On being a snob

The New York Times posted an article today that is about as snooty as it gets.  The article details an auction of household contents of one Patricia Kluge, a woman who - per the Times - married a very wealthy man, spent his money building homes, collected things to put in those homes, climbed up a social ladder, divorced her husband, and then collected a lot of divorce settlement money.  While this sequence is not uncommon and could be considered laudable for the materially acquisitive set, the ex Mrs. Kluge is denigrated in the paper of record for having done all of the building, collecting and climbing in de trop common a fashion.  She is not even given a break for having chosen a wealthy spouse and securing a considerable divorce settlement.  No, she was just too assiduous in her efforts to ascend and, at root, just too common.

Herewith, is a quote from the article, regarding the attendees who have come to preview Mrs. Kluge's household contents to be put up at auction:

Certain of them, like Virginia Donelson, a Charlottesville native and playwright who lives with her husband, the novelist James Collins, on a farm in adjacent Orange County, came to view Mrs. Kluge’s 18th-century drawings and to see whether it was true, as some suggested, that “even if you didn’t know a vulgar person lived in the house, you’d know a vulgar person lived in the house,” once you had visited it.

Is that  not the rudest thing you have ever heard; the anonymous "some" who have "suggested" that you'd know a vulgar person lived in the house?  Excuse me, pardon me, forgive me, if I may: who is vulgar here?

And this leads me to my Etiquette Rule Number One: If you are going to be a snob, do it silently.  Second Rule: Don't be quoted or cited, even anonymously.  Exception to Rule Number One: It's fine to blog about your neighbors.  Exception to Rule Number Two:  blog anonymously about your neighbors.

Here is the entire New York Times article.