It’s been a busy day (lie). I didn’t get around to seeing the newspaper until just now (truth). I’m sorry I did. Because now I’m dead. Steve Blow killed me. Again.
You see, he read the recent New York Times story about the Wyly Bros. and their trouble with the SEC. The dateline for the story was Aspen, Colorado, where the Wylys escape the Dallas heat every summer. And he’s outraged. I’ve removed the paragraph breaks after every sentence to make this excerpt more readable:
But if you are Sam and Charles Wyly and you want to fight your image as tax-dodging, self-dealing plutocrats, do you really start by summoning the New York Times to your summer retreat in Aspen? Forgive me if my heart wasn’t melted by the Wylys’ claim this week that they’re just victims of nasty bash-the-rich politics. All I could think while reading the article was — mmm — “August in Aspen.” How nice it must be to have a home in Colorado and a few hundred million dollars sheltered in the Caymans. And if that’s a poor attitude, forgive me. It probably didn’t help that the Wylys’ interview was published on the hottest day of summer, when temperatures hit 110 in parts of Dallas. In Aspen that day, the temperature climbed from a nippy 49 in the morning to a scorching 77 in the afternoon.
What? Who cares that the Wylys summer in Aspen? I mean, I care. Because it sounds awesome. But I don’t hold it against them. Because that’s what wealthy people do. A whole bunch of wealthy people in Dallas get the hell out of town when it gets hot. Even some just plain rich people do it. If I could afford to do it, I would, too. So would Steve Blow. He goes on to say:
If the Wylys really want to connect with common folks, let ’em make their case to a few rumpled Dallas reporters in a corner booth at the Circle Grill. I’d spring for the iced tea.
Who says the Wylys want to connect with common folks?! They want to connect with people who read the New York Times! They want to connect with the people who might have a bearing on their case with the SEC.
I’ve said it before. Once again: it’s embarrassing to have a city columnist like Steve Blow writing for the newspaper of record in a city the size of Dallas.
20 comments
Well stated. I hope you get to summer in Aspen one day.
Seconded!
Well and truly said, as befits the Editor in Charge of Park Cities Butt Smooches.
Great point! I felt the same way when I read that this morning.
I carry no brief for Blow, but if his point is that the Wyly brothers interview in the Times played all wrong, he’s right.
They came off as a couple of Cajun hustlers shooting the finger at the feds. “They gonna get nothin,’ Sam Wyly says at the start of the interview. “It’s not about the money” he says at the very end.
Well, now. Either it is or it isn’t.
If, as Tim writes, the boys pulled this ****y act because “they want to connect with the people who might have bearing on their case with the SEC,” they have a damn odd notion of how to win friends and influence strangers….strangers with subpoena power, I might add.
Who says the Wylys called NYT? My guess is that NYT pursued them in Aspen (she says from San Francisco, where she is escaping the Texas heat).
I wonder why he bugs you so much yet you are so in love/lust with Rod Dreher.
Right on, Tim. Bravo.
@Jack E Jett: While I don’t cotton to much of Rod’s religious views, he’s smart, and he’s a gifted writer, probably the best pure wordsmith the DMN has had on staff in a decade. At least in the top three. That’s why I’m in love with Jim.
I long to use Summer as a verb.
Did this sentence seem Belohypocritical?
“A big part of our current economic troubles stem from business executives who put profit far ahead of principle — or even prudence.”
I long to use Summer as a verb while towering above my own little people.
Um, nothing against Aspen, but don’t the execs at Belo have their retreat there every year?
I have been to Aspen in August. Chose to take the scenic route through Colorado in the Olds 88. It was starting to get dark and we saw the sign 15 miles to Aspen. What I didn’t know in advance was the last 15 was on a two lane road with hairpin turns straight up the mountain to Independence Pass. There are no guard rails, the drop off is extreme, the locals were stacked up behind me and passing when they could and my daughter in the back seat kept saying “Daddy, look down there, isn’t it beautiful?” I had never driven in the mountains before, sweat was flying off my palms and yes it did start to snow as we ascended in August. We finally made it to the top, got the last motel room in town as we had no reservations and discovered that to fully enjoy Aspen it would help to be a billionaire.
Steve Blow’s column on this was so boring and such a non-event it almost begs the question of why bother reading, which I surmise is somewhat the point being made here by Tim.
That said,
1. Use of the word “summer” as a verb is a total piece of d-baggery. I don’t care if it’s in the dictionary, it’s pompous and says look at me. Period.
2. Everyone knows the Wylys are beyond rich. That’s the whole gist of their alleged troubles with the SEC. Does the fact they own a vacation home in Aspen suddenly make it different?
3. Look around and you’ll see that most Texans of similar or even remotely close means to the Wylys “summer” in Aspen, Telluride, Maine, you do the math and choose a wealthy enclave that is far cooler and more tolerable than Dallas in August. Folks in Houston do the same thing.
Bottom line? Three words: SLOW NEWS DAY. Does anyone care if the Wylys “summer” in Aspen, Bar Harbor or a sweaty trailer in Beaumont? Hardly. People are interested in the facts and if they are cheats or not.
Hope I’m not hollering down a well, as Grammy Blow used to say. (Hollering down a well. I loved that.) But rich folks put a burr in my dang saddle. There. I said it.
Maybe Scrooge McWyly would like to meet me sometime for a hot dog at Wienerschnitzel and sweat his balls off waiting in the drive-through line at Sunnyvale National Bank when the car AC in my ‘99 Corrolla isn’t quite doing the job.
Maybe. But I’m not holding my breath.
I think most ordinary people echo my sentiments here. But then again, maybe that’s just me hollering down a well.
Steve Blow’s column appears twice weekly. Believe it. He can be reached at, et cetera
The Wylys have family that live year around in Aspen. They are good, kind, generous people.
Many respectable people said the same thing about the Madoffs. IJS
Can we use ‘Aspen’ as a verb?
Can we use “Blow” as a verb?