Last October, when the Times went trick-or-treating at the home of then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, they found him disappointingly un-costumed in a white dress shirt and tie. “Pressed about his costume — or lack thereof — the Democratic nominee replied stiffly: ‘No garb.’”
Now that he’s ascended to the governor’s mansion now that he represents The People will Cuomo step up his game? When our intrepid reporter Jennifer Vineyard ran into Sandra Lee at the Elton John AIDS benefit on Wednesday night, she probed for answers. Asked about her costume plans, The First Girlfriend replied, “I’m thinking about Raggedy Ann and Andy, so I can wear a turtleneck and long johns, be a geek, basically.” Vineyard, reasonably enough, assumed that this meant Governor Cuomo would be Andy. But Lee, laughing (nervously?), claimed that’s not what she meant. “No. No. I didn’t even catch that before I said that. Now I wish I hadn’t said that!”
Interesting. Had Lee just made an honest mistake — implying a couples costume when she said “Raggedy Ann and Andy,” when really, she just meant “Raggedy Ann”? Or had she unintentionally leaked the Governor’s costume? We e-mailed Lee’s communications director for confirmation, but, strangely, never heard back. Did she give us the cold shoulder because she’s busy with, you know, important things — or is she part of the cover-up? More mysteries.
Luckily for us, the governor himself was scheduled to appear last night at the Empire State Pride Agenda’s Fall Dinner, where he would receive the Douglas W. Jones Leadership Award for successfully spearheading the legalization of gay marriage. So we sent reporter Meg Miller, who is also intrepid, to solve this mystery once and for all. Instead, things only became hazier. “Oh, I don’t know, I’m still deciding,” Cuomo said when Miller asked him what he planned to be for Halloween. “Maybe a governor!”
We assume that this was Cuomo’s way of telling us that he will refuse to dress up for Halloween once again this year. But maybe he’s just trying to keep Raggedy Andy under wraps. Another possibility, albeit a slim one, is that he’s going to dress up as a different governor, such as, say, North Dakota governor Jack Dalrymple, or Idaho governor Butch Otter*. It’s probably not that, though. We’ll just have to wait and see.
*This sentence incorrectly identified the governor of Idaho as “Bruce Otter.” His name is Butch. Butch Otter.
