New York City- classic or dud?

ANyway, being yelled at by a carny is like the greatest thing that could possibly happen, my god I wish I could get yelled at by a carny.

Has anyone ever gone in the WORLD'S SMALLEST PERSON!!!!!!!!!! booth at Coney Island? Don't. You walk in to this room and around this divider and there's this tiny woman in a wheelchair that's on top of a table. She looks at you. You suddenly feel horrified by the fact that you paid $1 to see this and that she's two feet away and looking right in your eyes. She says, "Can you spare some change? I'm saving up for an electric wheelchair," and motions her nubby arm to a jar on the table. You are looking around, trying to pretend as if you came into this booth looking for a bathroom or a friend. You quickly fumble in your pockets and dump some change in the jar and make a quick exit. The friend that came in with you says, "Fuck that! I paid a dollar!" and continues to stare. You go outside and tell your friends that were too scared to enter that they HAVE to go in. "It's amazing," you say, and you feel some satisfaction in knowing they will share your horror.

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YOU HAVE NO IDEA how warm and loved you just made me feel, Felicity. Also proud that someone might think I'm a New Yorker. I actually live in the midwest but you can be sure we'll be FAPing it up in ass-pants on my next visit.

NYC is my holy grail but I'll never live there because I love my boyfriend just a little more, and he's anti-NYC. I grew up in the country and have had enough of that shit for a lifetime (I don't even go to Central Park when I visit) but I still like the city-provincialism of NYC.

There is also a certain New York "ironic" manner of speaking that I think wears on me a little. It is superficially amusing and I like it in a way but I worry that irony slips into cowardly earnestness at some point and that's a little disillusioning. Perhaps in such cases I am just reacquainting myselves with people whose characteristics I don't want to adopt. (Present company excepted, of course.)

But don't get me wrong. I am unconditionally thrilled to be back here.

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It's a great city. I'm glad I lived there and it's fun to visit.

But I wouldn't live there again if you paid me a million dollars.

I am convinced that Prehistoric Man is the precursor to Ross.

On the "provincial" crap running through this thread. What makes we New Yorkers, who live in a city of 8 million, and a metro area of 18 million (about 6% of the US?), that is one of the 2 or 3 most diverse parts of the country in terms of the origin of the inhabitants, more "provincial" than people who live in far less populated areas with populations that are far more homogenous and far less media-savvy, per capita?

Ally: "We have as our guest here tonight Ms. Felicity Redwell. (shifts to face guest) Felicity, what do you think of New York City?"

Felicity: "I love it but in my darker hours I worry that it is wasted on New Yorkers."

Ally: (with an exceptionally earnest countenance) "Why?"

Felicity: "Well, I think some people start to take the wonderfulness of it for granted after living here a while."

Ally: (nods as if considering this statement very deeply)

Felicity: "Life must be awesome when people concern themselves with some of the incredibly fine differences of every aspect of urban life. Mea culpa."

(audience laughs)