B E B E R E

Back when I was a kid, I Love New York was the catchy jingle behind a brilliant campaign to woo tourists to our fair state (yes, there's a whole lot lot more than New York City in New York State. Check it out on a map - it's a big place). If you saw the old commercials and brochures, you'd note that both the Big Apple and Niagara Falls were prominently featured with a taste of everything (from Cooperstown - the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame to the Finger Lakes region and Wine Country) included. The now world-famous I-heart-New York logo was designed by noted graphic artist Milton Glaser in 1977.

I'd not have expected someone with the provincial sensibility of one of the London Chattering Classes to have known about the New York State tourist site, the publicity project that had started when I was a child, or, for that matter, the existence of much outside of Manhattan. That is what makes this bit of gratuitous anti-americanism all the more precious. I would have thought, though, from all the gallery-watching and name dropping that these sorts generally do, that she might have been perhaps passingly familiar with Glaser or at least a couple of his better-known works.

(Thanks, Norm, for pointing this out.)

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On a somewhat related note: Sarah Boxer, that class act, is at it again. This time, it's her rather typical EE scorn of anything middle class. Nice. What're looking more and more like suicide bombers kill scores of people during rush hour in London, and she's using the term "brutish" to describe the 'displays of wealth and leisure' of folks posting on this site. (via Althouse).