Funny D.C. quote

Recently, I was thinking to myself whether I will ever be around when someone makes what I am sure is a quoteworthy remark and somehow manage to get into circulation in those Quote of the Day publications. Well, today that opportunity fell into my lap. Sitting in the George Washington University Starbucks before a doctor’s appointment, a 70-something looking man approached to ask if he could sit down at the four-person table. I shied at first from talking to him, though he looked like someone who might start a conversation, and he did not disappoint. After seeing that I was reading the New Yorker, he asked me whether I was one, and I explained that I was not but am moving there soon. We fell into a converstion about our respective home cities, and he asked whether I had liked living in D.C. After giving my confused stock answer that is underlined by the fact that I am not crazy about the city–too hot in the summer, small, more geared toward older people–with the acknowledgement that I made some great friendships and really enjoyed myself while here, I asked him whether he liked it.

“Well,” he began “what I say is, New York is a great place to live when you’re young, and D.C. is a great place to live when you’re dead.”

That is right up there with Kennedy’s famous “Southern efficiency, Northern charm” quote, in my opinion.