Characterless, Driverless, Cashless, and Wireless. In today’s Zippy:
The Thomas Wolfe quote is about old, authentic Brooklyn, from his famous short story “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” (originally in the New Yorker on 6/15/35), which begins:
Dere’s no guy livin’ dat knows Brooklyn t’roo an’ t’roo, because it’d take a guy a lifetime just to find his way aroun’ duh f______ [in some printings: goddam] town.
The entire thing is in Brooklynese dialect, and it’s all Beckett-static exchanges on how to get to Bensonhoist.
But that Brooklyn is gone, gentrified away, and Zippy passionately resents what has taken its place. The New Floridian Diner (2301 Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn) isn’t at all characterless, it’s just that its character has nothing to do with Brooklyn, or even New York City in general: it’s glitzy seaside Florida:
(#2) Outside
(#3) The airy interior; menus available on this site
As for the title of this posting, it’s a play on the title of Stella Gibbons’s comic novel Cold Comfort Farm, set on a farm where the cows are named Graceless, Aimless, Feckless, and Pointless (and are serviced by the bull, Big Business). Earlier on this blog on CCF:
on 10/3/15, “Stark morning names”
on 4/10/16, “Feckless, Gormless, and the bull, Lost Positive”
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