Chris Blattman

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What is the most anthropologically interesting section of the New York Times?

My vote: “Real Estate”. From today’s paper:

As they leave the basketball court, Ms. Haber explains how the stairwell offers a vertiginous, Hitchcock-worthy view to the media room five floors below. “The staircase was one of my pet projects,” she said. “I grew up when ‘The Waltons’ was popular on TV — remember ‘Good night, John-Boy’? — and I wanted a staircase where every member of the family could stand on a different floor and look up and down at each other and say good night.”

This is not from a borough. It is the Upper East Side.

Amazingly, this is not unusual. Sunday after Sunday, the Times repeats itself, initially as tragedy and eventually as farce.

For instance, there is a refrigerator on every floor. “If I want a bottle of water, I don’t have to go down to the kitchen,” Mr. Haber said. “Something as simple as that is terrific. Jill was very thoughtful about every detail.”

What amazes me is that, to speak so unselfconsciously, the couple must be surrounded only by people for whom these statements are not absurd.

It is easier and easier to see why De Blasio was elected.

2 Responses

  1. well, it is interesting, but more anthropologically interesting than anything else in the times. Anthropology after all could study just about anything that is written about in the Times. That is why anthropology rocks ;-) (and yes, I am an anthropologist)

  2. The other front page piece was even better. Check out the woman who designed her condo like a Shanghai nightclub, including black walls, black carpeting, YSL logos in red neon, and best of all a bathtub (black marble, of course) that fills from the ceiling.

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