Malapropisms can be an endearing trait in the hands of Yogi Berra or Ringo Starr, but they generally come off as ignorant and irritating when spouting from politicians' mouths. Mayor Bloomberg made a bit of a verbal flub yesterday when he greeted Muslim leaders at a Ramadan gathering. Instead of the traditional greeting of "salaam alaikum," he uttered, "shalom alaikum."
But don't worry, no international crises just yet—because nobody was that upset by the Bloombergism: "He just got a little confused," one witness told the News. Imam Omar Abunamous of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York sounded like he would have been surprised if the mayor didn't make some mistake: "Well, it's common to both religions. They are the same thing. The same idea."
Bloomberg is well known for his malapropisms and mispronunciations: he's introduced former Yankee manager Joe Torre as "Joe Torres," waxed rhapsodic about the famous singing duo "Simon and Garfinkle," and referred to Shania Twain as "Shun-agua Twain" and Tim McGraw as "Tom McGraw" when announcing that the Country Music Association would be coming to Manhattan. Let's just say that the Shania Twain message board is still laughing it up over that one.
