So Inside You Can’t See The Outside

Inside jokes are inherently obscure to most people who hear them, and explaining a joke is the surest way to kill it, so inside jokes should only ever be shared with people who will understand them. In this case, that’s a very small number of people, so I give up any pretense of following good joking practice. If you can follow this without the footnotes, you’re an insider. And perhaps, like me, too invested in this. Look everyone[1]! It’s the Clifton[2] Suspension Bridge[3]! Or, you know, people with an interest in suspension bridge history and a knowledge of both western England and Staten island.↩︎ “Clifton” was an old town in Staten Island. There are no cliffs there. The town was long ago subsumed in the general spread of development across the island, and its name survives in a neighborhood and, as seen, in a stop on the Staten Island Railway.↩︎ That’s not the Clifton Suspension Bridge, it’s the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. It’s pretty much impossible to mistake one for the other.↩︎

Commenting on Bubbles has been removed. Why? If you want to talk about this post, write to the author, use the comments on their blog if it has them, or reply with a "RE:" post on your own blog. Suggestions? feedback@bubbles.town