Once again, we present Scott Turner, Rocky Sullivan's quizmeister, and a Brooklyn writer/designer. As usual this post is brought to you by MissWit
, a Brooklyn t-shirt company.

Greetings Pub Quiz Three Day Weekenders…

A simple, precise, blunt observation this week:

Michael Bloomberg is short.

His
money-vomiting re-election campaign — already on pace to spend more
than the obscene $84 million Bloomberg spent  last election run dumped
— is doing everything it can to create the fallacy that Bloomberg is
taller than everyone else in New York City.

Oh, yeah, and this:  When Bloomberg took office, he was worth
something in the neighborhood of $4 billion.  Now, with the economy,
all the money he's given to charities, and the $160 he's lavished on
his first two campaigns, today the the poor fella's only worth…$12
billion

Yeesh…

Bloomberg's incessant and insufferably false t.v. ads are photographed to make our Napoleon
Mayor look taller than everyone else in frame.  Occasionally an actor
whose construction helmet slightly eclipses the mayor slips into the
shot.

"Who put a taller man next to me?!  Security to the Bullpen, Security to the Bullpen…"

It's a classic page from the Benign Dictator Image Control playbook.

Bloomberg once claimed to be 5' 10" tall.  Proportionately, that would make Wilt Chamberlain,
let's see, multiply by 12, carry the one and…right — seventy-five
feet tall.  In the other direction, reports peg the Mayor at 5-1,
,maybe 5-2.  Let's say it's 5' 6".

That means that every single actor in his ads are either shorter than 5' 6" or the angles are framed that way.

Or, in the Bloombergian Image Making Machine, there's not a single New Yorker taller than the mayor.

Go ahead.  Force yourself to watch the mayor's t.v. tripefests.  You'll see.

Look,
no one's expecting Bloomberg to tell the truth in his campaigning. 
Campaigns don't, and besides, the mayor certainly plays fast and loose
with truthiness when he governs for real.  It's just so stark to see
him revealing — and revelling — in his Napoleon Complex alternate
realities.

Is this a petty bone to pick?  Next to the city's affordability,
schools that only teach-to-test, infrastructure collapsing, big
developer coddling, my-way-or-the-highway arrogance, slow action on the
H1N1, jettisoning of basic democratic principles, favors for
political allies, institutional marginalization of political enemies,
and Bloomberg's utter disconnect with anyone less rich than him, yes, of course it's petty.

But it's also a clear indicator of who this man is, how he thinks, what's important to him, and what he allows on his watch.

the real world…

What are we supposed to make of a guy
who claims supreme-leader confidence to run New York City, but in fact
is so vain and insecure that everyone appearing in his ads must be made
to look the lesser next to him.

The emperor truly has no clothes.  If he did, his tailor would be constantly letting out the seams.