The Ad Campaign: Speaking in Support of Weiner

First aired: August 27, 2013

Produced by: Penczner Media

for: Anthony D. Weiner

After soaring to the top of the Democratic mayoral primary field in some polls earlier this summer, former Representative Anthony D. Weiner is now struggling, and viewed as a long shot to make it to a runoff. But one asset he still has is a robust campaign war chest, so this week, he released three more television commercials. Perhaps the most notable one is “Choices,” because it represents the first time he has deployed surrogates â€" not himself â€" to make his campaign pitch.

Fact-Check

0:08

“There’s nobody working for the middle class. And the majority of New York City is middle class.”

These are personal testimonials from people who say they support Mr. Weiner, and their comments are mostly not statements of fact. However, it is not correct to say that none of the other candidates talk about the middle class â€" in fact, several of the candidates talk about that segment of the population frequently.

Scorecard

Within hours of the ad’s release, The Daily News reported that two of the people shown supporting Mr. Weiner have worked, or are now working, for Mr. Weiner as interns. But the bet in Mr. Weiner’s camp is that New Yorkers who catch this ad (or its Spanish-language companion, “Mejor”) will not care, or even know, about how the ad was made, and instead be struck by how ordinary-looking New Yorkers are actually saying nice things, for a change, about Mr. Weiner. The testimonials also represent the most direct attempt by Mr. Weiner to confront his sexually explicit text-messaging exploits in an ad, by enlisting New Yorkers to say that they like him and admire his work. The upbeat and scrappy ads could set Mr. Weiner apart from his rivals, who are now attacking each other relentlessly.

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More from The Ad Campaign

New Deadline Set in Minnesota Orchestra Labor Dispute

The make-or-break moment for the Minnesota Orchestra, which canceled its 2012-13 season after management locked out the players because of labor strife, is now Sept. 15.

Without a new contract agreement by then, the orchestra’s management said Wednesday, it will not be able to call the musicians back to work in time for them to adequately prepare for a pair of crucial concerts at Carnegie Hall in November.

The orchestra’s music director, Osmo Vanska, has threatened to resign if the Carnegie concerts are canceled. Mr. Vanska said in the statement released by the orchestra Wednesday that in order to adequately prepare for the Carnegie Hall concerts, the musicians would need to be in rehearsal by the week of Sept. 30.

The new deadline is actually a little later than the previous one. Mr. Vanska had written, in a letter to the orchestra’s board in April, that to prepare for the Carnegie Hall concerts the orchestra would have to start work again by Sept. 9 “at the latest.”

The musicians have been locked out since October, when the players rejected a proposal for a 32 percent cut in base pay and declined to offer a counterproposal. The dispute forced the orchestra to postpone recording the next two symphonies in its acclaimed Sibelius cycle, which had been scheduled for the week of Sept. 16.

The upcoming Carnegie Hall concerts are scheduled for Nov. 2 and 3.

Catching Up With the Owl and the Pussycat

Ever wonder what became of the owl and the pussycat from Edward Lear’s famous 1870 poem? Last seen, they “danced by the light of the moon” after having been married by a turkey.

Julia Donaldson, who recently finished a two-year term as Britain’s Children’s Laureate, has just published a sequel, “The Further Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat,” illustrated by Charlotte Voake.

Ms. Donaldson told the British newspaper Metro that she was “wooed” by a publisher to continue the story, and that the idea “instantly appealed to me. I have always loved Edward Lear and welcomed the challenge to compose a new adventure using the same meter and nonsense language. The whole poem isn’t nonsense: there can be an underlying emotional sense to it. The ‘nonsense’ comes in the language.” She wrote in The Telegraph: “I like to think of it as a kind of thank-you to Lear for giving me so much childhood pleasure.”

“The Owl and the Pussycat” has inspired many other artists, including Beatrix Potter, whose book “The Tale of Little Pig Robinson,” published in 1930, is a prequel about the pig who makes a brief appearance in Lear’s tale.

Challenge Is Strong, but Robin Thicke Holds to No. 1

Miley Cyrus’s rear-shaking, tongue-wagging performance at MTV’s Video Music Awards on Sunday has been widely ridiculed by the news media. BuzzFeed has devoted at least 20 posts to it (so far); even Camille Paglia put it down.

But viewers could not get enough of it, even long after the show ended. MTV announced on Tuesday that the video had been streamed more than 15 million times on the network’s various Web and mobile platforms, and Ms. Cyrus’s twerking appearance with Robin Thicke drew 306,100 Twitter comments per minute. (By comparison, the number of tweets per minute during the 2012 election peaked at 327,452.)

Ms. Cyrus’s songs “We Can’t Stop” and “Wrecking Ball” shot up the iTunes and Spotify charts in the wake of MTV’s awards, but since music’s standard sales week is measured from Monday to Sunday, the full effect of the show won’t be known until next week. (Expect the numbers to be pretty big, though.)

On Billboard’s album chart this week, Luke Bryan’s “Crash My Party” (Capitol Nashville) holds at No. 1 in its second week out with 159,000 sales, despite a 70 percent drop, Nielsen SoundScan reported on Wednesday.

The rest of the Top 5 is taken up by new albums: John Mayer’s “Paradise Valley” (Columbia) is No. 2 with 144,000 sales; “Three Kings” (Atlantic), by the R&B supergroup TGT (that’s Tyrese, Ginuwine and Tank) opens at No. 3 with 76,000; Jimmy Buffett’s “Songs From St. Somewhere” (Mailboat) is fourth with 55,000; and Earl Sweatshirt’s “Doris” (Tan Cressida/Columbia) reached No. 5 with 49,000 copies sold.

Mr. Thicke’s song “Blurred Lines” extends its reign on the singles chart to 12 weeks at No. 1, but it is facing strong competition from “Roar,” the latest single from Katy Perry, which she also performed at the Video Music Awards show. “Roar” is No. 2 for a second week, and it stands a chance at reaching No. 1 next week â€" that is, unless Ms. Cyrus manages to twerk her way in there.

Anatomy of a Scene Video: ‘Getaway’

How many cameras does it take to shoot a car chase sequence? In the case of the thriller “Getaway,” many more than one would imagine. In this video, the director Courtney Solomon breaks down an intricate chase scene featuring Ethan Hawke, and shot with multiple cameras mounted both inside and outside the vehicle.

Anatomy of a Scene Video: ‘Getaway’

How many cameras does it take to shoot a car chase sequence? In the case of the thriller “Getaway,” many more than one would imagine. In this video, the director Courtney Solomon breaks down an intricate chase scene featuring Ethan Hawke, and shot with multiple cameras mounted both inside and outside the vehicle.

Nashville Symphony Musicians Agree to Pay Cut

Matthew Murphy for The New York Times Giancarlo Guerrero conducting the Nashville Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 2012.

The musicians of the Nashville Symphony â€" which had been riding a wave of successes before the recession and a destructive 2010 flood imperiled their financial future â€" ratified a new one-year contract this week that will cut their pay by 15 percent.

The agreement paves the way for the symphony’s new season to begin on schedule on Sept. 5 with “Russian Spectacular,” a night of Mussorgsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. The symphony’s concert hall, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, which opened in 2006, was saved from the auction block earlier this summer when one of the symphony’s biggest patrons, Martha Ingram, stepped forward to stave off foreclosure.

The orchestra said that the cuts the musicians agreed to were similar to cuts that the administrative staff had taken. The symphony’s president and chief executive officer, Alan Valentine, praised the musicians for sharing in the sacrifice, saying in a statement that the new contract “will allow us to continue offering the same high level of programming for our audiences.”

Laura Ross, a violinist and union steward, said in a statement that “as challenging as this agreement will be for many of our musicians, it was ratified because we believe our role in this community is important.”

At Telluride, Redford, the Coens and the Zapruder Film

TELLURIDE, Colo. â€" To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Telluride Film Festival â€" which devotes each Labor Day weekend to restored classics, world cinema discoveries and possible Oscar contenders â€" has added an extra day of screenings. This means that the festival’s lineup, a closely guarded secret, has been announced a day earlier than usual.

Starting Thursday, there will be tributes to Robert Redford, Joel and Ethan Coen and T Bone Burnett, and screenings of 27 new films in Telluride’s main slate, known locally as the Show. Among them will be Abdellatif Kechiche’s “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” the already controversial lesbian coming-of-age story that won the Palme d’Or in Cannes, and J.C. Chandor’s “All Is Lost,” starring Mr. Redford as a solo sailor fighting for survival in the Indian Ocean.

Other selections include the Coens’ “Inside Llewyn Davis”; “The Past,” a French-language film from the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (“A Separation”); and “The Unknown Known,” Errol Morris’s documentary about former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Alphonso Cuaron’s “Gravity,” starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, will make its first North American appearance here shortly after opening the Venice Film Festival.

Among the known unknowns of Telluride are the sneak previews, movies not on the official schedule that pop up over the weekend. (“Argo” was a sneak last year.)

For its anniversary, the festival has invited back some of its past guest directors to present favorite movies. The novelists Michael Ondaatje and Salman Rushdie will be here in that capacity, as will Don DeLillo, who will be analyzing one of the most intensely scrutinized film in history, the 26-seconds of footage shot by Abraham Zapruder of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

The full Telluride lineup can be found here. For updates, once the screenings are underway, check this blog and also Twitter, @aoscott.

Aug. 28: Where the Candidates Are Today

Planned events for the mayoral candidates, according to the campaigns and organizations they are affiliated with. Times are listed as scheduled but frequently change.

Nicholas Wells contributed reporting.

Event information is listed as provided at the time of publication. Details for many of Ms. Quinn events are not released for publication.Maps of all campaign events since April »

Events by candidate

Albanese

De Blasio

Liu

Quinn

Salgado

Thompson

Weiner

Group event

John A. Catsimatidis
Republican

7 p.m.
Participates in the first official debate of the Republican primary, held at the CUNY Graduate Center on Fifth Avenue. The debate is broadcast on CBS 2, WLNY 10/55 and 1010 WINS.

Bill de Blasio
Democrat

12 p.m.
Since his arrest on July 10 protesting the impending closing of Long Island College Hospital, Mr. de Blasio has been omnipresent on the campaign trail, second only to the frenetic John C. Liu in campaign appearances over that time span. But since Monday, as his mayoral rivals have substantially increased their public appearances with two weeks of campaigning remaining before the Democratic primary on Sept. 10, Mr. de Blasio has made only four public appearances in his quest to become mayor. He continues his quiet streak on Wednesday with only one public appearance, a news conference outside Brooklyn Borough Hall to outline what he believes are the Bloomberg administration’s failures - and by extension, Christine Quinn’s failures - to improve pre-kindergarten programs throughout the city.

John C. Liu
Democrat

7 a.m.
Greets morning commuters at the Briarwood-Van Wyck subway station, on Main Street and Queens Boulevard in Queens.

10:45 a.m.
Visits with senior citizens at the Rochdale Village Community Center, the first of four senior centers in Queens he intends to visit on the day.

11:30 a.m.
Visits with senior citizens at the Institute for Puerto Rican/Hispanic Elderly Corona Senior Center, the second of four senior centers in Queens he intends to visit on the day.

12 p.m.
Visits with senior citizens at the Florence E. Smith Senior Center, the third of four senior centers in Queens he intends to visit on the day.

12:30 p.m.
Visits with senior citizens at the Taiwanese American Senior Center, the fourth of four senior centers in Queens he intends to visit on the day.

5 p.m.
Greets afternoon commuters, at the Woodhaven Boulevard M train subway station on Queens Boulevard in Queens [ap].

5:45 p.m.
Celebrates Lord Krishna’s birthday by marching in a Shobha Yatra parade, starting at the Hindu Center on Kissena Boulevard in Queens.

6:30 p.m.
Attends Harlem Week’s “Thank You” gala and reception, at Harlem Hospital on West 136th Street. Mr. Liu attended seven Harlem Week events over the past month, more than any of his rivals.

7 p.m.
Attends the 16th Annual Pride Democrats’ Candidates Forum, at the New York City LGBT Center on West 13th Street in the West Village.

7:35 p.m.
Attends a candidate forum hosted by Street Hype, a community newspaper based in Brooklyn, at St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn.

8:30 p.m.
Is one of three mayoral candidates to speak at the Bronx Young Democrats’ Candidates Meet and Greet, at the Bronx Alehouse on West 238th Street.

9:10 p.m.
Attends the Queens County Young Democrats’ seventh annual Summer Bash, at Sidetracks Restaurant and Lounge on Queens Boulevard in Queens.

Joseph J. Lhota
Republican

7 p.m.
Participates in the first official debate of the Republican primary, held at the CUNY Graduate Center on Fifth Avenue. The debate is broadcast on CBS 2, WLNY 10/55 and 1010 WINS.

Christine C. Quinn
Democrat

7:30 a.m.
Greets morning commuters at the Spuyten Duyvil Metro North station, in the Bronx.

9 a.m.
Visits with senior citizens, at Hebrew Home in Riverdale.

10:30 a.m.
As John C. Liu, William C. Thompson Jr. and Anthony Weiner make multiple visits to senior centers on the day, Ms. Quinn holds a news conference outside Riverdale Senior Services in the Bronx to unveil her plan to help the city’s aging population within the first 100 days of the Quinn administration, including introducing new infrastructure improvements to help seniors, doubling funding to help prevent unnecessary evictions, and more.

4 p.m.
Helps to distribute food to the needy, in preparation for the Jewish New Year, along with Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz, Councilman James Gennaro and other elected officials, at the Tomchei Shabbos of Queens on Metropolitan Avenue in Queens.

Some of Ms. Quinn’s events may not be shown because the campaign declines to release her advance schedule for publication.

William C. Thompson Jr.
Democrat

7:30 a.m.
Greets morning commuters at the Utica Avenue subway station, in Brooklyn.

10 a.m.
Holds a news conference with Councilman Erik Martin Dilan, who endorsed him on June 23, to outline his plans to give parents a greater voice in education policy in the future, outside J.H.S. 302 on Linwood Street in Brooklyn.

11 a.m.
Visits senior citizens at the Cypress Hill-Fulton Street Senior Center, the first of three senior centers in Brooklyn he intends to visit on the day. Mr. Thompson will be joined by Councilman Erik Martin Dilan and Assemblyman Rafael Espinal, who endorsed him on June 23.

11:45 a.m.
Visits senior citizens at the Glenmore Plaza Senior Center, the second of three senior centers in Brooklyn he intends to visit on the day. Councilman Dilan and Assemblyman Espinal join him again.

1 p.m.
Visits senior citizens at the Eileen Dugan Senior Center, the last of three senior centers in Brooklyn he intends to visit on the day.

3:30 p.m.
Participates in a walking tour with Representative José E. Serrano, who endorsed him on May 2, starting on East Fordham Road in the Bronx.

Anthony D. Weiner
Democrat

11:45 a.m.
Visits with senior citizens at the Dorchester Senior Center, in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.

12:30 p.m.
Visits with senior citizens at the Albany Senior Center, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

5:45 p.m.
Greets afternoon commuters, at the Fordham Road B/D train subway station on Grand Concourse in the Bronx.

7:30 p.m.
Is one of three mayoral candidates to speak at the Bronx Young Democrats’ Candidates Meet and Greet, at the Bronx Alehouse on West 238th Street.

9 p.m.
Is one of two mayoral candidates to address the Neponsit Property Owners Association at its general meeting, at the Belle Harbor Yacht Club on the Rockaways.

Sal F. Albanese
Democrat

7:30 a.m.
Greets morning commuters, along with his wife, Lorraine, at the 71st Street D train subway station on New Utrecht Avenue in Brooklyn.

7 p.m.
Is the only candidate scheduled to appear at the Jewish New York Government Outreach’s forum, at Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills in Queens.

8:15 p.m.
Is one of two mayoral candidates to address the Neponsit Property Owners Association at its general meeting, at the Belle Harbor Yacht Club on the Rockaways.

George T. McDonald
Republican

7 p.m.
Participates in the first official debate of the Republican primary, held at the CUNY Graduate Center on Fifth Avenue. The debate is broadcast on CBS 2, WLNY 10/55 and 1010 WINS.

Erick J. Salgado
Democrat

11 a.m.
Holds a rare news conference on the steps of City Hall to rally against what his campaign says is discrimination by Quinnipiac University for failing to include him in its recent polling of Democratic mayoral candidates. Mr. Salgado, a Latino, filed a lawsuit earlier this month against Quinnipiac University to push for the inclusion of all “candidates qualified to participate” in any future polling released to the public. Marist College and Siena College (whose polling for the mayoral race is performed in collaboration with The New York Times) both have Mr. Salgado in sixth place among Democrats in their most recent polling with roughly two percent of the vote, ahead of former Councilman Sal F. Albanese, who is routinely included in the Quinnipiac poll.

Oxford English Dictionary Learns How to ‘Twerk’

Eric Thayer/Reuters Miley Cyrus offers a visual definition of the word “twerk” at the MTV Video Music Awards with Robin Thicke on Sunday.

In the days following Miley Cyrus’s much-discussed bump-and-grind performance at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, the word “twerk” â€" that is, to dance “in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance” â€" seems to be ubiquitous. It’s on the tip of the tongue of nearly every television host, and a search of LexisNexis archives turns up the word in more than 250 news articles in the last week alone.

“Won’t twerking just go away?” the linguistically aggrieved ask. Well, no â€" and, in fact, the word is getting some acknowledgment from one of the English language’s most august reference volumes.

The Oxford English Dictionary said that it would add twerk to its listings as part of a quarterly online update, The Associated Press reported. A definition for twerk can be found at oxforddictionaries.com (where helpful examples of the word’s use include “just wait till they catch their daughters twerking to this song”).

Though the word twerk may seem all too of the moment, Katherine Connor Martin, an editor at the Oxford Dictionaries site, told The A.P. that this verb was probably about two decades old.

“There are many theories about the origin of this word, and since it arose in oral use, we may never know the answer for sure,” Ms. Martin said. “We think the most likely theory is that it is an alteration of work, because that word has a history of being used in similar ways, with dancers being encouraged to ‘work it.’ The ‘t’ could be a result of blending with another word such as twist or twitch.”

Other neologisms that are twerking â€" excuse us, working â€" their way into the O.E.D.’s updates include “selfie,” another bane of grown-up English speakers, which describes “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media Web site.”

A Hot Summer City

Ángel Franco/The New York Times

Dear Diary:

At dawn
Flowers, petals and tree limbs yawn and
Stretch to
Greet a newborn Summer’s Day.
Young Robins
Ignore the cacophony of taxis and trucks
And soar
Above a city that simply stares past the heat.
Worker bees,
Women in heels and men in ties,
Remain defiant
Refusing to let this humid noon break
Their souls.
But by hot afternoon, Nature, feeling smug, senses
An edge.
But tough turtles in the Reservoir and potent
Pigeons in
Staten Island know nothing of giving in or
Giving up.
The Brooklyn Bridge and the Henry Hudson
Show swagger.
And Yankee Stadium shouts three strikes
You’re out!
Relenting, sweating, The Season cuts its losses in
New York.
And suddenly, all at once, dusk falls, as does the
Summer’s Sun.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via e-mail diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

New York Today: Commute of the Future

Like walking the aisles of a hardware store, browsing for cellphone apps can be a soul-elevating experience.

Both reassure you that, whatever the problem, there is a neat, precise solution available immediately at a reasonable price.

Now, mass-transit riders of New York, your time has come.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is releasing dozens of new apps, and concepts for apps, to transform your commute, or at least give you something to look at while you avoid eye-contact with panhandlers.

There’s one that will sense when you are approaching your station, and wake you from sleep.

One to tell you which exit to use.

Another to identify musicians playing on the platforms.

You can vote on your favorite, and it might receive financing to go into development.

Free suggestions for the next contest: we’d like apps to control subway rats, and to make trains show up exactly when requested.

Have your own ideas? Let us know in the comments or through Twitter, with hashtag #NYToday.

Here’s what you need to know for your Wednesday.

WEATHER

It will be in the mid-80s, but mostly cloudy and with a chance of rain. Yes, bring that umbrella.

TRANSIT & TRAFFIC

- Mass Transit Delays on the L train. Click for latest M.T.A. status.

- Roads No major delays. Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- We know what you’re thinking. If only there were another forum, panel or debate featuring New York mayoral candidates. It’s your lucky night!

- The final Republican debate, featuring Joseph J. Lhota and his rivals George McDonald and John Catsimatidis, is at City University’s Graduate Center at 7 p.m.

- Christine C. Quinn, one of the Democratic front-runners, marks Rosh Hashana by distributing food to the needy at a nonprofit group in Queens, Tomchei Shabbos, at 4 p.m.

- Several events mark the precise anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech.

- Bells will toll through the canyon of heroes - around Broadway and Wall Street in the financial district - at 3 p.m.

- The speech itself will be screened in Times Square at the same time. A flash mob also plans to dance in honor of the speech in Times Square.

- At Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Brooklyn, there is a “Beyond the Dream” job fair at 4 p.m. and a rally at around 7 p.m. [All free]

- If you’re feeling guilty about your rickety bicycle, there are two opportunities to get a free tune-up. Recycle a Bicycle Volunteer Night, at Long Island City Workshop in Queens, is at 6 p.m.

- There’s another tune-up, complete with DJs, at the Music Hall of Williamsburg at 5 p.m. [Free]

- Free lunchtime opera at Richard Tucker Park on the Upper West Side at noon. [Free]

- Martin Scorsese’s Howard Hughes epic “The Aviator” is screening at South Street Seaport at 8 p.m. [Free]

- There’s an after-hours party at El Museo Del Barrio on 5th Avenue at 104th Street at 6 p.m.  [Free]

IN THE NEWS

- The Web site of The New York Times was down for several hours on Tuesday because of an attack by hackers. [New York Times]

- Scott Stringer, running for comptroller, left taxes unpaid when a bar he co-owned shut down in the early 1990s. [Huffington Post]

- The city will give well-qualified immigrants access to loans to help them train for better jobs. [New York Daily News]

- An M.T.A. worker in a stolen boom truck pulled down a dozen electricity poles and damaged wires, leaving 6,000 without power. He was using the truck to transport stolen welding equipment, according to police. [New York Times]

- The city asked a judge to hold off on reforms to the controversial stop-and-frisk program.  [New York Post]

AND FINALLY…

On Tuesday, we warned you that several mayoral and other candidates planned to try and win voters by outdoing each other in hitting a small ball with a thin stick the farthest.

The results of the candidates’ stickball contest are now in.

William C. Thompson Jr. failed to make any significant contact, according to The Associated Press.

The Long-shot Democrat Erick Salgado managed 180 feet, and the Republican front-runner, Mr. Lhota, posted an exceedingly respectable 120 feet.

Let this affect your votes as it may.

Nicole Higgins DeSmet contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, e-mail us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday. Thanks!