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

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/04/travel/new-york-city-budget-travel.html
in which the author basically proves that expensive ny is far better than non-expensive ny

I'm sorry he missed out on the multiple health code-violating sushi.

looking at a recipe for squash salad in today's time magazine I encountered this glittery gem of the ruling class. last phrase perfectly sums up effete manhattan 2015 :(

We were eating dinner at Houseman, a restaurant opened by the chef Ned Baldwin on the once-quiet far-western side of SoHo, now called Hudson Square. It is a spare, welcoming room, with walls of white brick, warm lighting, smooth wooden tables the color of Bridgehampton sand — a neighborhood restaurant for those who live amid art and commerce, who travel widely, who want to eat simply and well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/20/magazine/a-new-winter-roast.html?ref=topics&_r=0

i prefer my tables to be more southampton sand colored, sry house man

say what you will, NYT knows the audience for its restaurant feature articles.

those readers who are truly of the upper crust want to look into a flattering mirror that only reflects what they hope others will envy about them. the aspiring middle class readers yearn to imagine themselves in some dim corner of that image. finally, there are the many hate-readers. the times has got them all covered.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/20/dining/la-chine-review.html?ref=dining&_r=0

But at the risk of undermining my populist credentials, I’d suggest New York could use more Chinese restaurants that are as expensive as our most ambitious French and Italian places.

no worries Pete, your populist credentials are non existent. to be fair he calls for better quality ingredients and more "creativity" from chefs and yeah there is a longstanding NYC assumption that Chinese food should be cheap. but for my money (pun intended) he doesn't bother to document many expensive ingredients (save for lamb loin) here and the creativity seems limited to some Japanese style raw fish starters which, as every other restaurant critic has been saying for 10 years, are a cliche. I love reading about restaurants especially places I can't afford or would never go to but the Times coverage in this area grows more and more effete, exclusive, and (buzz word alert) entitled. This sentence is telling: paying a lot is now "one of the pleasures" of dining out.

"one of the pleasures" is not a quote from the review, BTW, it's a critical trope I read now in all kinds of reviews

one of the pains of reading a lot is you notice lazy writing

spent some time yesterday reading some of the 1000+ comments about his Per Se downgrade. i don't know why i did that.

The lady had dropped her napkin.

More accurately, she had hurled it to the floor in a fit of disillusionment, her small protest against the slow creep of mediocrity and missed cues during a four-hour dinner at Per Se that would cost the four of us close to $3,000. Some time later, a passing server picked up the napkin without pausing to see whose lap it was missing from, neatly embodying the oblivious sleepwalking that had pushed my guest to this point.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/13/dining/pete-wells-per-se-review.html?ref=dining&_r=0

oh yeah, I did the same thing. Thought about that review and specifically the napkin anecdote while posting the above. I mean, taking down Per Se is a public service of sorts and for $325 + a pop diners should be treated like royalty but that whole thing with the lady's napkin and the prissy way it's written kinda turned my stomach and made me think fuck all y'all.

I mostly enjoy Pete Wells reviews, but yeah it's ridiculous when he pretends to champion the common man's interests while dining at Thomas Keller restaurants.

Of course it's kind of the weird position of an NYTimes food critic to be (I imagine) just below the line of rich enough to eat in places like that with any regularity, yet to have the expectations of a person who could.

how dare they allow that napkin to run free

Also I get the impression that truly rich people don't take on that kind of hyper-consciousness when they eat in places like that, it's just another fucking dinner to them.

i'm also guessing that most real rich people are treated like friggin' gold when they go to those places.

i've waited tables in two star restaurants, there's a degree of entitlement you've never imagined but it's just as often shrugged off as unnecessary

http://justink.svbtle.com/open-letter-to-mayor-ed-lee-and-greg-suhr-police-chief

lol I accidentally "kudos"ed that and I can't un"kudos" it

LOL

[1] I want to apologize for using the term riff raff. It was insensitive and counterproductive.

Hovering your cursor over the "Kudos" icon kudoses it? That seems like an abuse of internet convention.

I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless people to and from my way to work every day.

quid/ag the sentence

http://www.businessinsider.com/im-a-self-made-millionaire-and-im-convinced-there-are-only-5-ways-to-get-rich-2016-2
This is straight trolling but of particular shame worthiness

4. Only do wealthy activities
The number one wealth killer is when a person of promise hangs out in places of poverty. Many times, people put themselves in poor places, which surrounds them with poor people. Get away from poor places if you want to avoid poor people. Dwelling along with poor people in poor places will never make you rich.
When I was a teenager, I used to play basketball with negative people in negative places. I constantly witnessed smoking, cursing, and other disrespectful behaviors every moment of the game. Even though I didn't partake in their antics, I was still a product of my environment, which deeply affected my general performance in life.
Many people tolerate negative conditions like this. They don't realize how much the subtle influence of gossip, violence, and drama impacts them. Moreover, if you're not on prosperity, you're in poverty. Find out how you can partake in wealthy activities. For me, instead of playing basketball, I started visiting luxury homes and car dealerships. It changed my life.

somebody really likes Trading Places

Hmmm....yes, I could play basketball....or I could VISIT LUXURY HOMES!

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/fashion/millennials-mic-workplace.html

meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Mr. Altchek recalled a companywide meeting last September that coincided with the religious holidays Yom Kippur and Eid al-Adha. An Anglo-Pakistani employee asked why management had announced a flexible time off policy for the Jewish holiday, but not for its Muslim counterpart.

“So I told her, ‘Great point, being inclusive and respectful of all religious affiliations is incredibly important to Mic,’” Mr. Altchek said.

Afterward, in front of a smaller group, he was approached by a younger, entry-level employee who said that there were two words missing from his reply. “I was a bit confused and said, ‘O.K., what were those?’” he recalled. “And she said: ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t hear an apology.’”

Mr. Altchek did not think such a comment belonged in a workplace, especially his.

“I was a little taken aback by the tone, but I told her I would address it and make sure the person who asked the question wasn’t offended by the answer,” he said. “You have to control your temper. It was in front of a bunch of people, which was probably better, because I was forced to be calm.”

That employee is no longer with the company. (Mr. Altchek said she was let go for “performance-related issues.”)

meet the new employee, same as the old employee

“People are here from morning to night, and we don’t want to leave,” said Elizabeth Plank, 28, a high-energy reporter who lives in the East Village and hosted a video series called “Flip the Script,” which seeks to challenge assumptions like, “What Happens When a Lady ‘Manspreads.’”

Ms. Plank contrasted her freedoms at Mic to her previous job at a feminist nonprofit organization, which she regarded as exemplifying the outdated work practices of older people.

“We called people on phones and we — I don’t know — we faxed people,” Ms. Plank said, sounding exasperated. “And we had to mail things. And no one really took my opinion into consideration.”

At Mic, she was able to dabble in different jobs and negotiate grandiose titles like “executive social editor.” Often, she prefers the theater of tweeting back and forth with the editor she sits next to rather than speaking face to face.

“If you can be young at heart, I think it makes your personal, and not only your work life, better,” added Ms. Plank, who left for Vox last month after two and a half years at Mic.

the graf directly following ulysses' first quoted section has the reporter saying "A sense of entitlement is not the only stereotype attached to millennials in the workplace." lol so asking for an apology for religious discrimination is 'entitlement', in the opinion of this reporter? ceo fella actually sounds p reasonable about it

that article is horrible, it's like two anecdotes surrounded with random fluffy assertions that seem either obviously dumb and wrong or pointless and unprovable.

yep

“We called people on phones and we — I don’t know — we faxed people,” Ms. Plank said, sounding exasperated. “And we had to mail things. And no one really took my opinion into consideration.”

the "young at heart" quote is worse, at least the "we faxed people" one makes sense. Either way, both smack of cherry-picking quotes to make someone look like an idiot. Which is fair game, I guess.

http://fusion.net/story/283080/nyt-millennial-trend-story/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/fashion/rat-pack-brat-pack-snapchat.html

*farts*

http://fair.org/home/when-nyt-real-estate-stories-read-like-19th-century-colonial-dispatches/

(maybe one for the gentrification thread, but it's NYT specific, so...)

I read that link at first as "WHY nyt real estate stories..." and was intrigued.

Life is a series of disappointments.

http://www.elle.com/beauty/health-fitness/a28600/amanda-chantal-bacon-moon-juice-food-diary/

clickhole getting predictable these days tbh

a rare edition of "the hunt" that feels like what hunting for an apartment in new york feels like for most people
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/realestate/a-bed-stuy-apartment-well-known-terrain.html

my "NY Today" email opens:

Good morning on this meh Friday.

"Meh Friday" is traditionally observed in the Hamptons. Tinged with melancholy, it is the 2nd-to-last Friday before Labor Day, and therefore the final weekend before you have to start thinking about packing things up for the summer.

Mom and Dad's $400k plus a program meant for people who can't afford homes in NY = success
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/realestate/an-unexpected-route-to-williamsburg.html?_r=0

v good tipsy

“Throwing my money away in rent was making me nauseous.”

i have heard this tone deaf mess in conversations w other 20 somethings and in every case it was in a convo about acquisition of real estate via mom & dad, either outright or via "help with a downpayment" a la this profile. not sure if it's meant to be a justification/guilt-driven rationalization for accepting a gift of this size or what.

also, i mean, come on...

She decided to find out what $400,000 would buy elsewhere in Brooklyn. “I am a person who can make a lot out of nothing,”

makin' love makin' love
(out of nothing at all)

bwahahaha xp

feel like you may not be joking tipsy

400k in nyc might feel like nothing if you grew up scion of the owner of an 8 mil brownstone
but in that hypothetical, said scion is of course fooling themselves.

mixed feelings here
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/realestate/when-the-dog-decides-where-you-live.html

the human protags of this article are literally named the Funds.