The Rich are Different from you and me...

I love quotes about rich people and how clueless they are.

The headline quote is from F. Scott Fitzgerald, to which Hemingway replied, "Yes, they have more money."  And Truman Capote noticed that rich people prefer enormous houses and tiny vegetables.

Even better than a great quote are instances where a reporter hands them a shovel, turns on the tape recorder, and takes down their every word as they dig themselves deeper holes.

Walter Nicholls in the Washington Post gives us this hilarious account of two clueless multimillionaires who probably think they got good publicity today.  Read the full text for yourself, and watch for these highlights:

For her upcoming 50th birthday, Lerner plans to treat herself to a heavy-duty road roller that will groom the 14 miles of lanes that wind through her property. That should guarantee a comfortable ride, whether she chooses to cruise the rolling hills at the wheel of a Land Rover, on a Harley-Davidson or atop a highly polished carriage drawn by a powerful Shire horse. Her hobby is jousting in period costume, which gives her "a chance to spear cabbages."

No comment necessary.   Oh alright just the one: "Jousting in period costume?" 

"I thought to myself, wouldn't it be nice if we had a local restaurant"

       You know, the kind of place we like to go in London, New York and the Islands.

At Home Farm, the prime steaks cost as much as $27 per pound. Seven kinds of sausage are made in-house. In the prepared foods area, savory turnovers and pulled pork are ready for a picnic. Some of the organic produce is grown on local estates owned by margarine heiress Dielle Fleischmann and Mars candy billionaire Jacqueline Mars, whom Lerner calls "the lettuce queen."

    Forget micro-farming.  It's the dawn of macroeconomic farming.  Soon they'll have their own product seal -- gold bullion and the words:  "Certified grown by plutocrats"

Johnson says her new plan will win more supporters. "My vision is still being followed," says Johnson. "But in the beginning, there was not a real business plan. The design team was pretty haphazard. My whole strategic plan has changed in the last few months, and when it's finished, there's a book in this."

    No. No. No.  Do not give this woman a book contract.  That means you, Judith. 

"Now, not every Joe Blow Public will come. But if I have, let's say, the king of Jordan or Oprah or if the president comes, we can stage something wonderful here," she says.

    Shall we take that as an invitation?  Abdullah, Oprah, W -- waddya say?

And for more about rich people and their food obsession, don't miss this from today's New York Times. (careful readers of this blog will note the presence here of a character we've met before --the inappropriately present public relations person) 

Where have you gone, Calvin Trillin?  I'd much rather read about your food obsessions...

Comments

[how nice]

Isn't that cute, gosh, and here I thought a weekend at my place in maui was living good. Period costume, I'll have to try that.

I think "ugly american" fixes, I mean fits, here nicely.

[Diana Potesky]

Your implied criticism of cabbage jousting is uninformed and unfair. The sport can be traced back to the court of Louis VII and has undoubtedly contributed to the unusually acute hand/eye coordination reported in certain lineages of European nobility. Historians also credit the sport for the invention of cole slaw.

[Chris M.]

Your Fitzgerald/Hemingway quote is a common myth, but wrong. Hemingway was actually the one who said "The rich are different from you and me." and it was critic Mary Colum who responded "Yeah, they have more money." Hemingway as all embarassed by being put down, so in later writing he attributed his own statement to Fitzgerald (whom he was famously jealous of) and gave himself the good line.