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NATIONAL

SPORTS

LIFESTYLES

Ocean drones reach new depths under water and in scientific exploration.

France’s Marion Bartoli beats out Sabine Lisicki in the 2010 Wimbledon women’s finals.

Behind the scenes with Broadway costume designer Michael Urie.

THE WIECK WEEKLY Volume I, No. 1

Thursday, December 5, 2013

$1.50

One World Trade Center tallest building in U.S. PATRICK MCGEEHAN AND CHARLES V. BAGLI Reporters

JOHN DOE / PHOTOGRAPHER

Families search the rubble to gather what remains left of their homes.

Panic rises as officials struggle to aid Typhoon Haiyan victims AUSTIN RAMZY AND GERRY MULLANY Reporters

CEBU, the Philippines — An American aircraft carrier headed to the Philippines on Tuesday on an emergency mission to help victims of Typhoon Haiyan as the situation on the islands became increasingly desperate, with food and water supplies running low and bodies lying uncollected in the streets of at least one devastated city.

The George Washington, which carries 5,000 sailors and more than 80 aircraft, left a port in Hong

Kong that it had been visiting, its crew recalled from shore leave.

Philippine officials found themselves on the defensive Tuesday over the pace of relief efforts as Manila struggled to get supplies to the airport in the city of Tacloban, where as many as 10,000 people were feared dead and most of its residents were struggling to get basic foodstuffs and water four days after the typhoon struck on Friday.

“We’ve asked the U.S. for aid and the secretary of defense says they are sending an aircraft carrier and a couple other ships — those are en route,” said Ricky

Carandang, a spokesman for the Philippine president, Benigno S. Aquino III. “There are lots of remote areas that haven’t received aid,” Mr. Carandang said. “The priority is to get food and water supplied. With communications partially functioning, with ports and roads blocked, we need to get that clear first. We need to get the roads clear before you can get the aid to them.”

The Philippine government expressed gratitude for the assistance, but it also appeared anxious to retain basic

See 2A, Typhoon

EMMARIE HUETTEMAN

“No matter what path you choose, no matter what dreams you WASHINGTON — Michelle have, you have got to do whatevObama urged high school students on er it takes to continue your educaTuesday to increase the opportunities tion after high school,” she said. available to them by pursuing higher The decision to talk to sophomores education, kicking off was a deliberate one. an initiative that seeks The first lady’s new to increase the number initiative is part of of low-income stuthe Obama admindents graduating from istration’s push for college and signaling the United States to her plans to focus more rank first in the world on administration polin the percentage of icy during the prescollege graduates by ident’s second term.

2020 — the year curOpening up to rent high school sophhigh school sophoomores will graduate.

OBAMA mores gathered in an Mrs. Obama said auditorium at Bell that the United States Multicultural High did rank first a generaSchool in Washington, Mrs. Obama tion ago and that with the projection that spoke of her struggles as an under- almost two-thirds of jobs would require privileged student in Chicago, tak- training beyond high school by 2020, ing a long bus ride across town to it was important to regain that spot. attend a better school and dreaming The new program offers the first of the diploma from Princeton Uni- lady an opportunity to immerse herself versity that she eventually earned. further in President Obama’s policies, The first lady told students they more so than in her work to promote could write their own success stories if they focused on going to college.

See 2A, Obama Reporter

TIMOTHY WILLIAMS Reporter

WHAT’S INSIDE

JOHN DOE / PHOTOGRAPHER

Willis Tower, left, in Chicago and 1 World Trade Center in New York.

Michelle Obama takes up a new education initiative

Blighted cities prefer razing to rebuilding BALTIMORE — Shivihah Smith’s East Baltimore neighborhood, where he lives with his mother and grandmother, is disappearing. The block one over is gone. A dozen rowhouses on an adjacent block were removed one afternoon last year. And on the corner a few weeks ago, a pair of houses that were damaged by fire collapsed. The city bulldozed those and two others, leaving scavengers to pick through the debris for bits of metal and copper wire.

“The city doesn’t want these old houses,” lamented Mr. Smith, 36.

For the Smiths, the bulldozing of city blocks is a source of anguish. But for Baltimore, as for a number of American cities in the Northeast and Midwest that have lost big chunks of their population, it is increasingly regarded as a path to salvation. Because despite the

For the first time in nearly 40 years, America’s largest city is home to America’s tallest building.

One World Trade Center, at 1,776 feet, is indeed taller than the Willis Tower in Chicago, which measures 1,450 feet. That judgment was delivered on Tuesday by the official arbiter of structural stature, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

While comparing the heights of two office buildings may sound like child’s play, the decision was not so simple, according to Timothy Johnson, the chairman of the council.

The measuring was complicated by the long mast that stands atop the trade center tower.

Without that mast, the new skyscraper in Lower Manhattan is indisputably shorter than the Willis Tower, which had been the tallest building in the country since it was completed

— and named the Sears Tower — in 1974. But the mast, which New Yorkers call a spire but Chicagoans see as a mere antenna, adds about 400 feet to the trade center building, which is scheduled to open next year.

Mr. Johnson said there was plenty of discussion about the purpose of the mast when the 25 members of the council’s height committee met Friday in Chicago. In order to be counted as part of the building, the mast had to be deemed a permanent part of the architectural expression of the building.

The chief architect of 1 World Trade Center, David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, told the committee that the mast should be counted, in part, because the building was designed with the intention of having the symbolic height of 1,776 feet.

He had, however, referred to the mast in the past as an antenna.

In the end, the committee was in agreement, Mr. Johnson said.

“The building is in fact 1,776 feet,” he said.

JOHN DOE / PHOTOGRAPHER

As the populations of many former industrial cities dwindle, buildings are being razed rather than raised to better position the cities for growth. well-publicized embrace by young professionals of once-struggling city centers in New York, Seattle and Los Angeles, for many cities urban planning has often become a form of creative destruction.

“It is not the house itself that has value, it is the land the house stands on,” said Sandra Pianalto, the president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. “This led us to the counterintuitive concept that the

3A- Travel

best policy to stabilize neighborhoods may not always be rehabilitation. It may be demolition.”

Large-scale destruction is well known in Detroit, but it is also underway in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Buffalo and others at a total cost of more than $250 million. Officials are tearing down tens of thousands of vacant buildings, many habitable,

See 2A, Razing

1B- Sports

1C- Lifestyles

Tuesday, December 5, 2013

THE WIECK WEEKLY

Section A2

Problems with federal health care portal slow Medicaid enrollment ROBERT PEAR Reporter

JOHN DOE / PHOTOGRAPHER

Michael F. Crowley, a marine scientist at Rutgers, with a glider on loan from the Navy being used in a large-scale ocean-survey experiment in the Atlantic.

Ocean drones plumb new depths WILLIAM HERKEWITZ Reporter

ATLANTIC CITY — Five miles offshore from the Golden Nugget casino, Michael F. Crowley, a marine scientist at Rutgers University, heaves three lifeboat-yellow drones off the back of his research vessel.

The gliders, as he calls them, are winged and propellerless, like miniature Tomahawk missiles. Two are on loan from the Navy, and one, Rutgers’s own, is pockmarked from a past shark attack. As they slink into the Atlantic to begin a monthlong mission, they join a fleet of 12 others across the Eastern Seaboard, from Nova Scotia to Georgia.

These drones are the centerpiece of “Gliderpalooza,” a collaborative ocean-survey experiment coordinated by 16 American and Canadian government agencies and research teams. By pooling their resources, including satellites, radar stations, research buoys and the gliders, the teams hope to capture the most

complete picture yet of the Atlantic’s many mysterious underwater movements — from deepwater currents to migrating fish.

Ocean researchers are also planning to deploy gliders in the Western Pacific to help forecast storms like Typhoon Haiyan.

While a typhoon’s path is largely influenced by atmospheric changes, gliders can help predict a storm’s intensity, which is affected by ocean temperatures.

“If we can better predict the intensity, we can better predict the human impact,” said Scott M. Glenn, an oceanographer at Rutgers, “and that’s critical, especially in Asia, where so many people die when these typhoons make landfall.”

The mid-Atlantic experiment heralds a new direction in ocean research. Despite a network of ocean-observing satellites and several projects that have seeded the seas with data-logging buoys, the sheer size and complexity of the oceans still mask much of what goes on underwa-

TYPHOON

Continued from Page 1A strategic controls, which may have had the unintended consequence of hampering some relief efforts. The Tacloban airport control tower was destroyed, for example, but the government did not ask the United States military to help manage air traffic control with a temporary replacement setup, as it has sometimes done elsewhere. Without a tower, all pilots flying into Tacloban were forced to land by sight, slowing deliveries.

The BBC said Tacloban aid deliveries were further hampered by a shortage of aircraft that could land on the short runway. In a dispatch from Cebu International Airport, about 120 miles southwest, the BBC said some planes carrying aid for survivors had been delayed because they were too big to land in Tacloban.

William Hotchkiss, the director of the Philippine Civil Aviation Authority, told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday that four of the five airports whose operations had been disrupted by the typhoon were now fully operating, with Tacloban’s allowing only “limited commercial airline operations” because of the relief effort there and damage to the airport.

Aid groups detailed frustrating challenges trying to help the tens of thousands of people struggling for food and shelter in Tacloban and elsewhere. The storm surge was so powerful that it left Tacloban devastated, with little means to start up the process of distributing supplies.

“There has been a lot of commentary that relief is not moving as fast as it should be,” said Praveen Agrawal, the World Food

ter. At a time when forecasts of storms, currents and the effects of climate change have never been needed more, the researchers hope their flotilla of gliders will provide a new perspective.

“We have satellites that give us wonderful maps of the ocean at the surface,” said Dr. Glenn, the leader of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System, one of the 16 research groups involved in the project. (It goes by the acronym Maracoos.) “But the ocean is 3D, and we want to explore what’s going on beneath the waves.”

The battery-powered gliders continually dive in long swooping curves, taking snapshots of the ocean’s temperature, currents and other features at a range of depths. They reach a maximum depth of roughly 650 feet, though they can be configured to go deeper; that is relatively shallow for most of the ocean, but more than deep enough for continental shelves, which are on average 460 feet below sea level.

Program’s Philippines representative and country director. “The reality on the ground is there is such a level of devastation.”

“Under normal circumstances, even in a typhoon, you’d have some local infrastructure up and some businesses with which you can contract,” Mr. Agrawal said. “Being as strong as it was, it was very much like a tsunami. It wiped out everything. It’s like starting from scratch” in terms of delivering the aid, he said.

Asked if the Philippines would be issuing further requests for aid, Mr. Carandang, the president’s spokesman, replied: “We are still getting a handle on things, like how many people are dead. Right now it’s difficult to say if we need more. Given the enormity of this disaster, at some point if we were offered more, we are not going to turn it down.”

As officials worked to get a better handle on the extent of the damage, the typhoon’s potential impact on the Philippine economy was becoming clearer. HSBC Global Research said that the typhoon probably destroyed half the sugar cane production areas in Leyte Province, and that all told, 3.5 percent of the nation’s sugar cane output was probably lost. It also warned of inflationary shocks to the Philippine economy in the coming months, as supply chains are disrupted.

But given the general health of the Philippine economy and the fact that the typhoon affected geographic areas and sectors like agriculture that are not major drivers of the nation’s output, HSBC said, “The economic impact will be limited.”

Citi Research warned that the Philippines faced substantial rebuilding costs because of the typhoon.

WASHINGTON — Problems with the federal health insurance website have prevented tens of thousands of low-income people from signing up for Medicaid even though they are eligible, federal and state officials say, undermining one of the chief goals of the 2010 health care law.

The website, HealthCare.gov, is primarily seen as a place to buy private insurance with federal subsidies, but it is also a gateway to Medicaid, which generally provides more benefits at less cost to consumers.

That door has been closed for the last six weeks, with the federal government unable to transfer its files to state Medicaid programs as it is supposed to do.

The delays are affecting people in 36 states that rely on the federal exchange, regardless of whether those states are expanding eligibility for Medicaid as authorized by the health care law. About half of all states have chosen to do so.

Obama administration officials once envisioned a seamless application process in which consumers would use a single form to apply for Medicaid, tax credits and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and most eligibility decisions would be made instantaneously. Under rules issued last year by Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, an exchange must transfer information to Medicaid “promptly and without undue delay,” using a “secure electronic interface.”

The administration is not meeting its own standards.

Marilyn B. Tavenner, the adminis-

RAZING

Continued from Page 1A as they seek to stimulate economic growth, reduce crime and blight, and increase environmental sustainability.

A recent Brookings Institution study found that from 2000 to 2010 the number of vacant housing units nationally had increased by 4.5 million, or 44 percent. And a report by the University of California, Berkeley, determined that over the past 15 years, 130 cities, most with relatively small populations, have dissolved themselves, more than half the total ever recorded in the United States.

The continuing struggles of former manufacturing centers have fundamentally altered urban planning, traditionally a discipline based on growth and expansion.

Today, it is also about disinvestment patterns to help determine which depopulated neighborhoods are worth saving; what blocks should be torn down and rebuilt; and based on economic activity, transportation options, infrastructure and population density, where people might best be

“

trator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who oversaw the creation of the troubled federal website, said she decided in September to delay the Medicaid transfers so technicians could “spend more time concentrating on the application process” and other priorities.

The White House has not released enrollment data, but some states running their own exchanges, like Kentucky, Minnesota and Washington, say more people have signed up for Medicaid than for private insurance.

The Obama administration has adopted what it calls a “no wrong door” policy: If a person files an application with the exchange for private insurance but appears to be eligible for Medicaid, the exchange will automatically transfer the full application to the state Medicaid agency, and vice versa.

“We have not seen much progMonica H. Coury ress on the flow Assistant director of of data from the Medicaid in Arizona federal marketplace to the state,” said Monica H. Coury, assistant director of the Medicaid program in Arizona. “After a person is assessed as potentially eligible for Medicaid, the application just sits there in the federal marketplace. If you need insurance because you have a serious medical condition, that delay could be harmful.”

People going to an exchange do not necessarily know if they are eligible for Medicaid or for tax credits to subsidize the purchase of private insurance on the exchange.

Ms. Sebelius has said repeatedly that “the marketplace will provide consumers and small businesses onestop shopping for health insurance.”

If you need insurance because you have a serious medical condition, that delay could be harmful.”

relocated. Some even focus on returning abandoned urban areas into forests and meadows.

“It’s like a whole new field,” said Margaret Dewar, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Michigan, who helped plan for a land bank in Detroit to oversee that city’s vacant properties.

In all, more than half of the nation’s 20 largest cities in 1950 have lost at least one-third of their populations.

And since 2000, a number of cities, including Baltimore, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Buffalo, have lost around 10 percent; Cleveland has lost more than 17 percent; and more than 25 percent of residents have left Detroit, whose bankruptcy declaration this summer has heightened anxiety in other postindustrial cities.

The result of this shrinkage, also called “ungrowth” and “right sizing,” has been compressed tax bases, increased crime and unemployment, tight municipal budgets and abandoned neighborhoods.

The question is what to do with the urban ghost towns unlikely to be repopulated because of continued suburban-

OBAMA

Continued from Page 1A healthy eating and to support military families.

She told students that the administration was focused on making resources like the Department of Education’s College Navigator and College Scorecard available to help them select affordable colleges, in addition to offering billions of dollars in financial aid.

It was clear from her remarks that the initiative, which will take her to schools around the country over the next few years, is a personal one for the first lady.

Answering students’ questions along with Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, she referred to “kids like us” and recalled those who had discouraged her ambitions.

“Some of my teachers straight up told me that I was setting my sights too

ization and deindustrialization.

“In the past, cities would look at buildings individually, determine there was a problem, tear them down and then quickly find another use for the land,” said Justin B. Hollander, an urban planning professor at Tufts University. “Now they’re looking at the whole DNA of the city and saying, ‘There are just too many structures for the population we have.’ ” Cleveland, whose population has shrunk by about 80,000 during the past decade to 395,000, has spent $50 million over the past six years to raze houses, which cost $10,000 each to destroy, compared with $27,000 annually to maintain.

Some neighborhoods have lost two-thirds of their residents since 2000.

There are so many vacant lots that the city, now home to more than 200 community gardens and farms, zones for urban farms and allows people to keep pigs, sheep and goats in residential areas. A vineyard has popped up as well.

Two miles northwest of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, which has at least 6,000 vacant buildings. high,” Mrs. Obama said.

“They told me I was never going to get into a school like Princeton. I still hear that doubt ringing in my head.”

“So it was clear to me that nobody was going to take my hand and lead me to where I needed to go,” she continued.

“Instead it was going to be up to me to reach my goal. I would have to chart my own course.”

Mrs. Obama emphasized that students would have to take responsibility for their own futures, advising them to learn to manage their time and work without supervision.

“Every day students like Menbere and Roger and all of you are proving that it is not your circumstance that defines your future,” she said, referring to successful Bell alumni.

“It’s your attitude. It’s your commitment.

You decide how high you set your goals. You decide how hard you’re going to work for those goals.”

TRAVEL

Tuesday, December 5, 2013

JOHN DOE / PHOTOGRAPHER TOP: The business district of Mexico City. RIGHT, TOP: Dancers perform in the business district.

RIGHT, BOTTOM: The Zocalo Cathedral. BELOW, LEFT: Street vendors sell homemade trinkets.

BELOW, MIDDLE: The Tabernacle of Mexico City. BELOW, RIGHT: Street tacos are made fresh.

Discover all the color and culture of Mexico City TIM WEINER Reporter

Mexico City can be overwhelming.

The largest metropolis in the Western Hemisphere, a mile and a half high, barrages the body and brain. But seen through the right eyes, it is one of the world’s great cities: a sublime, occasionally surreal, always sensual place.

All of Mexico’s culture – art, music, food, politics -- pours into it. A lifetime would be needed to soak it up.

Given a week, or even a long weekend, a traveler can experience the pleasures of a city that, like New York, Paris or London, is a world unto itself.

Americans who do not know the city often fear it. A healthy curiosity is far better. The usual warnings are still in effect. Don’t hail a cab in the street; any good hotel or restaurant can call you one. Don’t wander aimlessly at night; arm yourself with a map and a sense of where you are.

Don’t ignore the altitude; easy on the alcohol until well acclimated.

And if traveling at rush hour, add at

least half an hour to your schedule.

Mexico has more festivals than days in the calendar, and the weeks between Nov. 1 (the Day of the Dead, a uniquely Mexican celebration) and Christmas will be especially vibrant this year. Three of the city’s most elegant neighborhoods -- Polanco, Roma and Condesa, each 15 minutes or less from the central business district, the Zona Rosa -- are exploding with new restaurants, clubs and art galleries. Condesa, a small citadel of Art Deco architecture, is celebrating its centennial. It’s an exceptionally pleasant place to sit, sip, sup and watch the passing scene.

Daily and nightly diversions are listed in the Spanish-language entertainment magazine Tiempo Libre, which comes out Thursday and is available at most newsstands and on the Web at www.tiempolibre.com .mx. A good English-language source is the Mexico File, at www.mexico file.com. Prices are calculated at 10 pesos to the dollar, and exclude a 15 percent value-added tax applied to hotel and restaurant charges.

THE WIECK WEEKLY

3A Travel

Sox slide past Indians Page 3A

SPORTS

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

1B

Sports

THE WIECK WEEKLY

Marion Bartoli takes Wimbledon title Caucasian misery at the winter games NAILA-JEAN MEYERS Reporter

EKATERINA SOKIRIANSKAIA reporter

MOSCOW — The Black Sea resort of Sochi, with its breathtaking views of the nearby Caucasus Mountains, was once a favorite holiday destination of Communist Party bosses in the Soviet era. Now reincarnated in gleaming glass, steel and concrete, Sochi is getting ready to welcome the 2014 Winter Olympics, opening on Feb. 7.

When, in 2007, President Vladimir V. Putin argued on behalf of Russia’s bid to hold the 2014 Games, he assured the International Olympic Committee that it would be a “safe, enjoyable and memorable SOKIRIANSKAIA experience.”

The Sochi Games are his personal project and a very ambitious one — not least because the Games will take place in the immediate neighborhood of the North Caucasus, site of Europe’s deadliest ongoing conflict. For Mr. Putin, hosting the Winter Olympics in Sochi will demonstrate to the world that Russia has solved its problems in these restive republics and is back as a strong and united superpower.

The reality behind the public relations is far different. In August, Mr. Putin decreed a virtual state of emergency in the city. Some 40,000 police officers have been deployed, together with army units, because of concerns about a possible terrorist attack by separatists or jihadis.

Integrating the North Caucasus, a region of unique ethnic and religious diversity, has always been a challenge for Russia. During the Caucasian War (1817-64), the Russian military used extreme violence, razing villages and deporting entire communities. Krasnaya Polyana, in the mountains less than 50 kilometers from Sochi, was the site of the war’s final bloody battle, marking Russia’s subjugation of Circassia, the westernmost country of the Caucasus. In February, Krasnaya Polyana will be a center for snowboarding and skiing events.

Some Circassian activist groups today argue that Russia’s actions in the 19th century should be recognized as genocide; they plan to publicize their cause at the Olympics.

But the greatest mobilization has come from a more menacing source: Islamist fighters.

In July 2013, the leader of the North Caucasus insurgency, the Chechen separatist Doku

WIMBLEDON, England — There are many ways to count how long Marion Bartoli waited for her first Grand Slam title. This year’s Wimbledon was her 47th major tournament. She reached her first Grand Slam final here six years ago but did not play another until Saturday. She had not won a tournament since October 2011.

Bartoli, 28, counted it in hours: hours of dreams since she was 6, when she was taught the game by her father, Walter, who was her coach until earlier this year.

“For a tennis player, you start to play like at 5 or 6 years old,” she said. “When you decide to turn pro, your dream is to win a Grand Slam. You dream about it every day. You think about every day. So when it happens, when it actually happens, you feel like, you know, you achieve something that you dream about for maybe millions of hours.”

The wait ended Saturday when Bartoli defeated Sabine Lisicki, 6-1, 6-4, in 81 minutes to win Wimbledon.

In a tournament marked by upsets and injuries, it seemed appropriate that the champion was such an unusual player, one called quirky and eccentric for her on-court routines and her tennis upbringing.

PHOTO CREDIT / POSITION

Cutline goes here.

“I’ve never been afraid of being special, never,” Bartoli said. “I think it’s kind of boring to be like everyone.”

Bartoli is the first player, female or male, to win Wimbledon playing two-handed on both sides. At a stocky 5 feet 7

inches, she is dwarfed by amazons who dominate the game.

The No. 15 seed, she is only the third player seeded outside the top 10 to win Wimbledon in the Open era.

She learned to play on a modest court, with a sometimes leaky

roof, in the small town of Retournac, France, with her father, a doctor, her only coach. She often practiced from 10 p.m. until midnight so her training would not interfere with her schooling.

She said her training made her “as strong as wood.”

to beat Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion, but champions Manchester United lost 1-0 at home to Everton to slip 12 points behind the leaders.

While the pressure on United manager David Moyes increased, Tottenham Hotspur eased the stress on boss Andre Villas-Boas by coming from behind to beat Fulham 2-1 in their manager Rene Meulensteen's first game in charge.

Arsenal, with 34 points, stayed four points clear of Chelsea at the top of the table, with Manchester City two adrift in third and Liverpool a point further back in fourth, ahead of Everton on goal difference.

Tottenham moved up to

sixth on 24 and Manches- further by juggling the ball and ter United dropped to ninth. cracking in an unstoppable shot Suarez must from distance. wish he could He completplay Norwich eved his personal ery week, a team show-reel with against whom he another moment has now scored of quality, bend11 goals in his ing a 25-melast four Premier tre free kick League games. into the top He grabbed corner, before a first-half hatNorwich SUAREZ trick including pulled a goal two genuine conback through tenders for goal of the season. Bradley Johnson and RaThe first, a stunning volley heem Sterling rounded off into the top corner from almost the scoring for the hosts.

40 meters, was followed by a Arsenal's Bendtner has been more modest poacher's effort, little more than a casual observer before he wowed the home fans in their superb start to the season.

Suárez Scores Four Goals Against Norwich ED OSMOND Reporter

LONDON — Liverpool's Luis Suarez showed his devastating ability to act as a oneman wrecking ball with four goals in a 5-1 demolition of Norwich City as Arsenal's forgotten man Nicklas Bendtner jogged a few memories in the Premier League on Wednesday.

Suarez delivered a dazzling collection of goal-of-the-season contenders at Anfield and Bendtner scored two minutes into his first start in more than two years to help the Premier League leaders beat Hull City 2-0.

Second-placed Chelsea and Manchester City in third came through tight tussles

How Yanks may proceed, Cano or no Cano DAVID WALDSTEIN Reporter

Jacoby Ellsbury had his physical exam Wednesday, one of the final steps before completing his seven-year, $153 million contract with the Yankees. Now that he is essentially a member of the team, there is still the matter of who will be playing alongside him.

Despite their recent lavish spending, committing $238 million to Ellsbury and Brian McCann, the Yankees are still trying to keep their 2014 payroll under the $189 million luxury-tax threshold.

They still have work to do, hoping to sign a starting pitcher and a hitter, who may or may not be Robinson Cano.

But with McCann, who will be introduced at a news conference Thursday at Yankee Stadium, and Ellsbury now in the fold, the way forward is starting to become clearer.

There appear to be two possible paths, one with Cano and another without him.

For now, the Yankees are obliged to assume that Alex Rodriguez’s $25 million contract will be in effect for 2014.

But if the drug-related suspension pending against him is

upheld for all or most of the season, all the money he is owed during that time will be freed up. The Yankees may not find out about the suspension until January, at which point they may suddenly have millions to spend on a free agent, or they could add an expensive player by making a trade.

If Cano and the Yankees agree on a contract, which the team would like to be for seven years and around $175 million, the Yankees will not have much room under the $189 million threshold. They still plan to sign one or two more relief pitchers — although they are not looking at a closer — and hope that Hiroki Kuroda comes back for $16 million to $17 million on a one-year deal.

They also expect to add Kelly Johnson as a backup infielder.

If Cano leaves — and Yankees officials believe the Seattle Mariners could offer an eight-year, $200 million contract that they would not match — then there is plenty of money left to spend on free agents, or on the Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka. The Yankees had hopes of signing Tanaka this off-season, but that was complicated by the Ellsbury

JOHN DOE / PHOTOGRAPHER

Second baseman Robinson Cano fields the ball. signing and by developments that were out of their hands.

Major League Baseball has been negotiating a new posting system with its counterparts in Japan, and it sent over its latest proposal Wednesday.

Under the proposed system, teams would be allowed to make a maximum bid of $20 million, according to two peo-

ple who have been briefed on the negotiations. If more than one team bids the maximum, the player will be free to negotiate with all of them.

A team making the highest bid would have exclusive rights to negotiate with the player.

Under the recently expired system, teams could submit bids of any amount.

LIFESTYLES

Tuesday, December 5, 2013

Reporter

On a recent Saturday morning, the actor Michael Urie was part of the throng filtering past the ticket takers in the opening hours of the Pier Antique Show on the West Side of Manhattan. The reed-thin Mr. Urie, who is around six feet tall (“I say 5-11, so not to get typecast as tall”) seemed to feel at home among the sharp-eyed shoppers, being a frequent visitor to flea markets and vintage clothing stores.

But this particular pilgrimage was kind of a busman’s holiday. Eight times a week, Mr. Urie is on stage at the Barrow Street Theater, in “Buyer & Cellar,” playing an outof-work actor who has been hired by Barbra Streisand to be the watchful custodian of the mall-like shops she has had installed in the basement of a barn on her Malibu estate.

Mr. Urie’s character in the one-man play is fictional. The underground display of collectibles, described in a book by Ms. Streisand, “My Passion for Design,” is real.

As he walked through the show, which had more than 500 exhibitors of antiques, vintage clothes, fine arts, a smattering of kitsch and a mind-boggling display of collectibles, it was evident that Mr. Urie, 33, was attracted to what he called “quirk.”

At various points, he focused on a collection of swizzle sticks, vintage lighters and flasks, and towers of interlocking orange bowls.

Actually, anything orange. Mr. Urie credited his partner, the actor and writer Ryan Spahn, with offering a steadying

Lifestyles

THE WIECK WEEKLY

Lessons from master shopper Michael Urie MARY BILLARD

1C

aesthetic hand in furnishing their apartment. “I have an orange problem,” he said.

Running on parallel tracks, Mr. Urie picked out what he would personally like for his colorful, sun-drenched Midtown apartment and what he imagined would catch Ms. Streisand’s refined eye, and what would be lovingly curated in the basement mall.

“I wonder if I had unlim- ited financial means, like she does, if I would just go nuts,” he said.

“My partner and I recently got a new chandelier. It’s a bicycle tire with Mason jars hanging from it.

It’s amazing. It’s gorgeous. When we got it and put it up, we suddenly got the urge to change every-

thing, change the entire look of the apartment.”

As he headed in the direction of a booth full of Tiffany lamps, mentioned in the play, Mr. Urie was reminded of a story: Ms. Streisand had approached the comedy writer Bruce Vilanch to write jokes for one of her concerts.

After hearing the price, Ms. Streisand started to negotiate. Mr. Urie slipped into the distinctive and beloved voice with a touch of nasal Brooklyn and acted out the moment: “ ‘Oh, I can’t pay that.’ And he’s like, ‘I’m sorry, Barbra but that’s what I charge.’ ” At this point Mr. Urie, who is in a oneman play after all, had slipped into both roles.

“She’s like: ‘That’s too much. I can’t pay that.

What can I do?’ And he goes, ‘Sell a lamp.’ ” In a stroll down the fashion alley, Mr. Urie spotted a mannequin displaying a 1920s-looking dropped-waist dress, prompting a reference to the Antique Clothes Boutique in the play, described as “a dress shop in ‘Gigi’ stocked with clothes from ‘Funny Girl.’ ” Later, he proved himself an adept spotter of dollhouses (perhaps a reflection of the time he spends onstage as the salesclerk at Bee’s Doll Shop, negotiating with “Barbra” over an antique French doll she already owns).

Mr. Urie checked out a German Gottschalk dollhouse (1890-1900) that was priced at $1,100. He leaned down and peered inside.

“Look: It’s a dollhouse in a dollhouse, it’s so meta,” he said.

The indefatigable Mr. Urie did not miss a booth.

He was scheduled to perform the 100-minute show in a few hours. “I have two shows today and two shows tomorrow,” he said. “Can you imagine?

I’ve done it 235 times now.”

Not that he is complaining.

He will continue in the role through March 16.

JOHN DOE / PHOTOGRAPHER

DVF and China: A Perfect Fit? DAVID BARBOZA Reporter ON a chilly morning in Beijing earlier this month, the American fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg was getting theatrical in the conference room of an art gallery in the city’s 798 Arts District. She was dressed elegantly in a black-and-white checked top, wool riding pants and high-heeled pumps.

With a video camera recording the session, Ms. Von Furstenberg and eight associates made preparations for a coming retrospective in Beijing, “Journey of a Dress.”

It chronicles her life in fashion, beginning in the 1970s, when the simple wrap dress she designed created a sensation.

VON FURSTENBERG Hanging on the wall behind her was a cowhide imprinted with a reverential image of Chairman Mao — a new work by the Chinese artist Zhang Huan. “So you walk in, and here you have the gates,” Ms. Von Furstenberg said as she pointed to a diagram of the exhibition space. “There are four partitions here. When you walk in — it’s fashion, fashion, fashion, fashion.”

Then she paced the room and demanded feedback. She tapped on her iPhone to retrieve notes, and tossed out ideas.

A Millennial D.I.Y.-er With the Digitized Touch SHEILA MARIKAR Reporter

SAN FRANCISCO — On the morning of Oct. 4, a line of women snaked out the doors of the Festival Pavilion at Fort Mason Center, a space the size of an airplane hangar at the edge of the bay here.

They were waiting to get into a conference for “makers” — artists, designers, chefs and other do-it-yourselfers, headlined by Brittany Morin.

Inside, they congregated around a doughnut bar; made their way to seats at long tables dotted with small containers of Legos; and tinkered, texted and chatted with neighbors.

But when Ms. Morin walked out, wearing a headset microphone over immaculate waves of long brown hair, they stopped what they were doing.

Brit, as her followers know her, is the founder of Brit & Co. a company dedicated to all things D.I.Y. “Every moment is a canvas,” she said, crossing the stage with a practiced stride.

“We are all artists. Show the world your canvas, and help them paint one, too.”

Ms. Morin, who will turn 28 on Friday, is far from the first millennial to style herself as the digitized heir to Martha Stewart, but she may be the most successful, at least by modern metrics.

Over the last two years, she and her company have amassed more than 2.9 million followers on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and Google Plus with posts about such topics as how to “trick out” a pair of headphones and turn a stone into a statement necklace.

Unlike the guru of gracious living, though, there is no “Brit way”; Ms. Morin offers loose guidelines rather than rules for the woman who is more comfortable operating an iPad than a glue gun.

“We like to do things that are really simple because we’re trying to reach the woman who thinks she’s not creative, or can’t do it, or doesn’t have that much time,” Ms. Morin said on a recent afternoon at Brit & Co.’s new 9,700-squarefoot headquarters.

Handmade touches adorn the offices: not pomander balls or tea cozies but items like a wooden “@” sym-

JOHN DOE / PHOTOGRAPHER

“Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” by Francis Bacon, is for sale at Christie’s.

With hard sell, big-ticket art comes to auction Christie’s MARY BILLARD Reporter

JOHN DOE / PHOTOGRAPHER

Brittany Morin, the founder of Brit & Co., in her San Francisco office. bol; also an array of gadgets, like a MakerBot 3D printer.

“I can’t get enough of that thing,” Ms. Morin said.

“I made a wrench the other day and earrings before that.”

Online, though, she models projects that take less than a half-hour to complete and require few materials beyond what the average woman already has. (A May post detailed 15 ways to turn an old T-shirt into jewelry.)

While she has a staff of more than 20 people and no longer monitors every concoction, she remains the site’s face, posing in gauzy, busily domestic photo shoots, starring in how-to videos and making TV appearances.

“Brit’s ideas are creative yet very accessible,” said Tammy Filler, a co-executive producer of the third and fourth hours of the “Today” show, on which Ms. Morin often appears. “She has a knack for teaching and uncomplicating D.I.Y. projects.”

Ms. Morin grew up in San Antonio, making pillowcases with her mother, a court reporter, and watching her father, who worked in information technology, take computers apart. (She also developed a predilection for cowboy boots.)

When she was 16, she made a purse out of empty cartons of Capri Sun juice.

“If you are wondering, yes, it was awesome and I got all kinds of compli-

ments,” she wrote on her site.

At the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied marketing, technology began to edge out textiles. She graduated in 2007, one year early, after an internship in Apple’s iTunes group. “Apple was my gateway drug” to Silicon Valley, she said.

After a stint at a now-defunct photo-sharing start-up, Ms. Morin landed at Google, working for the search division, where she reported to Marissa Mayer, and Google TV. She left the company with plans to found a health start-up. At the same time, she was planning her wedding to Dave Morin, the chief executive and a founder of Path, a social network, and she joined TechShop, a chain of workshops. “I was trying to take time to figure out what my hobby was, because I’d forgotten,” she said.

She ended up there for hours on end, laser-cutting a bouquet of wooden roses and other bridal accessories. During her honeymoon in Greece, she and Mr. Morin were in a scooter accident that left them bruised and bandaged, with a lot of time to think. “I realized how much I loved what I was doing at TechShop and I felt that there was a gap in the market for women of today’s age who want to make things,” Ms. Morin said.

Ms. Mayer and Lerer Ventures, among others, have invested in the company.

On a recent Saturday morning, the actor Michael Urie was part of the throng filtering past the ticket takers in the opening hours of the Pier Antique Show on the West Side of Manhattan. The reed-thin Mr. Urie, who is around six feet tall (“I say 5-11, so not to get typecast as tall”) seemed to feel at home among the sharp-eyed shoppers, being a frequent visitor to flea markets and vintage clothing stores.

But this particular pilgrimage was kind of a busman’s holiday. Eight times a week, Mr. Urie is on stage at the Barrow Street Theater, in “Buyer & Cellar,” playing an outof-work actor who has been hired by Barbra Streisand to be the watchful custodian of the mall-like shops she has had installed in the basement of a barn on her Malibu estate.

Mr. Urie’s character in the one-man play is fictional. The underground display of collectibles, described in a book by Ms. Streisand, “My Passion for Design,” is real.

As he walked through the show, which had more than 500 exhibitors of antiques, vintage clothes, fine arts, a smattering of kitsch and a mind-boggling display of collectibles, it was evident that Mr. Urie, 33, was attracted to what he called “quirk.” At various points, he focused on a collection of swizzle sticks, vintage lighters and flasks, and towers of interlocking orange bowls. Actually, anything orange. Mr. Urie credited his partner, the actor and writer Ryan Spahn, with offering a steadying aesthetic hand in furnishing their apartment. “I have an orange problem,” he said.

Running on parallel tracks, Mr. Urie picked out what he would personally like for his colorful, sun-drenched Midtown apartment and what he imagined would catch Ms. Streisand’s refined eye, and what would be lovingly curated in the basement mall.

“I wonder if I had unlimited financial means, like she does, if I would just go nuts,” he said. “My partner and I recently got a new chandelier. It’s a bicycle tire with Mason jars hanging from it. It’s amazing. It’s gorgeous. When we got it and put it up, we suddenly got the urge to change everything, change the entire look of the apartment.”

As he headed in the direction of a booth full of Tiffany lamps, mentioned in the play, Mr. Urie was reminded of a story: Ms. Streisand had approached the comedy writer Bruce Vilanch to write jokes for one of her concerts.

After hearing the price, Ms. Streisand started to negotiate. Mr. Urie slipped into the distinctive and beloved voice with a touch of

nasal Brooklyn and acted out the moment: “ ‘Oh, I can’t pay that.’ And he’s like, ‘I’m sorry, Barbra but that’s what I charge.’ ” At this point Mr. Urie, who is in a one-man play after all, had slipped into both roles. “She’s like: ‘That’s too much. I can’t pay that.

What can I do?’ And he goes, ‘Sell a lamp.’ ” In a stroll down the fashion alley, Mr. Urie spotted a mannequin displaying a 1920s-looking dropped-waist dress, prompting a reference to the Antique Clothes Boutique in the play, described as “a dress shop in ‘Gigi’ stocked with clothes from ‘Funny Girl.’ ” Later, he proved himself an adept spotter of dollhouses (perhaps a reflection of the time he spends onstage as the salesclerk at Bee’s Doll Shop, negotiating with “Barbra” over an antique French doll she already owns). Mr. Urie checked out a German Gottschalk dollhouse (1890-1900) that was priced at $1,100. He leaned down and peered inside. “Look: It’s a dollhouse in a dollhouse, it’s so meta,” he said.

The indefatigable Mr. Urie did not miss a booth. He was scheduled to perform the 100-minute show in a few hours. “I have two shows today and two shows tomorrow,” he said. “Can you imagine? I’ve done it 235 times now.” Not that he is complaining.

He will continue in the role through March 16, then move on to Chicago and Los Angeles. (The play is on sale in New York through April 13.)

Mr. Urie has worked steadily since graduating from Juilliard, most notably on the TV show “Ugly Betty” and on stage in “Angels in America.” He directed Mr. Spahn in a movie, “He’s Way More Famous Than You, ” which Mr. Spahn wrote.

Mr. Urie’s next obsession was antique fire extinguisher lamps. “Oh, my God,” he said. “Do they still put out fires? Very cool.”

The price seemed negotiable. “The haggle is very interesting to me: it’s like civilized dishonesty,” he said. “Why don’t you just write the price down?”

Still, he added, “I guess it is something people get a kick out of. Certainly, in the play Barbra gets a kick out of it.”

Smack in the middle of the aisle, Mr. Urie ran into the actor Harvey Fierstein, who had hosted the Casting Society of America’s annual Artios Awards earlier that week.

The two exchanged pleasantries before returning to their respective treasure hunts.

“He’s a smart man, such a talented man,” said Mr. Urie, who started listing Mr. Fierstein’s many credits, including the makeup artist brother of “Mrs. Doubtfire.”