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

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/health/views/04greet.html

As the world braces for a second wave of the swine flu that broke out in the spring and resulted in the deaths of more than 2,100 people worldwide, the disease is altering long-established patterns of everyday greeting. Handshakes have been cut short, kisses aborted. Warm embraces have been supplanted by curt pats on the back.

Annual deaths from malaria: 2.7 million

Tracer Hand I think you need a hug, but of course now I don't dare.

Plus I'm too busy bracing for a second wave of Killer Pig Fever

aborted kisses ;_;

How can you make ironic references to a 19th Century disease at a time like this?

what this thread needs right about now is some gabbneb.

style section article on Sym's had plenty of contempt but not enough agony for this thread

Seinfeld needs to work up some material celebrating the death of the kiss hello and get back out on the road

NYT continuing to fuel the obsession with Harvard: http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/harvarddean/?hp

Love this guy:

Dean Fitzsimmons,

My son was born last week. It is my son’s goal to go to an Ivy League school. He had near perfect APGAR scores. Should we include this on his 2026 application?
— Ken

My daughter is a good and hard-working student but just outside the top 10% of her small class in a well-respected private school. She’s the president of the school’s community service club and is the captain of the field hockey team. Does she have any chance of getting into Harvard?

How about if I donate $50 million?

— Marshall

haha

I was graduated from a public high school with a 2.3 GPA, no extracurriculars or public service to speak of, and have a Harvard degree. I spit on your dreams, Marshall and Ken.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/complaint-box-counter-culture/

I'd probably be a dick to this guy, too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/fashion/27Coco.html?_r=1

Ms. Saleh of the Bedford produce shop had a different take. “You see the weirdest stuff around here, so just walking around with a coconut ...” she said, shrugging, “what’s a coconut?”

It's an article!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/tracerhand/Picture1-2.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/world/asia/28jakarta.html

yeah the wife and I just talked about that article at lunch. I was kinda wondering if Europe/NA will see more domestic servants in the "new" economy. My dad's from Latin America and while in USA dollars their wealth there wasn't huge, they still had a live-in domestic servant; and my family that's there still is the same way. And my brother worked in India a few years ago and his company provided a live-in domestic servant there too.

That coconut drink sounds delicious!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/fashion/04ivy.html?_r=1&ref=fashion

Michal Albanese, a sales executive for a fashion trade show who graduated from Brown in 1999, confirmed that the list did breed insecurity in some at the group’s last party. A couple of guests were called out for not having gone to Ivy Plus universities, she said, and one gentleman began rattling off his other accomplishments.

“The guy went to, like, Illinois,” she said, trying to recall the college.

“I don’t remember,” she added. ”But his friend kept saying, ‘You’re not even a plus.’ ”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/opinion/05adouthat.html?_r=2&hp

where to start

god i just read that. where is his brain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/nyregion/11twins.html?hp

not really feeling all that bad for a bartender making $40k a year right now tbh

sorry, 24-yr-old bartender

Was wondering when this story would appear here.

like, damn girl, im sorry making $800 a week is depressing you but try making $300 a week

tho i did lol at this: Katie said: “Relatives in Ohio think working in a bar is a step down from prostitution.”

someone told me today that when she tells people in her ohio hometown that she works for a news website they assume its porn

and like:

They had had a meeting with Deadspin, a sports blog, but no real jobs there, just the suggestion to join an Australian football team and write about it. Katie was pursuing an internship at the United Nations. Kristy decided to try to interest New York magazine in an article about the effect on kids who appear in unflattering YouTube videos. From a posting on Monster.com, she heard from someone who wondered if she could translate Arabic.

did the editor of the biggest sports blog in the country just give you a story suggestion?! why are you not following through?? maybe you should spend less time playing the g-damn saxophone

and, lol:

And: “I keep wondering how do I propel myself out of the bar world, where I look cute and pour beer, into a world where I have thoughtful conversation about the world rather than stuff like why do people clap at the end of good movies. Or, why do you think Heidi Klum married Seal? I don’t care why!”

what does she think a career in magazine writing is going to entail if not 800 word pieces about why people clap at the end of movies (btw i think this is rather interesting) or why heidi klum married seal (again this is sort of interesting too)

Kristy said she could do a photo display with the gnome bank that she had lugged around Newark, snapping pictures of it at the park, at a beauty store, in a police car.

if a rehash of an orbitz ad campaign is the best this girl can come up with for a blog shes going to be unemployed for a long time

Kristy decided to try to interest New York magazine in an article about the effect on kids who appear in unflattering YouTube videos.

clearly she forgot to ask the nyt

lol who am i kidding she just needs to start a tumblr and shell have a book deal in like 30 sec

lookatthisfuckinggnome.com

haha iatee

They claimed a couch upstairs at the Aroma Espresso Bar on West 72nd Street, where they like to ingest caffeine and comb the Web: Think, think, think.

real unemployed people would never buy coffee from an espresso bar

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/fashion/04ivy.html?_r=1&ref=fashion

Michal Albanese, a sales executive for a fashion trade show who graduated from Brown in 1999, confirmed that the list did breed insecurity in some at the group’s last party. A couple of guests were called out for not having gone to Ivy Plus universities, she said, and one gentleman began rattling off his other accomplishments.

“The guy went to, like, Illinois,” she said, trying to recall the college.

“I don’t remember,” she added. ”But his friend kept saying, ‘You’re not even a plus.’ ”

this must be where gabb is hanging now that he's been kicked offa ILXor.

joke is pretty obvious here but:

A guy hoping to start an online business was taking a $600 aptitude test to tell him what he’s good at.

Kristy recently friended an editor on Facebook, thinking that was the ticket. Zip.

?!?!?!?!?!? how would this ever get a person a job ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

haha eisbaer I not only linked that same article but picked that same quote upthread

is having a rutgers degree in nyc really that much better than having an ohio degree? it seems like a weird school to go cross country for, esp if it's gonna leave you $40,000 in debt

She is remarried and lives in Weehawken, N.J., selling items for estates and art dealers and doing freelance writing.

why arent they pitching to their moms editors to build a portfolio so that when they pitch ny mag they might actually have a shot

iatee: i know! sorry, forgot to put your name & post when i cut & paste it!!

Katie had been working at another bar, but was fired in June after landing in Cancun to begin a vacation.

............................

haha gotcha np

iatee: believe it or not, there are folks outside of NJ who think that Rutgers actually is a fancy pseudo-Ivy kinda school. plus there are tons of Rutgers alum in NYC ... just b/c of the proximity.

yeah I tried to parse that cancun sentence for 20 seconds

most of these articles piss me off in a sort of general way but this twins article gets to me in a really visceral way, probably because i am underemployed and looking for the same kind of opportunities they are and its like--they are doing pretty well all things considered!!

eis it wasn't a dig at rutgers, it's just weird when people go cross country to go to a state school where they'll have to pay ridiculous amounts. I mean it makes sense for rich kids who go to out of state michigan, but for people who have to worry about money...

iatee: i know you didn't mean it as a dig @ rutgers. i was trying to point out that it may make some sense for someone outside of the NYC metro area who wants to live there to travel cross-country to go to Rutgers b/c the school seems to have a good reputation nationwide (better than it does in NJ, for real!!) and b/c it probably does have a lot more alumni there (b/c of its proximity to NYC) than whatever her state school might be.

weird, that article about the ivy plus society contains quotes by two people who I went to high school with