Saturday, July 26, 2008

Not East Of The Hudson, It's Not...

"So how did you like your trip to New York City?"

"I liked it. Some highs, some lows. They sure love to throw elbows there. There was this crazy woman who got on the bus and she jabbed me in the back, right between the shoulder blades, even though she had plenty of room to pass. Then when we went to Time Square, it was like one great big mosh pit. I decided that we should turn around before we even got to the middle of that mess. We visited where Anne used to live, right over by Washington Square Park and we went to that deli that was in "When Harry Met Sally." What was the name of that, honey?"

"Katz's."

"Yeah, Kat's, it was over on Houston Street."

"Howston."

"No, I saw the street sign it said 'Hue-ston."

"It's pronounced "How-ston."

"But it was spelled H-o-u-s-"

"-I know, but everybody says Howston."

"Hold on, hold on. The NFL team, you know, the Oilers, play in what city?"

"Houston."

"And the NBA Rockets?"

"Houston."

"And Nolan Ryan pitched for the 'what' Astros?"

"Houston."

"So what's the name of the street?"

"Howston."

8 comments:

Eric Riback said...

I've always told people before their first visit to the Apple that if they don't wanna get mugged, don't call it HUE-ston street.

Cormac Brown said...

Eric,

Welcome and that's me all over. The first thing I did when The Missus and I walked out of Penn Station was to look up at the surrounding area. Right away a guy circled us and eyeballed her purse. I had to literally "step to him," to chase him off.

neutron said...

Pronoucing Houston Howston, funny.

Guy circling you and the missus, not funny.

Sounds like a real nice place??

Cormac Brown said...

Neutron,

It's a lot nicer place and Times Square has gone positively Disneyland since then. I know that most would say that all of the character has gone out of the NYC...and they're kind of right. My son loves the place, he didn't get to see the Old York.

pattinase (abbott) said...

New York in the seventies, pretty scary. Read Desperate Characters for a good picture. Totally different today. Although I regret some of it there (all those bodies that went into the East River), I wish it would happen in Detroit.

Cormac Brown said...

Patti,

That 70's energy energy there must have been amazing, the kind of stuff that could fuel even the lowliest of writers to pen something similar to "Taxi Driver" or "Naked City."

Katie Schwartz said...

So funny. You know, CBrown, I grew up on that deli. My family has been going there for as long as they've been in business. It's a schwartz institution.

HOWWWWSTON. ha.

Cormac Brown said...

Katie-lah,

I don't have to tell you that we don't have a quality deli like that in SF, so you know your family was real lucky to have such wonderful nosh palace within a subway's trip.

Not to mention, with sandwiches like those? Meg wouldn't have needed to fake it at all.