1) It’s Wednesday, February 4, 2015. It’s the middle of winter — 45 days down, 45 days to go. Alas, the halftime show is in Boston, where people will stand around in feet of snow to watch the Patriots celebrate their Super Bowl win.

2) Commuting is part of a suburbanite’s routine, and it’s usually done by rote. Get up, go to the train station or bus stop, get to town, work, go back on the train or bus, get home. 

So the idea that this routine could be fatal, as it was for seven people last night here in New York, is jarring and very sad. My heart goes out to the families who thought their loved ones were making a routine trip home for a quiet dinner and a little TV. 

3) Leaders of ISIS probably don’t care that civilized people think they’re cowards or barbarians or insane. But they are. I think the world has to come to this understanding, and to this one as well: You don’t negotiate with these pillbugs. They’re going to do what they’re going to do, and the only way to stop them is to keep fighting them.

There’s one other thing. The world should show its support of the family of the Jordanian pilot brutally murdered. He should be honored in every decent nation on the planet for his bravery. 

4)  I agree with those who won’t label ISIS, Boko Haram and other worldwide scum as radical Islamist groups.

They’re thugs, plain and simple. They kill, rape and kidnap thousands more Moslems than they hurt non-Moslems. To honor them with any even remote identification with the faith would be insulting and demoralizing to those who live that faith in peace with the world.

And while I’m here, I also find insulting this concept that “good” Moslems need to “speak out” against the bad ones.

It’s kind of the other way around. The rest of the world needs to stand by the millions of Moslems who wish to practice their faith unfettered, and find out what we can do to help them achieve that.

5) Staples is buying Office Depot, which bought Office Max a while back. That pretty much locks up the dedicated manila-folder and Sharpie store market. There might be some antitrust pushback from regulators — there was the last time these two tried to get together in the 1990s. But things are different now. There’s Amazon, of course, and there are aisles of supplies in Walmart and Target.