Statue of Limitations

Yesterday we were forced to walk the three miles to The Man's sweatshop because the subways were still recovering from Hurricane Tropical Storm Irene (specifically, they were recovering from the city's decision to shut down the subway for fear that the trains might get wet). But we're glad we did, otherwise we might never have seen the only statue of a Mexican in New York City: this life-size casting of Benito Juárez in Byrant Park.

Admittedly, in Juárez's case, "life-size" and "almost insultingly tiny" are more or less the same, since he was famously elected president as part of Mexico's successful bid to capture the Guinness record for World's Shortest Head of State. (Interestingly, Juárez also holds the record for World's Tallest Fully-Indigenous President of Mexico.) But before you accuse us of "going native" by adopting our adopted country's hypersensitivity to slights from Uncle Sam - "Hey," we can hear you saying, "Juárez was a total midget...of course his statue is pint-sized!" - we would refer you to the neighboring statue, 50 feet away, of José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva, who the Wikipedias tell us was some kind of Brazilian statesman, naturalist, professor and poet.

True, the article says nothing about Andrada's height, but if he were in fact nine feet tall, it seems like the kind of thing biographers might take care to note.

Protesters should report to NYC Parks Department Headquarters at 830 Fifth Avenue.