MORE FROM NEW YORK: WHAT THE RESIDENTS THERE MIGHT BE COMMENTING ON, HAD I BEEN THERE AT THE TIME TO DISCREETLY JOT DOWN NOTES

 

---"Donald Trump always reminds me that I need to find a good antonym for the word 'conscientious'. Can you think of the right word to describe Donald Trump's defiance of the norms of conscientious leadership in the Oval Office?"

--"Personally, I get tired of using the word 'unconscionable' whenever I refer to President Trump in my conversations with friends. I could use a good synonym for 'unconscionable,' if you happen to know one I could use. I don't want to sound like I'm a moral tyrant when I talk about Donald Trump. I just want to point out that he has no conscience whatsoever. He even neglected his father, from what I read recently."

---"Whenever you say that about Donald Trump, you remind me that criminologists seem to agree that lack of conscience is one of the leading traits of Americans who commit crimes. Odd that no criminologist has done a study on Donald Trump that I've ever heard about."

--"I wonder what percentage of the Presbyterians in the U.S. plan to vote for Donald Trump. I recently read for the first time that Trump is a Presbyterian, so I would love to read a feature in The Times that profiles a political movement among Presbyterians to vote for Joe Biden instead of the Presbyterian candidate."

--"I think a lot of Presbyterians are very worried that Donald Trump's being publicly identified as Presbyterian might be disastrous for the nationwide and international reputation of their denomination."

---"Many Presbyterians don't take Donald Trump's claims about being religious seriously. In fact, they worry that he might damage the reputation that most Presbyterians have for high level of integrity, obedience of the law, and honesty."

--"I like the fact that even though Joe Biden is Catholic, I never hear anyone say he'll be taking his orders from the Vatican if he gets elected. That was what they used to say about John F. Kennedy when he ran for President. With Joe Biden, we all feel confident that he won't let the Catholic Church boss him around. Joe has a strong sense of integrity and independent judgment, and he is very aware of the importance of separation of church and state."

---"Joe Biden does such an excellent job of keeping his weight down. Maybe he'll help to inspire millions of us senior citizens to lose weight. I wish I could find out what Joe Biden eats for his dietary lifestyle. There must be some dietary secret that explains why he is so successful at keeping a slender physique. I assume he walks a lot for exercise, so maybe I should double my own walking time each day if I want to get a better physique myself."

---"I assume that Joe Biden excels at not overeating---this may be his biggest secret to his ability to remain slender as a senior citizen. And he probably excludes donuts and pies from his diet. Or maybe he has a very good exercise machine inside his and his wife's home. I never saw a feature story explaining how Joe Biden is able to maintain a slender physique on the campaign trail. Just another example of the surprising gaps in American news media coverage of the campaign."

--"Unfortunately, here in New York you can easily rationalize limiting your outdoor walking, since you assume it could inflict more pollution into your lungs if you do that. I try to do my walking indoors at an private gym where they use an air purifier that spares all of us from the threats to our lungs outdoors."

---"If Joe Biden gets elected, he may be under heavy pressure from the Republic of Ireland to visit there during his first few months as President. The Irish people will be elated to learn that we finally have another Irish-American President after John F. Kennedy was the first, from what I can recall at the moment. I don't claim to be an expert on American Presidential History. Maybe Ronald Reagan was partly Irish, I don't know. He called himself Dutch in his days as a radio announcer, so his ancestry was always confusing to me."

--"It's great that Joe Biden is level-headed, it helps to put an end to that unfair stereotype about Irish persons being irate---land of 'i-r-e', as I sometimes call it. Technically speaking, it's spelled 'E-i-r-e', but in my mind I always think 'i-r-e' instead. I still think of Irish people as capable of throwing a hand grenade at you if you disagree with them. But Joe Biden is not that way, thank goodness. So he's great PR for Irish Americans--and for the Irish. He's very good luck for the people of Ireland, you might say."

---"It's odd that I never heard Joe Biden imitate the famous Irish brogue during the campaign. I would have expected that from any Irish-American running for an elective office. But of course, I have to keep in mind that John F. Kennedy didn't give us an Irish brogue during his campaign, if I remember correctly."

---"It will be very special on St. Patrick's Day, knowing we have a President who's Irish. I hope he will urge everyone to avoid getting drunk on St. Patrick's Day. That will help to save millions of lives. It's an example of how the conscientious style of Joe Biden as President will shine through whenever he has a chance to prove he's a great moral leader in the White House. St. Patrick's Day is usually a day when lots of Americans get injured in motor-vehicle accidents after they drank too much. It defeats the purpose of paying a tribute to Ireland if you can't even drive safely."

---"I think everyone who has any ounce of conscience to them will be voting early. If you don't vote early, some medical emergency could occur for you or your family on election day and you can't make it to the polls. Each and every vote counts in the election results, so everyone I know is planning to vote early for Joe Biden."

--"As many outrageous lies as Donald Trump has told, I will have to think very hard before I decide whether I agree to be a personal friend of someone who tells me that he voted for Donald Trump in the election. I personally couldn't trust anyone who voted for Trump. I will even rewrite my will to exclude anyone who voted for Trump, assuming I can find out from each of the cited beneficiaries whether they voted for Trump. But they might lie to me about that, since they know I'd remove them from my will if they voted for Trump."

---"I wish I had asked Joe Biden to publicly declare his favorite saying that originated from Ireland. As an Irish-American myself, I could have asked him to write that saying on an autographed photo of himself that I could post on the wall in my family's living room. I could then point to the photo and tell all my friends, 'See, he's very Irish and he'll bring the luck of the Irish into the White House.'"

--"When Donald Trump gets defeated, it will put an end to all those nasty jokes I've heard that Donald Trump was New York City's Gift to America that everyone wants to return as an unwanted present."