Newley Purnell

“WHY I WRITE: TC Boyle, Roger Ebert, Lawrence Block, Tod Goldberg, Will Leitch, Claire Zulkey, Rob Walker, James Norton, Jade Walker, John Scalzi, Bob Sassone and Marty Beckerman on why they put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard.” Some great stuff here.

First, Frank Rich, writing in the New York Times Magazine, says that DC sucks–and that New York City is “The De Facto Capital.” Then Slate’s Timothy Noah says “New York Is Not the Nation’s Capital–Frank Rich has it wrong.” My thoughts, having lived in New York and now living in DC: this is much ado about nothing. Washington and Gotham are vastly different cities, and one isn’t better than the other. In Des Moines and Phoenix and Atlanta and Detroit, no one cares about this stuff.