The sun coming out today enticed us to cycle along the river down to the gym. Having had a lovely ride down there we were keen to try the long way home via the northern loop of Central Park. This idea sounded great in theory, but after twice around the weights circuit and 45 mins on the stepper my legs went on strike and things suddenly got ugly. And to make my lot even tougher, it seems that the gears on my bike had rusted up, and so I had to walk up the big hills pushing that big old bike. Worse still was the damage to my ego as I was passed by not one, but two joggers while I was peddling up the little hills along the west side of the Park! Poor Peter had to endure receiving several very acute recommendations for future activities and it took ‘a little rest’ back at home before I was ready to walk and talk again!
Once I get the bike fixed it is going to be wonderful cycling everywhere in the Spring … and Spring in NYC is definitely on its way. Little buds are emerging from the branches of trees and shoots are pushing their way up through the soil. The shops are filled with daffodils and jonquils and the perfume is intoxicating. The floral displays in shops and businesses here are fantastic and compensate somewhat for the lack of grass in the city! Something is certainly needed to lift the place as much of the architecture is very 1930’s (ie ‘very dark’) hence NYC’s nickname ’Gotham City’ … a nickname which I have discovered that most New Yorkers think comes from an association with Batman.
But does it?
The New Yorkers we have surveyed (most of whom were wearing gear with the logo ‘NYC - Gotham City’ printed on it) either have no idea where the nickname ‘Gotham City’ came from or assume it is associated with the Batman movies and cartoons. But according to Peter’s hero Alistair Cooke, it’s all the fault of Washington Irving. He applied the name to New York in an issue of a humorous magazine name Salmagundi, a title taken from the name of a salad which consists of a variety of ingredients (just like New York). The original Gotham is popularly supposed to be the village of that name in Nottinghamshire, though I gather there’s little good evidence of this. The story is that bad King John (Magna Carta etc) decided to visit Gotham on a royal progress, though why he should when he had a perfectly good castle to stay at just up the road at Nottingham is not explained. The villagers realised this would be inconvenient and expensive because of the size of the king’s retinue. They decided to pretend to be imbecilic in front of the king’s heralds, by trying to fish the moon out of a pond, running madly in circles, trying to drown an eel, clasping hands around a thorn bush to imprison a cuckoo, and other crazy actions. The ploy worked and the king decided not to come. A collection of tales about stupidity was published in the reign of Henry VIII, entitled The Merrie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham. So the name had by Washington Irving’s time long been associated with stupidity, even though the original story was actually about a kind of twisted cleverness. Washington Irving thought this just the name to give to a city which he believed was inhabited by fools. So does this accusation fit? We’ll let you know in four months’ time.
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