"And, like, these really annoying kids, you know, the Democrats? Like, they will not get off my back! I mean, I'm going to win this election, 'cause I'm the richest kid around...I just want to say, 'Listen, yo, I'm taking you down...'": Gothamist's imagining this conversation Mayor Bloomberg with some students at Queens Vocational High School in Long Island City. Seriously, how must it be to sit next to the Mayor at lunch? Probably difficult to eat, since all the media is watching your every move.

Yes, yesterday was the first day of school, which meant almost 1.1 million students headed back to their public schools, a few of which were descended upon by political candidates eager to show they know education issues. The Mayor made his way to schools in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx; (read a story to first graders; the NY Times says he ended up in a long discussion with 6 year-olds about loose teeth and the tooth fairy and Gothamist would like the papers to divulge the Mayor's stance on the Tooth Fairy. The Mayor's likely rival in November, Fernando Ferrer, took his grandsons to their public school in the Bronx, and then spoke at a high school in the Bronx; Gifford Miller was at an Upper West Side school (ooh, crossing town!) and Anthony Weiner was at P.S. 39, his old school as we know from his ads. And the Democratic frontrunner for Manhattan Borough President, Scott Stringer, was at P.S. 234 in Tribeca with the teachers' union Randi Weingarten, who lamented the fact that teachers are still, after 2 years, without a contract.

So, as you head take the subway at certain hours, that extra-crowded feeling will be because the kids are back in school. Yee haw!

Photograph from Newsday