(More) Inspiration from (Another) Career Writer

One of my favorite features on New York magazine's NYmag.com is the 21 Questions survey. It comes out about once a week (I think every Monday?) and is usually pegged to some sort of book release or current event, but it's always a New Yorker and it's always the same 21 questions. Sometimes the answers infuriate me, especially concerning the question I pay most attention to: Would you still live here on a $35,000 salary? You'd be surprised how many people say no or that they couldn't, especially considering I would be ecstatic to be making $35,000 right now.


Anyway, Tad Friend of the New Yorker is the star of today's questionnaire, promoting his new book Cheerful Money: Me, My Family, and the Last Days of Wasp Splendor. His attitude about being a "real" person in New York is perfect. Here are a few excerpts, but I recommend the full piece as well.

Would you still live here on a $35,000 salary?
Absolutely — that's more than double what I earned my first year in New York.

What do you think of Donald Trump?
He apparently lives in some alternate, helicopter and limo version of New York, so he and I, despite nominally inhabiting the same city, will never meet.

What do you hate most about living in New York?
People who walk slowly and crookedly, blocking the way: the so-called Meanderthals.

How has the Wall Street crash affected you?
It killed my dreams of retiring at 85.

Times, Post, or Daily News?
Times all the way, with a shout-out to Twitter, which gives me not only breaking news but a curated alternate reality.

What makes someone a New Yorker?
They are gladly in flight from home.