Sillier Than A Soup Sandwich

Let’s hope their latest campaign is more accurate than their last campaign, because even “only” $130,000 of city taxpayer money* seems like a lot to waste on sensational claims:

The ads, which will be plastered on subways for the next two months, feature a half-opened can of soup with a geyser of salt spewing from the top and forming a heap around the can.

I’m still waiting for a truly useful health campaign, by the way.

*Don’t worry — the federal government came up with the balance of the $500,000 campaign, though it’s not like we’re really paying for that, too . . .

I Think I Already Miss Governor Paterson

And he’s not even gone yet:

“Before we hear from the governor-elect, we will hear from the governor-eject.”

Overeducated Contrarianism Or Viral Sears Campaign?

It’s never too soon to reconsider vinyl siding:

To Mr. Canfield, replacing vinyl siding that is in good shape, as some homebuyers do as soon as they have the deed, is like carelessly restoring antiques that came over on the Mayflower. He views vinyl siding facades as the key to preserving Williamsburg’s working-class traditions, which arguably has become its own facade.

“It’s not the most beautiful thing, but it’s real,” he said. “It’s authentic. It’s tied to the history of the neighborhood.”

See also: Aluminum and Vinyl Siding of Greenpoint.

Toward A Better Jon Lovitz

Two things we learn — one, the ubiquitous leave-an-old-ticket-on-the-wiper-blade trick doesn’t work and two, traffic agents — at least anecdotally — seem to have a stick-it-to-the-man complex:

So a few weeks back, Mr. Lopez tore himself a fresh piece of packaging paper and wrote out a plea to traffic agents who might not be aware of what he called FedEx policy to leave drivers responsible for certain egregious instances of illegal parking.

The sign reads: “Fedex doesn’t pay for our tickets, we pay for our tickets, so please be considerate!”

“I’m telling you, the sign works,” Mr. Lopez said. “Most of the ticket agents are cool, and respect that we’re out here making a living. They might not have much sympathy for some big corporation, but if they know we’re paying our own tickets, some of them cut us a little slack. Other drivers I know have copied my sign.”

The Problem With War Metaphors

Is that they make you sound crazy, and probably only serve to annoy the very people you’re ostentatiously trying to “help”:

Stringer sees public schools as the front lines in the battle.

As it stands, the onus is on school employees to detect bedbugs and call the city for help. Instead, Stringer wants the city to hire an army of inspectors and exterminators to search for and destroy the creatures.

“We’re forcing principals and teachers to act like CSI inspectors,” he said. “It’s like fighting a building fire with a garden hose.”

“You can’t fight this epidemic with a paltry, small army,” he said. “We’re in the middle of this bedbug war. We’ve already lost the Waldorf, we lost Lincoln Center, hundreds of residential buildings, and now we see we’re losing public schools.”

Isn’t Scott Stringer basically telling you not to patronize the Waldorf or Lincoln Center?

I’ve heard of grandstanding about food, grandstanding about museum exhibits, grandstanding about flight delays and even grandstanding about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen grandstanding about bed bugs. Can’t wait for that mayoral run.