Metropolitan Diary analysis: 2006-07-03

Yeah, I know, it's been awhile. Check out my other blog, it's been awhile there, too. Since I now have a hit count tracker I know that my only readers mistakenly come across this blog by searching Google for the real Metropolitan Diary so I don't feel all that guilty.

Here is the analysis for today's column:

• Woman who is taking a jacket and tie to her husband for his client meeting in a cab (and who clearly does not have a job of her own and who is clearly coming from a park view apartment) notices her immigrant cab driver and an immigrant truck driver using their "limited English" to determine the score of the Germany-Costa Rica World Cup game. Category: Jaded New Yorkers (maybe I should have created a new category, "Class Warfare", to indicate my discomfort that a woman who can take a cab down from the Upper West Side to bring her husband a coat and tie is referring to people as "immigrants" and making reference to their "limited English". This is a typical Metropolitan Diary entry in which people note a cultural difference, or income discrepancy, and then try to salvage their street cred by saying something like "Talk about New York City as a melting pot".)
• Woman at hotel front desk thinks the writer is talking about "Scotch taping" rather than a "Scotch tasting". Category: Amusing Misspellings
• Writer finds that "New York Style Bagel Chips" are made in Bulgaria and jokes that he would have "paid a premium" if they indicated as such. Category: Jaded New Yorkers (I would have used "Rubes in the Big City" and then made a joke about the writer's ignorance about the global pursuit of the lowest possible wages, which are the reason why practically nothing is manufactured in New York City anymore, but for some reason I am delving into the political a bit too much in this analysis so I will just say that the writer is "jaded" because noticed that a somewhat stereotypically New York product is made in an area of the planet that is very dissimilar from New York and laughed it off.)
• "New York daughter" refers to Disney World in California as being "on the West Side". Category: Precocious NY Kids
• Woman experiencing a crowded Times Square wants to see where New Yorkers "raise the children". Category: Rubes in the Big CIty
• Doorman at hotel tells visitor to "take a nap when you get home". Category: Oh, Those Fast-Paced New Yorkers!
• Woman who takes a lot of cabs and finds them dirty is impressed by the accomplishments of a Haitian cab driver with seven successful children who says "God bless America". Category: New Yorkers Aren't So Bad, After All (I was tempted to continue today's theme of interpreting everything in terms of class warfare and then call this category "Immigrants Aren't So Bad, After All", but that would be needlessly combative and it's a nice sunny day so I will just note that maybe "Cab Drivers Aren't So Bad, After All" and share that I had several bad cab experiences over the weekend, which makes me hypocritical in bashing Metropolitan Diary writers who take a lot of cabs.)

Totals for this Metropolitan Diary:
Amusing Misspellings: 1
Jaded New Yorkers: 2
New Yorkers Aren't So Bad, After All: 1
Oh, Those Fast-Paced New Yorkers!: 1
Precocious NY Kids: 1
Rubes in the Big City: 1

Totals YTD:
Amusing Misspellings: 13
Jaded New Yorkers: 25
New York Eccentrics: 22
New Yorkers Aren't So Bad, After All: 14
Oh, Those Fast-Paced New Yorkers!: 12
Precocious NY Kids: 28
Precocious NY Pets: 6
Rubes in the Big City: 16
Single New York Woman's Perspective: 3
WTF: 2