{"id":16174,"date":"2014-10-20T10:36:30","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T14:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=16174"},"modified":"2014-10-20T10:36:30","modified_gmt":"2014-10-20T14:36:30","slug":"the-existential-angst-of-the-belt-parkway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2014\/10\/20\/the-existential-angst-of-the-belt-parkway\/","title":{"rendered":"The existential angst of the Belt Parkway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn yesterday heading for a visit with Mirthful Marie Severin (about which more later), traffic came to a standstill. Not really a surprise on the Belt Parkway, but in this case, the reason was.<\/p>\n<p>Up ahead, we could see a police car&#8217;s flashing lights, and on the other side of the vehicle, motorcyclists circling, with nothing but clear road beyond them. After 5-10 minutes of blockage, the motorcycles moved on, the police car shut its lights, and we were free to continue.<\/p>\n<p>Then, one exit down the road, it happened all over again!<\/p>\n<p>What was this about? I had no idea, but since since my wife was driving, I was free to search Twitter to see whether anyone had tweeted what was going on. I never did find out whether it was some strange police exercise, a biker protest, or perhaps even (yes, my mind went there) the scattering of a dead friend&#8217;s ashes.<\/p>\n<p>After another 5-10 minutes, they took off, and we weren&#8217;t stopped again. (At least, not by that. After all, it <em>is<\/em> the Belt Parkway.)  I never did find out had happened, but I did discover that the collected tweets about Belt Parkway paint a pretty noirish picture &#8230; one Irene classified as existential angst.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve never driven the Belt, this will give you some idea what it&#8217;s like. And if you have &#8230; well &#8230; these ought to bring back some pretty crappy memories.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>I might as well just live on the belt parkway<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Peter Castellotti (@PeterPdoubleC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PeterPdoubleC\/status\/521310679945719808\">October 12, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>Belt parkway blows<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; JUSTIN (@j_rhoadess) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/j_rhoadess\/status\/521393956765319168\">October 12, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>belt parkway smelling pretty dank right now<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Stephanie (@stephanieeyo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stephanieeyo\/status\/521752613113843713\">October 13, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>The saddest day of my life was when I met my soulmate on the belt parkway and I couldn&#39;t hear him so I took down the wrong number<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Taylor (@taydestio) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/taydestio\/status\/522198364759556096\">October 15, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>Is there ever not traffic on the belt parkway?<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; erinken (@erinnkennedyx3) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/erinnkennedyx3\/status\/522135213057785858\">October 14, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>You&#39;re not officially back in brooklyn until you&#39;re stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the belt parkway<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Julianna (@juliannaEmilio) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/juliannaEmilio\/status\/523169413445742592\">October 17, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>If highways were internet connections all of long island and the belt parkway would be on fucking dial up<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sage \u26be (@Sageygoonz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sageygoonz\/status\/523256472843878400\">October 17, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>You have to recognize consistency. Great job @BeltParkWay for achieving traffic 7 days a week, always. Thanks!!<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jason stocchetti (@Vibe_tastical) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Vibe_tastical\/status\/523454630593069056\">October 18, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>God damn I hate you belt Parkway<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Emaal Subhani (@emaalsubhani) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/emaalsubhani\/status\/523501912348692481\">October 18, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>NY is such a complicated state to get out of. And I&#39;ll always have an eternal hate for the belt parkway.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Taylor Lisanti (@TaylorLisanti) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TaylorLisanti\/status\/523606287733780480\">October 18, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>Belt parkway nothing but a burial ground<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ricardo Garcia (@Des4gr8ness) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Des4gr8ness\/status\/523905855759347712\">October 19, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>The Belt Parkway is the dumbest highway of all time<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Lamar (@FlowTC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FlowTC\/status\/523921231503196161\">October 19, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>I&#39;ve never said as many swears as I did today on the belt parkway. True story. Like I was creating swears that no ones ever heard of.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Gabrielle (@gabbypetrina) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gabbypetrina\/status\/523935354571997185\">October 19, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>THE BELT PARKWAY IS A DEATH WISH<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Louis Loiodice (@LouisLoiodice) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LouisLoiodice\/status\/523935575662141441\">October 19, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Abandon hope all ye who drive there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn yesterday heading for a visit with Mirthful Marie Severin (about which more later), traffic came to a standstill. Not really a surprise on the Belt Parkway, but in this case, the reason was. Up ahead, we could see a police car&#8217;s flashing lights, and on the other side [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[272],"class_list":["post-16174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-new-york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16174"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16185,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16174\/revisions\/16185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}