Usually when I sit down at my computer to write my column, I have a subject, even a somewhat detailed plan. Often, an electronic file of notes rests on the screen next to my open Word document. I’ve thought the subject through on Friday, and over breakfast and in the shower Saturday. I know where I’m going. And so the normal weekend ritual of writing my column goes.

Welcome to the weekend - Saturday - and no plan.
Sure, over the past week, I started a number of columns - in my head - but this time as I begin pounding the keys, there is no one subject, no plan, no files.

There is just a string of disconnected thoughts - all over the political map. So rather than organize, I thought I’d give one of my unusual free-flow rambles a shot.

QUEENS MOURNS
Last week on March 2, Specialist Azhar Ali, 27, a Bowne High School graduate from Flushing, and Wai Phyo Lwin, 27, a Cardozo High School grad from Douglaston, both sons of Queens, both members of the 69th Infantry Regiment, lost their lives in Iraq. The two were killed instantly when a roadside bomb destroyed their Humvee.

Ali and Lwin join Queens’ growing list of heroes who lost their lives in service to our nation in Iraq. Communities across the nation suffer similar pain.

The military reported that these deaths were the 1501st and 1502nd U.S. troop casualties in the Iraq conflict since President Bush launched the invasion two years earlier.

Two months after the much-touted shock and awe of the Iraqi war, on May 1, 2003, President Bush landed in the co-pilot seat of a Navy S-3B Viking on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. The President told the sailors aboard that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.”

And exactly two years after the start of the war and 22 months after the President’s declaration of the “turning of the tide,” two Queens families, and two Queens communities, mourn the loss of our children.

Fifteen hundred and two lives later, we wonder if Rumsfeld children, Bush children and administration insider’s children were on the front lines, would things be the same.

But the only names that have a ring of familiarity in our borough are the names of the children of the wonderful multicultural mosaic we know as Queens.

And we are saddened.

To the Ali and Lwin family, we send our condolences.

MARKETING MASTERPIECE
“The Gates” created an economic boom for New York City, boosting the economy by $254 million.

Hot dog vendors, horse-drawn carriage drivers and restaurateurs joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg in celebrating the financial rewards of the $21 million public project financed by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

The installation, hung with saffron-colored fabric, spaced along 23 miles of Central Park’s footpaths, drew an estimated 4 million visitors, including 1.5 million out-of-towners, twice the number of visitors in the same period in a typical February, giving hotel occupancy a major boost.

Broadway ticket sales were up 17 percent; hot dog and pushcart vendors experienced three times their normal business, restaurant business boomed. Even P.S. 1 - on the good side of the bridge, reported their attendance doubled.
And as the Mayor said, much of the cash generated went “into the pockets of hardworking New Yorkers.”

The $254 million in economic activity includes spending for hotels, restaurants, concessions and cultural institutions, as well as city transportation, shopping and entertainment. It does not include visitors who were here on business and would have spent money anyway.

“The Gates” was “a daring labor of love,” Bloomberg said.
A “labor of love,” perhaps. This columnist is glad to hear it described as anything but a “work of art.”

Perhaps a “masterpiece of marketing,” would be the best descriptor.

BRIAN O’CONNoR, WHERE ARE YOU?
As reported here several weeks ago, 35 years ago, little Gary Ackerman launched the Flushing Tribune. Twenty five years ago, Gary answered another calling winning his first of more than a dozen elections to public office, and handed the Tribune and its vision to me. For the past quarter of a century I have guided the Queens Tribune’s growth to a dominant borough wide chain which impacts the life of a borough of more than 2 million people. Bringing innovation to the industry of community journalism and maintaining journalistic integrity has been a challenge I’ve relished each day of the past 25 years.

And that trip - the Tribune adventure - will be celebrated in our very special glossy-bound 35th Anniversary edition to be published March 31. And you’re invited to participate. If you’ve written for the Trib - Brian O’Connor where are you? - worked for us, been part of the news, or just a loyal reader or advertiser, you’re invited to submit approximately 250 words and a photo (jpgs preferred) telling your version of the Queens Tribune story. Please include name, dates and contact phone number.

We prefer electronic submissions to be sent to editor@queenstribune.com - please make sure that the subject line says “Trib 35” and all files sent begin with your last name.

Our 35th Anniversary celebration is of our borough and its people.

Please share with us.

NYC DEMOCRAT DILEMMA
Hey, Mayoral wanabees, read the polls: Freddy Ferrer is way, way ahead. If you’re a Dem, it’s pretty clear the he looks like the guy who can give Mike Bloomberg a race for his money. No, we didn’t mean that. Perhaps Freddy has a shot at giving him a race for Gracie Mansion - the home of all NYC Mayor’s except Mike who is more comfortable in his own lavish digs.

Now, we’re not taking sides. We like Mike and Freddy and some of the other candidates. But we also have been playing political punditry as long as most of the city’s talking and writing heads. And some things are blatantly clear. When a quality guy like Freddy - with name recognition that somehow has survived four years of Drum Major Institute obscurity, comes along and is so far out in front, there is only one way for Anthony (Weiner), Giff (Miller), and Virginia (Fields) to prevent Ferrer from achieving 40 percent in the primary and winning the Democratic nomination - you must go negative.

Let me explain. If no one gets 40 percent in the September Dem primary, there is a run-off between the top two candidates. Four years ago Mark Green went negative on Freddy Ferrer in that run-off and won the primary but alienated the Latino normally strong Democratic base loyal to Ferrer. Results: the Latinos stayed home, normal Democratic voters abandoned Green. Republican (at least by the line he was running on) Mike Bloomberg won the big prize.

To me, there seems to be little difference four years later. If you want to stop Freddy - if it can be done at all - you gotta go negative. If you go negative, you alienate voters you need to beat Bloomberg.

It’s a bit early to predict next November’s results. But if they manage to stop Freddy, Mike will win. So at least for the moment, we see only two horses that can make it across the finish line first: Mike or Freddy.
But politics is a strange game, and the Yankees didn’t make it to the Series.

Ferrer: Dem Frontrunner