I hadn’t realised that the old idea that “[insert name of nearby metropolis] was a lawless place that should only go if you don’t mind being robbed/assaulted/killed” had become an actual Culture War thing.
Beyond parental concern for any trip outside of home, the first time I remember this happening was on a drive that would take Finbar and I through Oklahoma City, OH. We stopped maybe 15 miles out of the city boundary for a night to rest up. We ate in the local diner. We asked the lovely waiter “what should we do in Oklahoma City?”
She was bemused at the question. She had lived here all her life, but didn’t recall the last time she had gone to her State’s capitol.
She came back from a quick vox pop at the bar.
“They say you shouldn’t go to Oklahoma City unless you wanna get shot”.
That wasn’t in the brochure.
We asked if there was another view?
Our lovely waiter returned later with the lowdown.
“Do you gents like sports?”
I do. Finbar could take or leave them.
“There’s a sports shop that you should go to on [can’t recall address] street. They’ve got all kinds of sporting goods there. If you like fishing or hunting. If you like huntin’ bears or deer or ‘coons”.
Literally that.
You can’t hear an apostrophe. Only we couldn’t.
We realised she was meaning raccoons after a sphincter-puckering second. We didn’t visit the sports store.
As I recall, we had a perfectly nice visit to Oklahoma City. It was some years before the Very Bad Thing that happened there. We were untroubled by crime.
I’m reminded of that when I discovered the grifter Nigel Farage telling the UK that London is unsafe and that you wouldn’t want to walk through the West End after 9pm at night.
It is properly the bullshit words of a man who wants to make you scared. What a terrible thing to do.
Here are me and Mrs T in Leicester Square right now. Risking our lives, in the interests of journalism.
Hiya.
Try not to lick it 