So a network anchorman openly deriding what he sees as the foo-foo pretensions of Brooklyn hipster culture needs to be processed in quotes? Because the Brian Williams script, obviously, is basically saying that X-factor Brooklynites haven’t a culturally sincere bone in their bodies, and that they see and process everything in ironic terms.

You know what? Too much friggin’ stuff is in quotes nowadays. There’s something to be said for the old John Wayne-James Cagney ethos of planting your feet, looking the other guy in the eye and telling the fucking truth without any of that “do you get how I’m speaking ironically?” crap.

In Wayne and Cagney’s view, Brooklyn X-factor types have created a culture that may have began in the ’90s with their inability to afford Manhattan rents, but is primarily about (a) small businesses with an organic, cool-cat, anti-corporate aesthetic, (b) relatively few corporate chain stores except in some high-density areas where corporate-funded businesses are long established, (c) scraps of garbage on the sidewalks and (d) relatively few tourists. What’s not to like except for the stunningly ugly Hispanic neighborhoods (like Graham Avenue from Montrose Ave. south to Broadway/Flushing)?

You know what’s really, really nice about being back in West Hollywood? No garbage at all on the sidewalks. Not a single scrap. I wonder why that is. Any theories, Glenn Kenny?