Good morning, New York. The summer is over, at least by custom, and that's the date I had set for myself, after a year or thereabouts of silence, to get back to doing what I love: blogging.

That hasn't been an easy decision, particularly not after the annus horribilis I'm closing right now. My habitual navel-gazing aside, there was one enormous contributory factor: the simple and glaring fact that New York politics, never a subject for the faint of heart or, for that matter, those possessed of a belief in the redeeming power of politics, has become the place where idealism goes to die.

And of course, politics is what we here cover. Dreary stuff. Mostly, that is.

Liza and myself sat down some time ago and talked about this dreariness and how to relieve it, if not for our readers, then at least for ourselves. Yes, we do this for pleasure.

So we're both going to be writing about things New York that are, to us, interesting. That can be, really, anything: fashion, art, sex, music, race, power, people, life, food, tech, all the stuff of the metropolitan existence.

But, again of course, you can't really escape politics. So here are some of my ground rules. There are a few candidates out there I find compelling: Doug Biviano, Mike DiSanto, Chris Owens, Jesse Strauss, Steve Behar, Kirsten Gillibrand, Tony Avella, David Carlucci, just to name a few off the top of my head. They're all running for offices of, to my mind, greater or lesser importance, and in one case, they offer what I think is an interesting choice between two models of politics. Then there are those who would take a stab at fixing our terminally broken State legislature.

Not quite as mind-numbingly tedious as the rest of the lot.

However, what really compels me to re-enter the arena are two factors: one, the precarious state of our hard-won Democratic majorities in this state and the national capital, and two, the horrific spectacle unfolding near Ground Zero. Both of these are rather personal.

Now, before I go off and get started - this being just an exercise - let me offer my love and gratitude to some very important people. First, my four Jewish mothers -it's a long story - Claire, Marjorie, Cheryl and Rosalie, who happens to be Italian. Then, my partner in love and crime, Keith. Then, all the many fine folks who were there for both myself and Keith over that aforementioned last year.

Alright then. It's good to be back.