printYES, MANHATTAN’S STILL THE GREATEST. I say so in reply to Barely a Blog reader Sunny Black.
Another reader, “Contemplationist”—he was at the libertarian-cum-Objectivist New York City Junto gathering, where I featured as speaker for the month of May, 2012—had once admonished me on the blog: “You gotta see things to believe them.”
As I crisscrossed Manhattan in high-heels (naturally) on lengthy walks, I was overcome with a surge of patriotism for very specific (and modest) reasons.
I had hoped to keep this passion and the attendant insights for a new column on a new forum. Stay tuned.
No other city I’ve visited in my longish lifetime measures up to Manhattan (New York City). Paris sucks by comparison—and I loved that city in the 1980s, before “les beurs”—the darling buds of France, aka her raging Muslim youths—took over.
Manhattan Le Magnifique.
UPDATE I: Huggs: People were okay and efficient, compared to the sullen slackers of the Pacific Northwest. On the subway, certain sorts glared angrily and refused to let you sit down, preferring to hog the entire bench. I was only too pleased “they” did not lunge at me, though. No wilding attack. And Central Park is the most beautiful place ever for a runner. I was up Sunday at 6:00AM because of jet lag, I guess. By 7:00am I was running. There were many many people doing the same. Fabulous.
UPDATE II: At the South-Street Sea Port, on the East River, near Wall Street. What a skyline.
My family had a detatched 3 story house with a garage and a back yard and a balcony 2 miles due East of the Anti-Semite Palace of Manhattan (the UN) and, in hindsight, it was nice to have that room rather than a broom closet for more money. Plenty of ethnic restaurants in Queens and 5 subway stops to Central Park and the Plaza Hotel or Grand Central or the UN.
Sadly, the biggest political idiots and rogues have ruled New York – Bloomberg being one in a long line of scumbags.
Still, in the 1950’s, there was a large “English” speaking middle class (e.g. Archie Bunker) instead of the combination of limosine liberal zillionaires and 3rd World welfare recipients that dominate the city (especially Manhattan). They even had some M-A-N-U-F-A-C-T-U-R-I-N-G jobs!
I did not know that about Paris, I visited Island Corsica (France) year ago for 1 week, folks there were upset with my return to US so quickly. I came to understand they have 6 weeks leave mandatory by Govt. with pay. See where socialism goes this time.
Glad to hear of your good time.
Ilana, I’m glad you enjoyed Manhattan. I’ve never been there but over the years I’ve dealt with more than a few New Yorkers. Very few were likeable. That snide superiority based on the fact that they live in an over crowded, over priced, over polluted ant heap has always been hard to understand. How anyone from a city that includes South Bronx, Five Points, Haarlem and mile after mile of rat ridden slums can have the nerve to look down their noses at fly over places like Tennessee and the rest is beyond me. Anyway, I’m glad you liked it and from the sounds of things they liked you. I was pretty sure they would.
New York City…a great place to visit. But I’d hate to live and work there. Actually, I did. For more than 20 years. And when you experience Gotham up close and personal for that long, it wears. If I never see the place again it’ll be too soon. Like all “great” cities, NYC is a web of moral, cultural, and political corruption, with eruptive, volcanic violence simmering just below the crowded urban crust. I’ve got a very veerryy cosmopolitan cousin living there, a wheel in the academic-classical music business, and am trying to get her out before the Day the EBT Cards Stop Working. So far, no luck.