misconceptions about places was [Sca-cooks] Stefan

[Sue Clemenger]

Ah, okay....I remember something of that thread now....devolved into a
discussion of what kinds of wildlife one sees in one's neighborhood....
I would imagine that I, like most folks who've never been to a place
(like New York, or Montana, where I live) have had their
opinions/impressions largely informed by various news/entertainment
media.  Really, all I've ever seen of your city is from the occasional
t.v. show, or movie--comes off as an odd combination of nasty ghettos
and glitzy downtown, and more people than I'd _ever_ want to have to
live around.  Oh, and muggers in Central Park....I have no way of
knowing the smaller details that make it real, and special, for those
who actually live there (like cattails, or the way the light comes
through the window in the afternoon, or the good restaurants, or
whatever).  Same way my east-coast relatives got the impression that
people in MT lived in soddies, were all cowboys or Indians, etc., or
just spend their time fly-fishing (that movie, A River Runs Through It,
was set in my home town of Missoula, IIRC).  Certainly, there are
cowboys, and fly-fishermen, and Indians, but that's only a very small
part of the whole gestalt.
Besides, if anyone could come up with a cattail subtlety, I betcha Olwen
could....<gg>.  That girl's fearless.
--Maire

Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
>
> Sue Clemenger wrote:
>
> > Huh? Am I missing something here? Cattails?
> > --Maire, who's four cats aren't giving up anything except stray hairs,
> > they say, thankyouverymuch ;-)
>
> And I'm sure they're splendid at that!
>
> The short version is that I was sent a cattail by a well-meaning donor
> in an attempt to suggest that people living where I live would not have
> seen or been familiar with such things, since everyone knows that New
> York is nothing but concrete, glass, and steel. (The fact that that is
> B.S. would not be a welcome addition to the basic discussion, as
> people's misimpressions tend to be very dear to them.) We'd been
> discussing the best way to duplicate cattails in edible media for a
> subtlety. It was all pretty patronizing, actually, if well-intended.
>
> Adamantius