In How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, Toby Young recounts, charmingly, his naive pitches to Graydon Carter of Vanity Fair. The British journalist wrote: "These suggestons were hopelessly naive, the equivalent of an American pitching an article to a British editor about this fascinating new toy store he'd discovered called Hamley's." We'd thought the author was merely self-deprecating, until this article in London's Evening Standard, comparing the city with New York. According to Toby Young, New York's hot neighborhood is Park Slope, the nightclub is APT, and Nobu is the restaurant. TY should reread his book. "I'd have to come up with something a lot better than that if it was to stand a chance of getting into Vanity Fair."

Battle of the cities [Evening Standard]