Many readers will be inoculated by this column’s volubility, and many will explore it for blunders which render my observations and information subject to judgment and even criticism. It has been observed that criticism from a friend is better than flattery from an enemy. I bear no malice because the person who is not criticized isn’t breathing. You might avoid criticism by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing.

I don’t know at present whether we can apply that axiom to any of the five major candidates for mayor, but we’ve got irritating practitioners of guile and political pap at City Hall, and I don’t mean Assessor Joaquin Torres, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins – who is a breath of fresh prosecutorial air of the criminal courthouse, 850 Bryant St. – Director John Arntz of the Election Department, Board of Supervisor’s Clerk Angela Cavallo, Controller Greg Wagner and Budget Analyst Fred Broussard, a worthy successor to Harvey M. Rose who has retired but still attends every Board of Supervisors meeting.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, while still New York state’s governor in 1932, warned: “Any government, like any family, can for a year spend a little more than it earns. But you and I know that a continuation of that habit means the poorhouse.”