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

this building round there is inneresting too:
http://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/an-1826-hotel-resort-still-standing-on-61st-street/

As I mentioned to Chakim, perhaps to curry sympathy

: |

lol yeah that line

I just find "Do you know how hard it is to quit smoking?" one of the most face-punchable phrases around. It's real easy if you never start

this is a hilariously tone-deaf juxtaposition

I'm a smoker and don't have a lot of sympathy for my fellow addicts, tbh.

Cigarette addiction is a complex subject. The two things everyone should quickly agree on are that it is an addiction and that it fucks up your lungs something fierce. The rest of the discussion ought to continue on one of the many smoking/quitting threads.

or to a thread where we talk about what the best cigarettes are

we serve all interests here on ilx

I think people like nat shermans xp

Ok, back to rolling nytimes quid/ag: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/fashion/its-not-me-its-you-how-to-end-a-friendship.html

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/01/29/fashion/29JPFRIENDS2/29JPFRIENDS2-articleInline.jpg
Jeff Newelt “had other plans” when ex-colleagues called.

During that call, Ms. Miller knew it was time to administer the friendship equivalent of the lethal injection. “I wish you love, joy, peace and happiness, but this friendship is over,” Ms. Miller recalled saying. “I said goodbye and hung the phone up. I met another friend for drinks that night and honestly, I was sad. I divorced a friend.”

Getting a quote from a friendship coach makes that seem even troll-ier than the usual Style shit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/fashion/lisbeth-salander-bringing-back-leather-and-spikes.html
oy.

“Corruption offends her,” Ms. Leach observed, “and the desire to set things right is what motivates her.” She’s taking names and delivering payback. And, Ms. Leach said, “she’s not about to do that in a pair of Miu Miu shoes.”

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/02/02/fashion/02GOTHIC_SPAN/02GOTHIC_SPAN-articleLarge.jpg

oh hi

iatee otm about welfare earlier itt

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/fashion/in-silicon-valley-socks-make-the-tech-entrepreneur.html

“I have been in meetings where people look down and notice my socks, and there is this universal sign, almost like a gang sign, where they nod and pull up their pant leg a little to show off their socks,” said Hunter Walk, 38, a director of product management at YouTube, whose favorite pair is yellow, aqua and orange striped.

ALMOST LIKE A GANG SIGN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ux3vncNNLg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV79WaNDY1Y

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/01/21/145521431/how-one-former-vegan-learned-to-embrace-butchering

For lack of a better thread, I guess.

By killing the animal himself, Plotsky says he strengthens his bond to that animal, as well as the food it provides, the ground it lived on, and the family and friends he shares the meal with.

i think a saw a serial killer say that once in a movie to one of his victims.

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/2/23336/1558924-kenobi_vs_vader.jpg

killing me will only make our friendship bond stronger

convoluted way of saying he likes meat more than animals.

no no no dude didn't you read it's about community

surprised they don't do the slaughtering in the town square in a gazebo to make sure everyone can bond with the pig

is that what gazebos are for

shockinkingly vegans and exvegan artisanal butchers have their heads roughly the same depth up their own asses

"I wanted to be a part of that process," he says. "Somehow, that manifested in pig slaughter."

the number of times ive said this to myself

naw, that's where the brass band will play Sousa's "liberty bell march" while Plotsky slaughters and guts his pigs in front of it and the onlooking crowd.

inevitably I knew I had to cut it out w/all the coke

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/162/average-time-spent-at-job-4-years

Maybe unfair, but I lol at every inspirational young person story that starts along the lines of "boosted by a $10,000 stake from his parents."

Yeah I think that's a little unfair. I can't get the article to load, but $10K is an amount a fair number of ordinary middle class parents could hypothetically put up from savings, and it's not exactly a game-changing amount (for what I'm guessing is some kind of small business startup?). I mean is success not real unless it's achieved by an ex crack addict who sold his own hair and blood for the startup money?

$10K is an amount a fair number of ordinary middle class parents could hypothetically put up from savings

Ehhhhhhhh I would not be so sure of that anymore. I doubt that even most middle class families have $10k of easily liquidatable household wealth sitting around anymore. Not given the 3-4 decade trends in income and wage stagnation.

xpost. Well, there are way more degrees between having been born lucky and being a crackhead. The problem is, if the line for success is drawn starkly between the lucky and the less lucky in their birth, it makes that upward climb that much harder.

Personal experience, I had to teach myself how to live and work from the ground up, climbing mountains to start at 0, so anyone with a half-decent upbringing has an advantage there. I've done better than most relatively, but the fact that standards these days are incredibly high, requiring money, free-time, and large skill sets taught at home, it puts people who aren't born with them at a stark disadvantage v. an increasingly powerful and small few who do get these advantages. And they're trumpeted as the examples to follow.

Ten THOUSAND dollars?!?? Easily available to "middle-class" families to give away to one or more children? Not in anything resembling my experience. Plus multiply by number of children, hypothetically, because you can't help only one of them.

I mean who cares how much money this dude's parents have, the bigger problem is treating 'people be having lots of jobs' as this fun adventure that they're willingly having

lol, this is america, "middle class" means whatever you want it to. there are lots of ostensibly middle class people who spend way more than $10k educating their kids. there are lots for whom a spare $10k is never going to happen.

the bigger problem is treating 'people be having lots of jobs' as this fun adventure that they're willingly having

how

there are lots of ostensibly middle class people who spend way more than $10k educating their kids.

Bah fine, okay, but this is on top of their educations, cash down (more or less), with no guarantee of any return (although u could say the same about college these days amirite? /iatee).

circles otm, everybody in america is 'middle class'

channeled spirit of iatee otm

got article to load -- it's a lot more quiddity-worthy in context imo

In his spare time, he traveled the country playing polo.

btw I used to go to that bookstore/coffeeshop a lot when I was in high school, and since then they did in fact improve the coffee a lot, including adding this awesome multi-lever espresso machine that I've never seen anywhere else (although they have one kind of like it at Blue Bottle) -- don't know if that was part of this kid's parents' investment or not.

Marvin Biver01/18/2012 07:47 PM

Health: 4 matches. Insurance: 1 match in the article. Having health insurance was mentioned by only one of the players in this article. I was amused by the quote, "to provide our own health care, bridge gaps in income with savings . . ." How will you provide your own health care if ("when" would be more precise) you need surgery--even minor surgery? Or routine screening exams like colonoscopy? One ER visit could make for a huge gap in your savings; one hospitalization could wipe it out. Going without health insurance is playing the odds with your future, and the odds increase as you get older.

I am about the same age as Ms. Edmonds, and I wondered what she was doing for health insurance, as she is too young for Medicare. Thanks.

I think $10k is about what you're going to spend on health insurance for yourself in a year, right? lol

Ten THOUSAND dollars?!?? Easily available to "middle-class" families to give away to one or more children? Not in anything resembling my experience. Plus multiply by number of children, hypothetically, because you can't help only one of them.

― one little aioli (Laurel), Monday, February 6, 2012 4:01 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

FWIW maybe not the literal median American family. I mean I certainly don't think my own parents could invest $10000 in me starting a business right now. But at the same time this is not a lot of money for a family business investment -- it's the kind of money an immigrant family might scrape together over a few years to help their son get a food cart or taxi medallion. It is an investment, not a gift, if I read the story right. Family in article sounds probably very well off, just saying it wouldn't be out of the question for a less well off family to do something like that if they were frugal and saved.

you guys need to figure out the "live below your relative means" thing, it's pretty awesome. fluid cash when you need it, discount chicken wings the rest of the time