Catch-212

I'm thinking very seriously about leaving New York. I'm not one of those people who is in the throes of a passionate love affair with the city: it's cold and status-conscious and mean; the pace condones, if not encourages, jerkiness; groceries and food and rent and movies seem to cost what they're worth, times two. I hate it here. And yet, there is a problem with every other American metropolis: it's not New York.

He Does WHAT and Lives WHERE?

Everyone knows there are two topics of conversation at parties in New York: Where do you live and what do you do? I didn't realize, though, that there are apparently also only two topics of conversation between friends: Where other people live and what other people do.