Meadow Fabulous (Strong Island Got The Zone)

The thread titled South Floral Park vs Franklin Square, located in the Long Island, NY forum of the popular and informative City Data site, begins innocuously enough. A newcomer with the nom d'plume "nybittman" writes "I'm planning to purchase a house in nassau county. We have seen a couple of houses in S. Floral Park and Franklin Square. Which is better option when it comes to LIRR, Schools and overall neighborhood?" To the untrained eye, this is a fairly straightforward inquiry, but online conversations regarding issues of housing and education on Long Island are often bitter and volatile. The original post is concluded with a potently vague incantation "Any information will be appreciated." To the bemusement of those of us with no real stake in the matter as it is initially introduced, nybittman gets exactly what he summons and then some. The thread ambles into a thorny thicket where the apparitions of snobbery, exclusion, cognitive dissonance, and circular fallacy perform a spastic moonlit line dance to a medley of muzak versions of Billy Joel's greatest rejected album cuts.