Dealing with the New Yorkers generally made him feel like an idiot, a chump, a hick, a momo. This effect was, of course, not unintentional. The key, naturally, was that you couldn't let them intimidate you. Once they saw that you weren't afraid of them, you were generally OK.

Anyway, the United States of America at that time was absolutely brimming with raging maniacal assholes of one brand or another; there was no point in bringing any kind of regional or ethnic bias into the game. That, of course, was one of the great forgotten lessons of the place. Along with quite a few other of the more moral, decent, and generally fair and upstanding tenets of humanity.

What do I care, he thought. I'm a fuckin cyborg. See you in a thousand years, bitches