A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from May 21, 2012
“The outdoors is what you must pass through in order to get from your apartment into a taxicab”

In her book Metropolitan Life (1978), author Fran Lebowitz wrote:
 
“There are a number of reasons for this, chief among them being that to me the outdoors is what you must pass through in order to get from your apartment into a taxicab.”
 
This has become well known as a New Yorker’s satirical version of the “outdoors”—walking from the front door into a waiting taxi.

 
Wikipedia: Fran Lebowitz
Frances Ann “Fran” Lebowitz (born October 27, 1950) is an American author. Lebowitz is known for her sardonic social commentary on American life as filtered through her New York sensibilities. Some reviewers have called her a modern-day Dorothy Parker.
   
Google Books
Metropolitan Life
By Fran Lebowitz
New York, NY: Dutton
1978
Pg. 16:
There are a number of reasons for this, chief among them being that to me the outdoors is what you must pass through in order to get from your apartment into a taxicab. 
 
92Y Blog
Monday, January 22, 2007
92YQ: Annabelle Gurwitch
(...)
Fran Lebowitz once said, “The great outdoors is the space between my front door and a cab” – I love that and subscribe to that philosophy. 
 
BradWarthen.com
Kathryn Fenner (D- SC) says:
January 4, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Looking a tad ruddy, there. Maybe best to lighten up on the alcohol units.
 
@ bud– My recollection of English pubs was that they were akin to Fran Lebowitz’s description of the outdoors as being the space between the front door of her building and a taxi “where there were never enough comfy chairs and the lighting was not flattering to a woman of a certain age.”
 
LA Weekly (CA)
Best Giddy-Up and Go - 2011
Mill Creek Equestrian Center

(...)
At this full-service boarding and riding facility, a beginner can learn to handle a horse even if he believes the old New York City adage that the “outdoors” is the place between his front door and a taxi.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityBuildings/Housing/Parks • Monday, May 21, 2012 • Permalink


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