THERE HE GOES AGAIN! Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, now known as "America's Mayor," told Republican conventioneers Monday that out-of-towners were now more interested in 9/11 than New Yorkers are. I can hardly believe he'd say such a crazy thing, but that's what the reporter said on news channel NY1.

If you happen to be an out-of-towner who is interested in 9/11, know this: To this day, many New Yorkers aren't merely "interested" in that day--they're still recovering from its terrors. Families, friends, and business associates still mourn the dead. Survivors still wrestle with recovery. Witnesses still reel from the trauma of seeing the falling bodies, the tumbling towers, and the clouds of dust billowing down the streets. Residents living around Ground Zero still struggle to adjust to their transformed neighborhood, wondering whether pollution from months of smoldering wreckage will undermine their health. (Recovery workers who were lauded as heroes already suffer from respiratory ailments.) Unemployed New Yorkers still try to find jobs in a market that imploded along with the World Trade Center. The alert level in the city remains a constant Orange.

There's no way New Yorkers have put 9/11 behind them. How could our out-of-town neighbors ever be more "interested" in that day than New Yorkers are?

Singer-songwriter Christine Lavin expresses the feelings of many New Yorkers in "Like Father, Like Son," a song welcoming the 2004 Republican National Convention to New York City. Lavin, perhaps best known for the song "Sensitive New Age Guys," recently inspired illustrator Betsy Franco Feeney to create the charming children's book Amoeba Hop, based on Lavin's song of the same name.

Monday night I heard Lavin perform "Amoeba Hop" at Jim Caruso's Cast Party while the book's author turned the giant pages of a book made especially for audience viewing. It was my first visit to this Monday night Birdland event, where the audience included Michael Feinstein, Michele Lee, and Julie Wilson. Lee offered an impromptu performance of the theme from Knots Landing while seated at her table. Two of the onstage standouts were Lavin and Ray Jessel.

Jim Caruso's Cast Party has gotten lots of good publicity lately. Here's what Lavin says about it .

Lavin is, of course, welcome at Bushapalooza. (See August 30.)