You WISH Boris Johnson was Mayor of your city
"Days after his election ... New York Mayor
Michael Bloomberg stopped by, and there was a little mix-up over the customary
gifts. Mr. Bloomberg gave the new London mayor a Tiffany & Company signature
box with a crystal apple symbolizing New York City. In return he got a
button-down dress shirt covered with a map of London's subway system from Mr.
Johnson, who confessed it was an impromptu
choice.
"... Is the gift episode
forgotten, I wonder?
"'I am a very
proud user of his crystal apple. Where is his crystal apple?' Mr. Johnson looks
around and comes up empty-handed. 'Someone shot-putted it into the Thames. I
don't know what happened to it. Very, very, very, very beautiful object. I'm
very grateful to New York and its citizens for my crystal
apple.'"
THAT is my kind of
politician. Later is this delightful
tidbit:
"In one of his first acts, he
banned alcohol on public transport -- a Bloomberg-like act, I point out. 'I'm by
nature a libertarian,' Mr. Johnson shoots back, 'but I thought there was a
general freedom that people ought to have to be able to sit on the Tube late at
night without having some guy with a six pack of beer leering at them in a
threatening way.'
"On the night
before the ban went into effect, Londoners rung out the old tradition of boozing
in transit with parties/protests on subway trains and buses. 'Thousands of young
people were hurling execration at my name,' says the mayor. 'I thought: This is
fantastic. It took Margaret Thatcher 10 years before she had mobs of urban youth
denouncing her.'"
Posted: Wed - January 7, 2009 at 04:58 PM
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