It was years ago at a Xavier event that I ran into Chris and I probably hadn't seen him prior to that since graduation in 1984. I was with the Law Journal at the time, he was at Bloomberg. By all indications he was doing quite well -- I pumped him for industry tips because I was considering my career options at the time. I took his card and always meant to call him for more, but our only occasions for conversation after that were fund-raisers for the school. He was a regular contributor, a strong one. I had a lot of respect for him, especially on the latter point.

He was at a breakfast meeting at Windows on the World on September 11, 2001 and there was no way out of that. And even though there were literally thousands of people lost that day, my mind always finds its way back to him when the subject of that day comes up.

They played his voice on the radio just now -- one of the emergency tapes just released to families. It took me by surprise, hearing his name and then hearing him. On the inside pages of the Post I had just been reading about the ongoing arguments over what to build at the World Trade Center site: a wacky Freedom Tower, a sunken-waterfall memorial that looks like a trough urinal. Business as usual. It'll be many years before anything happens. And now I need to finish my coffee and get dressed for another day of business as usual, getting my affairs in order so I can get myself the hell out of New York.