>Unfortunately, coming into contact with cultural expressions which
>are not to a person's taste is part of being in society. When I
>walk down NYC streets, there are Salvation Army bellringers (at
>Christmas), street preachers (especially the 10 percenters), all
>sorts of hawkers, and people playing various instruments. Subway
>rides can be equally adventurous. That is life. The world cannot
>be child-proofed just to suit one person's tastes and sensibilities.
And that's one of the things I like best about this place. There was a really obnoxious piece in the Sunday NYT Styles section by Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam touting his city and dis'ing NYC. A passage:
>And yet. . . . Who would trade places? Who would leave Athens for
>Rome? My oldest son is happy as a clam at Columbia University - a
>stripling of a college, in Boston's gaze, being only 250 years old -
>but I rarely feel the need to linger when I visit him in New York.
>The garbage-scented zephyrs wafting down Broadway and the
>marvelously diverse men and women seeking your attention (don't go
>off your Rocker, Alex!) send me plummeting into the subway (more
>colorful characters!) and off to the Port Authority for the restful
>bus ride back to Boston.
While I could do without the scent of garbage, I can't imagine associating refuse with the "marvelously diverse men and women seeking your attention." Well, hurry back to Boston, Mr Beam, we don't need you.
Doug