I guess I have to deal with this, being a big ol' New Yorker. I was offended by it in a complicated way. Not just because I think it was insulting to the Obamas. But because, as much as I love New York, you do occasionally get a whiff of self-congratulatory stench here: this-is-The-Greatest-City-In-The-World-and-aren't-we-clever-to-live-here? And all those poor folks who aren't New Yorkers, all those losers and out-crowders, don't they just envy us so much they could die? That attitude annoys the hell out of me. This is a great city, yes. The Greatest City In The World? Well, I dunno about that. Nor do I know that living in a non-city -- the plains of Nebraska, the mountains of New Hampshire -- is such a loser thing to do.

And that's what I smelled coming off this New Yorker cover. All the Cool Kids, of course, knew it was satire. And no no no, not satirizing the Obamas! Satirizing the Cro-Magnon sensibility that sees them as flag-burning Muslim terrorists. Which, coincidentally, is a sensibility we don't find here in Coolkidville. Just in the flyover states, the non-Greatest-City-In-The-World places where all those green-with-envy people live.

Oh Cool Kids, get over yourselves.