How Much Is Too Much To Pay For Dessert And Other Parting Thoughts

A last-day link roundup!

There are so many stories I won’t be able to get to before I sail off on the good ship maternity leave! Here are some highlights from my bookmarks folder:

• High-end new kid-oriented West Hollywood restaurant overcharges for mediocre food and especially for sub-par desserts ($15 for one slice of cake??) but provides on-site babysitting by “au pairs” that includes karaoke and will basically give you whiplash as you shift between delight and horror. Kara Brown is on it.
• How much is too much to pay for dessert, anyway? I would think $15 is overboard even for the best slice of cake I’d ever had, but then, to me, five dollars still seems like a lot for a milkshake, and it can’t actually be a lot now if it was a lot back in the ’90s.
• “A Definitive History of Trump Steaks”:

There’s not much left of Trump Steaks — you can’t order them anymore, and the websites that once sold the frozen meat slabs are now relegated to the internet archives. But as Trump continues to hurtle towards the Republican nomination and, perhaps, the presidency, it’s worth looking back at exactly how a man who so consistently brags about his intelligence and business acumen failed to sell steaks to one of the most beef-obsessed countries in the world.

• At least two broadcast TV networks have found a new Lane Bryant ad too naked — or, perhaps, too plus-sized? — for their taste, while the store, in a savvy move, is counting on outrage to do more for its brand and sales than an ad on ABC ever could have.
• Speaking of “brands,” 50 Cent referenced his to explain to a judge why, despite his filing for bankruptcy protection, he’s also been Instagramming pictures of himself looking like Scrooge McDuck.

50 Cent reiterated the importance of maintaining his “brand” — even if the money itself is fake.

“Hip-hop culture is widely recognized as aspirational in nature. The standard by which artists and fans engage is commonly tied to money, jewelry, products and advertising over social media,” 50 Cent said in the filing. “Products and brands are now marketed through social media as an effective way to engage with consumers.

“Just because I am sensitive to the needs of maintaining my brand does not mean that I am hiding assets or that I have lied on my filings in this Bankruptcy Case, neither of which is true.”

• On the state of anti-trust legislation in the US and why it’s actually worth paying attention to:

Practically every major American industry has become extremely concentrated, and this creeping monopolization has increased inequality, created economic hazards where they previously didn’t exist, and heightened public anxiety. … Far more needs to be done to fight monopolies and keep them from hurting our economy and our people.

• The fascinating rise of Christian cost-sharing ministries as substitutes for health insurance, although with certain caveats, of course:

Medi-Share requires members to “live by biblical standards:” no tobacco or illegal drugs and no sex “outside of traditional Christian marriage.” Samaritan Ministries, with headquarters in Peoria, Ill., requires a pastor’s approval of medical expenses (and refuses to cover treatment for S.T.D.s unless “contracted innocently”). Liberty HealthShare, based in Independence, Ohio, is the only Affordable Care Act-exempt ministry open to people of many faiths. It asks them to affirm that “it is my spiritual duty to God and my ethical duty to others to maintain a healthy lifestyle.”

• Speaking of health insurance, you heard the really moving story of the anti-Obamacare activist whose life was saved by Obamacare and who wrote to the President about it, right? Just checking.

… and I guess that’s it! Have a great month or so. See you on the other side of the war.

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