NEW YORK CHARACTERS

Lenty of books feature New York City's famous landmarks, but what about the Big Apple's famous or notorious, or merely interesting citizens? Former mayor Ed Koch, Carlyle Hotel crooner Bobby Short, bearded lady Jennifer Miller, Chinatown's Egg Cake Lady and The Oldest Cabbie are just a few of the folks Gillian Zoe Segal highlights in her book of photographs and biographical sketches, New York Characters. It's not a comprehensive gathering ("Woody Allen dissed me and I got in a fight with the "Soup Nazi," she writes), but that's part of its charm: after all; a unique city deserves a quirky cross-section. All author proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the families of the victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Foreword by George Plimpton.