The New York Daily News isn’t a regular forum for Dalrymple’s essays, but he had one there today, and its argument can be summed up in a line that I think deserves to be added to our Quotes page: “There is a time and a place for everything, and it isn’t necessarily here and now.”
Read it here
The Skeptical Doctor
Dedicated to the work of Theodore Dalrymple
Oooh, boy. He’s going after the Park Slope hipster moms.
I don’t know the particular Brooklyn bars referred to in the piece, so it may well be that they are not appropriate places for children. However, where I live (in Ireland, not a million miles away geographically or culturally from the good doctor’s native England), it is perfectly acceptable for responsible, respectable parents to bring their children into pubs or hotel bars for lunch (particularly Sunday lunch). The food tends to be of the good, wholesome roast-with-all-the-trimmings variety and the prices are more reasonable than in restaurants.
So I’m a bit surprised by the blanket condemnation. It very much depends on the bar.