Far from the Madding Crowd

May 5, 2007 5:59 PM

"Just because you went to Princeton doesn’t mean you’re a jerk."The rich and Ivied find a place in SoHo.
posted by four panels (77 comments total)

I thought the whole point of these people was to be bland and haughty and go home at 11:30. You mean, they actually like to hang out and have fun too? Just like normal people?

Horrors, Muffy!
posted by psmealey at 6:13 PM on May 5, 2007

"“The downtown movement happened about two years ago,” said Courtney Routt, 25, a fashion publicist who lives in the West Village."

About two years ago, eh? Clueless little nincompoop. You've finally ruined NYC. You've hammered the last nail in its coffin. God, I hope you fall down a manhole.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:15 PM on May 5, 2007 [7 favorites]

is this another "laugh at teh yuppies" thread? seems we get one every couple of months, often involving the NYT.
posted by delmoi at 6:17 PM on May 5, 2007

Thanks for making me club this baby seal I had in my lap to death. Oh wait, now I went and stabbed my nextdoor neighbor in the face. Do you have another article like this for me?
posted by The Straightener at 6:19 PM on May 5, 2007 [2 favorites]

You mean there's finally a bar that caters to the rich and connected in New York City? Well, thank god -- I was starting to worry.
posted by icosahedral at 6:20 PM on May 5, 2007 [2 favorites]

Yeah, but delmoi, it's their own fault, giving us so much to laugh at, or, perhaps likelier, to puke about. This, for example:

"Ms. Crawford, who was born in South Africa and attended the private all-girls Ascham School in Sydney, Australia, before Princeton, sees Bar Martignetti as a typically American institution. “America’s all about the sifting process, like fraternities and sororities,”

The sifting process. Ugh. Disgusting. These are just disgusting, disgusting people.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:21 PM on May 5, 2007 [2 favorites]

Tell me why this is at all worthy of space on the blue?
posted by trii at 6:25 PM on May 5, 2007

This article is so insular in so many ways... It's amazing how despicable it is; the people that the article is about are so obviously offensive it's hardly worth talking about, but the author is also quite disgusting in his own, nearly opposite way. Basically, the simultaneous, diametrically opposed condescension of the people in the article and the article itself combine into this swirling vortex of disdain that makes me stop reading it and comment on metafilter.

Looks like I got off easy, compared to the Straightener though.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 6:27 PM on May 5, 2007

MetaFilter: Your favorite socioeconomic stratum sucks.
posted by ikkyu2 at 6:28 PM on May 5, 2007 [7 favorites]

I was there was a succint little ideographic doohickey for hate. So I could wear my

I "_" NY

t-shirt.

Do not want.
posted by flotson at 6:30 PM on May 5, 2007

This article is so insular in so many ways...

That's true, much like New York City itself. I'd agree as well with your points about the author of the article. He's just as creepy as the folks he's taking shots at.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:30 PM on May 5, 2007

Where is the "Build A Wall Around New York And Turn It Into A Penal Colony With Nationally Televised Bloodsports" fund? I would like to send them money.
posted by cmonkey at 6:34 PM on May 5, 2007 [2 favorites]

Rich people do silly things. Yawn.
posted by frogan at 6:36 PM on May 5, 2007

I believe the symbol you're looking for, flotson, is ✈
posted by synaesthetichaze at 6:38 PM on May 5, 2007 [17 favorites]

I can understand why people indulge in knee-jerk outrage. I've got a huge amount of class rage myself

BUT

the point of this article, if you read closely enough, is that this bar/scene exists because all the other clubs think these people are hideously uncool and don't make them feel welcome. They're dorks. They do make a shitload of money. But no-one else values their company.

He . . . said he was happy to be in a place where his kind was welcome. “For some people who see the pink shirts,” the investment banker, 25, said, “they ostracize, they say it’s uncool. But just because you went to Princeton doesn’t mean you’re a jerk.”

She praised the doormen, the nightly sifters, for making her feel welcome, unlike the way she and her friends are treated at the “hipper” clubs. “There are doormen in N.Y.C. who make you feel like a criminal when you get out of the cab,” she said.

posted by jason's_planet at 6:42 PM on May 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Sound nice; maybe I'll drop in next time in NYC.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:42 PM on May 5, 2007

LOLMUSLIMYUPPIEZ
posted by miss lynnster at 6:43 PM on May 5, 2007

Good God, Alan Salkin is such a dweeb. Is this what happens when you are not admitted to the club?
posted by caddis at 6:43 PM on May 5, 2007

And synaesthetichaze, that's incredibly not funny.
posted by miss lynnster at 6:44 PM on May 5, 2007

If I owned the newest hottest preppy bar in NYC like Anthony Martignetti, I'd probably iron my shirts.
posted by Kwine at 6:47 PM on May 5, 2007

Some khakied 28-year-old having one too many Frutopitinis THIS VERY SECOND will be President of the United States in 2028.
posted by Dizzy at 6:48 PM on May 5, 2007

You're not wrong, jasons_planet. But why did these creeps have to send their fruiting bodies off to colonize perfectly good streets like Broome and East Houston? SoHo, Nolita - that's where I go to escape from the verminous cretins of my neighborhood, and let me tell you, I sure don't want to lose a part of town where I've historically felt safe and welcome.

Anyway, what, the Red Hand wasn't enough for them? I mean, you don't need to worry about "paying $27 for a cab" if you just stay on the fucking UES. (Or, duh, take the 4 train - but I guess that's just too plebian for the South African sifter and the Zoroastrian princess.)
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:51 PM on May 5, 2007

Am I supposed to be mad some people have more money than I do? Or is there something about people who went to a private high school hanging out with other people who did that is supposed to fill me with a pleasant feeling of superiority?

Please tell me how I supposed to react to this article.
posted by Methylviolet at 6:52 PM on May 5, 2007

These people will just have to get in line because right now I'm busy hating rich boomer grandparents moving back to the city.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 6:52 PM on May 5, 2007

I feel bad about how bigoted I am against people like this. I can just feel these seething waves of hate wash over me when ever I talk to them and it isn't as though I have any claim to moral superiority over them; there is nothing so much more wrong with them than is wrong with me. I think there is a little bit of jealousy, a little bit of being baffled by their priorities, and a whole lot of feeling foolish for ever thinking that America was anything resembling a meritocracy. But my hate for them is kind of like herpes in that knowing where it comes from doesn't help it go away.
posted by I Foody at 6:55 PM on May 5, 2007 [12 favorites]

Related, the Social Register, Ranking Society Boobies on Gawker. New York Social Diary, the list, débutante at Wikipedia, The Official Preppy Handbook, The Débutante, Emily Post, Brooks Brothers pink shirt, $75.
posted by nickyskye at 7:05 PM on May 5, 2007

I have a copy "The Official Preppy Handbook". It is a fun read.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 7:09 PM on May 5, 2007

Entertaining article to read while I'm also having a cookie. That's the extent of my reaction. There's no reason to get so upset about a sub-segment of society revealed. Society has lots of sub-segments and hidden niches. Let people be.

But why did these creeps have to send their fruiting bodies off to colonize perfectly good streets like Broome and East Houston? SoHo, Nolita - that's where I go to escape from the verminous cretins of my neighborhood

This isn't new. When I lived in Soho in the mid-90's we used to get all hot and bothered about places like the Cub Room on Sullivan. Seriously Adam, Soho has been a mall since the early 90's. The Patagonia store moving in was the nail in the coffin for me.
posted by vacapinta at 7:09 PM on May 5, 2007

I went to their first bar once with a couple people. You know how when you're in a crowded bar you have to say "excuse me" and tap people on the shoulder a lot in order to get through? Motherfuckers at this place generally WOULDN'T MOVE until I literally just pushed them out of the way.

Some guy started chatting up a friend of a friend and tried to take her & us to some nearby club. He criticized my friend's shoes or pants or something as not classy enough for whatever shitty club, but said he hoped we could still get in. So we follow him a couple blocks (most of us thought this girl actually knew him, not that he was trying to pick her up), the bouncer at the club asks us for a cover, and the dude says hes gonna go inside and get us out of the cover. We find out the cover's $5. Dude comes back outside and says he's got the cover down to $5. Somewhere around here we find out no one actually knows him and we leave.

So I figure there's a reason no one likes these people.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 7:11 PM on May 5, 2007 [2 favorites]

I love these FPPs.

Suddenly, every third MeFite worked their way through Ditch Digger School bogging out slaughterhouses - not an *abbatoir*, mind you, a motherfuckin' slaughterhouse - and tar roofs on their holidays (Using only their cupped hands and tongues, natch.).
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:26 PM on May 5, 2007 [2 favorites]

a doorman shoed away an inebriated-seeming pedestrian who was acting as if he was trying to look up the dresses of women sitting on Netti’s front benches.

I thought the place seemed a little familiar
posted by BostonJake at 7:30 PM on May 5, 2007 [3 favorites]

why did these negros creeps have to send their fruiting bodies off to colonize perfectly good streets like Broome and East Houston? SoHo, Nolita - that's where I go to escape from the verminous cretins of my neighborhood, and let me tell you, I sure don't want to lose a part of town where I've historically felt safe and welcome.
posted by caddis at 7:46 PM on May 5, 2007

Suddenly, every third MeFite worked their way through Ditch Digger School bogging out slaughterhouses - not an *abbatoir*, mind you, a motherfuckin' slaughterhouse - and tar roofs on their holidays (Using only their cupped hands and tongues, natch.).

Actually, it was just a grease trap I had to slop out (cup handed, in fact) as a plumber's assistant, though if you've ever had your face in a grease trap you know it smells about the same as an abbatoir. That wasn't as bad as cutting sheet metal, though, because that tears the ever living fuck out of your hands and there's a surprisingly high number of veins in your hands that you can easily slice open with the ragged edge of a piece of duct work, causing blood to arc practically to the cieling.

But I guess I see your point.
posted by The Straightener at 7:49 PM on May 5, 2007

I love these FPPs.

Suddenly, every third MeFite worked their way through Ditch Digger School bogging out slaughterhouses - not an *abbatoir*, mind you, a motherfuckin' slaughterhouse - and tar roofs on their holidays (Using only their cupped hands and tongues, natch.).
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:26 PM on May 5 [+] [!]

Dude, I went to Georgetown. Your reverse straw man is a bit much.
posted by four panels at 7:50 PM on May 5, 2007

Little known fact: A woman in the reverse straw man position will climax in under 45 seconds.
posted by I Foody at 7:55 PM on May 5, 2007 [6 favorites]

...negros...

Nice attempt at trolling, there, caddis, but that's not even remotely going to wash.

"These creeps" already own the world. I think it's several kinds of wonderful they don't feel welcome hither and thither around our fair city.
posted by adamgreenfield at 7:57 PM on May 5, 2007

yeah, justify your hate
posted by caddis at 7:58 PM on May 5, 2007

Whatevs, kid.
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:03 PM on May 5, 2007

What year, four panels? CAS 98 here. I went to prep school, and actually even attended Trinity College (mentioned prominently in the article) before getting out after about a semester and heading to DC.

These were "my people"! I find this article hilarious for so many reasons. Seriously though, if these are the people who ruined SoHo for you, you're just not paying attention. It was ruined long before the openly preppy established a beachhead.

Actually, preppyism repulsed me for the 8 years I was more-or-less forced to be a part of it, but now it almost seems quaint.
posted by cell divide at 8:06 PM on May 5, 2007

You guys seriously all need to watch Metropolitan.
posted by escabeche at 8:14 PM on May 5, 2007

Actually, it was just a grease trap I had to slop out

well, i was working at the convenience store one night when someone told me "that bathroom's all fucked up"

there was shit everywhere, smeared on everything ... i never knew one human being could shit so much ... actually, i'm still inclined to believe that it was 4 or 5

guess who had to clean THAT up? ... with a bucket of hot water, bleach and some gloves ... it took me 2 hours

yeah, now beat THAT
posted by pyramid termite at 8:19 PM on May 5, 2007

Oh god, pyramid termite- I had to do the exact same thing when I was hosting at a restaurant. Afterwards, you can easily divide your life into "Before I Cleaned Liquid Shit for Two Hours" and "The Hurting".
posted by 235w103 at 8:32 PM on May 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

All of the odious stuff about the people in this article comes from the writer rather than the people themselves. For example, the prep school braggery never appears in direct quotes but rather in authorial asides. Is it clueless and dumb to praise fraternities and sororities as a "sifting" mechanism? Sure. But you're overreacting. Almost everyone thinks they're special, anyway.

But y'all have let the pink shirts and plaid pants and boat shoes seduce you into this silly orgy of misdirected class rage anyway. Can't we hate on George Bush instead of some privileged kid who finds it slightly easier than average to get a job as a 'fashion publicist'?

[NOT PREPPY/IST]
posted by grobstein at 8:40 PM on May 5, 2007

"Can't we hate on George Bush instead of some privileged kid who finds it slightly easier than average to get a job as a 'fashion publicist'?"

I have plenty of hate in my heart for both of them! :)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:44 PM on May 5, 2007

yeah, now beat THAT

somebody once miscarried on the floor of the bathroom of the grocery store I worked at.

shit doesn't scare me anymore.
posted by theoddball at 9:06 PM on May 5, 2007

It is as it always have been, and will be.
posted by porpoise at 9:10 PM on May 5, 2007

New York Times meets American PsychoOnly two left in stock!
posted by longsleeves at 9:10 PM on May 5, 2007

.(space)
posted by longsleeves at 9:15 PM on May 5, 2007

Turning this thread into job horror stories is far more entertaining than shooting at obvious targets.

For one job I dug crack needles out of a community garden!

For a busing job, my manager asked me to plunge a stopped-up bathroom sink. I plunged and plunged, and then finally with a big WHOOSH a stream of what I could only guess to be day-old vomit mixed with pipe scum spewed out of the drainage hole at the top of the sink with such force that it splashed out of the bowl and all over my upper body and face. The smell was divine.
posted by schroedinger at 9:29 PM on May 5, 2007

oh, and back on the topic, as ken layne once put it:

"Rich, Shallow Morons Say Hilariously Awful Things."

film at 11.
posted by theoddball at 9:39 PM on May 5, 2007

I love playing "my horrible job" with people because I'm an undertaker and I always win. Gore? Check. Misery? Check. Peepee poopoo? Check. Unspeakably gut-wrenching things? Oh, if I could only speak of them.
posted by ColdChef at 10:59 PM on May 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Pity these poor creatures huddled together in thier granfalloon, but don't cut them too much slack. They're bred to rule the world, after all.
posted by maryh at 11:08 PM on May 5, 2007

What a name, ColdChef. Oy.
I used to do animal research, and some of the specific procedures would bring down the house -- but yes, ColdChef, you will always win.
posted by Methylviolet at 11:11 PM on May 5, 2007

I actually really enjoyed the article. It reminds me that there is justice in the world:

She praised the doormen, the nightly sifters, for making her feel welcome, unlike the way she and her friends are treated at the “hipper” clubs.

And now I know exactly where not to go when in NY.

Of course, articles like this make me have absolutely no desire to go to NY and remind me that the NY I knew when I was younger is less and less what it was.
posted by pwedza at 11:13 PM on May 5, 2007

Fucking Style Section. It shouldn't even be a proper part of the NYT, just call it "Assholes With Gobs of Money," or something. It's the same section that gave the anorexic Olsen twin three inches of newsprint; you can't possibly take it seriously.
posted by kyleg at 11:23 PM on May 5, 2007

a rather entertaining review from the New Yorker back in Jan

"He: financial services, gym, bed head, shirt undone to second button, a beer, steak frites. She: publicity, tanning bed, “blond,” chunky belt slung to one side, specialty cocktail, chicken salad."
posted by JPD at 11:28 PM on May 5, 2007

Oh, if I could only speak of them.

Speak, brother, speak!

Then again...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:34 PM on May 5, 2007

People who find these people and their clubs and their "sifting" processes punishing ought to check out the "art world" sometime.

ProTip: it all fucking blows. While encoded in various different ways, "having oodles of cash" is almost always seen as a plus, and these people will eventually always find expensive-to-you excuses to hang out with one another. It's one of life's annoyances.

As for SoHo, I can't imagine the creature who still thinks that place is still "hip" in any way that wouldn't make me projectile vomit. It's a playground for the well-heeled, no matter their hipness, and that's life.

And if prep school kids want to hang out with one another, even all grown up, then that's their deal, at their clubs. It's no more or less noxious than the nature of most other clubs.
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:55 AM on May 6, 2007 [2 favorites]

Shoveling horseshit? Done it.
Slopping the grease trap? Done it.
Digging ditches? Done it.
Cleaning liquid human waste? Done it. More times than I care to think about. (not just as a parent, either)

I love playing "my horrible job" with people because I'm an undertaker and I always win.
posted by ColdChef

You win.
posted by lekvar at 1:03 AM on May 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

Amusingly enough though, the horseshit-shoveling was done during my stay at prep school.
posted by lekvar at 1:05 AM on May 6, 2007

where did you prep?
posted by caddis at 1:05 AM on May 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

Brigid Fitzgerald, 27, a search engine marketer, came to Netti’s for drinks two weeks ago with friends and liked what she saw. “Everyone here was tall,” Ms. Fitzgerald said.

Now that's just solid reporting; whole story was worth slogging through just for that.
posted by gompa at 1:50 AM on May 6, 2007

We should encourage this trend. In the past the peasants would have had to tramp through miles of fields and forest with their pitchforks to slay the feudal lord. Now we have them all congregating at one convenient location. Progress!

Seriously, Iranian princess? Your family got thrown out of its own country because you weren't smart enough to know when your time was over. You're nothing but the appendix of history.
posted by 1adam12 at 3:19 AM on May 6, 2007

You guys have to stop encouraging the New York Times to keep reporting this garbage. 63 responses, ok 64 now, is not going to do it.
posted by skepticallypleased at 6:30 AM on May 6, 2007

Actually it was your 64th here that's really gonna make 'em sit up and take notice over at the Times. That 64, that's the number that bumped it up into the realm of noticeability. You've singlehandedly insured that the NYT will continue to publish such crap. Thanks a lot, man.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:39 AM on May 6, 2007

As I type this my chest is drenched in vomitated carrot puree (baby; snack; automatic swing set on 11) and at this moment I I feel like the luckiest man alive.
posted by Dizzy at 7:26 AM on May 6, 2007

You know, Diz, the vomitated carrot puree is apparently a big fave on the menu at the Bar Martignetti.

(Hey, you're not a preppie, are you?)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:37 AM on May 6, 2007

Nope.
But my kid did piddle on a Ralph Lauren throw pillow at Macy's.
I was so proud.
posted by Dizzy at 8:06 AM on May 6, 2007

Seriously, Iranian princess? Your family got thrown out of its own country because you weren't smart enough to know when your time was over. You're nothing but the appendix of history.

Seconded. I am weirdly offended by people who claim to be the royalty of countries which no longer recognize royalty. You reign with the consent of your people - no consent-y, no reign-y. It's one thing to note the history as the trivia it is - it's another to actually identify yourself upfront with things that are, you know, no longer exactly true.

At least Emperor Norton was actually recognized by his people. What's more, he had actual class, as opposed to just money.

No, I don't know why this irks me so. I wasn't beat up by little princes and princesses as a kid, I swear.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:42 AM on May 6, 2007

Got four lines into it before I realized this was just more navel-gazing from the NYT. Please someone remind me why the NYT is the nation's "paper of record." We want to record this shit why?
posted by nax at 8:54 AM on May 6, 2007

The Style section is mostly written for dorky wannabes who need to be "in the know" about such things, or stodgy suburbanites looking for some tripe to feel righteously indignant about/superior to with their Sunday morning cup of coffee.
posted by psmealey at 9:03 AM on May 6, 2007

PSMealey: Which one are we?
posted by Methylviolet at 9:12 AM on May 6, 2007

I don't think we're the target for the Style section, Methylviolet.
posted by psmealey at 9:13 AM on May 6, 2007

We're in the demographic that takes a look at the ledes on the front page of the Style section, rolls our eyes, and flips to the Magazine or the Review of Books.
posted by psmealey at 9:14 AM on May 6, 2007

The style section of the NYtimes is a bit sadder than 'navel-gazing'... Keep in mind that the writers aren't living anything like their subjects.
posted by Firas at 11:59 AM on May 6, 2007

I go to school with a preppy guy from Princeton who is a jerk, AND he wears pink shirts. Weird.
posted by gatorae at 12:20 PM on May 6, 2007

They're breeding. We should let them have their habitat.





Then club the babies to death for coats.
/Swiftian sarcasm
posted by spitbull at 5:16 PM on May 6, 2007