August Company

Considering what other parts of the country have endured this summer, New York City’s weather has been rather benign with no extended heat waves and only an occasional monsoonal rain. I’m noticing, too, more and more locals wearing masks outside again. Yes, the Delta variant has turned back the clock somewhat. But despite the media’s sky-is-falling hype, the preponderance of evidence suggests that the vaccinated are pretty much good-to-go. Mayor Bill de Blasio, though, recommends that we wear masks indoors when around another person, even if we are both vaccinated. That’s going to encourage people to get a shot.

Oh, and the mayor has announced that we will soon have to show proof of a vaccination for indoor activities like restaurant dining, sitting at a bar, and exercising in a gym. How exactly is that going to play out? Seems to me that it will put unnecessary pressures on embattled small businesses, which is the last thing they need right now.

On Saturday, I patronized a pizzeria on a shadowy side street in the Financial District. The slices were $3.25 each and wouldn't pass muster for a children’s menu. They were served up by a personality-challenged counterman who uttered not a syllable during our transaction. Sadly, the slice of pizza price is finally outpacing the cost of a bus or subway ride, another indicator of the city’s decline. How, I wonder, will Mr. Personality in the pizza parlor enforce the future vaccination order for Wall Streeters and tourists desiring to sit inside with their microscopic slices?

I’d like very much not to think about politicians, let alone write about them, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my governor: the Luv Guv. The mighty have certainly fallen. Andrew Cuomo’s defense after the scathing attorney general’s report on his serial harassing was absurd. He presented a pictorial montage of his affectionate acts in public—hugging and kissing men and women alike. Just another demonstrative Italian guy. I can’t help but think about his father, Mario, right now. While the Tappan Zee Bridge shouldn’t bear his name, he was an honorable man without a whiff of scandal about him. What will Andy Boy do going forward? The knives are sure out, but Cuomo is so shameless, it’s anybody’s guess. De Blasio is absolutely relishing his nemesis’s demise and predicts he will resign and hopes, too, that he faces criminal charges.

A final note: After my recent weight watchers’ pizza lunch, I passed by Federal Hall in lower Manhattan. As always, the grand statue of George Washington proudly stood in front. Unfortunately, though, the historic locale was festooned with woke banners, including one with a “Womxm,” an intersectional term. Ridiculous, I thought, as I continued on my merry way. But then we are living in ridiculous times. I see where some professors at major medical schools apologized for using the terms “male” and “female.” And publishers are refusing to publish fiction writers who create characters outside their race, ethnicity, and gender. Novelists create, no? It’s an artform and the talented therein were—once upon a time—respected for going wherever their muses took them. I can create a narcissistic male politician with a penchant for harassing women character without having been one. Can’t I?

(Photos from the personal collection of Nicholas Nigro)