That sort of thing has been done better many times by many other sites.
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Tuesday, 5 July 2016 00:29 (eight years ago) link
i'm easy.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 5 July 2016 01:09 (eight years ago) link
for some reason seeing all those pictures of her made me laugh! i haven't thought about her in a while.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 5 July 2016 01:10 (eight years ago) link
The opening sentences of the article qualx linked to:
On Sept. 29, 1973, Peter Schjeldahl and Brooke Alderson, who had met the previous spring at an opening at the Whitney Museum, moved into an apartment on the top floor of a walk-up at 53 St. Marks Place. It was the day W. H. Auden died, a fact that seemed to portend the lush bohemian life that followed.
wtfh?
― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Tuesday, 5 July 2016 01:21 (eight years ago) link
This one is a masterpiece of the form:
http://observer.com/2016/04/are-we-doing-this-wrong-the-doubts-of-one-wealthy-new-yorker/
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Wednesday, 6 July 2016 15:18 (eight years ago) link
yeah, that is more like it. sorry, i promise never to link to Jezebel again. it was a slow news week! this is right out of Dickens:
Al and I are—technically—wealthy. We earn a substantial sum, one that comes with a hefty six-figure tax bill and a place near the bottom of the infamous “one percent.”
But despite the illusion of wealth on our pay stubs, I buy clothes on clearance with an additional Friends & Family discount code. I buy bourbon with a 10 percent-off coupon from the blue Valpak mailer addressed to “SMART SHOPPER.” And once, I cut a paper towel in half to make the roll last longer when the select-a-size roll I wanted wasn’t on sale. When that day comes—when you stand in your kitchen with scissors in your hand and turn one quicker picker-upper into two—even the most steadfast New Yorker starts to question what you’re doing here.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 6 July 2016 15:48 (eight years ago) link
this is an A+ comment:
Jonas Schmidt · University of Massachusetts Amherst
Only the rich could write about something so commonplace as being poor and have it published.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · May 17, 2016 9:51pm
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Wednesday, 6 July 2016 15:53 (eight years ago) link
i'm untechnically poor in nyc, wonder if i can get a column
― helpless before THRILLARY (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 6 July 2016 15:55 (eight years ago) link
And once, I cut a paper towel in half to make the roll last longer when the select-a-size roll I wanted wasn’t on sale
and the heavens parted
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 6 July 2016 15:58 (eight years ago) link
I tear off bits of kitchen roll to suit my purposes & not waste the extra all the time. Didn't realise this was a marker of abject penury. Alas, alack, woe is me.
― emil.y, Wednesday, 6 July 2016 15:58 (eight years ago) link
Aside from all the rage-gawking, their finances literally make no sense. Like unless the husband has a secret cocaine habit or something I cannot figure out how, with their housing expenses and their income, even assuming large student loan payments, they can't live larger than she claims.
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Wednesday, 6 July 2016 15:59 (eight years ago) link
Maybe they are socking away an obscene sum for retirement? Do they take $35,000 worth of vacations every year? Like I am supporting two kids in New York City on sooooooo much less money and basically feel like we live a materially good life albeit can't save that much.
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Wednesday, 6 July 2016 16:01 (eight years ago) link
Well, they clearly buy ridiculous things - hence the baby grand piano that they have in their "tiny" apartment (note to author - if you can fit a baby grand in it, it's not tiny).
― emil.y, Wednesday, 6 July 2016 16:02 (eight years ago) link
I mean, in some ways I get it - the area that I come from was in days of yore called "bread & lard island", because the story goes that the people who moved there would spend their money on their nice big house and live off nothing but bread and lard in private. I understand that there is often a disparity between appearance and reality. I also understand that rents/house prices in major metropolitan areas are obscene and something really should be done about it. But I don't feel sorry for these people at all. They have plenty of choices, plenty of options, and if the worst things that happen to them include having to cut bits off kitchen roll or use a voucher to save some money, they can honestly just go fuck themselves.
― emil.y, Wednesday, 6 July 2016 16:06 (eight years ago) link
It's a relatively minor quiddity but I can't wrap my head around thing like a $250k inheritance meriting less than a sentence. $250k is change your life money!
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Wednesday, 6 July 2016 16:08 (eight years ago) link
They bought a $735,000 co-op and used an inheritance for the down payment, so it's not like they have a multi-million-dollar mortgage to pay off. Even if their co-op fees are like $1500 or $2000 /month their housing costs should be a pretty small fraction of their take-home pay. Something is obviously missing from the story.
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Wednesday, 6 July 2016 16:10 (eight years ago) link
Their horse habit.
― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 6 July 2016 16:52 (eight years ago) link
it's really worth reading til the end. her way out of this suffocating sitch? buy a cottage in the country! now why didn't I think of that??
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 6 July 2016 21:06 (eight years ago) link
it's the really the perfect twist
― Number None, Wednesday, 6 July 2016 21:46 (eight years ago) link
this is the prize winner for the year so far. it's gonna take something remarkably tone deaf to beat this.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 6 July 2016 21:55 (eight years ago) link
top three moments for me:
"he was eating nuts in his underwear..."
“I’m going to cut you, white bitch!”
"playing outside with our beloved dog Tuck Noodle..."
― scott seward, Wednesday, 6 July 2016 21:59 (eight years ago) link
I should really read the Observer more often!
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Wednesday, 6 July 2016 22:05 (eight years ago) link
I tapped out after "Instead we silently watch our paychecks turn to vapor as we pay for our high taxes and uncomfortable home."
And whining about an hour long commute? Fuck, come live in Australia, plenty of people -wealthy people even! - commute for much longer than that to get to the city for their jobs.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, 6 July 2016 23:55 (eight years ago) link
How can this story even be real?? Bottom of the 1%, mortgage under a mil, mid-30s (so at least a large part of the student loans are paid off given their income) - they must be tucking away an awful lot and sharing with family or something. But like investing half your giant pay check by choice does not make you technically poor... Or at least doesn't give you reason to write a piece bemoaning your so called sorry state! So funny and weird
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Thursday, 7 July 2016 00:00 (eight years ago) link
I hope her name's in the Panama papers
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Thursday, 7 July 2016 00:01 (eight years ago) link
country house mentionedguessing the mortgage is one piece of it but the building fees on a monthly basis are equal to (or even greater than) the mortgage paymentwould put money down on them paying for at least one garage space for a car, maybe two cars? and then a car payment or two, maybe paying for a spot to park near work (would think a law office would cover that, but idk)they offhand mentioned lots of school years so it's completely possible they still have student loanspretty sure the "clearance plus friends & family discount)" means lots of impulse buys at banana republic, not that expensive, but throwing both those on there ("and I even have two discounts!") implies they are switching up the wardrobe quite a bitbuying things at a discount via coupon packs, suuure. but how about aspirational lunches with coworkers in the law profession?
― mh, Thursday, 7 July 2016 00:11 (eight years ago) link
"bread & lard island" is wonderfully named
back when suburban houses started getting unnecessarily large the running joke was that it was a nice house in a good school district, but it'd be nice to have some furniture to sit on
I think real estate developments caught on and there were these "buy a house in our development, get $2k to spend at local furniture warehouse!" advertisements
― mh, Thursday, 7 July 2016 00:14 (eight years ago) link
Oh god I should have posted the link a (frugal) cousin of mine liked on FB recently - it was some Canberran lady writing a smug blog about how she's going to pay off her mortgage within like a year by being frugal
Oh and selling off most of her ten ... TEN.. .investment properties.
>:|
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Thursday, 7 July 2016 00:45 (eight years ago) link
WHO HAS TEN INVESTMENT PROPERTIES BY THEIR 30S.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Thursday, 7 July 2016 00:46 (eight years ago) link
Btw there is no major law firm in the city that's anything close to an hour by subway from Carnegie Hill. The furthest would be maybe half an hour.
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Thursday, 7 July 2016 01:00 (eight years ago) link
honestly, i buy clothes every ten years and wear shoes until they fall off my feet but if i lived in manhattan and had money to spend i could spend A LOT of money without even trying. i spend a lot of money now in the woods and i don't even have any money.
point being: if i made 500K a year and didn't have kids and lived in NYC i would probably be broke too. cuz trips to record stores in london every weekend...
but she makes a point of mentioning the stupid frozen pizza...i think we just have to take it on faith that she is lying about stuff and hiding stuff.
― scott seward, Thursday, 7 July 2016 01:09 (eight years ago) link
There have been other articles in this genre where peoplewrite really clueless things like "after the personal trainer three times a week, the dog yoga classes, and the ski lessons for the kids there's not much left over." Sometimes I wonder if it's actually people who didn't come from much money or a highly educated family and just never learned to manage money. But maybe that's being charitable.
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Thursday, 7 July 2016 01:18 (eight years ago) link
Even if not lying, she is totally leaving a lot on the cutting room floor here. I'm genuinely curious about where their money actually goes! Even if they were spending $5000 a month on housing and $2000 on student loan payments and $3000 on savings, there's plenty left over if they're making $389,000 combined (according to cnn money that's the latest irs info on 1% income threshold), let alone more than that, with a 23.5% fed tax rate and 6.85% state tax rate. I think the discount frozen pizza line just really put me over the edge. Are they donating huge chunks to low income area daycares and food banks? Are they secret venture capitalists? Also, it's not hard or $$ to get someone to fix your freakin shower door.
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Thursday, 7 July 2016 01:43 (eight years ago) link
If you read the comments there are people who do a pretty thorough work up of their finances and can't make sense of it.
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Thursday, 7 July 2016 01:45 (eight years ago) link
Ah I didn't venture into the comments but that's good to hear! In a way
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Thursday, 7 July 2016 01:49 (eight years ago) link
maybe their accountant is screwing them over
― j., Thursday, 7 July 2016 02:11 (eight years ago) link
Husband is spending Spitzer money on hookers?
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 7 July 2016 02:32 (eight years ago) link
this is a really good cover letter for first-against-the-wall candidacy
― qualx, Thursday, 7 July 2016 06:17 (eight years ago) link
i just really hope they have someone in their lives who made them feel bad about this
i can't handle this thread
according to this she had a $30/day cigarette habit for a long time, so that adds up I guess
http://observer.com/2015/12/from-awkward-teen-to-cigar-lounge-queen-how-cigarettes-brought-me-to-life/
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 7 July 2016 15:25 (eight years ago) link
i went to her tweet where she shares this column and all the responses are like 'omg so true, thanks for saying this'
― mookieproof, Thursday, 7 July 2016 16:29 (eight years ago) link
My new crowd of women didn’t smoke, ordered Earl Grey tea at happy hour, and apportioned dinner checks precisely with a calculator.
Fuck, give me the cancer sticks.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 7 July 2016 16:39 (eight years ago) link
earl grey tea is solid tho
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 7 July 2016 18:14 (eight years ago) link
i am in love with the wissotzky earl grey tea i bought at stop & shop last week. smells so good. have no idea what the deal is with wissotzky. probably owned by lipton.
― scott seward, Thursday, 7 July 2016 18:43 (eight years ago) link
not owned by lipton. my apologies to the wissotzky family.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wissotzky_Tea
― scott seward, Thursday, 7 July 2016 18:47 (eight years ago) link
oh yeah that's for sure good tea. I also recommend Ahmad. These are the brands they carry at my local Russian/eastern European grocer and I imagine that people who shop there probably drink more tea and have better standards for it.
― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Thursday, 7 July 2016 18:47 (eight years ago) link
a company once run by the founder of cultural Zionism, fyi.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahad_Ha%27am
― scott seward, Thursday, 7 July 2016 18:49 (eight years ago) link
according to this she had a $30/day cigarette habit for a long time,
*I* had a $30 a day cig habit on $40k a year, and i managed fine.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Friday, 8 July 2016 01:52 (eight years ago) link
(caveat: thats one pack here. smokes are EXPENSIVE)
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Friday, 8 July 2016 01:54 (eight years ago) link
jesus wasn't that like more than your rent?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 8 July 2016 03:53 (eight years ago) link