Hiding Your Wealth (NOT a poll) :)

[kcowan]

Have considered it but we use points for overseas trips. Doesn't really seem worth it for North American flights. Might be if we were travelling with kids or friends, but that generally not the case.

Us to. When we finally work through our points, we will have to get creative. I understand some charters have pseudo-business class? All I need is space. The other perqs are never worth it.

 

[NW-Bound]

Recently I have been using Gorilla Glue in my woodworking and furniture repair. The problem with Gorilla Glue is that it foams up and expands while curing. Another drawback is that it takes a while to cure, as it needs to absorb moisture from the air or the surrounding.

This guy discovered that mixing vinegar and some baking soda with the glue speeds up the curing. Vinegar reacts with baking soda, so I wonder if using simple water would not work the same.

 

[UpAnchor]

Yes you do, But are you in a limo?

I hide whatever wealth I have mostly by layering.

Well, when it comes to hiding wealth, I'm afraid at least one other well-heeled celebrity beat you and the Dude to the punch...

 

[calmloki]

Gorilla duct tape is all kinds of sticky awesome - but if you have some time Plumber's Goop is the most awesomest of all. Works on holding flappy shoe soles in place, sneers at water, is fine with repeated flexing without giving up it's bond. I store ours in the frig, because once opened the cap is pleased to bond to the tube in normal circumstance.

 

[Hermit]

I used Gorilla duct tape to put clear plastic over the the hole where the back window should have been in a pickup I am going to start fixing up for the kids camp. A couple of weeks ago I used Gorilla glue to glue some wall pegs in the board they were supposed to stay in. It is the fact that the glue foams up that makes it work so good in loose joints. These joints were so loose, they would fall out without anything on them.

BTW, I don't have any problem hiding my wealth when I drive my pickup. When I went to a new lawyer to redo my will, I drove the pickup to town because I needed to pick up some construction materials. Most offices have a parking lot and it would not be an issue. This lady had a very small house in an old neighborhood so I parked right if front of the house. She gave me lots of tips such as getting qualified for VA bennies so I could save some money.

Here is a picture of my truck. I think it has a lot of character!

 

[SunnyOne]

Interesting article. Hiding or Showing Wealth has never really been an issue. Was raised in a household just above poverty level and building wealth in adulthood never changed the core of who I am. Additionally, beyond a certain reasonable point, most material acquisitions are meaningless.

That said, life is too short for inferior cocktails.

Sunny

 

[RobbieB]

And lobster shipped direct from Maine is better than the stuff in the supermarket.

It goes on and on and only the buyer can attest to the value.

 

[FUEGO]

And lobster shipped direct from Maine is better than the stuff in the supermarket.

It goes on and on and only the buyer can attest to the value.

Wait, are you suggesting you still eat lobster from the oceans? The dirty oceans?

I enjoy only the finest artisanal lobsters raised by a local master lobster farmer. He raises only four per year so they can run into the thousands of dollars per pound but Ricardo (the name of the lobster we ate) was much tastier than any uncivilized ocean-raised wild lobster.

Ricardo, being a well trained lobster, exhibited only the finest technique. He slid into that pot of boiling water with such class. Such class and not a splash. Like a thoroughbred olympic diving champ.

 

[gcgang]

https://youtu.be/5T8Gxk7vbec

Louis Black did a bit on how he would impress others if he were really wealthy, hire his own personal ball washer. " What did you buy, another car? Hahahaha. "

 

[mickeyd]

I don't think about it one way or the other. By all appearances we are middle-middle class, however our investments say otherwise. Shhhh....

 

[NW-Bound]

Wait, are you suggesting you still eat lobster from the oceans? The dirty oceans?

I enjoy only the finest artisanal lobsters raised by a local master lobster farmer. He raises only four per year so they can run into the thousands of dollars per pound but Ricardo (the name of the lobster we ate) was much tastier than any uncivilized ocean-raised wild lobster.

Ricardo, being a well trained lobster, exhibited only the finest technique. He slid into that pot of boiling water with such class. Such class and not a splash. Like a thoroughbred olympic diving champ.

Does your farmer massage the lobsters daily, like the treatment Kobe farmers give their Wagyu cattle? This allows the lobsters to be in permanently soft-shell state. When the cooked lobster is served, all you need is a butter knife to open up the shell.

I know one should not be so lazy, but the alternative is to have someone take the shell off for you. Who knows where his grubby fingers have been?

 

[aja8888]

https://youtu.be/5T8Gxk7vbec

Louis Black did a bit on how he would impress others if he were really wealthy, hire his own personal ball washer. " What did you buy, another car? Hahahaha. "

Oh, I thought it was about golf balls..

 

[FUEGO]

Does your farmer massage the lobsters daily, like the treatment Kobe farmers give their Wagyu cattle? This allows the lobsters to be in permanently soft-shell state. When the cooked lobster is served, all you need is a butter knife to open up the shell.

I know one should not be so lazy, but the alternative is to have someone take the shell off for you. Who knows where his grubby fingers have been?

Heck no I wouldn't let the lobster farmer perform the massage. That's what the lobster masseuses are for. We do fly a small team of them in from Maine (only the best of course).

Oh, I thought it was about golf balls..

I was going to put a joke out there that I'm surprised no one hires people to dirty one's balls in order to avoid having to go through the effort on the field or green themselves. Couldn't get the "dirtying the balls" part to come out correctly without sounding, well, dirty.

 

[RobbieB]

You guys are funny. But that's OK I don't mind. Some of the reactions make me think that I was spending your dough - Don't worry, I'm only spending my dough and I can afford it.

As to those lobster tails, I get them from here;

https://www.mainelobsternow.com/lob...s-14oz?zenid=92b80b206ef12529ab551aa90a3fbd7c

I'm on their list and they often have 25% off sales and from time to time I'll by 6. With the overnite shipping and packed in styrofoam with dry ice the bill is just under $300. As shipping goes $40 to 50, it really doesn't make sense to buy less.

I can tell you they are wonderful and far less cost than shipping myself to Maine.

How's that look? I can also tell you that mine are better than what you can get in a restaurant too -

 

[haha]

Whether something is "worth it" can only be decided by the consumer. IMO it is a bit overbearing for me to tell anyone that his/her choice in anything is not worth it, or somehow morally deficient or that it shows anything other than taste. Some people prefer to dress well for example, or buy their women friends jewelry, or buy organic foods, or BMWs or expensive gold clubs.

If someone can't afford it, or he feels superior by not buying something, great, he should not buy it.

Ha

 

[NW-Bound]

I was suggesting to Fuego how his farmer could improve the lobster quality, but he claimed he knew about it already.

Speaking of lobster, the last time we had it was 2 years ago, on our RV trip to the Canadian Maritimes. Now, I had read that lobsters off the coast of Nova Scotia were better than Maine lobsters because the water was colder. However, the season was very short and we missed it. When we ate them in Halifax, it turned out that they were Maine lobsters. So, we still do not know if the superiority of northern lobster is real or not. But the ones we bought were big 2lb+.

Then, on the way back to the US, we had lobsters again. We bought two big 2lb+ lobsters at a lobster pound in Bar Harbor, had them steamed, then brought them back to the motorhome to eat at our leisure. See photo. After these lobster feasts, I told my wife that it should cure my lobster craving for a while. And now two years later, I am still OK without.

 

[NW-Bound]

Oh, here's another lobster story.

Many years ago, on a fly-and-drive trip to Boston I decided to make a tour of the New England states. When stopping at a grocery store somewhere in New Hampshire to get provisions, I saw that they had live lobsters in a tank, and that they would steam the order for us.

So, on the spur of the moment, I bought two big ones. But now, we had to bring it back to the hotel room to eat! No problem.

Well, it turned out these lobster shells were harder than any we had had. Very hard to crack. Uh Oh! If I were driving my own car rather than a rental, I would have some mechanic tools to crack these lobsters, but here I was completely helpless.

We managed to crack them open in the end somehow. I think I used a wine bottle.

 

[tmm99]

When I had no money in the 80's, I decided that I wanted to eat crab and lobster every day once I had enough money to splurge on food (plus I lived far from the ocean for many years, so seafood itself was hard to come by in those days.)

Taste for crab and lobster has gone down substantially now that I had too much of them when I moved to the Bay Area. Especially the crab. I lived in the Bay Area and I could pick up a good size live dungeness crab for cheap (~$20 on sale at Ranch 99), so I was eating it all the time for a few years. Now I do not even want to look at crab! I could also get a medium size whole lobster at Chinese restaurants (all chopped up and cooked with scallion and garlic) for less than $30, so that's where I used to get lobster too, but really, at the end, I only ordered lobsters at my mom's request when she came to visit from Japan because I wasn't into them anymore. . I hate that I lost a couple of my all time favorites.

Eat even your favorites moderately.

 

[NW-Bound]

I can eat Dungeness crab a lot more than lobster. Dungeness crab is the best. Blue crab is too bony and takes too much work. Snow crab and king crab meat is boring and not sweet.

One time I bought enough from Costco to eat in one session that I thought I would swear off crab for a while. However, I recovered from that binging a lot sooner than with lobster.

Yes, it is true that one should not indulge too much in what he/she loves. And that goes with travel too, for me. YMMV.

 

[RobbieB]

This is true. I know we did it.

Trying to remember when, me thinks back in 1982-83?, dunno, but we were living in Huntington Beach, just bought our townhouse, pretty broke and frugal. Dunno why or how but Alaska King Crab (the stuff of legend from the most dangerous catch) was dirt cheap. Some kind of "crab glut" was in process. Regularly 8 to 12 / lb and went on sale stupid cheap like $4/lb. We ate it every week. Steamed, grilled, cold with mayo, salads. Restaurants had "all you can eat" feasts one day a week, every week.

After a few months of this I asked wifey what she got at the market. King crab. Oh no, not king crab again...

Yup, you will burn out with a lot of rich food too fast, too soon and too regular. And that's a good thing too, it's your body telling you to "knock it off ok"

It's supposed to be a "treat" and one should treat it that way -

 

[NW-Bound]

I think most people know how lobsters used to be the food given to slaves, prisoners, and servants. They had to eat lobster till it came out of their ears. Some servants avoided this with a contract stipulating that they would eat lobsters only twice a week.

Lobsters used to be so abundant that they washed ashore in piles, were scooped up with shovels, and used as fertilizer.

 

[RobbieB]

Yes, it was the airplane that opened up the "lobster market"

They are very perishable especially live and refrigeration technology was evolving then too. My uncle had an "ice box" on the side of his house.

The locals thought they were "garbage fish" and you now know "the rest of the story"

 

[NW-Bound]

While we are talking about expensive food, here's another story I ran across recently.

Filet mignon or tenderloin has not always been valued. In some countries, it was regarded as a lousy cut, being too lean and so not having a good beefy taste, and of mushy texture.

Somehow, it slowly changed into the most expensive cut, and in demand.

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah Baby! My favorite cut of beef. I try to get prime and one of these days I'm gonna internet up some waygu

Cooked fast (2 min/side) on my Big Green Egg with a load of mesquite and flames shooting out the top before I begin. I've burnt the hairs off my arm many times turning them.

The upside is I no longer go to expensive steak houses anymore, I can do better -

 

[kcowan]

The upside is I no longer go to expensive steak houses anymore, I can do better -

Me too. I think it is a waste of money to order a steak. Give the chef a challenge! The steaks we served last night on the BBQ with friends were perfectly done.

I binge on Dungeness Crab once a year when I visit my friend's cottage on Galiano Island. We get in the boat and go collect them from his traps. Then we steam them in his boiler on the dock. Heaven once a year. Being on the west coast, lobster is always a disappointment by comparison.

Lobster was referred to as Cockroach of the Sea