Let them eat really tall pies

Here's something funny: The Gray Lady Wears Prada, in which Michelle Cottle ponders the New York Times' decision to create a new Thursday luxury porn section:

In fact, it's precisely this simultaneous mocking of, and wallowing in, our luxe-life obsession that makes "Critical Shopper" a creation of Frankensteinian genius. Plenty of Times readers may be dying to hear every last detail about the parking lot at Fred Segal's Melrose Avenue store, but some may feel a twinge of shame about their aggressive acquisitiveness. After all, the Times is bringing luxury porn to a much broader audience than, say, Millionaire or Rich Guy magazine. Those publications are preaching to the choir of conspicuous consumption--to readers who not only have scads of money but have few qualms, if any, about spending it ostentatiously. "Thursday Styles," by contrast, is seeking new converts, reassuring its more skeptical readers that there's really nothing wrong with showing off their good fortune. This is delicate work considering that even many ultra-affluent Times readers belong to the ambivalently wealthy ranks of the "Bourgeois Bohemians" profiled so piquantly in now-Timesman David Brooks's 2000 classic, Bobos in Paradise. A new breed of elites deeply conflicted about their material success, Bobos are morally appalled by any gaudy display that could make them look like "the vulgar Yuppies they despise."

In related news a vulgar Yuppie named Bloomberg has decided not to expand foodstamp coverage for able-bodied childless adults:

"It looked like we were departing from the Giuliani era's stinginess and cruelty when it came to dealing with poor people," said Douglas Lasdon, executive director of the Urban Justice Center, a nonprofit law firm that sued the city, under both mayors, over food stamp rules and procedures. "This has not been an administration that has bowed to the political winds. It is a bit petty and odd."

Councilman Bill de Blasio, a Brooklyn Democrat who is chairman of the General Welfare Committee, said he would hold hearings and try to change the mayor's mind. "It's a huge mistake," he said. "We have a growing hunger and poverty problem and we need this waiver. This has caught everyone off guard."

On the bright side, maybe the new Thursday Styles section will give starving New Yorkers some leads on posh dumpsters filled with half-eaten gold-dusted pork shank and suchlike. Hell, now that hunger, homelessness, and luxury porn are all on the rise, let us praise the smoothly functioning Bush economy for its boat-lifting tide, its lofty pies, and just that overall "can't-sleep-clown-will-eat-me" feeling.