That many people feel besieged became clear after a late-December NYC column on the rumblings of a consumer rebellion against the advertising barrages.

NO way would the NYC column be written anymore, no sir, not after so many worthy colleagues had been ignored for the Pulitzer Prize.

To the Editor: Clyde Haberman (NYC column, March 10) is right.

(NYC column, July 25) is a great question with a simple answer: Go ahead, as long as you don't harm anyone.

That has been the case since a recent NYC column about a cellphone-distracted cabby who drove away with a 4-month-old boy (my grandson, but that's not the issue).

To the Editor: I believe that the time is at hand for a new national anthem (NYC column, June 15).

To the Editor: I disagree that people should not take baby strollers into the subway during rush hour (NYC column, Dec. 17).

So it is with a few NYC columns in 1999 that looked at brushes with the law, both grave and not terribly serious.

Clyde Haberman writes the NYC column for The Times.

Given that sad reality, the NYC column offers some advice as a public service.