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While Chicago may not be the "First town" of the nation, the babbling rant from the New York Post's gossip columnist Cindy Adams was odd in general, hilarious at best. In a column reminiscent of, oh, the fight over the World's Fair of 1893, the
lady prattled on about how she read in an unnamed newspaper that the Windy City was number one over the Big Apple. For one, no one can figure out where that was published; and two, the first word in the lead is "EXCUUUUSE." Caps hers. And count 'em: four U's.
There is really no end of interesting lines in the piece, which uses both "toddlin" and "cockamamie" as adjectives at various points, but it seemed easier to dismiss it as writing fit for the grocery check-out lane than to actually get angry.
That is, until Richard Roepers rebuttal in the Chicago Sun-Times yesterday. Roeper is quick to point out all of the anachronisms in Adams' writing, like the fact that she listed the stockyards and Al Capone as some of the city's main attractions. And it is, of course, great to have Roepers rapier wit unleashed on a 75-year-old Post columnist (who is, by the way, top on our online reading lists from now on).
But when this all dies down in three or four hours, we will still be here in sweet home Chicago where, as stated by a guest on This American Life "In the Shadow of the City" recently: "Chicago is a wonderful place where theres a bar on every corner and the bridges sometimes smell like chocolate." It's truesometimes even delicious brownies.
Thanks, Alicia!
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What's the deal with the NYC vs. Chicago fight lately? There was that package in Chicago magazine this month and this goofy article in USA Today last month.
Do I need to mention that Chicago in terms of Restaurants has the top new restaurant in America, Alinea, and the Second Best Restaurant in the Country, Charlie Trotter's, which is second only to the French Laundry?
This stuff is all stupid anyway, nevermind.
chicago may smell like chocolate, but new york smells like MAPLE SYRUP.
Wow, Cindy Adams is a horrible writer. Must have been a slow gossip day, eh? Glad to see there are writers who get paid so well to cover such important topics.
Too bad TAL will soon be moving to NYC. What a drag.
That article makes her look bad. Who cares if you city has 100 great resaurants or 50, you're not gonna go to all of them anyways. New York is bigger because it has almost 3 times the people there in only 1.5 times the area. That just means that everyone is living on top of everyone else. Besides she was a little one sided there. Which city invented the skyscraper? who does them the biggest and best? which city is the only one with two original baseball teams? Which has the largest source of fresh water in the world? Chicago has the most business travlers in the country, not new york. I really can't stand east coast arrogance thats why i love it here.
I forgot to add we have the most bars per capita.
Who really cares?
Cindy Adams? I wasn't even aware she was still alive. I recall an SNL skit many years back when they did an "Only On New York" gossip bit and Nora Dunn came out as Cindy Adams and lamented on how Greta Garbo had just died and "It seems like only yesterday I was going through her garbage." She's in a gossip rag anyway so we should just be the bigger townspeople and let it go. They can have their higher profile crimes and their bigger political scandals. The important thing is we still have the better pizza.
This little spat demonstrates that there's no reason to read Cindy Adams' column, or indeed Roeper's. We should probably ignore Sneed, as well, just to be on the safe side.
Oh geez, I wish they'd give it a rest, this arguement is silly, and pointless. I love nyc (in fact i'm hoping to go there in a couple of months), but I love coming home to chicago, we should band together and take on the rest of this weird country, not be quibbling amongst ourselves on how to do urban living right.
I know everyone is sick of this debate, but if I may just throw my two cents in...
As someone else has already mentioned, not only did we invent the skyscraper, but we have perhaps the MOST recognizable skyline in the world, and that is due to careful planning. New York just thows buildings up all willy-nilly without any regard for how it will affect the general aesthetic, and it shows...
I'm actually amazed that anyone in NY media would have taken the time to comment on this stuff. Even a has-been like Cindy Adams. Most New Yorkers (I am a former one myself) don't think about Chicago, or pretty much any place other than New York, as important. To a New Yorker, New York City is the center of the universe. It's arrogant and self-absorbed and ultimately part of what makes New Yorkers New Yorkers. It's also, ironically, a very provincial way of looking at the world.
I personally feel that New York is a terrible place to live anymore. It's become a playground for the rich (Brooklyn included) because of the cost of real estate. Once we started seeing mommies holding Starbucks and pushing baby strollers on Avenue B, it was all over. And to cinch the deal, Debbie Harry now lives in Connecticut.
Like most people here have said, this isn't really worth commenting on, but it did remind me of one of my favorite David Sedaris quotes:
"Visiting Americans will find more warmth in Tehran than they will in New York, a city founded on the principle of Us versus Them. I don’t speak Latin but have always assumed the city motto translates as Go Home or We Don’t Like You Either."
I'm with vit. There are great things, and obnoxious things, about both Chicago and New York. The really important thing is that we are both better than L.A.
chicago may smell like chocolate, but new york smells like MAPLE SYRUP.
Yeah, but we KNOW why we smell like chocolate.
/Another victory for Chicago.
//The best pizza deal is still up in the air.