Well, we lost Tom Allon, but we got George McDonald. Another mayoral maybe.
George, who with wife Harriet founded the Doe Fund in ’85, came with wife Harriet, who said: “Another candidate, John Catsimatidis, once owned our townhouse.
“It’s 100 feet from where the Second Avenue subway’s building. If someday it’s finished, our house’s value will go up, but who knows when that is or who’ll live that long? We’re scared to death each day. It shakes every 11 seconds.”
Their lifestyle, other than shaking?
George: “Jack, our cocker spaniel who’s 6 and waits in my closet, wakes me 7 a.m. Harriet makes coffee. I do the dishes. I like a sweet roll and an egg. Bedtime’s around 11 or 12. Friday, I don’t let her cook. We order in. An Italian restaurant’s a half-block away. They almost stir it on our table. I tip well. I believe in sharing the wealth.
“We have four children, three grandchildren. Weekends I paint in oil and acrylic at our house in Bayshore.”
They met while helping the homeless. She: “We’re both Ph.D.s. My first husband was a big earner, but I couldn’t bear seeing lots of people living under Grand Central Terminal.”
He: “I made money in sportswear. My father said, ‘First experience the world. Then do something great.’
“My grandfather’s side’s from Ireland. My grandmother’s mother was a servant to J.P. Morgan. My parents divorced, so Catholic-school discipline was good for me. I wasn’t hit too much, but I did learn there’s more than one use for a ruler.”
Why the itch to be mayor?
“I waited to see who would run. If there’s somebody I could support. I don’t see one. I have a sense of place here after all these years. Where else can you find such a city?
“I’ll focus on unemployment. I believe in an incentive to create jobs, like the Brooklyn Navy Yard. And I’ll build living units, starting at 275 square feet, on 117th Street. From $400 to $800 a month. But now it’s an everyday battle for me to get known.”
Candidate McDonald wore turquoise socks with orange flourishes. And a red tie.
DESIGN Industries Foundation tonight honors chef Geoffrey Zakarian and designer David Rockwell, both of whom everyone’s always honoring . . . Tomorrow, Sardi’s, is the Drama Desk discussion with David Hyde Pierce and Ellen Burstyn. So far, nothing Saturday.
OBAMA can’t decide to work on foreign affairs like Israel or domestic affairs like unemployment. He’s torn between Tel Aviv and tell a lie.
ONLY in New York, kids, only in New York, can you see a whale skull so large it barely fit into the American Museum of Natural History’s freight elevator, which hauls cars.
Mayhap you didn’t wake today desperate to discuss whales over your oatmeal, but this new exhibition “Whales: Giants of the Deep” is a mother.
“Found in Mongolia, the only skull existing, it’s of an Andrewsarchus sperm whale,” they told me. Right. Like I’d know one whale from another. Like I could argue species with the museum’s scientific fishmonger. “We measured it before maneuvering it into the elevator with one inch to spare.”
Facts: This was a land mammal 5 million years ago. Age is detected by dating rocks. Radioactive minerals, like a clock, decay at a certain rate. There are sediments. Potassium turns into gas. The 58-foot creature’s heart is the size of a Volkswagen. It dove to 5,000 feet, where no light exists and drank 13,000 gallons of water — equal to a backyard pool — at one gulp. Its 12,000-pound tongue weighed as much as an African elephant.
So where else can you see this? In Altoona?
AND only in New York, kids, only in New York, can you see authentic biblical artifacts.
An oil lamp from the time of Abraham. A bit of Moses’ burning bush. An actual brick from the ancient Wall of Jericho.
“The Bible Experience,” borrowed from the Vatican — plus insurance and security guys — is on display at 450 W. 14th until the 27th. It’s presented by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, who co-produced TV’s current epic miniseries “The Bible.”
For authentication, they screened it before high-ranking clergy and which, she said, “We decided to make over a cup of tea and a prayer.”
Also: “New York to us is sacred. Showing it here is a bit of heaven.” Roma, who portrayed Mother Mary, was in off-screen wardrobe. Flowered dress, beige heels.
Archaeologist Dr. Randall Price, a Judaic professor who unearthed some of these one-of-a-kind treasures, showed me crucifixion nails, a medieval Torah, a sword from 1500 B.C., a scarab bearing the name of the pharaoh who met Moses, a cup like one used at the Last Supper.
Mark, in blue jeans, then showed a coming clip of Jesus feeding loaves and fishes to the 5,000. Jesus’ words were from approximately Year 30 A.D. Carbon dating, however, would’ve placed the actor’s perfect white-on-white teeth to approximately 2012.
And where else could all this have been seen — Detroit?
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.