The relatively mild weather that was one of the hallmarks of the holiday season on the east coast ended abruptly this week, when a sharp snap of winter barreled down upon us. Sharp winter winds blew down the city's skyscraper canyons with a fierceness that had people bundled up in layer upon layer of clothing.

And it has been a week of being back with a bang. I drifted into my office on the latish side on Monday, expecting a rather quiet day, which it was until about one in the afternoon when a former client phoned and said, "Help!" From then until nine that night, I found myself huddled over the computer putting together an analysis of a project for him and that set the pace for the week.

It seems, to me and to everyone I have spoken to, that the long quiet of the holidays, which, by the way, were the best I've ever had, thank you very much, have now yielded to a busyness that is, everyone hopes, a harbinger of a good year to come after three long years of holding on. Having successfully avoided any Holiday catastrophes of a global nature, the world seems intent to build upon the momentum that started growing, like a distant tidal wave, back in the fourth quarter of 2003.

The New Year has brought us a return of some of our favorite TV characters. The debauched duo of ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS has returned, as have the four women of SEX AND THE CITY. Interestingly, every one of these characters, born in the blissful boom of the '90's, seems now to be dealing with the realities of the new century, including that age is beginning to creep up upon them, as it is with all of us. Sapphie is pregnant on AB FAB and Samantha, in one of the most poignant moments in television history, emerged from an elevator to see Smith as a person rather than a sex toy.

The fictional characters of the media are beginning to live in the new reality that the rest of us have grown to accept, including the tentativeness that is life, and that a recognition of that tentativeness leads often to a desire to find some emotional stability and some one with whom one can really rest.

Some of this is part of the reality of the Baby Boom generation aging, some of this is the result of the economic hangover from the '90's, some of it is the soberness which is part of our lives that came to us with September 11, 2001, when I think the last century really ended and the new one began.

It is not surprising to me that Dick Clark did some of his best ratings ever on this past New Year's Eve or that the girls in SEX AND THE CITY are becoming adults. The zeitgeist of the time is for responsibility and comfort, maturity rather than partying. It is why we are not amused anymore by Britney Spears. That was so '90's!

In the spring a book will be published entitled "The Sexual Organization of the City" based on a study in Chicago conducted in the mid-1990's. It reveals a landscape not unlike that depicted in SEX IN THE CITY. It will be interesting to see what will be revealed if someone does a follow on study in the mid part of this decade. While marriage may not be more popular than it has been, I believe we will see a rise in the desire to be "coupled." The hottest spots on the internet right now are sites devoted to helping individuals make connections with other individuals who desire both companionship and sex.

It is not just "sex and the city" anymore. It is now, I suspect, "companionship in the city".

Britney still gets the splashy headlines while we ignore, mostly, the fact that scientists were patrolling the five largest American cities with the best radiological gear to detect "dirty" bombs over the Holidays. But while we are pushing back at reality we want to be with someone while we do it.