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

All Karen Hendrickson wanted was the latest pocketbook from Gucci, the Sylvie, with a glittering gold chain down the front.

But she had to explain herself over and over to police officers who stopped and questioned her, and searched her shopping bags as she sought to cross Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. She was trying to reach the Gucci flagship store on the corner of 56th Street, but her shopping trip had an unusual impediment: Gucci is inside Trump Tower. Fifty-eight stories above is the penthouse of President-elect Donald J. Trump, who was engaged in the rocky business of selecting his administration.

Well, if this doesn't turn them against him, I don't know what will.

via deadspin: this is from a toronto star article but w/e i didn't know where else to put it.

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/ujonl99cvplfh7gneaso.png

septum piercing really makes that for me

Is he going to raise that kale in place of a son?

that is his large green son

His son's name is Kyle.

I had a vasectomy, but it was for sensible and practical reasons. I 'celebrated' by wearing an ice bag on my scrotum for hours afterward.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/04/business/media/jolly-green-giant-comeback.html

“We’re going to make him more relevant, more socially active with the consumer, and bring him into today’s world” = two tickets to a better reality than this one, please.

Jolly Green died on his way back to his home planet, etc

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/your-money/talking-to-children-about-inheritance.html

it's like they know about this thread

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/realestate/where-to-live-when-the-l-train-shuts-down.html

Mr. Gannon’s new one-bedroom on Orchard will be more expensive, at $3,200 a month, than the $2,200 he paid in Williamsburg. But “the fact that there is a lot going on” in his new neighborhood, he said, “compares favorably.”

$1000 worth of free goings-on hopeefully

Mr. Gannon's time is money.

Spayd out: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-times-public-editor_us_592ec472e4b0e95ac1956706?4r9

our long national nightmare is over

lol wait they're eliminating the role entirely?!

not content to wreck accountability during her tenure, she now wrecks it indefinitely into the future

"We're replacing the public editor with more comments sections" is the worst idea for accountability that I've ever heard pic.twitter.com/aS4AcW2W6J

— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) May 31, 2017

otoh it does sound like the thesis of a Liz Spayd column

Can we just have a "rolling NYT into the shitbin" to combine this and the "death of newspapers" thread and the Brooks and Douthat and Friedman and every other thread where this rag gets linked in a "does it get worse? Yes it does!" context

no. this thread must remain pure(-ish)

they will never be pure until they return to paper only a nd stop thjis i n t e r n e t thing

http://torontolife.com/real-estate/parkdale-reno-hell/

"we bought impulsively"

that particular clusterfuck made the rounds on twitter

there are so many weird-ass things going on that the gentrification/treatment of the people who were technically squatting is just the iceberg tip

jesus christ

We considered cutting the electricity, changing the locks or just starting the demolition with the tenants inside, but it didn’t feel right.

Dude you are right the whole article is just mega

article wasnt really a quid/ag but this quote in the real estate section abt salisbury, ct & y this dude bought a second home there is a gem

“There’s a softball game on Sundays open to anyone,” he said, adding that he had struggled to get into games in Central Park.

that Toronto piece, wow

a spreadsheet of 40 contractors and they choose some random sketchy dude who rides up on a bicycle because he suggested "skylights in the attic" holy fuck

as a born and bred torontonian, some things: 1) toronto life exists for this type of hate journalism (the whole magazine is real estate); 2) this has to be their finest moment; and 3) my favorite moment walking through parkdale was in the snow clutching some king cans eight years ago after the first destination bistro had opened. this couple was summing up their meal quietly outside, until booming down a blanketed queen street someone yelled 'i'll stab you motherfucker.' and then it was all silent again.

like christmas.

oh my god these people

i just got to the part where the sketchy bicycle dude tears down their porch on a whim - We didn’t like his rogue decision making, but if it meant we’d be saving money, we could live with it = wtttttttttfffffffffffffffffffffffffffff is wronnnnnnnnnnnng with you

right? real canadians would have apologized for disliking his rogue decision making

also noteworthy that the entire prologue establishing how run-down and filthy and inhuman the house was (none of which matches the photos put alongside btw) actually has nothing crucially to do with the main 'plot,' in terms of real estate and finances and the renovation. it's just there to heighten the sense of SCARY POOR PEOPLE AND DRUGGIES AND HIPSTERS from whence this "grande dame" was wrested. like it's leftover from a draft begun before everything went south, in those halcyon days when they looked forward to writing an uplifting "before and after" story with a bunch of matched-up photos of the "bathtub full of black liquid" (not pictured) and then the glistening new clawfoot bathtub etc. etc.

i also love how credulously they buy into what seems to be the sellers' assertion that everyone calls it the "grande dame" when there is no clear reason to think anyone would. nice house and all but judging by the one next door it doesn't seem like it would stand out on the block. my god the husband is just an incredible moron.

I know, right? I have been in houses with really slobby people who had money that looked worse because they were in between cleaning services!

also how the fuck do you go from a spreadsheet of 40 possible contractors to hiring a dude who came by on a bicycle

like my dream is that neighbors will have really competent contractors and I will hire them to do some work but I would check if they had insurance or w/e before letting them do tucking foundation work

*fucking, although tucking may be appropriate

"Like many of you, I spit out my canapé in shock whilst reading the tragic story of the Humprheys-Jheon family in Toronto Life. These pioneering spirits just wanted what any of us deserve - a three-storey detached home on a corner lot in a rapidly-gentrifying neighbourhood like Parkdale."

https://www.gofundme.com/help-this-brave-gentrifier-family

Although, what if they make their goal???

Oh my god same people:

http://cottagelife.com/realestate/the-story-of-how-one-young-family-found-their-dream-cottage-for-59000

“You guys are so badass,” our friends told us. Once we knew the cottage was ours, I felt a rush of adrenalin—“Did we just do what I think we did?” mixed with “We can’t believe our good luck!”

and they own land in tulum as well??

People with this much stupid should not be allowed to have that much money.

The comments on that article are gold.

You know someone has never done physical labour when they wear knee pads upside down

After coming across this article a while back, I started to wonder if Bill Burr's bit about torpedoing cruise ships to control population might have some legs.

http://nypost.com/2017/05/27/why-these-couples-would-rather-live-on-cruise-ships-than-on-land/

I just found out that one of my bosses (who I hate) bought a "summer home" this year. She's younger than I am and already owns a free-standing house with a yard and a pool in a suburban part of Brooklyn that's only a mile from the beach. What does she need a summer home for? God only knows. To give her lapdog a change of scenery. Anyway, that's just my resentment and also how much I hate her speaking.

The Toronto people are basically how I feel about my landlords. They ponied up 1.2 million, a record price for that type of building in the neighborhood that doubtless pushed up other sales around it, without the slightest idea of how structurally unsound the building was. They got a nasty surprise when their unlicensed contractor found their bathroom walls rotted out to the brick facade, and the kitchen window falling out of the wall. And they have no clue about maintenance, that you don't just own a building without doing things to it. A couple of weeks ago our kitchen walls leaked a few gallons of rainwater because the owners neglected to have the gutters cleaned for [x] years, and they overflowed through what is probably a big hole in the roof or wall somewhere. They were like "GOOD NEWS! It was just the gutters! Problem all fixed" when there's no way that's true.

I might just be hungover and cranky today but I'm feeling a new low lately with regard to my prospects of future home-ownership and other people's stupidity.

^ feeling this.

future home-ownership is not the way to go for anyone near a coast under 50. you'll just have to flee inland.

invest that money in a yacht imo