As strikes go, this one had a relatively short run.

Last night, 19 days after the standoff began between the League of American Theaters and Producers and the stagehands’ union, the neon lights were bright again on Broadway.

Nederlander, Shubert and other theater owners re-opened their doors. Restaurateurs on 46th Street filled their tables. Casts and audiences reveled.

The story on Thanksgiving Day began bravely (ironically?) with five simple words: “Even lawyers need a hug.”

But if they’re a recent law school graduate already making well over $100,000 a year do they also need free milkshakes brought to their desks?

The “happiness committee” at the Washington office of the law firm Perkins Coie has answered that question in the affirmative, according to The New York Times.

Oral Roberts University, reeling from debt and allegations of misspending, announced yesterday that it is separating from the ministries headed by Richard Roberts, who has resigned from the college presidency.

“By unanimous decision of the board, it was decided that the university will take every step necessary to separate ORU and the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association as a legal, financial, accounting and governance matter,” said George Pearsons, the regents’ chairman.

“However, the spiritual connection between the two organizations will remain.”

Unless significant board changes occur, however, the connections between the university and the ministries will go far beyond the spiritual realm.

The life of a whistleblower is hardly the glamorous stuff of Hollywood. Often it’s a life spent looking over one’s shoulder, hoping for small victories while withstanding reprisals.

What’s so unusual about the plight of Ken Pedeleose, an industrial engineer and whistleblower at the Defense Contract Management Agency, is that he scored a big victory last month from a federal mediation panel in a little-noticed ruling by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.

Brooke Astor’s son, Anthony D. Marshall, was indicted today on charges of pilfering money from his mother’s estate, valued at nearly $200 million.

Thanks to Woodward, Bernstein and Deep Throat, the first rule of investigative journalism is “Follow The Money.”

The rule works for Muckety, too, especially when it comes to politics. Connections between politicians and their donors are always revealing.

A case in point: A story by Michael Cooper and Leslie Wayne in Thursday’s New York Times. It focused on the wealthy Paul E. Singer, a hedge-fund founder and backer of Rudy Giuliani’s presidential bid.

Robert A. Levy doesn’t own a gun, but he is at the heart of a Second Amendment case that the Supreme Court agreed to hear last week.

Levy, a millionaire and lawyer with lots of Washington connections, used his money to finance a challenge to the District of Columbia statute that prohibits the ownership of handguns.

The 31-year-old statute also places restricts on the possession of other firearms, including a requirement that the guns in homes be unloaded.

“Image is everything,” a shaggy-haired Andre Agassi proclaimed as he hawked Canon cameras as a teenager.

Over the next 20 years, the tennis superstar traded handsomely on his world-famous name and image, earning an estimated $200 million through deals with Nike, Adidas, Head, Genworth Financial, Aramis and American Express, among others.

Matt Damon, People’s Sexiest Man Alive for 2007, is in good company.

The magazine started the award in 1985, with Mel Gibson. Past winners include: Mark Harmon, Harry Hamlin, John F. Kennedy Jr., Sean Connery, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Nick Nolte, Richard Gere, Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington, George Clooney, Harrison Ford, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Affleck, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Matthew McConaughey.

Membership in the Federalist Society, a group for conservative or libertarian law students and lawyers, has recently helped open doors to jobs in the federal government, especially the judiciary.

But given the Democratic Congress and other factors, Federalist Society membership, or even past Federalist Society membership, may not be the plus it was.

At least that’s what Rachel K. Paulose has alleged.