"... to three figures that the app started delivering me one bejeweled Bichon after another. I’d drag a suitcase onto the subway and, for weeks at a time, live in some stranger’s sprawling penthouse. I dogsat a schnauzer for a real estate tycoon who I was certain had CCTV cameras trained on me in the bedroom as I slept; a nervy, Xanax-needing French bulldog for a Hollywood bigwig; a trio of overweight dachshunds that had never stepped foot* on the street below, having been trained, rather horrifically, to do their business on the balcony.... Over [a] decade I twirled through hundreds of lives... but I learned nothing about what it meant to care for — to raise — another living creature.
That didn’t happen until the pandemic hit, when an animal shelter I volunteered with asked if I could foster a frightened, deer-eared mutt who’d just had a front leg amputated.... Poca is deeply wary around other dogs, which is what finally brought my moonlighting as an on-call caretaker for New York City’s Fidos and Bellas and Discos to a close."
Rich people bad. Rescue dogs good. Care because paid bad. Care because love good.
______________
* It was only a week ago that
I blogged about the phrase "stepped foot" (as opposed to "set foot").
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42 comments:
Rich people bad. Rescue dogs good. Care because paid bad. Care because love good.
Obey. Conform. Sleep. No independent thought.
I didn't see the "stepped foot" column but if you find it mildly offensive, so do I. You can't take it "for granite" that people know proper English.
This is kind of an East Coast/West Coast thing I think. Like "standing on line" vs. "standing in line."
Rich people bad. Rescue dogs good. Care because paid bad. Care because love good.
I see you have the NYT Stylebook open.
Veblen goods. Look it up.
Rich people bad. Rescue dogs good. Care because paid bad. Care because love good.
This is what the Obamas did to kids- everything has to be virtuous, boo capitalism, hooray government, no I don’t work Fridays…they often cite Obama when they’re lecturing me….
Last week I got in an argument over ‘book club’- why does everything have to be virtuous? Or why can’t you call it ‘Tuesday Evening Drinking Club’ and have that be virtuous?
What's the difference between a dog pooping on the balcony or on the street? The handler has to scoop it either way. The smell stays outside.
Her horror led me to believe the dog went in the corner of the kitchen or something.
It reminds me of a joke about the New Russians (young guys newly rich in post-communist Russia) I heard in the 90s. Two of them meet on the street and the first says, "Hey, Vlad. I like your new tie."
"Thanks, Boris. It's pure silk. I spent $100 USD on it."
"Vlad, you got ripped off. There's a store around the corner selling the same tie for $400."
You know, it sounds like an interesting story...until I got to 'class inequality.'
JFC.
Some people have more money than others.
The guy who is a middle manager does better than the guy emptying toilets.
The guy emptying toilets is usually better off than the drug addict in the street.
It has been the human condition for the past 10,000 years.
Org had a nicer cave than Jurg. It's called 'life.'
If you haven't figured it out yet, the NYT is a pro-communist media outlet.
I've seen enough indie movies about hipster dog-sitters and house-sitters (not to mention "Parasite") to know that anyone you hire to be in your home has intimate knowledge of your life, and is probably judging you constantly.
I personally hire a housekeeper to deep-clean once a month (because I'm not rich, and my place isn't that big). I have to trust her to a) do a good job; b) not misuse her access to my home; and especially c) not make harsh judgments about me based on the content and condition of my stuff -- or at least keep her opinions to herself. I guess I can add d) not write them up in a major newspaper.
I read the article. She writes about "a yawning class inequality" and takes a few digs at the designer dogs of the wealthy. She also writes about her parents. They grew up in Red China. Her father had a puppy. The family had to kill it. Pets were outlawed.... They were an unnecessary and wasteful middle class affectation. There was none of that "yawning class inequality" in Red China. The family ate the puppy...There are worse things in life than a yawning class inequality like, for example, thinking that there's nothing worse in life than class inequalities.
The diversity hustles sustained through shared responsibility, immigration reform, nationwide insurrections, neighborhoods occupations, and redistributive change in ouroboros models.
I'm sorry. How can you read such tripe??
HBO has a short movie about a cleaning lady in wealthy Los Angeles California. Sometimes her daughter goes with her and she movie is narrated by her daughter.
It’s called a Veblen good. (service?)
Downside is if you fuck up you’re prolly done. Rich people have an inside club where they compare notes about the plebes…
The Tennessee expulsion story: Democrats Good, Republicans Bad. Tragedy Opportunity - Boooring
I dogsat a schnauzer for a real estate tycoon who I was certain had CCTV cameras trained on me in the bedroom as I slept
Isn't this the type of young adult fan fiction that resulted in Fifty Shades of Grey?
It seems to me that if you're paid to take care of a dog, you should learn a lot "about what it meant to care for — to raise — another living creature." You care out of professionalism, and that should bring you to a high standard, even better than what you'd give your own dog that you love and feel emotional about. How do you take the money and not behave professionally toward the task? If you don't, I wonder if you really do take proper care of your own dog. An awful lot of people don't!
"a real estate tycoon who I was certain had CCTV cameras trained on me in the bedroom as I slept"
Aren't there ways to detect this? If you find the cameras, you can sue. It's established that the man is rich. How hard is it to deal with your fears? And isn't this person (if real) identifiable? Has she libeled him?
It took me 2 seconds to find an article on simple ways to check for hidden cameras: https://reolink.com/blog/how-to-detect-hidden-cameras/
"I personally hire a housekeeper to deep-clean once a month (because I'm not rich, and my place isn't that big). I have to trust her to a) do a good job; b) not misuse her access to my home; and especially c) not make harsh judgments about me based on the content and condition of my stuff -- or at least keep her opinions to herself. I guess I can add d) not write them up in a major newspaper."
Why I don't hire a cleaner.
https://reolink.com/blog/how-to-detect-hidden-cameras/
8. Assume that somebody is watching you. It will emit no radiating signals. It will "see" without seeing. It will be undetectable.
So it turns out the Democrat's uberhive is a city of yawning class inequality. Imagine that. (yawn)
So how will the hive correct this completely predictable oversight? I suggest the residents of Central Park West stage a bake sale featuring cricket and mealworm-enhanced soda bread, arugula muffins, Finnish kalakukko, and other revolting snacks, which they can distribute to the destitute and drug-addled, along with free jolts of fentanyl and methamphetamine. That would be an ideal twofer, the kind the limousine liberals adore -- assuage your guilt and narrow the inequality gap by liquidating the bottom percentile in one easy step. (New York liberals used to do this kind of non-thing thing by means of charity balls, but the gauche display of jewelry and furs became slightly embarrassing politically back when Ingrid Newkirk got invited to such affairs.
Althouse, that article you linked to on finding hidden cameras is interesting, but at least half wrong. It also, interestingly, has many language features which make me suspect that it was written with the "aid" of an AI like ChatGPT.
This is why I don’t have a housekeeper, too. Even those who don’t write about you in a major newspaper will talk about the state of your stuff to other people.
High price is a proxy for high quality. Rich people don't want to take time to find the best quality. It's just a shortcut, and often a good one.
She made good money doing an easy job. Part of what she was getting paid for, in my opinion, was acting professionally which includes not gossiping about your employers. It was a good gig while she had it.
Why all the harrumphing at the description of the "yawning class inequality" that we all know exists between rich and poor, (or, more simply, between the rich and everyone else)?
"Aren't there ways to detect this? If you find the cameras, you can sue."
If it's his house?
Can she sue if he has a BDSM dungeon and she gets triggered?
How about if he has a bar full of liquor and she's a teetotaler or a recovering alcoholic?
What else can't people do in their own homes?
In Dublin, Irish President Michael Higgins's dog Misneach barked at Joe Biden and refused to come to him when Biden tried to call him over. The dog is obviously a good judge of character. "Misneach" means "courage" in Gaelic.
This one’s nice but the one with the duck is The Bomb!
I wonder if some Lattes below have been the recipients of Dachsund droppings.
Yawning? Boring? Freudian slip?
Yawning? Boring? Freudian slip?
We gonna wang dang doodle ALL night long…
Cuz we rich!
Why I don't hire a cleaner.
Three words- N D A…
And the dog sitters shall lead us....
Probably why these personal care services are commonly offered to immigrants. They just want the money and keep their mouth shut. Judging me in Polish or Slovakian doesn’t have the same risk.
Career paths for pretty, educated young women.
High price as a proxy for quality is a nicer way of phrasing her explanation, however I suspect when she priced herself to the bottom of the list for the multitudes whose first move is "Sort Price Low:High" she became more available to less price-sensitive clients. Sometimes that's somebody who needs a service *right now* but usually it's people with plenty of money and other priorities. She's just lucky that New Yawk has plenty of people who don't need to "Sort Price Low:High". The same pricing move in Madison WI or Des Moines IA would probably have had less interesting results, and likely wouldn't have feed the narrative so beloved of people like Cookie.
I know a woman who had a small gift shop on Mackinac Island. One line of purses wasn't moving. A vendor rep stopping in suggested doubling the price. Couldn't hurt. Flew off the shelves.
The Mackinac Island Markup is a goal, not an obstacle.
Back in the mid 1980's I had a bunch of hashish that I bought very cheaply. I priced it accordingly and couldn't sell it. Doubled the price and my customers were delighted with it. True story, as Joe Biden would say. So Veblen goods are not just for the wealthy. Young stoners are also prone to this stupidity. I learned a lot about sales and marketing during those years.
Why all the harrumphing at the description of the "yawning class inequality" that we all know exists between rich and poor, (or, more simply, between the rich and everyone else)?
Cite an instance in 300,000 years of human existence where this wasn't true.
"The rich"
"The poor"
"The gays"
"The blacks"
"The left"
"The right"
Hey, look at me, I'm a Times' writer.
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