New York New York! Part 1

[alula_auburn]

While I was looking for my next snark, I was surprised to find that this one had only been tackled once, and not since 2008.  I guess we just don’t ❤ NYC like Ann.  Plus, I had some artsy lolcats leftover from Rosie, and honestly, I didn't feel up to fifteen chapters of any particular sitter without inspiration.
Anyway, my impressions before

Comments

[wavvedout]

Dawn’s head-to-toe denim ensemble

At least she's lacking the usual half up ponytail with a super sized scrunchie. I HATED THAT LOOK.

(Oh, man, I suddenly desperately want some kind of Greek mythology/BSC fusion fic. At least then you can blame logic and continuity gaps on “a god did it.”)

WANT WANT WANT.
I despise departure scenes in the series when its only for a short trip. Like these parent ever spend any time with their children anyway. How will these two weeks be any different?

Stacey, Claud, and Dawn will stay there, while everyone else stays at the Dakota with Laine

I know Stacey wants to stay with her dad, but it would be kind of sucky to stay in his tiny apartment when you could be staying at the swanky Dakota, at least for Dawn and Claudia.

I know they aren't spelled the same, but in my head Alistaire is Aleister Crowley. I dont even think they are prononced the same, but its just one of those things that ran thru my head and now I can't change it. Also, Mrs. Harrington is Victoria Beckham in my head.

although Dawn briefly considers asking to keep Ed company in his apartment all afternoon.

My friends dad's would have been completely weirded out if I had asked to stay all afternoon with them alone in their apartment while everyone else went out.

(Also, in 1991 did teenage girls refer to purses/bags as “pocketbooks”? Not where I lived. It’s the second usage in the book.)

Its weird that Ann is from the Northeast, because alot of her little things like this are actually what I tradionally think of as being southern things. Like Claudia not being allowed to call adults by their first names- that is NO NO in the south. I dont even follow usual traditions and if I caught my son calling an adult by their name without a Miss, Mrs, or Mr. I would eyebrow raise so hard it would make his head spin. Also, pocketbooks is always what we called purses when I was little, and in fact, still do. And I live in a fairly large suburb of a big city (Charlotte), so Im not completely in the boonies.

Sorry for the long comment, but I have actually never read this one (gasp) so I was all kinds of into this snark.

[lippian]

"Pocketbook" was a common term in the Northeast (or at least in Maryland) in the 50s when my mother was a little girl, but she says "purse" now. I can see fussy Mary Anne saying it, but not really anybody else. My eccentric professor from Rhode Island (who's in his 60s) says it, but he says all kinds of strange things.

[wavvedout]

Oh its old school for sure. My grandma and great aunt carried "pocketbooks" that deserved awards for how little they carried- they always contained the same thing- one tube of lipstick (no one goes anywhere without her lipstick), a pepppermint candy, and some crumpled Kleenex. God knows my great aunt wasn't carrying around no license, THANK THE LORD. She would have had no shame in wrecking her car in the name of putting on her lipstick while driving. There's a bit of respect I award her for that, I think :)

[alula_auburn]

The first usage of "pocketbooks" was in the train station, when Dawn is screaming constantly--the first time, when she sees the "cockroach" Mary Anne cries "grab your pocketbooks!" because she thinks Dawn is being mugged or something. And yeah, in Mary Anne's voice it didn't twig me as super-out of place.

The second time is Jessi, saying she "grabbed her pocketbook" and ran to catch up with Stacey etc, and that's when it leaped out at me as a weird word choice for early-90s, Northeast teens/tweens.

[lippian]

If New Jersey has the same language as Maryland, I suppose it's a pretty common term for someone AMM's age. Interestingly, my husband (who's from a small town in rural Missouri) says it means "wallet," even a man's wallet, around there.

And LOL at Mary Anne looking out for her pocketbook instead of her stepsister during a suspected mugging.

[sgrfrostedflake]

"And LOL at Mary Anne looking out for her pocketbook instead of her stepsister during a suspected mugging."
I seriously did LOL at that. "That is, at your hilarious description of that.

"My husband (who's from a small town in rural Missouri) says it means "wallet," even a man's wallet, around there.

I'd never think of a man's wallet when hearing pocketbook, that to me would always be a woman's purse. Not that I say piocketbook. I say purse or, much less often, handbag.

[thenextcentury]

"My husband (who's from a small town in rural Missouri) says it means "wallet," even a man's wallet, around there.

It's an old term, I think -- Pa in the Little House books had a "pocket book" (two words) that from context seemed to mean wallet.

[thenextcentury]

Ditto. I'm a native New Yorker, and my mom and everyone in her generation (Boomers) called them that. We pretty much all called them purses growing up in the '80s and '90s.