quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a rolling new york times thread

Of course in the top-dog department, Maf doesn’t come close to having my skills. He can’t drive a car, he can’t sing and dance, he hasn’t attended college, and as far as I can tell, he’s contributed exactly nada to the zeitgeist. But hey, he does have chops as a witness, I gotta give him that. And as a fellow observer of the human comedy, I’ll throw him a bone. Every dog has his day, and Maf, you lucky dog, you, this is yours: I, Brian Griffin, your best-selling competitor and colleague in the literary trenches, award you for your novel — er, memoir — a coveted three out of four paws up.

I literally cannot make myself read past the first paragraph

inserting stock phrases like "no doubt about it" and "I gotta give him that" does not a 'persona' make

The quiddities and agonies of reading Michiko Kakutani

all the book reviews written in character as a dog from a cartoon that's fit to print

oh what a fine review, i'm sure the pulitzer committee will be unanimously in your favour <--- voice of stewie

^^this guy is posting as stewie, you know, the talking baby from Family Guy, in case you haven't noticed

Truly hateful:

Mixing Drinks, Adding Class

One of many gems:

“In my opinion, if you don’t have a bartender at your party, you’re a loser,” said Dustin Terry, who lives a floor below Ms. Argiro and said his job was to get models and Saudi royalty into hot clubs. “The bartender brings class and sophistication.”

“If you can’t afford to hire a bartender,” he added, “you shouldn’t be having a party.”

The whole theme of "we are in a recession so we have to hire bartenders to signal wealth" is aggravating to the extreme.

More evidence, perhaps, that the Times Style section is actively trolling people.

i actually think that article's pretty good - it reads to me like the best of a bad job, i.e. yes the Times being actively reprehensible in its choice of subject matter, the writer handed an absolute dog of an assignment, but i think he does a pretty sly job. these people really do come across as monsters.

“Hosts don’t want to have to look after their guests’ needs,” said Matt Solan, a bartender who works many such small locations. “But they also want a level of prestige.”

that quote's just left there on its own but it tells you everything you need to know.

They munched on Ms. Argiro’s homemade panko-crusted chicken bites and jalapeño poppers while dancing to tracks by the Cure, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Gorillaz.

trolling, yes, but anyone who reads past "hid the TV behind an industrial column" is asking for it

myself included obv

The growing world of mom blogging has provided ample forums for exposing the darker feelings of motherhood

“I feel very sophisticated at this party,” he said. “And I usually feel like a complete dirt bag.”

guy in the vest thinks you shouldn't be having a party

that's a hardworking vest

Have you met Matthew Assante and Dustin Terry yet? These two are the men responsible for the newest summer rooftop brunch party at the Gansevoort Hotel that we told you about last week. The Hamptons are sooo 2004 right?

They munched on Ms. Argiro’s homemade panko-crusted chicken bites and jalapeño poppers while dancing to tracks by the Cure, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Gorillaz.

― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Saturday, December 11, 2010 6:47 PM Bookmark

If you're too poor to afford panko crust, you shouldn't be serving chicken bites.

have to say bartending these parties sounds like fun. They're probably all lightweights so it wouldn't be much work, right?

the chicken better be free range or I am OUT of here

“With the recession, they don’t want to rent an expensive loft space,” he said. Instead, they are having house parties, he said, and hiring bartenders as a way to splurge within their means.

This contrasts quite a bit with the rest of the piece. Also the fact that the bartender only cost about $200 a night.

Even so, pretty repulsive stuff.

Even as the wedding stories in the NYT usually go, this one is just o_O.

this probably gets filed under 'if you're reading this section you're asking for it' but: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/garden/16outsource.html?_r=1&hpw

Consider the needs of a European couple with a young family — 4-year-old twin boys — who live abroad but maintain a house in Connecticut and a penthouse on the Upper East Side, which they like to visit at Christmas.

yes, these are the ppl whose needs id like to consider, sure.

funny thing about that wedding story is her first marriage also made it to the wedding section
xpost

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEEDC1539F931A25752C1A963958260&scp=2&sq=Carol%20Anne%20Riddell&st=cse

i feel like, ok, you found your soulmate after you got married to the "wrong" person, shit happens, but having your new love featured in such a public way is so insensitive to the feelings of the dumped spouses.

one garland of signed Warhol dollar bills

waht

Mr. Salvator also arranges for the building’s superintendent and the housekeeper to help unearth the family of nutcrackers that he bought, and the ribbons and ornaments he has collected, from the storage bin in the basement, so that he and his associates can swag the place like a Victorian engraving, a task he completed last Saturday, just hours before the family arrived.

for a sec I thought this writer was really 'with it' but actually it turns out swag is a verb and it's being used correctly according to its original meaning

It's appropriate, actually, because the fabled Victorian Christmases were done with the assistance of armies of servants.

Only hours to spare! Goodness.

Hey! A followup to that skeevy wedding story I posted upthread!

Love-struck advertising executive John Partilla regrets sharing news of his wedding to Carol Anne Riddell with The New York Times after many readers recoiled over the paper's "Vows" column last Sunday.

Partilla defended the couple's decision to share their story of how they walked out on their former spouses to be with one another. He told Page Six, "We were proud and happy to marry and legitimize our relationship and move forward. We can't control other people's judgments."

But, he conceded, "I think if we had had an indication afterwards of the nerve it would have struck, we obviously would not have shared our life in any way publicly."

. . . One commenter on the Times Web site fumed, "Is it a sign of our times that personal responsibility to one's spouse and children takes a back seat to selfish, self-centered love?"

Partilla was previously married to Karla Tafrate, and Riddell was married to Robert Ennis. The Times didn't name either, leaving readers to wonder whether "the paper of record" had bothered to seek their comments -- a minimal journalistic requirement. The Times declined to say.

Tafrate told us, "I have read it, but I have no comment to the story." Neither Riddell nor Ennis could be reached.

In a statement, the Times said, "The Vows feature gives a close-in account of a wedding every week . . . We don't attempt to pass judgment on the suitability of the match, the narrative of the romance, the quality of the ceremony or the flavor of the wedding cake."

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/business/20bonus.html?_r=4&hp

Even though employees will receive roughly the same amount of money, the psychological blow of not getting a bonus is substantial, especially in a Wall Street culture that has long equated success and prestige with bonus size.

Psychologically blow me, bankers.

^^^

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/saving-money-on-fitness/?scp=1&sq=fitness&st=cse

Another "recession forces the ruling class to save money by cutting back from absurd opulence to ordinary first world luxury" story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/25/health/25patient.html?_r=1
guess this is the whole story

is that another shout-out article to a friend of the author, or what? I see no reason why 'Ms. Alba' need be mentioned by name. After the first paragraph, the story turns into a standard guide for people wanting cheap alternatives to health clubs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/fashion/26DCDEB.html?pagewanted=1&ref=fashion

remember when they at least attempted to make these appear to be news articles?

wish this one had a comment section

“many, many, many” people have thought Serena van der Woodsen, a character on the CW network show “Gossip Girl,” is based on Miss Nagel, minus the promiscuity and drugs

As written, I feel this implies the fictional character lacks the promiscuity and pharmaceutical interests of the real life girl. If only.

Wow, that is a fucking piece if work.

Of. Damn you, IPhone...

yeah, that sentence probably should not have been printed as written o-O

I just like that her name is Nagel

At 12, she was corresponding with Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University, after becoming intrigued by his DNA research.

I love these sort of details that convey precociousness but are actually pretty meaningless. ffs a 'fan letter' counts as correspondence but doesn't really mean anything

i must have seen this thread fifty times but i never noticed girl & dog in op photo

what bothers me most about this last one is that she's not even that impressive an overachiever. anyone think johns hopkins was her first choice?

idk why is that article there

is it just generic social stuff? why so lengthy

Wearing a Ralph Lauren blazer, cashmere sweater, jeans and Ferragamo loafers, she was having a lunch of crab chowder and chicken pot pie at a restaurant in Saks Fifth Avenue, with her mother (also in Ralph Lauren blazer). Both women’s nails were painted pink.

I feel bad for assuming she's a horrible person based on that profile. But she probably is.