"By the way, I understand that now you can have the Times delivered to your door here in the Twin Cities"
About this Quote
A throwaway line that lands like a small flex: Salisbury’s “by the way” is doing heavy lifting. It feigns casualness while signaling status and standards. The Times isn’t just a newspaper here; it’s a credential. To mention it at all, in a conversation presumably happening in Minneapolis-St. Paul, implies a hierarchy of information: real news comes from New York, and the rest of the country is catching up.
The intent is partly practical (hey, you can get the paper now), but the subtext is cultural centralization. Salisbury came of age in an era when the Times functioned as a national agenda-setter, the publication of record that could make a place feel either connected to power or stranded outside it. “Delivered to your door” carries the almost comic promise of modern logistics, but the deeper promise is access: you can participate in the same conversation as the coasts, at the same time, with fewer intermediaries.
Context matters: this is the pre-internet world where geography determined what you knew and when you knew it. For regional cities, news arrived late, filtered, or not at all. Salisbury’s line nods to a shift in that infrastructure and, with it, a shift in identity. The Twin Cities aren’t just “out there” anymore; they’re close enough to be serviced by the center. The quiet sting is that the center still defines what counts as being informed.
The intent is partly practical (hey, you can get the paper now), but the subtext is cultural centralization. Salisbury came of age in an era when the Times functioned as a national agenda-setter, the publication of record that could make a place feel either connected to power or stranded outside it. “Delivered to your door” carries the almost comic promise of modern logistics, but the deeper promise is access: you can participate in the same conversation as the coasts, at the same time, with fewer intermediaries.
Context matters: this is the pre-internet world where geography determined what you knew and when you knew it. For regional cities, news arrived late, filtered, or not at all. Salisbury’s line nods to a shift in that infrastructure and, with it, a shift in identity. The Twin Cities aren’t just “out there” anymore; they’re close enough to be serviced by the center. The quiet sting is that the center still defines what counts as being informed.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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