But What About Homemade Marshmallows?
Craigslist CEO and A2 native Jim Buckmaster tells The New York Times about the nightmarish winter in Ann Arbor that made him rethink his choice of careers. “One winter I lived in an informal housing arrangement. We decided we would spend the winter with no heat…I made my own mittens out of old purses from a thrift store. I was also making my own bread and grinding my own soybeans to make tofu.” But he hasn’t left the A2 aesthetic behind entirely; he lists his favorite author as Noam Chomsky and his favorite director as Ingmar Bergman.
Is making your own tofu really a way to cut costs?
posted by Alan Gutierrez on March 27th, 2006 at 9:42 amIt was in the olden days before corporate industrialists squeezed artisanal tofu out of the marketplace. Now they grow the soy beans in row after unending row of fields, having consumed much of the agricultural land of the midwest and plains.
posted by Dale on March 27th, 2006 at 10:14 amDamn that corporate tofu!
posted by Nick on March 27th, 2006 at 12:20 pmAnd maybe he really did need to cut costs like that - the type of apartment he’s describing rents for about $800-$900 a month in AA.
posted by Nick on March 27th, 2006 at 12:22 pmi thot i had backed into a monty python skit when he said he made his own mittens out of old purses from a thrift store.
(you had mittens? i had to catch live rats, pummel them senseless, and hold them in me palms to keep the frostbite from spreading!)
posted by peter honeyman on March 27th, 2006 at 7:29 pmWouldn’t the pipes freeze if there wasn’t any heat on at all? Article’s not loading for me to actually check. Wouldn’t it be easier to illegally house extra roommates and share sleeping bags for conserving heat/costs as well?
… however: hush, all you handmade tofu naysayers. You can tell when tofu isn’t handmade. Handmade tofu has more soul.
posted by Jen on March 27th, 2006 at 9:45 pmAt the point where one is living without heat, using purses as mittens, and grinding one’s beans, wouldn’t it be a step up (and cheaper!) to be homeless, spending days at the library, nights at the heated shelter, and scarfing free meals at the soup kitchen(s)?
posted by Pfeff on March 27th, 2006 at 9:54 pmyeah, but it doesn’t give one “A2 aesthetic” cred as much as suffering pointlessly in student housing.
posted by OFWinsurgent on March 28th, 2006 at 3:11 pmThis is off-topic, but what’s more entertaining than purse mittens and handmade tofu?
http://community.livejournal.com/umstudents/1032172.html
posted by Anonymous on March 28th, 2006 at 9:48 pmI know a fellow from Ohio who either lived in the Arb for a year or wintered there. Just for grins. Former wrestler. Last I heard he was a mainframe programmer.
posted by A Different Jon on March 29th, 2006 at 2:47 amUm, wouldn’t it have been easier to just (gasp) buy old mittens at the thrift store, rather than making them out of old purses? I ask you!
posted by Ferona on March 29th, 2006 at 10:22 amso this means there is hope for slackers in their mid-30s? what a relief!
posted by Daniel on April 3rd, 2006 at 5:46 pm