At 109 square miles, it is geographically the largest, and it is also the most diverse; 54 percent of residents speak a language other than English. Although second to Brooklyn in population, it is also home to the city’s tallest tree (the Alley Pond Giant at 133.8 feet), the most stations on the Long Island Rail Road (22) and the most historic chrome diners converted into Punjabi buffet restaurants (one).

But in recent months, a phrase has appeared in The Queens Tribune, a weekly newspaper, that suggests that Queens occupies only a fair to middling place in the citywide pecking order. The phrase is “third borough syndrome,” and the implication is that in terms of buzz and cachet, Queens is forever resigned to third place behind Brooklyn (recently hot) and Manhattan (traditionally hot).

In response, Queens boosters insist that the borough has other, less obvious charms.

“We feel like Queens is real New York,” said Tom Finkelpearl, executive director of the Queens Museum of Art, who is believed to have been the first person to use the phrase when he uttered it last year in a Tribune interview. “That middle-class aspect of Queens is one of the things that gives us that less exciting image.”

“I’m better looking,” Markowitz said upon seeing the doll last week. “I’m certainly younger looking . . . They got the hair right. I don’t know if they made it chubby enough, though.”

He admitted to worrying that this might boost “a caricature of me as a comedic character” but called the promotion “all in good fun.”

“I am what I am, a legend at 62,” he said. “Being a bobblehead has its distinguishing characteristics.”

“All I was trying to do was a provide a great space with free alcohol and a lot to look at,” said artist Frank Shepard Fairey, whose opening show with about 1,000 guests was forced to close Thursday night. “It’s offensive to me that anyone would come sabotage my art show.”

It was the second stink-bomb attack at an art gallery in as many weeks.

The local art community was immediately abuzz with speculation that Cooper was the infamous Splasher — who has defaced dozens of street-art creations throughout the city with splotches of house paint.

. . .

Witnesses say that at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Cooper and an unidentified man attempted to ignite an incendiary device in a coffee can during the crowded open-bar reception. A partygoer noticed the smoke and alerted security.

Cooper was quickly caught, but his accomplice got away.

Fairey, who gained notice in the early 1990s by putting up stencils of wrestler Andre the Giant and “Obey Giant” stickers around cities throughout the East Coast, said Cooper shouldn’t get off easy.

“This is serious. I’ve been arrested for doing street art. I knew I would be held accountable for my actions, and he should have considered that jail may be a possibility,” said Fairey, who confronted Cooper after security nabbed him.

“He tried to turn it around and say that he is the victim and that I should feel bad for him.”

. . .

The Splasher has struck 20 out of the 22 murals Fairey created in New York City.

Fairey has his own theory on why his work is targeted.

He’s also awaiting trial on a 186-page federal indictment that charges him with 43 counts of racketeering and corruption. McLaughlin, a former Queens Assemblyman and once New York’s top labor leader, is accused of defrauding the union, receiving bribes and embezzling funds from a number of sources, including a Queens Little League. He pleaded not guilty in October and is out on $250,000 bail.

The pre-trial hearing was scheduled for June 14 in United States District Court Southern District of New York. Numerous calls to the case manager for presiding judge Kenneth Karas to retrieve results of the hearing went unreturned.

Hemmerdinger, the President of Atco Properties and Management, which owns the Shops At Atlas Park in Glendale — not to mention 2 million square feet of additional residential, commercial, industrial and retail space — is ecstatic about the opportunity, but will take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to any policy upheaval.

“I don’t have an answer that is very satisfying yet,” Hemmerdinger said when asked about what changes he foresees. “I’m not there yet. I don’t want to comment on policy matters. That’s something I get to as I learn the job and learn what’s necessary.”

One issue Hemmerdinger was open about was fares. He explained that “keeping them affordable” is in everyone’s best interest and that’s what he hopes to do.

“Nobody wants to raise fares, but the price of oil goes up, the labor costs go up,” he said. “It’s the world we live in. Our job is to keep them as affordable as possible.”

Still, while he was chairman of the Citizens Budget Commission, the group made recommendations on how to balance the MTA’s budget, including higher fares for riders and more tolls and fees for motorists, published reports said.

Published reports also said that Hemmerdinger’s wife has given $40,000 to Spitzer campaign committees since 2000. She also hosted a Democratic Party fund-raiser at the Hemmerdingers’ Central Park South penthouse in May.

. . .

Hemmerdinger, 62, who spends several days a week at Atlas Park, has known the governor for almost 30 years, saying they likely met on the tennis courts. They have a long-standing relationship, and though he wouldn’t speculate on policy, he said one of his goals is to inform riders of the MTA’s responsibilities so that they can better understand the services afforded.

“Education of the public is what one needs to do,” Hemmerdinger said. “To have people understand as best they can what the MTA does and how it’s funded. I think there is a lot of misinformation about that. The more people know, the more they understand.”