The Money Mustache Community
Around the Internet => Antimustachian Wall of Shame and Comedy => Topic started by: gpyros85 on June 27, 2018, 01:13:54 PM
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I can't get into movies where the plot is based on the family doing risky things because they are "broke" but in the beginning of the movies show a McMansion, Mercedes and EXPENSIVE decorating. This dawned on me when I watched the movie "Gringo" and he does these risky things because he has a spending problem... However, there are countless other movies based on this plot...
WHY WHY WHY!! Anybody else feel this way?
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Here is the scene where he makes the life deceision to "Risk" his life...
In a normal spending world where 0%-5% savings rate. 20k is difficult to dig out of the hole!
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I feel mild irritation when the characters are shown with a standard of living far above their income and asset level. No, an unpaid intern does not get a 1000 square foot apartment in Manhattan unless Mommy and Daddy are footing the bill.
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I can look past most of this because it's just one the many aspects of reality that movies ignore, but the one that gets me is when somebody needs to come up with a small amount of money in a very short time. So what do they do? Discuss the plan at a restaurant of course!
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I can look past most of this because it's just one the many aspects of reality that movies ignore, but the one that gets me is when somebody needs to come up with a small amount of money in a very short time. So what do they do? Discuss the plan at a restaurant of course!
"Tower Heist", which I found in a DVD bargain bin, spoofs that brilliantly. One of the characters points out that the restaurant they're in is far too expensive, at which point another character asserts that the meal is going to be "on the house", and pulls out a bag with a dead cockroach in it.
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Oh I love the theme of ordinary-live-above-their-means-people-drawn-into-a-life-of-crime. Some oldies but goodies are the original Fun With Dick and Jane from the 70s, How to Beat the Cost of Living (early Jessica Lang, plus Jane Curtain), and Mad Money. All madcap adventures with the message that crime DOES pay*
*Not how I roll but I love seeing our madcap heroines work their way out of a cash shortfall.
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I've started noticing this kind of stuff in movies and popular TV shows more and more over the last year as my Mustachianism gets stronger. There was a show I used to watch when I was 10-12 years younger where countless well dressed, trendy and apparently upwardly mobile young people seem to have everything they want and do pretty much anything they want (within the confines of the plot) and yet none of them talk about work, go to work, get back from work, have to sacrifice something because of work. The show existed in a vacuum where work and money don't exist and you just live a life where affording things isn't a concern. It makes me wonder how many ill informed young people might be watching the show (or almost any show) and being subconsciously programmed to believe that even if you don't have a job, you should go on foreign holidays semi-regularly and always dress as if you are loaded.
I think that back in the late 90s, Sex and the City encouraged rampant consumerism and living-a-champagne-life-style-on-a-lemonade-budget amongst females.
Even shows like the Big Bang Theory and Friends didn't really focus on the role money plays in someone's life. I get people don't watch these shows for a harsh dose of reality and that it's escapism, but I think a one time mustachian episode where things were overly REAL on the financial front would be absolutely hilarious.
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Recently I read "A Man in Full" by Tom Wolfe. It is one of the great novels of the 20th century. A story of personal collapse and redemption, racial and class segregation, the changing of Southern Culture. Yet, as I was reading it I kept thinking, "none of this would have happened if [main character] could have just lived on a budget."
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It makes me wonder how many ill informed young people might be watching the show (or almost any show) and being subconsciously programmed to believe that even if you don't have a job, you should go on foreign holidays semi-regularly and always dress as if you are loaded.
I remember reading about studies showing that the more tv you watch, the worse your grasp of financial realities is.
Even just the fact that the clothes people wear in tv shows are always brand new would distort your sense of what is normal consumption.
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Recently I read "A Man in Full" by Tom Wolfe. It is one of the great novels of the 20th century. A story of personal collapse and redemption, racial and class segregation, the changing of Southern Culture. Yet, as I was reading it I kept thinking, "none of this would have happened if [main character] could have just lived on a budget."
The early 20th century novel "The House of Mirth" by Edith Wharton affected me the same way.
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As a kid, and even now actually, I loved the Mexican tv show "El Chavo Del 8". The show's main character, "Chavo", was homeless kid who "lived" in a drum barrel in a poor community in Mexico. Man I love that show.
I love his hat!! :)
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Even shows like the Big Bang Theory and Friends didn't really focus on the role money plays in someone's life. I get people don't watch these shows for a harsh dose of reality and that it's escapism, but I think a one time mustachian episode where things were overly REAL on the financial front would be absolutely hilarious.
I'll grant you Friends was a rampant abuser of reality's financial requirements; however, the guys in BBT are all university professors/researchers who seem to live fairly simple lives. Sheldon made several references to the fact that he has more money than he knows what to do with because he has a good job and is frugal. Penny on the other hand spent the first few season with an employment status that didn't fit her lifestyle in the slightest.
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I read the subject as Mustaschism... Schism.. Freudian slip? :-)
Many, if not most, Americans are carrying serious levels of debt. So a TV show or movie showing serious debt is depicting reality.
We tend to forget that Mustachians, FIRErs, Frugalistas, etc. are statistical outliers and anomalies.
Since season 1 of TBBT, I claimed that Penny was getting money from her BFs and drawing in huge tips at her workplace.
<rant>
I can't watch Friends. Have never sat through an entire episode, something gnaws at the recesses in my noggin. How do these guys with low-end jobs in Manhattan (except Chandler and Ross) manage to live really well and how come the mid-1990s in NYC was all white? Very rarely did I see patrons of color in the coffee shop, but we all know NYC is extremely diverse.
And the drama was all first-world problems.
</endrant>
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I can't watch Friends. Have never sat through an entire episode, something gnaws at the recesses in my noggin. How do these guys with low-end jobs in Manhattan (except Chandler and Ross) manage to live really well and how come the mid-1990s in NYC was all white? Very rarely did I see patrons of color in the coffee shop, but we all know NYC is extremely diverse.
And the drama was all first-world problems.
Well, Rachel had a very rich dad and she's the kind of "person" that would welcome family help to get a nice lifestyle.
Monica had inherited her grandma reduced-rent lease
Phoebe was cashing her sister's cheques when the latter was a sex worker and used Phoebe's name to work.
We're left with Joey, who was probably involved in a C-list celebrities prostitution ring.
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I believe an episode in fact revolves around the fact that Chandler just pays for everything in their apartment.
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I believe an episode in fact revolves around the fact that Chandler just pays for everything in their apartment.
Sorry, I like my theory better.
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Last year I had the chance to watch one of my favorite movies ever, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World!". All of the characters--eventually it's more than a dozen--are going nuts trying to recover a hidden treasure worth $350,000. I realized that my net worth is considerably in excess of that.
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Last year I had the chance to watch one of my favorite movies ever, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World!". All of the characters--eventually it's more than a dozen--are going nuts trying to recover a hidden treasure worth $350,000. I realized that my net worth is considerably in excess of that.
After adjusting for inflation from the time of the film's release (1963) that works out to about 2.9 million.
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An excellent point, and one that still seems reassuring to me. All these people going nuts over only about 3X my current net worth.
Thinking about Capt. CulPepper's pension, a few MMM skills would have meant he wouldn't need to go crooked at all.
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Recently I read "A Man in Full" by Tom Wolfe. It is one of the great novels of the 20th century. A story of personal collapse and redemption, racial and class segregation, the changing of Southern Culture. Yet, as I was reading it I kept thinking,
"none of this would have happened if [main character] could have just lived on a budget."
That's what I think when I hear all the "I can't afford my to pay all of my student debt" whining.
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Recently I read "A Man in Full" by Tom Wolfe. It is one of the great novels of the 20th century. A story of personal collapse and redemption, racial and class segregation, the changing of Southern Culture. Yet, as I was reading it I kept thinking,
"none of this would have happened if [main character] could have just lived on a budget."
That's what I think when I hear all the "I can't afford my to pay all of my student debt" whining.
Eh. I get both sides. One person I do know would have 50% of her pay completely to student debt, which isn’t really realistic considering rent is typically 30%, so she’d be eating nothing and would have no money for gas or her car. Most people though? They can do the $150-$500/mo.
She got in way over her head. Her loans total more than my hubby and I combined.
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I read the subject as Mustaschism... Schism.. Freudian slip? :-)
Many, if not most, Americans are carrying serious levels of debt. So a TV show or movie showing serious debt is depicting reality.
We tend to forget that Mustachians, FIRErs, Frugalistas, etc. are statistical outliers and anomalies.
Since season 1 of TBBT, I claimed that Penny was getting money from her BFs and drawing in huge tips at her workplace.
<rant>
I can't watch Friends. Have never sat through an entire episode, something gnaws at the recesses in my noggin. How do these guys with low-end jobs in Manhattan (except Chandler and Ross) manage to live really well and how come the mid-1990s in NYC was all white? Very rarely did I see patrons of color in the coffee shop, but we all know NYC is extremely diverse.
And the drama was all first-world problems.
</endrant>
How come nobody on there talks like they are from New York? How I Met Your Mother is another one where characters are supposed to be from New York but don't talk like it. Also why does everyone wear shoes in the house? Nobody does that. On other shows people who are supposed to be from the Midwest eat like British people, fork in the left hand. The characters also eat things that it's difficult to believe that someone so thin would eat on a regular basis ("The Middle" is the worst one for this). And how come actors on medical dramas aren't even coached to put the bedrails up or pronounce things correctly? And why do the doctors do everything instead of just doctor things? I really can't stand medical dramas.
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I've started noticing this kind of stuff in movies and popular TV shows more and more over the last year as my Mustachianism gets stronger. There was a show I used to watch when I was 10-12 years younger where countless well dressed, trendy and apparently upwardly mobile young people seem to have everything they want and do pretty much anything they want (within the confines of the plot) and yet none of them talk about work, go to work, get back from work, have to sacrifice something because of work. The show existed in a vacuum where work and money don't exist and you just live a life where affording things isn't a concern. It makes me wonder how many ill informed young people might be watching the show (or almost any show) and being subconsciously programmed to believe that even if you don't have a job, you should go on foreign holidays semi-regularly and always dress as if you are loaded.
I think that back in the late 90s, Sex and the City encouraged rampant consumerism and living-a-champagne-life-style-on-a-lemonade-budget amongst females.
Even shows like the Big Bang Theory and Friends didn't really focus on the role money plays in someone's life. I get people don't watch these shows for a harsh dose of reality and that it's escapism, but I think a one time mustachian episode where things were overly REAL on the financial front would be absolutely hilarious.
Maybe that's why Breaking Bad was so popular. Walter starts making meth to pay for his lung cancer treatments. The first episode has him being bullied by one of his students because he works a second job at a carwash and shops at a thrift store.
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I think that back in the late 90s, Sex and the City encouraged rampant consumerism and living-a-champagne-life-style-on-a-lemonade-budget amongst females.
Going by a recent report (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-04/1-in-6-credit-card-users-struggle-under-mountain-of-debt/9936826), about 3/4 of credit card debt is bearing interest, ie hasn't been repaid within 30 days. So I don't think it was just the late 90s, and not just women.
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I believe an episode in fact revolves around the fact that Chandler just pays for everything in their apartment.
For Friends, I thought the apartment they lived in was severely rent controlled due to the lease being in Monica's grandmother's name.*
**I am truly ashamed that I know this**
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Recently I read "A Man in Full" by Tom Wolfe. It is one of the great novels of the 20th century. A story of personal collapse and redemption, racial and class segregation, the changing of Southern Culture. Yet, as I was reading it I kept thinking,
"none of this would have happened if [main character] could have just lived on a budget."
That's what I think when I hear all the "I can't afford my to pay all of my student debt" whining.
The primary character in "A Man in Full" is a multi-millionaire (on paper) with a mansion in Atlanta and a plantation that seems to take up most of southern Georgia. Not exactly the same thing.
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I believe an episode in fact revolves around the fact that Chandler just pays for everything in their apartment.
For Friends, I thought the apartment they lived in was severely rent controlled due to the lease being in Monica's grandmother's name.*
**I am truly ashamed that I know this**
Even if it was rent controlled, was it controlled enough for a coffee shop server and a part-time caterer living within walking distance of Central Park to live there?
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I feel mild irritation when the characters are shown with a standard of living far above their income and asset level. No, an unpaid intern does not get a 1000 square foot apartment in Manhattan unless Mommy and Daddy are footing the bill.
(https://pics.me.me/hgtv-be-like-i-sharpen-colored-pencils-my-wife-18515859.png)
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Perhaps I'm a contrarian, but my favorite episodes of Sex and the City are the money ones. There's one where Carrie is worried about losing her apartment, so she swallows her pride and asks Big to give her a crash course on money management, then--perhaps this is exploitation--gets Charlotte to sell her wedding ring from her failed marriage to help her with the down payment. A lot of the drama is about boundaries around friends helping each other with money.
And, yes, we are frequently reminded that Miranda and Samantha do well with their earning, while Charlotte's change in Std. of Living with her marriages is not hidden from us.
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Perhaps I'm a contrarian, but my favorite episodes of Sex and the City are the money ones. There's one where Carrie is worried about losing her apartment, so she swallows her pride and asks Big to give her a crash course on money management, then--perhaps this is exploitation--gets Charlotte to sell her wedding ring from her failed marriage to help her with the down payment. A lot of the drama is about boundaries around friends helping each other with money.
And, yes, we are frequently reminded that Miranda and Samantha do well with their earning, while Charlotte's change in Std. of Living with her marriages is not hidden from us.
That moment when Miranda corrects Carrie's math -- 100 pairs of $400 shoes equals $40,000, not $4,000 and Carrie quips, "I wil literally be the old woman who lives in her shoes."
Of course Carrie marries Big later and also all his money ...
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Auto-generated house hunters plots: https://twitter.com/housebudgets?lang=en
HUSBAND: I once made Denver sandwiches for lunch
WIFE (emphatically): And I sell skirts for snakes
HUSBAND: Our budget is $2.2 million
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I read the subject as Mustaschism... Schism.. Freudian slip? :-)
Many, if not most, Americans are carrying serious levels of debt. So a TV show or movie showing serious debt is depicting reality.
We tend to forget that Mustachians, FIRErs, Frugalistas, etc. are statistical outliers and anomalies.
Since season 1 of TBBT, I claimed that Penny was getting money from her BFs and drawing in huge tips at her workplace.
<rant>
I can't watch Friends. Have never sat through an entire episode, something gnaws at the recesses in my noggin. How do these guys with low-end jobs in Manhattan (except Chandler and Ross) manage to live really well and how come the mid-1990s in NYC was all white? Very rarely did I see patrons of color in the coffee shop, but we all know NYC is extremely diverse.
And the drama was all first-world problems.
</endrant>
How come nobody on there talks like they are from New York? How I Met Your Mother is another one where characters are supposed to be from New York but don't talk like it. Also why does everyone wear shoes in the house? Nobody does that. On other shows people who are supposed to be from the Midwest eat like British people, fork in the left hand. The characters also eat things that it's difficult to believe that someone so thin would eat on a regular basis ("The Middle" is the worst one for this). And how come actors on medical dramas aren't even coached to put the bedrails up or pronounce things correctly? And why do the doctors do everything instead of just doctor things? I really can't stand medical dramas.
You never know with this one (emphasized). In my old office, the only person who would consistently out-eat me at the quarterly potlucks was a guy who was skinny as a rail. Metabolism is a harsh mistress!
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Even if it was rent controlled, was it controlled enough for a coffee shop server and a part-time caterer living within walking distance of Central Park to live there?
It's unlikely...but not impossible:
http://gothamist.com/2018/05/10/village_rent_controlled_apartment.php (http://gothamist.com/2018/05/10/village_rent_controlled_apartment.php)
https://nypost.com/2017/09/27/nycs-craziest-rent-controlled-apartments-need-a-new-landlord/ (https://nypost.com/2017/09/27/nycs-craziest-rent-controlled-apartments-need-a-new-landlord/)
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Also why does everyone wear shoes in the house? Nobody does that. On other shows people who are supposed to be from the Midwest eat like British people, fork in the left hand.
1. We have stone floors: I always wear shoes.
2. Um, perhaps they're left-handed?
And the easiest way to avoid medical dramas is to avoid medical dramas. Easy- peasy and mustachian, for the win.
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My guilty pleasure is watching The Middle. But that drove me crazy for the finances.
- Dad is a supervisor at a quarry
Mom is a dental hygienist
Super low cost of living area
Old house, purchased before they got married (oldest kid is 20)
Old cars are given to them, purchased cheaply
Never go on vacation (obligatory Disney trip when they won tickets)
Sounds like they should be fine. I mean, they eat out for every meal. But they're not destitute by any means. But in the show they are presented as dirt poor. Always worried about paying bills. Deprived. The daughter gets a full ride to state school based on their so-called poverty.
I'm sure that it's all for the comedy, but it's a little insulting.
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My guilty pleasure is watching The Middle. But that drove me crazy for the finances.
- Dad is a supervisor at a quarry
Mom is a dental hygienist
Super low cost of living area
Old house, purchased before they got married (oldest kid is 20)
Old cars are given to them, purchased cheaply
Never go on vacation (obligatory Disney trip when they won tickets)
Sounds like they should be fine. I mean, they eat out for every meal. But they're not destitute by any means. But in the show they are presented as dirt poor. Always worried about paying bills. Deprived. The daughter gets a full ride to state school based on their so-called poverty.
I'm sure that it's all for the comedy, but it's a little insulting.
I worked at a company plant in Florida for 3 years in the last decade. A lot of my male co-workers (not a quarry, but tech manufacturing) had families you described above.
Comedy has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the end. - Sid Caeser.
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Even shows like the Big Bang Theory and Friends didn't really focus on the role money plays in someone's life. I get people don't watch these shows for a harsh dose of reality and that it's escapism, but I think a one time mustachian episode where things were overly REAL on the financial front would be absolutely hilarious.
I'll grant you Friends was a rampant abuser of reality's financial requirements; however, the guys in BBT are all university professors/researchers who seem to live fairly simple lives. Sheldon made several references to the fact that he has more money than he knows what to do with because he has a good job and is frugal. Penny on the other hand spent the first few season with an employment status that didn't fit her lifestyle in the slightest.
There is an episode where Leonard buys Penny a new car cause hers breaks down and she cant afford to repair it or buy a new one and she talks about her credit card debt/other debt/no savings.
So I assume thats how she funded the lifestyle that didnt fit her employment status?
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Also why does everyone wear shoes in the house? Nobody does that. On other shows people who are supposed to be from the Midwest eat like British people, fork in the left hand.
1. We have stone floors: I always wear shoes.
2. Um, perhaps they're left-handed?
And the easiest way to avoid medical dramas is to avoid medical dramas. Easy- peasy and mustachian, for the win.
I'm a lefty, and when I first discovered the British style, there was much rejoicing! What I don't get is why a bunch of right-handers standardized a way of eating that seems to make more sense for us lefties?
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Also why does everyone wear shoes in the house? Nobody does that. On other shows people who are supposed to be from the Midwest eat like British people, fork in the left hand.
1. We have stone floors: I always wear shoes.
2. Um, perhaps they're left-handed?
And the easiest way to avoid medical dramas is to avoid medical dramas. Easy- peasy and mustachian, for the win.
I'm a lefty, and when I first discovered the British style, there was much rejoicing! What I don't get is why a bunch of right-handers standardized a way of eating that seems to make more sense for us lefties?
wait, Americans dont eat with a fork in the left hand?
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Im not sure if you are being sarcastic or not, but midwesterners eat with the fork in the right hand, and hardly use the knife at all. Only for steak, or if they are in a nice restaurant. Even then a lot of people will cut a piece of food, set the knife back down, and switch the fork back to the right hand before eating the food. At home people cut with the side of the fork unless a knife is absolutely necessary. People on the east coast are more likely to eat like the British.
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Im not sure if you are being sarcastic or not, but midwesterners eat with the fork in the right hand, and hardly use the knife at all. Only for steak, or if they are in a nice restaurant. Even then a lot of people will cut a piece of food, set the knife back down, and switch the fork back to the right hand before eating the food. At home people cut with the side of the fork unless a knife is absolutely necessary. People on the east coast are more likely to eat like the British.
I didnt know this, so they kinda just eat one handed.
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Also why does everyone wear shoes in the house? Nobody does that. On other shows people who are supposed to be from the Midwest eat like British people, fork in the left hand.
1. We have stone floors: I always wear shoes.
2. Um, perhaps they're left-handed?
And the easiest way to avoid medical dramas is to avoid medical dramas. Easy- peasy and mustachian, for the win.
Do you wear your outside shoes or do you have separate house shoes?
I haven't tried to watch medical dramas in years. I tried to watch a couple of really popular ones a few years back and couldn't make it through a single episode. Never really enjoyed police procedurals, game shows, reality TV, or "The Office" either.
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Im not sure if you are being sarcastic or not, but midwesterners eat with the fork in the right hand, and hardly use the knife at all. Only for steak, or if they are in a nice restaurant. Even then a lot of people will cut a piece of food, set the knife back down, and switch the fork back to the right hand before eating the food. At home people cut with the side of the fork unless a knife is absolutely necessary. People on the east coast are more likely to eat like the British.
I didnt know this, so they kinda just eat one handed.
East coaster here, growing up we usually ate with a fork in the right and a roll/biscuit in the left to push things onto the fork. Then the bread was used to mop up whatever was left on the plate. It was probably the most efficient way to eat, but I'm not sure that was always a good thing. Something to slow me down probably would have been better.
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East coaster here, growing up we usually ate with a fork in the right and a roll/biscuit in the left to push things onto the fork. Then the bread was used to mop up whatever was left on the plate. It was probably the most efficient way to eat, but I'm not sure that was always a good thing. Something to slow me down probably would have been better.
That's how I've always seen folks in the south eat too. Fork in the right, knife or bread in the left.
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Im not sure if you are being sarcastic or not, but midwesterners eat with the fork in the right hand, and hardly use the knife at all. Only for steak, or if they are in a nice restaurant. Even then a lot of people will cut a piece of food, set the knife back down, and switch the fork back to the right hand before eating the food. At home people cut with the side of the fork unless a knife is absolutely necessary. People on the east coast are more likely to eat like the British.
I didnt know this, so they kinda just eat one handed.
I think the propensity to use a knife may vary; what's fairly constant in the US is to use the "switching" method as described here. That's what I did growing up (in reverse for my lefty-ness). It blew my mind when I realized that there was an accepted way that was better for me, and I didn't even have to reverse it!
Come to think of it, I wonder how much of that Midwestern/US aversion to using knives is born of trying to avoid the awkwardness of switching? Much easier to just "cut" with the fork, rather than: put down the fork, pick up the knife, fork in other hand, cut, and do the whole thing in reverse for each bite?
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I've started noticing this kind of stuff in movies and popular TV shows more and more over the last year as my Mustachianism gets stronger. There was a show I used to watch when I was 10-12 years younger where countless well dressed, trendy and apparently upwardly mobile young people seem to have everything they want and do pretty much anything they want (within the confines of the plot) and yet none of them talk about work, go to work, get back from work, have to sacrifice something because of work. The show existed in a vacuum where work and money don't exist and you just live a life where affording things isn't a concern. It makes me wonder how many ill informed young people might be watching the show (or almost any show) and being subconsciously programmed to believe that even if you don't have a job, you should go on foreign holidays semi-regularly and always dress as if you are loaded.
I think that back in the late 90s, Sex and the City encouraged rampant consumerism and living-a-champagne-life-style-on-a-lemonade-budget amongst females.
Even shows like the Big Bang Theory and Friends didn't really focus on the role money plays in someone's life. I get people don't watch these shows for a harsh dose of reality and that it's escapism, but I think a one time mustachian episode where things were overly REAL on the financial front would be absolutely hilarious.
Maybe that's why Breaking Bad was so popular. Walter starts making meth to pay for his lung cancer treatments. The first episode has him being bullied by one of his students because he works a second job at a carwash and shops at a thrift store.
I do think Breaking Bad does a good job of showing realistic money issues. Unplanned second child, credit card debt, stay at home mom doing side jobs for extra money, first kid with medical problems, etc. It all pretty much makes sense and expenses/income/assets all fit pretty well.
In plenty of shows it's complete bullshirt though.
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I've started noticing this kind of stuff in movies and popular TV shows more and more over the last year as my Mustachianism gets stronger. There was a show I used to watch when I was 10-12 years younger where countless well dressed, trendy and apparently upwardly mobile young people seem to have everything they want and do pretty much anything they want (within the confines of the plot) and yet none of them talk about work, go to work, get back from work, have to sacrifice something because of work. The show existed in a vacuum where work and money don't exist and you just live a life where affording things isn't a concern. It makes me wonder how many ill informed young people might be watching the show (or almost any show) and being subconsciously programmed to believe that even if you don't have a job, you should go on foreign holidays semi-regularly and always dress as if you are loaded.
I think that back in the late 90s, Sex and the City encouraged rampant consumerism and living-a-champagne-life-style-on-a-lemonade-budget amongst females.
Even shows like the Big Bang Theory and Friends didn't really focus on the role money plays in someone's life. I get people don't watch these shows for a harsh dose of reality and that it's escapism, but I think a one time mustachian episode where things were overly REAL on the financial front would be absolutely hilarious.
So, like an old school "very special episode" like in the old days when a sitcom would occasionally have its happy go lucky family run into something like child abuse?
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Actually, three of the most insufferable TV shows of all time -- Seinfeld, Friends, and Sex in the City -- portrayed a bunch of idiots living NYC lifestyles far beyond their modest employments and work ethics.
You have to suspend disbelief to watch those shows. Which is probably why I never could.
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Actually, three of the most insufferable TV shows of all time -- Seinfeld, Friends, and Sex in the City -- portrayed a bunch of idiots living NYC lifestyles far beyond their modest employments and work ethics.
You have to suspend disbelief to watch those shows. Which is probably why I never could.
Friends was really the worst offender here. At least on SATC they discussed how these things were possible (Carrie had a rent-controlled apartment, Samantha and Miranda made $$$, Charlotte married $$$).
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Even if it was rent controlled, was it controlled enough for a coffee shop server and a part-time caterer living within walking distance of Central Park to live there?
It's unlikely...but not impossible:
http://gothamist.com/2018/05/10/village_rent_controlled_apartment.php (http://gothamist.com/2018/05/10/village_rent_controlled_apartment.php)
https://nypost.com/2017/09/27/nycs-craziest-rent-controlled-apartments-need-a-new-landlord/ (https://nypost.com/2017/09/27/nycs-craziest-rent-controlled-apartments-need-a-new-landlord/)
I am too somewhat embarrassed to be this familiar with Friends, BUT... Monica, who inherited the rent-controlled apartment, was only a part-time caterer briefly between jobs, and sometimes did it on the side. Most of the show, she was employed as a chef or head chef in a fancy restaurant. She had a roommate throughout and before (Phoebe) the show. She also borrowed money from her parents and brother on occasion. Phoebe lived in her grandmother's apartment until she inherited it upon the grandmother's death. Chandler was gainfully employed with a rather crappy apartment that he consistently shared with a roommate, though subsidizing Joey for a long time. Rachel, Monica, Ross, and Chandler came from wealthy families, and no one owned a car except an inherited old cab, which they shared on rare trips.
There were several episodes about the characters' money problems, and they were regularly, if not often, shown working. It's certainly not the best representation, but not the worst. Also, the characters did not appear to upgrade their lifestyles even when their finances improved, which was surely plot-driven but nonetheless mustachian.
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Even if it was rent controlled, was it controlled enough for a coffee shop server and a part-time caterer living within walking distance of Central Park to live there?
It's unlikely...but not impossible:
http://gothamist.com/2018/05/10/village_rent_controlled_apartment.php (http://gothamist.com/2018/05/10/village_rent_controlled_apartment.php)
https://nypost.com/2017/09/27/nycs-craziest-rent-controlled-apartments-need-a-new-landlord/ (https://nypost.com/2017/09/27/nycs-craziest-rent-controlled-apartments-need-a-new-landlord/)
I am too somewhat embarrassed to be this familiar with Friends, BUT... Monica, who inherited the rent-controlled apartment, was only a part-time caterer briefly between jobs, and sometimes did it on the side. Most of the show, she was employed as a chef or head chef in a fancy restaurant. She had a roommate throughout and before (Phoebe) the show. She also borrowed money from her parents and brother on occasion. Phoebe lived in her grandmother's apartment until she inherited it upon the grandmother's death. Chandler was gainfully employed with a rather crappy apartment that he consistently shared with a roommate, though subsidizing Joey for a long time. Rachel, Monica, Ross, and Chandler came from wealthy families, and no one owned a car except an inherited old cab, which they shared on rare trips.
There were several episodes about the characters' money problems, and they were regularly, if not often, shown working. It's certainly not the best representation, but not the worst. Also, the characters did not appear to upgrade their lifestyles even when their finances improved, which was surely plot-driven but nonetheless mustachian.
You saved me a post! I have watched a lot of Friends and I don't think their lifestyles were too far fetched especially with roommates and a rent controlled apartment. Most of them had really lucrative jobs at some point and came from wealthy families.
I still call a 401(k) a 401wunk in honor of Phoebe when she got a job at a corporate owned spa.