Decoding The Note: Nose Knows

A reader writes in to alert us to some truly impressive sycophantic gymnastics in today's Note. This massive, gaping suckfest jimmies four distinct feints of flattery into one apparently prosaic event listing:

Tomorrow, Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy and the Center for New York City Affairs and its Dean Fred Hochberg play hosts to a star-studded post-election roundtable exploring the 2005 New York City mayoral election with that perfect 20/20 hindsight. ABC's Mark Halperin moderates the discussion which will occur in two pieces — the primary and the general — and include campaign operatives and strategists from each of the campaigns as well as members from the New York City political press corps who covered the race.

We fell asleep after "roundtable" until the wooshing sound of someone sticking their nose into at least four separate behinds woke us. Those being flattered include: New School prez Bob Kerrey, Fred "Who?" Hochberg, Hochberg's circle of fundraisers, and, er, "ABC's Mark Halperin." And we thought the press just gazed into their own navels.

 Border Crossing [ABC]