Wednesday, October 22, 2008

S.P.'s "wanty" list

Thank you, S.P., for making me feel less guilty about overshooting my haircut budget by $10. $150,000 of RNC funds for the V.P. nominee's "wanty" items? Do you know how much arugula (again, $1.29 a bunch) could be purchased for that amount? You could pay to have Coco Chanel herself brought back to life, and for her to then weave you a suit made out of the stuff.

But, in all seriousness, if you were given a month and $150k, and not allowed to save this money, put it towards a house, or otherwise be reasonable, where would it go? Reflecting on my current "wanty" list, I don't think I could do it:

-One non-high-school-looking backpack: $50

-One Opi nail polish: $8.

-One browse-and-buy at Uniqlo: could be as much as $100.

-Overpriced J. Crew earmuffs: about $50.

My "wanty" list is, it seems, insufficient. Even if I count small dogs as 'accessories' (not that I would think of them as such!), it doesn't make the grade:

-Two dachshunds: could be $1600.

-Dachshund-related costs: $2000 (high vet bills?)

No, still not there. Maybe if I ordered all the books I wanted from Amazon France? It would have to be first-edition territory before anything of S.P. proportions took place.

I get that she's being filmed constantly. But she is meant to represent the plain folk! Not to represent them, but to be of them! If this was how she dressed before, now would be the moment for her to hit the Old Navy, and fast.

6 comments:

kei said...

I just read about this too. This is an interesting wanty exercise. I think with some of what you want in this post, you could also travel back and forth a lot, and take your double-dachs with you. As in, you can get seats for them so they don't go in cargo!

In meek defense of Sarah Palin, I'll say that at least some of her stuff came from Nieman Marcus in Minneapolis. That's not to knock at Minneapolis, but to say Minnesota is closer to Alaska (hence the similar accents, at least to my Midwestern/ignorant ear) than say, NYC. But NYC was on that list too, which is pretty much hell and anti-American to her, so the meek defense falls apart. The end!

Anonymous said...

"But, in all seriousness, if you were given a month and $150k, and not allowed to save this money, put it towards a house, or otherwise be reasonable, where would it go? "

I was under the impression that hookers and blow was the great societal leveler in the burn money quick game.

Perhaps I should re-evaluate.

For more gender-balanced and reasoned tastes, there are always hotels, planes, and restaurants to burn money quick.

It really shouldn't be a problem...

Jacob T. Levy said...

wines, scotches, a year's supply of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, consumer electronics including an iPhone and computer upgrades and a high-end digital camera and one 'a them Blu-Ray things... and then a really, really big book order. I could do it in a day tops, with most of that time spend clicking around on Amazon.

Anonymous said...

Drawings by Otto Dix. I could find these in under an hour.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

Good points all. Once you add in food, beverage, and travel (I could finally see Japan!), racking it up to $150k would not be difficult at all.

On top of that, the obvious category I failed to mention was shoes. They're not on my current wanty-list, but surely if let loose in Camper or a Repetto store, I could make a dent. And if I switched "Uniqlo" for "W.E.S.C.," "agnes b.," or "A.P.C.," or some other store in SoHo where things do generally cost more than $50 per item. The $150k Wanty Challenge requires, I think, moving beyond a wanty-list and thinking, well, big.

Anonymous said...

"I could finally see Japan!"

If you got yourself elected Governor of California, you could see Japan from the porch of your home.