New York, NY – Mayor Forgets Name of His Health Commissioner

New York, NY – What’s Mayor Bloomberg been smoking?

The mayor brought along his Health Commissioner, Thomas Farley, to John Gambling’s Friday morning WOR-AM radio show to discuss the proposed smoking ban for city parks and beaches.

But for the life of him, Bloomberg couldn’t remember Farley’s name.

“A lot of people don’t like sitting next to somebody who’s smoking, and they don’t like — which incidentally is, Tom Frieden’s with us — Friedman — yes, well, Foley,” the mayor began.

After that, it went from bad to worse, with the unassuming Farley morphing in Bloomberg’s mind into chatty New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

“Friedman was the last guy,” Bloomberg said. “Frieden was the last guy. Friedman’s the columnist, and Foley’s the one we have now.”

Sorry mayor, try again.

“I picked Foley, Tom Foley because we didn’t have to change the monograms on the towels,” the mayor said, digging himself deeper.

“Tom Friedman, Tom Foley — and a lot of people, all kidding aside, don’t like all the butts and cigarettes and the beach and everything,” Bloomberg said. “Tom, you want to talk about this a little bit?”

Mercifully, Tom – as in Thomas Farley – wanted to talk a bit.

But Bloomberg, who is 68, still sounded confused about which Tom was in the studio.

“Foley,” hizzoner said.

“Farley,” Gambling corrected the mayor.

“Farley,” Bloomberg agreed.