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Reebok Drops Rick Ross After Protest Over Lyrics

Protesters outside a Reebok store in Manhattan last week.Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images Protesters outside a Reebok store in Manhattan last week.

Reebok cut its ties with the Miami rapper Rick Ross on Thursday because of a controversial track in which he boasted about drugging and raping a woman.

A statement from Reebok said, “While we do not believe that Rick Ross condones sexual assault, we are very disappointed he has yet to display an understanding of the seriousness of this issue or an appropriate level of remorse.”

“At this time, it is in everyone’s best interest for Reebok to end its partnership with Mr. Ross,” the statement said.

Mr. Ross had been a spokesman for the company, promoting its shoes in print and TV commercials. But when Mr. Ross rapped as a guest on the Rocko song “U.O.E.N.O,” released in January, he drew fire from women’s rights organizations, politicians and some other rappers.

Mr. Ross’s segment on the song contains lyrics about spiking a woman’s drink with the drug MDMA, also referred to as ecstasy or molly: “Put molly all in her champagne/ She ain’t even know it / I took her home and I enjoyed that / she ain’t even know it.”

An uproar ensued. Some radio stations dropped the record from their playlists, a parents’ watchdog protested and women’s rights advocates have posted videos on YouTube objecting to the song.

For his part, Mr. Ross initially denied the lyric condoned rape, saying he had been misunderstood and noting he never uttered the word “rape.” Later, however, after a women’s rights group threatened to protest, he issued a terse apology on Twitter “for the lyric interpreted as rape.” He has yet to go beyond that statement.

Also Thursday, Rocko, an Atlanta rapper, released a remix of the song this week without Mr. Ross’s lines, subsituting a rap by Wiz Khalifa instead, Hip Hop Wired reported.



Paris Judge To Rule Friday on Hopi Artifact Sale

A French civil court judge heard arguments for two hours Thursday and said she will rule Friday on whether a major auction of sacred Hopi Indian artifacts can go forward in Paris despite claims by the tribe that they were stolen and that selling them is sacrilegious.

A decision from Municipal Court Judge Magali Bouvier is scheduled for noon and the auction is planned for 2:30 p.m.

An attorney representing the tribe pro bono, Pierre Servan-Schreiber of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, told Judge Bouvier that French law bars the sale of “non-commercial” items deemed “immoral to sell.” The Hopis believe the masks and headdresses, which they call Katsinam, or “friends,” embody living spirits. They say they are intended for religious ceremonies only and not meant to be collected or sold.

Mr. Servan-Schreiber also cited a law that prevents the sale of “emotionally charged” objects that have been in a family so long they have become communal, multi-generational property. “This sale is at the crossroads of those two issues,” Mr. Servan-Schreiber told the judge. “Just because they are Hopi objects in France does not mean they should not be covered.”

Gilles Néret-Minet, head of the Néret-Minet Tessier & Sarrou auction house, said his lawyer countered that “the claim that Hopi cultural patrimony is exclusively their property has no legal basis according to French law.” He said he was confident his side would prevail and that he planned to go forward with the sale of 70 items, which he said had been obtained legally by a French collector.

On Wednesday, American diplomats met with their French counterparts to express concern over the auction, a United States Embassy spokesman said.



Paris Judge To Rule Friday on Hopi Artifact Sale

A French civil court judge heard arguments for two hours Thursday and said she will rule Friday on whether a major auction of sacred Hopi Indian artifacts can go forward in Paris despite claims by the tribe that they were stolen and that selling them is sacrilegious.

A decision from Municipal Court Judge Magali Bouvier is scheduled for noon and the auction is planned for 2:30 p.m.

An attorney representing the tribe pro bono, Pierre Servan-Schreiber of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, told Judge Bouvier that French law bars the sale of “non-commercial” items deemed “immoral to sell.” The Hopis believe the masks and headdresses, which they call Katsinam, or “friends,” embody living spirits. They say they are intended for religious ceremonies only and not meant to be collected or sold.

Mr. Servan-Schreiber also cited a law that prevents the sale of “emotionally charged” objects that have been in a family so long they have become communal, multi-generational property. “This sale is at the crossroads of those two issues,” Mr. Servan-Schreiber told the judge. “Just because they are Hopi objects in France does not mean they should not be covered.”

Gilles Néret-Minet, head of the Néret-Minet Tessier & Sarrou auction house, said his lawyer countered that “the claim that Hopi cultural patrimony is exclusively their property has no legal basis according to French law.” He said he was confident his side would prevail and that he planned to go forward with the sale of 70 items, which he said had been obtained legally by a French collector.

On Wednesday, American diplomats met with their French counterparts to express concern over the auction, a United States Embassy spokesman said.



Paris Judge To Rule Friday on Hopi Artifact Sale

A French civil court judge heard arguments for two hours Thursday and said she will rule Friday on whether a major auction of sacred Hopi Indian artifacts can go forward in Paris despite claims by the tribe that they were stolen and that selling them is sacrilegious.

A decision from Municipal Court Judge Magali Bouvier is scheduled for noon and the auction is planned for 2:30 p.m.

An attorney representing the tribe pro bono, Pierre Servan-Schreiber of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, told Judge Bouvier that French law bars the sale of “non-commercial” items deemed “immoral to sell.” The Hopis believe the masks and headdresses, which they call Katsinam, or “friends,” embody living spirits. They say they are intended for religious ceremonies only and not meant to be collected or sold.

Mr. Servan-Schreiber also cited a law that prevents the sale of “emotionally charged” objects that have been in a family so long they have become communal, multi-generational property. “This sale is at the crossroads of those two issues,” Mr. Servan-Schreiber told the judge. “Just because they are Hopi objects in France does not mean they should not be covered.”

Gilles Néret-Minet, head of the Néret-Minet Tessier & Sarrou auction house, said his lawyer countered that “the claim that Hopi cultural patrimony is exclusively their property has no legal basis according to French law.” He said he was confident his side would prevail and that he planned to go forward with the sale of 70 items, which he said had been obtained legally by a French collector.

On Wednesday, American diplomats met with their French counterparts to express concern over the auction, a United States Embassy spokesman said.



Paris Judge To Rule Friday on Hopi Artifact Sale

A French civil court judge heard arguments for two hours Thursday and said she will rule Friday on whether a major auction of sacred Hopi Indian artifacts can go forward in Paris despite claims by the tribe that they were stolen and that selling them is sacrilegious.

A decision from Municipal Court Judge Magali Bouvier is scheduled for noon and the auction is planned for 2:30 p.m.

An attorney representing the tribe pro bono, Pierre Servan-Schreiber of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, told Judge Bouvier that French law bars the sale of “non-commercial” items deemed “immoral to sell.” The Hopis believe the masks and headdresses, which they call Katsinam, or “friends,” embody living spirits. They say they are intended for religious ceremonies only and not meant to be collected or sold.

Mr. Servan-Schreiber also cited a law that prevents the sale of “emotionally charged” objects that have been in a family so long they have become communal, multi-generational property. “This sale is at the crossroads of those two issues,” Mr. Servan-Schreiber told the judge. “Just because they are Hopi objects in France does not mean they should not be covered.”

Gilles Néret-Minet, head of the Néret-Minet Tessier & Sarrou auction house, said his lawyer countered that “the claim that Hopi cultural patrimony is exclusively their property has no legal basis according to French law.” He said he was confident his side would prevail and that he planned to go forward with the sale of 70 items, which he said had been obtained legally by a French collector.

On Wednesday, American diplomats met with their French counterparts to express concern over the auction, a United States Embassy spokesman said.



‘Tuck Everlasting’ Can’t Find a Parking Spot on Broadway

Audiences hopefully won’t have to live forever to see a musical adaptation of “Tuck Everlasting” hit Broadway, but they are going to have to wait a little longer for it. The producers of a new musical based on that Natalie Babbitt children’s novel, about a girl who meets a boy from a family of immortals, said that its planned world premiere in Boston would be delayed because there were no theaters in New York where the musical could transfer.

Press representatives for “Tuck Everlasting,” which was to run at the Citi Performing Arts Center Emerson Colonial Theater in Boston from July 28 through August 18, said in a statement that the production “has been postponed due to a lack of theater availability for its planned subsequent production in New York.”

The statement did not specify new dates for the Boston performances and said, “Future plans for the production will be announced at a later date.” The “Tuck Everlasting” musical features a book by Claudia Shear (“Dirty Blonde”), music by Chris Miller (“The Burnt Part Boys”) and lyrics by Nathan Tysen (“The Burnt Part Boys”). It is directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw (“The Book of Mormon”).



New York’s Longest-Serving Pastor Dies at 93

Msgr. Gerald Ryan in 2012 at St. Luke's parish in the Bronx, which he had led since 1966. Father Ryan died on Thursday at age 93. Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times Msgr. Gerald Ryan in 2012 at St. Luke’s parish in the Bronx, which he had led since 1966. Father Ryan died on Thursday at age 93.

Msgr. Gerald Ryan, who began working as a priest in the Bronx in 1945 and went on to become the longest-serving pastor in New York and probably the country, died on Thursday at Our Lady of Consolation, a residence for ill priests, in Riverdale. He was 93.

The cause was stomach cancer, said Madelyn Feliciano, the office manager of St. Luke’s in Mott Haven, the parish Father Ryan led from 1966 until his death.

“Our hearts are broken here,” Ms. Feliciano said Thursday. “He was the most amazing priest; he was loving and caring, generous to a fault. He was a father to many people including myself, and he was just our heart and our joy.”

For over four decades, Father Ryan was a joyful though sometimes stern fixture on 138th Street in the Bronx, where the stone spires of the church rise among empty lots, bodegas and apartment buildings. When he started at the parish, some in the neighborhood called him the hippie priest, because he wore his red hair long, and was an active part of the civil rights movement, marching with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala., Father Ryan recalled in an interview last July.

When the South Bronx began to burn, Father Ryan stayed on, opening the church basement as a community center, and later, helping to lead a church effort to build housing projects from the ruins. Through the turmoil, the parish school remained open, offering a refuge to neighborhood children.

“What was most powerful to me is that nobody ever believes that anything good can come out of a place like that, but it was incredible to see how much good came out of that parish,” said Cynthia Ceilan, who graduated from the parish school in 1973 and continues to raise money for it.

When Father Ryan was awarded the title of monsignor in recognition of his many years of work, he asked parishioners to continue calling him by the more basic title of father. His rectory quarters were simple, with no air-conditioning or even a fan through the summer months.

Though archdiocesan rules required that he formally relinquish the title of pastor at age 75, he continued as parish administrator for 18 more years, waking up at 6 a.m. to lead services, officiating at weddings, and helping children find scholarships to pay for the parish school.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, in a statement Thursday, referred to him as a pastor, and called him “the epitome of what a priest should be.”

“Monsignor Ryan’s example has inspired me to be a better priest,” he said, “as I am sure it has inspired so many others who worked with and learned from this humble, hardworking, faithful follower of Jesus.”

For his part, Father Ryan said last year that he found that living simply helped remind him of the deeper meaning of his life’s work.

“I think I have come a long, long way from when I was ordained,” he said. “It isn’t about serving the church in the way you have envisioned, from the altar, and from the position of authority and power. But it is learning what human nature is, and what the struggles of people are. And where Jesus really is.”



Director Named for New Dance School at University of Southern California

Jodie Gates, a dancer, choreographer and educator who is a former principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, has been named vice dean and director of the new University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Ms. Gates is currently a professor of dance at the University of California, Irvine and is the founder and artistic director of the Laguna Dance Festival in Laguna Beach, Calif. In addition to the Joffrey, she has been a principal ballerina with the Frankfurt Ballet, the Pennsylvania Ballet and other major companies. Ms. Gates will begin her position in August at the school of dance. The school was established in November 2012 by a gift from Glorya Kaufman, a philanthropist and dance patron.

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Director Named for New Dance School at University of Southern California

Jodie Gates, a dancer, choreographer and educator who is a former principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, has been named vice dean and director of the new University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Ms. Gates is currently a professor of dance at the University of California, Irvine and is the founder and artistic director of the Laguna Dance Festival in Laguna Beach, Calif. In addition to the Joffrey, she has been a principal ballerina with the Frankfurt Ballet, the Pennsylvania Ballet and other major companies. Ms. Gates will begin her position in August at the school of dance. The school was established in November 2012 by a gift from Glorya Kaufman, a philanthropist and dance patron.

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Director Named for New Dance School at University of Southern California

Jodie Gates, a dancer, choreographer and educator who is a former principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, has been named vice dean and director of the new University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Ms. Gates is currently a professor of dance at the University of California, Irvine and is the founder and artistic director of the Laguna Dance Festival in Laguna Beach, Calif. In addition to the Joffrey, she has been a principal ballerina with the Frankfurt Ballet, the Pennsylvania Ballet and other major companies. Ms. Gates will begin her position in August at the school of dance. The school was established in November 2012 by a gift from Glorya Kaufman, a philanthropist and dance patron.

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Officially, There’s Now No Chance of Hurricane Sandy Returning

A satellite image of Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 28, 2012.Agence France-Presse â€" Getty Images A satellite image of Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 28, 2012.

There will never again be a Hurricane Sandy.

The World Meteorological Organization’s hurricane committee, which is responsible for naming tropical cyclones, including hurricanes, announced on Thursday that Sandy was being retired from the official list of storm names.

Sara will take its place.

It is the 77th time the organization has removed a name from the registry of names since 1954 because a storm was deemed “so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity.”

Sandy now joins the likes of Gloria, Hugo and Katrina. The last name retired was Irene in 2011.

Storm names are reused every six years for both the Atlantic and the eastern North Pacific basins, a system that dates back to the 1950s.

For centuries, storms were named arbitrarily.

For example, in the 1840s a powerful storm swept through the Atlantic and ripped the mast off a ship named Antje, and the storm became known as Antje’s Hurricane.

For centuries, powerful storms in the West Indies were named for the saint’s day on which the storm hit.

In 1950, meteorologists devised a system to name storms using the phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie), but the system was abandoned in 1953 as too confusing.

Instead, they turned to female names in 1954, and in 1979, male names were added to the list. Now, names alternate between male and female.

Finding short, memorable names helps facilitate the passing of information between hundreds of widely scattered stations, coastal bases and ships at sea, according to the National Hurricane Center.

“The use of easily remembered names greatly reduces confusion when two or more tropical storms occur at the same time,” according to an explanation on the history of hurricane names on the hurricane center’s Web site. “For example, one hurricane can be moving slowly westward in the Gulf of Mexico, while at exactly the same time another hurricane can be moving rapidly northward along the Atlantic coast. In the past, confusion and false rumors have arisen when storm advisories broadcast from radio stations were mistaken for warnings concerning an entirely different storm located hundreds of miles away.”



Jay-Z Responds in Song to Critics of Cuba Trip

Jay-Z and Beyoncé in Cuba.Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press Jay-Z and Beyoncé in Cuba.

Jay-Z lashed out on Thursday at members of Congress who have raised questions about the legality of his recent trip to Cuba with Beyoncé, his wife. He released a scathing rap aimed at those critics and suggested he had been falsely accused of breaking the law because of his friendship with President Obama.

The rapper mocked the two Miami Republicans â€" Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart â€" who demanded last week that the Treasury Department explain why the trip was licensed by the American government. Under the longtime embargo, Americans are not allowed to spend money in Cuba “unless authorized by a general or specific license” by the Office of Foreign Asset Control.

On Wednesday, the Treasury Department said the trip had been officially sanctioned as an educational exchange. Though the couple were seen wining and dining in Havana to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary, Jay-Z and Beyoncé also met with a theater group and visited an art institute on the trip.

In the lyrics of “Open Letter,” which was released online, Jay-Z took the politicians to task for suggesting the trip was illegal:

Wanna give me jail time and a fine
Fine, let me commit a real crime
I might buy a kilo for Chief Keef
Out of spite, I just might flood these streets.

Jay-Z, a brilliant businessmen who has founded several lucrative ventures, also suggested supporters of restrictions on trade with Cuba were hypocrites, since the United States trades with China:

I’m in Cuba, I love Cubans
This communist talk is so confusing
When it’s from China, the very mic that I’m using

He also said he had become a target because he was “getting too much bread” and was a “boy from the hood” with “White House clearance.”

Beyoncé and Jay-Z were greeted by big crowds as they strolled hand in hand through the Havana last week. They ate at some of the city’s best restaurants, danced to Cuban music, walked through historic Old Havana and posed for pictures with admiring Cubans.

On Friday, Representatives Ros-Lehtinen and Diaz-Balart said in a letter to Adam Szubin, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, that the trip looked like a tourist visit. “Despite the clear prohibition against tourism in Cuba, numerous press reports described the couple’s trip as tourism, and the Castro regime touted it as such in its propaganda,” the letter said.

But the Treasury Department responded that site-seeing was allowed during the off-hours on an educational visit and Jay-Z and Beyoncé had fulfilled their educational obligations by meeting with the La Colmenita theater group and talking with students at the Superior Art Institute.



In Deal, 2 Men Will Be Jailed 30 Days for Beating Cat to Death

A father and son who beat a cat to death before leaving his carcass onto a Brooklyn street pleaded guilty on Thursday to animal cruelty charges, according to law enforcement officials.

Under the terms of a deal reached with the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, the father, Jean Roger Murat, 61, and the son, Robenson Murat, 30, will each be sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years’ probation and will be barred for life from owning an animal.

The attack on the cat, a 1½-year-old male domestic shorthair, was in Flatbush, Brooklyn, on July 12.

A witness told the police at the time that he had heard a strange noise coming from the Murat home and went to investigate.

He told the police that he saw the father hitting a black cat with a stick while the son hit the cat with a pillowcase weighed down by a heavy item. It was unclear where the witness was when he saw the beating.

The Murats then placed the cat inside the pillowcase before trying to dispose of it.

At first, Jean Murat took the dead cat out of the pillowcase and placed its bloodied body on a nearby street corner, according to the authorities. But by the next morning he had decided to put it back in the pillowcase and dump it in a garbage pail near their home.

The witness called the police, who in turn notified the humane law enforcement department of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

In a search of the Murat home, investigators from the Police Department and the A.S.P.C.A. found a broken stick in the attic along with cat fibers and blood.

Investigators also found a partial cat claw, a tuft of cat hair and cat feces. The blood was sent to the veterinary genetics laboratory at the University of California at Davis to determine that it belonged to the dead cat.

The father and son both told investigators that they did not consider the cat to be their pet, according to the authorities.

Robenson Murat said his mother would feed the cat after it showed up on the steps of their home a little more than year before the attack.

An examination of the dead cat by Dr. Bonnie Wong of the Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital, summarized in the criminal complaint, found that the cat had suffered “bruising to the brain, bruising to the spinal cord, bruising to the lungs and liver, bruising to the ribs, and bleeding to the mouth and nose, causing death of said cat.”



Where Do You Find Quiet in New York

Perhaps your quiet retreat is on Governors IslandPiotr Redlinski for The New York Times Perhaps your quiet retreat is on Governors Island

Where do you go to find peace in this boisterous city With eight million New Yorkers and 50 million tourists a year all packed into 301 square miles, is there a special park bench, riverside fishing spot or underused historic site where you go to cherish the sound of silence

The Times wants to create an interactive presentation of the most tranquil spots in New York City that we hope will transport you through the glass portal of your desktop, cellphone or tablet. Using the map below, show us where you go.

It must be a public place. Your own rooftop gardens and quiet basements may be an ideal escape, but we’re looking for sites that are accessible and, most importantly, safe. Later this spring, we’ll present a selection of secluded getaways drawing upon your recommendations.

Thank you for your submission.

The New York Times will publish a selection of the submitted places in a few weeks.





Damaged by Hurricane Sandy, Verizon’s Jazz-Age Frescoes Glow Again

Hurricane Sandy damaged even what it could not touch.

Peeling paint is reattached by an adhesive brushed on to the chip.Kumiko Hispano/EverGreene Architectural Arts Peeling paint is reattached by an adhesive brushed on to the chip.

The flooding last October was catastrophic enough at Verizon’s headquarters and switching center in Lower Manhattan. Water cascaded 90 feet below ground, fully submerging three of five subbasements. It reached four feet in the main lobby, a masterpiece of Jazz Age decorative art that’s an official city landmark. Water filled the elevator pits, too, knocking 22 of 23 cars out of service. Briefly, the 31-story tower was completely crippled.

Some of the 1,700 technical and administrative employees assigned there were unable to return until mid-January. “Our administrative people were scattered around the city,” said Dominic Veltri, Verizon’s director of network and technology critical facilities. “And our C.E.O. and C.T.O. Their office was standing with me on the corner for a few days.”

As the company began recovering from the worst of the destruction, it became clear that the flooding had even affected 12 monumental ceiling frescoes that depict communication from its most rudimentary forms to that pinnacle of technological evolution (circa 1926): the candlestick telephone.

Paint was peeling, flaking and blistering. And not for the first time. The frescoes had been badly damaged on Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center collapsed across Vesey Street. They were caked in dust, baked by the heat of the nearby fires, soaked in water from the firefighting and then exposed to the elements.

A two-year restoration followed. But the frescoes were degrading again from the buildup of salt deposits caused by fluctuations in temperature and humidity, and the nearby presence of exterior doors, air vents and heating grilles.

The central panel shows the triumph of the telephone, telegraph and radio.David W. Dunlap/The New York Times The central panel shows the triumph of the telephone, telegraph and radio.

The extreme conditions caused by Hurricane Sandy â€" diesel fumes from emergency generators; the presence of standing pools of salt water under the frescoes for days on end; and deposits of mud, sand and dust â€" made the situation that much worse.

So, for the second time in slightly more than a decade, the EverGreene Architectural Arts studio was called in to repair and stabilize the murals at 140 West Street.

Over four weeks in February and March, conservators and technicians clambered up pipe scaffolding to hot, cramped platforms 20 feet off the floor, where they could reach the ceiling surface. (Never mind the advances in communication technology, fresco work doesn’t seem to have changed much since the time of Michelangelo.)

Where paint had flaked away, they repainted. Where it was peeling from the surface but still hanging on, they brushed the paint chip lightly with an adhesive called Lascaux Hydrosealer 750 and reattached it. At the blisters, they injected the adhesive by syringe and gently massaged the paint back into a flattened state. A Verizon spokesman said the project cost about $160,000.

Gillian Randell, the chief conservator at EverGreene, who also worked on the post-9/11 restoration, said all the panels needed some attention but those on the east end of the building seemed hardest hit.

One of the conservators’ last stops was an 11-by-12-foot panel filled with vaguely Mesoamerican motifs. A description from the Telephone Review of September 1926, an in-house publication by New York Telephone (Verizon’s corporate predecessor), said about this panel:

“Primitive in his method is the Aztec runner, depicting the phase in communications when messages were sent exclusively by a courier on foot. The messenger method of communication is, of course, still in use, although the messenger, salesman or representative rarely travels on foot in these days when the railroad, automobile and aeroplane is utilized to speed the ways of the couriers of commerce.”

Other means of communication in the mural include smoke signals, beacons, carrier pigeons, signal flags, the megaphone, the drum, the heliograph and gunfire, “although very often the messages propelled from the mouth of a cannon contained something more material and destructive than a friendly greeting,” as the Telephone Review noted.

The platform on which conservators worked was 20 feet off the floor.David W. Dunlap/The New York Times The platform on which conservators worked was 20 feet off the floor.

Though marvelous as an ensemble, and certainly exuberant, the panels â€" like many examples of American popular culture in the early 20th century â€" are not subtle in their depictions of nonwhite people and non-European cultures. The architect of the tower, Ralph Walker, is celebrated. But the muralist, Hugo R.B. Newman, is a bit obscure. A close inspection of his work may suggest why.

Unfortunately, a close inspection by the public is impossible. Verizon has been a conscientious steward of its historical property but the lobby â€" like many interior landmarks in the city â€" has been kept off-limits since 2001. A series of visits to downtown landmarks in 2006 found that Verizon headquarters was among the most aggressively patrolled.

“That’s good,” Mr. Veltri said when he learned this. “Then our folks were doing their job.” Given the presence under one roof of so many important functions, he said, there was no choice but to severely limit access.

“We’re curators of a gem here,” Mr. Veltri said. “We need to sustain what we have â€" even if it’s for our own employees.”

Every square inch of the lobby is ornamented, and much of it was inundated.David W. Dunlap/The New York Times Every square inch of the lobby is ornamented, and much of it was inundated.


A Bus Accident That Came With a Gift

Dear Diary:

On a Sunday night several months ago, I was driving my two daughters home to New Jersey. Our spirits were high. But as we were making a turn onto West 40th Street, heading toward the Lincoln Tunnel, a commuter bus took the same turn a little too tightly and hit my car.

It all happened in slow motion. No one was hurt, but my car got crunched. All the goodness of the evening evaporated in that one moment. The bus driver and I pulled over. She had no passengers, as she was done for the day. I boarded the bus and we exchanged information.

She was visibly shaken, and although we didn’t share much conversation, she said: “I feel really badly about this. I’m going to give you a free facial.” And with that, she handed me her business card, which indicated that she was a consultant for a particular line of beauty products.

I thanked her and stared at the card, wondering if I even wanted a facial from this person. And then a moment later she said: “You know what I’m just going to give it to you now.”

I was speechless. Was she actually about to give me a facial on an empty bus on West 40th Street at 11:30 at night with my two daughters in my nearby illegally parked car

The next thing I knew, she reached into her bag and pulled out an envelope filled with samples of various creams and lotions. She handed them to me and said: “Here you go. Enjoy your facial.”

Somehow the absurdity of that moment lifted my spirits back to where they were before the accident.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via e-mail diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.



Poll Finds Mixture of Support and Opposition for Bloomberg’s Plans

Despite forceful opposition from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, two-thirds of New York City voters support a plan to establish an inspector general’s office that would independently monitor the Police Department, according to a poll released Thursday.

The survey, conducted by Quinnipiac University, found a mixture of support and opposition for several of Mr. Bloomberg’s top priorities in his final year as mayor. By a more than 2-to-1 margin, voters cheered his proposal to discourage smoking by requiring stores to keep cigarettes out of sight. But a majority of voters opposed a plan to change zoning rules around Grand Central Terminal to allow for larger skyscrapers, and many voters continued to frown upon the mayor’s efforts to limit large servings of sugary drinks.

The poll suggested that voters view the idea of an inspector general for the Police Department very differently than Mr. Bloomberg does. Civil rights leaders, concerned about what they believe is unfair treatment of blacks and Hispanics by the police, have pushed for the establishment of an outside police monitor, and the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, who is running for mayor, endorsed the plan last month.

But Mr. Bloomberg has promised to veto the legislation, calling it “disastrous for public safety.” He has argued that the creation of an inspector general would undermine the authority of the police commissioner and, as he put it last month, “make our city less safe.”

Voters overwhelmingly disagreed with the mayor’s view: 66 percent of voters said they supported the creation of the office, and only 8 percent agreed with his assertion that it would make the city less safe, according to the poll, which was conducted from April 3 to 8.

Maurice Carroll, the director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said the support for the creation of an inspector general was probably a product of the concerns among voters about the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy, which 51 percent of voters disapproved of.

“Clearly there are a lot of people who are wounded by this,” Mr. Carroll said. “The Quinnipiac numbers say, ‘Hey, Police Department, you better pay attention.’ ”

Still, a majority of voters said they approved of the job the police are doing over all, and, specifically, of the job performance of the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, whose approval rating, at 65 percent, was higher than that of any other citywide official.

Sixty-eight percent of voters approved of the mayor’s cigarette proposal, which would make New York the first city in the country to require retailers to keep tobacco products hidden in an effort to discourage smoking. But 56 percent of voters - more than in any previous Quinnipiac poll - opposed his proposed to ban on the sale of large sugary drinks, which was struck down by a judge last month just before it was set to take effect.

Voters were also skeptical of the mayor’s plan to change the zoning rules in the area known as Midtown East to encourage the construction of new, modern office towers. Fifty-one percent opposed the plan, compared with 35 percent who supported it. Women were particularly unhappy with the idea; 59 percent opposed it.

The poll, conducted by telephone with 1,147 registered voters in New York City, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.



Philadelphia Orchestra to Tour China

The Philadelphia Orchestra is holding firm to plans for regular, lengthy visits to China. The orchestra said on Thursday it would tour the country from May 29 to June 10 and offer master classes, coaching sessions and workshops with young music students and local professional orchestra musicians. The orchestra made a similar visit last May, saying it would become a regular affair.

In a notable absence, Philadelphia’s new music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, will not be leading the tour because of a previous commitment with another orchestra he leads, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, although will be available for a 2014 visit to China. Donald Runnicles will conduct the Philadelphians, who will be marking the 40th anniversary of their first visit to China - and the first ever by a major American orchestra. Seven members who made that trip still play in the orchestra and will be honored in a ceremony at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, officials said.