McArglebargle really is beyond parody (although the mighty TBogg gives it a good go).
Last year, we bought a house for two main reasons: we were sick of moving, and I wanted a better kitchen. We were living in a flip house that had been designed by a contractor with a rather spotty work ethic, and some very strange ideas about what makes for gracious living. (Wine fridge in the kitchen–and less than three feet of total counter space. Two jacuzzi tubs–and a hot water heater the size of a thimble. Frightful things going on in the walls, which were revealed when the house flooded, and we had to move out.)
Any long time reader knows that for me, a good kitchen is important. And while we’d reached a sort of uneasy truce with the flip house, by dint of purchasing a kitchen cart and an island to supplement its storage, our wedding basically shattered that fragile peace. Even before we’d sent out the invitations, casseroles and platters were pouring through the breach in our defensive lines and setting up forward positions on the book shelf that divided the dining area from the living room. By the time of our wedding, the entire downstairs had been overrun, and it seemed to me that the soup bowls were eyeing the stairway with a thoughtful air.
…
But after that, I declared that I was done. Unless something broke, we would put no more money into the kitchen until that distant day when we had actually saved enough money to renovate. That’s where we stood in January of this year. Then our dishwasher tried to kill me, and I decided that maybe we should Do Something about the kitchen after all.
It was the day after New Year’s, and the dishwasher was very full. Also, my arm was very sore, due to some unspecific, slow-healing rotator cuff injury that had been exacerbated in the frenzy of getting ready for the previous night’s dinner party. I sleepily stumbled into the kitchen and opened the dishwasher so that I could unload it and put the rest of the dishes in.
Unfortunately, as they’d informed us when they installed the dishwasher, our counters weren’t level, which meant that one screw holding in the appliance was under more strain than the other. Sometime in the winter of 2011, it had ripped out of the cheap laminate, at which point its colleague decided to go on strike too. Every time we opened the dishwasher, it tilted towards you, and the racks slid forward.
Perhaps sensing my languor, on New Year’s Day 2012, the racks decided that the time had come to finally make their break for freedom. Just in time, I threw my aching left arm in front of the drawers, and stopped them from leaping across the floor with all our good china inside.
I also nearly stopped my heart–I haven’t felt such a sharp burst of pain since I ripped up a bunch of ligaments getting thrown into a fence by a horse. I must have emitted some interesting noises, since my husband, normally a late sleeper, came trotting downstairs.
“[Expletive deleted]” I said calmly. “We’re replacing this [bleeping] counter or I will [censored].”
Thence follows a seemingly endless analysis of her kitchen renovation which really must be read to be believed, its inanity rivalled only by that of the comments from her horde of winged monkeys about the merits of different countertops and the perils of machine washing the good china.
Up next, Megan gives us a blow by blow illustrated account of her most recent colonic irrigation.
kindness
But does she have granite countertops? A certain conservative voice might want to know.
Cat Lady
Reminds me of interviews of celebrity women who have their first baby – the gushing on and on like they’re the first one to ever have a baby and their experience is just.so.special. Just shut up.
BGinCHI
Fixed.
One also imagines the horse finally saying to itself, “Ok, that’s it,” then stopping, picking her up and throwing her into the fence. Unless the horse is a symbol for something or someone.
Villago Delenda Est
What amazes me is that the woman simply has no sense of shame, no matter how much she’s mocked by the blogosphere.
None.
Martin
Yeah, it really sucks when the kitchen is so small it can no longer store your medication.
Oh, and that’s not evidence of a spotty work ethic, but rather spotty judgement. Can someone please explain what a worth ethic is to conservatives? They seem to have nary a clue.
R-Jud
Yeah, fuck her. You guys want to see something neat?
Turn your speakers down if you don’t want to hear the planetarium/Final Fantasy VII-style music.
lamh35
Don’t care what anyone says…Michelle Obama is the coolest First Lady evah…IMHO!
Video of the Day!
JPL
@kindness: Yup… I should see if I can send my before and after pics on my 9000 kitchen including granite counter tops. Of course I went into the basement for the rejects. I replaced the lower cabinets and formica which cost 45 to bring to a dump and refinished the uppers. Appliances by Bosch and lower cabinets by Thomasville so I didn’t scrimp. Now I can’t afford that fancy machine of hers.
Walker
Wow, that kitchen is hideous. Both before and after.
Loneoak
FSM bless her, but I would rather look at goatse for half an hour than read that post.
arguingwithsignposts
@Villago Delenda Est:
Six figures a year are enough to bury her shame under a mountain of sychophancy.
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
[Expletive deleted]” I said calmly. “We’re replacing this [bleeping] counter or I will”
perform fellatio on the pope?
I can’t think of what else you would do there that would censored.
Also, most kitchens contain sinks which can be used to clean dishes.
Villago Delenda Est
@Martin:
Sitting in a chair with a brandy snifter in your hand, supervising an accountant counting the money in your trust fund.
arguingwithsignposts
Alright, who gave the contract to the dishwasher?
Shalimar
Why in the world does The Atlantic pay this woman so much to write about herself and her boring life?
Walker
As an aside, I am in the middle of a kitchen remodel right now; counter top comes next week. We pulled everthing out because the existing kitchen was particle board with wire rack shelves and lazy susans (this is where the previous owner clearly ran out of money).
Relatively cheap. I found an Amish cabinet maker in Penn Yann who could make me custom oak cabinets for less than half what I was being quoted for by all the kitchen design places.
scav
@arguingwithsignposts:
and we really need to discuss its work ethic.
geg6
I’m still completely befuddled, trying to figure out why it is a bad thing yo have a wine refrigerator in the kitchen. We have one and, because our kitchen is so small, we have it in the dining room. But I’d dearly love to move it to the kitchen with all the other appliances and where it is more convenient since we only use the dining room about two or three times a year and we drink wine a lot more often than that. I did not know that there is some specific spot that is NOT IN THE KITCHEN APPARENTLY where the wine fridge is supposed to be.
McMegan has a lot of rules for food and drink that I have never read in any of my zillion cookbooks or seen on any of the quadrillion cooking shows I watch. Hell, I’ve seen wine fridges in Iron Chefs’ kitchens.
pseudonymous in nc
@Shalimar:
They’re going for the “mooning young Randroid male” demographic that Megan has cultivated about herself since she was blogging as “Jane Galt”.
AT
Hi all, I just had sex.
Omnes Omnibus
@geg6: She obviously wants a proper wine cellar not a plebby wine ‘fridge.
IM
What a moocher.
Caveat emptor, Megan, caveat emptor!
Elizabelle
I hate to be tacky, but I really hated the kitchen “after.”
So cluttered. Too much stuff out and not enough workspace.
Doesn’t LaMegan have a basement she can stick some stuff in?
kdaug
Calling Dr. Levinson…
Elizabelle
I know people who cook splendid dinners with way less crap all over the kitchen.
Spare is good.
arguingwithsignposts
@geg6:
Clearly you are not familiar with the Ayn Rand Culinary Institute and the famous show “Fuck you, I’ve got my recipe!”
freelancer
@geg6:
I love how a commenter over at TBogg notes that she doesn’t shut up about how tall she and her husband are but they can’t mount the window drapes high enough to bunch up on the prep table surfaces. Also, it’s been said elsewhere but I have one set of high quality Bialetti pots and pans and it’s more than enough. WTF is all the cookware?!
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
So there was nothing going on in the field of economics to write about?
Steve
@geg6: I thought she was saying it was a small kitchen that didn’t really need to have space taken up with a wine fridge. There’s certainly nothing unusual about the basic idea of a wine fridge in the kitchen.
Doc Sportello
Kudos to the horse. And better luck next time, dishwasher.
But I remain convinced that no one has ever read a whole and entire McMegan post. Scrolling through it was an effort.
arguingwithsignposts
@Doc Sportello: Susan of Texas (agonyin8fits.blogspot.com) reads many of them. She must be made of an otherworldly substance.
j
She leaves dirty dishes laying around overnight, until she can figure out how to use a sponge, but because she’s so hungover she can’t remember how she screwed up her arm. And her husband sleeps in until he feels like waking up.
Sounds like a roach infested section 8 hell hole that we’d see on Cops. Bad boy bad boy, watch ys gonna do?
She’s a PIG! I don’t care about how much she brags about her appliances, but GOOD GOD! You DO NOT leave dirty dishes sitting around until you feel like cleaning them (“My fine china”, MY ASS).
DanielX
@Villago Delenda Est:
In lacking a sense of shame, she’s no different than a lot of other people, including some who are running for office *cough* Newt fucking Gingrich *cough*. I’d totally settle for a smattering of self awareness on McMegan’s part. I know, like that’s going to happen.
geg6
Omnes Omnibus @21:
Well, if a wine cellar is the only acceptable place to store wine, McMagan probably needs to buy a bigger house. For myself, we have a fairly large root cellar in the basement that would probably do the job just fine.
arguingwithsignposts @26:
Okay, you made me LOL. FTW.
Tehanu
I would rather be stomped by wild horses than put my good china in the dishwasher. McMeMeMe’s unbroken record of Not Knowing What She Is Talking About continues….
Martin
@geg6: I think her argument is that given a choice between a wine fridge and having more than 3′ of counterspace, the contractor should have gone with more counterspace. On that I would agree, if that was the choice.
Of course, from the photos I have no idea how the wine fridge in any way could have impacted the countertop space, but that’s a separate issue about McArdles general sanity, which I don’t have time to get into.
And the McArdles must make at least 3x what I do, and we recently redid our kitchen as well. Cost about $5k total. New countertops, cabinets, window, sink, faucet – some appliances. Looks infinitely better than hers. Unlike her unlike HGTV remodel, mine did only come in at the cost of materials BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH I HAVE A JOB, I HAVE A WORK ETHIC YOU LAZY SOD AND DID THE LABOR MYSELF.
Sometimes I wonder if conservatives and libertarians get such a bug up their ass about taxes merely because they’re so fucking bad at managing their money and getting value for their dollar.
kdaug
@AT:
Do tell.
I cut my toenails last night, ’cause they were finally getting caught on my socks. I usually blow it off during the winter season, since I won’t be wearing sandals, but they were getting too long…
Put Fungie-Nail AND tea-tree oil on after I buffed them and now they’re gorgeous! I know, it sounds like overkill, but I feel pretty, and my sneakers like them.
I can send pictures if y’all want.
Omnes Omnibus
@geg6: I am sure she wants one. Personally, I think my stomach is a good place to store wine.
Brachiator
I’m sure it was frothy, in a Santorum kind of way.
Violet
@j:
Goodness. People have been known to do that and it’s not exactly a crime. I cleaned for three hours on Christmas night after hosting Christmas and just ran out of steam. Went to bed leaving dishes that needed to be cleaned. Spent three more hours the following day cleaning them. It was my grandmother’s fine china, I was exhausted in the evening and I didn’t want to take a chance on breaking any of it since I was tired.
I’m no McMegan fan, but not cleaning everything the night after a dinner party (which is what she did) is hardly a big deal.
Linnaeus
@Martin:
If I ever were to be in need of a kitchen renovation, I probably wouldn’t do the labor myself because I’m sure I’d screw it up.
Loneoak
I don’t understand why anyone would need a wine fridge. I usually drink all of my Two-Buck-Chuck on the way home.
dmsilev
@arguingwithsignposts:
I think some people pooled their funds. But remember dishwasher, you don’t get paid until the job is done.
Omnes Omnibus
@dmsilev: It was the low bidder and its references checked out.
Violet
@Tehanu:
Someone asked her about it in the comments and she said she inherited the china from her mother and her mother told her it would be okay.
geg6
Martin @36:
Huh? Unless she has the world’s smallest wine fridge, they don’t sit ON the counter. Under perhaps, but mine would actually expand my counter space if I had the room for it since I’d set it next to the counter and could use the top to set some of the shit on it that I currently have sitting on the counter. I just don’t have the floor space for it.
JPL
Should I be green with envy because I don’t have the wine thing?
Three-nineteen
Wait, she puts her good china in the dishwasher?
dave l
I will say this: her prose style is much better when she’s writing about kitchen appliances. Her posts on economics and politics are always laid out in English that manages to be both leaden and hand-wavingly conversational. Even if I agreed with her (hah!) it would give me a headache.
JWL
I remember those days, not so far distant, when Jane Hamsher was the favorite whipping gal around these parts.
Long live the new queen.
Violet
@Linnaeus:
Yeah, me too. I’d hate to waste a bunch of money on the material costs and then find out I’d done something stupid during the installation that meant I had to do it all over again. Plus, messing with adding electrical outlets or connections would make me very nervous.
Omnes Omnibus
@JWL: McMegan mocking has long and proud history in these parts. It is more a diversion for most rather than a way of life (Tom Levenson, I am looking at you.), but it’s been around.
sb
This takes self-absorption to an entirely different level.
Villago Delenda Est
@AT:
Well, I’ll be sure to inform the crew, Captain Brannigan.
dmsilev
Looking at that article, I note that she probably spent well over a thousand dollars on the refrigerator; I bought a new fridge about a year ago and looked (more for amusement than anything else) at the sort of model that she bought, and ended up spending a lot less. So, all of her preening about how economical she was in this renovation should be taken with a pretty large grain of salt.
Also, I like how she both replaced the sink and redid the countertops, but somehow managed not to have the two objects line up with each other. The sink jutting out an inch or two beyond the rim of the countertops just screams “sloppy planning” to me.
Jennifer
Heh. The best part is, as noted by a commenter at TBogg’s, is that they did all that work on the countertops to make them toxic.
You don’t stain and poly wood counters because the stain is toxic and the poly delaminates in a location where it’s regularly wet, as any kitchen counter will be in order to keep it clean. Mineral oil & beeswax are the appropriate sealants for wood that comes in contact with food. She could have had a post-form laminate countertop installed for less than they paid for the wood, no work on their part, and non-toxic to boot.
Other issues: the huge gap in the counter where the pieces were joined together, the clumsy cut-out made in the sink base cabinet in order to accomodate a farmhouse-style sink rather than the 30″ drop-in or undermount sink the base cabinet was designed for, and then the waste of one entire side of the kitchen for a series of makeshift make-dos. For the amount they spent, they could have installed a run of both lower & upper cabinets, as well as an additional area of countertop, and got rid of all the junky little carts.
This woman is an idiot.
WeeBey
I cooked professionally for a decade.
This woman is how those companies that make shit appliances make their money.
She’s a mark.
Violet
@dmsilev:
She did say that they bought the fridge a few months after moving in, so it wasn’t included in the renovation costs.
piratedan
isn’t high time that Ms Mcarglebargle be moved to the blogs we mock section?
beltane
@arguingwithsignposts: Amazing how her dishwasher is more intelligent than she is.
Also, all the kitchen renovations in the world can’t compensate for the fact that McMegan struggles with such basic cooking skills as separating eggs and making bechamel sauce. She needs a personal chef, not a new countertop.
syphonblue
Only two Jacuzzi tubs?! The inhumanity!
WereBear (itouch)
It’s insane. I’ve been in Florida trailer parks with better kitchens, and this was back during the wrought iron/red shag period of decor.
It must have been Three Stooges Contracting. Dewey Screwitup and Howe.
ericblair
@Martin:
A-fucking-men. Look at any gooper politician or 1%er: tons of money to idiot consultants, stupid useless media buys, houses and investments bought at the top of the market, and taking pointless risks to needlessly piss all the money away. As long as not one penny goes to Those People, though, it’s all good.
pseudonymous in nc
@WeeBey: Of course she is. Over at TBogg’s, I pointed to Mark Bittman joking about his tiny NYC kitchen, but pointing out that you can spend every last cent on a spanky kitchen and it won’t make you a better cook.
Anyway, my wine fridge is a corner of the pantry.
Villago Delenda Est
@ericblair:
I have a friend whose boss is one of those. If the guy had the slightest clue as how to manage his own money, he’d be a very wealthy man. He whines about taxes even as he relies on government contracts to keep his business afloat. He has no problem paying usurious interest rates to American Express. He doesn’t mind being milked like a cow by the private sector, but if the public sector asks him to pay for the services he demands, he’s outraged.
harlana
all i know is i’m pissed that dishwasher didn’t do it’s job
Carolinus
Maybe it’s just exhaustion or that I suck at McMegan MadLibs but I’m having trouble filling in the last word in my head. I’m cycling through expletives but nothing fits :P.
harlana
you are not supposed to put the good china in the fucking dishwasher, dipshit
MosesZD
Ms. Megan isn’t going to like my commment:
You know what is great about the free market? Now that you’ve ruined your wood counter tops, and totally screwed up the kitchen, you can pay someone to replace the maintenance/safety nightmare you created!!!
First, the long-term maintenance problem. The polyurethane you put over the stain will start to delaminate. You will have to fix it repeatedly. Further, water will end up working through the cracks/delaminations and you’re going to get some rather weird under-the-coating stains and bubbles.
Second, the toxic counters. The stain, which you didn’t describe beyond color, seems to be a Minwax commercial wood stain. Congratulations, it’s toxic and full of carcinogens and is prohibited from use in a commercial kitchen and as anyone who took woodworking in 7th grade can tell you, you DO NOT STAIN WOOD YOU ARE USING IN FOOD PREPARATION AREAS BECAUSE THE STAIN IS TOXIC. As far as I know, there are NO non-toxic wood stains. What you SHOULD have done is found out what you could do. Both Behlen and General Finishes make products called Salad Bowl Finish which you can use to seal your counters and NOT POISON YOURSELF.
Third, design flaws. It appears your counters have gaps. Great place for cockroaches, food waste and other filth issues. You did this in a restaurant and the health department would shut you down.
There are more flaws. But I’m only dealing with the toxic, life-threatening, cancer-causing, food-born-illness flaws.
So, honestly, your kitchen is a disaster. Typical of a know-nothing who thinks because they have an education in one area and consider themselves ‘smart’ they can just do what they want. Regardless of the fact that you actually need what the heck you’re doing before you do it…
Oh, and please DO NOT TILE them when you try to handyman the mess you’ve created. The grout will start leaking and the substrate will rot. I’ve ripped out too many of those filthy, rotten counters in ‘remodeling homes’ I’ve bought. Complete nasty messes…
Speaking as a life-long re-modeler/renovator of old homes… You’d have been better off just getting new formica counter-tops. Serviceable. Light. And they’re easy to clean and durable. And even people like you, way in over their heads, can do a decent enough job with them…
nellcote
Amazing that someone who clearly hates to cook would drone on so about their kitchen.
harlana
Langour about countertops, tipping dishwashers, torn ligaments! Gripping stuff.
Hob
Do people actually say “flip house”, as a noun phrase? That sounds bizarre to me… I mean I’m aware of what flipping a house means, but a) I had hoped that that usage was so associated with the ditzy greed of the bubble days that it could be quietly retired, and b) I never heard people calling a fixed-up house a “flip house”.
J.W. Hamner
I don’t really understand the outrage at this particular post… blogging is inherently narcissistic and performed by amateurs, so it’s not like it’s surprising a) she wanted to blog about her kitchen remodel or b) that she sucked at it. When she makes egregious mistakes as “a senior editor for The Atlantic who writes about business and economics”, then I feel the right to be outraged.
Also, we have some of those same Ikea pot racks in our small apartment kitchen, so maybe I’m feeling a little defensive about the whole minimalist critique. I will admit I don’t know why she needs 25 different skillets though.
Hungry Joe
@dave l:
You mean prose style, like
@beltane:
No it’s not.
Lyrebird
@Villago Delenda Est: Ditto. And it doesn’t help that i — a similarly-pasty-and-nerdy woman of almost the same age — am struggling mightily for my very first publication, while she gets paid to write such drivel. I guess the kitchen rambles are less dangerous than the incorrect economic analyses? Thank heavens for SPT, TBogg, etc.
Citizen_X
Pardon my ignorance, but what the fuck is a “flip house?”
harlana
@Hob: i don’t know what this b*tch is talking about, srsly. i’m sorry i gave the article a hit by reading, or rather, trying to read it.
PIGL
@Loneoak: mine rarely makes it across the parking lot. Brown paper bags are so very useful for discreet guzzling on the hoof, don’t you find?
Do they still sell one gallon jugs of “dry” red wine in your nation? You know the ones with the handy finger ring for more convenient high speed pourage-down-throatage? The reason I ask is, here in British Columbia, they still do. Not perhaps at the very finest wine merchants, but at the government liquour vendors. McBargle should take note.
ABL
Dammit, Levenson! I told you that dishwasher wasn’t up to the task!
Sad_Dem
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937: So there was nothing going on in the field of economics to write about?
Her story is all about economics, with the main argument being “I got mine.”
harlana
@Lyrebird: i think it’s downright narcissistic and insulting to all marginally sentient beings
nellcote
@Citizen_X:
Commonly known as a fixer-upper.
arguingwithsignposts
@Sad_Dem:
And the corollary, “Fuck you.”
Heck, that sums up her whole oeuvre.
Lyrebird
@MosesZD: FWIW i luuuuurved your comment, it made it worth stopping there! Plus her arch little response of who cares, she doesn’t prepare food on those countertops. (not verbatim, but close) This person was not raised by bread-makers, it seems.
Sure, maybe she’s such a tidy chopper that no stray carrot slices leave the confines of her cutting board, but the comment makes it sound like she doesn’t cook anything outside of her machines. It’s even more bizarre than her apparently not being able to prepare a basic white sauce w/o investing in something worth more than my car.
So thanks again for the improved entertainment value of that page (from your comment). My whining tolerance got pretty strained…
I don’t know if she’s ever been to SE Asia, S Asia, etc., where (very skilled and respected) housekeepers can turn out a 3-course meal with 1 burner, 1 rice cooker, and maybe two cutting boards off in a corner of a single living/cooking/dining room.
harlana
@MosesZD: for the life of me, i have never understood anyone wanting tile countertops
Ohio Mom
We keep kosher, which means two sets of everything, and still we have *way* less stuff, especially pots & pans, than MM does. That place looks like it belongs to an incipient hoarder.
Lyrebird
@harlana: I heartily endorse your revised formulation. (please pardon pomposity practice… :-)
FlipYrWhig
@nellcote: No, that’s not it — a “flip” has been fixer-uppered already. The flipper buys a shack, upgrades it in the most visible spots, then sells it as fast as possible to a sucker with a hankering for pink Himalayan salt.
Villago Delenda Est
@FlipYrWhig:
You may not even fix it up that much. It’s a house, bought low, sold high. Not for you to live in, but to pocket the difference between what you paid for it and what you sold it for. There might be some remodeling in the process, but of course, you have to calculate how much you sunk into the place for remodeling against your eventual sale price.
My parents were the victims of this phenomenon back in the 70’s. They sold their house in a hurry (at the insistence of their realtor) at a price that turned out to be much lower than they could have gotten for it, because the realtor was anxious to get them into something that she’d get a much more lucrative commission on, but the entire process had to happen quickly for it to work out for the realtor.
Edgar Allahu Akbar Poe
@Hob:
Maybe she meant flop house.
harlana
i can’t put it any better than this tbogg commenter: “I have never before clicked on a McMEgan link; the snippets of text have always been more than enough for me, but this time I had to go look. What a frickin’ disaster, before AND after the “remodel”. As for her and her man-child being poisoned by stain and polyurethane on countertops, where’s the tragedy? Though what really stands out for me is just what a self-centered twit McMEgan is; does she really think people want to read page after page of her remodel stories? It has the distinct air of sitting around with a bunch of old biddies who want to discuss every single detail of their various operations and illnesses. Urk.”
Foxhunter
McMegan’s ‘writing’ screams “Poseur Alert”, as defined by the one Andy Sullivan.
How.focking.annoying.
SiubhanDuinne
@Martin:
I think you’re on to something important here.
AT
@Villago Delenda Est:
No need, i plan on writing an extensive blog post with pictures which you will be able to forward to all.
FlipYrWhig
@Villago Delenda Est: Fair enough re: bought low sold high, but IMHO the connotation from McArdle and from the HGTV-verse she’s inspired by — which I watch A LOT — is that a “flip” has been hastily upgraded to accelerate the process. You can tell a flip by the stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and ceramic-tile showers — showy and superficial improvements.
pseudonymous in nc
@J.W. Hamner:
Um, it’s not 2003 any more. If McGargle is getting paid to blog, she’s no longer an amateur. And “shiny kitchen crap, episode 972”, a series that dates to her amateur days, is not unrelated to the way she looks at business and economics in general, and as such is worthy of the same mockery for being the product of a silly narcissistic twit.
Jay C
Well, I read the whole thing (mostly – I did skip a lot of McMumbojumbo and study the pictures, though) and while Ms. McArdle is still a windbag poseuse, at least she spent her pixels bloviating about something other than politics or economics for a blessed change.
To be honest, I felt a little bit sorry for Megan & Mr. Megan, having to re-do a crappy kitchen like that with 1) a low budget; 2) no designer; 3) tons of crap to store and, apparently, 4) no friends with design experience – I’d give them at best a C for their efforts.
Serious points off, though, for the stained countertops: there’s a reason people put stone counters in their kitchens: oiled wood, maybe: but stain???
Birthmarker
I posted about kitchen-gate over on the Rosie thread so I won’t repeat it all. I don’t care for the woman’s writing style but I am willing to cut her a little slack on her kitchen. It does look more functional than it was. We are on our second poly-ed kitchen table and it hasn’t killed us yet.
J.W. Hamner
@pseudonymous in nc:
I don’t know if I buy that distinction… is John Cole a professional or amateur? I presume he gets some amount of money from the ads on the site and it’s a pretty popular blog… but he does talk about his pets and his life outside of politics a lot. It seems hypocritical of any fan of this site to mock some economics blogger for having the temerity to post about her kitchen remodel. I mean, yeah, post about how bad it is or how she has too many skillets or whatever but the concept of posting about your personal life on a blog (paid or not) should not be offensive.
Maus
@kdaug: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0koz0lGfyrg ?
trollhattan
@J.W. Hamner:
As nearly as I can divine, JC has an actual job wherein he, you know, does stuff for people and receives a salary. He probably gets a few bucks from this joint but it ain’t keeping Tunch in the sushi-grade tuna he demands.
McMegan’s job is to blog for a high-profile publication. We don’t know whether her job description actually includes destroying the very publication she blogs for, but it seems likely.
Also, too, one could conclude McMegan’s writing skills and space-planning skills are roughly equivalent.
duck-billed placelot
@Carolinus: Perhaps the deleted section referred to a 2×4? Maybe our McMegan is learning!*
Also, I read the thing, and she makes a big deal about waiting for her handyman (notice: not licensed contractor) to ok the plans before buying her countertop material. But oh noes, when they went there, all Ikea’s countertops were backordered, so they had to buy $350 of a different wood, instead of the $200 they’d budgeted. What? You couldn’t, like, call around to other wood-vending options? Or, you know, freaking wait?
*No.
J.W. Hamner
@trollhattan:
Uhm, OK… Kevin Drum is paid by Mother Jones and posts pictures of his cats every Friday. I just think the idea that there is some class of blog that shouldn’t include personal information is fundamentally odd.
Would Ta-Nehisi’s blog be as much fun if it was devoid of personal info? I think not, and he is a paid editor of The Atlantic as well.
I think McCardle is as worthless as an economics writer as anybody (Tom Levenson excluded perhaps), but this really strikes me as a 100% pure Colombian 2 minute hate.
tc
Is the sink supposed to stick out like that?
Lyrebird
@J.W. Hamner: Hmmm… perhaps it doesn’t help that a bunch of folks here are in at least one of these camps: foodie, food junkie recovering or otherwise, or just folks that put dinner on the table on a regular basis. So here comes someone already laden with a lot of libertarian baggage who is giving bad* advice about something many of us care about a lot: the kitchen.
*am I passing judgement? sure. Am I pretty certain that the next owner of that house will probably mistake stained wood for butcher block and carve up veggies on the toxin-laden counter? yup.
We rag on Andrew Sullivan quite a bit, but what if he posted pictures showing him treating his beagles badly? You’d see a much longer than 2-minute “hate”, I betcha. I’m still going to re-read your concerns, bc I think you raise some good ethics points; just thought I’d add another perspective.
Silver
@nellcote: Not really. Many “Camera” guys are like that too. They can’t compose or light a photo to save their life, but they can focus on a test chart quite well.
I love these people, myself. They are a great source of barely-used secondhand gear.
The Other Chuck
Holy crap, if I saw that kitchen in an apartment I would high tail it out of there. What a disaster. That thing is stripes, plaid, polka-dots, and paisley all in one.
J.W. Hamner
@Lyrebird:
Nah, I’m cool with the “toxic counter tops” as well as the “my 5 year old could design a more functional kitchen” elements of criticism… but Sarah Proud and Tall and TBogg didn’t criticize that… they mocked her for gushing about her personal life and, I guess, being a cooking dilettante.
SamR
Reminds me of this:
http://chasemeladies.blogspot.com/2005/03/bores-craft.html
The Other Chuck
@J.W. Hamner:
I think it’s that they mock her for getting paid for it. Paid handsomely, as I understand, while actually qualified people are still looking for any job.
pseudonymous in nc
@J.W. Hamner:
You feel you have to ask that question? Really?
There’s an inherent futility in slapping down McArdle for her ignorance, narcissism and plutocratic toadyism, given that she is inevitably bound for an op-ed spot at either the NYT or (more likely) WaPo. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done regularly and with vigour. She is a sociopathic overprivileged show-off who, when not boasting of her $1500 mixer to her coterie of sycophants, is telling poor people to shut the fuck up about wage stagnation and unaffordable healthcare.
She can fuck right off.
J.W. Hamner
@pseudonymous in nc:
Like I said: 2 Minute Hate
freelancer
@J.W. Hamner:
Argument from plea for Civility.
You got nothing.
J.W. Hamner
@freelancer:
Anyone who understands logic would realize I’m not pleading for civility, but that instead I’m pointing out that his argument has nothing to do with the post at hand… he is just using it as an excuse to vent spleen. It’s not me who has nothing chief: try again.
freelancer
@J.W. Hamner:
How about “McMegan is the perfect example of how you do anything is how you do everything”. And McArdle has quite literally never been right about anything. Ever. Yet she keeps failing upwards. That’s worth some scorn.
And your response is “You guys are being meanies!”
The horror, a little rudeness at this joke of an intellectual.
J.W. Hamner
@freelancer:
It is most definitely not. My argument is that “She’s talking about her kitchen remodel! On a blog!” is inherently nonsensical, and that I bet a lot of “paid” blogs you like discuss personal things (Ta-Nehisi, Kevin Drum…).
I have no problem with vicious profanity laced tirades against her, but I prefer they make at least a single lick of sense. Besides the (legitimate) complaints of professional home improvement people on her post, this seems mainly an excuse for people who already hate her guts to say “Yeah she sucks!” Which is only offensive to me in its completely stupid irrelevance to the subject at hand.
Donut
@AT:
That is the best post I have read on B-J in a long time. Thank you, AT.
pseudonymous in nc
@J.W. Hamner:
Having offered a list! Of crappy kitchen gadgets! On her blog! For The Atlantic magazine! With her Amazon affiliate code embedded so she got a kickback!
Today’s piece is proffered to her readership in explicitly didactic terms, as a guide on how to do home improvements on a budget: “lots of people could do some variant of this… an alternative to house-porn.” She thinks she’s got something to teach her fans. And yet it’s as half-arsed as everything she does.
When Kevin Drum tries to make a teachable moment out of cat pictures, get back to us.
J.W. Hamner
@pseudonymous in nc:
I don’t have a problem with this criticism either, but it’s not the Ur-criticism made by TBogg or Sarah Proud and Tall, nor is it the tenor of the majority of criticism in this thread. I certainly understand why one would point out what a hash she has made of her “budget remodel” and why that proves her incompetence as an economics writer… but I don’t see a whole lot of people making that argument (yet at least).
If her remodel was a $30K+ and well designed with expert contractors… would you feel better about the post? I suspect that you would hate it just as much for only slightly adjusted reasons.
They all are.
trollhattan
Enough with leaving McMegan alooooone, already. I think it should be all Curtis LeMay, all the time with her, no matter the topic.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/susan-g-komen-foundation-vs-planned-parenthood-bullies/2012/02/02/gIQAWV96mQ_blog.html
Sloegin
Oh, man all this fine weapons-grade snark, gives me the warm and fuzzies. Had to go and hit her page, boggle at her poison countertops, and…. good lord woman!, how many pans does a two person household need?
And half of the anodized pans trashed by running them through the dishwasher, lordy lordy.
Bruce S
Oh my gawd! I read this entire thing thinking it was the parody. Then, for no particular reason, clicked the link and realized…oh my gawd! I thought this was the weirdness – a little too snarky and weird IMHO to be a proper parody – that TBogg had written in a fit of nastiness. But noooooo… It’s the real thing. Can’t make this shit up. Because it’s such shit.
NobodySpecial
I have this feeling what she really wants in a kitchen is the one from Chopped!, without the bother of having to stock it.
Chris T.
@Citizen_X: Perhaps she meant “flop house”. :-)
Seriously, a “flip house” is what you had in the two thousandsies (the “aughties”?) where you buy a house worth $150k for $300k, do some minor refinishing / remodeling intended to make it Look Pretty to the next buyer, and sell it for $450k three months later. (Price numbers are made up and not really to scale as the actual numbers depend on location anyway.)