The flurry of trend stories about the imminent release of the ode to consumption Sex And The City 2 will not cease until this movie really fulfills its Ishtar… For Chicks potential, will it? Today's New York Post has yet another profile of four women who are Living The Lifestyle, as it were, only there's a crucial twist: The ladies profiled are not friends, but they are all, by the punishingly youthful standards of Post trend stories, ancient. Or, sorry, as the Post puts it, "living proof that the Big Apple is still the sexiest city of all – for women of all ages." (Like 40! Gasp!) Each [...]

From a Times piece on the really nice real estate on display in many plays of recent vintage, despite the characters maybe not being of the means to afford said spreads: "Several of the set designers for these productions said that they did not aspire to reflect precise reality in their rendering of Manhattan and Brooklyn homes, but rather achieve exactly the sort of jealous stirring that New Yorkers can feel about the digs of their friends and neighbors." Weren't we all supposed to be done with the age of ire-stoking aspirationalism by now?

Sure, it was basically a glorified ad for the author's overly precious personal-finance site, but that doesn't mean that Alexa von Tobel's recent Huffington Post piece on living in New York City on $0 a day wasn't offensive and dumb. Von Tobel's giggly guide to keeping it real could have been retitled "The Well-Off Person's Guide To Playing Pauper For A Day" — the hold-on-to-your-wallets flip side of all the "aspirational" dreck that clogs too much media even to this day. She walked to work, which just happens to be a mere 20-minute hike from her apartment, instead of taking a cab! She gave up Le Pain lattes [...]

"When is it going to be enough stuff? When are we going to have enough?" -Vancouver hairdresser and "haul video" star Teresa Ulrich, one of the women profiled in Tricia Romano's look at the economics behind the improbably popular clips that detail recent shopping binges and other fashion acquisitions by young women all over the globe. You may not be surprised to learn that some of the featured companies sweeten the pot of "free stuff" with cash donations, some of which are under the table! Which would seem to make the answer to Ms. Ulrich's question "never, or at least until the marketing budgets of every company in the [...]