Arun Venugopal

This pre-election poll by the WSJ could be a game-changer:

For fun, the poll asked registered voters whom among the following public figures they'd most want to leave public life: radio's Howard Stern; former Gov. Eliot Spitzer; real-estate mogul Donald Trump; Rep. Charlie Rangel; TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford; former Mayor Rudy Giuliani; or Rev. Al Sharpton. The former mayor and the reverend earned the most votes, both with 19%, followed by Mr. Stern, with 12%, and Mr. Spitzer, newly of CNN, with 10%. Aides to Rev. Sharpton and Mr. Giuliani did not return a request for comment.

As a kid, my parents didn't have an issue with my going out on Halloween and trick-or-treating. They didn't even hassle us much about bringing home too much candy. Their main concern was probably the same one my sisters and I had: what if we bit into an apple with a razor blade into it?? That was the fear much of America seemed to have in my day -- as if kids of our generation actually had an iota of interest in healthy apples when presented with so many other, more decadent options.

Caught this girl on the E train. Does inking Lily and Herman on your calves make a bold statement or what?

Take your mind back to a time long, long ago -- back to the hazy summer days of 2010. Return to September, if you will, when the only issue on everyone's lips was "The Mosque." Beyond the predictable frenzy on cable news, it seemed not a week went by without crowds gathering near Ground Zero, either to voice support for Park 51 and religious freedom, or to rail against The Monster Mosque and sharia. Opponents even issued an ultimatum: Stand with us, and you'll be fine. Stand with the mosque, however, and the voters will remember, and they'll drive you out of office, come November.

Seen in Jackson Heights, which has a small but noticeable community of Tibetans. But I can't help wonder: At what point does a member of a tiny ethnic minority decides s/he needs to "represent"? I suspect it requires some amount of solidarity -- no point in having a license plate that says "Tibetan" if there aren't any other Tibetans around, is there?

Has the spate of high-profile suicides in recent weeks altered the public's discussion of suicide? The organizers of an annual event hope so. Today, hundreds of people streamed over the Brooklyn Bridge, a march put together each year by the American foundation for Suicide Prevention. By the end of the day, the group had raised a record $127,000, compared to the $89,000 raised last year.

Or maybe that should be square-y hipsters.

A new survey shows that the majority of New Yorkers are either satisfied or very satisfied living in New York City. The happiest borough? Staten Island.

Years ago, I was asked by an editor to head to an Apple Core hotel, in midtown, to attend a mix-and-mingle with the reigning Miss Universe, Lara Dutta. Lara was not only beautiful, she was sweet and even though I didn't represent Esquire or Cosmo -- just India Abroad -- she made chit-chat with me for what felt like five to ten minutes. I remember feeling completely at-ease in her company, even grabbing a few of the Swedish meatballs during pauses (very brief pauses) in the conversation. And at some point, when I noticed I was standing on her foot, I thought, "That's pretty amazing -- she just let me stand there without saying anything!"

When he's not chasing down stories for ABC News, Andy Field acts as a media and presentation coach for clients who want to look good on Oprah or 20/20. A little over a week ago, his classroom was a hotel banquet hall in Arlington, Virginia, and his students were several dozen Muslim activists from across the country. The students were of mostly of Arab or South Asian descent, with the men sporting beards and blazers and many of the women wearing hijabs, or headscarves. Their goal: learning how to present themselves and their faith better on-camera.

New Yorkers got not one but two vivid reminders Sunday that they live in the nation's media capital when simultaneous rallies took place in Midtown Manhattan, organized by groups that feel wronged in very different ways.

Just when we were led to believe getting a mosque built in New York was guaranteed to cause controversy, here's an article in the Brooklyn Eagle that says otherwise. This $2 million project in Brighton Beach, meant to serve a community of about 5,000 Turkish-Americans, is set to be Brooklyn's largest mosque, but hasn't generated opposition:

After nearly a decade of fundraising and construction, the four-story American-Turkish Eyup Sultan Cultural Center on Brighton Third Street is scheduled to officially open in early December.

The mosque opened temporarily in August for Ramadan, and unlike the controversial Ground Zero cultural center, received very little attention. The Turkish cultural center also escaped the scrutiny of the Bay People, the Sheepshead Bay organization that has feverishly protested a proposed mosque on Voorhies Avenue.

Did you watch "The View" Thursday morning? Neither did I. But it's certainly worth watching this clip, if only to see two of the hostesses-with-the-mostesses, Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, actually walk off the set of their own show. Is that allowed??

The tete-a-tete-a-tete took place over Park 51/Cordoba House/Ground Zero Monster Mosque. Whoopi and Joy didn't like O'Reilly's opposition to the project, and decided they'd had enough when he said Muslims attacked the Twin Towers (as opposed to saying "extremists" did it).

For extra credit, watch this longer clip at Entertainment Weekly. After the two storm off, Barbara Walters slams them for doing so, then turns to O'Reilly and slams him for equating all Muslims with terrorists. He apologizes, kind of. And Joy and Whoopi return to the sofa after about 90 seconds, suggesting that this was ultimately just a carefully coordinated bathroom break.

Tip-pooling is illegal -- who knew?

When St. Vincent's Hospital closed its emergency room earlier this year, everyone anticipated it would cause problems for patients and hospitals alike, but just how much of a problem? City Limits magazine comes up with some numbers:

Calling sugary drinks the "single largest contributor" to the city's obesity problem, Mayor Bloomberg has launched another public health effort to change how New Yorkers eat: He wants low-income New Yorkers to stop using their food stamps to buy soft drinks and other sweet beverages.

The Supreme Court has declined to take up a case brought by 9/11 family members. The families have been trying for years to get New York City to provide a proper burial for material taken from the World Trade Center site. Their argument is that the material could contain the ashes of victims, and they've long argued the city didn't make enough of an effort to separate the smallest human remains from other debris.

Mayor Bloomberg says he understands the emotions of the family members, but thinks the city did everything it could to locate and honor the deceased.

"But in a practical sense you could not have done any more," he said. "I remember going over a number of times to watch the process, and people really took as much care as you possibly could."

Lower federal courts had dismissed the families' lawsuit against the City, saying it had acted responsibly in moving 1.6 million tons of materials from the site to a landfill on Staten Island.

Prosecutors in the Times Square bombing case have introduced further evidence, prior to sentencing, indicating that Faisal Shahzad saw himself as part of a global campaign against America. This video includes clips from what appears to be a sit-down speech he made in a studio of sorts, prior to the May 1 bombing attempt.

"I have been trying to join my brothers in jihad ever since the 9/11 happened," he says in the video.

You can also see what investigators say the damage would've been, had Shahzad succeeded in exploding his vehicle.

Shahzad pled guilty to all 10 charges against him. He will be sentenced next week.

The developers behind Park51, the Islamic cultural center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, have been conspicuously low-key about the project. But they've finally given us a slightly better sense of what they're planning, with the release of 3 renderings: one exterior shot and two interiors. All in all, the images suggest a highly contemporary visual aesthetic, dominated by an outer shell that could best be termed web-like or exoskeletal. The architectural firm is Soma.

There's something particularly relevant and zeitgeisty about participatory art. Like crowdsourcing, art that requires the involvement of the citizenry -- that is actually for the worse without it -- offers a nice, robust update on the democratic project.