Thanks to A. Amago and E. Yost for their comments on (areas of) NYC. In a message dated 9/6/2004 8:57:01 AM Eastern Standard Time, aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: His prediction was based on what he believed was an integral similarity between Americans and the French. "They both love going someplace dirty," he said. "Sleazy locations make them feel fabulous." ----- I think this is related to 'slumming', as per some of the quotes in the OED, below. I believe Noel Coward (and Cole Porter) would talk of 'slumming', referring to both areas of London and NYC. One of the quotes interestingly mentions London's "Isle of Dogs" as good for slumming. Note that in the use of 'slumming' there is an implicature ("+>") that she that goes slumming is _not_ part of the slums (but cf. "Vanity Fair"). I also wonder if there is an antonym for 'slumming'? Cheers, JL --- 'slum' -- street, alley, court, etc., situated in a crowded district of a town or city and inhabited by people of a low class or by the very poor; a number of these streets or courts forming a thickly populated neighbourhood or district where the houses and the conditions of life are of a squalid and wretched character. Chiefly pl., and freq. in the phrase back slum (s). Also rarely, a house materially unfit for human habitation. 'to slum'. To go into, or frequent, slums for discreditable purposes; â??to saunter about, with a suspicion, perhaps, of immoral pursuitsâ??. 1860 in Oxford use. 1865 Slang Dict. (as Cambridge Univ. slang). â??To keep to back streets to avoid observationâ?? (Barrère and Leland, 1897). To visit slums for charitable or philanthropic purposes, or out of curiosity, esp. as a fashionable pursuit. Also with it. Freq. in phr. to go slumming (see SLUMMING). 1884 Referee 22 June (Cassell), A wealthy lady went slumming through the Dials the other day. 1884 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 1 Oct. 2/3 A party of young fashionable people of New York thought they would go a slumming. 1887 Good Words 238 He had taken tea hundreds of times in workmen's houses; he had â??slummedâ?? so far back as 1846. 1899 W. JAMES Let. 8 Feb. (1920) II. 88 Kipling knows perfectly well that our camps in the tropics are not college settlements or our armies bands of philanthropists, slumming it. The visitation of slums, esp. for charitable or philanthropic purposes. 1884 Chr. World 22 May 391/3, I am not one of those who have taken to â??slummingâ?? as an amusement. 1894 D. C. MURRAY Making of Novelist 87 Slumming had not become the fashion at that time of day. b. attrib., as slumming expedition, party. 1884 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 1 Oct. 2/3 The slumming party engaged in conversation audibly. 1888 Cath. Press 18 Aug. 272/3 The Isle of Dogs has recently been the scene of some new slumming expeditions for the ladies. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html