Everything Else

And how about Starbucks? They probably never tasted Illy.

McDonalds coffee is not so good but at least better than that crap

McDonalds coffee... Really? Actually I spend most of my 'office' time in the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on 86th and Amsterdam. The coffee is semi-decent, they have good wifi connectivity and a pretty good playlist - lots of indie and rock.

I think that's the point

Read the book.

geez one of my dream.. but how can i afford a place to resign there i heard the houses there is very expensive nyway if i get old i think ill go back to motherland for sure

hmm not sure but i think it was Vienna or Swiss? That they made a replica here somewhere in mainland hehe they even already replicated the Eiffel Tower for one of their Paris ghost town

Ah yes, some talented and hard-working newcomer to the AP China bureau discovered one of the Small World amusement parks that were popular twenty years ago. We can only hope that one day soon she will visit a water town, so she can breathlessly inform the world what tourist traps they are.

Then perhaps, as a reward, the AP can send her to the Southwest where she can write insightful articles about the abandoned dinosaurland parks, the rattlesnake museums, and the decrepit miniature golf courses. What shabby, silly, amusing people those Americans are ...

Well, Vienna isn't exactly cheap - for a 100 square meter apartment you'd need to shell out about €1500.00/month for rent, depending on the neighbourhood...

Thanks to whomever, those Chinese balance it off nicely

The thing is, Oskar, not that China is so wonderful. China certainly has its share of 'peculiarities' and there's plenty to criticize.

But what China does not do is parade around the world giving everyone else lectures about "freedom and democracy" concurrent with blocking elections because they would lose. And China does not self-righteously invade other countries because they dislike the other country's leaders. Nor do they talk and talk "rule of law" while stomping all over the country's constitution. They certainly do make mistakes but at least they aren't self-righteous incompetent hypocrites, like some nations are. It's that holier-than-thou lecturing by a guy who has sex with the neighbor's pig three times a week that really gets to people.

it's on my shortlist, been there a lot of times but only for work. must find some time to walk/tour around africa on vacations.

didn't know you've been to nyu too, i still visit and occasionally teach @ tisch. great city ruined by zombies wearing zerious suits, london's way worse btw.

i like your cozy village, makes me feel like being inside a fairytale. i always liked walking around vienna, although it feels a bit too quiet for my base, time will tell. a propos how's vienna doing in the current european mess oskar? give us a shot of your view and a briefing if you can.

Lots of farmer's markets in this part of the US, most have been around for longer than my memory span. The biggest difference is the USofA is still a more mobile society than china, so farmers don't need to stop in the middle of the street to sell stuff. Around here most are set up along the roadside at the farm - and most everybody round here knows when and where stuff is available.
Don't judge the US by NYC - it shares the impersonal charm of overcrowded metro areas across the globe.
Not quite the same as a farmer's market. Most flea markets are privately run enterprises - you have to pay the landowner for the privilege of arguing with strangers over the price of your broken junk. Locally farmer's markets are typically run by farmers on their own land (sometimes cooperatively), or more recently, by a city or some other local government. The run-by-a-municipality markets I'm familiar with charge the farmer a reasonable fee to cover the cost of whatever facilities were provided and for refuse disposal/clean up.

Hamei isn't talking about the family farm with the stand of produce parked alongside the road or the small, well-established co-ops.. Those are well and good

He's talking about the latter, and in many municipalities the rules have become quite draconian...

Coulda sworn he mentioned Fang pi and Da du zi sellin' watermelons in the middle of an intersection.

Got an example based on personal municipal-market experience? I occasionally help my neighbor set up his stand at one of the local municipally-run farm markets, and he's pretty pleased with the whole arrangement.

Not in the US, only Ottawa (CA).. the experience to the consuming public is similar but basically if you don't get a permit early in the season, all the money in the world will not allow you to get a stand. *goes back to control algorithms for automatic transmissions*

My fault for starting out with corn (altho that's what brought it to mind) but maybe this is useless. It's like describing strawberry ice cream to someone from Kenya who's never even seen a refrigerator. Stephanie Sheene put it better :

"The Seventies was like one big summer. We were free. Then you wake up one morning and realize that you had a really good time then, but now it’s all gone."

Yes, the US has Farmer's Markets where the vendors are allowed to don their $300 True Religion bib overalls and present their iconic radishes, their stunning carrots, their eponymous cabbages, their amazing beans and peas. And the yuppies arrive in their M-series with their hand-knit adorable gunny sacks (only $97.50 at Julia's Designed in California Antiques) to ooh and aah and carry the gorgeous produce back to their Williams-Sonoma Wolf-ranged open plan living spaces, isn't it all just darling ?

If Haystacks Calhoun showed up they'd have him in jail as a registered sex offender in under thirty seconds.

For you, wreck, I have two words : Lake Norman. You think you are safe but this is a metastasized cancer. The only thing you can hope for is that you die before it reaches your neighborhood.

Freedom, sure ....

I fail to see in which ways the supplied picture serves to contribute positively to the present thread. Pray, enlighten me

Don'tcha know about the new fashion honey, all you need is looks and a whole lotta money...

You gotta look sharp !