Sunday, April 15, 2007

Chat of the Town

A couple of very random and totally unrelated things, one quite plebian, the other quite haute culture. I will thank the New Yorker for not suing me for copyright infringement - I have simply "adapted" one of their department names for my subject line, not stolen it out right. Also, if you want to hear more about the most shocking news story in America right now -- the heretofore unknown fact that Don Imus is an offensive schnook -- please go elsewhere.

And now ... the rest of the story (thank Mr. Harvey):

This past week in New York, for the fourth time in about as many decades, ground was broken on the East Side of Manhattan for the Second Avenue subway. This is the Great White Whale of NYC, something the city has always been chasing but never quite catching. Basically, it is a new subway line that will run up and down the far East Side of Manhattan. This development is long, long, long overdue and will make getting in and out of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queen a whole lot easier. It will also be, one hopes, the latest, more technologically sophisticated subway route in town. Thanks for Congresswoman Maloney and all the other NYC leaders who never gave up on on this project. Hopefully our state's new governor, the Steamroller himself Mr Spitzer, will keep his eye on the ball and make sure the financing doesn't dry up and the shovels remain active. If not, let's sign a petition to have Mayor Bloomberg pay for it.

Now, onto my other subject: I quite enjoy reading the New York Observer, which is probably one of the best publications "about" NYC available. (If Mr New York could mutate into a weekly newspaper somehow, it would be a lot like the Observer). Anyway, NYC is one of the last places on earth that still has "socialites", ladies born or married to amazing wealth who make news by where they shop and eat lunch. I will not use the P word here to describe the kind of socialite that makes people hate socialites. Instead, I will direct you to the Observer piece about one Ms. Arden Wohl, an interesting socialite who seems to have a social conscience and who uses all of that money and free time to do good. I will note summarize the story here, instead please check it out yourself at

http://www.observer.com/20070416/20070416_Spencer_Morgan_pageone_observatory.asp.

Perhaps some of my faithful readers (one or both of you) could educate me about socialites by answering the following questions:

1. How much money does the socialites family have to have?
2. Must the socialite or her family have a second home or private jet?
3. Does education matter at all?
4. What exactly are the duties and functions that a wealthy woman must perform in order to be considered a socialite?
5. Can anyone really be a socialite if they do not appear frequently in the media?

Please tell me!

All for now.

1 comment:

  1. Mr. New York, the answer to all your questions, like most questions nowadays, can be found on Wikipedia. Look up Social Register.

    ReplyDelete

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