Hey, Carrie!

The real problem is the rampant development of neighborhoods without any consideration of the people who live there. This can be disastrous and has many troubling implications. These types of development are not usually carried out by anyone who would be recognized as a “hipster” though. Rather they are usually the product of corporate deals with city government and the churnings of money that goes way deeper than most “hipsters” pockets. And to pretend that all the people who make up the “new Brooklyn” are just part of the “hip…privileged and cool set” is ridiculous. While the problems of some “hipster” kid who works in a creative field making $26,000/year while carrying a $60,000 student loan debt are not the same as a single mother living in subsidized housing while working two jobs at minimum wage, they are still problems. There are lots of different ways that Brooklynites are struggling in this bad economy.

As long as you are straight on your fixed expenses [housing, food, utilities, et cetera] and you have put aside 20 percent in savings, go ahead and buy those $400 shoes. That doesn’t make you a bad person. I want to live my life with color. People who can’t enjoy their money are missing the colors in life.

What about Julia Child’s frequent collaborator, Jacques Pépin?

“Jacques is good,” Bastianich says, “but I can’t understand what the fuck he’s saying.”

[C]hange requires failure. It requires screw-ups and a mouthful of grass and shins covered in bruises and I’m sorry, but I don’t know any other way around that.