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April 27, 2007
It's Friday night, and us workaday schlubs deserve to fantasize about “
an unconventional and extraordinary getaway,” don't we? Do you fancy an overnight stay in a 1968 decommissioned Coast Guard Sikorsky, pithily dubbed the
Hotelicopter? Or maybe in the Treehouse, 35 feet off the ground and with a full bar?
Winvian is a 113-acre resort in Connecticut's Litchfield Hills; dotting the grounds are eighteen cottages in whimsical themes.
Like, an artist's studio, complete with blank canvas, watercolors and oils, just in case inspiration strikes. And a tomb-like structure named "The Secret Society" -- an homage to Yale's Skull and Bones temple (most of the 14 architects that designed the hotel's cottages are Yale alums).
Win Smith Jr., the
former Merrill Lynch exec and owner of Vermont ski spot
Sugarbush, built the resort on his family's property to save it from becoming a high-rise development. No
shortage of
luxury-travel reviewers are salivating over Smith's "experiential retreat," just opened this spring.
A daily rate starting at $1450 includes the continental breakfast nook, full breakfast, lunch, picnics, spa snacks, afternoon tea, cocktails, dinner, and after dinner petit-fours. The main building is a restored 1775 colonial with a cigar-and-brandy lounge, art gallery, and 130-variety wine cellar... and also boasts
an appropriately gothic backstory. Who needs to pay the rent, anyway?
posted by pineapple at 4:18 PM PST - 12 comments
There's been plenty of
Bullshit! on MetaFilter before, and now there's more: Boy Scouts [
1,
2,
3] (
"Duty to God ahead of country, others, and self, is the credo of suicide bombers.");
Wal-Mart Hatred (
"Wal-Mart is one of the great anti-poverty programmes in the country.");
Circumcision (
"By the end of this programme, one of these three will drop their pants and show us the restored foreskin on their penis."); and
The Best (
"Stupid? How many of you are searching for it on the web right now?").
posted by hoverboards don't work on water at 3:22 PM PST - 46 comments
Exposed: I'm not a plastic bag! Queues this week have gone around the block for a designer cotton bag designed by
Anya Hindmarch available at Sainsbury's, the British grocer. The bag, which was designed to raise awareness of fair trade and ethical issues, was actually mass produced by sweatshop labor in China and is neither fair trade nor organic.
Bags are selling for as much at $200 on Ebay.
Anya Hindmarch herself has not apologized for the bag, saying:
"We will be launching I’m Not A Plastic Bag in the US in June (in a limited edition navy blue) and in Japan in July (in a limited edition bottle green)."
posted by parmanparman at 1:21 PM PST - 36 comments
The Canadian government has released its new
Turning the Corner plan for regulating greenhouse gases, setting mandatory intensity-based
emission targets (18% reduction over three years) for major industrial sectors. Firms exceeding their targets will be required to pay $15/tonne starting in 2010. Expected cost: $7-8B per year, offset by an expected $6B benefit from improved health. Kyoto targets won't be reached until 2020, eight years late. Reaction from
industry,
Alberta,
the Opposition.
Previous proposal from Opposition leader
Stephane Dion.
Previously.
posted by russilwvong at 12:04 PM PST - 12 comments
As an interesting follow-up to the excellent post about
Fuck law from last year, a controversy is brewing about the article's scholarly merit.
Brian Leiter issued his
Most Downloaded Law Faculty Rankings and excluded Ohio State and Emory because their "presence in the top 15 was due entirely to one provocatively titled article by Christopher Fairman who teaches at Ohio State and is visiting at Emory; without Fairman’s paper, neither Ohio State nor Emory would be close to the top 15." There
has been some dispute over Leiter's omission of the two faculties on that basis. Fairman weighed in on the issue with his new article
Fuck and Faculty Rankings.
posted by dios at 8:17 AM PST - 37 comments
Paternity Discrepancy. "My little boy was there, he was up at bat, and I started yelling for him, 'Go Matthew [not his real name]! Knock it out of the park!' And another man started screaming for Matthew. Louder than me. I looked over, and I looked at him, and I was like, Who is this guy? And I looked at my son, and I looked at him … and they were identical."
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:06 AM PST - 195 comments
