There are more humans running for mayor of New York than there are citizens in the city. So John Liu’s hello to me was: “I impose discipline on myself. Don’t drink. Don’t smoke. Still I get pounded. You’ve been taking shots at me.”
He’s right. Today no more shots. (Maybe tomorrow.) For now, only a straight interview with this job’s 300th contender:
“I’m a New Yorker. When I was 5, the family scraped together enough for a bigger apartment. We moved to Queens. It was Bronx High School of Science and Hunter College. My mom says I got lousy marks.
“I now get up 4 a.m. to read and ready and drive my son to his Upper West Side school. I’m no iPad techie junkie. During the blackout I still had phone service. Because I always, even now, keep a rotary dial at home. Rotaries don’t require electrical service. They don’t break down. Just plug into the wall jack. They always work.
“I’m used to pounding. Bullying comes with the territory. I had it in school. I was different. Whenever rice was served, they’d pass it to me, although I never said I liked rice. Mostly, I took it. When once I complained, my fifth-grade teacher said: ‘John, you just have to grow up.’ So I can’t take today’s pounding personally. Politics are rough-and-tumble, and if I help the city, it’s worth it.
“I made money in private life. But I complained about many things. I’m good at complaining. So I ran for city council, then comptroller. I get home late, get to bed midnight, learned sleep’s overrated, work twice the hours for half the pay. I’m 46, and my mother still wants me to become a doctor.
“I cook with my fingers — it’s takeout or microwave. My wife’s in financial management and leaves home 6:45, before me. Jenny doesn’t schlep to 300 fund-raisers. Not her world of interest. She came to one.
“Besides politics, my life’s my kid. Joey’s the smallest but fastest. Football. Baseball. I go to parent-teacher things. His recitals. He plays violin. And I haven’t beaten him in chess since he’s 7.”
About this Chinese Year of the Snake, Liu says: “Snake means prosperous, wisdom, perseverance. It’s close to earth. It signifies survival.”
IT’s been 40 years since Watergate. NYC lawyer Sidney Davidoff, among 20 Nixon’s administration targeted, was listed as “No. 12. Mayor John Lindsay’s top aide; a first-class s.o.b., wheeler-dealer, suspected bagman. Positive results will shake Lindsay’s plans to capture the youth vote. Davidoff in charge.”
Says No. 12 now: “An enemy of the state under Nixon’s administration was for me a defining moment. A badge of honor. I’m attending next month’s Common Cause commemoration in DC.”
APRIL brings Osso Buco’s lunch for chairlady Arlene Kayatt’s East Side Democratic Club. Rep. Carolyn Maloney will speak . . . Judd Apatow, whose kid, now 10, was in Dad’s last film: “So when’s my next one?” . . . Artist Marina Abramovic, who was up for best documentary at the Independent Spirit Awards: “I’m 67. Doing this 40 years. My grandma’s 103. You say ‘no’, we say, ‘OK’ and we go forward. We’re strong women from Montenegro.”
SPEAKING of the Independent Spirit Awards. Quvenzhané Wallis, 9, played trivia in its Official Presenter Gift Lounge. Asked by the old man whose helium balloons flew his house to South America, she answered: “It’s from Pixar’s animated movie ‘Up.’ ” She won “Pass the Popcorn” game and Mattel donated its price to charity . . . Zac Posen on puffed-up media: “They’re tough, but I try to live in reality.”
NOT that you’ll worship and adore me, which I certainly deserve, but did I not predict “Argo” would grab Best Picture, Jennifer Lawrence Best Actress, Ang Lee Best Director, Daniel Day-Lewis Best Actor? Did I not??!
DANIEL Day-Lewis admits for his art he once broke a rib. Fell down a narrow silver mine shaft. “The most unstable set I ever worked on. Lumps of rock crumbled in your face. I gasped, fell on the floor on my back. An assistant offered me a banana. To this day, I have no idea if bananas have medical powers after a fall.”
ITZHAK Perlman and Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot, collaborators on the album “Eternal Echoes: Songs & Dances for the Soul,” are in concert tomorrow. Barclays Center. Respecting Orthodoxy, it’s separate men-and-women seating. Plus kosher foods . . . And at the Theater at the Garden, same night, The Who and Elvis Costello to benefit Memorial Sloan-Kettering. Nonsectarian. They don’t care if you sit on your girlfriend’s lap and lick pigs feet.
AMBASSADOR Frank Bowling, spreading news about his five-star Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, says last night they hosted the Forbes Five Star Awards, the hotelier equivalent of the Oscars . . . And Republicans, spreading Oval Office news, hint things may get rough. Why? They say Obama just replaced his top strategist with Jackie Chan.
P.R. lady Maury Rogoff saw this sign in front of a North Carolina church: “Exercise daily. Walk with God.”
Only not in New York, kids, not in New York.