Amen. Us underemployed folk can't stay in the house all day. You have make plans to leave which gives you a reason to bathe and put on halfway decent clothing. Otherwise you descend into a sticky, smelly depressed shell of your former self.
God I've waited for the 8 hour office day to die for years. It's odd to me that our workaday routine is something that was negotiated by coal miner unions at the turn of the 20th century.
There are all sorts of people roaming NYC streets at 2:00 in the afternoon. They are going to yoga classes and buying groceries and drinking coffee in Starbucks. Some are retirees or stay-at-home moms or students, people you would expect to see outside during regular office hours. What about the rest of them?
What do THEY do for money? What job do you have that lets you go to a 2:00 yoga class on a Wednesday?
@pollyannacowgirl: Speaking as the short-on-work NYer: We're going to yoga because it gets us out of the house and talking to people, rather than shouting at Nancy Grace. We're buying groceries because knitting our food didn't work out so well, and because the lines are short at midday. And we're drinking coffee in Starbucks because that's the only way they let you sit in there for hours, enjoying the free heat/AC and using their wifi.
Occasionally we have contract work, which we do at all hours of the day and night. The rest of the time we obsessively check our bank balances, scour jobs boards and scream at the necessary evil that is the Verizon bill. It's a strange life.
In an earlier decade, before I was trapped in this office, I worked for a international aid organization. I lived in both Africa and Asia.
I can not think of any developing country where even the poorest of the poor would dress this way. Even if you are sleeping on the sidewalk in Calcutta, you want to look presentable. You dress properly because you respect yourself and the people in your community.
These photos do NOT indicate poverty. Look the full shopping basket of the half-naked guy with the long hair.
The photographs are evidence of the self-absorbed vulgarity of the American public. The attitude is: I don't give a fuck about you or the fact you have to look at my butt crack as you buy your discount Cheetos.
I stopped in a Walmart this weekend on the way home from the beach in NC to stock up for the long drive up I-95. I needed to use the bathroom. Fucking spotless. Except for the graffiti on the toilet paper dispenser: "No Nigs."
i walked into a wal-mart for the first time in years the other day and was struck by the vastness of it. the simon and garfunkel lyrics, "We've all come to look for America," came to mind.
1) This idea appears to have been ripped off from a bit The Consumerist did a few years back.
2) The implication seems to be that we don't have more than our fair share of pathetic slobs in New York. Visit a Conway or ride the subway for a reality check.
Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken both mocked the "booboisie," the term Mencken "coined to describe the uncultured and witless who ran the country...", so the practice has a long and honorable heritage.
The politically correct police will be enraged, but I personally love it. When will people learn how to act appropriately in public? It may not be news, but you are under surveillance when you are conducting the "private act" of shopping in a big box store. Even if you're not doing anything illegal, you are probably in danger of being mocked by the bored security goonsl. But maybe that is missing the point. Maybe these folks just don't give a fuck what we think of them. In which case, I feel a strange sense of envy...
@SeaBassTian: I don't think they care at all. I have at least one family member who wears invisible shorts out in public all the time, and is pretty sure she looks great in them. I was going to say something about hoping that lady picked up some pants before she left, but then I realized that she could possibly be my kin.
Yes, Wal-Mart may be one of those places where you may encounter people who you think are lacking in social etiquette and good manners. Just like the DMV, airport, gas station, or McDonalds. But it's in poor taste to laugh and mock at them behind their backs(Picture #1).
"The People of Wal-Mart" have failed at whatever they were trying to do. (It's a poor and sad imitation of the FailBlog.)
I am all for mocking and ridiculing the misfortune of others, when its called for.
But there is no humor in laughing at the appearance of people shopping at Wal-mart. It's just cruel. Just like there would be no humor in a blogging The People of the Unemployment Office, or The People of the VA Hospital. In some cases you shouldn't point, stare, laugh and take a picture. It's just low class.
Mama Penguino promoted this comment
Edited by funyuns are awesome in phx at 08/30/09 8:33 PM
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@funyuns are awesome in phx: I agree with you, the whole thing just smacks of class-ism. They say these people are tacky and low class, they should look in the mirror.
@funyuns are awesome in phx: Amen, brother. I was following two men into Wal-Mart last week and they both had super-long mullets and weird shorts & tanks on. For just a moment I thought about snapping a secret picture and then thought, "WTF? Who are you, lady?" and went about my business. I think people create blogs like this because they feel like $hit about themselves. It makes me feel sad for the idiots who created the website. Seriously, guys, you're okay. You don't need to do this.
I actually find the people who are commenting on the People of Walmart site itself to be worth mocking; much more so than the people in the pictures. What a bunch of judgmental goons.
@MissPeacock: I wouldn't mind if they didn't vote, or if they did, would do so according to the precepts that their Jesus teaches.
But they do, and, but they don't.
Looking at the carnage they foisted upon our nation - nay, the world - during the last eight years they ran things, a bit of snarky mocking is the least they should suffer.
@Trai_Dep: Darn, too slow.
Kitten Wants To Play Now emergency. But crisis averted!
Replace above with:
@MissPeacock: I wouldn't mind if they didn't vote, or if they did, would do so according to the precepts that their Jesus teaches.
But they do, and, but they don't.
Look at the carnage they foisted upon our nation - nay, the world - during the last eight years they ran things. They wound, they rend, they tear. Like an unknowing child destroys his living room simply because he can. Then blames Mom for having to clean things up as best she can.
And they're still at it. For instance, rather than choosing not to take a Public Option, as is their right, they're dead-set on removing the choice of others to choose. Or the same with a woman's right to choose.
Believe me, a bit of snarky mocking is the least they should suffer.
This whole idea that this is somehow offensive to the underclasses is very patronizing. These people are hardly representative of most poor people. Poverty doesn't cause you to buy a pair of shorts that are seven sizes too small.
10/03/09
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And your point is??
10/02/09
10/02/09
What do THEY do for money? What job do you have that lets you go to a 2:00 yoga class on a Wednesday?
I'm not being sarcastic. I really want to know.
10/02/09
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10/02/09
I trust you have some groceries, some peanut butter, to last a couple of days.
10/02/09
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Occasionally we have contract work, which we do at all hours of the day and night. The rest of the time we obsessively check our bank balances, scour jobs boards and scream at the necessary evil that is the Verizon bill. It's a strange life.
09/04/09
I can not think of any developing country where even the poorest of the poor would dress this way. Even if you are sleeping on the sidewalk in Calcutta, you want to look presentable. You dress properly because you respect yourself and the people in your community.
These photos do NOT indicate poverty. Look the full shopping basket of the half-naked guy with the long hair.
The photographs are evidence of the self-absorbed vulgarity of the American public. The attitude is: I don't give a fuck about you or the fact you have to look at my butt crack as you buy your discount Cheetos.
08/31/09
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08/31/09
2) The implication seems to be that we don't have more than our fair share of pathetic slobs in New York. Visit a Conway or ride the subway for a reality check.
08/30/09
08/30/09
08/30/09
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08/30/09
"The People of Wal-Mart" have failed at whatever they were trying to do. (It's a poor and sad imitation of the FailBlog.)
I am all for mocking and ridiculing the misfortune of others, when its called for.
But there is no humor in laughing at the appearance of people shopping at Wal-mart. It's just cruel. Just like there would be no humor in a blogging The People of the Unemployment Office, or The People of the VA Hospital. In some cases you shouldn't point, stare, laugh and take a picture. It's just low class.
08/31/09
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08/30/09
I reminds me of the time I saw Batman making his way up 57th Street. Full costume. In August. Carrying his groceries home from Gristeides.
08/30/09
08/30/09
08/30/09
08/30/09
But they do, and, but they don't.
Looking at the carnage they foisted upon our nation - nay, the world - during the last eight years they ran things, a bit of snarky mocking is the least they should suffer.
08/30/09
Kitten Wants To Play Now emergency. But crisis averted!
Replace above with:
@MissPeacock: I wouldn't mind if they didn't vote, or if they did, would do so according to the precepts that their Jesus teaches.
But they do, and, but they don't.
Look at the carnage they foisted upon our nation - nay, the world - during the last eight years they ran things. They wound, they rend, they tear. Like an unknowing child destroys his living room simply because he can. Then blames Mom for having to clean things up as best she can.
And they're still at it. For instance, rather than choosing not to take a Public Option, as is their right, they're dead-set on removing the choice of others to choose. Or the same with a woman's right to choose.
Believe me, a bit of snarky mocking is the least they should suffer.
08/30/09
08/30/09