FOOTNOTED

If you thought you could get Mayor Bloomberg to answer whether he is running for president under oath, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

The New York Sun reports that as part of a defamation case brought against Bloomberg by a South Carolina gun salesman over remarks made by the mayor in 2006, Bloomberg was asked that very question. His response?

“I was not planning to run for president then.”

And thus, we wait.

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He’s advisor Kevin Sheeky seems to think so.

The Politicker is keeping track of Sheeky’s Facebook moves and reports that in Dec. 2 he joined the groups Michael R. Bloomberg for Pres. of U.S.A., and Draft Bloomberg.

He also found time to become a fan of Draft Bloomberg.

Still our mayor insists he is NOT running for president in 2008.

Just the same, here’s Bloomberg on presidential candidates, religion and politics, how the U.S. is viewed internationally, and other topics.

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Gone are the days when one could lie down in the comfort of a hotel room bed, open the drawer of the night table, and pick up and read a few verses of the Bible.

That is, if you are staying in some of the new wave of boutique hotels opening all over the country.

Newsweek reports that since 2001 the number of hotels offering religious material in their rooms has dropped by 18 percent.

Not that fancy hotel rooms are lacking amenities. The Soho Grand Hotel in Manhattan offers iPod docking stations, flat-screen TVs and a gold fish. Yes, a living gold fish.

But what is now replacing the holy book? Intimacy kits, of course. Think condoms and lovers’ dice games.

When asked if the new Marriott boutique chain in development would include Bibles in its rooms, a spokesman described the new ventures as “cutting-edge,” “more urban” and “less values-oriented.”

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According to the Gotham Gazette, New York City produces more than 7 billion pounds of garbage every year.

Play the Garbage Game and try to come up with a solution to the city’s garbage disposal problem.

I played The Gotham Gazette Garbage Game and sent 5,406,744 tons of refuse across 3,243,350 miles.

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For those who wondered why drinking at New York City hotspots is so expensive, the truth is finally out: It’s the ice.

Three friends went for cocktails at the Bowery Hotel and when they asked why they were being charged extra for their drinks, they were told they were charged for the ice. They paid $2 extra for every drink with ice.

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The Good - The Greens: While Forbes credits city residents, for using cleaner transportation options and working and living in close quarters, for New York State ranking at No. 9 on their Greenest States list, Major Bloomberg is devising a new plan to have companies pay a greenhouse-gas tax.

The Bad - Strip and Strand: Two Staten Island cops thought they should teach a 14-year old boy a lesson after they found tossing eggs on Halloween. They made him strip to his underwear and left him in a desolated area.

The Ugly - Suicide Tourism: More than one in 10 of the suicides in Manhattan are out-of-towners who choose places like the Empire State Building, Times Square and the George Washington Bridge to take their lives.

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The guys at the Daily Intelligencer ruffled some hipster feathers last week when they referred to a group that was evicted from its building in Ridgewood, Queens as “hipsters.”

Apparently the word “hipster” has acquired a bad connotation that suggests that the so-called hipster just seats around doing nothing for a living.

So, the DI tried to make amends by having a “hipster” define “hipster.”

“It’s always been my opinion that most of the time an individual you overhear complaining about hipster this or hipster that is in fact him/herself a hipster, or else really wishes he/she was one,” Todd P told the DI.

In all fairness he did go on explaining further. If you call this an explanation.

But don’t fret, my friends, I went straight to the source, Dictionary.com, and got you the real definition of “hipster.”

hip·ster1 /ˈhɪpstər/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[hip-ster] Pronunciation Key

–noun Slang.

1.	a person who is hip.

2.

hepcat.

3.	a person, esp. during the 1950s, characterized by a particularly strong sense of alienation from most established social activities and relationships

[Origin: 1935–40, Americanism; hip⁴ + -ster]

So there you have it.

A “hipster” is a person who’s “hip.” Who would have thought it?

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Last month Forbes released a list of the most environmentally friendly states.

Vermont came in on top and West Virginia at the bottom.

New York came in at a respectable, but definiteley improvable, No. 9.

Forbes determined the ranking by comparing carbon dioxide emissions per capita, policies to promote energy efficiency and high air quality, buildings (on a per capita basis) that have received the U.S. Green Building Council’s benchmark certification and others.

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The National Priorities Project has gathered tax-payer’s information and used it to determine how much towns and counties are paying for the Iraq War.

According to their numbers, the war has cost New York City residents $15,237,500,000 thus far, with Queens paying the most out of the five boroughs with $4,701,200,000.

They also list other ways of looking at the cost of the war:

• $4,100 for every American household;
• $1,500 for every American;
• $3,400 for every taxpayer;
• $11 million per hour and;
• $275 million per day.

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