Monday, February 25, 2008

A little guy epiphany, obtained today after having passed a certain pizza restaurant on Magazine:

"Mom! New York has a Statue of Liberty!"
"Yes, it does, honey."
"And New Orleans has a Statue of Liberty!"
"Yeah, we just passed it in front of the pizza place..."
"Both New York and New Orleans have 'new' in their names!!!!"
"That's right."
"And they smell the same...

(uhhh, I guess...)

"But New Jersey doesn't have those things, except for the 'new'."
"No, I guess not, but technically, the Statue of Liberty is in New Jersey."
(confused look) "Really, Mom?"
"Yes, but it welcomes people who are coming in to New York by boat."
(relieved confirmation on his face) "Yeah!!!"

Later on, Dan said to me, "I don't know about the same smells..."

Depends on where you are in NYC and at what time of year. Advice to those of you traveling on the Belt Parkway near the easternmost outskirts of Queens - don't visit that brand-new Target shopping center on a hot day when the breezes off Jamaica Bay are coming in. Not all the methane from that reclaimed landfill across the parkway has dissipated just yet.

Aside from that, I'd say, yeah, some of the smells are similar. New Orleans' smells are NYC's minus the dumpster smells from various retail businesses, the choking exhaust from many, many cars and city buses, and the cooking smells (not all of 'em good) from the apartments above and beside your own.

Pretty much the same.

6 comments:

saintseester said...

For what it is worth, both of my kids immediately commented on how new orleans "smelled" when we brought them down last fall. Shrugs.

Leigh C. said...

Heh. And I haven't even gone into how much Staten Island and New Jersey can stink to high heaven...

D-BB said...

People in N.Y. are just as friendly too. Always wanna make sure you understand their directions. With our accents, can't miss.

Leigh C. said...

You have a Nu Yawk accent? Or is it Brooklyn on da bayou (i.e., y'at)?

Anonymous said...

you forgot urine/subway smell

Leigh C. said...

Oh, yeah.

The subway smell is one thing...but you can get the urine smell in da Quarters anytime...