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

The sound of ice cream trucks constantly cruising makes me want to stab a person with a million toothpicks, and it doesn't even make me want ice cream. And I LOVE ice cream! So I guess I'm hypothetically sympathetic to that situation, but not to the parents as they're quoted here. They sound like a bunch of dicks.

I was a pretty stubborn, argumentative kid, and came to accept my mom's rules about cereal-buying. I think at some point I discovered that Rice Krispies (or Frosted Flakes or Corn Pops, one of the three) actually had sugar as the 3rd ingredient (which meant it was ok). My mom was shocked, but rules were rules, so I got to have Rice Krispies a lot.

I pretty much agree with m coleman on this--everything else in life is so great & perfect that you can worry about the ice cream truck in the park? you know, the music is there to get the kids attention! that's the way it's always been; it is a part of american culture. and if your best argument is really "it's annoying when my kid wants ice cream" maybe you should have waited to be a parent? like obviously i am not a parent & don't intend on being one for a while but like, if you can't deal with your kid asking for shit, how are you going to live with your children? asking for shit is part of being a kid. wanting gumballs from the machine at the supermarket, wanting cheap squirt gun at the pharmacy, wanting everything and being unable or unwilling as a child to understand things about money, health etc.

Life cereal was my major legislative score. don't know how i did it.

it's not up to them to decide how or when the rest of the community's kids consume ice cream

I don't get this: they're part of the "community," right? And the community/city already decides who can sell ice cream and how, right? So they already decide this.

But if they're in a minority and the rest of the people that use that park are cool with the ice cream trucks ...

... then nothing will happen and hooray for democracy?

btw guys don't hate me but I recently considered complaining about the food cart that sets up on a narrow bit of sidewalk and blocks the whole thing so I can't walk my dog through -- I am not against food, I just find it annoying

uh is policing ice cream vendors a high-priority task of civic money & resources?

plenty of nice clean streets in PYONGYANG

well sure, democracy rules. but as quality of life violations go, i think food vending in new york is very loosely enforced, so this seems selective, if not hypocritical. like I'm sure many of these parents get lunch at their favorite unregulated taco truck or halal chicken cart.

when you think about what was going on in NYC parks/playgrounds a couple decades ago, ridding the world of ice cream vendors is laughable.

and of course a sign of progress,

it's selective, but I guess I have some sympathy that, well, if something presents a particular nuisance in your world, that's the thing you ask about. (like for instance I thought it was a good idea, a couple years ago, when they barred the ice cream trucks from playing their jingles while standing in one place, cause if they set up under your window for an hour every day holy crap would that drive you nuts.)

cause if they set up under your window for an hour every day holy crap would that drive you nuts

http://blogs.freshminds.co.uk/research/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/boombox.jpg

actually boomboxes were banned on the subway back in the 80s

boomboxes were banned everywhere ... you do not hear/see them now

I would totally rather hear a boombox than an hour of "Pop Goes the Weasel!"

reggaton, even?

I'd take an hour of Pop Goes the Weasel over my downstair's neighbor groove-funk-organ playing and the exercise bicycle lady across the alley's bad violin playing ...

hmm...

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_lehrer

haha, v1ck1 from the Ch1p Shop is nice, but i specifically told her i wasn't having the twice-fried cherry pie last time. just SAY NO, Mom.

yall think this is fun and games until u live in a family neighborhood and u hear the mfing jingle btw 2pm and 6pm every day

max is out there every day.

surely there's an ice-cream scene in Mad Men with which to resolve this?

^^Quality post A+++ would read again

Perhaps I can reframe the issue: Can anyone among us honestly say that their childhood was poorer for having gotten to eat too much ice cream?!

i have cavities?

of course, that's now and not then. but i'm gonna go ahead and blame the ice cream man and his damn siren's song.

I guess I have some sympathy that, well, if something presents a particular nuisance in your world, that's the thing you ask about.

lol if u dont like sumthin just keep whining and whining and whining until u get ur way

entitled whiners ftw ~~~ fyi lil kids are tiresome & annoying full stop & once they get their way on this these retards would just find sumthin new to project their manifest inadequacies on to. cant wait until all the squirrels and birds in that park have 2 be exterminated becuz they were distracting sumbody's kidz alla time

I agree with all the parenting 101 folks here - if the worst thing happening in your neighborhood is a plenty of ice cream trucks, then you have it pretty good and stop whining

if not I know a nice place in Lancester, PA where you can move to with lots of peace and quiet and fresh air

Parents who play the My Child game to get others to be compliant = massive fucking DUD. Especially when the entitlement act is pointed at someone in the service industry.

http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/2009/08/how-do-u-deal-with-ur-parents-being-super-rich.html

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd120/hipsterrunoff/photographs/289186_21022.jpg

That's not a very big business jet. I'd bet it only cost $2-3 mil. There's also the chance that her parents are just co-owners. Not really a signifier of what I'd call "super-rich." Unless her dad's one of those "I didn't get rich by spending all my money on airplanes" kinda guys (always a possibility).

Oh wait, it took me this long to realize that was hipster runoff. That's probably just a model shoot or something.

glad 2 see i post on a message board w/ so many people who are just better than these silly parents

Max, it's just that most of our parents, however fucked-up, were better at this than these entitled idiots.

The ice-cream man used to visit the street where I lived until I was 10. For a few days he came around 6 o'clock (cue proto-ADD response from local kids), the parents complained amongst themselves about dinnertime ruin and finally one of the moms played fearless leader and asked the guy if he could re-adjust his route to arrive after dinner instead, with the implication it would be more profitable for him that way.

But the complaints are not just coming from effete organic-food zealots with too much time on their hands. The 18th Ward in Chicago, which banned ice cream vendors, is made up of working-class African-American families. Ms. Reiley is a stay-at-home mother. Ms. Heidel-Habluetzel is a real-estate agent who is an active volunteer at her children’s school. And Ms. Sell owns and runs a restaurant in Brooklyn with her husband, a chef. “I’m not a health freak by any means,” Ms. Sell said. “But I notice what happens to my daughter when she eats these sugar-filled things with all these additives.”

I like how the topic sentence is about how not all of the complaints are from yuppies, but then her list of examples of complaining parents in sentence three and four are all yuppies. "Working-class African-American families are against this too! But enough about them..."

first they came for the drug dealers, and i said nothing, because i was not a drug dealer
then they came for the ice cream vendors etc etc

ps someone should really do something about all these squirrels in public parks, my dog goes crazy whenever he sees one and gets really hard to control. it's shameful how they flouce their bushy tails everywhere, it's like they are deliberately provoking my dog.

i don't have a problem with squirrels but why can't they just build their nests somewhere else? so i can have a nice day in the park without having to chase after my dog around.

lol when did u all turn into closet libertarians?

glad 2 see i post on a message board w/ so many people who are just better than these silly parents

yah its hard 2 to imagine a group of ppl collectively lamer than ilx posters but there u go

btw this may come as a surprise to you but people do generally work to control animal populations in cities

good job missing the point

no, i got that you're being a dick

btw this may come as a surprise to you but people do generally work to control animal populations in cities

repping 4 serial killers?

or just vampires?

Today's bait:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/economy/21inequality.html?_r=1&hp

Pity the poor entrepreneur:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/08/21/business/21inequality.600.jpg

In 2007, Mr. McAfee sold a 10,000-square-foot home in Colorado with a view of Pike’s Peak. He had spent $25 million to buy the property and build the house. He received $5.7 million for it. When Lehman collapsed last fall, its bonds became virtually worthless. Mr. McAfee’s stock investments cost him millions more.

One day, he realized, as he said, “Whoa, my cash is gone.”

His remaining net worth of about $4 million makes him vastly wealthier than most Americans, of course. But he has nonetheless found himself needing cash and desperately trying to reduce his monthly expenses.

He has sold a 10-passenger Cessna jet and now flies coach. This week his oceanfront estate in Hawaii sold for $1.5 million, with only a handful of bidders at the auction. He plans to spend much of his time in Belize, in part because of more favorable taxes there.

Next week, his New Mexico property will be the subject of a no-floor auction, meaning that Mr. McAfee has promised to accept the top bid, no matter how low it is.

“I am trying to face up to the reality here that the auction may bring next to nothing,” he said.

lol i don't see how not wanting to micromanage the rather innocuous goings-on my neighborhood's public spaces makes me a "closet libertarian"

Mr. McAfee, whose tattoos and tinted hair suggest an independent streak

no, i got that you're being a dick

― congratulations (n/a)

http://tsfiles.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/pot-kettle-black.jpg

max these people are officious cunts! your local ice cream van's incessant theme tune has clearly driven you round the bend!

fyi to all i would probably sign a petition banning the fucking ice cream jingle and all ice cream trucks if possible--if u want ice cream u can go to the fucking ice cream store--feel free to killfile me

Fuck that shit, I want all my food and drink brought to me in a questionable van with an irritating music-box jingle.

One day, he realized, as he said, “Whoa, my cash is gone.”