Governor Andrew Cuomo has directed that flags be flown at half-mast following the death of a New York soldier killed in Afghanistan on Monday. Adding to the tragedy, the soldier's wife apparently witnessed her husband's death as the two were chatting on Skype.

The governor's office says Captain Bruce K. Clark, 43, died in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan while serving as an Army medic supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Clark, who lives in Spencerport -- a suburb of Rochester -- was assigned to A Company, Troop Command, William Beaumont Army Medical Center, in El Paso, Texas.

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​It is Jen Doll's last day today. We feel things. We read things Jen once wrote. We wrote this.

Oh, Jen. It seems like just yesterday you were starting at the Voice. You had just been another unemployed daughter living in the East Village. We listened with rapt attention over the cubicle wall as Foster tried to coach you on how to get 100 twitter followers. And look at you now, @thisisjendoll: two years later you have 2,455 tweeps, not to mention your name on 3,433 blog posts, on three cover stories in the paper, and on a 30-year mortgage (in Brooklyn, no less)!

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Uncle Chichi, circa 2000 (via Facebook)

According to the New York Times, there is a sad bit of information to impart today. Uncle Chichi, a West Village toy poodle who may have been 24, 25, or 26 years old, who had been battling cancer (sadface), and who was unquestionably adored and adorable, has passed over to the Rainbow Bridge. Inspiring public figures often generate controversy, and as such, there is some debate over Chichi's age, and whether he was actually the world's oldest living dog.

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Yesterday DNAinfo reported that the December 14 death of Young & Rubicam executive Suzanne Hart in an elevator at 285 Madison Avenue might have been prevented "if elevator repairmen had not violated city rules by rushing the lift back into service without the required O.K. from the Department of Buildings." According to sources, Transel Elevator Inc. did not follow through with the mandatory notification to the DOB following their work on the elevator -- that notification would have led to an independent inspection of the elevator, and, presumably, could have caught the glitch that led to Hart's death before the elevator was boarded by passengers.

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The Honda Ridgeline, via @quinner250

There's a bit of news to follow up to yesterday's breaking story that a woman had jumped from the Williamsburg Bridge and landed, 20 to 30 feet below, and alive, on the windshield of an NYPD cop's Honda Ridgeline truck parked on Pitt Street. The woman has been identified as Jenna Marie Filippi, 34, of Queens. Yesterday afternoon she was rushed to Bellevue with multiple traumas. She is expected to survive.

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According to a tipster, a woman has just jumped off the Williamsburg Bridge, landing on an vehicle parked on Pitt Street, at Delancey. Our tipster says, "She fell onto the windshield of an SUV on Pitt Street, right across the street from the fire/police station. When I walked by about 10 minutes ago she was still alive and was moving around slowly."

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Cute, sad kitten makes us happy.

If you're feeling a bit out of sorts right now, you're in good company. According to the Daily Mail, today is one of the most depressing days of the year. All sorts of things are getting us down, including the fact that many of us are back at work after a bunch of days off, plus, the economy, crime, politics, and the three-day hangover you may still be experiencing. Note: This overall glumness was confirmed by a survey of more than 13,000 British people. (American people, we suspect, are too full of ennui to take such surveys.) However, there is good news. We've compiled a list of things to make you feel better!

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via Facebook

Following up on the awful elevator incident yesterday at 285 Madison that caused the tragic death of Suzanne Hart, director of new business at Young & Rubicam, the daily papers share portraits of her life and what she had accomplished in her 41 years, as well as a further look into what actually happened. As for what happened: As we explained yesterday, what was initially reported as an elevator "fall" was not a fall at all -- Hart was getting on the elevator on the ground floor of the building when, the Post reports, "suddenly it shot upward like a bullet" with the doors still open and two other passengers, a man and woman, inside. The reports are upsetting.

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via

Just in time for the holidays, here's your Internet beef (it concerns charity this time): On one side, there's Paypal, your go-to method for paying for things online without using a credit card. On the other, there's Regretsy, the hilarious "fail blog of hand crafts." To get everyone up to speed: Regretsy set up a gift exchange where people could buy gifts for 200 needy kids. They raised more money than expected, and with the extra cash, planned to send a monetary gift to the families along with the presents. However, as Helen writes on Regretsy, they used the "Donate" button -- a no-no, apparently -- Paypal says it's only for nonprofits. So Paypal froze the account and is making her refund the donations.

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A cop subdues a man on the CSI campus, in a photo reportedly taken yesterday.

Yesterday we wrote of a developing incident at the College of Staten Island that, at first, had rumors of a shooting swirling among students and on Twitter. It turned out there was no shooting at all, as the school explained yesterday in a statement. As for what really happened -- an "off-duty member of the school's auxiliary service" (the Advance calls him a cafeteria porter) was caught smoking pot in a bathroom and was confronted by a cop who tried to arrest him. The man, whom the Post identifies as Cory Holmes, 39, ran to a parking lot, where he struggled with the police officer and, according to cops, tried to take the officer's gun. Holmes was subdued, handcuffed, went into cardiac arrest, and later died at Richmond University Medical Center.

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