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

no fuchs left to give

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/23/sunday-review/covid-friendship.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage&fbclid=IwAR1D85wWVHzd5qnkob3z0hBYhFhHBNqMl8CCseOTiLISpK4ULc6Ao2TUYNk

features:
- managerialization (if that's a word) of friendship
- employing academic experts to explain normal human shit that everyone understands
- a san franciscan who joined a friendship "pod"
- excessive PMC navel-gazing

i'm not sure i have the emotional bandwidth rn

By Kate Murphy
Ms. Murphy has written several articles about various aspects of life during the pandemic, including why Zoom is terrible, why you should stop using toilet paper and why we’re all socially awkward now. She is the author of “You’re Not Listening.”
No shit

why you should stop using toilet paper and why we’re all socially awkward now.

Sentences where the assertion in the first clause answers the implied question in the second

lol

There must be something in the Times style guide that says "write each article as though everyone reading it either (1) makes at least $200,000 a year or (2) has parents who make at least $400,000 a year."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/business/starbucks-shortages.html

“Tasha Leverette with a guava green-tea lemonade at a Starbucks in Atlanta. Her favorite drink is a peach green-tea lemonade, but she hasn’t been able to get one.”

On the one hand, yes, this is a very first world thing to complain about and not at all worth a NYTimes profile interviewing disappointed customers, but at the same time (unpopular opinion ahead), I don't feel coming out of a global pandemic is the time to shit on people for missing their small comforts.

also starbucks regulars aren't the ruling class

Starbucks is basically just an upscaled Dunkin Donuts now. It's also an interesting lens through which to view larger global supply chain issues occurring right now.

Maybe more like frivolities and agonies of American consumerism, but not ruling class. Starbucks are in highway rest stops now - you see truckers getting coffee there.

I assume someone has written about how bad all the second-wave/Friends-era coffee places were, old charcoal beans and sugar - like if Blue Moon was at the head of the craft beer revolution.

haha, a semi-forgotten bit of my high school/early college past.

My first introduction to the concept of a latte/cappuccino was the beatnik coffee bar in So I Married An Axe Murderer I think.

I assume someone has written about how bad all the second-wave/Friends-era coffee places were, old charcoal beans and sugar - like if Blue Moon was at the head of the craft beer revolution.

― Joe Bombin (milo z), Thursday, June 10, 2021 10:53 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol this kind of place is a super-popular chain here called Beans and Brews. i call it pees and poos.

I participated in my share of poetry nights

fake quid
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/what-old-money-looks-like-in-america-and-who-pays-for-it

Not surprisingly, "old money" is very, very white. Also, thin, blandly good-looking and impeccably dressed, coifed and manicured.

damn, for some reason i couldn't get that rat-pelt dress picture to show up. maybe a moderator can add it.

I did an image search on 'rat pelt dress' and found:

https://www.incrediblethings.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/dorothy-costume-for-your-rat.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/I8z1GMI.jpg

most popular article on the website

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/business/gen-z-workplace-culture.html

This week, in "no really, this generation really IS selfish and demanding!"...

(and once again completely forgets Gen X exists)

shh, we're best forgotten

https://i.imgur.com/ixw8A3d.jpg

Most popular!!

apart from the number, feels like a front-page headline from like 1926

I say, the whole town's positively crackin' over that blue-chip art from the Macklowe's bittah divoahce!

Real Estate Mogul Taunts Ex-Wife With 42-Foot-Tall Photo of New One

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/nyregion/harry-macklowe-patricia-landeau.html

The onion couldn’t do it better …

doesn’t really fit the thread, but how about “pressure on china after tennis star’s ASSAULT accusation”? #metoo makes it sound like a fucking tiktok challenge

https://i.imgur.com/pWMwizn.png

Pretty awful story that

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/23/realestate/why-an-npr-quiz-show-panelist-loves-her-messy-apartment.html

just go away

lol i almost posted that

Currently still trying to process Augustus and Minerva

“I think, ‘You know what? If I were a set designer for a play and I wanted to show a house that was fun and not too fancy and a place of joy with parents who treasured their children, what would it look like?’” Ms. Salie said. “And I think it would probably look just like our messy apartment.”

this, wow. this hall of mirrors self-congratulatory self-voyeurism just laid out bare like that. I’m Proud Of My Messy Apartment Because It Looks Like My Idea Of Someone’s Idea Of People’s Idea Of A Loving Home. wow.

I agree that's very weird way to say "I think there is a visible connection between how our messy apartment is and the fact that I value my family's happiness over how neat and tidy my apartment looks." But I get the connection she's drawing and "hall of mirrors self-congratulatory self-voyeurism" doesn't seem like a very generous reading of that sentiment.

there's a fine line between media hyperconsumption-induced self-awareness and narcissism sometimes. I hope it's more the former.

rich people have no souls, it's okay to hate them

when rich people exhibit normal human-like traits, I prefer to encourage them to continue in that direction, since I can't take most of their money away and render them more harmless through that avenue.

oh Aimless, you rational shoulder angel <3

personal quid/ag re NYTimes -- have they gotten really overzealous with paywalls lately? I feel like I get the "you've reached your limit of free articles" even when I haven't read a single article in weeks. FWIW I've noticed this on other sites too - I sometimes reach my "limit" of free articles on newspapers I basically never read, like I'll click some out of state daily and it says I'm already at my limit.

I think that’s a product of ad and cookie blockers.

Slate not NYTimes but: "I wish my family weren't giving me a gigantic house, it's really not to my taste"

https://slate.com/business/2021/12/in-laws-are-offering-their-ugly-house-what-to-do-if-you-dont-want-a-big-gift.html

lol, to be in the position when accepting a *house* is at the level of an etiquette dilemma, akin to accepting a hideous sweater or something. not something i will ever fully understand, but i can at least recognize the letter writer's feelings that they don't want to live in this dumb house in a dumb community with an awful commute. why not tell the inlaws to sell their mcmansion and just give you the cash? idk. two years is a long time to be miserable and resenting your husband's family every miserable day.

The lack of self-awareness in that letter is staggering

idk, I have some sympathy, even though I'll never be able to afford to buy a house. It sucks when you've saved up to buy the thing you want and then someone with more money helpfully swoops in gives you a thing you don't want instead, thus making it impossible for you to get the thing you do want. Doesn't suck as much as not having money or things in the first place, but it's an uncomfortable position to be in.

It sounds like they're in a slightly awkward in-between financial situation where they technically can afford to buy a house if one comes up in their price range and they get their application accepted, but they aren't financially secure enough to turn down a gift that's going to substantially change their day-to-day lives for the worse. Two years of 1-3 hour commutes each way sounds horrible, and there's no guarantee that the in-laws would be fine with them selling the house after two years - they might be stuck with it for a long time.

Right. Housing is not fungible. This is obviously a trivial example but you get the same idea, that a house is a house, and you get what you’re given, regardless of where you work and family and social life, from people who want to solve homelessness in LA by building houses three hours away from LA.

Also it kinda feels like an effort from the parents to compel the couple into a certain life that the parents want them to have but the couple doesn't and has already rejected.

And like the husband is maybe being a little bit blind to that because of the emotional baggage, which is exactly why manipulation is effective.

I suspect their wrong turn was writing in to a national media outlet and making themselves seem really tone-deaf to other people's challenges, but I don't think the dilemma is not valid.