"...then west for mutton, only to return 200
years later, for love of money."
...that would be you, you big apple srudel, you....


----- Original Message -----
From: Ken Follett <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 1999 1:40 PM
Subject: Re: Cross-posted review of Ric Burns' "New York"


> In a message dated 12/2/99 12:14:47 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> > Ric Burn's epic PBS series, "New York: A Documentary Film" has come and
> gone.
>
> Sharpshooter,
>
> And I did not even miss it, or view it, or care one whit 'til now. I much
> prefer being awake day-by-day to NY, or hide away elsewhere, like LI on
> weekends, and READ it's history as I'm reclined. Televised documentaries
> serve well to entertain the illiterate, most of my neighbors on LI, or
those
> who have only a passing interest in a particular subject. I may be a bit
> burnt out on the History Channel showing how guns work, so forgive me. If
Ken
> Burns did the life story of Jesus it would not cause me to think that it
was
> the WHOLE story, or very much more real than any other mythologized
rendition
> of divine perfection that I've encountered so far. TV distorts NY, and
> everything else, as well as the decent people of NY, something terrible.
As
> an Upstater for many years the ONLY view for me was through the boob tube,
> aptly named. I was raised believing NY was HELL, as it can be if you let
it
> get to you. Well, being here now, it is not all quite so hellish as I
> imagined. There are various shades to hell and there are some really nice
> people hereabouts. Which gets my goat when in Texas recently a lady in a
> bookstore says she is sorry I am from NY and hopes I get over it. They
don't
> even seem to know their own history in that Republic. (Did, or did not,
Deaf
> Smith, a NEW YORKER, procured the whore to divert Santa Ana at the Battle
of
> San Jacinto?) This was right after her, the lady in the bookstore, telling
a
> story about Mini Pearl and synchronicity. Or was it serendipity? The view
of
> NY for me was never quite the same as modern Eurasians wanting to go to
> Disney World, but fair enough. Prior to the last two decades I always
thought
> Tokyo had to be a safer place than NY particularly from the lack of
> information. Then I married a lovely lass from Northern NJ and
subsequently
> adjusted. The place, NY, is always presenting a complex mystery around
> another corner, if not a knife, an overly full busom, a yellow taxi or a
hot
> uzzi. There is such an incredible variety that no interpretive history, to
my
> viewing, will suffice to mimic the reality. NY is a place to be for those
who
> are easily bored if left to themselves for too long of a stretch. Then,
for
> one thing with television you never really see how bad an environment NY
is
> for the poor, nor how good it is for the wealthy. Seriousness aside, for
the
> most part I like plain entertaining escapist bullshit and little
> pseudo-education in my TV viewing. As to the Dutch coming here for money,
my
> ancestral line of Dutch moved on up the river fairly quickly for a stint
of
> post-revolutionary stone farming, then west for mutton, only to return 200
> years later, for love of money.
>
> ][<en
>