On Place

February 23rd, 2006 · 6 Comments
by Booksquare

To Americans, Paris suggests the idea of happiness as surely as an arrival in New York suggests hope and Los Angeles, in literature at least, hopelessness.

File Under: Quote of the Week

6 responses so far ↓

  • Joan Kelly // Feb 26, 2006 at 2:00 pm

    Strange. I always think “dogshit everywhere” and “snails for food” when I think of Paris; rich teenagers trying (and failing) to bully me out of a cab when I think of New York; and “hey look, it’s the sun yet again” when I think of Los Angeles.

    Signed,
    Overly sensitive, and snotty, Angeleno

    P.S. I love dogs so much that I don’t actually care where they shit, and I cried for weeks after my first visit to NYC, because I couldn’t afford to move there. But still.

  • Booksquare // Feb 26, 2006 at 3:35 pm

    I can’t help notice that you didn’t bemoan not being able to live in Paris. It was, oddly, surprisingly, one of my least favorite cities in the world. I so wanted it to be my soul-city. Sigh. Tokyo, much better.

    PS — Book arrived, Antioch? Let me know the next time you’re at Corp Pointe…we’ll do Cafe Allegro!

  • Joan Kelly // Feb 27, 2006 at 4:31 pm

    Not surprised to hear that you didn’t love Paris. Although in fairness must admit to an irrational (as in, based on no personal experience) predisposition towards pooh pooh-ing the French.

    Ah, Antioch… When one of my favorite professors, David Tripp, teaches his Imagining the Primitive course again, I supposedly will get to be a guest lecturer, about the inherent horribleness underlying the three movies made about my favorite ape, King Kong. I graduated (BA) last spring and am still not over missing it. We are dying to know what Booksquare is doing there?

  • Booksquare // Feb 27, 2006 at 10:04 pm

    Even Booksquare has a secret life. And a fondness for irrational behavior (ie, Cafe Allegro). The good news is that Booksquare has left the academic life behind. Homework is surely evil.

    As I am an intellectual snob, I often fancied myself an expatriat. Four years of high school French plus two in college cured those delusions. Though I will admit that when communicating with Parisian taxi drivers, I suddenly spoke impeccable Spanish. This skill would have come in handy many times in my life before and since, but it seems to only manifest itself in taxis. Which are not as commonplace as you’d expect in my life.

  • Joan Kelly // Feb 28, 2006 at 1:18 am

    This is not meant as one-up-womanship but as (uncontrollable, and, I undertand, irrelevant) flirting with Booksquare – I took five years of French (8th grad through 12th) plus two more in college. Wait. Maybe it was only one more in college? I loved my French teacher in high school and love Curious George. Not sure why I love saying “I hate the French” now that I’m older. Perhaps it’s a midlife crisis.

    Cafe Allegro has the only chicken soup I’ve ever loved. And the worst lunch meat I’ve ever seen in real life.

    Cheers,
    Joan

  • Booksquare // Feb 28, 2006 at 10:51 pm

    Okay, swoon, sigh, you have me! I am expensive and useless. Also totally abysmal when it comes to anything French. I do, however, have an amazing way with Danish pastry.

    Don’t undervalue the midlife crisis. It’s a wonderful excuse for all manner of behavior. Old age is the only thing better. You can be rude and get away with it.

    That’s meat????