From an article about Colson Whitehead:
Whitehead stopped at the corner of Morningside Avenue, the location of Carney’s shop in the novel. (“This used to be a fried chicken joint,” he said, pointing out the M&G Diner sign still hanging above what is now a men’s clothing boutique.)
I went to that chicken place once! It was horrible. The suspicions began while we were waiting for the food. A delivery guy came in with a bag of takeout Chinese from some other place. That’s not a good sign, when the people who work in a restaurant order out for their dinner. And, indeed, the chicken was no good. I don’t remember the details (soggy? greasy? tasteless?), but, whatever it was, we never wanted to go back. And I like fried chicken. Who doesn’t, really? My go-to place now is the Korean fried chicken place on 106 St.—we refer to it as KFC. When I lived in California, there was an actual KFC two blocks from my house, and I went there once. No lie, I couldn’t keep that drumstick down. It was like eating a stick of butter. So gross. Popeye’s it wasn’t. I guess that quality varies across KFC franchises but I’m not planning to ever gonna test that hypothesis.
P.S. I read that Whitehead story in the newspaper the other day. Searching for it online (googling *Colson Whitehead fried chicken*) yielded this amusing speech. It turns out that Whitehead is really into fried chicken. And if you read the above quote carefully, you see that he never said that the chicken at M&G was any good. Actually I’m guessing it used to be good but that it went under a change of management or chef at some point between its glory days and when I tried it out, which was a few years before it shut down. What really bums me out is that the Korea Mill (not the same as the above-mentioned Korean chicken place) closed. I don’t know the full story; I’m hoping the owners just chose to retire.
P.P.S. I was happy to learn that Whitehead, like me, is a fan of The Sportswriter, even though he is not impressed by everything written by the author of that novel.
the chicken joint on 106th is called Koko Wings and their Korean Fried Chicken is the NYC Stan team’s fave. I always get the Soon Tofu Soup.
Is the clothing boutique good? Why is it a boutique and not a store?
Ben:
I don’t remember exactly, but I guess I think of a store as a “boutique” if it’s small and sells unusual things, or an unusual combination of things? I didn’t actually go in and look at the clothing; I just saw it from the outside.
I’ve never been there, but this is it: https://sideways.nyc/2017/03/capsule-nyc/
Hmm, good find.
> Daniel told us that his goal in opening the store two years prior in 2015 was to “supply customers with stuff that is rare,” and he takes care to order clothes that are exclusive and high-end.
This does seem to match Andrew’s definition, though I guess everything is relative:
> Daniel is hoping to open more shops around the city
Like multiple shops around NYC? That seems like a large operation! But I guess compared to Target or whatever it’s small fries.
I’m also a fan of The Sportswriter, loved the concept of being ‘within yourself’ like an athlete
The Mill closed due to the pandemic and labor shortages.
The Sportswriter is what you’d get if you took some of Richard Russo’s books and removed most of the humor, and included a bit less about the various failings of fathers. Me, I like the humor, and the fatherhood stuff doesn’t bother me, so Ford (or at least The Sportswriter and its sequel, whose name I’ve forgotten — oh, if only there were some quick, convenient way to look it up)…so Ford doesn’t appeal to me as much as Russo. I mention them together because they both write about middle-aged white men in the Northeast and many of their themes seem similar. I guess mostly what I’m saying is: I don’t know why The Sportswriter comes up in conversation as often as it does…which is, I dunno, maybe once per year in my experience. That’s not all that often but it’s a lot for what it is, it seems to me.
As for Whitehead, this is the only thing by him that I’ve read, and it makes me want to read more. Also, especially in the context of the last few paragraphs, I really appreciate that he’s a black guy who is not just a fan of fried chicken but wants the world to know it: “Yeah, I’m black and I love fried chicken. Tonight I plan to eat it with watermelon. You want to make something of it you racist motherfucker?” Of course I can’t be sure that he really had that in mind — sometimes a fried chicken is just a fried chicken — but it’s hard for me to believe he hasn’t thought about it.
Phil:
You can search this blog for more on Whitehead. I like almost everything of his I’ve read, except for the book where he goes to play in the World Series of Poker. That’s a gimmick that been tried too many times by journalists—actually, I don’t even think it was done well the first time I saw it.
Regarding your first paragraph: I like Richard Russo—my favorite book of his is Straight Man—but Ford seems somehow more rigorous to me, Russo more sentimental. I’ll go for Ford, pretty much entirely based on The Sportswriter and Independence Day.
What is the best argument (statistical or otherwise) that would convince you to stop eating meat?
《Jainism had such an influence on [first Moghul emperor] Akbar’s mindset that he completely gave up meat for the rest of his life.》 (Jasmine Kaur in https://tinyurl.com/2p9e7p3p)
《“Yeah, I’m black and I love fried chicken. Tonight I plan to eat it with watermelon. You want to make something of it you racist motherfucker?” 》
Will MLK’s statues be canceled when we vegetarians get power?
Rsm:
If chickens ever run the world, I have a feeling they’ll tear down all the statues of Colson Whitehead.
For people who eat meat, the best argument they know that would convince them to stop eating meat is, ipso facto, insufficient to convince them. What you want is the best argument they _don’t_ know that would convince them to stop eating meat.
Very logical, Phil! Wins thread.
The known unknowns….
That’s true for an individual – but people live in families who might not want to cook multiple meals. So the argument might be sufficient for a single person to become vegetarian but not sufficient to overcome the group resistance to that hurdle.
Hmm somehow assumptions gotta factor in here too and those can change unbeknownst to our logician.
Like maybe we don’t want to clean our room or whatever and someone says, “just clean your room — it’ll be done before you know it”
It’s hardly a compelling argument before the room-cleaning, but then afterwards it’s not that bad.
I think the same argument gets applied to diets and whatnot. Like, you won’t miss X. And then maybe the person does or doesn’t, but a failure of the argument here seems less a weakness in the argument than the assumption.
What if a Wall Street Vegans group self-organizes to gamma squeeze meat futures to $infinity, would that be a price signal you couldn’t ignore?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Futures_Act
Andrew: You should check out either Banh (107th & Amsterdam) or Saiguette (106th & Convent). Both are amazing Vietnamese places, and are pretty close to you! Szechwan Garden on 105th and Broadway is also really good.