TIMES WARP.(The Talk of the Town; dedicated New York Times reader Irving Tobin's diligent effort to keep up in his reading of the paper of record)

Irving Tobin reads at red lights. He reads in the dentist's chair. At dinner parties when he finds the company boring, he tries to read at the table. Several years ago, Irving's wife, Phyllis, came into the bedroom as he was getting dressed. She found him reading the paper, one leg suspended in the air, as he was pulling on a sock.

Tobin reads the Times every day, struggling to find the two and a half hours necessary to get through it. He keeps stacks of newspapers in the front seat of his car and in spare cupboards, in case he finds himself without a paper in hand.

Tobin is behind in his Times reading. One year, five months, and four days behind, which places him in late June, 2002. In his daily paper, the United States has not yet invaded Iraq, the D.C. sniper hasn't fired a shot, and Gray Davis is secure in Sacramento.

Tobin grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and still lives there, in a four-bedroom house on a quiet tree-lined street. Seventy-nine years old, he works most days at his law firm, a few minutes away. When he was younger, he worked as an accountant on the side. That's how the trouble started. When he met Phyllis, in 1975, he read Time, the Elizabeth Daily Journal, and the Newark Star-Ledger. She introduced him to the Times. Soon he had to cut out his other reading. Then tax season came along. Every year, he fell behind, losing almost two months in March and April.

"I realize I'm not going to catch up, but I like to believe I will," he said the other day. When the Times went on strike in 1978, he lagged by only nine days. By 1998, he was almost two years behind, even though he had quit reading the Sports section years before. "I just had to give up something," he said. He also skips Escapes ...