Slothrop

Tight but Polite
PBIDMHI: the use of the word "hipster" to refer to pretty much anything new and/or popular. My partner commented the other day that drinking water dispensers at stations are "the new hipster thing", as if people are meeting up in artisan kombucha bars in East London to compare tasting notes on the water taps at Oxford versus Peterborough. Meanwhile someone at work complained about somewhere being "full of hipster places". On prodding, he clarified that this meant Pret, Wasabi and Cafe Nero. FFS.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Related (but more endearingly naive than annoying) are people who disparage hipster coffee geeks on the assumption that they're the people ordering ever more elaborate concoctions of fruit syrup, crushed ice, chocolate and froth in Starbucks, because they basically aren't even aware of the whole other level where people worry that the pourover from their local cafe-slash-micro-roaster isn't going to fully express the varietal character of the single-estate Kenyan beans if they aren't using reverse-osmosis water.
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
'Fancy' coffees in Starbucks involving ice, whipped cream, fruit syrup etc. are for basic bitches.
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Anyone else getting a bit tired of specific types of "energy" that people apparently have? Just encountered "chaotic mum energy" on Twitter.
 

Leo

Well-known member
Federal researchers said in December that in an annual survey of American teenagers, 21% of high-school seniors "said they had vaped within the past 30 days — about double the level from the year before," the N.Y. Times reported.

WTF?
 

version

Well-known member
Got a book in the post today which I paid around £4 for and it had an Oxfam sticker on the front saying 50p.

giphy.gif
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Oh. What online second hand book store are you using? I've tried to avoid Abebooks as a division of Amazon, but for less common books it's near impossible. Evil Jeff Bezos wins again.
 

Leo

Well-known member
cry me a river

Despite the surging stock market, New York officials estimate bonus payouts by Wall Street firms will shrink by at least 9% from last year — to about $25 billion, down from $27.5 billion, Axios' Courtenay Brown reports.

The smaller payouts reflect harder times for the banking industry, which is being hit by low interest rates, trade wars, political risk and volatile markets.
Why it matters: There's trickle-down effect for the tri-state economy. If you work at, say, Smith & Wollensky or a Connecticut Ferrari dealership, you could be in the same boat as the bankers.

The sums can be staggering. Some run to six or even seven figures, making up a third or more of an executive's annual compensation.
Another factor: More banks are opting for deferred forms of compensation, like stock instead of cash.

And banks have taken steps to curb excessive pay, industry experts say. That's despite the fact that regulations proposed after the financial crisis that aimed to curb big bonuses, which were seen as tempting workers to take risks, never crossed the finish line.

By the numbers: The average bonus paid to Wall Street employees in New York City was $153,700 in 2018 — a decline of 17% from the prior year, despite an upturn in the broader industry's profits. Fewer dollars were spread among a larger number of people.

Per New York City data, the average compensation for a Wall Streeter was more than $422,000 in 2017, the latest figures available. That's five times higher than what the average private-sector worker made.

Last year, bonuses alone were double the average salary of the rest of New York City's workforce.
 
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