Mineola High graduate and now Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli tells me that he hopes to run for Lt. Governor with Elliot Spitzer. That may present a Democratic primary between Tom Suozzi and Spitzer. This is rich because you may recall DiNapoli seemed to have had the county executive nomination in the bag, when Suozzi came out of nowhere and snatched it away from him. Dems are fascinated about newly-elected Suozzi's bid for the governorship, while Republicans are watching the duel between Jeanine Pirro and Joseph Bruno over the coming senate race.

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Eleanor Rigby's is a very popular restaurant. Our waitress was Sarah Mooney; her parents are Ann and Terence of Marcellus Road. While there we met Fred and Sandy Gumm of Albertson Place and Nick Dnyprowski, also of Mineola. The eatery was once called the Firehouse, then Delancy St., then Scales of Justice and Kevin Grant's before becoming Eleanor Rigby's.

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County Comptroller Howard Weitzman and Dem leader Joe Galante lunched at the Jericho Diner.

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Dr. Jerry Wolfert has been practicing dentistry in Mineola for 33 years and buys his newspapers at CJ Gifts.

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Jose Padara used to be a waiter at La Cisterna and now works for a restaurant in NHP. He and his wife Marice live on Main Street.

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Republican State Senator Mike Balboni and three of his four children lunched at the Jericho. Later we met Miguel Hernadez and his wife Carina. He is a waiter at The Davenport.

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Les and Muriel Teemsma enjoyed dinner at Cugini's. They are still talking about their wonderful trip to Hawaii.

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Good news, Father Tom Murphy, former Corpus Christi priest, is a bit better.

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Tom Rudolph, after putting in 20 years as a NYC cop, has retired at the age of 41. Tom now has his own security firm.

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Our Mayor, Jack Martins, had breakfast at the Jericho.

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Always good to see the smiling upbeat Presbyterian Minister Chester Easton around town.

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Years ago, The Chock Full of Nuts ditty ran "better coffee a millionaire's money can't buy." I see that they have now amended that to "billionaire's money." After all, what's a million amount to today?

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Joe Pryor ushers at Corpus Christi Church at 5:30 p.m. Mass. He recently had a Mass of Remembrance for his late wife, Catherine. They lived many happy years on Arlington Street.

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John Meyer of Mineola is quite a poet. He wrote a moving poem just after 9-11 called God Bless the USA. He also wrote an ode to December and the Last Salon about the final days of life.

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I like Maryann Ferran of CJ Gifts, but she's got to get off this Ranger kick. Everytime I see her she goes on and on about her hockey team and how great they are. She has followed them since she was in high school. We Islander fans are really getting mad. Enough already.

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Speaking of sports, Mineola's Jim Howard is quite a baseball fan of the Mets. Jim travels to St. Lucie every spring to catch them in spring training.

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Eating lunch at the Jericho Diner, I noticed I can still see at the top of the Entenmanns building across the street, if you look carefully, the sign "Frame Motors." Frame Chevrolet has been gone almost 40 years but their sign lives on. At the same diner I met Tim Sullivan, an attorney, who once lived on White Road. He and his wife Peggy now reside in Garden City.

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All the busboys are fast at the Jericho. Sauli Maldonato, however, is lightning fast. A real hard worker.

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Aqueduct is drawing about 3,000 fans. This for a track that could hold 50,000. Racing really seems almost doomed with the event of the lottery, OTB and the casinos. With the sole exception of Saratoga, all the tracks are losing money. Years ago this area was alive with horse racing with long-gone places like Sheepshead Bay, Graves End and Brighton Beach. From about 1870 to 1920, these places drew millions of fans. Will any of the tracks survive much longer?