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  • Weaponized Ambiance → "Tacky" Sticks → Shank You Very Much!

Weaponized Ambiance → "Tacky" Sticks → Shank You Very Much!

Hey Neighbor. True story. A married couple is making dinner. The husband reaches for the salt. His wife stops him. “The finishing salt is for finishing, not for cooking,” she says. The husband gives her a look. “Sounds pretentious,” he says.

And maybe it is, but that doesn’t change anything. Finishing salt is for finishing.

➺ If you happen to be a woman between 21 and 59 with a household income north of $75k (lots of you are), please consider taking this Upper Middle Research survey on aesthetic treatments. Easiest $20 you’ll make this week. And maybe you learn something about… yourself?

The results of of our Dinner Party Playlist Survey are below. Thanks to all of those who made song and playlist recommendations. Lots of great, unexpected choices.

➺ There’s always running by the pool.

Upper Middle’s “BIG FIGHT” Survey is our investigation into how members of the Oat Milk Elite get into with their partners. Extremely anonymous esults will be shared with survey participants and, as always, with members.

TASTE ❧ Commedia dell’farte

Despite being a scorecard-thin excuse to play dozens of rounds with his mates, sociologist Andreas Giazitzoglu new study of wealth managers’ on-course behavior with clients gets closer to explaining why 60% of U.S. executives engage in dresscoded whackfuckery than decades of more serious golf scholarship. Giazitzoglu, who notes his 5.6 handicap, argues that golf allows men – specifically men selling something – to perform a delicate double act by being both “the good bloke” and the “the good man to do business with.” 

Off the course, cultural atomization has decreased the number of ways men can signal ambition (without seeming aggressive), or affability (without acting like a doof). Golf provides a script for both. The good bloke laughs at the last shot[1]. The good man to do business with makes the next one. It’s a performance that can be calibrated to the needs of the audience because golf actually does put character on display.

When prospective clients show up with expensive clubs and bad swings, wealth managers shank shots on purpose.

How utterly psychotic parents invest their kids summer earnings. Economists have lost their mood ring and they don’t know how they feel about that. Do I have to trim down there for my Linkedin Anniversary? How strip malls became mini-hospitals for wealthy people.

MONEY ❧ If I Stay it Will Be Double

Amy Odell doesn’t fear tacky. The fashion journalist behind the recent Times op-ed “The Bezos-Sánchez Wedding and the Triumph of Tacky,” Odell is open to ostentatiousness as an expression of joy. As photos of the Amazon chief’s big ceremony flood Insta, Upper Middle called her to borrow a cup of perspective. The (short) conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

In your article about the Bezos-Sanchez wedding, which is over the top of the top, you say “tacky is very clearly carrying the day.” How did we get here?
When the “stealth wealth” thing started breaking, it was an inflection point. It was less about wealth than stealth. The oligarchs stopped hiding. Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos were at the inauguration. She got headlines. Public figures went full couture. Ivanka was in Givenchy at the ball and Dior during the day.

In the piece, you suggest that “tacky” is an elitist word[2] used to dismiss the rich and that they probably don’t care. Is Lauren Sanchez like… the prime example, so to speak?
Probably. I think people would say that the Housewives are tacky. I think rich people get called tacky all the time. And I looked back at Lauren Sanchez’s style since the aughts. This is just who she is.

You don’t seem at all judgmental about that.
I don’t think “tacky” has to be bad. It’s a way to describe a look—big hair, jewelry, loud clothes. It’s a descriptor. Have you seen Miley Cyrus’s press tour? I think she looks great. It’s fun. 

I’m a minimalist, but not everyone wants to wear The Row. $800 flip-flops? Come on. People want happiness. 

Amy Odell is the author of Anna, a biography of Anna Wintour and the forthcoming Gwyneth: The Biography, which is about what you think. The book sounds incredibly interesting and will probably be hard to get if you don’t order it now.

If you go to 28 Years Later with a doctor, bring tissues. Evan Osnos is good at book titles. “One of the most terrifying evolutionary theories of OCD is that the wild, often aggressive thoughts that can fuel it—which, I hasten to add, sufferers are in virtually no danger of acting on—are the genetic legacy of our berserk male ancestors.” There’s a strong case Universidad Politecnica de Puerto Rico is the best school in America.

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