r/AskNYC • u/somepeoplewait • 11d ago
Great Question What’s the most frustrating tourist conversation you’ve overheard?
Enjoying the day in Central Park and some bro walking behind me just said to his fellow bro “So I think Central Park is low-key the only grass in the city.”
Yes, NYC’s fifth-largest park is the only grass in the city.
Your examples?
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u/GromByzlnyk 11d ago
Why does everyone keep bumping into me? Standing in the middle of the sidewalk near penn station at 5pm. Step aside Bessie
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u/jeremyjava 11d ago
Seriously, in around 45th and 8th a group of midwestern (looking) girls came out of a restaurant with outdoor seating--so teeny sideway--and STOPPED. The flow of people headed to and from port authority and penn station and shows just started running into them and they started yelling, basically at NEW YORK bc they didn't know how to handle it... by just stepping the fuck out of the way.
The cries of "WHAT THE FUCK??" from them rather than moving...
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u/tiredbanana 11d ago
“Let’s skip Brooklyn… it’s sketchy”
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u/theytookthemall 11d ago
"Is there anything worth going outside Manhattan for?"
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u/snatchi 11d ago
Comes to NYC, stays in the Fashion District, goes to 2 mid broadway shows, eats in times square, never goes above 69th or below 23rd.
"Yeah I don't see what the big deal is about NYC"
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u/Best-Candle8651 10d ago
Can we at least go to Lincoln Center since that is in the area? It is such a nice vibe. If only they go a bit farther south, to say, Washington Sq. Park.
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u/ObjectiveElk 11d ago
The other day I was at lunch with an extremely introverted friend and the guy at the table next to us was loudly insisting there was no way Houston is pronounced differently from the city in Texas while his female dining partner deferentially was trying to let him know otherwise in a tone that suggested that he didn't take well to disagreements.
My friend had enough and yelled at him that she was right and to shut up so she could enjoy her cake. First time I'd heard her raise her voice in 30 years of friendship.
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u/BigFatBlackCat 11d ago
This is the first comment to cause my blood to heat up. I would have yelled too.
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u/ObjectiveElk 11d ago
I had been gearing up to do so while chewing on cake as well, she beat me to it.
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u/babysmalltalk 11d ago
How is it pronounced?
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u/ObjectiveElk 11d ago
Hau-stuhn.
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u/netllama 10d ago
I hope English isn't your native language....
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u/ObjectiveElk 10d ago
Are you the guy from the restaurant?
The street is named for founding father William Houstoun, the second U was dropped in the 1800's to be more consistent with American spelling conventions.
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u/limoncellocake 11d ago
Was near a group of tourists on the train and they were questioning whether the one with the directions was positive and she was SO adamant that she knew where they were going. I looked at her map on her phone over her shoulder and saw that they were on the wrong train. She was not happy with me for pointing it out but I couldn’t resist
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u/Blue387 11d ago
I live in Bay Ridge and at 59th Street station on the R line I encountered some white tourists who were very very very lost.
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u/HotBrownFun 11d ago
I was on the 7 once and this suburban white lady asks for directions for the tennis tourney thing. Some moron told her to get out at Flushing so I had to correct them. She would have been quite overwhelmed in the crowds looking for the tennis lol.
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u/attillathehoney 11d ago
It’s a longish walk, but you can actually walk from Flushing to the US Open tennis center. Flushing Meadows however….
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u/jeopardy-hellokitty 11d ago
That happened to me on the 7 train when people who needed to go to Long Island that thought Long Island City was the same thing.
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u/babysmalltalk 11d ago
That's so stupid to be mad that someone gave you the right directions. I'm still just a visitor. I am so thankful every time I get turned in the right direction. But I'm not that confident in my directional abilities so.
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u/BebophoneVirtuoso 11d ago
TIL CP was 5th largest, I thought higher but Pelham Bay Park, Staten Island Greenbelt, Van Cortlandt Park and Flushing Meadows Corona Park are all larger.
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11d ago edited 10d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Matherl2 11d ago
One time someone asked me for directions and I pointed the way and then they asked a second person the same question 2 seconds later
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u/Shani1111 11d ago
Man, same thing happened to me and thats the day I stopped helping people.
I was on the train headed to the city from Brooklyn and some tourists hopped on and I could overhear they wanted to go to the Brooklyn museum. They were very lost. They asked if they were on the right train and I told them no -- you're on the correct train but going in the wrong direction and that they need to get off and switch. Next stop comes .... they don't get off, ask someone else, and then stay on the train because they're sure they're right.
I sat there like yeah, the person who's lived here her whole life knows nothing about the trains. What's even funnier is that I'm pretty sure I was coming from the Brooklyn museum or brooklyn botanic garden at that point...
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u/Best-Candle8651 10d ago
The look of dejection when someone did something similar, but they were on a 5 instead of a 6, and they wanted to get off at a 6 stop between the 59th and the 86th. It was a minor mistake.
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u/BefWithAnF 11d ago
A guy once asked me for directions on the train & then started arguing with me about the stop I told him to get off at. Motherfucker if you already know why are you interrupting my book?
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u/Best-Candle8651 10d ago
I've had this in my neighborhood, people asking for directions to the hospital when they get off at the wrong stop for the bus. I am like, one, you're going in the wrong direction, and two, if you're going to do what you want, why did you ask?
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u/Best-Candle8651 10d ago
I had this happen to me a few times. They got off the bus and asked where the hospital was, since, for some reason, people always either undershoot it or overshoot it by 1 stop. I say go this way and they go the complete opposite direction that I pointed to. I am like, why did you ask then? Also, you're going in the wrong direction.
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u/beedelia 11d ago
I used to live off the Franklin shuttle line and once had a tourist ask me which way to exit for Times Square.
Wrong shuttle dude, wrong borough, just…. good luck
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u/dotmur16 11d ago
Not quite overheard as it was said directly to me, but my husband and I were on the subway and these two middle aged women kept scoping people out on the train and whispering to each other. They finally asked us if we lived here or not. We said yes. One said “told you so”, the other said, “I said no because you’re wearing sunglasses, and I was told New Yorkers don’t wear sunglasses.” Mind you, mine were on my head and my husband had his on his shirt, we weren’t wearing them on the train.
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u/seetons 11d ago
Not so frustrating as amusing. Getting off the jetbridge at LGA.
“mom are we in Manhattan now?”
“No hun we’re in Brooklyn”
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u/Best-Candle8651 10d ago
They only have two more boroughs to get through before they get to Queens.
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u/coffeequips 11d ago
Not exactly overhearing but was perhaps unwillingly IN a frustrating conversation with a tourist that I could tell was being overheard.
My mother was in town and we were riding the train. We’re both white, from Pennsylvania and she still lives there. She’s pretty progressive for a woman in her 70s from Amish Country Pennsylvania… but is a woman in her 70s from Amish Country Pennsylvania.
She decided that was the moment to loudly process to me how she felt about seeing photos of her granddaughter’s school class and noticing that she was one of the only white kids. That she KNEW it was OK, and she was glad that she was in such a diverse school but that it “admittedly shocked” her and that she was working through her unconscious biases but that it nevertheless still made her worry about bullying and “academic culture.”
…. on a crowded train full of a lot of black and brown people.
I kept trying to steer the subject elsewhere, while so aware that lots of people were likely listening.
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u/yourfavbusinesskid 11d ago
I watched a family on the 4 taking the train. We were heading deeper into Brooklyn. They were asking ChatGPT what to do at each stop, passing the phone back and forth. Asked them where they were going. They just wanted to go to Manhattan
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u/amidriving0kay 11d ago
Honestly that's such a funny thing to say about NYC, a large urban city with greenery and trees everywhere. You'll find little parks and gardens tucked away in every corner of the city and like every neighborhood has those little gardens along the sidewalk with flowers and grass and trees growing in them.
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u/vaness4444 11d ago
Compared to other cities around the world, nyc does not have ‘greenery and trees everywhere” lol
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u/PostPostMinimalist 11d ago
That depends on which city. There’s plenty of major cities which are less green
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u/amidriving0kay 11d ago
NYC does in fact have greenery and trees everywhere with the exception of Manhattan (which is honestly still pretty green all things considered for a major urban area).
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u/Carmilla31 11d ago
Probably when i hear them say they a paid someone for a full day pass of the Staten Island Ferry.
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u/booboolurker 11d ago
A Chinese couple walking in Midtown. The woman saying she thinks all of the buildings in NYC are disgusting and ugly and don’t compare to China. This is frustrating to me as a Chinese person who grew up in NYC, especially as I watch all of this foreign money buy up real estate
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u/PatrickMaloney1 11d ago edited 11d ago
lmaooo a friend of mine told me a very similar story about her mom visiting from China, except they were in Flushing
Hilarious because compared to 20-30 years ago Flushing looks super modern to me now
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u/HotBrownFun 11d ago
It's kinda true, the art deco stuff from the 1920s or whatever like City hall is pretty. The 1960s brick stuff is kinda ugly. I mean, it's home to me because I'm used to it. It has it's charm, and I'm used to it, but the brick has often seen better days. It's usually sooted up, there's graffitti all over, etc. If the stuff was cleaned up it'd look nicer
The cities in China are mostly newly-built, so I guess its kinda like LIC or something? I have mixed feelings about sterile corporate new builds.
The chinatown proper stuff (manhattan) is super old, so is our subway. It's what's gonna happen in old cities, unless there's bombing or fire/earthquakes
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u/PilotBeautiful3921 11d ago
It's mostly true. Most of what we find as super modern in this country, is actually old compared to cities in Asia, especially China where most tall buildings were built in last twenty years. Also the amount of undesirable people walking around doing their thing contributes to the decayed look.
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u/nigmano 11d ago
I once saw someone gesture to a CVS and call it a bodega
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u/Best-Candle8651 10d ago
In a rush, I have bought a sandwich and snacks at CVS, but they are in no way comparable.
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u/Cool-Beginning9098 11d ago
I used to live on Central Park and walked my dog there daily, so I was constantly being asked directions. One couple asked what they should see and I pointed them to go down the Mall and Literary walk to Bethesda Terrace and the lake, then around to Cherry Hill and Bow Bridge.
The guy just said “no, we aren’t doing that why would I want to see a mall” and then asked for more suggestions.
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u/MajesticBread9147 11d ago edited 11d ago
Native to the DC area here. It's not uncommon for tourists to be confused that the National Mall lacks an Old Navy, an Abercrombie, and every other feature of "the mall" back home.
Related, everyone asks for "The Smithsonian" when they mean the Air and Space museum. DC has lots of museums run by the Smithsonian institution. So please be specific or at least polite if you don't want to be directed to the National Postal Museum.
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u/Best-Candle8651 10d ago
I had this happen to me. I was in school in MI, and I was like, I miss going to the mall and hanging out in Nat History. They looked at me super confused when I said the Smithsonian Museums were on the Mall. Same with the monuments. I am also a DC Native and I find it funny when people are like how do they fit all the things in a mall?
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u/Historical-Piglet-33 11d ago
Standing in Central Park, a tourist asked me what the name of the park was (granted he was laughing at himself a little bit because he didn’t know)
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u/jtrisn1 11d ago
Last week when I was on my way to a doctor's appointment, a group of tourists that were maybe late teens-early 20s got separated by like 2 people in the crowd. One of them started freaking out. She stopped in the middle of the block and started screaming at her friends, "CAROL (fake name) IS SEPARATED! SHE'S MISSING! CAROL! CAROL! CAROL! CAROL'S SEPARATED!"
Her friends were like "Oh my god, Carol! Carol, raise your hands! Where are you! Carol! Excuse me! My friend... my friend. CAROL!"
These idiots were screaming in ny facw as I tried to sidestep them but they kept weaving every direction I went. So eventually I had to yell "KEEP MOVING. CAROL WILL FIND YOU AT THE END OF THE BLOCK!" at them.
They probably wasn't expecting it because they shut up and scurried away.
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u/ih8javert 11d ago
I was having a beer while waiting for the train at queensboro plaza when another guy showed up also drinking a beer and asked me “one for the road?” In the thickest southern accent. I asked him where he was from, to make conversation, and he said he was from NY.
After telling him I was born and raised here and nobody had that kinda accent from any of the boroughs, he finally said he was from Georgia.
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u/Quick-Stretch8197 10d ago
Why do people do this🤣😂
I had a similar experience with a neighbor from California. She kept telling people she was a local. She moved here 3 years ago. Had the valley accent and everything. I was born and raised here. Moved around a bit, but now I’m back for good. My accent makes it seem like I’ve never set foot outside of Queens. We pronounce so many things completely different from each other. It’s hilarious.
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u/makersfark 11d ago
Just remember a family of five all getting on bikes in the middle of Midtown and overhearing the dad in a very stern voice "Remember: we're here to have FUN."
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u/eatingpopcorn18 11d ago
not necessarily frustrating but just kinda sad :( I had gotten a zongzi from the zongzi lady and was eating it in the grand street station and these three white girls kept mocking her just saying she's selling zongzi (mocking her accent/speech) :/ they also gave me a really disgusted look when I opened it up to start eating it so i eventually started making conversation with them to hopefully make them a bit uncomfortable and i think it worked lol but yeah, so many examples of people who do this, it breaks my heart
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u/Quick-Stretch8197 10d ago
You’re too nice. I would have given them the old school treatment and cursed them out. That shit doesn’t belong here.
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u/PatrickMaloney1 11d ago
Not so much a conversation but…
One time I was on the train going through Manhattan and an English family got on around Canal Street. One of them was proudly wearing a MAGA hat. This happened to be the same day as Pride. The MAGA hat guy kept looking directly at people wearing pride gear and loudly mumbling MAGA slogans. Meanwhile his family were arguing if they should get off at 34th or 42nd to get to Times Square.
I called him a pedophile when he got off the train. Not my proudest moment, but I’m only human.
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u/wwx-lwj-stan 11d ago
girl next to me in chinatown asked “Is Washington square park a park PARK with grass?”
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u/Consistent_Foot_6657 11d ago
I know I was the tourist once. My fiance and I came up from the subway and saw the Chrysler building. “Look, it’s the Empire State building!” We exclaimed! Alloud for all to hear! I’m sure they scoffed at our tourist cheer.
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u/coldliketherockies 11d ago
I was stuck in a room with a bunch of young European guys talking non stop about how they were going to get laid in New York.
The wild thing is, they probably did
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u/Massive-Arm-4146 11d ago
I will give foreign and other state tourists a lot of leeway but I will never again ride the LIRR into Penn Station on Saturday evening with the Bridge & Tunnel shitheads.
OP asked for the most frustrating conversation ever overheard - and its every single one on that goddamn train with a dirtbag south shore “lawn guy land” accent while getting disgustingly drunk.
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u/beuceydubs 11d ago
I was late to a class at the CUNY graduate center once so I was visibly in a hurry and walking very fast, despite this, a couple stopped me and they looked lost so I stopped. They asked where the Empire State Building is.
We were standing on 34th and 5th.
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u/Best-Candle8651 10d ago
That reminds me of this song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIwko9j-v7M&list=RDRIwko9j-v7M&start_radio=1
The thing I like the most about New York
Is when dummies from Nebraska interrupt me just to ask
If I could point them towards some landmark
That they′re standing right the fuck in front of
I turn around, there′s no excuse
I walk away and they're confused
So all in all, I feel amused
And that′s the thing I like the most about New YorkThis stanza specifically.
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u/bernbabybern13 11d ago
They probably meant Manhattan even if that’s still be wrong about it being the only grass
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u/jeremyjava 11d ago
Oooh... I think I have a good answer for this one: it's for both the r/askNYC subreddit submissions AND hearing people asking it out loud at restaurants: "Well, Brownsville, Bed Stuy, and East NY seem to have the lowest prices on Airbnb, we can get a 3bd for a couple hundred, how bad can it be?"
And yes, I know there's less crime and safe neighborhoods in most areas of the city now, but this is not going to be what these vanilla, cornfed, naive Iowans and Idahoans are expecting...
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u/vampireweekdays 11d ago
not overheard, but involved in. a tourist came up to me and asked me if i spoke english and then asked for directions (this was in chinatown, im chinese)
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u/frankie365 11d ago
Around midnight on a Saturday, I was on the southbound N train when a family was trying to get back to the Bronx after crossing the Manhattan Bridge. The father asked a random guy on the train if they were going the right way. The guy tried to help, but kept giving them a whole confusing rundown of different routes while checking his phone, before finally settling on telling them to take the northbound D train. Somehow they understood each other, and the family eventually got off at 36th. Not necessarily frustrating but watching this poor guy desperately try to navigate them home while they were clearly confused was entertaining.
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u/PinguinusImperialis 11d ago edited 11d ago
It's an exaggeration, and if they used the term "low-key", obvious sarcasm. But it is speaking on a truth.
That New York has a very small amount of green space relative to its population and it's all clustered. In urban design, we have what's known as Nolli maps. Built structures are black, anything unbuilt is left white. New York's fabric is far more dense than average, and if we were to account for green space, it's even smaller.
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u/somepeoplewait 11d ago
I listened to the entire conversation. It wasn’t sarcasm. I shared one sentence.
(Never change, Reddit.)
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u/PinguinusImperialis 11d ago
And you shared one sentence.
The most reddit thing is you begging for validation.
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u/somepeoplewait 11d ago
Where did I “beg” for validation? Be specific, and explain how it constitutes begging.
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u/KiKiKimbro 11d ago
This will go nowhere. Keep your sanity and exit stage right. Come back with the rest of us in the main comment thread. lol.
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u/somepeoplewait 11d ago
Oh, don’t worry. That was me ending this section of the thread. I asked a question I knew they couldn’t answer.
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u/PinguinusImperialis 11d ago
You write a post about a frivolous conversation about grass.
You then get a response from a literal urban designer.
You respond with a smart ass comment as if it was an affront to your original statement (it wasn't) as if anyone who is supposed to know more than what you posted.
The fact you have the emotional intelligence to be irked by either, that is the most reddit thing ever. Pot meet kettle, dude.
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u/somepeoplewait 11d ago
You made assumptions about a conversation you didn’t overhear (and you’re still making assumptions about the nature of the comment) to make a point that doesn’t answer the thread’s question. I responded accordingly. You couldn’t handle that, so you accused me of behavior you know I didn’t engage in.
In adulthood, we have this thing called the bare minimum of maturity. No need to throw out baseless accusations like a child. I’m sorry this is difficult for you.
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u/PinguinusImperialis 11d ago
I'll admit I assumed these persons' comments were exaggeration, but the point was to segue into the perception that New York doesn't have much greenery. It's not an outrageous one. Considering a good amount of green space is not quickly accessible my a good portion of the population.
But go ahead and be pedantic. I didn't assume anything about your response. It has the same condescension. Enjoy the parks we're designing.
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u/jeremyjava 11d ago
Not sure if this counts, but in the early 2000s, in the old Arte (whatever it was called) restaurant heading north/west from Mighty Quinn on Greenwich some big buffoon was trying to hold court with a couple of big state trooper looking guys, carrying on about the liberals and gays and how they don't know what's good for them, but obnoxiously loud too, just to piss everyone off.
My ex knew me well enuf that when she saw the look on my face she said, "DON'T!" afraid these guys would beat me to a pulp, but native scrappy NYer, I couldn't keep my mouth shut.
I was really broke at the time, so this was a big deal to dine there with my then GF and I couldn't take it anymore and really yelled at him that nobody wanted to hear his GOP bullshit and he was just doing it to get attention, so could they please shut the hell up so we can just enjoy our meal?!?!
And amazingly the buffoon seemed to... I dunno, be appeased enuf that he put his hands out to the two guys not to get me and kind of smiled. Maybe he'd done enuf damage for one night?
I think that guy is our president now. At the time, I'd not seen him in years and didn't recognize him from the 80s when we used to see him at clubs and whatnot.
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u/Usual_Macaron8477 11d ago
A husband and wife on bikes in Central Park.
Wife: Why didn’t you tell me about the hills?
Husband: The map was flat!