The New York Times Travel section has an article this weekend that has the ring of a Brian Williams parody, but does, in some bizarre way, appear to be real. Basically the paper sent free-associative word mangler (and chief food critic) Sam Sifton across the East River to file a "36 Hours In..." column about Brooklyn. You know, Brooklyn? The borough?

It's hard to tell whether the article is kind of a meta joke or not. I mean, sentences like this can't actually be serious, right?

Boutiques, coffee bars and restaurants continue to flourish in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, north Brooklyn's youth-culture Marrakesh

Hahahah, what? Sam Sifton! Give us the specs you used to build the time machine you apparently took back to the year 2000 to write this article! "Coffee bars." Amazing.

Now, of course it's true that the Times has a global readership and this little piece could actually be of use to foreign travelers looking to head to... snarf... New York's .... grunt... "Marrakesh" for a little adventure, but come on. Can we please start treating Brooklyn like an adult, NYT?

[via Daily Intel, photo via Shutterstock]