said on Tuesday.

The book, which Simon & Schuster described in a news release as “an oral biography,” is titled “The Private War of J. D. Salinger” and is planned for publication in September. The publisher said that M.. Shields and Mr. Salerno had been working on the project for eight years, conducting interviews with more than 150 people who worked with and knew Salinger or were influenced by his work.

Mr. Karp said in a statement: “We are honored to be the publisher of what we believe will be the foundational book on one of the most beloved and most puzzling figures of the twentieth century. Many of us who read ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ have, at some point in our lives, wished we could know the author better. Now, we finally can.”

Salinger, whose other books included “Franny and Zooey” and “Nine Stories” (containing short stories like “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”), died in 2010. He was a largely unknown figure to his readers, having sought to maintain privacy for most of his life, and had not given an interview in some 30 years.

Mr. Salerno, a screenwriter of films like “Savages,” s! aid in a statement: “The myth that people have read about and believed for sixty years about J. D. Salinger is one of someone too pure to publish, too sensitive to be touched. We replace the myth of Salinger with an extraordinarily complex, deeply contradictory human being. Our book offers a complete revaluation and reinterpretation of the work and the life.”

A documentary film about the author, directed by Mr. Salerno, was acquired by the PBS series “American Masters” and will be broadcast as the 200th episode of that program.

Simon & Schuster said that Mr. Karp and Jofie Ferrari-Adler, a senior editor, had been pursuing the Salinger book for several years and acquired it before other publishers could read it. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

For Mayor, A+ in Spanish Is Still on the Horizonte

Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

BALTIMORE â€" Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s shaky, determined and unembarrassed stabs at the Spanish language have earned him the admiration of the city’s nonnative speakers and the mocking of a Twitter parody account, @ElBloombito.

But it turns out the mayor’s difficulties with foreign languages did not start behind a lectern at City Hall, where he insists on summarizing his public remarks in uneven, if well-intentioned Spanish.

They began, he said in an interview here at Johns Hopins University, at Medford High School in Massachusetts, when he took a course in French. “My first D in high school,” Mr. Bloomberg admitted during a discussion of his latest donation to the school, $350 million.

His infelicity with languages other than English did not cost him a spot at Johns Hopkins, where he was a member of the class of 1964. But it did follow him into his chosen major at the university â€" physics.

Hopkins required majors in the subject to take German classes. “After three days in German, I decided I was never going to learn German,” Mr. Bloomberg recalled. “And in those days, remember, 1960, it wasn’t that long - much after the period when everybody came from Germany in physics. Everything was written in German.”

So he became an engineer, a subject that no doubt assisted his creation! of a small computer terminal now known, universally and quite profitably, as the Bloomberg“.

The experience, though, has made him dead-set on mastering Spanish â€" through tutoring, practice and well-publicized trial and error.

The D in high school French, he said, “may tell you why I’m working so hard on Spanish. But I am determined. I will not die until I can speak Spanish like a quasi-native.”

He added, “I get better all the time.”

Missed Connection on the R Train

Dear Diary:

“…Stand clear of the closing doors, please.”

I didn’t notice him until
The next stop, Grand Avenue.
Sitting alone,
Reading “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.”

“Next stop, Elmhurst Avenue…”

¡Me gusta Junot Díaz también!
I want to exclaim.
But how do I do that
Yell across the aisle

“Next stop, Roosevelt Avenue…”

He’s sporting Chuck Taylors.
Those are my favorite shoes.
In fact, I almost wore them today.
And he’s holding a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee cup.
Hey, I go there before the
Long and lonely ride
From central Queens to Wall Street.

“Next stop, 65th Street…”

Dark skin.
(Dominican Cuban)
Whatever it is, I like it.
And a full head of really
Dark brown hair, almost black.

“Next stop, Northern Boulevard…”

Maybe we are going to the same place.
I wonder what he does for a living.
Poet Opera singer Waiter Spy
He doesn’t have a ring on his left hand…

“Next stop, 46th Street…”

Suddenly he
Starts laughing so hard at Oscar
That he has to cover his face.
The woman next to him glares
As he shakes,
Rustling her coat.
She stands.

“Next stop, Steinway…”

I wish I could sit there.
No â€" that would be weird.
Why can’t the R break down today,
As it seems to do every other day of the week

“Next stop, 36th Street…”

I’ll bet he’s perfect.
Doesn’t over-text,
Is the life of the party,
Watches independent films,
Jogs every morning.

“Next stop, Queens Plaza…”

Look up.
I love that book.
Look up look up look up.
I’m a commitmentphobe but
Let’s get a dog and a house and live happily ever after.

“Next stop, Lexington Avenue…”

Begrudgingly I make my way out,
Head to the 4/5 â€"

!

“…stand clear of the closing doors, please.”

â€" and leave my Dominican-Cuban-Poet-Singer-Waiter-Spy
For Oscar.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via e-mail: diary@nytimes.com or telephone: (212) 556-1333. Follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

In Performance: Gia Crovatin of \'Theater Uncut\'

Neil LaBute’s short play “In the Beginning” is about the Occupy movement that grabbed national headlines, beginning in 2011. Gia Crovatin plays a character called the Child, who here tries to explain the importance of the protest and why she so desperately needs to be involved. “In the Beginning” is part of “Theater Uncut,” an evening of short plays about the political and economic challenges in several countries, that runs through Feb. 3 at the Clurman Theater.

Recent videos include America Ferrera in a scene from the play “Bethany” and Elizabeth Marvel from the Broadway revival of “Picnic.”

Coming soon: Will Chase singing a number from “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” and Tina Packer in a scene from her Shakespeare-themed show “Women of Will.”

In Performance: Gia Crovatin of \'Theater Uncut\'

Neil LaBute’s short play “In the Beginning” is about the Occupy movement that grabbed national headlines, beginning in 2011. Gia Crovatin plays a character called the Child, who here tries to explain the importance of the protest and why she so desperately needs to be involved. “In the Beginning” is part of “Theater Uncut,” an evening of short plays about the political and economic challenges in several countries, that runs through Feb. 3 at the Clurman Theater.

Recent videos include America Ferrera in a scene from the play “Bethany” and Elizabeth Marvel from the Broadway revival of “Picnic.”

Coming soon: Will Chase singing a number from “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” and Tina Packer in a scene from her Shakespeare-themed show “Women of Will.”