After this morning's Portland City Council meeting, a film crew from the French television network ARTE managed to wangle to grab some exclusive time with Mayor Sam Adams, asking him about the city's progressive cred, its economic hopes, branding, etc.

The mayor, who stayed in his seat on the council dais, said two things I felt compelled to write down and share while I was lingering behind. (Don't worry; I don't think I'm technically scooping the fellows at ARTE. The segment will apparently air in July. In France.)

1.) Naturally, Portlandia! came up. The interviewer wanted to know whether it was useful as a branding opportunity, and maybe whether it was a good portrayal of the city or not. Adams said it was good to show off the city's sense of humor, but then followed with this: "It's about as realistic as Hawaii Five-O was for Honolulu."

2.) Later, there was a question about our little big city's place in the world. The mayor showed off his history chops in coming up with an analogue for what kind of global role Portland could play: a small global city"much like the golden age of the Dutch," whose geographically tiny homeland exercised an outsize economic influence on world affairs.

That is all.