RANDOM STUFF I THINK
I think the next time I go to New York I want to go to two places that nobody will be willing to go to with me. The first is Milan's Restaurant at 710 5th Avenue, Brooklyn. It is a Slovak restaurant. The menu looks great, and Slovak restaurants are not very common. From there I want to go to Bohemian Hall at 29-19 24th Avenue, Astoria. They are about 12.6 miles apart, but I am sure it will be explained to me that "Queens" and "Brooklyn" might as well be as far from Midtown as the moon is, and that I don't want to go there. But they are wrong. I do want to.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that there has been an increase in English, as opposed to British, nationalism recently. Said one England enthusiast "'we have had a reawakening of what our nation is all about.' In his eyes, that includes family values, Christian values, tolerance, free speech, common sense - 'everything that is good about England.'" Wait, wait, wait. Does that list feel "tolerant" to you? It doesn't to me, and apparently does not to immigrants from Asia and the West Indies who "did not identify themselves as English, which they took to mean indigenous white people." Interesting.
The most fascinating aspect of this is the political argument. Apparently a survey that was recently conducted found that 23% of people wanted a separate parliament for England and 43% believed only English MPs should be allowed to vote on English issues in parliament. Said one enthusiast "England must have its parliament returned to it." Indeed. Well, England's parliament was never taken away. However, it did grow to swallow the political independence of Scotland, Wales, and for a time, Ireland, as well as a quarter of the globe during the colonial era. To complain now about the influence of the countries the English spent centuries fighting wars to conquer seems unsporting, which seems very, very un-English to me.
That's what I think.
I think the next time I go to New York I want to go to two places that nobody will be willing to go to with me. The first is Milan's Restaurant at 710 5th Avenue, Brooklyn. It is a Slovak restaurant. The menu looks great, and Slovak restaurants are not very common. From there I want to go to Bohemian Hall at 29-19 24th Avenue, Astoria. They are about 12.6 miles apart, but I am sure it will be explained to me that "Queens" and "Brooklyn" might as well be as far from Midtown as the moon is, and that I don't want to go there. But they are wrong. I do want to.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that there has been an increase in English, as opposed to British, nationalism recently. Said one England enthusiast "'we have had a reawakening of what our nation is all about.' In his eyes, that includes family values, Christian values, tolerance, free speech, common sense - 'everything that is good about England.'" Wait, wait, wait. Does that list feel "tolerant" to you? It doesn't to me, and apparently does not to immigrants from Asia and the West Indies who "did not identify themselves as English, which they took to mean indigenous white people." Interesting.
The most fascinating aspect of this is the political argument. Apparently a survey that was recently conducted found that 23% of people wanted a separate parliament for England and 43% believed only English MPs should be allowed to vote on English issues in parliament. Said one enthusiast "England must have its parliament returned to it." Indeed. Well, England's parliament was never taken away. However, it did grow to swallow the political independence of Scotland, Wales, and for a time, Ireland, as well as a quarter of the globe during the colonial era. To complain now about the influence of the countries the English spent centuries fighting wars to conquer seems unsporting, which seems very, very un-English to me.
That's what I think.
posted by David at 9:07 AM
2 Comments:
*I'd* go to those restaurants with you.
L
If you pop for the cab, I'd go for Slovak food. Getting me into Bohemian Beer Hall is far less likely.
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