"What's that got to do with the price of pickles in Park Slope?"

[Laurence Horn]

On Oct 22, 2011, at 10:39 AM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:

> On Oct 21, 2011, at 3:41 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> From Law & Order. Probably artificial.
>
> what does "artificial" mean in this context?  this is either a playful variation on the "price of tea in China" expression or an instance of a Price of X in Y snowclone (developed from the tea-in-China version), and like many occurrences of playful variations and snowclones, it was intentionally devised by a user.  how does that make it "artificial"?  (what would a non-artificial example be like?)
>
> arnold

Well, the invocation of "Park Slope" as basis of comparison for pickle pricing is probably motivated by alliteration.  Park Slope is known for its overabundance of baby strollers, good local schools, greener-than-thou ecopolitics, and upscale shops.  It's not ordinary a place one would go to to check the pickle prices, that being the Lower East Side or perhaps Upper West Side (in the Zabar's neighborhood).

LH

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