Give these people tax cuts tout suite (via via):
It’s all very cordial: In the fall, Mr. Mellon and Ms. Hanley Mellon, 36, plan to introduce Hanley Mellon, their own clothing line.
They are not exactly starting from the gutter. Mr. Mellon, who comes from the Mellon and Drexel families of Bank of New York Mellon and Drexel Burnham Lambert, grew up in New York City, Palm Beach and Northeast Harbor, Me., and went to the University of Pennsylvania. The walls of the pad he and Ms. Hanley Mellon share at the Pierre are lined with paintings by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Peter Beard and, Mr. Mellon said, “Taylor Swift.”
[….]Mr. Mellon’s initial foray into fashion was as the creative director of Jimmy Choo’s collection of men’s shoes. After Tamara Mellon, whom he met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in 1997, decided she no longer wanted a men’s line…
[….]“I’ve never been to Africa, but I feel like I have this deep affinity for it,” Ms. Hanley Mellon said. “I’ve read every Hemingway, we collect Peter Beard, I’ve watched ‘Out of Africa.’ It touches your soul to visit and smell the smells, and you can’t recreate the experience without immersing yourself.”
What are the chances that a 99 percenter goes from AA to a high-end fashion venture (covered by the Times)?
kc
Props for the lyric.
ulee
Yup, and green is green. Tax these bitches. It’s the only answer we have. For now.
Violet
WTF? She’s never been and yet “it touches your soul to visit and smell the smells”? Is she insane?
OzarkHillbilly
The rich really are different. Can you picture these words coming out of your mouth?
Jewish Steel
I saw variants on
on Twitter last night and wondered. Now I know. Jeeze.
kc
One of their kids is named “Force Mellon.”
OzarkHillbilly
@Violet: You beat me to it. :-(
opiejeanne
@Violet: that part made me laugh. Talk about delusional.
Tokyokie
Oooh, she knows Africa because she saw the Streep-Redford film a few times. Oh yeah? Well I saw all the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan AND Jungle Jim movies! (Maybe the Bomba the Jungle Boy films as well, although that might have supposed to have been India. Hard to tell hot, humid forests apart, you know. Don’t remember any piranha, so it probably wasn’t South America.) Admittedly, Tarzan’s New York Adventure doesn’t provide the insight that collecting some guy’s photographs does, but still, one wants to immerse oneself but not to the point of actually visiting some backwater where the room service is lousy and the hotel staff doesn’t speak English.
NotMax
Armchair African.
Villago Delenda Est
Tumbrels. Now.
Tommy
Isn’t that the money quote. Look I like nice cloths. I have custom made Tom James and Brooks Brother suits. Oh how I like my shoes. I am sitting here in $125 Merrell sandals (that you can run or hike in).
But really, only ten items of cloths up to $2,000. I am pretty sure that market is already covered. Seems like a vanity project to me and the NYT just bought in to it with a long article.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
They’re so rich she watched Out of Africa with smell-o-vision?
opiejeanne
@Jewish Steel: I’m reading Ratking right now, the first book of the Aurelio Zen series by Dibkin, and this is almost exactly what a wealthy Italian heiress says early in the book, just not about Africa.
ulee
If Hemingway was here he’d have the answer. The village square.
PurpleGirl
If Ms. Hanley Mellon wants to immerse herself in the sights and smells of Africa by all means she should visit the markets and bazaars of the continent and sleep without a insect net. Really take some risks of bringing home a parasite…
scottinnj
There is also this Gem in today’s Wall Street Journal
Top Earners Feel the Bite of Tax Increases
Rob Babek, partner in charge of Marcum LLP’s Los Angeles office, said several of his clients have seen their tax bills increase by $100,000 or more. One business owner saw hers rise from around $600,000 in 2012 to more than $700,000, driven mainly by changes in investment-tax rates on the $2 million in dividends she received from her firm.
“She was really shocked by the increase,” Mr. Babek said. “That one hit home.”
1) Bless her heart but if you made $2m don’t you think you would ask your advisor “How Much Tax Am I Going To Pay”
2) After the NY Times article and this, I think tomorrow I’m going into the stock market and I will go long guillotine manufacturers.
feebog
Sounds like the clothing line will be right up Anne Romney’s alley.
Violet
You missed this gem:
Bitcoin. Winklevi. Of course.
Tommy
@Violet: I was wrong in my other comment about the “money quote.” I didn’t get to where you got to, cause well I got sick of my stomach. I can’t imagine how I’d ever say that. Oh I watched Out of Africa, I feel I know/understand the continent. I’ve lived in seven states (midwest, deep south, east coast) in this nation and visited many more and I don’t feel like I know it.
NotMax
Having read the John Carter books and seen Total Recall, Robinson Crusoe on Mars and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, am totally immersed in the Red Planet.
SiubhanDuinne
@DougJ, top:
DougJ, if you’re going to use a French phrase, s.v.p. use the right one: tout de suite
/pédant
opiejeanne
@Tokyokie: I watched Ramah of the Jungle as well as Tarzan, AND I’ve been to the LA County arboretum where they shot a lot of those
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet: Yup. Need tumbrels.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I got a contact high watching Woodstock
Villago Delenda Est
@SiubhanDuinne: He could just fake it and type toot sweet.
Hunter Gathers
isn’t much different than:
That’s the beauty (or tragedy) of Teh Stupid: It knows no bounds.
scav
@Violet: There’s also ““Now we just need a hashtag,” Ms. Hanley Mellon said.”
For the woman that has everything. Jaysus.
Also
Mere coherence must be hard to maintain in the social stratosphere.
Violet
Last line in the article:
I’m sure people could help them with that!
ulee
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: You should have just gotten high for real, unless it makes you paranoid.
Villago Delenda Est
OK, these people have inherited fucking millions and talk about how great Africa is, but have never been?
What was holding them back from making a trip? It surely wan’t that they could not afford to actually smell the smells of Lagos or Kinshasa or Dar es Salaam by GOING THERE is it?
Oh, btw, the author of this piece needs the tumbrel ride worse than the subjects.
NotMax
@Violet
#MarieAntoinetteLives
Tommy
@scav: Stunning. I am not rich enough to travel to African or India for a month to experience the culture and do research for a product line. Their lack of caring to experience it when they can is stunning. I mean if you had the funds, and they do, wouldn’t that be pretty darn cool.
I might head to Flickr or someplace cause I can’t afford to travel. They can and they don’t care.
PurpleGirl
Force Hanley Mellon and Olympia Drexel Mellon — those aren’t children’s names, those are law firms.
Jewish Steel
@opiejeanne: Aye. It does sound like something out of fiction. What a delight this gilded age is turning out to be!
ulee
I used to get high. When I lived in the city I told my upstairs neighbor that it made me paranoid. “That sounds like a trust issue.” he said. Yup.
Lyrebird
And while Hemingway’s African-set stories are (imnsho) some of his best writing, he’s an American writer, largely talking about foreigners going to African countries, hiring a few guides, shooting animals, & working out their complicated social intrigues w/each other. (the tourists)
I had a hard time believing the gal was not engaging in (self-)satire when I saw that reference. I mean, couldn’t ya go for Chinua Achebe or even Nadine Gordimer? Diop or someone would take more effort…
ETA: yes I can attest that visiting West Africa at least can be done with not-too-huge amounts of cash… just go where you know someone to help you through the airport transition, read the relevant Lonely Planet guide backwards and forwards, and go!
Poopyman
I watched George of the Jungle, and boy! could I smell the smell. I was totally immersed in it. That and Jonny Quest.
Hey Villago! Looks like tumbrel rides have gotten really popular around here. Congrats on leading the charge.
Violet
@NotMax: #LetThemEatJetSetClothes
NotMax
Will they put out a Benghazi line of fashions made of Kevlar?
(Inquiring minds really don’t care.)
Fuzzy
Bunny and Binky need another tax shelter. A new clothing line’s grand opening only their 500 “closest” friends will be invited to attend. Lets crash with our best zombie rags and make-up and smear shit all over them.
scav
Rhyming Joy, here’s news on one of their handy tax breaks: Buyers Find Tax Break on Art: Let It Hang Awhile in Oregon.
SiubhanDuinne
@Violet:
@OzarkHillbilly:
Hemingway and I are from the same home town. My best friend in kindergarten lived in the Hemingway birthplace. Hemingway and I went to the same high school. Doesn’t mean I died in the snows of fucking Kilimanjaro, does it now?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
“pad”? their “pad” at the Pierre? Is someone auditioning to write for Madmen?
which I guess isn’t anonymous anymore. Isn’t that against the rules?
Violet
If you click over to the actual NYT article, there’s a picture of the couple. Her jeans have holes in the knees. They’re this rich and she has studiously placed holes in her clothes. I bet they cost $500 at least.
Poopyman
I’m sure these are heirs of old Andy Mellon, and as a Pittsburgh native, I was thinking of apologizing for foisting these creatures on the world. But seeing as Mellon and Andy Carnegie made their fortunes on the backs of my peoples (including grandparents), I’m thinking they should apologize to me.
At least Carnegie spread his money around for the common good.
NotMax
@Violet
StoneTruffle-washed?Suffern ACE
@Jewish Steel: Would that we were gilded. I’m thinking of the great gilded age barons like the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Morgans, and the great collections they amassed. Yeah, it sucked to be labor, but we got the Cloisters, MoMa and the Morgan Library out if it. I shudder to think what this crew will bequeath. This age is aluminum foil.
SiubhanDuinne
@Villago Delenda Est:
And the tooter the sweeter.
Violet
@NotMax: Platinum washed?
Jewish Steel
@Suffern ACE: A really sincerely curated internet archive. Behind a paywall.
Poopyman
@SiubhanDuinne: And who the fuck is Peter Beard? I’ve googled and seen some of his work. The question remains.
Poopyman
@Suffern ACE: They’re already heirs. Google Andrew Mellon. (Also too, “Scaife”)
Anton Sirius
Having a Hirst on public display is like wearing a very expensive “Scam me” sign.
NotMax
@Violet
A little shamefacedly admit to having very distant relations (by way of marriage) in Argentina who have an entire tea set made of platinum.
Tommy
@Violet: I have said I like nice cloths and shoes. I lost 15 pounds a few years ago and needed to buy new jeans. I wanted brand name at the Gap, not whatever the other stuff is. I didn’t mine faded jeans, I prefer them. Also more comfortable. But when I saw I had to pay MORE for jeans with more wear I was like “dude I am getting old. My jeans used to get that way cause you know I wore them.”
Douglas Wayne Wieboldt
I’ve never been rich. Yet I can rejoice in the myriad ways that I can quench my thirst, nibble on delicious priceless little noshes and much later in the evening Gallup a whole lot food that isn’t sustainable – or better yet threatened. So now that I can imagine these things, oh just fuck – they will never understand those of us who don’t have what they do… They mock us, but demand respect. My brain is fried. Do you suppose that they might consider it a delicacy?
Tokyokie
@opiejeanne: So when are you starting a clothing line?
PurpleGirl
@Violet: You beat me to mentioning that detail. I hate rich people who wear jeans like that. Do they think they’re slumming, pretending to be poor or what? I know actual poor people who wouldn’t been seen in jeans like that.
ulee
@SiubhanDuinne: If you fought Hemingway, then you’ve got a story.
Keith G
Well, I’ve never been to Spain But I kinda like the music….
scottinnj
Actually googling this Mellon guy is fascinating, he seems to be a walking example of the “fools and money” theory. I can’t tell if he is the world’s biggest douchebag or the the world’s greatest performance artists, this stuff is just beyond parody:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/11/13/sanitizing-bitcoin-coin-validation/
You can add Matt Mellon, descendant of the famed banking family, to the ranks of the Bitcoin believers. The 49-year-old former chairman for the New York Republican Party’s Finance Committee decided in April that he wanted to get in on the Bitcoin frenzy and called the Winklevoss twins for advice. They linked him up with Alex Waters, a former core Bitcoin developer and the then chief technology officer of Bitinstant, the currently-defunct exchange into which the twins invested $1.5 million. Waters instructed Mellon to buy a new Apple laptop, buy his Bitcoin and then put them into cold storage on USB drives kept at various locations around the States. Mellon says he got the “Bitcoin bug,” losing hours of sleep each night pondering Bitcoin’s possibilities. He and Waters started a conversation about how to make Bitcoin more legitimate in the eyes of banks and the government, so that it can take off and become the hundreds-billion market that investors such as the Winklevoss twins predict.
On a Monday afternoon in Manhattan, Mellon is showing a bit of his real world sway. The “power room” at the Four Seasons Restaurant on 52nd Street has kept its kitchen open an hour beyond its usual closing time for lunch to accommodate the Coin Validation founders’ team.
ulee
@Tommy: I like how you called the cashier dude.
gogol's wife
I thought the author was ridiculing them a bit, especially when his wife had to correct him when he said they had some art by “Taylor Swift” on the wall. But then why write about them?
Bmaccnm
@PurpleGirl: Bot flies. Diesel fumes. Shit. Big flying bugs with no names. Suppurating wounds. No medicines. Chickens. Cattle wandering through the village, and don’t you dare touch them because they belong to someone a lot more important than you. Baboons. Donkeys. Freshly turned soil. Freshly cut pineapples. Their clothes smell like this?
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
But I’ll bet it’s a groovy pad. I wouldn’t mind crashing there.
eemom
There are those on this blog who have dissed Three Dog Night, but I vehemently disagree.
For example, I have this on my iphone alarm….somehow it is perfect to wake up to.
DougJ
@eemom:
Love that song! Never knew it was them.
Tommy
@PurpleGirl: My favorite pair of jeans are from Britches of Georgetown. About ten years old. A couple holes that were not in them when I bought them. Wear and tear. I’d never think if we went on a date they’d be “cool” to wear. But I like them to lounge around in. Maybe a beer at my local bar. That wearing jeans with rips and holes in them is “cool” to people worth millions, where you buy them for five times what I bought them for, god I will never understand this.
Violet
@PurpleGirl: They’re trend-followers. For some reason it’s trendy to wear jeans with holes in them so that’s what she’s wearing. That’s a bad tell for people who want to be fashion designers. She’s already a follower not a leader.
maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor
@ulee:
If Hemingway was here, he’d eat his shotgun again.
I’m ready for the meteor strike, myself.
TerryC
@Tommy: “But really, only ten items of cloths up to $2,000. I am pretty sure that market is already covered. Seems like a vanity project to me and the NYT just bought in to it with a long article.”
A slightly upscale Hard Rock Cafe series of t-shirts.
SiubhanDuinne
@Poopyman:
I don’t think I ever heard of him, but a quick look at Google tells me he was married to Cheryl Tiegs and, before that, to one of the fascination Cushing sisters. Nice to be collected by the Mellons and share wall space (at the “pad”) with Taylor Swift’s paintings.*
*How long until the Mellons acquire an original GWB of his feet, or Putin, or similar?
Firebert
Anybody with works by Damien Hirst hanging in their pad is already demonstrably aesthetically-challenged.
maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor
“I’ve never been to Africa, but I feel like I have this deep affinity for it,” Ms. Hanley Mellon said. “I’ve read every Hemingway, we collect Peter Beard, I’ve watched ‘Out of Africa.’ It touches your soul to visit and smell the smells, and you can’t recreate the experience without immersing yourself.”
She should start with Somalia. It’s just like West Palm, Greenwich and the Pierre.
Tommy
@ulee: I wasn’t meaning that as sexist or rude comment. I worked retail in college in the late 80s. When I go into a retail store I treat those people working with total respect.
I know it is a tough job for a low wage. More flies with honey. Being rude to them doesn’t seem to get me anything. Being polite, well it gets me help. I’d do it anyway, but dual benefit.
SiubhanDuinne
@ulee:
Nope, can’t claim that. In fact, I never met him (although I did once meet his sister Marcella, I think her name was) — he abandoned Oak Park long before I was born.
However, when I worked in radio, I did interview his first wife, Hadley. I guess that could count as fighting Papa (albeit he had been dead for a decade or more by then).
ulee
@maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor: Watch those sunspots. An X-flare is more likely. If it happens, and it will, it will burn our electronics out. It will be the end.
Keith G
Since this thread has musical nod, let me submit two musical events form Northern Ireland (both involve weddings).
First a priest channels Lenard Cohen during a wedding homily.
Second, a groom and his mates put on one hell of a show.
Both via the Belfast Telegraph.
schrodinger's cat
If you read any of the fashion mags like Vogue or Bazaar you will realize that heirs and heiresses starting a new fashion line is nothing out of the ordinary. Also too wives/girlfriends of Russian oligarchs in London.
Many famous fashion bloggers are wives/daughters of rich men. Their shoes and bags are worth more than most peoples salaries.
TheMightyTrowel
Totally OT… I managed to trip down a flight of stairs this morning and skin my chin and palms. lucky that’s the extent of the damage but I still feel like an idiot.
SiubhanDuinne
@Keith G:
Oh, I saw that a day or two ago and loved it! But didn’t know the source. For some reason, I thought it was from somewhere in Canada (probably because Leonard Cohen is Canadian, as if that were a reason). Even this non-believer was misty-eyed.
Violet
@Poopyman:
He’s another inherited-wealth rich guy. From Wikipedia:
I’m sure the Mellons feel very comfortable with his art on their walls.
SiubhanDuinne
@TheMightyTrowel: Yeek! All my extremities are tingling sympathetically just reading about it. Hope there’s no lasting damage. (I’ve had occasions where I’ve tripped or slipped and fallen on my arse in public, and in almost every case, the thing most damaged was my dignity.)
TheMightyTrowel
@SiubhanDuinne: I did it at work, so all my colleagues got to see me nearly faint because, for all the things I do well, looking at my own blood is not one of them. Yikes.
Violet
@TheMightyTrowel: Glad that’s all that happened! That can be dangerous. You might feel some new aches and pains tomorrow or the next day. Pay attention as it can sometimes take a day or two for things to show up. Don’t hesitate to see a doctor if something feels a little off.
Liquid
All this talk about Africa and nobody mentions “Zulu Dawn” or the other one.
kc
@PurpleGirl:
From a commenter on LGM:
I’m still laughing.
eemom
@DougJ:
Also too, the name Three Dog Night is so infinitely cool.
ulee
@TheMightyTrowel: Work? Fall? Get a lawyer.
Bmaccnm
@maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor: I was talking about Somalia. I forgot to mention the truckload of armed men smoking cheroots. Did you pay them more than the other guys did? You better hope so.
ulee
Those stairs should not have been piled up in such a dastardly pattern.
Cervantes
Yes, the article is fluff and its subjects are vapid. It’s the NYT.
@Violet:
I suspect the writer did not quote her in full.
@gogol’s wife:
Given who the writer is, I doubt it.
@Villago Delenda Est:
A bit harsh.
She’s a young writer with college loans “given the opportunity” to write for the NYT “Style” section. One of her recent pieces for them was about trends in pubic-hair management.
If she’s writing the same stuff in ten years, or still writing for the “Style” section, then maybe.
opiejeanne
@Anton Sirius: some might say the same about the Basquiat.
Cervantes
@eemom:
Cold, not merely cool.
TheMightyTrowel
@Violet: It’s gonna be super fun tomorrow because i am flying to the UK – so 30 hours in transit/in economy whilst covered in bruises! Huzzah!
schrodinger's cat
@Cervantes: I answered your question about Arundhati Roy in the thread below.
Keith G
@Cervantes: A well played play on words.
Violet
@Cervantes:
You can suspect all you want. All we know is what’s on the page. I suspect the writer quoted her verbatim. The entire quote sounds like a complete thought. There’s no reason to think it’s been edited or abbreviated.
Can’t believe this gem wasn’t noted earlier:
Who doesn’t elope at Diane von Furstenberg’s house? Right up there with Vegas.
opiejeanne
@Tokyokie: actually, I was a costumer when we lived near SF, and I made childrens’ dance clothing for sale at a local shop. I had the name Leapfrog before anyone else did.
PurpleGirl
@efgoldman: She wants to really immerse herself in Africa. Well, doesn’t that mean living in Africa, not in a western-style hotel, but in a hut or tent, or small building and experience living a different way. And in living that way you expose yourself to insects that will alter your medical status.
gogol's wife
@Cervantes:
Oh, I didn’t remember that she also penned that hard-hitting piece on pubic-hair trends. That was a real high point for the NYT. I couldn’t believe it.
Violet
@TheMightyTrowel: Oh, man. That sounds miserable. Drink plenty of fluids and try to sleep. If you tolerate pain relievers/anti-inflammatories, then maybe that’s a good time to take some.
PurpleGirl
@TheMightyTrowel: One time I managed to fall UP a 4-inch step and badly bruised the muscle wall of my lungs. It happens.
scav
There’s enough vapidity and superficiality to go around in that gem of an article. The depths of faux and pseudo these paragons have attained: “wardrobe staples for a jet-set life” designed by people that can’t be bothered to go. I’m almost persuaded the absent at the interview one-year-old (carefully noted as such — although the location of the teacup Yorkie is distressing left unaccounted for) would actually have added some intellectual depth.
TheMightyTrowel
@PurpleGirl: Ugh. I’ve done similar things before. I have so many exciting ways to injure myself you would not believe.
Ruckus
@DougJ:
You didn’t know that was Three Dog?
I’m amazed. Haven’t been in a long time.
Violet
@TheMightyTrowel: Are you John Cole?
opiejeanne
@SiubhanDuinne: never mind. Confused Peter with George beard
Cervantes
@opiejeanne: Peter Beard, the photographer.
TheMightyTrowel
@Violet: too young, too female, too boston and too far from WVA to be John Cole, but perhaps we share the klutz gene
ETA: I’m also much more a volvo driver than a subaru fan, if you’re looking for lesbian stereotypes.
Ruckus
@TheMightyTrowel:
We all need a trademarkable trait. Yours seems a bit much though.
Mine is being publicly wrong. I think of it as more of an art rather than a trait.
SiubhanDuinne
@Lyrebird:
Alexander McCall Smith….
Cervantes
@gogol’s wife: Nate Silver’s running a piece on pubic hair as well, although he is not the author.
O tempora o mores.
opiejeanne
@Liquid: call me bwana?
Violet
@TheMightyTrowel: I saw something on the Today Show quite awhile now about an actual klutz gene. The were teasing whatever the female host’s name is because apparently she’s klutzy and she was saying, “See! It’s not my fault! It’s my genes!”
TheMightyTrowel
@Ruckus: Mostly I just walk into walls and doorways. Sometimes I trip over nothing. Once I just fell over, flat onto the ground, during a lecture (that I was giving) because I stepped on a m&m on the floor and slipped.
WereBear
It’s really no wonder these kinds of people don’t understand why anyone struggles in grinding poverty.
They should just call someone they met in rehab, watch a few DVDs, create a cunning little clothing line, and get some coverage in the NYT.
They must just WANT to be poor!
Mr Snark
“I’ve never been to Africa, but I feel like I have this deep affinity for it,” Ms. Hanley Mellon said. “I’ve read every Hemingway, we collect Peter Beard, I’ve watched ‘Out of Africa.’ It touches your soul to visit and smell the smells, and you can’t recreate the experience without immersing yourself.”
Well, I heard the drums echoing tonight
But Ms Hanley Mellon only heard whispers of some quiet conversation
Hmm, It’s Gonna take some time to do the things we never have
opiejeanne
@Cervantes: both are photographers. I just forgot that Peter was the first name, and I had already posted when I realized the first name wasn’t George.
I’m riding in a car, writing on my phone.
Cervantes
@Violet:
OK.
But to me, even your own interjections (“WTF?” and “Is she insane?”) indicate otherwise.
Svensker
@TheMightyTrowel:
I shouldn’t laugh. But I did.
Feel better! Stay safe!
muddy
I know an upper middle-class privileged girl who went to Africa with her new MBA to help the poor people make micro business plans etc. She said the shack slums were “picturesque”. Helping the poors was not much fun (lazy ingrates you see), so she quickly changed to a tech job. Leveraged that into a bigger tech business, and is now a giant fish in that small pond. Wanted to name the new African business after a Native American tribe from the area she grew up in. She is not at all associated with this tribe or even know someone from it. wtf
I was thinking the other day how the people over there are probably annoyed and oppressed enough with their own elites, without importing fresh new ones from America.
Violet
@Cervantes:
Got curious about your assertion. A minute of googling finds that she graduated in 1998 from The Evergreen State College. She may still have college loans but hopefully 16 years after graduation they’re not still astronomical. If she went to college at the usual age, that would make her around 38 now. She has published two books and written for a wide variety of publications, so the NYT isn’t her first opportunity.
kc
@DougJ:
And Randy Neeman wrote it.
kc
@kc:
NEWMAN.
FYWP!
Cervantes
@schrodinger’s cat:
Thanks, I see it. Will take a look at the op-ed in the ante meridiem.
Cervantes
@Violet: Did not say the NYT was her first opportunity, just that it is an opportunity, and, “Style” section or not, I can understand her doing what pays the bills.
And yes, to some people, she may be as old as the hills — but to me, she’s a young writer.
Just One More Canuck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: @Tokyokie: I think they saw an episode of Curious George
Violet
@Cervantes: I think her complete thought indicates she’s mentally mixed up. I abbreviated her complete quote for emphasis, but the meaning was not changed. She says she has a “deep affinity for Africa” but hasn’t ever been. Then follows by saying you have to immerse yourself in the place to understand it.
How does she know she has a deep affinity for it if she’s never been but to have that deep understanding you have to go? And why, if she does have a deep affinity for it, has she never visited? It certainly isn’t money that’s keeping her from it. The whole statement is a loop from which there is no exit. It’s a big fat WTF and she sounds insane.
Either go or don’t, but don’t use fancy words to describe your longing and affinity for the place if you can’t be bothered to go in all your 36 years when money isn’t an issue. These people could hop on a plane and go for a long weekend if they wanted. The clearly do not want to go.
Violet
@Cervantes: Of course it’s “an opportunity”. Everything can be viewed that way.
How old does she have to be before you don’t consider her young anymore? Is it an age thing (a concrete number) or number of years experience? Or something else?
You also wrote:
Does the fact that she’s been writing for longer than a new college grad change this statement at all?
Cervantes
@Violet: I know what you mean — thanks for elaborating.
Ruckus
@TheMightyTrowel:
OK it sounds like you have arrived at art form as well. Do you fall out of bed if there is a pea under the mattress?
Cervantes
@kc:
Mellon’s daughter from a previous marriage goes by “Minty” …
Violet
Just saw the picture again and noticed that Matthew Mellon is wearing patterned leggings. Yes, really.
Fort Geek
@Violet: Hmmm. #1%_tumbrel_ride has a good sound to it, though it’s a bit long and lacks “punch.”
Violet
@Fort Geek: #LetThemEatAfrica.
dan
They can at least go to Epcot …
Lyrebird
@SiubhanDuinne:
fer instance!
:-)
and thanks for the Hemingway-local color!
Cervantes
@schrodinger’s cat:
Thanks again. It was not as late as I thought it was, so I did take a look (it helped that I had read that piece before) — and I left a not particularly insightful response: in brief, I guess I don’t have the same personal reaction to her style.
Tehanu
@Violet:
At least he actually went to Africa to do the photographs.
Violet
@Tehanu: He did indeed. Apparently he lives there part time now. He looks like a Ralph Lauren model. Rich and good looking. Poor guy. Tough life.
Fort Geek
@Violet: #HelloAfricaCalling
AxelFoley
@Jewish Steel:
And knowing is half the battle!
G.I. Jooooooooooe!!!
Violet
@Fort Geek: #AfricaIsFor$500Shirts
Joel
Nick Kroll and Jon Daly know the score.
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet:
Only if you’ve got an Elvis impersonator officiating.
Fort Geek
@Violet: #LetsGetReadyToTumbrelllllll
gnomedad
If his breath was literally taken away, why isn’t he dead?
phoebes-in-santa fe
What a vomit-making article about vomit-making people. By the way, she looks anorexic. He just looks like a fool.
Steeplejack
@kc:
Wrong. “Shambala” was written by Daniel Moore.
Violet
@Fort Geek: Ha! That made me laugh.
Out of curiosity I gave their vanity project website a click and took a look around. This is for real:
#BRILLIANT_AND_EFFECTIVE_TUMBRELS
ulee
You wore a shirt of violent green.
Petorado
“… especially the apartheid part. I soooo love looking down my nose at whole classes of people and knowing that the social order will prevent us from ever mixing.”
Violet
Oh dear god. I went to their “About” page. They actually use the hashtag #RichLife. Yes, seriously.
Chris T.
I’ve never been a Mellon, but I feel like I have this deep affinity for them. I’ve read every biography, we visited Carnegie Hall, I’ve listened to recordings. When do I get my inheritance?
[do I need a /snark tag?]
taras
I thought the lyric was, “I’ve never been to Africa and it’s your fault.”
James E. Powell
@taras:
I thought it was “I’ve never been to Africa, but I kinda like the music”
El Cid
Just remember — the super-rich and social uppermost classes are accustomed to having their statements taken seriously simply because of who uttered them; this notion that their statements are to be weighed upon their own merits is outside their lived experience (other than maybe their college classrooms, maybe).
phoebes-in-santa fe
Take a look on their website at “Matthew Mellon’s 50th Birthday Party”. Every Euro-trash and Trustfund Baby was at the party, as well as Lindsay Lohan. I wonder how much they had to pay her – in coke or cash – to show up?
g
@scav: What kills me is that they said these things to a NYTimes reporter, and that she took it at face value.
g
@SiubhanDuinne: “I’ve read every Hemingway, ”
Yeah, lady, I bet “The Old Man and the Sea” gave you a great impression of Africa.
Glocksman
Escaped Nazi war criminal or something?
Oh, wait that’s Ilse Koch.
Is she related to the US Koch brothers or do they just act alike?
Fort Geek
@Violet: Nice. I don’t think I can top my last one. I’m still snickering over that.
Glocksman
@Fort Geek:
I get the French Revolution references WRT tumbrels, but I’m midwestern enough to prefer old fashioned copper jacketed lead.
As in ‘When the Revolution comes, you’ll be among the first against the wall, motherfucker’. :)
Violet
@Glocksman:
#FirstAgainstThePeterBeardPhotoWall
Jado
@Violet:
HOW DARE YOU, YOU PEON!!!!!
SHE is RICH. You will show respect, or she will have your congressman on the line in five minutes to increase your taxes.
It’s almost like you don’t understand how this all works…
Tone in DC
Creative, effective AND brilliant.
And modest, to boot.
From that photo at the Times, it must be true for these particular 1 percenters that you can never be too rich or too thin.
Never mind the damn paintings and photos.
WaterGirl
@TheMightyTrowel: No fall has ever been as embarrassing to me as the one I took in the eight grade. I was walking up the stairs at school and I could see the boy I liked was watching me, so I was trying really hard to look cool, and I tripped on the top step. All these years later and I can remember it like yesterday.
No would-be girlfriends watching you at work? Then you’ll be fine! Though it is a drag that you will have to take a trip with all the aches and pains.
WaterGirl
@Cervantes:
Wow. Now that is a sentence I would never have expected to see.
WaterGirl
@TheMightyTrowel: Have you admitted all this to the people who might want you to host that TV show? Or am I confusing you with someone else?