Koch’s grateful pitch: We asked former Mayor Ed Koch if the ad he did for New York-Presbyterian Hospital that has been saturating the media lately was done for free or if Koch got cash. Hizzoner told us that — as opposed to his being a pitchman for the Dot NYC LLC group — it was completely gratis. “They saved my life,” he told us. “Gave me a new life, so to speak. I went in for a quadruple bypass and the replacement of an aortic heart valve — and I was in the I.C.U. for five weeks — which is extraordinary. And there were times I didn’t think I would make it — when I didn’t think I would come home.”
Pitcher par excellence: Drugs and sports have been an unsavory combination in recent years, but here’s one good story. George Manos of Village Apothecary, 346 Bleecker St., proudly informed us that his daughter Alexandra is featured in this month’s issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids as one of the magazine’s Sports Kids of the Month. She now has a chance to go on to win the Sports Kid of the Year and get her photo on the mag’s cover. The nominations are to honor outstanding young athletes who “do it all” on and off the filed. Alexandra, 16, studies music at LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts where she also is captain of the varsity softball team. Alexandra led LaGuardia to its first-ever undefeated regular season and was named team M.V.P. While doing so, she led the league in E.R.A. (0.00) and struck out 130 batters in 51 innings — or 2.5 strikeouts per inning. Phenomenal! We hear George is a pretty mean softballer himself — he plays in a league in Central Park — so the talent obviously runs in the family.
Tower of power: Canal St. around Soho was getting extra protection last week, thanks to a police sky tower that was posted on the street’s south side across from Mercer St. Two officers in a radio car parked at the tower’s base last Friday night said the tower, with its blinking blue light on top, acts as “a deterrent” to crime. Crime has been up slightly in the area lately, they said, which is why the tower was there. The tower shifts around, sometimes from week to week, and they never know where it will be stationed next, they said.
Garden gossip: We stopped in at the Dias Y Flores community garden on E. 13th St. Saturday afternoon to enjoy the brisk autumn weather in the soothing setting of its foliage and some conversation with three of its intrepid gardeners, Norman Aiken, Everett Hill and Charles Molloy. Aiken and Hill gave us the report on an offensive mural that recently popped up on a building wall across the street, depicting three men in hoods, an upside-down cross and a swastika, which the landlord quickly painted over. They also talked about how photographer Shell Sheddy owes some hours in the garden, and that she’s on the edge of having to pay up a fee unless she reports for duty. Molloy noted he recently heard N.P.R. give The Villager a nice on-air plug.
Lurie’s spirit lives: A new foundation has been set up to honor the work of the late Lower East Side artist Boris Lurie, who founded the NO! Art movement. The Villager profiled the iconoclastic Lurie in March 2005, three years before his death at age 83 in January 2008. The foundation is offering grants of $25,000 to “unrecognized, innovative artists in all media, including visual artists, sculptors, poets, musicians and others whose work broadly embraces the spirit of the NO! Art movement represented by the life and the work of the Founder Boris Lurie.” Applications should be submitted directly to Ms. Gertrude Stein, Artistic Director of the Boris Lurie Foundation, 50 Central Park West, NY, NY 10023, with a copy to Dr. W.F. Pepper, 575 Madison Ave., Suite 1006, NY, NY 10022. For more information, call 212-595-0161 or e-mail info@borislurieartfoundation.org .
Damning Dylan: Following hot on the heels of his muckraking book “Homo Thug” about Rudy Giuliani, AJ Weberman’s new release, coming out in a few weeks, is “Right-wing Bob,” which purports to expose all of Bob Dylan’s sordid conservative doings. As for “Homo Thug,” Weberman charges that Amazon “bowed to pressure by Giuliani” and pulled the book off its site. But he assures, “I have books left in case he decides to make a run. I’m going to send it out to the whole Republican National Committee, so they know who they’re dealing with.”
