
24 hours in a diner in New York - onuralp
https://www.1843magazine.com/dispatches/what-24-hours-in-a-diner-taught-me-about-new-york
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hprotagonist
Diners are wonderful, and very very much a metro-NY thing in this incarnation.
(There are other diner types, excellent in their own ways, but they're
sufficiently different as to be out of scope.) They build communities, too,
and "Diner regulars" are a pretty ecumenical bunch.

Nearly everything I miss about NY has to do with food, and nearly all the food
I miss is diner food: mystery meat gyros, the diner hamburger that's slightly
too wet for the bun so you can't put it down once you pick it up, the right
kind of natural-casing link sausages that snap when you bite into them, and
above all, the matzoh ball soup: cure for everything. For dessert, rainbow
cookies or a slice of pie from the glass rotating case -- and don't forget the
weird chocolate mints on your way out.

A half-decent bagel, good pizza, and any bodgea's sausage egg and cheese on a
roll round out my list of foods I atavistically seek out every time I'm within
40 miles of central park.

~~~
mattsfrey
TIL "ecumenical"

I assume you mean this in a sense of people from disparate backgrounds coming
together on a common ground?

Is this even used in the context you meant it? Can you cite a text using it in
a non-christian context? Just curious how the hell you ended up using this
word lol.

~~~
kijin
In Ursula Le Guin's Hainish Cycle, the confederation of planets is called the
Ekumen.

It's a good ol' Greek word with no inherent religious meaning, so it's nice to
see it getting reclaimed in a secular context. I think the fact that it tends
to have a religious connotation imparts a sense of solemnity to it that is
quite appropriate in the current context.

"Ecumenical" also avoids the grandiosity and detechedness of "universal" or
"global". Perhaps because its meaning derives from "home", it feels a lot more
down to Earth and closer to heart than either of those common alternatives.

~~~
thedailymail
Similar trajectory for "catholic," meaning broadly inclusive. (e.g., She has
catholic taste in music.)

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jumelles
If you like this, you might also like This American Life's 24 Hours at the
Golden Apple (2000):

[https://www.thisamericanlife.org/172/24-hours-at-the-
golden-...](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/172/24-hours-at-the-golden-apple)

~~~
chongli
I came here to post this link! This is my favourite episode of This American
Life, and perhaps my favourite podcast episode of any sort ever.

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swang
OK so just out of curiosity I looked at the newspaper date that Lynn is
reading. "Chris Hardwick, King of the Nerds, Is Expanding His Empire" It is
from April 7, 2016. Does that mean this thing took 2 years to come out or is
she just reading an old newspaper? EducationLife which is on the table near
her, folded in 2017

[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/arts/television/chris-
har...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/arts/television/chris-hardwick-
king-of-the-nerds-is-expanding-his-empire.html)

[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/education/edlife/saying-f...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/education/edlife/saying-
farewell-to-education-life.html)

~~~
sabj
It took a long time. I was there.

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johnnyb9
One time I had jet lag and went to the neighborhood diner (in NYC) a bit on
the earlier side, like 5 AM or so. For a random Tuesday morning it was
interesting to see all sorts of people walk in after a night out (on a Tuesday
morning no less!). Reminded me of how crazy the city is.

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chadlavi
> perhaps the most famous diner scene after the orgasmic pastrami sandwich in
> “When Harry Met Sally”

Small and basically meaningless point, but Katz's is not a diner.

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scroot
Shout out to Clark's in BK

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JAdamMoore
I wish people would stop romanticizing New York. The entire East Coast is
terrible, but New York is extraordinarily stupid.

~~~
dang
Maybe so, but please don't post unsubstantive comments to Hacker News. It
doesn't help.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

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dazc
SORRY, YOU NEED TO ENABLE JAVASCRIPT TO VISIT THIS WEBSITE.

I was expecting something more than text and images?

