Luck be a Lady

Isn't it funny how cities have personalities?

I've always thought of Las Vegas as a woman - Lady Luck, to be precise. A full-bodied, wily charmer with a throaty voice and a raucous laugh. New York, however, is a masculine city - a hurried businessman in a grey pinstriped suit, taking no notice of his surroundings or neighbors, intent only on his next deal. Hollywood was a hooker, and an aging one at that, prostituting herself for whomever would pay for her next cosmetic surgery. Beverly Hills is a high-class version of that same hooker - a coldly mercenary call-girl, hyperfocused on appearance and status. Philadelphia is a young man - cocky and callow, with attitude aplenty, but a big heart if you're a friend.

Internationally speaking, Paris is a woman: a seductive, worldly courtesan who counsels you to mind your manners while you take your pleasure, as good manners are de rigeur in her fair province. Angers, where I lived briefly (oh too briefly), was a man - a mechanic with dirty hands but a disarmingly beautiful smile. London, where I long to go, is an older and wiser version of New York to me. I pray I will one day be introduced to him, as his accent brings me to my knees in a quivering jelloid heap.

Wilmington, where I live, is a curious young girl in love with Philadelphia and desperate to keep up with his big-city ways. How about you? Where do you live, and what's it like?