before the grande non-fat caramel macchiato
By Anne Stameshkin
New Yorkish writers, take note: Where Edith Wharton grew up on 23rd St., there is now a Starbucks.
On the one hand, I picture a quiet afternoon writing in this shop, imagining that Wharton once shared my same view of a (much changed) street.
And on the other…I’m envisioning a new walking tour for NYC: “Starbucks and the City.” In my fantasy (wherein the coffee giant would not sue), tourists would amble from identical looking shop to shop whilst a green-aproned guide lectured on what once stood there or who once lived in the building. In addition to excavating layers of city history, this would also highlight the loss of independently owned businesses in Manhattan as franchises and chains buy up all the real estate. Oh, to go back in time and visit that flower shop with its weird giant stuffed bears!
I love the walking tour idea! Sign me up.
Anne, did you see the NYT article about the lost girlhood pleasures of reading and why we can’t read like that as adults? You should post it up here for discussion!
What a brilliant idea, Anne. I think Starbucks is pretty vigilant about suing people, though, so you may have to officially name your tour something else (Major Coffee Chain(s) and the City doesn’t have the same ring), knowing that people will call it by its clever intended name, and that Starbucks can’t sue them all.
Happy new year!
BRILLIANT. I would totally go.
Maybe I’ll forward the idea to Improv Everywhere. They’d find a way…
And if you haven’t all experienced the awesome that was Improv Everywhere’s resurrection of Anton Chekhov, please, travel back in time for a moment of appreciation.