Another Round with Norman Mailer

In 1969, with typical chutzpah, Norman Mailer ran for mayor of New York City. His slogan was “No More Bullshit,” his spirit both defiant and hopeful. In Mailer’s New York, driving would be illegal, the city would secede, becoming the fifty-first state, and locals would enjoy “Sweet Sundays,” a kind of civic Sabbath without any transportation. New York would be, if not a bucolic Eden, a mellower place to feel a cool river breeze off the Hudson.