LA TIMES, “Former Mayor Ed Koch, the combative, acid-tongued politician who rescued New York City from near-financial ruin during a three-term City Hall run in which he embodied New York chutzpah for the rest of the world, died today. He was 88. … larger-than-life Koch, he breezed through the streets of New York flashing his signature thumbs-up sign and won a national reputation with his feisty style. “How’m I doing?” was his trademark question to constituents, although the answer mattered little to Koch. The mayor always thought he was doing wonderfully … Bald and bombastic, paunchy and pretentious, the city’s 105th mayor was quick with a friendly quip and equally fast with a cutting remark for his political enemies.” Famous for so many lines, one stands out …“I’m not the type to get ulcers, I give them.” … “At age 83, Koch paid $20,000 for a burial plot at Trinity Church Cemetery, at the time the only graveyard in Manhattan that still had space. … “I don’t want to leave Manhattan, even when I’m gone,” Koch told The AP. “This is my home. The thought of having to go to New Jersey was so distressing to me.” Not long after buying the plot, he had his tombstone inscribed and installed. The marker features the last words of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl: “My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish.” Also on his tombstone, “He was fiercely proud of his Jewish faith. He fiercely defended the City of New York, and he fiercely loved its people. Above all, he loved his country, the United States of America, in whose armed forces he served in World War II.” Rest in peace, Ed Koch
08
Feb 2013
