Mayor Bill de Blasio, this is your wake-up call!
The sleepy mayor of The City That Never Sleeps can now rest easy with this noisy new alarm clock.
A New York Post reporter presented the perennially tardy mayor with the much-needed, retro-styled, enameled-metal ticker on Thursday – a day after he dissed the grieving families of American Airlines Flight 587 and blamed a bad night’s sleep for missing a solemn bell-ringing ceremony in Queens.
In an abundance of caution, the clock has no snooze button.
“I had a very rough night and woke up sluggish,” de Blasio had explained, to the outrage of spouses, siblings and children who lost loved ones in the 2001 crash of the Dominican Republic-bound jet in Belle Harbor.
“I should have gotten myself moving quicker,” he added.
On Thursday, the mayor smiled graciously – even commenting, “Ah, West Elm,” when told of the clock’s provenance, which was calculated to fit in with Gracie Mansion’s other new furnishings, all donated by the Brooklyn store.
The clock wouldn’t be the only wake-up aid presented to Hizzoner on Thursday.
For good measure, the New York Republican State Committee sent the Democratic mayor two cans of Red Bull.
“We hope these cans of sugar-free Red Bull will help you cut through the ‘fog’ after a rough night’s sleep,” said a note from the GOP, a reference to the fog that de Blasio also blamed for his tardiness.
“We get it – we all feel a little sluggish sometimes,” said NY GOP spokesman David Laska.
De Blasio finally arrives.Photo: AP Photo/Seth Wenig
“But there are ways of overcoming that: a little coffee or an energy drink can go a long way.”
The mayor was on-the-dot punctual for a speech downtown at a minority- and women-owned business event Thursday morning.
But the mayor still hasn’t apologized, the Flight 587 family members say, despite his claiming later Wednesday, “Oh, I apologized to them out there. Yes, I’ll apologize again. Absolutely.”
“No, I still haven’t,” Miriam Estrella, who lost five family members in the crash, said late Thursday when asked if she had heard anything from the Mayor’s Office.
“I was kind of expecting an apology,” said Estrella, a 21-year-old student whose task it was Wednesday to read aloud the names of the crash’s 265 dead.
“But I’m not that desperate,” she added, sounding dejected.
De Blasio had still not shown up for Wednesday’s ceremony by 9:16 a.m., the exact time of the crash and the moment when the bell-ringing was to begin, so Estrella began without him.
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
