Tell Me Again What Makes Brooklyn Sufferable?

“As Ms. Waldman nursed a bourbon with a splash of soda on ice, the nearby tables filled up with girls in their summer dresses and boys in their graphic tees. The growing conversational murmur was punctuated by the loud burst of gunning motorcycles and muffler-free cars from the unseen Atlantic Avenue…. At a neighboring table, a young man was reading a trade paperback, filtering out the surrounding buzz and abandoning it when a friend appeared.”