Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Richard's Failings are Instructive

I read "Rambles in Old College Towns" by Hildegarde Hawthorne recently. She is the granddaughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The book was published in 1917 during World War I.
On a Spring Day during the War Years, Ms. Hawthorne and her sister, who lived in New York City, resolve to take a month's vacation to visit the college towns on the Eastern Seabord. They rode a train from New York's Penn Station to Charlottesville, Virginia where they began their tour of the University of Virginia. From there they stopped at William and Mary in Williamsburg. They then turned northward where they visited Annapolis, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Harvard, Bowdoin (N.H. attended Bowdoin) Dartmouth, Wellesley, Amherst, Smith, Williams, Vassar, West Point and Cornell. The book is beautifully descriptive and written. Ms. Hawthorne gives a nice history of each of the colleges - who founded them - when - and under what circumstances.

After leaving Smith, Sister turned to Ms. Hawthorne:

"We've seen a lot," said sister. "But you'd have to live four years in the place to get hold of it - and that, by the way, is the trouble in seeing any college. They can't really be seen - they have to be lived."

WASPdom is lived by WASPs. It cannot be purchased at Ralph Lauren. It cannot be copied from Richard's "A Privileged Life" book that he keeps in his office for all to see. It cannot be blogged about by an outsider. Richard believes that images are the backbone of WASPdom. Copy an image and call it a day is Richard's motto. Richard has never been to any of the WASP clubs such at the Union. He has never been to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He has never been to the resort towns mentioned in Cleveland Amory's book, The Last Resorts, he has not studied the nuances and subtlties of WASP families discussed by Nelson Aldrich, Edward Digby Baltzell or Cleveland Amory and others. Richard's lack of authority on the issue leaves him frustrated when he cannot muster the words to have a discussion with his critics.

I will continue to read books on sociology while continuing to laugh at Richard and his "blog."

Oh, and every WASP should own $50, poorly made Weejuns. Go get yours now while supplies last. Richard says so.

16 comments:

  1. Were you able to zoom in on the diploma on Dick's "office" wall?

    ReplyDelete
  2. No I was not able to zoom in. I just assumed he bought it at Ralph Lauren with the logo pillows.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just like he bought his "dear old dad's" loafers off of eBay.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ^Too bad the other pictures have expired. You would see that it's the exact same shoe. Unless alligators share the exact same patterns. The timing of the post to the end of the auction is a nice coincidence to boot. Thanks for the outlet Pundit.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Richard bought someone else's 24 year old shoes on e-bay and is wearing them? Eww. That's disgusting. I hope he gets a disease. And he tried to be cool and tell us they were his father's. Yeah - just like that stupid Yale crest story. What a total loser.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beyond the humorous observations there is a serious problem.
    Richard -insists-on pursuing, chasing,building?
    cultivating? This WASP identity for himself to the point of
    ignoring reality.

    Richard has no self esteem.Anyone that does would not
    react the way he has, nor would they be in his position
    in the first place.Richard is OBSESSED.
    He is obsessed with this dream of his.He needs this
    fantasy to be true-because his self esteem depends on it.
    Follow me? Everytime you "attack" him you are attacking
    his very self esteem which depends on this dream coming
    true,HE HAS RESTED HIS VERY SANITY on this.

    He is SCREAMING TO THE WORLD-"I AM A WASP AND
    YOU'RE ALL GOING TO ACCEPT IT!!!"

    Notice there is no supporting comments too emptyheaed
    or downright stupid enough for Richard to reject.
    Any support will do as long as you are willing to play
    along wih his fantasy.

    For whatever reason Richard has chosen the WASP "thing"
    as his never ending pursuit for self esteem,and you can't
    tell him he's wrong because he's fighting to preserve
    himself from cracking up.
    Ironically,that is exactly what is happening to him.

    THE SWIMMER. Short story by WASP author John Cheever.
    Made into a film 1968,starring Burt Lancaster.

    Track it down and watch it if you can.
    A PERFECT EXAMPLE,of where Richard is at by age 31,
    whereby the film's character doesn't reach this stage
    till 55 aprox.

    This "return" of his to his own blog indicates he has
    taken a turn for the worse. Re-commiting himself
    to this dream,fantasy of being the new poster boy
    for all things WASP ,and all the accolades he dreams
    about going along with it,means he is in serious mental
    disorder.

    This is one heck of a train wreck to observe.
    UN-BELIEVABLE.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I agree with you about Swimmer. Great story by a great author. I have not seen the movie but will rent it out.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yes indeed,Pundit .
    Be sure and pay close attention to the scene where
    Lancaster is "fake" swimming across an empty pool
    with a small boy who belongs to the residence where
    this empty pool is located.
    Listen to how Lancaster tells the boy in so many words,
    that it's honorable and a virtue to include lying to yourself
    as part of your character.

    Oh,Richard.....dresses like a clown....parades as a court jester.
    What a life....

    ReplyDelete
  9. By the way, pundit, dear, will you please spell my name correctly on the poll. It's Kathie with an i-e.

    And I hope no one wastes their vote on me, because I grew up a southern lady, not a WASP.

    ReplyDelete
  10. No Ms Truitt....its-why do -you -care??
    Mr Anon "Real wasps don't care",here,at your service.....

    Why do -you-Ms Truitt care about supporting
    Richard???........Don't bother answering.

    Ms Truitt all you could wonder or question about regarding
    Richard's critics have been answered over and over AND OVER
    AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER...........within the criticisms
    themselves.
    And you do it again of course .You spin your question in
    a manner trying to redifine the motivation of
    Richard's critics...........

    WHY DO WE ALL CARE????- WE DON'T MS TRUITT.

    Stop making pretend you don't understand the criticisms
    leveled at Richard because you want to "mother" him
    with an emptyheaded bleeding heart of "compassion".
    Hoping to shift the psychological perspective with your
    "naive"comments to one of respect for poor Richard....

    Again, just read the criticisms over and over again
    Ms Truitt...stil don't get it? Then on behalf of all
    of Richard's critics I can say to you don't bother
    asking again.YOU ARE NOT WORTH ANSWERING.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Kathie,

    It's too late to fix the existing polls but I will be sure to spell your name correctly on the next poll. Please accept my humble apologies.

    And, Anon is right. Are you Richard's mother? Aunt? Sister? You seem to have the same Southern language style.

    And why do you feel the need to tell us you are a southern lady? Why can't we see if for ourselves? Same with Poloist referring to himself as a gentleman. And Richard as a WASP. Wouldn't it be more tasteful to let it be and let others see it for themselves rather than the triumvirate ramming it down other's throats.

    Well, not sure whether you've noticed but I'm a lady/gentleman/WASP - just in case you missed it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh, Pundit, dear. There is no reason to read something in my letter that is not there. I am just stating fact. Let me re-word it. I am a female, from the South. I am not, nor have I have been, nor will I ever be a WASP. Therefore, I do not want your readers to waste their vote.

    Basically, Pundit, I am just trying to have fun with you. If I'm not welcome to do that, then I'll not make any more comments. It's your blog.

    Kathie

    ReplyDelete
  13. I will try to make this short and sweet as it is well past my bedtime. This post on your blog is the first post that I have read on your blog that makes any sense to me.

    I get your argument, so much so that I will be removing “I live the WASP life-style” from my blog, as I live a comfortable life-style and obviously did not understand what the WASP life style was all about. I however will not be changing the name of my blog, as I do feel that I am a gentleman. No, it is not that I am trying to cram it down any ones throat, its that this is how I see myself, as a Country Gentleman, and I see nothing wrong with that. If I wanted to write a blog about the African –American’s of this nation and called it A Black Man’s Prospective, would I be wrong for doing so?

    Now as to why I see your point as far as the WASP aspects, and only the WASP aspects. I as a black man, can understand why this would be offensive if Richard was not a WASP, something I too in the past had my doubts about and you can read some of my earlier post on the matter on WASP101. I personally do not like it when whites try to be black, with the baggy pants, language, etc. This is something I too take personal. However, I have come to the realization that, if Richard wants to claim he is a WASP, that’s his bad. In all reality, I am not on WASP101 to hate on anyone, and this is why I stopped the harsh critiques I plagued Richard with. In stead I took it at face value, and will continue to do so. With that, you can continue to poll my name, call me a fake, and critique my writing. In the end, just as it doesn’t matter to WASP, it doesn’t matter to me. If any of you have really taken the time to read my blog, you’d know this.

    God Speed.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Poloist,

    Now you're making some sense, my friend. I think the issue that rubs people the wrong way is labels are thrown around without the throwers understanding what the labels mean. A blog entitled, "A Black Man's Perspective" written by a Black Man would be perfectly appropriate especially if there was intelligent commentary by both the blog owner and his commenters. And also if the blog owner was open to seeing that his perspective was perhaps mistaken allowing him to grow. In general, it is entirely possible that you ARE IN FACT a Southern Gentleman, but I submit to you that the South is filled with proud aristocrats who would never actually TELL SOMEONE ELSE that they consider themselves gentlemen. They just ARE. And the fact that they JUST ARE is what makes them gentlemen or ladies not the subjective view of the person himself. Same goes for Richard. To publish juvenalia dragging the good WASP tradition through the mud is horrifying. All the while he defends this juvenile behavior by hiding under the WASP banner - a banner that wants nothing to do with Richard. This is is a subtle point that separates the insiders from the outsiders.

    I have read your blog and enjoy it. You will not be the target of any more polls but anything that feeds Richard's juvenile delusion is fair game.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Please, no more type-O's. You are ruining my enjoyment of this blog. :) Love, an Editor

    ReplyDelete