Here's how it's done

The New York Times has been irritating me since the early 1980's.   It's pandering to "Life Style content - first, with the establishment of a separate stand-alone section, replete with Sally Quinn-type reporting, and then with the osmotic seep of lifestyle coverage throughout most of its sections.  I don't read the Sports section, so I cannot attest to what's happening in Sports, though I do know that the Celtics lost to the Lakers last night; but I can easily imagine something in today's NYT on the house furnishings and lavish existence of Kobe Bryant.

This is not an accident, this osmotic glomming on to all things of the lifestyle angle.  It is purposeful and driven by advertising and desired reader demographics.  But it is not news.  I mean "news" as edifying, substantive, and worthy of conveying.

For instance, here, in yesterday's NYT, is a front page article, which to me is archetypal of its "life style" content: Trophy Hunters: With Their Eye on Interiors.

And this is what is really "news" on the art, skill, and substance of interior furnishing: My friend Lori's blog on decorating on a vapor budget and limitless drive and creativity.

Lesson?  Like my fellow blogger Lori, source it yourself when it comes to life style. Follow not the tastemaker.  Be your own, make your own choices.  Do not be fed fodder of pre-selected items chosen by others.  What is your taste?  That is the fun!

(Can you tell slightly that I am chafing to write about my neighbors some more but am channeling this to another topic of individualism vs. the masses of a@#es?  Then you know me well.  I chafe and yet I refuse to throw the proverbial or literal finger at my neighbors.  No, I disparage them from the safety of the internet shield.  It is my choice. And it is fun.)