Joyce Purnick, a veteran New York reporter and editor, wrote the award-winning “Metro Matters” column at the New York Times for ten years. She joined the paper in 1979 after writing at the New York Post and New York magazine, becoming the first woman to head its City Hall bureau and Metro department. She has, so far, covered six mayors of New York. Ms. Purnick, a Barnard College graduate, lives in Manhattan with her husband and is the admiring stepmother of three and grandmother of six.