Had a dream last night that my roommate and I won a day with Barack Obama. He arrived at my house without handlers or an entourage. We had him color in a electoral map with red and blue Sharpies, indicating his predictions for the 2012 Presidential election. We took lots of pictures of him, and then I suggested that we go to the Peculiar Pub, but he vetoed the idea because he thought it would be too crowded.
”Let’s hang, Onion.”
Thanks to Michelle for the profile onion.
Don’t forget! (:
NYC neighborhoods, to the non-New Yorker, can be mysterious and confusing things. For instance: as a kid I thought that the island with the red arrow pointing at it was Manhattan.
It’s not. It’s Long Island.
Also: This business of Boroughs vs. Neighborhoods vs. Other Cities Entirely was really confusing for the first year I lived here. Case in point: Long Island City. Neither a city nor on Long Island. Just a couple N-W stops in Queens.
And like fractals, the confusion about NY geography repeats on every scale. Convo with my recent NY transplant roommate -
Me: I’m doing some business with a company in the Hamptons.
R: Where are the Hamptons?
Me: Out on the tip of Long Island.
R: Where is Long Island?
Me: You know that big fish-shaped island on maps? That’s Long Island.
R: I thought that was Manhattan!
Me: I know, right? We sure are stupid. Anyways, it’s on the end of that thing.
Note that part of our ignorance can be attributed to the fact that we’re from Texas, where:
1. The idea that a place’s cultural importance would be inversely related to its size is unthinkable and wrong
2. The public school system combats knowledge at all costs.
So after a handful of years in THE CITY, I’ve come up with my own sort of off-the-record Fodor’s guide to New York. Stay tuned, little piglets.
