NYT > Opinion

• The Box
  There was a chimney, in the sitting room — he’d forgotten about the chimney. He hadn’t looked. And he wasn’t going to.
• St. Nick in the Big City
  The modern Santa may be happy, but does he still care about the poor?
• Myrrh
  A poem by Paul Muldoon, the author, most recently, of the collection “Horse Latitudes.”
• When Christmas Morning Comes
  Christmas is imbued with a recognition that the transition from sleep to waking always carries with it the immeasurable gift of a new day.
• The Right Answer in New Orleans
  To secure its economic future, the region needs an aggressive, farsighted plan for rebuilding the rental housing stock and creating more affordable housing.
• Giving Till It Hurts
  Congress had better act quickly to correct rampant abuses of charitable donations before the trust of a generous public becomes buried in cynicism.
• A Life Turning Around
  This fall, the Neediest Cases Fund also helped Jay, a 17-year-old former gang member, with his rent so he could make ends meet with only one job, leaving him time to study for school.
• The Sidney Awards
  This year, the Sidneys come in two batches. On Friday, we’ll celebrate more polemical essays, but today, we honor articles that captured different (and often illogical) slices of American life.
• Christmas, Asian Style
  Across Asia, the holiday seems to have reverted to some of its pre-Christian origins.
• The Greatest Christmas Present: An Easy Flight
  In terms of air travel, Christmas Day is the calm eye of the holiday travel storm.
• Justifiable Waterboarding?
  The benefits of torture: underappreciated or overstated?
• Bound for Academic Glory?
  A new report on higher education raises questions about how public universities can improve.
• Marketing Disorder
  An ad campaign about mental disorders hits a nerve.
• Not Your Mom’s Apple Pie Chart
  How readers fared solving the "Which Came First?" mystery.
• When They Told Me Norman Wrote a Book…
  The author unearths a little-known book by Norman Mailer and finds himself in it.
• Protecting a $155 Billion Pot
  Thomas DiNapoli has moved forward in trying to make the state comptroller’s office more accountable to the public. He should keep aiming in that direction.
• Weakening Pakistan
  Pakistanis need to turn out in force on Election Day to ensure that everybody — not just Pervez Musharraf — can have a say in Pakistan’s future.
• Arrogance and Warming
  President Bush’s decision to deny California permission to regulate global warming emissions from cars can only be explained as the product of ideological blindness.
• Slowing the Rise in Health Costs
  The good news is that many of the reforms analyzed by the Commonwealth Fund might improve the quality of health care delivered to Americans.
• A Crisis Long Foretold
  When all the truth is out about the twin crises of the subprime lending mess, the Federal Reserve will have company in the hall of shame.
• Disappointments on Climate
  A week that could have brought important progress on climate change ended in disappointment.
• A License for Local Reporting
  The outcome of Federal Communications Commission policy that matters most to us is not who owns what, but how much news gathering goes on.
• Gold in the Ivory Tower
  There’s a particularly corrosive shift taking place in higher education: the growing gap between super-wealthy colleges and universities — and the rest of the academic world.
• Hell on Wheels
  Unless you are a deep-sea diver or, maybe, an iron-ore salesman, your luggage really shouldn’t necessitate load-bearing wheels.
• The Vatican’s Relative Truth
  In Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to the U.N. next April, will he be able to find a language to ensure that what he pitches is also what people catch?
• The Mourning After
  Widows and their children in many societies are shunned, abused and exploited.