Don't let Brooks get under your skin. He is writing for his upper west side (maybe upper east side) neighbors like Bernie Madoff and Elliot Spitzer.

For years, I paid income taxes to NYC under duress (I didn't live there, just had "earnings" in the city). Later it dawned on me that Manhattan is a sink hole into which many of the dysfunctional people of this country crowd. Thank goodness. Now most of the rest of the country enjoys "real life" while these mutations whirl around with each other.