As a once and future New Yorker, I can’t say I’m surprised that mild billionaire Michael Bloomberg (who’s now convinced he’s a king – bonus points if you caught that reference) easily won last November’s election and will be serving a third term as mayor of New York City. The man spent $102 million of his own money on his campaign – an ungodly sum of money, but a mere a drop in the bucket when you consider that he has $17 billion sitting in his coffers. I’m not complaining, of course; if you’ve got the means, who am I to dictate your spending habits? Besides, Bloomie was clearly the most qualified person for the job and hell, I would’ve happily voted for him.

What’s interesting to note though is had the election been limited to write-in votes, lovable tyrant centenarian Charles Montgomery Burns would have won instead with 25 whole votes. This is according to a recent analysis of Board of Elections data, which also reports that the deceased Rodney Dangerfield (Burn’s son Larry in the mediocre “Burns, Baby, Burns”) got just one measly vote. Well Monty, good effort. Maybe next time you can bend the rules a bit to better alter the outcome.

And while we’re on the subject of writing-in our favorite Simpsons characters in legitimate elections, I’d like to bring up a previous article from Charlie’s Friday Link Dump last week, wherein one forward-thinking South Jersey resident voted for Mayor Quimby. See, we Americans aren’t all pickup trucks, shotguns, Walmarts, cheap beer, and fast food. We can, occasionally, have a wicked sense of humor too.