|
October 15, 2004
Medieval convolutions in the free world....
Here's a quote I thoroughly enjoyed. I won't live in a country where people aren't allowed to call me a fag.So says Brian Tiemann in a very well-reasoned analysis of burgeoning "hate speech" laws. I'd almost rather be called a fag than be forced to drive in and around Newark, New Jersey -- and the whole area surrounding New York City! I had to do that earlier in the week (a fate even the most famous of bloggers are unable to escape), and during the drive, Justin remarked how much the roads reminded him of another post (also by Californian Brian Tiemann): Back to the subject of driving: the road system, particularly in the environs leading into the city, is so tangled from so many years of evolution that it's a wonder any of it has any consistency at all. There's a kind of disorienting nature to the circulating exit ramps that wind around the tool plazas, and to all the expressways with their "jug-handle" turn lanes (which turn out to work pretty sensibly, as a matter of fact) and their left-hand exits that make it impossible to simply sit in a lane and turn your brain off the way I'm used to in California. I now realize how spoiled we are out West: signage is austere, consistent, predictable; exit lanes are leisurely, always on the right, always giving you plenty of warning. Here, you've always got to be on your toes, lest the fast-lane on the left suddenly turn into an exit that leaps off a skyway bridge into Weehawken or Rahway or some other such quaintly named town, with nary a "San" or "Santa" or "Los" to be seen. I took Highway 1 back from the city tonight instead of the Turnpike, to avoid the tolls as well as to get a better view of what New Jersey looked like at street level. It's far from the industrial wasteland I'd been led to believe it was; it's quaint and charming, and you'll never fall asleep while careening down those narrow lanes trying to keep your place in line and avoid being peeled off into some exit to a town with a Chaucer-esque name that you had no intention of visiting.I don't know who or what laid out the roads here on the East Coast, but they're convoluted, illogical, medieval, and incapable of reform. And so are the roads! posted by Eric on 10.15.04 at 02:15 PM
Comments
That's what you get for going to New Jersey, guy. Didn't your parents teach you anything? And as for why the roads are all screwy even in more enlightened places, a lot of them outside cities are just paved-over lanes between different farmers' cornfields--you know, things like that. The grid in Center City Philadelphia is pretty much an anomaly confined to big towns, and even it has the Schuylkill Expressway obligingly cutting through it (speak of confusing left-hand exits!) to maintain balance. Sean Kinsell · October 15, 2004 10:10 PM Agree Steven. Driving in New Jersey tests the limits of my civility, so I should say no more about it. As to the Schuylkill? @#$%*! It was outdated when I was a small boy, and now it's a cruel joke. If you grew up here, California will spoil you. Eric Scheie · October 17, 2004 01:03 AM |
|
December 2006
WORLD-WIDE CALENDAR
Search the Site
E-mail
Classics To Go
Archives
December 2006
November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 May 2002 See more archives here Old (Blogspot) archives
Recent Entries
Laughing at the failure of discourse?
Holiday Blogging The right to be irrational? I'm cool with the passion fashion Climate change meltdown at the polls? If you're wrong, then so is God? Have a nice day, asshole! Scarlet "R"? Consuming power while empowering consumption Shrinking is growth!
Links
Site Credits
|
|
"I won't live in a country where people aren't allowed to call me a fag."
That is one of the noblest statements I have ever seen.