If everyone can afford a Bugati Veron, what will the rich do to show off?
They seem to be doing just fine with "new ways to be obnoxious", though I suppose the people here aren't rich, they're just well-heeled enough to afford the likes of this bragging:
Res Ipsa was founded by two Aspen-based lawyers who couldn’t find the kind of ties they wanted to wear to work and decided to make their own. They now sell all manner of clothing in locations from my local on Larchmont, in Los Angeles, to Bill Cohan’s Nantucket. And the absolute best thing they sell are the Kilim loafers, suit-and-jean-appropriate shoes made by hand at Res Ipsa’s Marrakesh atelier using vintage kilim rugs. No two pairs are the same, so consider your first pair a gateway drug. I already have two, and will be gifting Jon Kelly his very own pair this Christmas.
What are you doing, if you don't have your very own pair (at least) of lawyer-designed loafers hand-made in Morocco out of vintage native rugs? Things like this make me yearn for the sound of the tumbrils rattling over the cobblestones. (I have no idea how I'm subscribed to this magazine. I'm certainly not its target audience reader).
The very rich will always find some way to be snootier than thou.
I recently watched In the Mood for Love and was reminded of how influential Wong Kar-wai’s 2000 unrequited love story has been on the way we dress, decorate our interiors, etcetera.
'Fess up, Mottizens: how many of you have been taking your interior design cues from Wong Kar-wai, you cinéastes, you? 😁
And they're practically giving this away at only $375:
Forever nostalgic for the sophisticated style of yesteryear, I have decided to integrate the long-lost art of headwear into my wardrobe. At the top of my holiday wishlist, to help me fulfill this goal, is an Après Beanie. Mains de Vapeur uses traditional millinery techniques, handcrafting each hat in their New York City atelier.
Looking for a Christmas gift for that important man in your life who just desperately needs the right kind of briefcase? Look no further!
Designed by Melissa Morris, these briefs are incredibly practical and high-quality. My husband has been on a decades-long quest for a slim briefcase, and this might be the one to end his search.
$3,650 at Métier
I mean, if you have the money, spend it and good luck, but cut down on the tweeness please?
HereAndGone
16hr ago
she joined a "white women for Kamala" Zoom call
Harris just had absolutely no luck, did she? Picked Walz for VP, and now this scandal in Minnesota pops up just in time for when she's pondering a run for governor of California, and the white women voters she got were this type of person who alienates her entire family (where they'd end up voting for anyone else just to spite her).
HereAndGone
16hr ago
God damn. If I had a niece who went all Mathew Arnold* on me like that, she'd be wearing the turkey over her patronising face. Be glad I don't have nieces or celebrate Thanksgiving. "use your listening ears, transphobic uncle". Yeah, well, you try your listening ears with a face full of gravy, woman.
- But Arnold kept a smile of heart-broken forbearance, as of the teacher in an idiot school, that was enormously insulting. One trick he often tried with success. If his opponent had said something foolish, like “the destiny of England is in the great heart of England,” Arnold would repeat the phrase again and again until it looked more foolish than it really was. Thus he recurs again and again to “the British College of Health in the New Road” till the reader wants to rush out and burn the place down. Arnold’s great error was that he sometimes thus wearied us of his own phrases, as well as of his enemies'. The Victorian Age in Literature, G.K. Chesterton
HereAndGone
16hr ago
Gosh, that AI slop really is slop. Nothing even funny past the first one, nothing helpful like even a crappy graph. This article has now firmly put me in the pro-gun camp, as in "go shoot whoever thought this was a good idea".
HereAndGone
2d ago
It really is dependent on how you grew up. Where it was normal for siblings to share, that is no big deal (so the horrified grimace about "kids in bunk beds" does not land). Where it was normal for everyone to have their own room (because you only have one sibling and your parents can afford a big enough house) then it's deprivation to have "kids in bunk beds".
'Oh no in the 1950s kids had to share a bedroom with their sibling' as one of the human rights deprivation features of the dark ages is laughable, if you grew up where sharing is normal.
HereAndGone
2d ago
For social housing in Ireland, two siblings of opposite sex can share room until age ten. Two siblings of same sex, no specific age limit. Where overcrowding (and thus can apply for social housing under needs) happens is if you have to have two siblings of opposite sex room-sharing past age ten or occupancy past the square footage limits.
63.—A house shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be overcrowded at any time when the number of persons ordinarily sleeping in the house and the number of rooms therein either—
(a) are such that any two of those persons, being persons of ten years of age or more of opposite sexes and not being persons living together as husband and wife, must sleep in the same room, or
(b) are such that the free air space in any room used as a sleeping apartment, for any person is less than four hundred cubic feet (the height of the room, if it exceeds eight feet, being taken to be eight feet, for the purpose of calculating free air space),
and “overcrowding” shall be construed accordingly.
It's been ten years since I worked in the social housing department of our local council, but yeah: we used to smile when single mothers would make applications for "I need a three bedroom house because I have two kids and they need a room each". Not gonna happen, lady, if your kids are under the age of ten.
HereAndGone
2d ago
families were cramming 4+ kids into a tiny home, with kids sharing rooms in bunk beds
Oh no, I'm going to pin you down on this, no wiggling out with "I never said that!" You said exactly that: "cramming 4+ kids with kids sharing rooms in bunk beds".
If we're going to stroll down Memory Lane, yeah I spent the first fifteen years of my life as one of four kids, two parents, and a bedridden grandmother in a house with (for the first seven years of my life) no running water. Yes, we shared bedrooms, the horror! No, we didn't have bunk beds, because bunk beds would have been a luxury item.
By modern standards where "you put your newborn baby into a room on its own and leave it abandoned there in the dark overnight, no that's normal childrearing, what do you mean that's abusive?", that is probably "oh, the humanity!" By 1959 standards, that would have been pretty okay.
I don't know how you grew up, but there are always worse things and better things whatever era you pick. Right now, there are people trying to cram kids into rooms where they are in emergency accommodation without a home of their own. So yeah, going on about "oh my god, kids in bunk beds, two or even more to a room" as the utmost in horrible awful living conditions? Not anywhere fucking close.
HereAndGone
2d ago
I am very damn sceptical of "AI will mean AGI will mean ASI and that means post-scarcity utopia". Jeff Bezos could afford to rent out Venice for his second wedding. That's not putting any money in my pocket. Some people will get very, very rich, the rest of us will carry on as usual only now in the Brave New World of "yeah, that job is now done by a robot/AI".
HereAndGone
2d ago
HereAndGone
2d ago
If she really wanted a poke bowl in 1959, Sumner's daughter could have gone on vacation to Hawaii, but she probably wouldn't have enjoyed the native version on offer since the traditional dish underwent a lot of development and changes between "what the native Hawaiians ate", "what they ate after European contact expanded available ingredients", "what poke was like when it started getting popularised as a commercially available dish" and "what poke is like now, in the mainland versions and 99 other fancy varieties everyone has had a hand in mixing up".
HereAndGone
2d ago
The original comment is "compare what we have now to what they didn't have back then", which is fair along one axis. But not along another, which is "now you too, Mr and Mrs Average Citizen, can have a TV set of your very own!" In 1959 people only had tiny screens for black and white TV? No, in 1959 ordinary people now had access to the cutting-edge modern technology of TV!
Imagine what VR fantasy tech will be invented in sixty years time. Is it fair to laugh at people in 2025 for not having the latest evolution of that tech, compared to whatever VR tech is around now?
If you are dumped back in 1959 from 2025, yes you are going to miss all the advantages we have now. But "oh goodness me, I can't doordash a poke bowl" is a stupid example to pick, since right now in 2025 I can't doordash a poke bowl since I don't live in the Big City where you can get this (and even if I could, I probably wouldn't).
If you have to live in 1959, having the 1959 equivalent of $100 grand is the way to do it.
HereAndGone
2d ago
families were cramming 4+ kids into a tiny home, with kids sharing rooms in bunk beds
For those of us who grew up in such conditions, going "My five year old and three year old have to share a room instead of having a room each? I'm living in slum conditions!" evokes a wry smile.
HereAndGone
3d ago
the self-defence clause is largely true and men really are astronomically less likely to be killed as long as they aren't violent.
That is the question that remains to be answered. Along with what sounds like "things we don't want to contemplate" about 'greater chance of women killing men in domestic violence if they're poor, black and cohabiting not married" which is the kind of explanation that will ruffle one hell of a lot of feathers. It would be very racist to point out "white women don't kill white men in the same proportion as black women kill black men", for instance.
HereAndGone
3d ago
Money printing machine, sure, but not an example of "start off lean 'n' mean, remain lean 'n' mean while growing like a weed". Though, given that Jane Street got name-dropped as 'former employer of Sam Bankman-Fried', I imagine they would vastly prefer critical publicity of the "they got big and fat and slow" type to being remembered as "hey, weren't you that place that taught SBF that making hella money hella fast was the only thing that counted?"
HereAndGone
3d ago
Oh sure, we can shift, but you will have an uphill battle over "why do you expect me to pay five days' wages for four days' work? I'm a business, not a charity".
HereAndGone
3d ago
Yeah, if you stop taking it and go on eating binges, that defeats the entire purpose. That is the psychological element of weight loss, which gets ignored in the simple "calories in, calories out" model: if someone wants the gratification and pleasure of eating a ton of stuff and won't take the medication for fear that "but I won't be able to eat all the different things I want to eat", that's not a problem of 'is the drug working to stop you eating so much?' because plainly it is (even if it stops you by making you throw up).
That is the "it replaces willpower so you don't have to consciously think about reducing food intake" glowing review that people like to share, and it's the exact thing that is not happening in your mother's case.
HereAndGone
3d ago
Yeah, but do you really need cranberry-strawberry-lemon-acai flavor (natural and artificial) 44g of sugar per can glow-in-the-dark fluorescent colour drinks? At some point there's just too much going on to distinguish anything.
HereAndGone
3d ago
He seems to have picked a bad year for his "but you couldn't doordash a poke bowl" example, as some cursory Googling gives me the inbuilt AI answer:
In 1959, American restaurants were dominated by diners and drive-ins, which were popular for their casual, affordable atmosphere and classic American food. These establishments often featured chrome and vinyl decor, with a menu that included burgers, fries, milkshakes, and other comfort food staples.
So if we're talking the rise of fast food/takeaways, 1959 was the year, baby!
Fast-food restaurants became a big part of the 1950s culture due to many other new innovations. Fast food restaurants became very popular during the 1950s because families were busy and they needed a place where they could quickly pick up food; people also wanted to be able to get quick food that they could eat in front of their new TVs.
What was buzzing, cousin, during the bleak and barren year 1959? Well, a lot, it seems. That pot-shot about tiny black and white screens? It was the Internet of its day, Scott m'man, just as in 2091 the Scott Sumner of that day will be laughing it up about the people back in 2025 who never even got snail tentacles quantum replicated for their micro-nutritional tasting menus and they didn't even have neural-net brain implant entertainment centres!
During the 1950s, the television became a huge part of the lifestyle. By 1954, over two-thirds of Americans owned a television and this helped form a national culture. Television changed politics by allowing speeches and political advertisements to be televised; things such as civil rights movements, documentaries about Communism, and other big news were aired on television. Many "Wild West" shows also became popular including: Davy Crockett(mid 1950s), Rin Tin Tin(1954-1959), and Gunsmoke(1955-1975). Variety Shows became very common because most programs were televised live; variety shows included musical performances, comedy skits, and animal tricks that were all hosted by engaging host. Television during the 1950s changed the society by allowing families to gather around to watch a performance, for speeches to be heard around the country, for the first commercials to be televised, and forming a national culture.
Plastic seats in your car? Plastics were the wonder material of the future!
During the 1950s decade, cars and other vehicles became more popular due to the affordability and needs for them. After the war, people in the United States believed that roads needed to be better, so the government's money started to be spent rebuilding roads; after roads were made better, everyone wanted a car, and to go on road trips or even camping. In 1950-1951, hardtop convertibles became popular from manufacturers like Chevy and the Buick Motor Division. In 1953, cars were being made with plastic fiberglass or a magnesium body; wrap around windows and wire racing wheels were often seen on cars; in 1953, three cars had air-conditioning and 50% of cars had an automatic shift, and by the end of the 1950s, Americans loved sports cars. Towards the end of the 1950s, station wagons also became very popular for growing families. Automatic transmissions, power brakes, power steering, power adjusted front seats, power window lifts and air conditioning were starting to be used in cars, and by 1958, 80% of cars had automatic transmissions. Cars became longer, lower, wider, and faster; chrome became heavily popular on cars; many cars were designed to look like something from the future to satisfy the people's ideas of fantasy. More cars were being produced and purchased during the 1950s because the economy was booming and families were growing , and the popularity of these vehicles lead to a new way of life.
Women's clothing styles during the 1950s dramatically changed because of the new styles and trends (like rock n' roll), as well as the ability to purchase new fabrics (a lot of new clothing designs and colors were inspired by Asian clothing) because of the great economy.
Booming economy, growing families, mass communication, mass transport, new kinds of eating experiences, a gap between childhood and adult life where you have more leisure time, more money, and more options with popular culture becoming attuned to you rather than your parents (the rise of the teenager), the New Look in fashion for women, affordable modern luxury for the average person: so tell me, the equivalent of $100,000 in 1959 or the equivalent of $12,500 in 2025, which sounds better to you?
Granted, there was much less of what we nowadays consider seasoning, but I think (1) the French tradition as you say for fine dining, with the reaction against highly seasoned food that came in after mediaeval times and (2) how much of today's flavours are really "hot and spicy" as against a range of subtle, herbal, flavours? 'Nobody in 1959 was putting gochujang on their beans on toast!' Friend, I'm not doing that in 2025.
I see some American recipes online and it's just ingredient upon ingredient upon ingredient, to the point I go "but you can't taste the meat or the vegetable under all the flavouring!"
I have to refer to Tasting History and the origins of deep dish pizza. This is from the 1940s, is this fine dining by the standards of 1959? 😁
Airline food from 1954!
HereAndGone
3d ago
He could also afford to keep a personal cook or housekeeper. Or, you know, just have a servant to do all the regular housework while his fancy wife did the cooking.
Yeah, looking at the Brady Bunch sit-com from 1970s. Mike Brady is an architect living in a suburb of Los Angeles, with a new wife and a blended family of six kids. He has a full-time housekeeper. According to Google "The median annual salary for architects was $96,690 in 2023". So Mike would have been making less than that back in the 70s and was able to afford that lifestyle. The equivalent of 100 grand in 1959 would have been serious money. You could indeed afford to hire a cook/housekeeper and a maid and maybe even a gardener/maintenance guy.
HereAndGone
3d ago
If Jane Street does that, then they will end up like Google and all the "faster, leaner, smarter" companies that started off with "we can do this without the bloat, in half the time, for half the cost". They'll grow, get established, become part of the establishment, and start getting bloated and slow themselves.
Eat the dinosaur, turn into the dinosaur.
HereAndGone
3d ago
Also, the full week has to be covered somehow, so you would have one shift working Mon-Thurs, another shift working Tues-Fri, and another Weds-Sat. It would cost more to have three people working separate four day weeks than one person working the five or six day week (e.g Joe works Mon-Fri, gets paid for 5 days. Sally works Mon-Thurs and Bill works Tues-Fri, that is two people for 8 days). Plus, I don't think that employers would pay 5 days wages for 4 days work; you work 4 days, you get paid for 4 days, and if you need more money then either the government has to top up with some kind of UBI payment or you have to be able to work extra hours/take on a second job, which defeats the entire purpose of "we want to employ the people laid off by AI so the 4 day work week will soak them up".
HereAndGone
3d ago
If there's a societal shift working Fridays is going to end up looking as quaint to Westerners as working Saturdays does to the right now (plenty of parts of the world where working Saturdays is normalized).
My friend, once upon a time working on Sunday was not done. Then it was done but in exceptional circumstances and you got paid double time for working on Sunday. Now, in a lot of jobs, working weekends is part of the job, you don't get paid extra for working those days, and maybe you only have work every other weekend. But you still have to work it. (And it used to be that working half-days on Saturdays was normal before unions got strong, which is what I think you are referring to with "as working Saturdays does to the right now)".
Think of the jobs where it's "my weekend is free, now I want to go shopping/eat out/visit this attraction". People have to work in those places to provide the services for the people not working on the weekend.
Plenty of people in the West work Saturdays and Sundays.
(There also used to be a custom called half-day closing during the week, generally on Wednesday or Thursday. That's gone too, now those days are full work days).
HereAndGone
3d ago
The sneering about watching "I Love Lucy" on your black and white TV. I grew up watching "I Love Lucy" on a black and white TV, and that wasn't in 1959! Today I couldn't tell you the last time I watched a TV show on TV since there's nothing I want to watch. 57 channels and nothing on, indeed.
(What I am watching are episodes from the late 90s to 2010s of an old pop archaeology show on Youtube, so don't laugh at old TV, mate!)
Talking about rotary phones like they went out with the dinosaurs. Some of us are dinosaurs, and we're still around! 😁
Oh, poor you. Having to resort to "shitty childhood", are we?
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