From Facebook to the Times

I’ve got a couple of man-in-the-street quotes in today’s The New York Times article about the mayoral election. It mentions my Monday Facebook status (“Mike, the more you call me, the less likely I am to vote for you,’ which got more positive reaction than any update in months) but no, the Times is not watching my Facebook page for interesting quotes. I was interviewed by a reporter outside my polling place.

She asked who I was voting for, and I said Thompson, and she asked why. I said I was disgusted and embarrassed by Bloomberg’s campaign. He spent obscene amounts of money, much of it unnecessarily negative and often completely untrue. I mentioned my status update and the response it received, and she wrote it down carefully, then asked my name and age.

And I answered, “40.” I’m not 40. I haven’t been 40 in nearly half a decade. I wasn’t shaving years off my age for vanity’s sake (or not consciously, anyway), and in almost every respect, things are better now for me than they were when I was 40. I just get that math wrong sometimes. Just like when I say “next month” and mean November even though it hasn’t been “next month” for nearly a week. I know, intellectually, that it’s 2009, but my spatial sense of time tells me we’re about halfway through this decade.

Meanwhile, despite all his spending, Bloomberg barely squeaked by. Did you vote? I would have loved to see him lose, although I’m a lot more upset about Corzine. What happened to everyone who was so excited about “change” last year? Did they think we were finished? I’m very worried about what Christie will do in NJ, but aside from his oligarchical tendencies, Bloomberg hasn’t been a terrible mayor and did successfully lead us out of Giuliani Time. Perhaps he will be chastened by this result and work a bit harder to represent the city as a whole.

Anyway. This is my second appearance in the paper this year (the first was thanks to my work with the AIA Guide to New York City). I have been traveling a lot lately, mostly for Journalism Online, but still managing to play music, and will be hosting the Ponkiesburg Pickin’ Party every Sunday.