Last night I took the 16 year old into Manhattan for a special birthday dinner. She wanted a fuss about turning 16, and it was nice to spend the time with her. he time that was extended by a good 40 minutes, thanks to my good buddy, Michael Bloomberg.
I know for those who actually travel cross town on a regular basis, having no turns from 7th Ave/Broadway onto the streets between 47th and 42nd is great, but for those unawares it is a HUUUGE pain in the patooties. This being Manhattan, the signage is of course lousy, with big signs starting at 56th street about 7th avenue being the best route south. There is no mention that you end up on a pedestrian packed street (I knew)where you can't turn left for five blocks (I didn't know).
So after going in a circle once (mistakenly thinking that Broadway was on the other side of 7th at that point), I finally turned RIGHT (west, for those of you not geographically challenged) down 41st (the earliest point to make a turn) ended up on Eighth ave, then East (right)on 46th. It was a pretty quick trip up 46th, except the whole dodging tourists running to make their shows.
So yes, Times Square is great for all those tourists who come all the way from Podunk, Wisconsin and want to go to Applebees, The Olive Garden, the M&M store, and Toys R Us, but if you have any other business in the city, good luck.
3 comments:
The signage (or lack of it)is what really gets to me. "best route 7th ave" is that a suggestion and idea a route????!!! who puts up signs with suggestions? Now that you have completely blocked off streets to traffic just sign how to actually go, without the hints please!!!
i think podunk is in connecticut
check out http://everything2.com/title/Podunk
copied here for those iceberg readers not adept at following links
There are a couple theories, both somewhat intertwined, on the origins of "Podunk" meaning an insignificant, backwater town. In Algonquian "podunk" or "pautunke" means literally "where you sink in mire" and was given to various areas along rivers. This explains why there are a number of small towns in the North East all called "Podunk".
"Say there nice Indian fellow who we're about to nearly exterminate when we invent the Winchester rifle and smallpox infected blankets, would you be a good chap and tell me what this place is?"
"Podunk."
"Thanks! I hereby declare this to be the town of Podunk and you are the first to have the honor of paying property tax. Be aware, as of this minute you are in arrears."
These are the literal Podunk towns of the USA:
* Podunk, Connecticut
* Podunk, New York
* Podunk, Vermont
* And no less than two Podunks in Michigan (one in Barry County and one in Gladwin County).
There used to be a Podunk, Wisconsin but that was abandoned long ago.
Since building your town in the middle of a swamp basically ensures limited growth because people simply don't want to emigrate to a swamp (unless you can offer them jobs in advertising), it's no wonder "Podunk" has long been associated with insignificance, isolation, an inability to keep up with the times, and a citizenry not overly blessed by shrewd judgment (i.e., "Dudes, don't live in a marsh!").
The first known use of podunk to refer to a backwater town was a letter to the editor of the Buffalo Daily National Pilot. In 1846, a letter writer spoke of a mythical, isolated town called Podunk that was "a little world of itself." This actually started the notion in the popular press that there existed no such town called Podunk in the USA. In 1933 the Boston Herald alleged "Podunk, like Atlantis, has no locus." A reader challenged the Herald's assertion, noting he swore there was a Podunk near Worcester, Massachusetts.
The Herald mounted an expedition to find this mythical Podunk. Found it, they did. The first found Podunk was an unincorporated community 15 miles west of Worcester.
It's interesting to note that the first recorded encounter between Europeans and Indians was with a subset of the Algonquins called the Podunk tribe. In the early 1600s, Dutch navigator Adrian Block piloted the Quinnehtukqut River. The first place he landed was just north of Hartford, at a Podunk village!
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