"'Shame on Sliwa! Shame on Sliwa!' dozens of people at the front of the room jeered, apparently blaming Sliwa, a Republican, for Cuomo’s loss."

"At the bar, one man told his friend it was 'embarrassing.'... With people clearly losing interest, campaign staff sprang into action. They hurried the remaining crowd to the front of the stage.... Cuomo immediately tried to cast his loss as a success, telling the crowd: 'This campaign was to contest the philosophies that are shaping the Democratic party, the future of this city and the future of this country.' He said tha[t] 50% of New Yorkers had not voted for Mamdani’s agenda...."

I'm reading "Nobody likes a sore loser – but Cuomo declines to bow out gracefully/Despondency reigned at the Ziegfeld Ballroom – and then the defeated candidate found it hard to praise the victor" (The Guardian).

Cuomo was a terrible candidate. He should take responsibility for that. New Yorkers had an array of clowns and picked the one with the smiley face.

AND: "Only a uniquely hated politician with his connections and campaign coffers could bungle an election versus a political unknown this badly. Whether it was his bare-bones daily schedules that spent more time with donors than voters or his desperate flip-flopping on issues like closing Rikers Island during the campaign, Cuomo proved one thing to be true: the only thing he has ever believed in is his own ambition" — from "Andrew Cuomo’s embarrassing loss to Zohran Mamdani in NYC mayoral election ends Cuomo family political dynasty" (NY Post).

"Republicans should not have to clean up the mess Andrew Cuomo and the Democrats created, and we will not allow the political class to interfere with voters or hijack our ballot."

Wrote the party chairs of each of 5 NYC boroughs, quoted in "Curtis Sliwa Has the Spotlight. He’s Not About to Give It Up. Mr. Sliwa, the Republican nominee for mayor of New York City, finds himself a major player in the race. He’s under heavy pressure to drop out" (NYT).

Doesn't Sliwa have a duty to stay in the race, having won the nomination and used the Republican Party's resources? What would that say to those who have donated to the Party? There's a line on the ballot for the Republican — is there to be no one on it?

I don't see the basis for replacing Sliwa with no one. But Trump is one of those who are leaning on him:

"A rat walked across my foot the other day. They’re bold. You can stomp your foot all you want, but they’re New York City rats. They are not afraid."

Said one New Yorker, quoted in "Rats in a Stroller: The Central Park Playground Panic/City data actually suggest that rat sightings are declining. But horror stories are everywhere, and a single rat in a stroller is enough to set off a panic" (NYT).

The last 3 paragraphs of this article are about Curtis Sliwa:

"He’s very concerned. How do they say it, this is for all the tea in China. This is serious."

"He" = Trump.

The quote is from John Catsimatidis, "a billionaire grocery and oil magnate in New York," who says he's just talked with Trump about this.

Quoted in "Trump Advisers Have Discussed a Job for Adams if He Quits Mayor’s Race/The conversations have also involved Curtis Sliwa with the goal of giving Andrew Cuomo a better chance of defeating Zohran Mamdani in November" (NYT).

Are New Yorkers going to be responsive to Trump's meddling in their local election? Cuomo wants to return to power like that? Seems wrong. And why would we the people of the whole United States want Adams and Sliwa handling whatever it is they'd be given? Let New York be New York. The people responded to Mamdani. That's democracy. Deal with it.

"And on his head, where a swooping red beret has sat almost every day of his adult life, there was only a cap-shaped tan line and balding pate...."

"In a city rich with sartorial symbols, few have been more memorable than [Curtis] Sliwa’s ruby red headpiece. It helped the Guardian Angels, his subway patrol group, gain notoriety in the 1970s; was his uniform for a career in television and radio and provided an unofficial motif for his unsuccessful first run for mayor in 2021. Yet as he takes a second, seemingly more viable run at City Hall, Mr. Sliwa, 71, is beginning to show up without it... 'For some people, the beret is a defining issue,' Mr. Sliwa said, volunteering that it could evoke a certain Che Guevara-style revolutionary look. 'Guys and gals, I get it. If taking my red beret off will help you just to listen to me, no problem.'... Mr. Sliwa makes a point of wearing his beret underground — he tries to campaign in the subway two hours a day ('It’s the only way') — and on the streets. It makes him more visible.... Mr. Sliwa said he has six berets in rotation. On hot summer days, the wool can create its own small heat dome. 'I don’t mind shvitzing, but my wife does,' he said. 'She says, "oofa, this beret, it can walk on its own by the end of the day."' He is also hearing from friends who think it is worth more on than off.... 'First, I was all for taking his red hat off,' Mr. Dietl said. 'But now I think when Superman came to save everyone, he didn't take his cape off.'"

From "Curtis Sliwa Wants to Be Mayor. He’s Taking Off His Beret to Prove It. The Guardian Angels founder and Republican nominee for mayor has long been a New York curiosity. Can he become a serious contender?" (NYT).

You know who wore a hat? Lincoln. As Trump likes to say, responding to critics who call him insufficiently presidential: "I would say I can be more presidential than any president in history except for possibly Abe Lincoln with the big hat." And by the way, Trump has a damned distinctive hat and it worked for him. 

If the question is how can you be serious in a hat I think we have the answer, and Sliwa made that beret so much a part of his persona that it's the only thing recognizable about him. Without the hat, he's a generic old guy. It's too late to de-hat. He has to convince people he's serious, without de-hatting.

 

Should Curtis Sliwa prove his worth by going without the hat?

No, it's too late now.

No, the hat is good.

Yes, it's a barrier to being taken seriously. Crucial to de-hat.

Yes, but don't concede that it wasn't serious. Take control of the expression.

Who cares? This clown can't win. Move on to Cuomo or Adams.

 

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"The patriarch is Apollo, the matriarch is Athena, and my very best friend is Ajax... Then there’s Drop Foot, Little Big One, Hope, Wolverine, Tuna, Tiny."

"The newest, four weeks old, that’s Gizmo. Whiskers, Crooked Head because he’s got a crooked head. Let’s see — who’s left? Tiger, Love, Momma, and Homer. I don’t think I left anyone out."

Said Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate for New York City mayor, in "POP QUIZ 8:00 A.M./We Asked Curtis Sliwa to Name All 16 of His Cats" (NY Magazine).

More impressive than the speed at which he scrolled through the directory was that he immediately repeated the feat, à la Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting riffing through the names of his 12 (made-up) brothers.

"I'm on my feet all day long with the kittens and so many litter boxes you have to bend over."

"My husband says to me, 'You don't even have to do the five mile walk this morning. You were on your feet all day long with the foster kittens.' So yes, I guess I'm holding kittens and leaning over for litter boxes, scooping poop all day."

Said Howard Stern's wife Beth, quoted in a very puffy puff piece at Hamptons.com, where I clicked through to from "Fans outraged by Howard Stern’s summer off after $500M Sirius XM deal."

Imagine having that much wealth and spending your time so deeply involved in cat shit?

It made me think of this video I saw the other day of Curtis Sliwa, the GOP candidate for mayor of New York:

 

No one but the cat people can fathom the mysteries of the cat people.