Originally published at: NYT Opinion columnist David Brooks issues a mea culpa after spending $50 on a glass of whiskey while decrying the "terrible economy" | Boing Boing
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“David Brooks issues a mea culpa”
If by this you mean he apologized, then you are wrong. He didn’t apologize for lying. Which is what he did.
He lied about two things: the first thing he lied about was that his burger cost $78 dollars when in fact it cost $17. The second lie, and the most important one, is that this $17 price for an airport burger was somehow inflated, and not so subtly implying that it’s Joe Biden’s fault. Burgers with lettuce tomato onion and fries in the NYC area, we call this “deluxe”, have cost $17 or more and have cost that much since long before the so-called “inflation” (in reality based reality, we are experiencing covid supply chain cost increases, corporate price gouging, and the effects of Trump and the GOP’s corporate tax giveaways of 2017) we have been experiencing.
That’s what he should be apologizing for. His LIES. He should now apologize twice: one for the first set of lies, and now for trying to spin this into it being just “a joke” and for his being “insensitive”. He should be called out on this. Attached a screenshot of the cost of a cheeseburger deluxe from a diner in my neighborhood in NYC. So again, no “mea culpa” was “issued”. He is continuing to lie. Maybe you should update the title of this post.
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He didn’t “screw up”. He’s many things, but he’s not an idiot who can’t read a receipt he’s writing about. He lied, tried to get away with it, and got caught. That last is what this titan of intellectual dishonesty is sorry happened.
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How much do you want to bet he didn’t actually spend $78 because he expensed it to the New York Times (or tried to?) What do you think his meal budget when on assignment for the Times is going to be going forward, 3 meals a day from McDonald’s (if one of them comes off the value menu)?
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Was it just one glass? Even for an airport bar $50 for one double of premium bourbon seems pretty high. It seems like he was drunk to post that.
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$50 for a pour of top shelf whiskey is not uncommon in NYC area bars (this would only be exacerbated at the airport) and I am willing to bet that Mr. Brooks doesn’t drink from the well. Or just have one.
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Even if airport prices were outrageous, anybody who has ever flown once, especially those trying to conserve their money, know to pack a lunch and bring it with them to the airport.
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$50 for a glass a whiskey?! I’m glad I’m not tempted by such drinks. I mean, $50 is about 2,100 Tea Bags,
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Maybe, more realistically, 1000 tea bags and some biscuits. We’re not animals.
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Ooh, now I really fancy some Party Rings. Not a classic dunking biscuit, but a fun and resilient alternative.
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To paraphrase Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best line from “Raw Deal,” one shouldn’t drink and post.
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Am I missing something, or am I just just unusually mathematically gifted? A $78 bill of which $17 was for the food means that he spent $60 on the drink, not $50.
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Yeah, I live in south/central Jersey and a deluxe at a typical diner here is about $15. And it was before the pandemic. Hell, a Quarter Pounder combo meal at McDonald’s is about $10. $17 at an airport restaurant really isn’t bad at all.
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Taxes?
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$61.
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No kidding. Once I made the (tired from a long travel day) mistake of ordering a burger and beer at a hotel lobby adjacent to Central Park. $56, and only $9 of that was the beer. 
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And tip, unless Brooks is as much of a cheapskate as he seems.
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You can buy a reasonably good casual drinking whiskey for about $5-6 per serving if your buying by the bottle. For multiple reasons your probably better sticking with tea.
Whiskey like wine tends to have rapidly increasing costs for small increases in quality and very large price increases for age and rarity that might not actually be related to an increase quality. He likely either asked for the most expensive they had or had multiple drinks, most likely both.
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NYT Opinion columnist = influencer for grumpy old conservative white guys?
Is he doing stunts for buzz and clicks now?
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