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

"kissing and genital touching"

Strange tales come out of the American desert: lost cities of gold, bandit ambushes, mirages and peyote shamans. To that long list can now be added the story of the holy retreat that led to an ugly death.

What is this I don't even

Erik Brinkman, a Buddhist monk who remains one of Mr. Roach’s staunchest admirers, said, “If the definition of a cult is to follow our spiritual leader into the desert, then we are a cult.”

It's probably close enough, best to avoid.

Was it a genuine spiritual enclave? What happened to drive Ms. McNally and Mr. Thorson out of the camp and into the wilderness? And just why, in a quest for enlightenment, did Mr. Thorson, a 38-year-old Stanford graduate, end up dead, apparently from exposure and dehydration, in a remote region of rattlesnakes and drug smugglers?

ugh just tell the goddamn story you fucking hack

mysterious

the actual story isn't nearly dramatic enough to justify that opening and would have been better served without the "Dateline"-esque "IT IS A SHOCKING MYSTERY" buildup

Even the manner in which Ms. McNally and Mr. Thorson left the retreat adds a fresh turn to an already twisty tale. It came days after she made a startling revelation during one of her lectures: she said that Mr. Thorson had been violent toward her, and that she had stabbed him, using a knife they had received as a wedding gift.

:0

Three times. I think that explains the mysterious death.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/06/bizarro-yoga-cult-death-in-the-desert.html?

the times wrote about these people in 2008!

Perhaps you remember reading, in 2008, a breezy article in the New York Times that described a kooky, blissed-out Buddhist couple of the unreconstructed hippie variety, who had pledged both to never be more than fifteen feet apart from one another, and also to be celibate. "They eat the same foods from the same plate and often read the same book, waiting until one or the other finishes the page before continuing," you may remember reading. Perhaps you thought ha, they're going to kill each other! and flipped idly from the "Home and Garden" section to "Sports" without giving it another thought.

They also talk about how they continue to struggle with each other’s wills. It is not an easy practice, even now. But they believe that the basic principles of karma and emptiness at the heart of Buddhism can improve any relationship.

A special joint-production of quiddities and ILP:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/fashion/the-midwife-becomes-a-status-symbol-for-the-hip.html?_r=1

Ms. Sellars is considered one of the more respected midwives in New York, and her patients have included opera singers, actresses, bankers and models like Ms. Turlington. (Disclosure: of the more than 1,850 babies that Ms. Sellars has delivered, my daughter was No. 1,727 and my son was No. 1,798.)

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/06/williamsburg-war-on-brunch.html

laughing uncontrollably at this:

Five Leaves, as well as the Lorimer street bistro Lokal, were both issued citations over the past several weeks for hosting outdoor tables on Sunday mornings. Mongell is scruffy, with a patch of a beard, and he left the meeting feeling agitated: “For me, it’s like people being forced to the back of a bus in the fifties. It’s like, why?”

In spite of money lines like that one, I have to say I side with the brunchers. Eating on the sidewalk is for the PEOPLE!

hahahah omg

Blacks in the 50s were like "why?"

I can't even

the civil rights battle of our time

http://a1.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/27/08f26c032f8c50384ac95dbd20ff836b/l.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbO2_077ixs

I go to to get brunch
And I sit outside
somebody keep telling me "don't hang around."
Its been along time coming
But I know a scone is gonna come, oh yes it will.

preach

i look at a grown woman wearing toddler velcro shoes and I'm like "why?"

I had brunch on the sidewalk, in a little tent
Looks like that brunch special's been runnin ever since

considering changing my dn to mimosa parks

Malcolm Eggs

amazing crepes

Muffin Luther King

Letter from a Williamsburg bistro

Soul on Ice Coffee

okay, i'll quit

Why We Can't Wait On You

Montgomery Brunch Boycott

Gluten-Freedom Summer

Stuyvesant Nonviolent Crepe Committee.

We Shall Over-Easy

that one actually sounds like the name of a brunch place

kudos

Ralph Brunch

On the Brant Bros:

“Everybody loves celebrity children,” said Stephanie Trong, the editorial director of The Cut. “But perhaps the biggest appeal is that these guys live in the lap of luxury and they’re extremely open about their exploits. How many teens go to couture shows or fashion parties, much less document them on their joint Twitter feed, in such a hilarious, uncensored way?”

The Brants have almost 70,000 Twitter followers, a fraction of whom appear to be their age.

“Most of my tweets happen between 1 and 5 in the morning,” Harry said. “I’m a night owl, and random thoughts pop into my head. I’ll be watching ‘Mommie Dearest,’ and I’ll be like, ‘Oh, my God, Joan Crawford is amazing.’ ”

This sets off a film tangent.

“ ‘Cocktail’ is the best movie of all time,” Peter said.

“You hate ‘Troop Beverly Hills,’ but you love ‘Cocktail?’ ” Harry countered. “You are a tacky European man!”

But this was a brief low-culture aside. For a teenager, Peter Brant can sound like a been-there-done-that dowager countess, not that his Old World pretensions aren’t refreshing in the Internet age.

“I’m interested in 18th-century furniture, late-19th-century art, the Arts and Crafts movement and history of the mid- to late-19th century,” he said. “I bounce around a lot, but I usually stick with the same three centuries.”

Harry has similarly lofty passions. “I become obsessed with things like DNA or old Valentino shows or the Qing dynasty,” he said. “I have a love of opulence.”

"news"

I’ll be watching ‘Mommie Dearest,’ and I’ll be like, ‘Oh, my God, Joan Crawford is amazing.’

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QK-RRQn4E-U/T0mBPUNiffI/AAAAAAAACIQ/gIKodVmrWGc/s1600/deep%2Bthoughts.png

spoiled brants

Gawker really tore that article apart.

ugh that gawker article was good but they did this five months ago http://gawker.com/5881065/the-brant-brothers-the-worlds-luckiest-teenage-homosexuals

ha, good catch

I guess I feel like there is this small, ultra-rarefied group of people who finds that sort of stuff interesting, for whom the word "socialite" actually even means anything, and that those people should just have a private newsletter or something and stop taking up valuable internet space on sites The Rest Of Us read.

it's called the New York Observer iirc

that thought crossed my mind

Unfair, the New York Observer is a 1000x better read than Sunday Styles.

that's very true