The Big Apple

Now knowing several people who have moved to New York, I pick up my neighbor's old New York Times,  and it solidifies in my mind: There are some things that New York really is better at.  There are things that make enterprises or attempts in other places look like wannabe amateurs. But not everything. The Sunday Magazine might as well be a Pottery Barn flyer. The Travel Section has a caption referring to "stand-up paddle surfing on Lake Parano'a."  There is not a wave in the picture,  and New York is too far from Hawaii to call it paddle boarding?  Or maybe in Brazil it goes by a different name or there's a translation problem.  But I like to think it's because there's a snooty travel editor who got their job by knowing someone and would choose immersion in a good book over immersion in the waters of a lake in Brazil. Yes,  that house in Connecticut looks lovely,  if only slightly more scenic than my brother's place in the Midwest which is the same size but maybe a fifth the cost. I will retain my exaggerated sense of self importance,  and let them have theirs.