Natalie Glebova, Miss Universe. (Photo: Alex Urosevic - Toronto Sun)

A cobbler calls, offering to make her some shiny new pumps.

Port Dover invites her to the sunny shores of Lake Erie. The FishFest is a wrap, but she could be queen of the dragon boat races. Or queen of the whole damn town if she wants.

A former pageant winner e-mails a pep talk: "Natalie, keep your tiara on."

A mom wants her to meet her daughter. Charities call about her. On and on, my e-mail hums. We're with ya, Nat. Calls and notes from the Rockies to The Rock.

Same at City Hall and the Miss Universe office in New York.

No mayor is too dumb to take such a hint.

"I've called Miss Universe to offer my apologies on behalf of the city," says Toronto Mayor David Miller at a scrum near Fort York.

"It was unacceptable and really unfortunate because Torontonians are proud of the fact we have a very talented young woman who won an international competition."

"It's one of those really silly things that does seem to happen every decade and hopefully won't happen again."

"It" was the subject of yesterday's column.

Miss Universe, Natalie Glebova, 23, of our fine city, was barred from opening the weekend Tastes of Thailand festival at Nathan Phillips Square.

Bureaucrats dug up a 1990 bylaw. Tiaras are taboo, they told the Thais. No sashes, no titles, no hints of beauty pageants or queens allowed on the square.

Thai diplomats shook their heads. Miss Universe bit her lip and stayed away.

The world was safe for sensible shoes.

To hell with that, you said.

"Puh-lease!" snorts reader Rick McKie. "What's the world coming to?"

"Don't get me started," sputters Alex Jamieson, 68, from Glasgow, by way of Rexdale. "I've n'er heard anything so asinine in all my life."

"Boo to those petty, narrow-minded public servants," writes Suzanne Saito. "She is beautiful and a credit to Canada."

"Shame on Toronto," Alvin Klughart e-mails from Calgary. "Is the bylaw banning Miss Universe even constitutional?"

Don't know, Alvin. But I know it is stupid, it is 15 years old and it needs a rethink.

Miller has yet to deliver his apology direct. Miss Universe is travelling, so no kiss-and-make-up 'til she returns in August.

But, through her New York office, she said:

"I now know that Toronto is proud of me."

The mayor said sorry while dedicating a park on Fleet St. to that queen of letters, June Callwood.

Small world. Last week, Natalie Glebova toured Casey House, the revered AIDS hospice founded by Callwood.

"She's really interested, like Princess Di was, and it's sincere, not fashionable," Callwood tells me.

Now, June is no fan of beauty pageants. "They add 'personality' and other attributes, but really it comes down to boobs."

Still, she says, City Hall's snub of Miss Universe was "nuts".

"It's humiliating for her. And for the city."

"They need to be careful when they design rules aimed at something they see to be wrong -- or risk looking ridiculous."

Ask the Barenaked Ladies, also famously banned from the square.

And remember City Hall's "holiday tree" of three Christmases past?

Like we need this after SARS.

Says downtown shoemaker Colin Campbell, "Gawd, people around the world must think we're some kind of hick town. This would never happen in London, New York or Paris."

Colin thinks Natalie, at 5-foot-11, is made for pumps or open sandals and he would be happy to design a pair.

Maybe he'll throw in steel-toed boots to kick some ass at City Hall.

So the mayor is sorry, "embarrassed" even. It was "silly" and "wrong" and "an insult."

So Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby calls it "political correctness run amok" and vows to set staff straight.

So they both wonder why the bureaucrats didn't check with a politician.

They should look in their mirrors.

The elected set the tone.

Bureaucrats spend careers reading their minds.

Rarely do they read wrong. But when something blows up, they are handy goats.

The bureaucrats thought it was okay to bar Miss Universe from her hometown square.

They got that boneheaded idea from somewhere.