December 23-30, 2002 Table of Contents

December 23, 2002 Issue

Cover Story

New York Awards 2002

During the past year, while still licking our wounds, we began to get back to typical form, which was, typically, outstanding. For our New York Awards, there was plenty to celebrate. Eliot Spitzer spearheaded a crusade against corporate corruption. Saturday Night Live’s Tina Fey crowned herself queen of the New York one-liner. The Jets’ Herman Edwards showed there’s no better time to think about getting on top than when your team’s on the bottom. And there are seven others where those came from. As for lifetime achievement, we couldn’t resist saluting Twyla Tharp and Billy Joel, whose sensational Broadway collaboration reminded us that there are brilliant second -- and third, and fourth -- acts in New York life.

Features

Classic New York

The city -- we knew it before, but never more so than in the past year -- is more than its skyline. We explore its DNA: the Ur-New Yorkers (the Grande Dame, the Single Girl, the Agitator) and the institutions (the department store, the power lunch, the bodega), along with the songs and movies, and even the, er, colorful hand gestures (see for yourself: page 68) that define, for better and sometimes for worse, our city, our way of life.