The winter keeps getting worse and worse for Mayor Bloomberg.
This week’s disaster involved the Mayor calling Staten Island oldtimer Charles G. Hogg, better known as “Staten Island Chuck”, a son-of-a-bitch.
It seems Mayor Mike and Staten Island Chuck have a long standing feud. Exactly two years ago, the Mayor tried to bully Chuck out of his cozy little home to “predict if there would be six more weeks of winter.”
Sick of being forced to perform this pointless, asinine task year after year, Chuck decided to make a stand, refusing to exit his comfy abode. But how dare he defy Mayor Mike! Ignoring Chuck’s obvious wishes, Bloomberg had the audacity to stick his arm into Chuck’s home and drag the little guy out kicking and screeching (Chuck was doing this, not the Mayor).
After struggling to escape Bloomberg’s clutches, Chuck turned and unceremoniously took a serious bite out of the Mayor’s finger.
The February 2, 2009 incident took place exactly three days after the Mayor took a substantial bite out of the Staten Island Zoo’s budget. Coincidence? Perhaps.
Chuck’s appearance was widely reported as predicting six less weeks of winter. But in retrospect, he was obviously predicting four more years of Bloomberg. Perhaps that’s why Chuck was so ornery.
Whatever the circumstances, Chuck has long since apologized for the incident, according to the Staten Island Advance. But was that good enough for Mayor Mike? What do you think?
This week the Mayor ordered that Chuck be unceremoniously shoved out of his home into the sub-freezing weather by a plunger-like device, while the bundled up Bloomie lay in wait. “I love the plunger,” the mayor gleefully told a group of reporters and flunkees. “This is so much better than having to reach in and letting that little son-of-a-bitch bite me.”
Once quite popular in Staten Island, the Mayor’s popularity has taken a plunge as well, if reactions on the Advance’s web site this week are any indication. A brief sampling: Animals can sense who is good and who is evil; My dog also snarls around undesirables; The Mayor’s cussing badly upset my poor kids, who never want to go to the zoo again.
Reeling from the public reaction, the Mayor now claims he “does not recall” using profanity when speaking of Chuck. Spoken like a true weaselly (no offense Chuck) politician.
I do disagree with Staten Island Chuck on one thing. I believe it’s going to be a long winter. Especially for Mayor Mike.
Plunger indeed! If I was plungered out of a sound sleep I’d do more than bite him! p.s. The Staten Island Zoo is a treasure. Kids should go there more, not less, to show support of Chuck and protest the Mayor’s manhandling.
Good for Chuck! He deserves Emperor Bloomy’s respect. After all, Mr. Chuck Hogg has an 80% accuracy rate in predicting the coming of Spring weather. That puts him in the class of immortals, like Tex Antoine, way better than Al Roker or Frank Field or even his son “Storm.”
To quote Rodney Raccoon: “Staten Island varmints get no respect!”, and to quote Chuck: “Hey Mike get your ice cold hands off of my ass!!!”
Emperor Bloomy’s treatment of Chuck is no surprise. Bloomberg is hardly animal-sympathetic. With city-wide spending cuts, animal welfare is the most expendable thing on Bloomberg’s list. The Center for Animal Care and Control (CACC) already is and has been euthanizing stray animals on a regular basis, because of Bloomberg’s huge budget cuts. This includes “found” animals, who are likely someone’s pet that got lost.
CACC services have been cut so drastically that there is not enough staff to take care of the animals brought in, and not enough food to feed them. If the animals are not claimed or adopted after a short time, they will be put down.
To make matters worse, around the end of 2010, the CACC stopped taking reports of lost and found animals. An owner of a lost pet used to be able to call CACC and have a staffer search the shelter with a description of the pet to see if he/she was brought in. Now the staffers no longer can perform the service, and the owner has to come down to the shelter in person. There are only three shelters in the entire City, not always close. If the owner is older, disabled, etc and does not have a car? Too bad!
I guess Bloomberg thinks that it doesn’t matter if some of these “sons (or daughters) of bitches” lose their lives because it’s easy and cost effective to just kill them.