Could Things Get Any Worse?

Yesterday, my sister sent me an article from The (failing) New York Times, which proves how fucked up things really are right now. Incidentally, The (failing) New York Times stock price closed at $44.67 on Friday, a year ago it closed at $33.45.

Anyway, back to how fucked up everything is these days.

The story Paula sent me was about a take-out joint in Red Hook where the house specialty, a lobster roll with fries, costs $32 bucks.

When I was growing up in New York, Red Hook was a waterfront slum in Brooklyn. I can use the word ‘slum’ because the neighborhood was all white. The residents of Red Hook sometimes worked on the piers and the mob dumped bodies in the water because it was easier than driving all the way out to Coney and dumping the bodies in Gravesend Bay.

At some point things began to turn and now Red Hook is a done-over neighborhood with an IKEA, a bunch of fancy-shmancy boutiques, hip restaurants and bars, and rehabbed housing with rents to match.

So, here’s this story about a restaurant owned by Ralph and Susan Povich called The Lobster Pound, where prices have gone out of sight and costs have “surged.” Last year they spent $15,000 training new staff, $12,000 for insurance, $54,000 for utilities, all of which adds up to $80 grand and change, and that’s before you even figure in…