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An essential New York City question is this: What would you do if someone fell on the subway tracks in front of you? Jump in and save the person? Make a call? It's a difficult question for most of us, but if previous actions are any indication, one that Carlos Cancel can answer in a heartbeat. The doorman from the Bronx has now saved two drunk men after they have fallen onto the tracks, the Daily News reports. Early Friday morning Cancel was waiting for an uptown 2 train at the 72nd Street station when he jumped to saved a stumbling man who fell "face-first." The man weighed about 10 pounds more than Cancel, and was four inches taller. "I scooped him up like a baby, like cradling him with his head on my arm and supporting his legs," Cancel told the Daily News. "And I swung him really hard -- I basically threw him up onto the platform." In 1992 Cancel performed a similar feat 34th Street. Wow, just wow. Kudos. [NYDN]

Four people in Manhattan yesterday saved a life and gained a story they'll likely tell for the rest of their lives when they helped lift a Honda Civic off of a little boy stuck underneath. Jaden Torres, either 9- or 10-years-old depending on who you believe, was playing in Harlem's Grant Houses at around 7:30 p.m. when he ran across the street and was hit by a taxi, the impact of which jammed him under the bumper of a parked car. "He had a pulse," said a pediatrician who helped Torres at the scene, "but he was completely unresponsive." Then a group of strangers went into hero mode. "I wanted to talk to him just so he knew someone was there," said one woman who stood by as the car was lifted. Torress was sent to Harlem Hospital in stable condition. [NYDN, NYP]

Here's a feel-good story about the olds fighting back against the youngs with wisdom and moxie. As the New York Post tells it, 83-year-old John McGinnis noticed thousands of dollars had gone missing from a drawer in his room at a Brooklyn senior citizens' home. So he did a little Sherlock-work, putting a folded business card between the drawer and the dresser. His 21-year-old attendant was busted when she opened the drawer and the telltale card fell to the floor. The money quote: "We went outside, and I told her, 'You're a little crook and you stole my money!' " McGinnis said. (We hear this technique also works with a bit of Scotch tape.) [NYP]

Sidney Lumet, the acclaimed director of such classics as Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Network, died this morning in New York at the age of 86. His stepdaughter, Leslie Gimbel, told the New York Times that the cause was lymphoma. His filmmaking career was bookended by 1957's 12 Angry Men and 2007's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

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Rest easy, friends, because our dear, displaced Snooki has found a home for New Years Eve! After being ousted from the Times Square ceremony in which she'd been "supposed to" drop in the ball "like a friggin' hampster," her homeland has taken her in again. Via the New York Times Arts Beat, she'll be involved in "a New Year's Eve stunt" in the Jersey Shore's very own Seaside Heights, produced by MTV, of course.

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EXCLUSIVE

Another person fell onto the subway tracks in New York City yesterday. This time, a heroic train operator avoided tragedy, slamming on the breaks at the Fifth Ave. and 59th St. station just before hitting the woman. This story is on the cover of Sunday's Daily News. It is an amazing story! But some questions remain -- too much for any one blogger -- so we brought in a special guest to work through the issues at hand. Runnin' Scared, please welcome New York weekend warrior Mike Vilensky:

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On January 22, St. Ann's Warehouse will be hosting a benefit concert to help pay medical expenses for Tuli Kupferberg, the anti-war poet and all around wiseass who co-founded local heroes the Fugs.

Whether because of their political activism (Kupferberg was arrested trying to levitate the Pentagon, which earned him a spot in Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Armies of the Night), or because of top 40-unfriendly songs like "Coca-Cola Douche," the Fugs didn't spend a lot of time on Ed Sullivan. They were a huge influence on what later became indie music, as well as the work of icons Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground. He was in this space as recently as last Monday, when Tony's Clip Jobs revisited a happening in 1966 Tompkins Square Park.

Kupferberg suffered two strokes last year, which left him, at 86, mostly blind and in need of nursing which isn't covered by Medicare.

So far, Lou Reed, Philip Glass, John Zorn, Richard Belzer, Sonic Youth, members of the Holy Modal Rounders and the Fugs are scheduled to play. Tickets are $75-$125 and are available here, or call (718) 254.8779.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW YORK YANKEES FOR WINNING THEIR 27th WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!

I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

Well, I'm finally just getting out of bed, after celebrating the World Series Championship of the New York Yankees up until about 7am. None of us wanted the night to end.

Ball game over. World Series over. Baseball season over. Listening to asinine hating anti-fans drop the "who's won more in this century" over. Having to hear people say they "can't wait til the Yankees choke" over.

First year at new stadium over.

Nine years without a ring over.

Ball game over.

The Yankees win. The Yankees win!

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Karma's a cruel mistress.

A bitch, even.

There is something to be said for honoring the Code of War. Hnoor among thieves, etc. As much as I wanted to, I refrained from texting asinine comments to my Sox fan buddies. I doubt they would show me the same courtesy. Actually, I know they wouldn't. But that's what makes us Yankee fans and them Sux fans.

Well, that, and the fact that we're still playing baseball for at least the next few days.

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Jorge Munoz, who feeds poor and homeless immigrant laborers daily from his van parked under the elevated tracks at Roosevelt Avenue-Jackson Heights, is one of 10 finalists to be CNN's Hero of the Year. Munoz, who came to Queens from Colombia in the early eighties, has been serving up to 125 dinners daily with food and ingredients donated from local businesses, supplemented by cash donations and what he can spare from the ~$700/wk he earns as a school bus driver.

Finalists receive $25k, which Munoz plans to use to pay up his credit card bills and his car loan. If he wins Hero of the Year, he says the $100k prize will cover the costs of his efforts for the next two years.

If you're inclined to, you can donate or volunteer to help here, and vote in the CNN Hero poll here. Voting ends on Thanksgiving.