Since the war in Lebanon, tourism to Israel is way down, prompting local jokers to suggest that El Al’s new slogan should be: “Visit Israel—before Israel visits you.”
Lieutenant-Governor Mario Cuomo badly wanted to be governor of New York, only his opponent, businessman and supply-sider Lew Lehrman, was drawing uncomfortably close in the polls—so Cuomo elevated the tone of the campaign and came on as a statesman, e.g., “There has been a Polish governor,” he said in a street-corner speech, “there has been an Irish governor. It’s embarrassing not to have had an Italian-American governor.” Yeah, well, he never said he was Pericles. Cicero maybe: he continued with a fine paralepsis (“God forbid you should vote for me because I’m Italian”) that drew laughter from the crowd. However, this is one of those cases where, unless you get it exactly right, you are exactly wrong. And Cuomo was not exactly right. Alfred E. Smith, who was elected to lour terms as governor, was partlv of Italian descent. And Charles Poletti. appointed to fill out Governor Lehman’s term in 1942. was the first son of Italian immigrants to serve as lieutenant-governor and governor of any state.
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