The day before yesterday we were walking around New York and gushing: how wonderful, here you can always walk around in shoes/boots and they’ll stay clean, so cute, and anyway, Luzhkov (former mayor of Moscow) is a loser, while Bloomberg is the real deal. Yesterday it snowed, and it became clear that Bloomberg is apparently a loser too. On Fifth Avenue there’s ankle-deep icy slush. Outside the Plaza Hotel, Maybachs are getting stuck in snowdrifts. There was no sign of any serious snow removal at all, even though there had been a forecast of heavy snowfall a week in advance. Right now I’m looking out the window, and the snow still hasn’t been cleared. What on earth is going on? Where are you, ideal big-city mayor?