Emphasis Preaching Journal

There's a story about Fiorello LaGuardia, who was mayor of New York City during the bleakest days of the Great Depression. He was a colorful character, who used to show up in unexpected places around the city.

One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court serving one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city. Exercising his mayoral privilege, LaGuardia directed the judge to let him take a turn at the bench and preside over some of the cases.