Then, coming on six o'clock, Mr. Myhrvold, the former Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft and an inventor with hundreds of patents to his name, came in, wearing chef's whites, and ushered us into dinner. Boy, people eat early around here, I thought. Little did I know I would be eating non-stop for the next three hours. (previously: 1,2) [more inside]
posted by Trurl
on Jun 28, 2011 -
31 comments
The newest and most exclusive residential tower for this city’s superrich is a cantilevered sheath of steel and glass soaring 27 floors into the sky. The parking garage fills six levels. Three helipads are on the roof. There are terraces upon terraces, airborne swimming pools and hanging gardens in a Blade Runner-meets-Babylon edifice overlooking India’s most dynamic city. There are nine elevators, a spa, a 50-seat theater and a grand ballroom. Hundreds of servants and staff are expected to work inside. And now, finally, after several years of planning and construction, the residents are about to move in. All five of them. [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese
on Oct 29, 2010 -
84 comments
Adnan Khashoggi was one of the high society news makers in the 80's, considered by some to be on Donald Trump's level. While things have gone alright for the Donald, Khashoggi hasn't done as well...
[more inside]
posted by reenum
on Dec 14, 2009 -
19 comments
If you're like me, you're in the market to buy yourself an island-sized boat, but you're not satisfied with the world's current inventory of formulaic, fuel-guzzling, cruise-ship-like
mega-yachts. You might want to consider picking up a
WHY 58x38, which offers 36,000 square feet of living space, a 120-foot "beach," three decks, and an 80-foot interior pool, topped by a vast solar panel array. It won't break your budget -- at a mere $151 million, it doesn't even crack the top four
most expensive yachts in the world!
[more inside]
posted by brain_drain
on Nov 13, 2009 -
68 comments
These days, you don't have to be rich to have all the
right stuff, at least for the
night. Going
deep or flying
high, these days you don't have to be rich, to pretend. Just a good credit card, and no thought for the future.
posted by nomisxid
on Jul 19, 2007 -
8 comments
Busted! In one of the biggest counterfeit busts in years, a 19-month investigation reached its climax on Tuesday as federal officials conducted early-morning raids throughout the NY
metropolitan area, arresting 29 people, seizing more than $230 million in merchandise and ultimately dismantling three operations believed to have imported more than $700 million in fake products over the last 24 months.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero
on Jun 27, 2007 -
147 comments
Getting Bored is Not Allowed at the
Plaza Hotel, at least not according to its famous fictional resident, the exhausting, spoiled and infectiously ebullient
Eloise. Sadly, though,
today's news is anything but boring: the Plaza's new owners announced plans to close the iconic hotel for 18 months, and renovate it to create private condos -- throwing hundreds of employees out of work.
It's been said that nothing unimportant ever happens at the Plaza: from its
1907 opening to Truman Capote's 1966
Black and White Ball, the Plaza has hosted literati, glitterati, rock stars, and royalty. It has graced the screen in movies such as
Breakfast at Tiffany's and
The Great Gatsby, making Hollywood history when it became the first fully on-location film shoot for
North by Northwest. Ernest Hemingway told F. Scott Fitzgerald to give his liver to Princeton and his heart to the Plaza;
Dorothy Parker got her pink slip from Vanity Fair there. Residents, at various times, included Frank Lloyd Wright, Cary Grant, and Judy Garland. Every President since Taft has stepped through its giant engraved revolving doors.
Chef Boyardee of canned-spaghetti fame got his start in its kitchens. No
New York tourist's rounds are complete without a bloody mary and some bluepoints at the Oyster Bar, a martini in the
Oak Room bar, or
tea in the Palm Court, and its French-chateau facade is
a Central Park centerpiece.
An
employees' group and a
supporting 'Friends of the Plaza' group have begun working to save the gracious place, with the goal of preserving not only the building and their jobs, but the very idea of the quintessential New York luxury hotel. Almost enough to make folks want the Donald back.
posted by Miko
on Mar 14, 2005 -
15 comments
An L.A. restaurateur just won a rare 2-pound mushroom in an
annual "charity truffle auction" in Santa Monica. The winner paid $35,000 for the truffle after a fierce bidding war between a New York-based restaurant owner and Gunther IV, who placed his bids through a subsidiary due to the fact that he is, in fact, a dog. The canine heir to a vast German fortune lost the auction, and the honor of placing the highest recorded bid ever for a mushroom. Go ahead, read it again. This is all, mind you,
before anyone actually got their hands on the giant 'shroom.
posted by XQUZYPHYR
on Nov 11, 2002 -
42 comments
The Brand And Burger Concerto: Luxury And Poverty For All In The U.S.A. Is luxury becoming democratized? Are ostentation and conspicuous consumption not only tolerated now but
demanded of anyone but the poorest and least ambitious? As
James B.Twitchell, whose well-off father drove a Plymouth, pithily puts it in this adaptation of his book
Living It Up: Our Love Affair With Luxury, would
you go to a doctor who drove a Plymouth? Well, he confesses he wouldn't. His essay is full of interesting (though perhaps too easily answered) questions. Are time and philantropy really the two remaining luxuries for the truly wealthy? And is it really true almost anyone can now be king for a day or an hour?
[
I'd add that what he says about the U.S. is even truer of present-day Western Europe, where the stigma previously attached to ostentation was much more powerful among the middle and upper classes than ever it was with rich American WASPs.]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Aug 5, 2002 -
23 comments
For The Discerning, Segway-Hating Man About Town: Hammacher-Schlemmer's fantastic
Unexpected catalogue is full of classy transportation devices, among countless other fascinating products, with prices to suit all pockets. The
Two-Person Submarine is a snip at $62,900 but claustrophic types are well catered for too. There's the
Zem 4-person bicycle for $6,499.95; the
One Person Helium Balloon for 20K, the popular
All-Terrain 2-Person Hovercraft; the very European
Vespa motorbike; the extremely enticing
Danish Police Runabout at only $5,999.95; the sexy little
Amphibious Car for $9,995.95 and many,
many more outlandish and distinctive vehicles, from
7 Person tricycles(for you, 16K)to a wooden '54
wooden Mercedes 300SL. For more sedentary gentlefolk, there are Feline Drinking Fountains, Impervious Unbreakable Chip Trays and, for only 25 bucks, a Barbershop
Hot Lather Machine. Fancy anything, Madam or Sir?
posted by MiguelCardoso
on May 15, 2002 -
19 comments
oh glorious rapture, vertu has launched. (flash) the phones (called "instruments" in vertu-speak) are okay, but the real meat seems to be the one-touch vertu concierge: allows one to find theatre tickets, make reservations, or (assumably) order KFC. and, as promised, they are indeed clutch-the-pearls expensive: €6000 to €24000. golly.
posted by patricking
on Mar 27, 2002 -
12 comments
Best. Auction. Ever. Check out the details
here. Basically, the Scottish whisky makers Chivas Regal is auctioning off 450 "lots" of some of the coolest and most unobtainable things ever: like an audience with the Pope, and performing with the Moscow State Circus. Which would you choose?(via
fark)
posted by thewittyname
on Sep 7, 2001 -
16 comments
I got in!!! Remember that link to
Quintessentially a few weeks back? Well, after countless hours of anxious waiting, I finally received my acceptance letter (the complete text of which is inside). At last, I can enjoy the finer things in life - it'll only cost me $600 a year .
posted by aladfar
on Dec 14, 2000 -
9 comments
