The New Yorker

[Steve R.]

On 10/26/2025 at 11:46 AM, Wilfrid said:

Hannah, nobody calls it Alphabet City any more. Lower Eastside Girls Club: there's a clue in the name.

I’d still use Alphabet City but, if not, it’d be “East Village”, not LES, no?

[Wilfrid]

Realtors call it the East Village. But it's been the Lower East Side for most of its history.

Quote

The name "East Village" originated in the early 1960s when artists and musicians, priced out of nearby Greenwich Village, moved into the area, which was then part of the Lower East Side. Real estate agents and newcomers began referring to the area as "East Village"

That's AI, I'm afraid, but it accords with my understanding. 

[sourbroughten]

 

https://outlawvern.com/2022/02/09/alphabet-city/

 

[Wilfrid]

A 1984 thriller about Mafia activity in the neighborhood. 😅

[hollywood]

On 10/27/2025 at 12:46 PM, Wilfrid said:

. Guess what the area was called before that? The whole expanse below East 14th Street  was called the Lower East Side. (Repeating MitchW) That included the East Village, a term from the 1960s.

 

IIRC, the underground paper was the East Village Other.

[Wilfrid]

Rosner's piece on Jamaican patties in the city is very useful, but when placing the snack on a pedestalshe writes as if empanadas didn't exist. Odd.

[Wilfrid]

Curious. How many of these words/phrases do y'all understand without googling?

- Dap

- Edgelord

- Contact high

- Chitlin' circuit

[small h]

All of them.

[StephanieL]

35 minutes ago, small h said:

All of them.

Same. 

[Wilfrid]

Well done. My gripe was that the first three were just sprayed into the article while Chitlin' Circuit needed to be explained to the reader,

I have moved on to a new gripe: 

Quote

up-and-coming actress and model Laura Harrier

She's 35. Notably, she was in BlacKkKlansman in 2018. She's established. Is the problem young editors who don't have a clue or old editors who once had a clue?

[small h]

14 minutes ago, Wilfrid said:

while Chitlin' Circuit needed to be explained to the reader

Is the typical NYer reader perhaps on the paler side? 

[Wilfrid]

Paler knows "dap"?

No, I think the typical reader is older, college-educated, probably quite diverse. Maybe the reader knows "edgelord" and that's good, but I am surprised they need to have the Chitlin' Circuit explained.

 

[small h]

3 hours ago, Wilfrid said:

Paler knows "dap"?

Probably. People dap in sitcoms.

[Wilfrid]

In a survey of Gen Z* dap and contact high were recognized; edgelord and Chitlin' Circuit not.

*Sample size=1.

[Wilfrid]

This kind of crap just ruins stories for me:

"...had vampires been part of British popular culture."

Where was Bram Stoker from and where was Dracula written and was it somewhat popular?

The writer, Rebecca Mead, is British. Which makes it worse.