Sunday, November 28, 2010

NYT's 2010 Holiday Gift Guide Recommends The Ugliest Thing Ever Made, For Only $985.

At least this year's NYT Holiday Gift Guide doesn't offer a segregated shopping section for people of color, like last year.

But in its "Home and Decorating Gifts for $250 and over" section, it does recommend this truly hideous zebra teapot, for $985, which may be even worse:

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I must commend the NY Times for having the sheer balls to suggest a teapot for just shy of a thousand dollars. I wish to God I had a subscription so I could cancel it in disgust.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anonymous:

Of course you don't have a subscription. You're too cheap. You're probably a freeloader who spends the days and nights stomping your feet and complaining about how the world happens to be.

Let me tell you a secret-- and this goes for NYETPicker too. The world isn't built to the specs of the couch potatoes who say "No." The people who create and take risks make the world and all of its glorious conflation of wonderful and horrible.

Sometimes the risks work out and sometimes they don't. I can't say that I like the tea pot, but I know from my day job that the price isn't that far out of line for something that is unique and not stamped out by an assembly line staffed by wage slaves.

Furthermore, I know just the person who might love it. She collects tea pots and has more than 100. Would she spend $1000 on a tea pot? She's got the money because she spent half of her life working. Her apartment wasn't too big and she's chosen to spend her disposable income on object d'art.

You're probably thinking that just the act of buying a $1000 tea pot should send the masses to the barricades to redistribute this wealth. I don't think so. I once went to a mass reopening a Cathedral after a long, multi-million dollar renovation. The monsignor acknowledged that the Church could have spent the millions on the poor. They could have upgraded the food at the soup kitchen and spent more on better protein. But after the money was gone-- and it would go quickly-- they would be left with hungry poor and a decrepit Cathedral. By nurturing the building itself, at least they were protecting a beautiful space that was open to all.

I don't expect you to agree with me. But if you spend your time thinking about the economics of producing unique objects and taking the risk that they may or may not be beautiful to someone, you'll see that $1000 is really an okay price.
The alternative is a world of mass-produced plastic items that are still all the same, no matter how clever the artist at the factory. As Pete Seeger once sang-- I'm sure you probably dig Mr. Seeger-- "And they're all made out of ticky tacky / And they all look just the same."

Anonymous said...

Poor rich people, so misunderstood!1!1!

Anonymous said...

Looks like fun for a tea party only if the top zebra, the little knob on the tea pot's lid, could be detached. It's a nice toy to play animal farm with. And it's an adorable little zebra.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous. I'm glad your friend only worked half her life; I've worked a considerable fraction more than that.

And you're an ass, anonymous. I could go into detail about the whys and wherefores, but you aren't worth the effort.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous--

Just so you know, I agree with you not the other anonymous. So there.

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:46, there are so many flaws in your argument, I'm not going to even bother responding. How dense can you really be?

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:46, there are so many flaws in your argument, I'm not going to even bother responding. How dense can you really be?

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous defender of $1000 teapots: I am a great defender of Pete Seeger in so many of his pursuits, but I am sure he would join me in giving credit where it is due: the Ticky Tacky song you reference was written and sung by Malvina Reynolds.

Anonymous said...

It's not 1000$, it's 985$, plus shipping, handling and taxes, presumably. It's not the ugliest thing ever made either. But it's true it's not a gift you'd wanna be seen giving, and it's not for everyone. A teapot should handle boiling water, and this one's exterior, while a solid decorative piece for anyone who loves zebras, doesn't quite suggest an interior lining that's the best material available for boiling water. Of course some teas shouldn't be brewed with sub-100 C water, but still the 96C -99C range is hot enough that many materials should be avoided. Then there is the issue of actually wanting to put the pot directly on a gas or electric stove. That's when the bottom exterior comes to issue. Is it gonna crack, brown, or even catch on fire? For 985$, it's a gamble. For a major gift guide, maybe the choices should be more average, and cater to the expectations of readers, many of whom can easily fork out 100$, 200$, 300$, 400$, 500$ or more. These aren't people who'd hesititate in buying something because it's expensive, though they'd want it to be of quality that justifies the price. The potential gift buyers aren't exactly counting pennies, here. And if you're gonna give a gift like that, you should probably give it with the loose leaf tea of the appropriate plant and region to fit the pot. A common choice would be the African Rooibos, which, if overbrewed, can coats the tongue with a lasting bitter/numb and earthy sensation. Nothing a good mouthwash can't wash off, though the taste can be shaken off, and laughed off, it's more difficult to move on from the failure of having actually made bad tea.

Anonymous said...

It looks like it was made by hand and then colored, maybe it's a nice gift for some one who needs to pick up a respectable and dignified hoiti-toiti hobby, to take up pottery? The price might motivate them to even do it for a living and sell pretty and useful goods, to provide for themselves and their dependents in these harsh times. You shouldn't discount the value of such a lovely pot, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Anonymous said...

This is not a good choice for a closet white supremacist who wants to give a deniably insulting gift to a brown friend. Last year's colored list had better options for such folk.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Malvina Reynolds wrote the song but Pete Seeger made it a hit. Or that's what the Wikipedia sez:

"Little Boxes" is a song written by Malvina Reynolds in 1962, which became a hit for her friend Pete Seeger in 1963."

According to the article it reached number 70 on the Billboard Hot 100. Go figure. I thought that was all Britney Spears stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boxes

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN3rN59GlWw

Anonymous said...

No need to go to last year's guide, anon. Buyers could burn the item, no, really char it good in a kiln with the tea leaves in the pot, remove the fun toy lid as a keeper, and yes, give the remaining little thing over as a post-gift to a brown friend if they identify as a white supremacist as defined by the well funded, long-lived, website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_supremacist

Problem solved? No problem. What problem?

Anonymous said...

As yet, keywords exist not for this post. The perspective from which to revisit and to revise begets tags conclusive enough if and when invoked, to capture the balance of the post, such as:
Teapot
Holiday Gift Guide
Home and Decor
Zebra
Shopping

Todd A. Price said...

It's back. Today the NYT plugs the ugly teapot on the front page of the Home section. Penelope Green gets the byline this time.

How did that happen? And why are NYT reporters so enamored of this teapot?

Perhaps my favorite part of this story is that the teapot is pictured in a round up of "$250 and above" gift ideas. Cheapest item shown? An $875 rocking horse from Design Within Reach.

Hattie said...

I hate that teapot so much I might be tempted to buy it just to smash it to bits.

Hattie said...

I hate that teapot so much I would buy it just for the joy of smashing it to bits.

Hattie said...

Something is wrong. Oh, well. Anyway, that teapot is horrible. I hate it.