you've been holding out on me

"New York run by the Swiss."

So said actor Peter Ustinov, describing the city of Toronto. Why didn't anyone ever tell me this? New wmtc reader James finally alerted me to this quote.

To a New Yorker, this is a bizarre description. Nothing could be less New York than the stereotype of clean, efficient Switzerland. Which is not to say New York couldn't be improved by an injection of Swissness.

Googling the phrase, I found this New York Magazine note, which ran after the 2004 election. It's a semi-sarcastic look at which Canadian city disgusted Americans might move to. Let me know what you think of the caricatures.

Here's something seldom seen at wmtc: a little celebrity trash. From Zydeco Fish, I bring you Tom Cruise Is Nuts. I haven't the slightest idea what's going on with the whole Tom Cruise thing. I have read exactly one item relating to it, and that was Brooke Shield's New York Times Op-Ed. Anyone who speaks publicly about mental and emotional illness wins points in my book. But this Is Nuts website is really amusing. Don't miss the reader letters, that's the best part.

Plus, these are the same folks who brought us such internet classics as Exterminate Tom Delay, We Love Arnold, Where In The World Is Jesus, and the newest gem, Karl Rove Is Toast.

Enjoy!

Comments

  1. Rognar18 July 2005 at 11:48

    Googling the phrase, I found this New York Magazine note, which ran after the 2004 election. It's a semi-sarcastic look at which Canadian city disgusted Americans might move to. Let me know what you think of the caricatures.

    Those caricatures aren't bad. One time at the Just for Laughs festival, there was an American comedian who noted on the difference between Toronto and Montreal, "It's like you have two brothers, one is an alcoholic womanizer and the other is an accountant....you know which one you are."

    As for Saskatoon, I spent a week there a couple years ago and yes, there is a river there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. laura k18 July 2005 at 14:50

    The scary thing is that I don't think of Toronto as that clean anymore.

    It's way cleaner than New York. Scary thing is Philadelphia is cleaner than New York! (Much.)

    I've noticed Pharyngula on many people's blogrolls, but have never visited myself. I think Crabbi links to it occasionally. I'll check it out, post-deadline.

    As for Saskatoon, I spent a week there a couple years ago and yes, there is a river there.

    Good one.

    Am I really moving to The Accountant? sigh

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sass18 July 2005 at 15:26

    yay for celebrity trash. everyone needs a little cotton candy once in a while.

    ReplyDelete
  4. laura k18 July 2005 at 16:07

    everyone needs a little cotton candy once in a while.

    You know, I forget that sometimes. I'm glad I have trashy friends to remind me. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. James Redekop18 July 2005 at 20:01

    "Am I really moving to The Accountant? sigh"

    Keep in mind that this Accountant is enough of a party animal to host one of the largest Gay Pride parties in the world, and the largest Caribean festival outside the Caribean -- and has lotsa good food.

    ReplyDelete
  6. laura k19 July 2005 at 05:26

    Keep in mind that this Accountant is enough of a party animal to host one of the largest Gay Pride parties in the world, and the largest Caribean festival outside the Caribean -- and has lotsa good food.

    To be fair, I'm not leading a party animal life in NYC anymore, and haven't for a long time. Hey, we're freely choosing to live in the suburbs.

    One reason the move to Canada works for us now is that we're ready to leave New York, and a smaller - though still vibrant - city will do just fine. As long as there's urban life and lots of diversity, I'll enjoy it, and I know T.O. has plenty of that.

    Funny about the Caribbean festival - that's what the annual West Indian festival in Brooklyn claims!

    ReplyDelete
  7. James Redekop19 July 2005 at 06:09

    "Funny about the Caribbean festival - that's what the annual West Indian festival in Brooklyn claims!"

    I dunno the stats on the Brooklyn festival, but the attendance at Toronto's Caribana runs about a million+ a year. The big parade is coming up in a couple of weeks -- it's a good time to avoid the downtown/CNE area if you aren't attending. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Rognar19 July 2005 at 07:30

    In my travels, I have the phrase, "the largest ______ in the world" so many times, it hardly even registers with me anymore.

    Although, I am willing to wager that the giant nickel in Sudbury, Ontario really is the largest in the world.

    ReplyDelete
  9. laura k19 July 2005 at 07:59

    In my travels, I have the phrase, "the largest ______ in the world" so many times, it hardly even registers with me anymore.

    My thoughts re Caribbean parade, too.

    Nickels and pyrogies, however, are more easily measured than parades. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. barefoot hiker21 July 2005 at 07:46

    I'm chiming in a bit late with this, but it caught my eye. It's true Sir Peter said that, and I've seen indications he may not have meant it as a compliment (including in the article you quote). Oddly enough, if that's that's the case and it was meant as a criticism, it could hardly have fallen flatter than it did. New York is seen as a busy, exciting, important place; the Swiss as superb, consciencious, and effective organizers. If there's a jab there -- like the place is dirty and boring? -- it's a stretch. The complimentary interpretation is much more readily made.

    Accountant? In the 1970s, when Montreal's star was on the wane and Toronto's waxing, there emerged in Quebec the attribution that people in Toronto said "TGIM -- thank God it's Monday". Toronto's changed a lot since 1960. It's the third largest theatrical centre of the English-speaking world, there are four major league teams here (CFL counts for us), dozens of open ethnic neighbourhoods (including the "gay ghetto") with their attendant shops and restaurants... Caribbana, the Pride Parade, the Distillery District, Yorkville, Yonge Street, an official nude beach on the Islands... If you can't find something to do in Toronto, like, man... where could you? The long and the short of it is, you'll get out of the city whatever you put into it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. laura k21 July 2005 at 08:21

    Hey, there's a reason we chose Toronto, and it's not only proximity to friends and family in the New York area. And not only baseball!

    Toronto has often been described to me as a mini New York, or the New York City of Canada. If some mean that as an insult, that's their loss. To me it could only be an enormous compliment.

    Likewise, I hear the Ustinov line as a huge compliment. If others hear it as an insult... well, that may say more about them than it does about either New York or Switzerland.

    ReplyDelete
  12. James Redekop23 July 2005 at 17:30

    I had never heard of anyone considering Ustinov's line as anything but positive until the article cited.

    ReplyDelete

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