The standard response to useless information in NY is "that and a subway token will get you someplace" this is as old as the subways, and still in use.
and while I am city born and bred, as were both my parents, things are still "as crooked as a rams horn"
but I never told my children that their rooms looked "like the wreck of the Hesperis"
when I first went to London ‘70, and saw Turner's "Wreck of the Hesperis" I was in awe it still moves me–such beauty! Somehow "the wreck of the Hesperis" no longer seemed the thing to call a room with a few bits of clothes to be chucked into the hamper!
and I don't complain either that their rooms are like "dens of iniquity" When I learned what a den of iniquity was, I was of mix emotions–a bit shocked, and jealous– I wished my room had been a bit more like a den of iniquity, and not just littered with soda cans and popcorn after a gossip fest!
When my kids where young, both of us (ex and I) made a point of using as wide a vocabulary as we could, to make our kids aware. At one point, late on a weekend morning, my daughter was told to "get up out of bed with alacrity" she rolled over and told her father, if Alacrity wanted to get up, it was fine, but she wanted to sleep longer!
Its pretty hard to retain a stern parent demeanor when you're laughing as hard as we were!
