I don't have an inferiority complex about NYC. I have a persecution complex. I've never really had a good visit there

This is making me think of Homer going to New York.

Homer: New York is a hellhole. And you know how I feel about hellholes.

Marge: Of course you'll have a bad impression of New York if you only focus on the pimps and the C.H.U.D.'s.

I've never been, but I'd really like to.Despite the detector that crazy people babbling to themselves seem to have for me. Happy birthday, Scola!

...So I can see where that stereotype would come from.

Well yeah, if I went to Boston and got tasered if I said hello to somebody, I might get an impression that Bostonians aren't very friendly.

I'll see if I can scare up the recipe in my email. If not, I'll have to wait until tonight to post it.

I'd love that recipe too, Sue!

But Boston, now, there's a cold, harsh city. Those people are mean.

There were a number of times that cars in Boston went out of their way to act like they were going to hit me when I was a pedestrian there. I was shocked by how nice the people in SF seemed when I moved there after living in Boston for 4 years. And the California people have nothing on Baltimore.

...of course, here along with the friendly you have kids who will beat you with a metal pole in an attempt to steal your bike and snipers shooting at you as ride your bike along a busy street (both of which happened to people I know here in the last week)

Man, people in Baltimore must really have it in for bicyclists.

I don't know that Boston-area people are mean, but they really don't want to talk to you. IME.

And New York people are generally rushing to be somewhere else, so really don't have the time. Key tip: asking people for directions while on the subway generally works, because you can talk while still moving. Although you lose out on being able to point down the street.

kill today please.

oh wait, I just got two answers, maybe today can live.

See, I go into Boston on the assumption that the cars are all independently sentient beings out to mow down everything in their paths, I act accordingly avoidant and cautious, and I do just fine. But, for whatever reason, when I interact with the bipeds I don't get tasered; they all go out of their way to exchange pleasantries and sometimes break into actual spontaneous conversation. (eta: hence the suspicion that there really is some funky weird aura thing happening with me, because this is clearly atypical Bostonian behavior.)

Whereas if Manhattanites aren't ignoring me, they're yelling at me for failing to follow the unspoken but universal protocol which I can never figure out because I'm afraid that asking about the protocol violates the protocol. The only person who was ever spontaneously nice to me in all my visits was a crazy homeless woman in the ladies' room at Grand Central, who came across me weeping over a boy-related betrayal and stood there feeding me paper towels and insisting I wash my face because the cool water would make me feel better and patting my shoulder and saying, "Oh, honey, they're all dogs. They just are. Oh, honey."

spontaneously nice

As someone who grew up in the greater Boston area and now lives in NYC, I have to confess that the idea of being spontaneously nice to a stranger doesn't really make any sense to me.

Those big east cities have crushed your soul.