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

and, lol:

And: “I keep wondering how do I propel myself out of the bar world, where I look cute and pour beer, into a world where I have thoughtful conversation about the world rather than stuff like why do people clap at the end of good movies. Or, why do you think Heidi Klum married Seal? I don’t care why!”

what does she think a career in magazine writing is going to entail if not 800 word pieces about why people clap at the end of movies (btw i think this is rather interesting) or why heidi klum married seal (again this is sort of interesting too)

Kristy said she could do a photo display with the gnome bank that she had lugged around Newark, snapping pictures of it at the park, at a beauty store, in a police car.

if a rehash of an orbitz ad campaign is the best this girl can come up with for a blog shes going to be unemployed for a long time

Kristy decided to try to interest New York magazine in an article about the effect on kids who appear in unflattering YouTube videos.

clearly she forgot to ask the nyt

lol who am i kidding she just needs to start a tumblr and shell have a book deal in like 30 sec

lookatthisfuckinggnome.com

haha iatee

They claimed a couch upstairs at the Aroma Espresso Bar on West 72nd Street, where they like to ingest caffeine and comb the Web: Think, think, think.

real unemployed people would never buy coffee from an espresso bar

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/fashion/04ivy.html?_r=1&ref=fashion

Michal Albanese, a sales executive for a fashion trade show who graduated from Brown in 1999, confirmed that the list did breed insecurity in some at the group’s last party. A couple of guests were called out for not having gone to Ivy Plus universities, she said, and one gentleman began rattling off his other accomplishments.

“The guy went to, like, Illinois,” she said, trying to recall the college.

“I don’t remember,” she added. ”But his friend kept saying, ‘You’re not even a plus.’ ”

this must be where gabb is hanging now that he's been kicked offa ILXor.

joke is pretty obvious here but:

A guy hoping to start an online business was taking a $600 aptitude test to tell him what he’s good at.

Kristy recently friended an editor on Facebook, thinking that was the ticket. Zip.

?!?!?!?!?!? how would this ever get a person a job ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

haha eisbaer I not only linked that same article but picked that same quote upthread

is having a rutgers degree in nyc really that much better than having an ohio degree? it seems like a weird school to go cross country for, esp if it's gonna leave you $40,000 in debt

She is remarried and lives in Weehawken, N.J., selling items for estates and art dealers and doing freelance writing.

why arent they pitching to their moms editors to build a portfolio so that when they pitch ny mag they might actually have a shot

iatee: i know! sorry, forgot to put your name & post when i cut & paste it!!

Katie had been working at another bar, but was fired in June after landing in Cancun to begin a vacation.

............................

haha gotcha np

iatee: believe it or not, there are folks outside of NJ who think that Rutgers actually is a fancy pseudo-Ivy kinda school. plus there are tons of Rutgers alum in NYC ... just b/c of the proximity.

yeah I tried to parse that cancun sentence for 20 seconds

most of these articles piss me off in a sort of general way but this twins article gets to me in a really visceral way, probably because i am underemployed and looking for the same kind of opportunities they are and its like--they are doing pretty well all things considered!!

eis it wasn't a dig at rutgers, it's just weird when people go cross country to go to a state school where they'll have to pay ridiculous amounts. I mean it makes sense for rich kids who go to out of state michigan, but for people who have to worry about money...

iatee: i know you didn't mean it as a dig @ rutgers. i was trying to point out that it may make some sense for someone outside of the NYC metro area who wants to live there to travel cross-country to go to Rutgers b/c the school seems to have a good reputation nationwide (better than it does in NJ, for real!!) and b/c it probably does have a lot more alumni there (b/c of its proximity to NYC) than whatever her state school might be.

weird, that article about the ivy plus society contains quotes by two people who I went to high school with

yeah that makes sense. rutgers *does* have a weird ivy ring to it, too...I think you could convince some people here in CA that it was an ivy league school. of course people in CA have heard of about 10 colleges total, so...

iatee: true story -- when i was working in Stockton, CA a year ago, one of my co-workers (who lived all of her life in CA) really thought that Rutgers WAS an ivy league school -- and she went to STANFORD.

Before I knew anything at all about Rutgers I thought it might be an ivy league school, or at least some snooty private expensive place that fancies itself one. It's the single name without any mention of a state.

I secretly think that Berkeley benefits from the same principle. More state schools should rename themselves w/ old Britishy names!

myself i attended old chatsworth

my roommate and i were reading the twins article line by line yesterday and when we got to "$800 a week as a bartender" almost all sympathy evaporated (though i agree no health insurance is tough). neither of us has made that much since college, and my roommate had a full time job in nyc (and apparently frequented the twins' favorite coffee place)! they're FINE!

i had a full time job last year and was making a little more than half of what that twin makes in a year

and i NEVER got to talk about why heidi klum married seal

why because he look intertsing

So there was this column a couple of weeks back:

Too Rich to Worry? Not in This Downturn

Various people wrote in expressing dissatisfaction. The author responded:

All This Anger Against the Rich May Be Unhealthy

Apparently neither of these are parodies. Meanwhile, as DougJ of Balloon Juice noted, "I don’t normally like to make things this personal, but this picture of the reporter is worth at least a thousand words."

http://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/sullivan190.jpg

http://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/sullivan190.jpg

All This Anger Against the Rich May Be Unhealthy

“To revile the rich is to revile the American dream,” said Robert Clarfeld, president of the wealth management firm Clarfeld Financial Advisors.

this fuckin guy

"Bowties and Reaganomics are for losers. You can cry for the rich all you want, the rest of us will be happy to see them get taxed."
OTM Randomly quoted dissatisfied person.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/sullivan190.jpg
"After all, if you’re wealthy and no one likes you, you still have lots of money."

“You’re worth $500 million one day and wake up the next and it’s $350 million and you’ve pledged $100 million to the Met,” said Rob Elliott, senior managing director at Bessemer. “What are the family’s goals? Is it philanthropy or bringing along the next generation?”

They’re human — they sell too soon and they buy too high,” Mr. Beringer said. “It used to be, ‘I’m going to buy A and B.’ Now it’s, ‘I’ll buy A or B.’”
The bigger choice is what they do as a family when members are against both A and B. If that is left unresolved, tensions can fester.

I think this is similar to the wrenching choice I am occasionally forced to make between tuna melt or veggie max at Subway

it depends on which is the $2.99 special right?

The bigger problem is when in not in the mood for tuna OR the veggie max. When that happens, as in sure you all know, tensions can fester.

In = I'm

Damn yooouu Phooooooone!

i don't think dude understands that "having money" isn't so much the cause of the hate. pretending that your problems involved in having money are at all comparable to the problems involved in not having money -- well, yes, he should be slapped repeatedly until his bowtie spins.

It really is a conspiracy of bowties:

http://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/sullivan190.jpghttp://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/george_will_2.jpghttp://www.winnbus.com/Gifimages/celebs/russell.jpg

http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/onion_imagearticle1807.jpg
O RLY

They're EVERYWHERE.

http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/onion_imagearticle1807.jpg

All This Anger Against the Rich May Be Unhealthy

for the rich

xxxxpost - for the record I had a lot of friends at Rutgers who hustled their way into various substantial magazine/newspaper/writing/editing/PR/media jobs including at least one that's a minor "name" in his field. They were generally smart, hardworking and had a clue unlike the twins above. I have no idea whether the Rutgers name helped, hurt or neither though. One disadvantage of Rutgers compared to NYU is that (as far as I know) there isn't some "internship office" at Rutgers that just hooks you up with places - you're on your own. The advantage, however, is the relative lack of debt that allows you to survive while struggling through your first few jobs. Also the closeness to NYC lets you do stuff while in school.

Meantime, while this Sullivan guy stays employed, this:

New York Times to cut 100 newsroom jobs

That's an 8% reduction. The Times will offer buyouts to union and non-union employees, and resort to layoffs if it can't get enough people to leave voluntarily.

One disadvantage of Rutgers compared to NYU is that (as far as I know) there isn't some "internship office" at Rutgers that just hooks you up with places - you're on your own.

My gf just graduated from Columbia and I sorta expected there to be exactly this sort of 'internship office' that was gonna hook her up, but no, the extent of the extra job help is some website with job/internship listings...and I mean, it uses the same software and looks the same as the Berkeley one. (I was expecting it to be way better...)

They're both *okay* and it's nice to have a handful of extra listings (and I know people who have gotten stuff off em) but if you're paying 250k for your education, yeah you'd expect some sort of office that is on top of their shit w/r/t your future. Most of her friends who have jobs just knew people...which is the real benefit of private schools, I guess / the rich kids don't need that office anyway.