Koch cuts through confusion: Despite an article in the Daily News that muddled things a bit, former Mayor Ed Koch says he bears no ill will toward Andrew Cuomo after the flap over the revival of the “Vote for Cuomo, not the Homo” posters controversy at the recent Stonewall Democrats event at which Cuomo spoke. The News reported that Cuomo, who is running for state attorney general, had denied the inflammatory posters — that appeared when Koch was running against Cuomo’s dad, Mario, for mayor in 1977 — ever existed. But Koch says Andrew called him twice after the club meeting to explain things. Recounted Koch, “He said, ‘All I said was I wasn’t involved in that myself. I didn’t say it didn’t happen.’” Koch noted that the Times, as opposed to the News, had a reporter at the meeting and got the story right. As for the A.G. race, Koch said he might sit this one out, though all six Democratic candidates have sought his endorsement. “There isn’t one who hasn’t” asked him, he noted. “Even Denise [O’Donnell] had breakfast with me. She’s from Buffalo, very able,” Hizzoner said of the field’s only female candidate.
Shakespearean drama: On Saturday afternoon before the snowstorm, a source tells us he was in the Strand bookstore when he witnessed the apparent purchaser of the 1632 Shakespeare Second Folio reported in last week’s Villager, in animated discussion with bookstore staff in the rare-books room on the store’s third floor. The man, in his late 50s and wearing a windbreaker, was holding out the book and apparently pointing out some possible defect — though seemingly the problem wasn’t bad enough to warrant a return. At one point, he then left the book, and said he was going to get a flashlight to examine it more carefully. “He’s very adamant about whatever the problem is, isn’t he?” our source asked. “You would be too if you spent $100,000 on a book,” replied the staff member.
’Toon quest: Ted Rall, whose column occasionally runs in The Villager, much to the chagrin of our more conservative readers, is looking for another New York publication to run his cartoons, which mirror the views in his columns. “The new owner of the Voice is planning to drop political content and I need a simpatico outlet for my stuff,” he tells us.
LESA means more: Members of LOCO (Ludlow Orchard Community Organization) and others have formed a new group to combat bar proliferation and other Lower East Side quality of life issues. It’s called Lower East Side Alliance, or LESA for short.
No to Gehry shell! The Gothamist Web site says they “wholeheartedly agree” with the idea of bringing back a permanent band shell to Tompkins Square Park, first reported in The Villager earlier this month. However, Gothamist comments: “All that we ask is that if a new shell does eventually go up, that nobody take seriously parks conservancy member Ellen LeCompte’s suggestion that a new band shell have ‘a really fabulous design by an architect like Frank Gehry.’ Fabulous design, sure. Gehry, please no. Gehry’s design for the Pritzker Pavilion band shell in Chicago is awful! The back doesn’t even look finished! And anyway, an open design competition would be much more in line with the neighborhood’s character.”
Unsettling gastro crash: EU, a swank new “gastro pub” planned on E. Fourth St., is already built with a heavy investment, but hasn’t gotten a liquor license — and won’t, if the State Liquor Authority responds to the pleas of local residents. A small private party the other night was a harbinger of more noise to come if the place does open, according to one resident, who says a cab smashed into a black limo double-parked in front, causing the limo’s hood to pop up, backing up traffic and eliciting the cacophonous nighttime car honking for which Avenue B recently has become known.
Root of the matter: Dana Beal says that in last week’s Scoopy’s column we left out the most important part of the pot-versus-heroin firecracker war of 1980 — that it led marijuana advocates to take matters into their hands and push for using Ibogaine, an African plant, as a cure for heroin addiction.
