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What's that smell?



I was in New York (from LA) for a mere 36 hours to attend the Sunday MSG
show.  Most of my feelings about the phenomenal event have been expressed
already.  In fact, the reviews are really becoming repetitive now.  So, I'll
simply address one fact about my trip that I have not seen mentioned yet.
 It's about that certain city on that certain island -- New York.  Please,
New Yorkers, tell me what the deal is with that smell?

I've been to NY one other time about ten years ago, but I don't recall it
being so dirty and yes -- pungent.  There seemed to be a trash dumpster
filled with rotting matter of some sort in every alley.  Is that where it's
coming from?  Whatever it is, the odor(s) wafted all over your fare city
during my visit, often erasing any semblance of an appetite that I had.  

I've heard D. Letterman crack jokes about "the smell'" for years, but I
didn't take him seriously until this past weekend.

And that's not all.  The $136 p/night hotel room (at the Pennsylvania) I
stayed in had chipped paint, ripped carpet and an ever-present dingy-colored
water in the toilet bowl.  (I kept flushing and it kept coming back!)

There's also the matter of how ridiculously expensive everything is -- $26 to
park a car, the outrageous tolls (I think it was $7 just to get from JFK to
MSG), $1.50 every time you get on the subway, etc.  

I know this has nothing to do with the Who (except that PT claims NY is his
2nd favorite city in the world and I can't figure out why) but I couldn't
help but post this since I believe there's such a large NY contingency on the
list.  Please, tell me, how do you live there?  How do you deal with the
"little things" like going to the grocery store and carrying five or six bags
back home via the subway?  And if you do manage to get those bags on the
subway, how often do you get them all the way home before someone rips them
off?   Does anyone take the subway after dark or is that just for street
urchins, prostitutes and the like?  If you don't take the subway, how can the
common man afford to take a cab everywhere? 

I'm no fan of Los Angeles either, but I do believe the next time I criticize
it I'll tell myself it could be worse.  I could be living in NY.

(This is not meant to be a mean-spirited posting.  I'm genuinely curious
about how a human lives in a concrete cesspool.  It's fascinating to me that
Woody Allen can make it look so pretty.  But maybe that's done with smoke and
mirrors and perhaps the right filters.)