NYC State of Mind

Oh, that Peter Vallone, Jr.-you never can tell what kooky nonsense he'll think of next! Last week the crackpot councilman was pushing once again for NYC to secede from NYS in order to become the 51st state. The state keeps screwing us, he says, so it's about time we broke off on our own. He's been talking that way for the past three years now. Nobody listened to him then, and nobody's listening to him now. It doesn't stop him, though. The fact that such a move would be an economic nightmare as well as a logistical one doesn't seem to bother him. And he seems to have forgotten that most of our drinking water and electricity come from upstate. But the biggest question he hasn't faced yet is one raised by a friend of ours. Upon hearing of Vallone's crazy scheme, she asked, "If New York City became the 51st state, what would we call it?"