The Incidental Economist

I was going to stick this in R & R, but I had to say something more.  There’s an article in the NYT today about how you simply can’t throw a party in NYC these days, no matter how small, without hiring a bartender.  It contains stuff like this:

“In my opinion, if you don’t have a bartender at your party, you’re a loser,” said Dustin Terry, who lives a floor below Ms. Argiro and said his job was to get models and Saudi royalty into hot clubs. “The bartender brings class and sophistication.”

“If you can’t afford to hire a bartender,” he added, “you shouldn’t be having a party.”

Seriously, NYT?  Here’s another gem:

That seems to be the consensus of a growing crowd of 30-something New Yorkers who wish to signal they’ve graduated from post-collegiate squalor to young professional coming of age. No matter how small their abodes, they won’t invite friends over for cocktails without the assistance of a bartender — even if there’s barely room for the bartender to stand.

Seriously?  This is the fricking New York Times.  This is the “newspaper of record”.  The Grey Lady.

I’m sure you want more details on the party:

Luckily, things never became quite that crowded at Ms. Argiro’s party. Her guests were an arty-chic crowd of D.J.s, stylists and publicists, as well as her brother, Marco, a Bushwick musician, and sister, Daniela. They munched on Ms. Argiro’s homemade panko-crusted chicken bites and jalapeño poppers while dancing to tracks by the Cure, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Gorillaz.

I think the NYT sometimes gets a bad rap as an effete, liberal rag.  But you know what?  Right now, I think the NYT is an an effete, liberal rag.  Do they really mean to say that no parties are going on in NYC, in a recession, without a bartender?  They really think this is a trend worth reporting?  Do they think this is sweeping the nation?  Do they think this matters at all outside of a small group of, well, attendants of Ms. Argiro’s party?

You’re killing me, NYT.  Seriously.

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