{"id":626,"date":"2001-11-29T07:03:00","date_gmt":"2001-11-29T07:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/29\/piss_off_snobby\/"},"modified":"2024-11-29T14:24:06","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T19:24:06","slug":"piss_off_snobby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/29\/piss_off_snobby\/","title":{"rendered":"Piss Off, Snobby London!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>All week in London,<\/strong> I had to defend the North. Londoners act like the entire northern part of the country is one giant inbred cousin, inexplicable and dull, and slightly embarrassing. You know what, though? I <i>loved<\/i> my trip up there, and not just for the <a title=\"that\u2019s DR. Baker now, thank you very much\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dollsoup.co.uk\">spectacular company<\/a>. I\u2019m an urban snob, but I\u2019m not immune to the charms of small, quiet towns. In fact, the older I get the more I think they\u2019ve got it going on. (Assuming, of course, that one has the natural ability to create fun wherever one goes.) Lancashire overall was really quite beautiful, even in the rain, and Lancaster itself was a great little town, pedestrian-friendly medieval-style little burg with just enough modern touches to keep it from feeling too remote. <a title=\"Why Paul loves Blackpool\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dollsoup.co.uk\/stuff\/blackpool.htm\">Blackpool<\/a> is sweet and trashy, just like I wanted it to be. Morecambe is a faded flower, still keeping itself moving along, even though the crowds have moved on. I had no trouble seeing why Paul stays up that way, despite the occasional drawbacks.<\/p>\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Basking in the glories of a crisp day in Morecambe\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_01.jpg\" width=\"390\" height=\"173\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Lubin Major presides over the show\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_02.jpg\" width=\"130\" height=\"173\" \/><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Blackpool IS Funland!\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_04.jpg\" width=\"130\" height=\"173\" \/><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"A little elf in Lancaster\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_03.jpg\" width=\"130\" height=\"173\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Me in love with Lubin\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_05.jpg\" width=\"195\" height=\"146\" \/><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Paul in love with Lubin\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_06.jpg\" width=\"195\" height=\"146\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"The elegantly appointed seating area in Lubin\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_07.jpg\" width=\"195\" height=\"146\" \/><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"All the comforts of home at Lubin\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_08.jpg\" width=\"195\" height=\"146\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Not gorgeous, but fascinating nonetheless. Do you think they just found a random L after the first one fell off? I dig that.\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_09.jpg\" width=\"195\" height=\"146\" \/><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"The world's most enormous cream-filled doughnuts\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_10.jpg\" width=\"195\" height=\"146\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"The lights of Blackpool's Golden Mile\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_11.jpg\" width=\"195\" height=\"146\" \/><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Boom Boom Boom, let's go back to my room\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_12.jpg\" width=\"195\" height=\"146\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"In a park overlooking Lancaster\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_13.jpg\" width=\"195\" height=\"146\" \/><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"The view from Paul's back window\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_14.jpg\" width=\"195\" height=\"146\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Sure, small towns can have plenty of small minds, but cities don\u2019t automatically shield you from those. Small towns can offer the luxury of being able to catch your breath and determine your own pace. If your satisfaction only comes from novelty or consumption (of stuff, of stimuli), then big cities are te way to go. If you can make that move toward producing a life instead of consuming one \u2014 a goal I like to think I keep closing in on as I get older \u2014 then why not do it with a little elbow room and a little bit less strain on your bank account?<\/p>\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Caton, from the roof of Paul's home at Low Mill\" src=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/cam\/uk2001\/north_15.jpg\" width=\"390\" height=\"293\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All week in London, I had to defend the North. Londoners act like the entire northern part of the country is one giant inbred cousin, inexplicable and dull, and slightly embarrassing. You know what, though? I loved my trip up there, and not just for the spectacular company. I\u2019m an urban snob, but I\u2019m not &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/29\/piss_off_snobby\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Piss Off, Snobby London!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ultracultural","category-ultraphotographic"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74033,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions\/74033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ultrasparky.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}