“There’s a lot of stuff I try to do to make myself look more adult,” 18-year-old Dodge Landesman, a York Preparatory Academy junior, tells The New Yorker this week. “I drink coffee. I wear suits.” But, he says, “I try to avoid alcohol because I’m a minor, and I don’t support that.” Landesman’s reasons for trying to seem more grown-up are politically motivated: He’s running as a Democratic candidate for City Council in the Second District of Manhattan this year. Why, you ask? What inner passion would cause a common 18-year-old to forgo the Jäger bombs and outdoor dry-humping that are inalienable adolescent rights for a life of public service? Well, neither this week’s “Talk of the Town” about young Dodge, or the attendant video profile of him, really get into that much. Instead we learn about how he missed doing his math homework because he was so busy working on the campaign, and how if he wins, his teachers said he can miss school for the important votes (most of them are in the afternoon anyway). But by the time he gets to this line, we’re thinking we have an inkling as to where the origins of this young whippersnapper’s desire to serve in public office lie: “I’d be lying if I told you I liked high school. A lot of high school kind of aggravates me. You know, it’s so much work.” Well. We don’t know if we’d give the kid our vote, but we sure will give him an A+ for thinking up the most creative and elaborate scheme to get out of going to class since Ferris Bueller.
