Friday, March 7, 2014

I would not have guessed that






            I’ve never understood which is uptown and which is downtown.  As you read this you might think this is some lame Seinfeld skit, but it is not.  I’ve really never known.

            “Hey, let’s go uptown and catch a movie.”  Sounds the same to me as,

            “Hey, anyone want to go downtown and see a film?”

            Of course to the casual observer right off they’d say movies are uptown and films are downtown.  Films being more sophisticated than movies suggests perhaps downtown is the biggest city to your current location, while uptown could indicate a smaller town in a suburban area.  

            Then again it depends on who is speaking.  If it is a police officer with his hand grasping your arm saying, “I’m taking you downtown.” The odds are you’re not headed to the suburbs.   However, should it be a federal agent - he or she might say, “OK, we’re going uptown.”

            Furthermore, the suggestion that downtown draws or attracts more sophistication is based upon ticket price.  Movie stars flying in to do a show will go where the largest crowd can gather so the most money can be generated. 

            It stands to reason that the more people you have in a concentrated area, like a big city, the more you’re likely to draw them into an arena, thus generating larger sums to attract the movie stars to begin with.

            This does not suggest that arenas cannot also be found within a close proximity to an uptown.  So I’m not sure how this works.

            There could possibly be some connection between physical locations and actual directions, like downtown is always south of your present location and uptown is always north.

            Although the South side of Chicago is still considered part of the big city but from where you are is it uptown or downtown?

            I think I will take a break at this point and just look it up in the dictionary.  One moment please, I’ll be right back.






      OK, so forget everything I just said.









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