MEANINGLESS BLAH BLAH BLAH ABOUT THE DROP IN NEW YORK TIMES CIRCULATION They raised prices 33-1/3% and circulation dropped 5.1%. What is everybody? Stupid? They made money on the drop. (100 copies at $.75 equals $75 dollars; 94 copies at a dollar equals, er, um around $94) Their strategy is to simply lop off the less well heeled and build an advertising base of big hitters who can buy show tickets at $125 per seat, Knicks and Ranger tickets at $500 each, trips to Europe at $10,000 per person, and so on. They don't want Joe and Jane Lunchbucket to be SEEN reading the snooty New York Times. Howell Raines is a hero to the suits upstairs. People like Andrew Sullivan should have learned to add and multiply while at Oxford, but their hatred of Raines paralyzes their brains. Their hatred makes their observations about the NYT meaningless. And they call others bigoted. Right.