City Quotes

[pm91]

“I guess happiness was Lubbock, Texas
In my rear view mirror
But now happiness is Lubbock, Texas
Growing nearer and dearer
And the vision is getting clearer
In my dreams

And I think I finally know
Just what it means
And when I die you can bury me
In Lubbock, Texas, in my jeans“

-Mac Davis

[Centropolis]

amazonaws.com

it's funny, nelly filmed some videos in south city, and sort of had this southern inflection to his music and story-telling, but he's from university city and i feel was really speaking about that area of st. louis county and those small pre-war municipalities, that sort of feels more like a southern urban core or something. not like south city at all with a different vernacular, streetscape, vibe, houses with porches, front yards, etc etc.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Cincinnati:
"Cincinnati is a beautiful city; cheerful, thriving, and animated. I have not often seen a place that commends itself so favourably and pleasantly to a stranger at the first glance as this does.” - Charles Dickens

"When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it's always 20 years behind the times.” - Mark Twain

Arizona (Caveat: I'm not a resident of Phoenix):
"Then the wind blew cool through the pinyons on the rim. There was a sweet tang of cedar and sage on the air and that indefinable fragrance peculiar to the canyon country of Arizona." - Zane Grey

"Welcome to Arizona, where summer spends the winter — and hell spends the summer" - Unknown

"In Arizona, shade trees are your best friends — and occasionally the basis of small civil wars over parking." - Terri Guillemets

And for some of you older folks who remember a certain picture posted on this forum years ago...
"You know you're an Arizona native when you hug a cactus only once in your lifetime." - Nancy Dedera

[hauntedheadnc]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

Cincinnati:
"Cincinnati is a beautiful city; cheerful, thriving, and animated. I have not often seen a place that commends itself so favourably and pleasantly to a stranger at the first glance as this does.” - Charles Dickens

That's a delightful quote!

[hauntedheadnc]

[T]here are many ‘off’ spots, broken and muddy sidewalks, shanty stores with hen coops in front to pollute the air, display windows thick with dust, offices no lady with due regard for the cleanliness of her skirts would want to enter.

Perhaps worse than all, because really dangerous to health, is the throwing of garbage — watermelon rinds, banana peels, rotting fruit — into the street or nearby to poison the air that is Asheville’s chief stock in trade, her main reason for existence as a city.

--from an article entitled Who collects garbage in Asheville, and how much and when? in the Asheville Daily Citizen, August 5, 1890

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001

Cincinnati:
"Cincinnati is a beautiful city; cheerful, thriving, and animated. I have not often seen a place that commends itself so favourably and pleasantly to a stranger at the first glance as this does.” - Charles Dickens

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

That's a delightful quote!

here ya go...charles dickens on st. louis:

“The town . . . is not likely to ever vie, in point of elegance or beauty, with Cincinnati.”



Charles Dickens continues...

"...Just adding, that it is very hot, lies among great rivers, and has vast tracts of undrained swampy land around it, I leave the reader to form his own opinion.'

[maru2501]

Bourdain on Chicago...


“A metropolis, completely non-neurotic, ever moving, a big-hearted but cold-blooded machine with millions of moving parts — a beast that will, if disrespected or not taken seriously, roll over you without remorse”…

“It is also, as I like to point out frequently, one of America’s last great NO BULLSHIT zones. Pomposity, pretentiousness, putting on airs of any kind, douchery and lack of a sense of humor will not get you far in Chicago.”


Amen, brother.. RIP..

[Buckeye Native 001]

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

That's a delightful quote!

He must've visited before the massive influx of dour, unsmiling German immigrants (such as my family) settled in the area...

[hauntedheadnc]

Originally Posted by maru2501

Bourdain on Chicago...


“A metropolis, completely non-neurotic, ever moving, a big-hearted but cold-blooded machine with millions of moving parts — a beast that will, if disrespected or not taken seriously, roll over you without remorse”…

“It is also, as I like to point out frequently, one of America’s last great NO BULLSHIT zones. Pomposity, pretentiousness, putting on airs of any kind, douchery and lack of a sense of humor will not get you far in Chicago.”


Amen, brother.. RIP..

This might be because whenever Chicago tried to put on airs, it got shot down, and got tough as a result. I need to dig up some quotes from Devil in the White City, because there are some good ones... The one that comes to mind though is the way that the Infanta Eulalia of Spain, when visiting for the 1893 World's Fair, declined to dine with the Palmers of Palmer House fame. It was beneath her, a Spanish princess, to dine with a "lowly innkeeper's wife."

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by maru2501

Bourdain on Chicago...


“A metropolis, completely non-neurotic, ever moving, a big-hearted but cold-blooded machine with millions of moving parts — a beast that will, if disrespected or not taken seriously, roll over you without remorse”…

“It is also, as I like to point out frequently, one of America’s last great NO BULLSHIT zones. Pomposity, pretentiousness, putting on airs of any kind, douchery and lack of a sense of humor will not get you far in Chicago.”


Amen, brother.. RIP..

bourdain loved chicago. i could always tell that he was just going through the motions in a lot of north american cities but he always loved it there.

[maru2501]

^ agree.. His last Parts Unknown from there where most of the episode is just him and Bruce at the Old Town Ale House is a work of art. Very relaxing to watch

[Boisebro]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

bourdain loved chicago. i could always tell that he was just going through the motions in a lot of north american cities but he always loved it there.

loved his shows when he visited Chicago. here are two more of his classic Chicago quotes from No Reservations:


“I’ve done shows in LA, but LA’s a fantastic sprawl. San Francisco? A great town. New Orleans? A state of mind. Chicago? Chicago is a city.”

“Chicago is big — not just any kind of big — I’m talking major metropolis big. I love this city. In my opinion, it’s the only other real metropolis in America.”

I'm sure everyone knows what the "other" other real metropolis is.

yep. Milwaukee.

[Boisebro]

okay, so there aren't exactly a lot of quotes that mention Boise.

there's this from Lynyrd Skynyrd's classic "What's Your Name":

Well, its 8 o'clock in Boise, Idaho
I'll find my limo driver
Mister, take us to the show
I done made some plans for later on tonight
I'll find a little queen
And I know I can treat her right.

and here's one from the 1987 movie Adventures in Babysitting:

Brad: Could you drop us off at the nearest mall?
Joe Gipp: A mall? Where y'all think we're at, Boise, Idaho?

interestingly, Boise didn't have a mall in 1987. Towne Square Mall didn't open until 1988.

too bad Bourdain didn't visit. I think he would've been pleasantly surprised.

[pm91]

An old traffic joke:

“Houston is an hour away from Houston”

[hauntedheadnc]

[Asheville C]ity hall is going up, — going up if we have to lay the foundations so deep that they will hinge on hell. … I intend to see it go up if I lose every friend I have in the city and forfeit forever the chance of making any more.

-- Asheville Mayor John H. Cathey, August 27, 1926

[sopas ej]

"Tip the world over on its side, and everything loose will land in Los Angeles."

–--Frank Lloyd Wright

I have a book somewhere at home with a number of these zingers about LA.

[sopas ej]

"The wet season is the season in which it can rain but may not; and the dry season is the season in which it cannot rain, but occasionally does."

---Helen Hunt Jackson, regarding Los Angeles

[Laceoflight]

Originally Posted by Acajack

"Let Toronto become Milan. Montreal will always be Rome."

Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau

Originally Posted by Acajack

"This is the first time I was ever in a city where you couldn't throw a brick without breaking a church window."

Mark Twain on Montreal

"This is a great country because of this city. Without Montreal, Canada would be hopeless."
_Anthony Bourdain

[hauntedheadnc]

The bicycle craze is in full force and effect in Asheville right now. The wheelmen fill the streets every afternoon and evening after work hours, and the miles of paved streets offer inducements for this form of exercise never known before.

-- Asheville Daily Citizen, May 12, 1893

Patrolman Noland last night arrested the first violator of the bicycle ordinance, Robert Glasco. The young wheelman was riding without a headlight and was summoned to appear this morning in police court. A fine of $2 and costs was imposed by Acting Police Justice VanGilder. The patrolmen do not like to arrest ladies, but the latter are warned to attach lights to their wheels. Bicycles must also have bells attached.

-- Asheville Daily Citizen, October 2, 1897

[hauntedheadnc]

Can I get a book telling me how to be mistress of ceremonies at a musical orgy?

-- Inquiry at the reference desk of Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, November 26, 1948