Other day was with a friend buying some beer for a cookout at Fred Meyer. He’d moved from Brooklyn and still had his old ID. The checker, who I’d peg at maybe 50, female, looked at it and was like “oh, New York, New York”, receiving it as a novelty

and she looked up at him and asked “tell me, is Manhattan near New York City?” and I had to suppress a guffaw of incredulity

On the one hand, maybe I should take that as some humbling, that for whatever anti-elitist pose I indulge I do fundamentally expect people to have a grounding in coastal urbanism

On the other hand though, what the hell, I do think that’s a fair part of American cultural literacy. I think the minimum Americans should know about New York City is:

• It is located in New York State
• Manhattan is the skyscrapery part
• Brooklyn is also another part
• The Statue of Liberty is there

That strikes me as reasonable.