At Least No One Told Him Where Hot Dog Vendors Go To The Bathroom

Chilean miner Edison Peña is not as enamored with New York as, say, the Village Voice is, though I don’t know who isn’t a little let down by the Statue of Liberty and hot dog carts:

“It is not white? I thought it was bigger and whiter,” an incredulous Peña said of Lady Liberty while touring Battery Park and posing for photos.

“In the movies, it looks whiter,” said the copper miner, unaware that the statue is made of copper and is green from oxidization.

Then Peña, who ran up to six miles a day in a 1,000-yard tunnel while trapped in the collapsed mine, sampled a New York City classic — a hot dog with ketchup and mustard bought from a downtown cart.

After chomping down, he motioned “so-so” with his hand.

“In Chile, they are better!” said the 12th of the 33 Chilean miners freed from their 69-day imprisonment last month.

Also, a subway ride — for obvious reasons — was out of the question.

Three Plagues Down, Seven To Go

OK, rule of threes, we’re ready for our trend piece — bed bugs, stink bugs and now termites:

Termites took down a series of utility poles in Queens yesterday, cutting power to 60 Con Ed customers and smashing a car.

In a feat of steady chewing that could have taken months, the termites finally finished their meal of a utility pole in Springfield Gardens just before noon.

When that one fell, it took down five more wired to it.

So If “The Public” Wanted You To Jump Off A Bridge, You’d Do That, Too?

Which “public” is Mayor Bloomberg talking about when he “answers” how his position on term limits is not hypocritically self serving? Another rule — don’t trust any politician who uses “the public” more than three times in a single answer:

“I don’t think it’s hypocritical at all,” Bloomberg told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. “The public came to me and said that they wanted to, wanted me to change term limits, see if I could get term limits changed, serve another term,” he explained. “I said I’d be willing to spend four more years of my life helping the public and doing what I think is right so I leave my kids a better world. Did that.”

“But the public clearly wants to go back to two terms, and I said that it would be on the ballot. It is,” he added. “The public has a chance to express themselves today. That’s what democracy is all about.”

See also: Bloomberg For Mayor 2009.

I Don’t Think I’m Over 2009 Yet, But In Case You Are, Here Is Some Information To Pass Along

A friend recommended Clyde Haberman’s recent column about the two referendum questions on tomorrow’s ballot. I didn’t realize how bad some of the editorial boards have been this time around — and they were bad enough last time when it came to providing justification for Bloomberg’s third term (otherwise known as the most egregious abrogation of democracy in the history of the U.S. — I’m being dramatic, but can you think of a worse one?):

As for newspapers, some seem to suffer from a severe case of short-term memory loss. All three major papers in the city supported the Bloomberg-Quinn deal. This newspaper’s editorial board did so somewhat tepidly. The Daily News and The New York Post, owned by two more billionaires, were rabidly enthusiastic.

But you wouldn’t know it from recent editorials. In August, The News tut-tutted over how the Council had acted “self-servingly” in 2008. The Council — as if Mr. Bloomberg had no hand in the process. Last weekend, The Post urged voters to skip Question 1 entirely. “Why bother?” it said, adding with a straight face, “Politicians treat term limits with contempt.” No kidding.

(Here is a recommendation to vote yes on the second referendum question, in case you’re interested.)

See also: Bloomberg For Mayor 2009.

I Think This Is Also Known As “Repeating The Negative,” But No Matter . . .

Flood the zone, pay the price:

The owners of Gorilla Coffee — where irate employees walked out en masse in April — are suing the New York Times for destroying their lives by covering the debacle.