Yo pipsqueaks!
October 22, 2016 4:45 PM   Subscribe

 
I loved this. I just attended a conference with one of my colleagues who lives in New York (though he's not from there originally), and one of the most exhilarating things about it was that he brought that energy and that fearlessness with him, even to another state entirely. That these kids get to grow up that way is awesome.

It reminds me of Paul Graham's essay on cities, which is starting to feel a little dated in some respects but still captures something essential for me.
posted by limeonaire at 6:12 PM on October 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


ok just as an aside i did not fucking know you could have your adult teeth grow in BEFORE your baby teeth fell out giving you TWO ROWS OF SHARK TEETH

oh my god im traumatized
posted by poffin boffin at 6:26 PM on October 22, 2016


This made me remember the New York Kids show on WNYC radio in the 1990s, delightfully preserved in amber here.

New York City is an awesome place to grow up, even if you're on the wrong end of the opportunity inequality curve. Even there, you can observe and imagine so many more possibilities than kids in littler, less eclectic places see. (I guess that's sort of like Paul Graham's point, but kiddified, I hope.)
posted by mississippi at 6:43 PM on October 22, 2016 [3 favorites]


This is both very similar and very different from the stories I grew up on from my dad and my uncles, the details were similar, but the family stories were more...prosaic, I guess.
posted by jonmc at 6:51 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


I am so glad they picked a diverse group of kids that reflects the actual demographics of the city. Too many people hear "native New Yorker" and think "My Cousin Vinny" and "fuggedaboutit" and "I'm walkin' here!" Sure, white working class New Yorkers are part of the historical NYC "ethos", but at this point they are probably a minority among native born New Yorkers.
posted by pravit at 7:51 PM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


That was a wonderful read. Thank you!
posted by james33 at 4:28 AM on October 23, 2016


"Rosemary's baby is a New York City kid"
posted by mikelieman at 5:10 AM on October 23, 2016


Andy Newman deserves a FPP of his own. Previously commented.
posted by bgribble at 10:24 AM on October 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


Too many people hear "native New Yorker" and think "My Cousin Vinny" and "fuggedaboutit" and "I'm walkin' here!"

i hear this
posted by poffin boffin at 10:55 AM on October 23, 2016


"I'm walking here" is just the equivalent of honking at someone who changed lanes without signaling on the freeway. Very useful phrase, doesn't say anything about the ethnic background of the city, just that we're a city of pedestrians. My WASP forefather took down Tammany Hall, I was the first in the family to move back to the city after generations of hiatus, and I still yell it at people who have the gall to stop dead in their tracks for a selfie in the middle of rush hour foot traffic.
posted by gusandrews at 3:10 PM on October 23, 2016


I always wanted to grow up in New York City. Luckily, at 50 years of age, it is not too late. Right?
posted by dubwisened at 2:15 PM on October 24, 2016


Is it that they can't shut up to kids from other places about what New York is like? *ducks*

In all seriousness though, I live in an NYC neighborhood that's thick with kids and am always a little unnerved by how well put together and sophisticated they seem to be. It's like they all dropped out of a Wes Anderson movie or something.
posted by whir at 6:17 PM on October 24, 2016


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