My Brooklyn Is Boring*

There's already been so much discussion and a measure of controversy over Amy Sohn's portrait of Brooklyn "regressives" -- parents who adopt teenagerish habits as coping mechanisms for what they see as very staid and stable existences -- that I hesitate to add my two cents. Just kidding, this is the Internet, why wouldn't I?

Not only do I live in Brooklyn, I'm in the same general geographic area as Sohn (although I haven't been there as long). I have really, really liked living there for the year and a half-ish I have been in residence. I accept the stereotypes about our shared neighborhood, that it used to be grittier and cheaper and more diverse, that we all eat too many bespoke cupcakes and hang out in bars instead of our living rooms, that young families abound and the streets are safe at 3AM.

No online publication outlet in the universe would publish my account of that time, even though in my view it has been filled with as much confusion and exuberance as Sohn describes in hers. That's because compared to her I am one of those monks who sit on a mountain for 27 years without speaking.

"Moms (and dads) who are crazier than they seem" is just an angle, as produced as the New York Post's pieces on secret Upper East Side bondage aficionados, or the TIME cover with the breastfeeding lady, or THY NEIGHBOR'S WIFE, or... I could go on. It's a great place from which to promote a book! That doesn't automatically make it more authentic than the place I live in.

*positively exciting enough for me