The New York Times-20080127-F- y- I-- -The City Weekly Desk-

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F. y. I.; [The City Weekly Desk]

Full Text (536  words)[Author Affiliation] E-mail: [email protected]

Garage Sale, Fourth Floor

Q. With the holidays behind us, I'd like to get rid of some old stuff and make a little money, too, and I thought of having a tag sale in my Manhattan apartment. Am I violating any tax laws?

A. You're probably fine, according to the state's Department of Taxation and Finance.

Normally, if you want to sell things, you must register with the department in advance, and then collect and forward sales tax. But there is a garage sale exemption from sales taxes for tangible personal property sold by someone at a permanent residence.

You do, however, have to meet some conditions. You can't hold such sales for more than three days in a calendar year, and the sales can't total more than $600.

If anyone else lives in the apartment, none of you can be in a trade or business in which similar items are sold. You can't use an auctioneer to do the selling, and you can't have a group sale; the sales tax exemption is good only for the apartment's resident. The exemption does not apply to items like boats or cars.

Buffalo Bill Soldiers

Q. Here's a question for Black History Month, which starts Friday: I understand Buffalo Bill Cody brought his Wild West Show to New York for a few years. Did it include blacks?

A. William Cody put African-American cavalry veterans, buffalo soldiers, in the show starting in 1894, according to Louis S. Warren in his book Buffalo Bill's America: William Cody and the Wild West Show. But Cody and the press rarely gave them much publicity.

One exception was a special show of African-American history, Black America, which opened in 1895 at Ambrose Park in Brooklyn (later the Brooklyn Navy Terminal). The event was promoted as a Gigantic Exhibition of Negro Life and Character, moving from savage to slave to soldier to citizen, and the author speculated that Cody was interested mainly in attracting black audiences without alienating whites.

With a cast of 600, Black America lost money and closed within weeks. An amusement depicting black people making progress, showing their advance, hinted that they might have an equal right to some share of wealth in Greater New York, Mr. Warren wrote. But it was probably too expensive for most.

Too Cold, Too Hot

Q. Each year around this time, there is concern about people freezing to death. In midsummer, there are worries about people dying from the heat. Which is the worse killer in the city?

A. In New York, from 1995 through 2006, more people died from the heat than from exposure to cold (161 to 142), but these numbers have varied greatly by year and weather, according to data from the Bureau of Vital Statistics in the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

For instance, in 1999, the bureau recorded 38 heat deaths in the city and only 3 from cold. But in 2003, the agency listed 26 deaths from cold and 6 from heat.

Nationally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2004 there were about 676 deaths from the cold, compared with 226 deaths from heat.

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[Illustration]DRAWING (DRAWING BY STUART GOLDENBERG)