Bridge and Tunnel people

[Alice Faber]

Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>On Wed, Mar 03, 2004 at 09:16:56PM -0500, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>
>>  I would reckon Staten Island as being part of that crowd (at least
>>  after the Verrazzano was built), but I don't have similar intuitions
>>  about the other outer boroughs.  I know, you'd usually get to S.I.
>>  from "the City" (i.e. Manhattan) by ferry, but it does seem sort of
>>  quasi-Jersey-like, you have to admit.  (Bridge-tunnel-and-ferry
>>  crowd?)  The Bronx and Brooklyn you'd get to by bridge or tunnel, but
>>  they're not suburban enough to qualify.  I'm not sure about Queens.
>
>??? You're kidding, right, Larry? Queens and Brooklyn are the
>archetypal B&T crowd. Not suburban enough? Let's forget about
>those $2M apartments in Williamsburg--by Manhattan standards
>(i.e. the Manhattan of the 1980s when these terms were
>especially prevalent) Brooklyn and Queens were way suburban.
>
>Satan Island [sic] qualifies as well. It's not how you get
>there, it's what it's like.
>

Thanks, Jesse. I was pretty sure of that usage (along with the
facetious Hoboken), but I'm pretty loath to quarrel with Larry's
Sprachgefühl.

--
 =============================================================================
Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                                     fax (203) 865-8963