Daily Blague

Very funny to see that the old concern of people building "too small" for a development's "mystique" has now been turned on it's head. One wonders how soon these piles will suffer the fate of the lovely, if monsterous, piles of the Roaring Twenties. I am old enough to remember these homes being fit for nothing but schools or convents and later, bulldozed for lack of money to heat and maintain them. Their early salvation came by being cut up into luxurious condos.

As to the "Stately French" style of the Jacobs' home, well it looks more like a stripped down version of a Mansart hunting lodge rather than a chateau, and without the charm of being surrounded by woods. It should be pointed out that the "stately" aspect is best enhanced by acreage, both tended gardens and woodland, and not by personal ice rinks, but "chacun a son gout" or lack thereof.

Sports Illustrated has a comment every week under the title "Sign of the Apocalypse". It usually is a tale of some sicko Dad or some idiocy uttered by a coach or a player.

This excess surely qualifies. My wiring is certainly different : I would ask them only what Mr. Welch asked Sen McCarthy: "Have you no shame?". Apparently, some people don't. It is disgusting, simply and plainly.

I agree with the shamelessness noted by PPOQ. I must admit though to having no problem with "maisons de parade"; if done well, they can enhance the art and give a sense of place, especially in a country sorely lacking in a sense of place, since we have destroyed so much of what we had in that regard. When thay pop up cheek-by-jowl however, then you know they are as doomed as the Stewart mansion at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue; a pile of ostentation even in an age noted for conspicuous excess, which lasted about a decade; a sad waste of money and craftsmanship, if not art...

I suggest that a mass mailing of copies of Edith Wharton's/Ogden Codman's "The Decoration of Houses" be sent to all hedge fund managers, Wall Steet bonus babies, Internet moguls and their architects. What a gracious world would result from this fusion of taste and money.