This is on the homepage of Yahoo at the moment. Seriously: People just love to hate the city from afar. If I had a dime for every time someone said to me, “New York seems like such a great place to live, but I don’t know you do it. I know I could never do it,” well, I’d have more money than I do now. The thing is, in my opinion, people just like to tell themselves that, to convince themselves that it’s not worth it, to make themselves feel better about not taking a chance or about living in the middle of nowhere. And then ridiculous articles like this appear on Yahoo’s homepage to reinforce the whole shebang. And the most infuriating thing about this particular instance is that each and every ‘headline’ here is 100% misleading. “The biggest worries” of New Yorkers, according to the actual text of the article, have  NOTHING to do with actually living in New York, but with the state of the economy, and not having enough time in the day, and being a bit stressed about life in general… all things that I’m pretty sure worry everyone all over the country.

And then this “6 things lost in cities” headline on the sidebar? Do you know what this little gem of an article actually says? This, in a nutshell: “Sure, city dwellers get the best of nightlife, music, art, blahblahblah…  but here are six great things they are missing out on: Stars, Fresh Air, Peace and Quiet, Greenery, Sounds of Nature, Animals and Wildlife.” Um. Are you f-ing kidding me? What the H is this? A grassroots movement to make the people in the burbs feel better about themselves and become loyal Yahoo readers or something? Do we make lists about how freaking amazing and exhilarating and invigorating it is to live in the greatest city on earth and then put it on the front page of the Times?

Anyway. Deep breath. I swear I am in a GREAT mood, I just get clearly a wee bit defensive when it comes to the beloved city I call my home. Happy Thursday!