Further signs of The New Poverty: "Neiman Marcus Group Inc. mailed out its annual Christmas Book catalog, which each year features over-the-top "fantasy" gifts, to one million customers on Tuesday. But for the first time in a decade, there isn't a seven- or eight-figure price tag on the list. The most expensive fantasy item for 2009 is a $250,000 'his and hers' two-seater Icon aircraft, which comes with pilot training for two. That's a far cry from the $20 million submarine offered in 2000, the $10 million Zeppelin of 2004 or the $10 million stable of racehorses of 2008." Still, for $200k you can buy yourself a modern-day Algonquin Round Table Experience!
Imagine hosting the brightest minds of modern literature, journalism, and the arts. An exclusive private dinner party of fine food, engaging wit, and sparkling conversation at New York City's legendary, literary Algonquin Hotel. You and a guest will be part of an extraordinary gathering drawn from this impressive array of literati:Malcolm Gladwell and Ali Wentworth at the same table! With me? Even if it weren't for charity this would still be the deal of the century!* Christopher Buckley
* Roz Chast
* Delia Ephron
* Nora Ephron
* Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
* Malcolm Gladwell
* Adam Gopnik
* John Lithgow
* Anna Deavere Smith
* George Stephanopoulos
* Ali Wentworth
John Lithgow is a part of my Algonquin Roundtable? What's he going to talk about? That time on Harry and the Hendersons when he tried on the Yeti suit?
I would ask him about Cliffhanger.
Dude, you have to ask about Buckaroo Banzai.
Is it marked down to $100K on 12/26?
I'm going to start the bidding on the Awlgonquin Roundtable at $375.
I'll see you, and raise you a bowl of change.
"dinner party of fine food," "sparkling conversation," "drawn from this impressive array"- I'd bid, but you just know after a spate of last-minute cancellations it's going to wind up being Nora Ephron and George Stephanopoulos discussing Transformers 2 while Lithgow chases the damn cat around.
Oh, that sounds like more fun!
I think you get Delia, not Nora.
The Icon is a doctor-killer if ever there was one.
So, Gopnik, Gladwell, Gates etc. get paid to.... show up? So essentially, the economics of integrity is on par with Lindsey Lohan and K-Fed and William Hung....
I hope Christopher Buckley is bringing the blow.
For $200K it should include a foot massage from Dick Cavett.
Men seldom make passes
At girls who think this passes for a modern-day simulacrum of the Algonquin Roundtable.
I wish Roz Chast weren't on this list, because then I would bid on it in an attempt to recreate the final scene in Inglorious Basterds.
Throw in Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department and you've got yourself a deal.
Actually, all you get is Anna Deveare Smith doing imitations of the others all night long.
I know she's married to Stephanopoulos but Ali Wentworth? One of these kids is not like the others...
She's actually really smart. Anna Devere Smith, who's also a performer and writer, may have won a MacArthur --but she is no genius, far as I'm concerned. And Roz Chast?