Now, you might say we’re projecting here when we wonder whether Times managing editor Jill Abramson hates Manhattan, but we’re only connecting the dots laid out to us by Abramson herself. In her latest column about her yellow Lab puppy, Scout, we see the city though the young dog’s eyes. Scout, being used to the suburbs where Abramson lives most of the time, doesn’t like it one bit. The “street noise rattled her,” she had “a very hard time getting to sleep and staying asleep,” she “was confused about what was outside and what was inside,” and “older dogs spurned her.” Eventually, in her column, Abramson came to a revelation:
By the last day of her more recent visit, I realized that Scout’s being a bit out of sorts in Manhattan may have had a lot to do with my being tense. I was consumed with guilt, certain that she was much happier in the country than in the city and not able to get the same level of exercise in the city, even though I was taking her on long walks and allowing her to run. I was projecting unhappiness more than she was exhibiting it.
“Where was the grass that should have been under her paws?” Abramson wonders. Oh, Jill. Don’t you really mean where is the grass that should be under your paws? It’s okay. We know that if we ran the New York Times, we’d probably hate this damn place, too.
