Disqus - Latest Comments for TomPaine

Re: An Ill-Advised Detour

TomPaine — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 08:59:03 -0000

How about a resident exemption or discount as well, as long as we're crafting a sensible reboot? No one should be taxed just for going to their home.

Re: Michael Wolff on Hulk Hogans $115M Verdict and Why Gawker Should Settle the Case

TomPaine — Sun, 20 Mar 2016 15:53:48 -0000

Shouldn't Wolff mention his own history with Gawker (and his sexual indiscretions, for that matter)??

Re: Trump Tower, 15 CPW home to biggest number of secret buyers in New York City

TomPaine — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 10:28:27 -0000

Many of the LLC shelteres owners at 15 are identified in the book House of Outrageous Fortune by Michael Gross. It was published several years ago.

Re: Condo sales at Zeckendorf's latest luxury tower are slow, but that's part of the plan

TomPaine — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 14:48:36 -0000

Wilbur Ross just bought around the corner--and he's an expert on undervalued assets. Turtle Bay/Beekman/Sutton apartments are selling for less than equivalent space in Brooklyn. They are the bargain of the decade.

Re: Glenn O’Brien Named Editor at Large of Maxim

TomPaine — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 18:36:51 -0000

An elderly metrosexual at a young lad mag? No wonder he's got commitment issues.

Re: The Not-Quite End of the Book Tour

TomPaine — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 16:59:56 -0000

Many points are arguable, but the big truth stands out. Mr. Charney was lucky to be toured at all in this day and age. And to get paid again for writing about it, too.

Re: Greenwich Village

TomPaine — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 18:34:17 -0000

You mean the lawyers and I-bankers don't hang out at the Figaro?

Re: The 'Gawker tax' is getting too high, Denton tells his staff | Capital New York

TomPaine — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 11:14:35 -0000

The Times does indeed cater to advertisers--at least in the sections where advertising is most vital to its survival--its "style" coverage, in particular, but also its arts coverage, reflects the agendas of major advertisers. It also self-censors to favor the powerful on its "soft news" beats. Leah Finnegan is either naive or blind. Which doesn't alter the fact that Nick Denton has behaved cravenly here. Transparently, but cravenly.

Re: Sarah Clemence Joins Travel + Leisure as News Director |

TomPaine — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 10:48:53 -0000

Glad to see he's noticed that Conde Nast Traveler is being transformed into a fashion magazine. But is this the way Time Inc. editors should talk? Or, for that matter, walk?

Re: Sara Clemence named news director at Travel + Leisure

TomPaine — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 10:46:01 -0000

Okay, brand-building initiatives, though offensive, are understandable. Can someone please define "higher-metabolism journalism"? Does that mean the bar was previously set too low for travel writing? That Lump is seeking to out-Testosterone David Grainger's Esquire? Help, please!

Re: Travel + Leisure's new editor is an ex-agency exec

TomPaine — Sat, 15 Nov 2014 18:31:57 -0000

Sad that he never once used the word journalism.

Re: The Countess Talks Trends -- or Lack of Them - The Insider's Blog on Fashion, Beauty, Society - WWD.com

TomPaine — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:22:00 -0000

Go Louise. Didn't Karl Lagerfeld call this the fashion of no fashion in New York magazine twenty years ago?

Re: Giuliani: De Blasio Will Totally Bring Back The Bad Old Days

TomPaine — Sun, 03 Nov 2013 13:20:08 -0000

Crime is already going up. Squeegee men are back, bikers are threatening drivers with heavy-duty locks, chaos is a-coming, baby. Dinkins redux. Tourists goodbye. Fasten your crash helmets. It's gonna be a rocky few years.

Re: Rankled Up In Blue: Citi Bike's Color Is Killing NYC's Aesthetic

TomPaine — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 09:41:45 -0000

Pepper spray. The new must-have pedestrian accessory. You arrogant lock-swinging, law-breaking pedal-heads. The backlash is coming.

Re: City Shuts Down Part Of 57th Street After Crane Stalls, Officials Say

TomPaine — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 14:28:19 -0000

I definitely think Community Board #5 is right to give them permission to build even higher next time, half a block away. Their record is sooooo good. Go, Extell!

Re: Scott Turow on Penguin Random House

TomPaine — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 11:38:44 -0000

At some point, once we've all recovered, how about posting some thoughts on where the Justice Department stands more generally on publishing--and what we authors can do about it? A petition? Occupy Holder? In favoring Amazon over publishers, Justice proved to be the friend and enabler of big business, not we, the small businessmen and women who actually power the publishing machine. Justice also created the necessity, at least in the minds of those behind the Random-Penguin merger, of consolidation in place of competition. As a former author with Big Random, one who lost not only his imprint but also almost all of his supporters at the company when Markus Dohle downsized Random a few years back (shuffling the deck without a thought to the authors he claims to so support), I fear and loathe this latest development. Efficiency is one thing. This is something very different.

Re: Penguin and Random House to Merge and Become Penguin Random House

TomPaine — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 13:22:25 -0000

Marcus Dohle has already pulped Random House. Now Penguin, too? Soon all authors will be on the Dohle.

Re: The Making (and Unmaking) of Goldman Sachs Whistleblower Greg Smith

TomPaine — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 14:20:18 -0000

I betcha the Times wouldn't have touched Greg Smith with a barge pole if the Sulzbergers had been invested somehow in Goldman Sachs. Look at how the paper pimps the family's causes and friends like they used to do for Lazard Freres when Pinch's pal Rattner was there.

Re: The Rich, the Poor and How the Press Release For a New Movie About Income Inequality Inadvertently Highlights the Pervasiveness of the Problem

TomPaine — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 10:11:55 -0000

I'd like to see that "social history" dramatized, too, but once you see this docu, you'll understand the remarkable twist that Alex Gibney has given to the story. And by remarkable, I mean worthy of remark, just like the above. Asked, Why poverty?, Alex chose to focus on wealth--and I think he made the right choice.

Re: Billionaires, Act Fast! Turns Out One57 Is 50 Percent Sold Out | Observer

TomPaine — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:37:01 -0000

50% sold? Really? Doesn't he mean 50% in contract? Or is he breaking the law and closing on apartments that aren't built yet?

Re: Park Ave. co-op apartment sells for record $52.5 million - May. 15, 2012

TomPaine — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:04:23 -0000

You can find the names of everyone who lives there at www.mgross.com, the web site for the book mentioned.

Re: Gary Barnett on How He Chooses His Designers and the 1,250-Foot Starchitect Tower Planned for Broadway and 57th Street | The New York Observer

TomPaine — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:14:47 -0000

Sorry, but there's no Morton Williams at 141 West 57th and the manager of the current one "beneath" the Barnett parcel says that store ins't going anywhere.

Re: VF Writer Nina Munk and Artist Peter Soriano Buy P.R. Queen’s Six-Story Townhouse | The New York Observer

TomPaine — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:34:13 -0000

Person who doesn't need to work spends part of fortune on more housing than she needs. That's what I call news!

Re: Michael Kimmelman Will Not Play Your Architecture Games | The New York Observer

TomPaine — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 17:51:14 -0000

Sorry for the scatological attention-grabber, but glad it got your attention! Personally, I do still prefer Goldberger and the awesome Ada Louise, venue and frequency notwithstanding, but that's not my point. It's bad enough that people inside the Times still believe they channel the Voice of God. But when outsiders reinforce that notion (which may still contain a grain of truth but ever less of one) it only feeds the arrogance they should no longer feel entitled to. Power, as the man says, corrupts. Let's not feed that process.

Re: Michael Kimmelman Will Not Play Your Architecture Games | The New York Observer

TomPaine — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:37:51 -0000

Ridiculous conclusion. The Times is just a newspaper--and a steadily diminishing one at that. And Kimmelman is just a voice in the choir--a loud one, perhaps, but hardly the Whitney Houston of architecture. Chaban, get your nose out of the gray lady's behind. Brown is not your color.