The latest legislative and cultural crisis to hit the Big Apple is a heated debate over the sale of previously worn lingerie and underwear. For example: Someone wears a thong once or twice (or just tries it on in the store), returns it, and then store associates put the used and worn item right back on the sales rack.

The legal debate grew out of a television news piece suggesting that such resales are par for the course at major department stores. A Macy’s spokesperson countered (lesson: never be the one to answer a reporter’s question about underwear, it’s a no-win): “We train our associates to inspect the merchandise upon return and if in salable condition, return it to the sales floor. Any items that are soiled … are not returned to the floor.”

This sounds like some bizarre offshoot of the Patriot Act.

If we can’t soil our underwear and still get full value when we bring it back to the store, haven’t the terrorists already won?

Surprise, surprise. Bernard Law officially got a new gig in Rome. Maybe there’s an opening for Spanky the Clown as well?

E!’s CEO Mindy Herman may be on the way out thanks to the creation of a fearful environment for employees, brawls in parking lots and baby showers at the company’s expense (and for which employees felt compelled to buy items for her off of her baby registry).

Pay close attention to that combination of behavioristics. She’s likely to get booted out the door along with a sack of cash to the tune of about $20 million.

Suddenly that exclamation point makes perfect sense.

Contrary to popular opinion, once married people reach the age of 40, wives are the ones who initiate divorce proceedings more than sixty percent of the time.

And the guys? A significant number of them indicate that they never saw it coming and had no idea that their marriage was in trouble.

Maybe we need polling to be done in individual homes. For example, I may hire Zogby to find out what my cats really think of me.

Just how dominant is the iPod. On a related note: Why doesn’t everyone use Macs?

No soldier has earned the Medal of Honor for more than eleven years. That could change once the full story of Jason Dunham’s heroism in Iraq has been told.

There is, amid the politics and the policies, a story too often ignored (although it’s nearly always the subtext): The kids who are actually over there. This story of a twenty-two year old who requested a longer term in Iraq to “make sure everyone makes it home alive,” provides a moment by moment account of a soldier who jumped on a grenade to spare his comrades.