Dear New York Times: Seriously?

Let me start this out by saying that I love the Homesick Texan blog.

I have two copies of her cookbook on order at Amazon (one for myself and one for my brother, who is a slightly less homesick Texan now that he's been able to move from Illinois to southern Arkansas and is now within an hour's drive of a Whataburger). Her recipes make me wish desperately that I had more time to cook and more people to feed.

So, I don't blame her for this.

But . . . seriously?

Would it be possible for you, New York Times, to write an article about a southern state without being condescending? (Do you even realize that you're being condescending? I kind of think you don't even see that you're doing this . . . but you are.) Don't get me started on the article they published about the decline of the Louisiana fishing industry, which basically panned it as an outdated way of life and a small loss . . . after publishing no fewer than three articles bewailing the decline of the Tavern on the Green restaurant. No hypocrisy there, right? What's an entire culture compared to a single past-its-prime New York hash-house?

". . . this Texan belle had enough steel in her spine to leave behind cowboy hats, pickup trucks and country music to become a card-carrying member of the Museum of Modern Art and sleep with earplugs in a second-story bedroom facing Seventh Avenue."

Hmm. No stereotypes in that. No, sir-ree. Everyone knows that it's completely true that all Texans wear giant hats, drive trucks, and can't spell the word "museum", never mind have any inclination to visit them.

I guess this tack sells well to upper-class East Coast readers, but the Times should be more careful. It does have readers down here, and many of us really like Texas. Personally, I think it would take far more steel for a privileged New Yorker to come down here and learn that one can be intelligent, well-read, and interesting without being pretentious.

The Houston Museum of Fine Arts issues "cards", too. Houston is also a major shipping port; the seat of the American oil industry, which I understand might not endear it to New Yorkers; and the home of some of the largest and most sophisticated medical facilities in the world. We have an opera, theaters, "ethnic" neighborhoods, better and better restaurants, and more festivals and indie art than I'll ever have time to appreciate as much as I'd like. (Not having any winter allows us to host many more festivals per year than cold northern states.)

Furthermore, we can do it without New York's astronomical cost of living and vicious competition for classroom slots, parking places, and living space. I can always visit New York but at least I can afford to live in Houston.

I'm not seriously bothered. To be seriously bothered would imply that I took this dig more personally than it deserves, and that maybe I'm insecure about how I stack up, hipness-wise, to the Big Apple. I'm not. I just find it slightly annoying and more than a little pathetic. Ironically, New York, your cultural blindness is showing.

Oh, and there should be a comma after "pickup trucks". If you're going to look down your noses at us, at least get your basic punctuation right.