The best five things about La Guardia Airport:

5) The juxtaposition of an old, dilapidated terminal that looks like it's going to collapse against shiny, new modern terminals.

4) The endless line of free magazines and newspapers in the Marine Air Terminal for Delta Shuttle flyers.

3) The landing route with a south or southwest wind when you fly in from the south: up the Hudson over the West Side Highway, and then around to the east and then south.

2) More roads, merges, twists, turns, ramps, forks, and exits than you can imagine in a narrow strip of land between the parkway and the East River.

1) Landing from the northeast and being convinced you're going to touch down in the water, when all of a sudden the paper-thin runway extension appears under the plane just in time.

Rigoletto on Columbus Avenue serves up a nearly perfect pizza slice--a high ratio of sauce to cheese and a crispy crust. Last night I sampled a new choice, goat cheese and diced tomato pizza. It was fantastic. Rigoletto was smart to tone down the mozarella cheese in this recipe -- multiple cheeses wind up being too busy, and I've never understood the point of 17-cheese pizza.

It was great to see the Yankees rally last night from an 8-4 deficit to win 10-8. But what was also great was the refreshing change of hearing just Ken Singleton and Jim Kaat calling the game.

Michael Kay is fantastic. He has every fact at his fingertips, delivers sharp analysis, and understands the game as well as few other sportscasters. But he is intense, and if you want to just chill out and watch the game, the combination of just Singleton and Kaat is more appealing.

The Cingular deal can't close a moment too soon for AT&T Wireless. Last quarter, the "network America trusts" lost 400,000 customers. What will be interesting is how next quarter pans out. AT&T Wireless just announced "GSM America," a plan in which GSM customers can call from anywhere in the US without worrying about roaming charges. Intelligently, the company is extending this benefit automatically to existing GSM customers, so they don't have to bog down customer service with expensive and labor-intensive calls.

Still, despite the impression left by AT&T Wireless's ads and PR, only 3 of 21 million customers are on the GSM network. If you call customer service, they tell you that GSM is the future and that the TDMA (old style) network is no longer being improved. Maybe not--but with such a large defection, maintaining the legacy TDMA side has to be a top priority for AT&T Wireless. After such a horrible 1st quarter, it could stand to retain some the 19 million customers using the old technology.

Today's Wall Street Journal has a superb article on all of the decisions and issues regarding digital video recorders and skipping ads.

Here's all I know: since having Time Warner's DVR service, I haven't watched a single television ad on a recorded program. I can fast forward through 20-30 seconds at a time and it's always obvious when the show has returned. For example, with "The Apprentice," the return to the show was typically preceded by a teaser for the late night news.

Freedom from TV ads: priceless.

The top five things about Apple's email application built into OS X:

5) It's sturdy. I don't remember the last time it crashed. In fact, it's possible that it hasn't crashed at all in the two years I've been using it, even while absorbing a large number of folders and messages.

4) The mail viewer is clean and open. There aren't a lot of lines separating information but the list of messages appears organized and manageable.

3) The address history shows the date on which you last sent email to that address.

2) The synchronization with Address Book is fantastic. You can start typing someone's real name and it pulls the contact information right out of the Address Book and into the addressing window.

1) You can redirect mail to another destination even after it's downloaded from the POP server. So if you don't want work email coming home, it never does.

I expect Yahoo's new "Life Engine" ad campaign and positioning to fail.

First of all, "engine" is not the right word. It's too purpose-directed and technical for something as nebulous as "life," although maybe that juxtaposition was the point. It doesn't add up when you say it, though.

Second, this purported one-stop shopping message--yet another iteration of a message used with so little success by Time Warner and innumerable financial services conglomerates--doesn't mesh with the individualistic spirit of Internet usage. If you don't get exactly what you want in the way you want it, you can switch Web sites with no cost. People tend to use an amalgam of sites tailored to the particular functions that best suit them.

This is why I use Yahoo! to get sports scores (because the scores are laid out in a readable manner), but not sports analysis (I prefer the more intellectual commentary of Richard Sandomir and professional sports journalists to random wire reports); I also use Yahoo to check the stock market averages, but politely ignore the garbage Yahoo's finance page provides, such as columns from TradingMarkets.com and other schemes intended to lure investors into money-wasting hobbies.

Yahoo's new campaign asks us to buy a vision of using one company for everything we do on the Internet. This is wholly out of sync with reality. Yahoo should have launched specific campaigns around individual components of its service, instead of advocating a presumptuous and deluded vision that grinds against the very roots of the Internet's appeal.

Telecom companies are famous for failing to include surcharges, taxes and fees in their advertised rates so those advertised rates can appear low. (For example, Verizon's "Freedom" Plan, advertised at $59.95 per month, actually costs $85.)

Then there are the surcharges that are truly petty cash. Take, for example, Dollar car rental's surcharge for getting frequent flier miles. They can't just give you a simple bonus as an incentive--instead, taking advantage of the incentive costs you money. If you elect to receive 50 Delta SkyMiles per day, that costs you 50 cents per day up to $2.00 per transaction.

Here's a thought: why not have less fine print and make more money? Look at how many people are requesting frequent flier bonuses, assess how much it costs, build in something slightly higher than average into your prices, and simplify life for customers instead of making them feel nickel-and-dimed.

At this rate, we'll soon be shopping in supermarkets with "free" products that are then subject to an "acquisition fee" equivalent to the original price.

On the northeast corner of Union Square West and 14th Street, there is a bizarre sign facing north. It says "Parking Only," with an arrow pointing diagonally across the intersection. On this diagonal corner, there is nothing resembling any parking area whatsoever.

But this isn't nearly as good as a sign at Boston's Big Dig seen in 1999. Driving from eastbound Storrow Drive to I-93 south, after dodging various traffic barriers, you hit a fork in the road. You could either fork right or fork left, but the sign for I-93 south was no help: it said to go straight.

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The next post will be Wednesday, April 21. The Friday Top Five will return on April 23.

A new radio station has arrived: Mix 102.7. Judging from the television ads and Web site, this appears to be Viacom's effort to undercut LiteFM's dominance. LiteFM, owned by Clear Channel, seems to have a near monopoly on all New York City dentist offices and delis and has one of the largest (if not the largest) listening audiences in the United States.

I'm convinced that more and more call center hold systems are designed to make you hang up in frustration instead of actually having your questions answered.

Time Warner Cable's system presents two options when you first call: 1 and 3. But if you press zero, the unannounced option, suddely the door opens to a wide range of other options. Eventually, you get someone, and to Time Warner's credit, the representatives are generally courteous and competent.

AT&T Wireless is awful, however. The hold music is shrouded in persistent static that goes on and on for the life of the wait. This has to be deliberate (is it supposed to simulate the quality of cell phone connection you get with the company?). I think it's the ultimate irritation designed to make you hang up.

Five Yankees statistics that should correct themselves by September:

5) Mariano Rivera's ERA is 3.00.

4) Mike Mussina is 0-2 (.000).

3) The Yankees are 2-2 on the road (.500).

2) The Yankees are 2-2 against Tampa Bay (.500).

1) A-Rod is batting .167.

Today's article in the New York Times business section about Yahoo! reads like a company press release. Except a press release would actually contain disclaimers.

Hasn't anyone learned anything? Impressive recent financial results are reported with barely any analysis as to what is behind the numbers. Yahoo! is a company that has been up and down. It's also still largely dependent on advertising to subsidize its basically free services. And what's with the stock split at $50? Stock splits are bogus anyway; at $50 it just seems like a way to fuel hype. Yahoo! has successfully taken the media for a ride and can laugh all the way to the bank.

If it's too in, it's out.

That's the apparent take-away from the latest increase in guidance from Skechers, the company that brought those retro loud-color sneakers into the mainstream.

Skechers wrote that trend into sneaker history and now has gracefully backed off. If you go to a store expecting to be surrounded by vibrant oranges and blues, forget it. Instead, the company's sneaker line, with navies, blacks, grays and whites, looks more line plain old New Balance athletic sneakers. Besides a couple of splashes of green, the retro look Skechers helped make famous is out. (You can verify this development virtually by visiting the Skechers Web site.)

This is an indication of a smart company. The fad Skechers helped start is now too in.

An email from the Gap this morning: "It's getting warmer." Stock up on short sleeve tees.

Any wool sweaters left?

Judging from comments from message boards on both the AT&T Wireless site and on a great site called HowardForums.com, it's amazing how many people think that Cingular already owns AT&T Wireless. But the deal is far from closing. And there are still no guarantees. Sometimes, for example, the target company loses so much value in the meantime that the buyer can bail out. In this context, a recent report that AT&T Wireless is losing 150,000 customers per month is interesting.

Another sign of trouble: the AT&T Wireless store on 78th Street and Broadway closed. The funny thing is, the store always seemed to be full--not with prospective customers, but current customers complaining about service. While a profitable store is the best scenario, no store is better than a store actually used as a complaint center.

AT&T Wireless would be wise to eliminate roaming on its national plans. The online bulletin boards also reveal an enormous amount of confusion as to what constitutes roaming, where and when. The AT&T Wireless national plans permit calling "on the AT&T network," but this is waived in certain metro areas with roaming agreements. This sets up confusion for the customer and increases the likelihood of expensive calls into customer service to bicker about roaming charges. Cingular has eliminated roaming on its national plan, but for some reason AT&T hasn't figured out that it's better to do the same.

Going into the deal, Cingular had to know it was buying a company in steep decline and presumably negotiated sufficient protections for its $41 billion bid. Right? We'll see.

5) Sal Marchiano (WPIX). If you keep it where it is and can stay awake, you'll get through a fairly good sports report. Marchiano's delivery is notoriously lethargic, but he brings years of experience and good insight into the New York sports scene.

4) Scott Clark (WABC). Clark delivers the perfect standard sportscast. It's not particularly exciting, but it's evenhanded and intelligent.

3) John Discepolo (WNYW). Filling the shoes of Curt Menefee (who has since gone to MSG SportsDesk) was no easy task, but Discepolo, although a newbie, has done it well. The incredibly annoying production techniques of Fox News aside, his reporting is solid, and his delivery is enthusiastic without going overboard.

2) Warner Wolf (WCBS). Boom! Swish! Even after all these years and back from a brief hiatus in DC, Wolf hasn't lost a beat. The formula can get old, but he doesn't shy away from opinions and articulates the populist fan point of view extremely effectively given time limitations. Personally, I don't love the emphasis on horse racing and point spreads, but you have to give Wolf credit for sticking to an angle he believes in. His "Plays of the Month" are still the best.

1) Len Berman (WNBC). The ultimate blue chip sportscaster. Slightly animated when appropriate and critical when warranted, Berman is able to add a thinking fan's twist when the issues du jour call for doing so. If I had to choose one sports report to make sure I received all important information with sufficient personality and analysis, Len Berman would get my vote.

Hey, AT&T: You're fired.

"The World's Networking Company" has been booted from the Dow Jones index. One of its replacements? Verizon. Ouch.

This, just after the launch of Voice-over-IP telephone service in New Jersey and Texas, with nationwide service predicted by the end of the year. I wouldn't wait up nights until this service is reliable, though. Remember, AT&T is the company whose voicemail service does not include message existence indication without a separate piece of AT&T equipment.