09 May 2004 - 6:45 p.m.

. . . in matters theatrical The Times speaks so loudly, amplifying that voice with the appointment of a Sunday critic would merit a standing ovation. In the meantime, squandering its voice - and its reputation for integrity - on a racket like the Tony Awards deserves nothing but boos.

- Daniel Okrent, the NYT Public Editor, recommending that the paper recast its coverage of theatre and Broadway's "artistically meaningless, blatantly commercial, shamefully exclusionary and culturally corrosive award competition."

First [her rabbi] joked that only Jews could make a holiday of a day when nobody died. (We laughed.) And then he observed that, in this day and age, when so many of us begin our mornings by turning on the radio or checking news online to see how many casualties the Iraq war has generated overnight, we might find ourselves identifying with the impulse to celebrate such a day. (We weren't laughing any more.)