Esther Zuckerman

​Jimmy Webb leads us out of Trash and Vaudeville -- the famed St. Mark's store where he works as buyer and manager -- to a spot across the street. Over the buildings he points to a white wall that has the word "Muerte" written in block letters at its top. That's where there used to be an image of the face of John Spacely, a local junkie who wore an eye patch. Earlier inside his store, Webb was sitting next to us on overturned crates he had set out for the purpose of the interview, and he teared up describing his reaction to the mural being painted over.

"I remember watching it being painted over and for some reason it was one of those things that just made me cry," he said. "It was one of those last things."

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​Police have actually arrested rock icon Lou Reed's manager for allegedly threatening to send Israeli hit men to go after a headhunter for the stars in a nasty squabble over an unpaid bill.

In a complaint filed two weeks ago with the Midtown North Detective Squad, as the Voice first reported, Adrian Smith, who specializes in providing personal staff to celebrities, claimed that Reed's manager Tom Sarig told him, "Our guys in Israel are going to fly in and they will kill you."

Smith filed the complaint shortly after the March 8 conversation. He claims Sarig also said, before hanging up the phone, "You want your fucking head in a bag? By the time they find you, they'll be back in Israel having a drink. Keep harassing us for money, you're a fucking dead man."

Sarig was arrested last night on an aggravated harassment charge, and could face up to a year in jail.

Smith says he received a payment to settle the unpaid bill after he filed the police report, but he pursued the complaint anyway.

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​Nobel prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has recently enjoyed his time in the sun for being (A) a 2008 Nobel prize-winner, (B) correct about a bunch of things, (C) smacking down flashy upstart Andrew Ross Sorkin. All of which are beside those times Loudon Wainwright wrote a song about him and a moderator during a discussion at the London School of Economics once introduced him a "rock star". But this thing might have gone too far, now.

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​Apropos of nothing, other than the fact that yesterday was the Simchat Torah of Marijuana Smokers worldwide (4-20) and also the sixth-to-last episode of Lost, what follows is a scientific estimation of naming habits as related to Lost by marijuana consumers worldwide.

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​The New York State Senate has rejected a variety of "sin" taxes that Governor Paterson has proposed to raise revenue. The Senate's budget proposal has neglected to tax sodas, or additionally tax cigarettes, to help fill the $9 billion budget deficit. They've also declined to earn additional revenue by selling wine in supermarkets.

But if they don't want you to buy munchies where you buy wine, the Senate is hoping a common source of the munchies will help fill the state coffers. The Senate has found a new pot of potential wealth to draw from: medical marijuana.

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​If you think your union's solid, think again. Satan's apparently in the labor law business these days, and he's making your lawyer look like My Cousin Vinny.

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​It's true. In the event that you've ever wanted to know what the House of Representatives do all day, now you can: Sit around and talk about Big Star's singer-songwriter Alex Chilton. Kinda like us, actually.

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