There is a strange sort of cerebral experience that elicits a visceral response about glimpses into ordinary life through plain black ink…err…fonts.
The man who spent forty-two years at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool (1993)
21–30 of 324 posts
Re: The man who spent forty-two years at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool (1993)
#22I don't know why I found this so interesting to read. After the first few paragraphs I wondered why this was in The New Yorker, afterall, this is about a place in CA. The answer did appear, eventually... “My story begins on the Lower East Side of New York,” he said...
The NY specificity implied by the publication name is archaic. Apart from the event listings or performance/exhibit reviews, The New Yorker's long form coverage has been nationally (sometimes globally) focused for decades, albeit through the lens of what America's coastal elites find interesting.
There’s a great scene in the movie World’s Greatest Dad where Robin Williams plays a frustrated writer. Another teacher at the school where he teaches gets a story in The New Yorker¹ and Robin Williams’s character tells him something along the lines of “how nice, I hope your next one gets published somewhere that isn’t regional.”²
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1. This is generally considered the pinnacle of literary short fiction publishing.
2. He was, of course, being ironic (and bitterly jealous). As an aside, the movie is a brilliant dark comedy, written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait who’s come a long way from his Police Academy days.
Re: The man who spent forty-two years at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool (1993)
#23Re: The man who spent forty-two years at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool (1993)
#24I was thinking: "an entire article about a guy who used to tan at a hotel pool... when we start focusing on such trifles, it's usually a foreshadowing of some major upheaval coming." Then I saw the year of publication: 1993.
I’d reckon that the trifles got to getting truffled around 20 years prior.
Re: The man who spent forty-two years at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool (1993)
#25> Often he and the hostess, Bernice Philbin, would be the first two people there, and they would have a polite conversation before Irving took his place in his booth—the first half circle to your left as you came in—and ordered breakfast: scrambled eggs back in the days when people ate eggs, and, more recently, banana and granola with skim milk. TIL that my last 30+ years of egg eating has been a faux pas.
The article is from 1993. If you are old enough to remember that time, it was indeed when official nutritionist advice was a complete failure. Eggs were advised against because it was thought their high cholesterol levels raised blood cholesterol, which is false for most people who consume a moderate amount of eggs. This is the time during which fat was demonized (anyone remember SnackWell's???), the "foot pyramid" w…
I don't remember a foot pyramid. There was the food pyramid, the $64000 pyramid, but nothing about feet. Just to have fun with an obvious simple typo
Re: The man who spent forty-two years at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool (1993)
#26>scrambled eggs back in the days when people ate eggs do people not eat eggs anymore?
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Re: The man who spent forty-two years at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool (1993)
#27He made it to 101
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/latimes/name/irving-lin...
Re: The man who spent forty-two years at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool (1993)
#28>scrambled eggs back in the days when people ate eggs do people not eat eggs anymore?
Not in the 1990s, no. DIETARY CHOLESTEROL BAD was the mantra of the day.
Re: The man who spent forty-two years at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool (1993)
#29(1993). The hotel reopened in 1996 but Irving never returned. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-05-19-ls-5806-s...
Wonderful accompanying piece worth reading - thanks for posting
Re: The man who spent forty-two years at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool (1993)
#30> Often he and the hostess, Bernice Philbin, would be the first two people there, and they would have a polite conversation before Irving took his place in his booth—the first half circle to your left as you came in—and ordered breakfast: scrambled eggs back in the days when people ate eggs, and, more recently, banana and granola with skim milk. TIL that my last 30+ years of egg eating has been a faux pas.
The article is from 1993. If you are old enough to remember that time, it was indeed when official nutritionist advice was a complete failure. Eggs were advised against because it was thought their high cholesterol levels raised blood cholesterol, which is false for most people who consume a moderate amount of eggs. This is the time during which fat was demonized (anyone remember SnackWell's???), the "foot pyramid" w…
Fat is still bad in excess, you are just stuck in a different meme cycle where Americans pretend it doesn’t matter and surely couldn’t have anything to do with the rampant obesity.