Ed Koch was mayor of New York City for the entirety of 1978 through 1989. He was the city's third three-term mayor. The thing about mayors is they don't actually do all that much, and what they do takes forever to get done, but their personality infects the entire city. "Mr. Koch governs in large part through style, personality and the perception created by his enthusiasm," wrote the Times in 1986. This is true particularly in a three-term mayor and particularly true in hindsight, of course—but any survivor of the endless Bloomberg era would have to agree.

Koch was in Congress from 1969 to 1977, but even then was never [...]

“New Yorkers are thought to be very tough and thick-skinned. Just the contrary: we are very thin-skinned. We don’t like to be insulted. Most people who live in New York weren’t born here. They come from every country in the world, so they bring with them their own traditions. And one of the traditions is being thin-skinned.” —Ed Koch is right. New Yorkers are often insensitive to the feelings of others, while being very sensitive when it comes to their own. (Our own.)

Photo by Boss Tweed, from Flickr.

"I love a Dunkin' Donut." –Mayor @MikeBloomberg

— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) June 15, 2012

Mm, it's Friday mornings on the radio with our wacky Mayor Mike.

But he says to only have one!

— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) June 15, 2012

Don't you ever wonder how and when Mike Bloomberg's going to die? I mean not in a hateful way! Just like: he's an extremely good-looking 70-year-old! He looks as fit and plastic as one of those tiny horses! I wonder if he will outlive us all. Of course, Ed Koch is 87 and has treated his body like a garbage can and [...]

As you may know, Ed Koch, New York's straightest living ex-mayor, has an email list and he regularly reviews movies. "You may enjoy the movie, but I was disappointed. It intended to unite the ballet with a Freudian or Havelock Ellis spin that would satisfy the audiences’ expectation of great art and its carnal desires. Neither worked, at least not for me…. I hope I will not be thought of as a coarse Philistine for not praising this film. I confess that I am not a devotee of the ballet; indeed, I have attended only a few performances. I once appeared on stage reading the narration of 'Peter and [...]

“'If Mayor Bloomberg wants to name something, he can name Bloomberg L.P. Koch L.P.,'” said Councilman Jumaane D. Williams of Brooklyn, referring to the mayor’s media conglomerate." —Some people really don't want the Queensboro Bridge renamed for Ed Koch. It's a fair point that the Brooklyn Bridge wouldn't get renamed for a Mayor, certainly not a living one—but then the Queensboro Bridge isn't exactly the Brooklyn Bridge now, is it? In other news, maybe by noon we'll come up with the right joke about Koch and Queens.

For obscure historical reasons plenty of people have asked me what I thought about Justin Timberlake's cover of the Leonard Cohen standard "Hallelujah" during that Haiti telethon the other night. And, you know, whatever, at this point there's nothing that could be done to that song that would surprise-or, probably, interest-me. What DOES interest me today is an assessment of Leonard Cohen written by "an octogenarian who still considers Dylan's 'Blowin' in the Wind' and Baez's 'Diamonds and Rust' to be two of the greatest folk songs ever written." He appears not to be a fan.