that ethicist one was amazing. his response was ice cold iirc.
― the itsytitchyschneider (s1ocki), Thursday, August 5, 2010 10:28 AM (Yesterday)
yeah cohen is pretty ok most of the time but he really knocked this one out of the park:
We put our paper, plastic and other recyclables in city-issued containers in our backyard and move them to the curb for weekly pickup through our town’s recycling program. A scavenger regularly removes cans and bottles, presumably to redeem for cash. I say that by depriving the city of these items, he adds to our recycling costs. I want to ask the police to apprehend the “thief.” My wife says I lack compassion. You? J.M., BURLINGAME, CALIF.
It would take a colder heart than mine to call the cops on someone so needy that he survives by scavenging garbage. To focus your crime-busting on the poorest of the poor shows curious priorities. Are there no BP execs, no Goldman Sachs plutocrats, no producers of “Sex and the City 2” ?
Thomas Hart Benton was once to give a speech denouncing John C. Calhoun, but learning that Calhoun was ill, declined to do so, declaring, “Benton will not speak today, for when God almighty lays his hands on a man, Benton takes his off.”
Benton’s compassion for the physically afflicted should be extended to the economically assailed. To lead an ethical life requires us to empathize with other people and ask: What circumstances would induce a person to behave this way? And: Does the most moral response to this behavior involve the police?
You should also ask how this fellow is to live if you thwart his pilfering recyclables. Rob liquor stores? Perform liposuction? There is little social good in what amounts to criminalizing poverty. It is not that the poor have a right to steal; it is that they have no duty to starve.
I would give a different answer if this foraging were the work not of an individual struggling to survive during tough economic times but was an organized effort involving fleets of illicit trucks staying one jump ahead of the designated recycling company. Context counts. What’s more, it is not clear if your town makes a profit from recycling. If it does not, the scavenger may actually save you money by lightening the load.
UPDATE: While putting out the trash one night, J.M. encountered someone going through his cans right by the house. Startled and mindful of the safety of his young children, he called the police with no discernible results. He has not phoned them again.
― terry squad (k3vin k.), Friday, 6 August 2010 04:38 (thirteen years ago) link
oh lol that link was already posted, my bad
― terry squad (k3vin k.), Friday, 6 August 2010 04:39 (thirteen years ago) link
Has McGinley progressed beyond being a slightly less creepy Terry Richardson? Hated all the shit he did for Vice when they were on the rise.
― a cross between lily allen and fetal alcohol syndrome (milo z), Friday, 6 August 2010 05:09 (thirteen years ago) link
ryan mcginley is totally not what i was talking about. the stuff i posted looks like when you get a roll of film back and you go "i def didn't take this photo"
― plax (ico), Friday, 6 August 2010 07:13 (thirteen years ago) link
A.O. Scott in self contorting head scratcher
http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/movies/13eat.html?8dpc=&pagewanted=2
"So many people in this world confront much graver threats to their well-being: violence, poverty, oppression. This woman has nothing but good luck! True enough, but the kind of class consciousness that would blame Liz for feeling bad about her life and then taking a year abroad to cure what ails her strikes me as a bit disingenuous — a way of trivializing her trouble on the grounds of gender without having to come out and say so."
Um...on the grounds of gender WHUT?
― Hadrian VIII, Saturday, 14 August 2010 14:47 (thirteen years ago) link
Would rather eat glass than sit through even the trailer for this movie again
― Hadrian VIII, Saturday, 14 August 2010 14:49 (thirteen years ago) link
http://cdn.babble.com/famecrawler/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/M-003_DF-045921.jpg
― Hadrian VIII, Saturday, 14 August 2010 14:55 (thirteen years ago) link
Gross.
― Jenny, Saturday, 14 August 2010 21:40 (thirteen years ago) link
http://i37.tinypic.com/35hpsv9.jpg
― I DIED, Wednesday, 18 August 2010 05:32 (thirteen years ago) link
“When I was growing up, the guys were always talking big melons,” said Mr. Bright, a retired biology teacher and school administrator who got into the big-melon game in 1973.
― I DIED, Wednesday, 18 August 2010 05:33 (thirteen years ago) link
it's like the twee, ruling class twist on the chris rock bit about the big piece of chicken
― be my anchor baby (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 05:35 (thirteen years ago) link
loool i just helped myself to this joke
― max, Wednesday, 18 August 2010 07:08 (thirteen years ago) link
i mean the times is clearly in on it
but "low hanging fruit"
am i right
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?_r=1
― the disappearance of apollo creed (s1ocki), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 19:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Pretty much beaten to death and turned into fertilizer here:
This is a Thread for ILXORS IN THEIR 20s!11!!!!!!!
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 August 2010 19:59 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm proud of our guys and gals in their 20s, they sure know how to take down a piece of crappy journalism
― .. help? (admrl), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 20:09 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/nyregion/18about.html?_r=1
― Lamp, Wednesday, 18 August 2010 20:15 (thirteen years ago) link
loser loses thing
― the disappearance of apollo creed (s1ocki), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 20:29 (thirteen years ago) link
its not about money its about emotions the things u feel
― Lamp, Wednesday, 18 August 2010 20:31 (thirteen years ago) link
You realize a homeless person is now wearing those suit pants and they're probably the nicest thing he's ever put on before. There are probably also holes and food stairs and dirt and urine on them already but don't think about that, it'll just bum you out.
― Jesus doesn't want me for a thundercloud (Laurel), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 20:31 (thirteen years ago) link
Holy shit, I just realized that a friend's mom wrote that NYT piece about 20-somethings.
I am filled with internal conflict.
― Jenny, Thursday, 19 August 2010 22:16 (thirteen years ago) link
and indecision about your life and career path?
― the disappearance of apollo creed (s1ocki), Thursday, 19 August 2010 22:49 (thirteen years ago) link
What? No. I'm 37. That kind of bullshit is for 20-somethings.
― Jenny, Thursday, 19 August 2010 23:10 (thirteen years ago) link
The friend must be feeling really happy now. "Gee, THANKS MOM."
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 19 August 2010 23:28 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/t-magazine/22talk-jacobs-t.html
― Jenny, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:05 (thirteen years ago) link
Which is more annoying? The school or the author's strange fixation on what everybody is wearing?
― Jenny, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:07 (thirteen years ago) link
“Kind!” shouts young Mia, resplendent in blue leggings, a pink oxford-cloth shirt and fuchsia toenail polish under her Salt-Water sandals.
new nadirs, every week.
― strongohulkingtonsghost, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:10 (thirteen years ago) link
those descriptions really add an indispensable vividness to this interesting piece of journalism
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:12 (thirteen years ago) link
the school sounds okay, like i can imagine that being a pretty cute scene, but as described and written it's just horrible.
― ('_') (omar little), Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:13 (thirteen years ago) link
it's the "resplendent" that really sends it over the edge, but the hyper-detailed wardrobe itemizing is some vogue/bret easton ellis wtf hybrid, especially in the (admittedly debased) context of the times.
― strongohulkingtonsghost, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:13 (thirteen years ago) link
Since the city’s bobos are now making their own pickles and ice cream, why not mold little minds as well?
like how can this not be a joke? i know, i know...i ask this every time i read anything style-y in the times. but COME ON.
― strongohulkingtonsghost, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:15 (thirteen years ago) link
“My son is going to a public pre-K in the fall, and I am somewhat terrified.”
― lene lovage (elmo argonaut), Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:15 (thirteen years ago) link
It's like these outfit descriptions are supposed to signify something that will make us all nod our heads sagely and say, "Ah, yes, these kind of people" and I am just too ignorant to get it.
― Jenny, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:16 (thirteen years ago) link
haha the real problem is that it's impossible to tell if this lady is being sardonic w.r.t. to the clothing descriptions or honestly effusive.
― strongohulkingtonsghost, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:19 (thirteen years ago) link
Eight months pregnant with the couple’s third child, a girl, she is the epitome of the glamour mama, utterly lacking the whiff of patchouli one might associate with the home-schooling movement.
ok this person has absolutely no idea about homeschooling in this country at all. patchouli? gtfo
― lene lovage (elmo argonaut), Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:20 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, what
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:20 (thirteen years ago) link
moms that homeschool smell like cigarettes
― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:21 (thirteen years ago) link
i also like the unintended implication that having being pregnant with a girl is tres chic
― lene lovage (elmo argonaut), Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:22 (thirteen years ago) link
2.Crimson WifeS.F. Bay AreaAugust 23rd, 20101:58 pmThose kids aren't being homeschooled- they are attending a "cottage school". I didn't see any evidence in the article that the parents are actually taking on any of the responsibility for educating their children themselves. There have always been a certain percentage of rich families who have their children tutored. The only twist with this is that the tutoring is being done with a small group.
Can't the NYT find any ACTUAL homeschooling families? Ones where the parents are not outsourcing the teaching duties to some third party?
^^^^
― buzza, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:26 (thirteen years ago) link
many of these [ field trips are ] lovingly documented in lush color on the school’s blog. (The annual class photos are in black and white).
why would you even
i mean
― lene lovage (elmo argonaut), Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:32 (thirteen years ago) link
in COLOR?!? color photography!?!? what a crazy idea!!
― piranha karenina (s1ocki), Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:53 (thirteen years ago) link
See, again, I feel like there's some message there that I'm just not getting, because this is the beginning of that paragraph:
But what of the socioeconomic diversity such classrooms afford, and the oft-leveled charge that home schooling isolates children in a privileged bubble of their parents’ making? “It’s hard,” Betterton concedes. “It’s a self-selecting group of people. But that’s one of the reasons we are constantly outside in the world.”
I don't know what the author is trying to say, but I have "Black or White" stuck in my head now, so maybe I did get the message?
― Jenny, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 20:02 (thirteen years ago) link
i was really just puzzled at the unprompted mention that the class photos are black & white because, i dunno, b&w photos are supposed to be more tasteful and artistic? or maybe b&w class photos are just so *unconventional*? anyway it is obviously very important to mention! these are unconventional kids, being raised unconventionally! artistically, even!
xpost
― lene lovage (elmo argonaut), Tuesday, 24 August 2010 20:06 (thirteen years ago) link
Or maybe the author is saying that the outside world is colorful but the bubble of the school is boring black and white, and black and white school photos prove that the parents are well aware of this?
― Jenny, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 20:12 (thirteen years ago) link
The real question is why am I putting so much thought into teasing out what this NYT style section dingaling is trying to say about a bunch of rich alternaschooling parents in NYC?
― Jenny, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 20:13 (thirteen years ago) link
i would be wary of ascribing that much intent; easier to understand as just bad writing imo xp
― lene lovage (elmo argonaut), Tuesday, 24 August 2010 20:14 (thirteen years ago) link
Reading into NYT style pieces for intentional depth and symbolism and metaphor is going to be my trigger for a serious delusional episode. IT IS TALKING TO ME! DIRECTLY TO ME!!!!
― Jenny, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 20:16 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/business/07flier.html
what is the point of this article, really
― grandma: smells and textures :: 180 (dayo), Tuesday, 7 September 2010 03:05 (thirteen years ago) link
that's like roger sterling talking into his tape recorder
― real s1ock (s1ocki), Tuesday, 7 September 2010 03:28 (thirteen years ago) link
That was like a sort of almost-interesting blog post. That is a terrible opening sentence.
― Jesse, Tuesday, 7 September 2010 03:47 (thirteen years ago) link