Thursday, January 05, 2006

All Those Advantages and a Candy Store Is the Best Thing She Can Think Of?

Admitting that it's "hardly the most earth shaking issue to write about," Kevin Drum on the Washington Monthly website links to this New York Times story about a Manhattan candy store run, almost as a hobby, by Dylan Lauren and funded by her father Ralph. (Yes, of course, that Ralph Lauren.)

Drum's question: Who pays taxes on the money Daddy ponied up to build the store? And the comments that follow Drum's article duly tackle the issue from various legal and accounting perspectives. But my question would be: When will the Times stop publishing puff pieces about the undistinguished relatives of famous people?

It's getting to the point now where, whenever I'm reading a Times profile of someone who strikes me as surprisingly unimpressive, I start looking for the family connection. Sure enough, around the tenth or twelfth paragraph we inevitably learn that our hero (or heroine) is married to or is the child of a media mogul, movie producer, real-estate magnate, or someone else with beachfront property in the Hamptons.

I'm old enough to remember a time when people were a little embarrassed about trading off family connections, and when journalists were also embarrassed to be seen as sucking up to the rich and famous. Sigh. Am I the only person who wishes those days might come back?

Tags: , ,
AddThis Social Bookmark Button



"Infused with entrepreneurial spirit and the excitement of a worthy challenge."--Publishers Weekly

Read more . . .

 


What do GE, Pepsi, and Toyota know that Exxon, Wal-Mart, and Hershey don't?  It's sustainability . . . the business secret of the twenty-first century.

Read more . . .