The Way We Live Now: coming to terms with hopelessness. No use being hoity-toity any more! Our neighborhoods are slums, we live off food stamps, and we work in restaurants. We must accept that we are…
The Way We Live Now: doing anything for love. By “anything,” we mean “anything worth less than $50,” and by “$50,” we mean “assuming we can steal that much from our fellow poor suckers for…
The Way We Live Now: Optimagically. We choose to believe that good times are ahead despite plain evidence to the contrary. As long as someone somewhere can bail someone else out, it’s luxury condos…
Luxury condos will not be built directly behind the Hollywood sign. Two years ago a developer wanted $22 million to ruin the LA icon. Today, because the market crashed, a conservation group got an…
The Way We Live Now: Blaming the victim. People, stop! It’s crazy! We know you’re angry about your unemployment and poverty and endless coupon-clipping. But golf-happy bankers are not the…
The Way We Live Now: Unfulfilled. We can’t enjoy our bonus check. We can’t scam others. We’re finally building casinos when nobody has the money to gamble. Worst of all, we may never know the taste…
The Way We Live Now: recalibrating our responsibilities. In tough times, we can’t be expected to support certain causes as effusively as we once did. Such causes include, but are not limited to:…
The Way We Live Now: enamored with strategies doomed to backfire. College? Big waste of money. Taxing the rich? You’re punishing the best and brightest. When will the unemployed just start working…
The Way We Live Now: Like a smooth criminal. Well, “smooth” is not quite the right word. Desperate? Yes. And occasionally inept. There are no banks left to rob. There’s no bull market left to…
The Way We Live Now: Piling tragedy atop tragedy, in a towering tree of tragedy. It is not enough that the underclass exists; they must be made to suffer above and beyond their already harsh…