Oct
31

Rob Bennett for The New York Times
Nadine McNeil will compete in her fourth marathon, but it will be the first for her 18-year-old son, Tyler, who is autistic.
Nadine McNeil will reach the crest of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on her handcycle soon after 7:30 Sunday morning. Moments later, she will roll swiftly past her 18-year-old son, Tyler, who is autistic. This will be her fourth marathon, and Tyler’s first. She has grown uneasy this week thinking of the moment when she will leave him behind.
“I can’t look back,” she said. “For 18 years, I’ve always known every moment where Tyler is. On Sunday, I won’t.”
Though joint parent-child appearances in the New York City Marathon are not uncommon — Rod Dixon, the race’s 1983 champion, is returning this year to run the race with his daughter — the path that brought Nadine, 42, and Tyler to the marathon is an unlikely one. Nadine had a stroke when she was 8 and lost the use of her right arm and her right leg. Tyler, her only child, is severely speech-delayed. Even now at 6 feet 4 inches, he communicates verbally by using one or two words at a time. Read more..




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Oct
31

Today’s Must Reads
Just like 6.1 percent of all Americans during the economy’s recession, Manny Ramirez is currently unemployed and looking for work. Worse yet for the guy, there is a good chance the new administration is going to tax the bejesus out of him to spread the wealth around. Talk about kicking a guy while he’s down, right?
Standing in line at the soup kitchen, everyone talks about their dreams and aspirations for gainful employment. Mike would love to start computer programming again, Frank dreams of landing an accounting gig, and Joe, naturally, is a former plumber.
Manny the Ballplayer knows where he’d like to end up, too. According to a source in the New York Post, Ramirez wants to sign with the New York Yankees and have 19 chances a year to “punish” the Red Sox.
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Oct
31
SOUTH BRONX, N.Y. - At Validus Preparatory Academy, a new public high school in the poorest congressional district in America, students have kept journals since the early primaries, created election art, studied opinion polls in math classes, designed brochures on the issues, read memoirs by the candidates and even delivered speeches in their stead. And after the principal dashed around to plumbing supply stores for enough PVC pipe to build a voting booth, they got a chance to punch their own electronic ballots in a national mock election for students.
Being so steeped in the presidential race, the students at this predominantly African-American and Hispanic school on Bathgate Avenue are a little on edge about the outcome. They say they are excited about the possibility that Sen. Barack Obama could become the first black person elected president of the United States. (In the mock election results so far, 88 percent of Validus students chose Obama.) But many also admit to some nervousness that it won’t happen. And even if he does win, they’re crossing their fingers that he’ll be up to the job.
“If Obama doesn’t win, it’s a big disappointment,” said Dorian Whyte, 18, who moved to New York City from Jamaica. “And I think if he does win, also, it can be a disappointment, if he doesn’t deliver.”
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