Your objection is that it's actually pretty easy?
It sounds like your objection is to who their readers very clearly are.
But they really aren't, not most of them. I make well more than the median reader of the NYT, but far less than the typical subject of one of their lifestyle stories -- they're selling a fantasy lifestyle.
(This article might have been marginally interesting as an Andy-Rooney-esque "How come appliances are all crap these days?" Or maybe not.)
Thanks for triggering my "Up against the wall!" reflex. I suppose next will be a sympathetic article about why BMW and Mercedes drivers HAVE to take one and a half parking spaces and thus suffer the psychological trauma inflicted by others making unkind comments. (IMX, forget the comments, a steel awl works better on radials)
Consider the extreme plight of second-home owners
Yes, let's.
IMX, forget the comments, a steel awl works better on radials)
Tires are less expensive and less trouble to fix than a badly scratched paint job, and ruining the paint only requires keys or a small flathead screwdriver. Or so I've heard.
But you can drive the car with a scratched paint job. (In fact, IME you can drive it for years with a scratched paint job.) The tire thing forces you to actually change the tire, or wait for someone else to. Six of one and half a dozen of the other.
My nose bleeds for them. I mean, having to do dishes by hand when a repairman doesn't want to risk life and limb? I have no sympathy for idiots who don't know how to live in the country. [My little Berkshire town had about 200 residents. I don't think anyone had a dishwasher, much less a high-end one. Other than their children, of course. Without the ability of the little ones to stand on a chair and slave over the sink, we'd never have been able to invite 30 people over for dinner.]
This puts me in mind of an earlier article, where the wife of a teacher bitched about getting $775 in gifts cards from his students. It seems they couldn't make the mortgage and their kid's preschool tuition because of "holiday" expenses. It didn't seem to occur to her than a) they could refrain from spending so much on those expenses and b) they could hold on to the gift cards and use them to defray some expenses the following year. [You own a home? Your kid goes to private school? And you're fucking whining???]
Poor dears. They had to call a LOCAL repairman who had to ORDER the parts.
I've got the vapors.
I think the point is to do a little "The super-wealthy: they're just like US!" nonsense. "Oh, the tragedy of the rich! I'm so glad I have 200 square feet and no dishwasher to have break on me!"
But instead, it reminds me of something I posted a while back about how I really like the people I know to enjoy the things they have. I'd rather hear that your money makes you comfortable, or that being a size 4 feels really good, or that your career going well makes you feel self-actualized. I don't want to hear that you have everything I don't and you're not even enjoying it.
But there are those who disagree with me on this point.
Yeah, a strong subsidary (and I think unintentional) message of the article was 'Consumerism is so fucked up that it doesn't matter what you spend on stuff, it's still all going to be crap.' Surely there should be some level of kitchen appliance for which it doesn't matter if you can easily get it serviced, because it doesn't break down.
Everyone keeps telling me how self-actualized I am and it's getting really annoying and I'm in a state of extreme plight over this.
My money makes me very comfortable. It is so soft and so sweet.
Or, if you're Jane Galt, 'I'm so mystified and confused by the people who constantly praise my beauty in public. Looking at myself in the mirror, I just don't see it.'
But you can drive the car with a scratched paint job.
Well, maybe YOU can. Not everyone's made of stone, y'know.
With the stone feet, you wouldn't believe the speeding tickets I get.
16: Oh, gawd, please tell me she didn't say that. I try really hard to remember that she's a decent-ish person.
Pretty much, although I admit that was a catty rephrasing (that is, 'constantly' was not present in the post. Just a recounted incident where a stranger gushed over her gorgeousness.). I've been arguing in her comments for the last day or two over the Lancet study of all things.
Jane Galt has never struck me as decent-ish.
This is a stark counterpoint to the memories of the hippy lifestyle evoked yesterday. The habits, attitudes and skills have influenced my life ever since.
She's personally pleasant, which gets you somewhere with me -- I've never communicated with her other than to leave disagreeable (or, at least, disagreeing) comments on her blog, and she's been civil in response, as lots of people aren't when you disagree with them. And I'm prejudiced in her favor because of the ridiculous height -- given Dr. Oops, I'm predisposed to have warm sisterly feelings toward giant women. (Irrational? Yes, why do you ask?)
But she's fairly egregiously wrong about almost anything you care to name.
22: It's funny, the DIY and so forth aspects of hippiedom have sort of dropped out of the currently active caricature.
24: I think that's quite intentional. It's easy write of whiny middle class kids who are acting out a crisis of concious. Harder to ignore a principled rejection of much of consumption, etc. that many build their self worth on.
12
That level is the cheap high volume level (as the article even notes). The high end stuff is far more likely to break (and people are reluctant to just replace it as they do when a 25 year old cheap appliance breaks).
And what do people expect in a "Great Homes" section anyway?
It used to be much more posh to vacation in an un-insulated old house with no modern appliances; you do the dishes yourself. No whining.
Arrivistes.
It's funny, the DIY and so forth aspects of hippiedom have sort of dropped out of the currently active caricature.
I believe they have entered the "squatter" caricature which comprises the non-suburban-teen punk caricature. However, this is not associated with rural life; the hipster caricature is moving to take up association with rural life by growing beards and listening to the Skygreen Leopards.
29 is spot on. Today's hippies are the vegan bike punks.