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― s1ocki, Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:01 (4 years ago) Permalink
The only problem was money. Having separated from my wife of 21 years, who had physical custody of our sons, I was handing over $4,000 a month in alimony and child-support payments. That left me with take-home pay of $2,777, barely enough to make ends meet in a one-bedroom rental apartment. Patty had yet to even look for a job.
Found it very hard to read past this paragraph for the reason of my head being filled with visions of these two idiots burning in an eternal lake of fire.
― naturally unfunny, though mechanically sound (Pancakes Hackman), Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:01 (4 years ago) Permalink
the best part of that photo is the kid on dog in the background
― ultra-generic sub-noize persona (Matt P), Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:04 (4 years ago) Permalink
little orphan annie back there
― ultra-generic sub-noize persona (Matt P), Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:05 (4 years ago) Permalink
^yea srsly i didnt even notice that at first
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:05 (4 years ago) Permalink
guys do you realize what this means? the economic crisis is even affecting rich people! this means it is really newsworthy!! it's like when straight people started getting hiv!!!
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:35 (4 years ago) Permalink
what's a quiddity?
― Philip Nunez, Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:36 (4 years ago) Permalink
think of the barefoot girls laying on dogs on the porches of brick homes in silver spring, md. x-post
― ultra-generic sub-noize persona (Matt P), Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:36 (4 years ago) Permalink
“I feel as if I am finally at home,” she exclaimed as soon as we moved into the house. She could settle down and do the things she had always been best at: making a new home, nurturing her children and loving me.
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:38 (4 years ago) Permalink
But eventually:
The frosted-crystal shade on a beloved Italian floor lamp was cracked. The dog had gnawed the leg on her Biedermeier chair.
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:44 (4 years ago) Permalink
The Khaki Class
― man, i love collages (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:44 (4 years ago) Permalink
Thread of ;_;
― Dom P's Rusty Nuts (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:46 (4 years ago) Permalink
I can't really join in on any rich-people schadenfreude here, because it sounds to me like this guy is not of some far-distant social class, and the $4k alimony/child-support + take-home of $2.75k equation actually does sound pretty rough to me -- what's weird about it is to read the contention that this felt like a natural situation to wind up falling into; I suppose at that age and social situation it might, but of the many people I know who take home around that much money a month, I can surely tell you that not that many of them expect homes on it, and I'm not even just talking about the ones in New York.
― nabisco, Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:52 (4 years ago) Permalink
I mean, judging by that equation we might estimate an income in the general neighborhood of $100k a year, which is certainly pleasant but not some sort of distant class of wealth and privilege whose travails I might comfortably laugh at.
― nabisco, Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:54 (4 years ago) Permalink
On one hand -- ugh, fuck this guy.
On the other hand, I have to give him credit for a little reality check. I just paid off the last of my credit card debt and I have a fixed rate mortgage, so I need to quit waking up at 4 a.m. and worrying about money.
On the 3rd hand, nice work of him to pull his story together and sell it to W.W. Norton.
― resistance is feudal (WmC), Thursday, 14 May 2009 23:56 (4 years ago) Permalink
you've got three hands? surely you can swing a book deal out of that.
― macaulay culkin's bukkake shocker (bug), Friday, 15 May 2009 00:04 (4 years ago) Permalink
it's true, nabisco - he never really was that rich, especially by the standards of the new york times - but he sure lives and writes like he is. which is of course where the trouble started. getting a monthly keelhaul from the ex didn't help, either - i wonder if he writes about that in his book? - but i think this man's most basic problem was imagining that a take-home of $2500 monthly was enough to buy a half-mil pile. it's enough to make a casual reader think that the financial crisis really is a result of damn fools like him. in any case, this thread isn't for schadenfreude per se - but don't let that stop you - it's a record of what kinds of voices the new york times tends to lean on.
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 15 May 2009 00:44 (4 years ago) Permalink
i'm struck by his weaselly evasion of responsibility - despite the mea culpa undertones, he makes his wonderful new lady friend sound like a spendthrift bitch and says that his total lack of financial awareness was a symptom of the "same infection" that brought low the titans of industry. fat chance, ed.
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 15 May 2009 00:47 (4 years ago) Permalink
i think this man's most basic problem was imagining that a take-home of $2500 monthly was enough to buy a half-mil pile
not enough OTM in the world for this
― butt-rock miyagi (rogermexico.), Friday, 15 May 2009 01:22 (4 years ago) Permalink
loooool @ tracer hand: voice of the underclass
― (Palm) springs sprungs (Lamp), Friday, 15 May 2009 01:26 (4 years ago) Permalink
I had assumed we would start by renting a house or an apartment, but it quickly became clear that it was almost easier to borrow a half-million dollars and buy something.
― languid samuel l. jackson (jim), Friday, 15 May 2009 01:28 (4 years ago) Permalink
n.e.way: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/garden/14aaron.html
ny times does seem to have a thing for pictures of the sprawled daughters of the leisure class in front of their itlianate mansions
― (Palm) springs sprungs (Lamp), Friday, 15 May 2009 01:29 (4 years ago) Permalink
sorry Lamp i missed the part where you had a point
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 15 May 2009 09:16 (4 years ago) Permalink
my takeaway from this article is that our "elite" journos are often just as ignorant and greedy as the rest of us humps -- not to mention that i feel a bit smug seeing how shitty the media's coverage of the whole real estate/subprime mess was.
― Pull Slinky and Make Me Fart (Eisbaer), Friday, 15 May 2009 14:40 (4 years ago) Permalink
lol South
― "the whale saw her" (gabbneb), Friday, 15 May 2009 14:45 (4 years ago) Permalink
i don't know crap about this guy, nor do i care, BUT
when i was 22 i dated this very cute but not-very-smart guy. it was long distance, so we wrote a lot of letters (this was in the lol 90s). in one letter he told me that being with me made him feel "quidity". i smugly laughed a little because i figured that he meant "tranquility" and wow was this guy adorable for not being able to use a dictionary. then i looked up the word "quidity" and realized that it was real (although not what he meant, i am 100% sure)
this thread is the first time i have ever actually seen anyone use this word. the end.
― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Friday, 15 May 2009 14:46 (4 years ago) Permalink
maybe he was like "wow she thinks my made-up word means something.. what a dim-bulb"
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 15 May 2009 15:08 (4 years ago) Permalink
what do you think he actually meant?
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 15 May 2009 15:09 (4 years ago) Permalink
pretty sure he meant tranquility, like comfort (i remember this from context, but really this was a long time ago and i can't remember much about the situation aside from this strange misused word)
― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Friday, 15 May 2009 15:14 (4 years ago) Permalink
Megan McArdle on the piece. Judge for yourself.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 May 2009 16:19 (4 years ago) Permalink
Actually I kind of like her points?
― But not someone who should be dead anyway (Laurel), Friday, 15 May 2009 16:28 (4 years ago) Permalink
ya i mean... not really sure why this piece is as contempt-worthy as some are making it out to be. it's kind of brutally depressing.
― s1ocki, Friday, 15 May 2009 16:29 (4 years ago) Permalink
It is in a 'there-but-for' sense for sure. Not that I was ever going to try and be an economics reporter for the NY Times, but as time has passed I'm beginning to think the soundest piece of advice I've ever received in regard to writing was something J. D. Considine told me years ago -- 1993 or so -- in response to a random e-mail or two I sent him. He pretty much said, "Freelancing and journalism is very hard work and you should only pursue it on a full-time basis if you are willing to stick to that level." I'm honestly glad I heeded that and I think what you see in both pieces, regardless of whatever else feeds into their respective situations, reflects that.
At the same time, I'm trying to put my finger on what still jars about McArdle's response and it seems to be this sense of keeping up with the Joneses as paramount driving factor/potential excuse. At what point is leisure travelling to Europe, for instance, a 'minimum necessity' -- and I speak as one who's been there a number of times now. Still, I realize it's a sliding scale, says the person who has participated in a CSA thing with a local farmer for some years now.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 May 2009 16:37 (4 years ago) Permalink
Literal translation: quiddity = whatness
― anatol_merklich, Friday, 15 May 2009 16:43 (4 years ago) Permalink
Ned, I read her response as being more about the foolhardiness of ever thinking ANY of those things are necessities. She seems to be (gently) chiding that whole tendency?
― But not someone who should be dead anyway (Laurel), Friday, 15 May 2009 16:50 (4 years ago) Permalink
Yah... she's just sayin' that you hang with people for whom this is true, you wake up with fleas
― butt-rock miyagi (rogermexico.), Friday, 15 May 2009 17:17 (4 years ago) Permalink
I think maybe something to add to McArdle's response is that we have this general cultural tendency to view attention as somehow related to money, a connection that really falls apart when it comes to writers of all sorts -- it's very easy to withhold sympathy from people writing about their woes in public, as if they're coming from a position of privilege or just courting attention, but in plenty of cases they don't have much concrete privilege and writing about their experiences is just, you know, work.
he never really was that rich, especially by the standards of the new york times - but he sure lives and writes like he is. which is of course where the trouble started. getting a monthly keelhaul from the ex didn't help, either - i wonder if he writes about that in his book? - but i think this man's most basic problem was imagining that a take-home of $2500 monthly was enough to buy a half-mil pile.
Yeah, exactly -- although if I had to summarize a problem here it would basically be that a middle-aged family-man homeowner with a decent salary expected to continue living like a middle-aged family-man homeowner with a decent salary, even after a divorce that meant the bulk of his income was going to support a family home occupied by other people. This is an unrealistic and dumb expectation to seriously act on -- you'd think that $4k would be a good monthly reminder that situations done changed -- but I can totally have sympathy for the situation itself; that would suck. It would be painful to have to support the family home you used to live in and have to support yourself and your new family on a fraction of what you're earning.
― nabisco, Friday, 15 May 2009 17:47 (4 years ago) Permalink
The other thing is that -- while he can't and doesn't come out and say this directly -- his one list of charges makes me suspect a bunch of money was getting borrowed to maintain a certain lifestyle for the kids
― nabisco, Friday, 15 May 2009 18:00 (4 years ago) Permalink
I thought he said that very directly just by listing all those expenses! (I note though that he does seem to say even more directly that his wife did that too.)
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 May 2009 18:02 (4 years ago) Permalink
Haha yeah, I guess the unsayable "direct" thing I had in mind was like "these KIDS were bankrupting us (that's right, Alex, I'm talking about you)"
I was going to jump past boggling at the beach house rental and wonder about the $700 at J. Crew, but I guess if you needed, like, one good suit and some decent sweaters for Christmas presents ... the world really does hold you to your socio-economic status, doesn't it -- even beyond nobody wanting to be the guy who gets divorced and suddenly has to start showing up to work in cheap suits, it'd be tough to be the guy making $100k who's like "I got you a candy bar for Christmas!"
― nabisco, Friday, 15 May 2009 18:22 (4 years ago) Permalink
yeah the erm narrative here is anyways at least partly "but banking professionals who should be my Friends and Advisors assured us it would be alright!"?
However fishy such blanket blame is in general, I'm not sure it's entirely misplaced re how things rolled out this cycle. At one point around 2006, I momentarily had a crazy amount of money in my account due to family property reorg stuff, and was by phone promptly invited to an "advisement meeting" with a dude at my bank, who tried to convince me he had the correct %ages I should place my assets in (all mediated by said bank, obv). (I still was in net debt though!) I was all very cynical and noncommittal, which is not due to my deep insight or anything, just because my current boss worked in a bank in the early 00s and has spilled much shit on how those outfits operate(d?). (My fave morsel: the guys who construct the deals don't actually inform the salespeople abt all potential downsides and builtin fees, as this may hurt their sales!)
I don't think this guy deserves much point-and-laugh, btw, though it is obv somewhat funny he writes on economics.
― anatol_merklich, Friday, 15 May 2009 18:55 (4 years ago) Permalink
I don't know that that's a big surface narrative, given the "I wasn't duped" and the bit about how a banking professional's refinancing maneuvers actually worked to carve down some debt
― nabisco, Friday, 15 May 2009 19:00 (4 years ago) Permalink
it's about even someone who should have known better made some really dumb mistakes, which is always a story worth telling imo
― s1ocki, Friday, 15 May 2009 19:11 (4 years ago) Permalink
A weird thing about "quiddity" is that the first definition, "essence", seems to be the opposite of the second definition, "a trifling point". So it can either refer to the essence of something or a minor, trifling detail? Confusing. I have a feeling that it's a word that's rarely used correctly.
― o. nate, Friday, 15 May 2009 19:13 (4 years ago) Permalink
my point is that there are hundreds of thousands of people with stories just like this who don't write for the new york times and have six-figure salaries who are perhaps just a leeetle more representative of the mortgage fallout going on right now - my pointing and laughing is at the editors, not this poor schmuck
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 15 May 2009 19:17 (4 years ago) Permalink
well, they wanted a personal, first-perosn story, so going with a new york times writer... kinda makes sense, no?
― s1ocki, Friday, 15 May 2009 19:19 (4 years ago) Permalink
he will die at some point
― cool app (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Friday, 15 May 2009 19:22 (4 years ago) Permalink
can't write about that tho
That's a fair point, Tracer, but the fact that the Times can be willfully class-blind is hardly news to anyone who's ever read the Style section, for instance.
― o. nate, Friday, 15 May 2009 19:22 (4 years ago) Permalink
what is sadder loss or death
― cool app (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Friday, 15 May 2009 19:23 (4 years ago) Permalink
I agree with the premise but could it have been more annoyingly delivered
― 乒乓, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:01 (2 months ago) Permalink
all u need is a babe a laptop and tons of money is p otm
― lag∞n, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:02 (2 months ago) Permalink
my babe folds into my wall in my studio
― 乒乓, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:06 (2 months ago) Permalink
My circumstances are unusual (not everyone gets an Internet windfall before turning 30),
fyi I'm kind of a big deal
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:13 (2 months ago) Permalink
"the black turbocharged Volvo...with a remote starter!" is really where the lols began to set in, imo
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:14 (2 months ago) Permalink
u can travel all u want as long as u buy carbon offsets
― 乒乓, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:16 (2 months ago) Permalink
how much are asshole offsets
― Donkamole Marvin (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:17 (2 months ago) Permalink
and just in case you missed it the firt time, once more with feeling: I’m lucky, obviously; not everyone gets a windfall from a tech start-up sale.
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:17 (2 months ago) Permalink
"show of hands: who here has an internet windfall"
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:19 (2 months ago) Permalink
You should figure out how to stop living in a house, and instead jet around the world with your girlfriend, selling companies from your laptop. It's pretty sweet.
― schwantz, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:21 (2 months ago) Permalink
I gave an old lute I haven't played in years to a friend. This is fun. Now I'm almost done, and it is really true that less is more.
pshh, she'd never see u if u had no lute.
― Hunt3r, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:21 (2 months ago) Permalink
step 1: find beautiful ladystep 2: ?step 3: success + tiny house
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:22 (2 months ago) Permalink
loooooooool hunt3r
Members of every socioeconomic bracket can and do deluge themselves with products.
not sure you totally understand socioeconomics :(
― This is called money bags. (zachlyon), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:22 (2 months ago) Permalink
HALP I AM DROWNING IN LUTES
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:23 (2 months ago) Permalink
― 乒乓, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:25 (2 months ago) Permalink
so minimalist i even sold all my colors
A compulsive entrepreneur, I worked all the time and started new companies from an office that fit in my solar backpack.
― 乒乓, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:26 (2 months ago) Permalink
my solar backpack.
― 乒乓, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:27 (2 months ago) Permalink
finally i told olga, i don't need the burden of a girl all the time, it's more efficient to rent one when i really need one. do svidaniya.
― Hunt3r, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:29 (2 months ago) Permalink
this guy had it all and he gave it up to live in a hip loft
― iatee, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:30 (2 months ago) Permalink
now its just me and my fleshlight under this bridge starting companies
― lag∞n, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:30 (2 months ago) Permalink
my solar fleshlight
― 乒乓, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:30 (2 months ago) Permalink
bragging about not having any CDs comes across pretty weird to anyone under 30
― iatee, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:31 (2 months ago) Permalink
bragging about solar backpacks comes across as loool
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:32 (2 months ago) Permalink
I realized I needed to downsize my life
I got rid of my 8-track player, all of my laserdisks, 10,000 floppy disks
― iatee, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:33 (2 months ago) Permalink
I realized that my floppy disks weren't even making me happy anymore
― iatee, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:34 (2 months ago) Permalink
his girlfriend was all 'ugh and he wears a solar backpack' to her friends behind his back
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:36 (2 months ago) Permalink
"I remember when you used to drive a turbocharged Volvo"
I bet his fold-out tables and beds cost more than all the furniture in my house.
― schwantz, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:37 (2 months ago) Permalink
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, March 11, 2013 7:36 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
now he's stuck with a solar-powered vulva
― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:43 (2 months ago) Permalink
its funny how he keeps getting these big places and then filling them w roommates cause they seem too big, maybe you just dont like roommates bruh
― lag∞n, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:43 (2 months ago) Permalink
he makes it sound like he bought them and had them installed
― This is called money bags. (zachlyon), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:44 (2 months ago) Permalink
irl lol @ hurting
omg
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:46 (2 months ago) Permalink
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:46 (2 months ago) Permalink
― 乒乓, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:52 (2 months ago) Permalink
if i were rich id just go ahead and get whatever size dwelling i felt like i needed so that the furniture didnt have to fold up cause that just seems like a hassle
― lag∞n, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:55 (2 months ago) Permalink
maybe he kept Seven around to fold up his furniture
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:56 (2 months ago) Permalink
then you need a closet to store seven then youve got to get some roommates the headaches never end
― lag∞n, Monday, 11 March 2013 23:57 (2 months ago) Permalink
put on yr solar backpack and just peace out
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 11 March 2013 23:59 (2 months ago) Permalink
workin on my tan startin some businesses
― 乒乓, Tuesday, 12 March 2013 00:01 (2 months ago) Permalink
― lag∞n, Monday, March 11, 2013 7:55 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
ain't nobody got time for that
― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 12 March 2013 00:18 (2 months ago) Permalink
i don't need a bed, i just go to bed hugging a tree koala style.
― Hunt3r, Tuesday, 12 March 2013 02:35 (2 months ago) Permalink
nice article about how great things were with your ex and how inspirational your life is, man
I predict a rebound spending binge any day now
― ☠ ☃ ☠ (mh), Tuesday, 12 March 2013 13:45 (2 months ago) Permalink
lol that this thread still isn't locked in favor of the other thread
― my god i only have 2 useless beyblade (silby), Wednesday, 13 March 2013 01:15 (2 months ago) Permalink
^^ that's a quiddity
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 13 March 2013 01:48 (2 months ago) Permalink