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PUBLIC WORKS DEP'T. Maybe New Yorkers Want a Mayor Who Likes New YorkTODAY, THE PRESIDENT of the United States, a resident of Florida, endorsed Andrew Cuomo for the mayorship of New York City. So did the wealthiest person in the world, a resident of Texas. Many people have expressed strong opinions about who should be the mayor of a city in which they don't live, sometimes about what the fares should be on the buses they don't ride. Tomorrow night, the election will be over, and the mayorship will lose most of its importance as a spiritual indicator for American politics in general (or for politics even further afield) and will become a difficult job that someone has to do. The polls say that person will almost certainly be Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani is very young, at age 34: seven years younger than the current vice president of the United States, two years younger than James Madison at the constitutional convention in 1787, about four years younger than William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. He would not be the youngest mayor of New York, any more than he would be the first democratic socialist in the office, but he would represent a departure from other mayors this century in that he seems to wholeheartedly believe in the city he would run. The current mayor, Eric Adams, appeared to live in Fort Lee, New Jersey, before moving into Gracie Mansion, and his interest in the city has seemed to be more as an arena for abstract self-expression than as a real place full of people. Bill de Blasio, before him, clearly loved being in Park Slope but had a looser embrace for other parts of the city. Michael Bloomberg—who is busily pumping millions of dollars toward the Cuomo cause—was reportedly a "fixture" in Bermuda while he was in charge of New York. Mamdani's campaign message has been relentlessly, programatically focused on the cost of living, but the subtext and the context have been about living, period. While national pundits and politicians have tried to use the election to argue about what kinds of symbols will attract or repel the median American voter, Mamdani has been roaming his particular city, up and down and back and forth among all the boroughs, recording scripted spots and spontaneous interactions, running a scavenger hunt and a soccer tournament, making a point of going the full length of Manhattan and around the clock. He presents the city as a fundamentally good place, a place where people want to be. He makes it sound as if people are a part of something, and as if they have the ability to make that thing better. If anyone's searching for a winning way to talk about democracy, they could try to do the same. Especially if they try to mean it. WEATHER REVIEWS New York City, November 2, 2025★★★★★ The late-running baseball game had used up the lone advantage of the clock shift, and now there was just the daylight already going by, the sun already ripe and on its way to spoiling. A torpedolike English oak acorn lay on the cross street, and down on Central Park West the pin oaks were launching a bombardment of their little round ones, sending one of them ricocheting near chest-high across the sidewalk. Its fellows formed a surface like cobblestones spanning the low curb. Gradations of gray and brown on elm trunks were amplified to look like colorblock designs. A rank, manure-y smell rose by the mud at the edge of the Pool, its foulness hanging in the clear air amid the colored glow through the foliage. On the opposite shore, the big willow lay toppled into the water, with safety cones and caution tape warning people away from the wreckage. Exposed among the twisted, naked wood was an expanse of darker, crumbling rot, spongeworked with insect holes. Passersby exclaimed in dismay at their first glimpse of the fallen tree, then shifted to ruefulness on seeing the inside of the trunk. People were spreading out in a line to take pictures of prodigies of orange, pink, red, and gold across the water. Occupants of blankets on the grass sat not facing one another but turned toward the show of color, like spectators at an open-air concert. Two motley shepherd dogs stood with the sun glaring off their uncanny silver-blue eyes and made a peeping whine. The light kept finding new effects in the leaves: a branch hanging over the cinder track like dripping melted butter; a curtain of green and yellow spots filtering the harsh, incoming sun; little sprays of pure crimson in among the otherwise mahogany-tinged green of a red oak; huge gaudy leaves, with broad red edges tracing a tangerine inner leaf shape, on a spindly maple.  EASY LISTENING DEP'T.HERE IS TODAY'S Indignity Morning Podcast! Here is the Indignity Morning Podcast archive! SOCIAL MEDIA DEP'T. ADVICE DEP'T.HEY! DO YOU like advice columns? They don't happen unless you send in some letters! Surely you have something you want to justify to yourself, or to the world at large. Now is the perfect time to share it with everyone else through The Sophist, the columnist who is not here to correct you, but to tell you why you're right. Direct your questions to The Sophist, at indignity@indignity.net, and get the answers you want. SANDWICH RECIPES DEP'T.WE PRESENT INSTRUCTIONS in aid of the assembly of a sandwich selected from C.L.C. Tombola Cook Book, by the Ladies of Cornwall and Friends of the Cornwall Lacrosse Club, published in 1909 and available at archive.org for the delectation of all. CHICKEN SANDWICHES. Mix one cup chopped chicken with one cup chopped almonds, moisten with mayonnaise dressing. Spread between thin slices of buttered bread. If you decide to prepare and attempt to enjoy a sandwich inspired by this offering, be sure to send a picture to indignity@indignity.net . SELF-SERVING SELF-PROMOTION DEP'T. Indignity is presented on Ghost. Indignity recommends Ghost for your Modern Publishing needs. Indignity gets a slice if you do this successfully!
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