grace was required. The mighty had to stumble, the pious to be caught in sin. We asked novelist Colin Harrison to parse the definition further, which he does in his introduction, here.

That said, it is both a tribute to�and a loving indictment of�this city and its environs that, even after adopting our strict definition, we still threw up our hands: There have simply been too many New York scandals to include them all. And so we apologize for overlooking more than a few corrupt politicians, randy cads, literary frauds, Wall Street swindlers, and doomed aristocrats. And we admit that we let in some lurid tales that stretched our parameters because, well, we simply couldn't resist.

Speaking of scandals with legs, we end the issue with a question, posed to New Yorkers far and wide: Which recent megascandal is most likely to be remembered many years hence? As former governor David Paterson notes, it sure won't be those Yankees tickets he got for free.