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

“If you’re a great active listener, they will remember you because you let them talk.” Her typical fee: $125 an hour.

Ms. von Sperling offers a Friday-to-Sunday intensive, for $8,000. One day is devoted to carrying yourself properly and the art of conversation.

Ms. von Sperling

Changing my name to Mr. von Aimless.

“I lost six pounds that week,” recalls Julie Baselice, whose daughter Christina is now a Chi Omega at the University of Texas. “It was the most stressful experience of my life.”

another classic name

Madeline D’Arcambal Braun, a Manhattan native entering her junior year at Indiana University Bloomington, says she had “absolutely no idea” why she wasn’t asked back.

Abigail Sullivan Moore is co-author of “The iConnected Parent: Staying Close to Your Kids in College (and Beyond) While Letting Them Grow Up.”

The iConnected Parent: Staying (REALLY) Close to Your (Mortified) Kids in College (and Forever) While Letting Them (Sorta Kinda) Grow Up (To Be Damaged Adults)

did the Times kill satire before Kissinger's Nobel Prize?

With the help of Ms. Foster and Ms. Grant,

Foster/Grant? Are you kidding me?

asked her to help their daughters get ready for rush at schools like Harvard

there are no sororities at Harvard fyi

there are no sororities/fraternities on the Harvard campus recognized by the school administration; that is not the same thing as there not being any sororities/fraternities (ps: there are)

And he should know. He went to...school in Boston.

... well, just outside of boston, actually.

otm

no, not Tufts...

(I spent most of my junior and senior year wondering if I should pledge Alpha Phi Alpha for the connections)

that must have cost you a fortune in consulting fees

lol

every time the thought crossed my mind, I remembered the dude whose leg was broken with a pledge paddle during rush and I decided "no"

http://i.imgur.com/6F42B.jpg

there are no sororities/fraternities on the Harvard campus recognized by the school administration; that is not the same thing as there not being any sororities/fraternities (ps: there are)

v. true, but unless things have changed a lot in recent years the self-declared sororities / fraternities play exactly zero role in harvard undergrad social life -- as in, i literally cannot name a single person who was a member of any greek society

Does that include finals clubs?

I saw those in that movie

no, I knew plenty of people in final clubs, they were a substantially bigger deal (though they played a far from dominant role)

Finals Club Destination

wtf is a final club?????

They're the not-so-secret clubs at Harvard that rich kids belong to. They play essentially the same role as frats.

Why are they called final clubs? Do not want to google for fear of. . . what I would find.

maybe they study for finals together

once you check in to a finals club... you don't check out.

(that's why they're called finals clubs - get it??)

I don't know exactly what's happening on campus now but during the early/mid 90s, there was definite frat/soro presence, particularly black fraternities and sororities (and, lol, Sigma Xi, who seemed to be a lot more about throwing parties than scientific research). There was a lot of partnering with MIT chapters as a result.

At least a quarter of the black students I knew in the Quad were in a frat.

my wife was asked to be in a finals club for GURLS but when she saw the financial commitment she basically laughed her ass off and said "um yeah, not happening"

The Bee! Does it still exist?

According to Wikipedia it does

A new store in Manhattan's trendy East Village neighborhood is selling New York City filtered tap water back to city residents. For a few extra dollars customers can add vitamins and herbal infusions to their filtered water.

Not just any tap water, insist the owners of Molecule. They say the water streams through a $25,000 filtering machine that uses ultraviolet rays, ozone treatments and reverse osmosis in a seven-stage processing treatment to create what they call pure H₂0.

<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444330904577535100599492544.html?mod=WSJ_NY_MIDDLELEADNewsCollection";>Wall Stret Journal</a>

I meant

To counteract critics, Molecule is planning a weekly naming ceremony to imbue its water with personality and Sunday blessings involving religious figures from all faiths, including Tibetan monks and pagan worshipers.

bottled water is such a con job

no way that store sounds great

"I mean it's subtle, but if you have a sensitive palate you can totally tell" the difference, said co-owner Adam Ruhf.

yo DO have a subtle palate dont you

lol shakey

fluffy, velvety water

not much agony here I guess, except for the reader

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/fashion/wythe-avenue-in-williamsburg-is-heating-up.html

Upstairs, a D.J. who resembled Jesus Christ played dub reggae, and when the sun crept below the jaw-dropping Manhattan skyline, it seemed to activate everyone’s internal Instagram clock. A sea of iPhones shot up to capture the blazing pink hues (#nofilter), as if the singer Grimes had just made a surprise appearance at a Skrillex concert.

Since Wythe refuses to do bottle service, determined drinkers (including a group of Swedes who kept barking orders for rosé wine) were forced to bring their own ice buckets to the outdoor tables. This is what passes for V.I.P. in the land of D.I.Y.

BYOIB

a) impressed that one can get that published in the nyt
b) kind of want to kill myself now

xp

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/7582/quojapanesejesusds1.jpg

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x230/justoj/DJ_Jesus_by_DeathKlown.jpg

as if the singer Grimes had just made a surprise appearance at a Skrillex concert.

hipsterfanfiction.tumblr.com

http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo346/HadrianVIII/quiddities-agonies.jpg

fwiw I just ate at the restaurant in the Wythe Hotel, the one on the ground floor. It's really good!

How can anyone who writes about New York City for a living still refer to waterfront Williamsburg as "the land of D.I.Y."? You might as well call the West Village "the land of folkies."