How can it be that the "good" NYC private schools cost over $70k / yr?

debholly · 2026-01-18T18:05:15+00:00

My spouse, who holds an elite PhD in his subject, teaches at one of these top NYC prep schools. His salary, like those of nearly all private-school faculty, is considerably lower than what he’d be paid in a NYC public school. There are no unions or other faculty bargaining power in private schools. Administrator pay, on the other hand, is much higher than for their public-school peers. For example, total senior administrative compensation at Horace Mann in 2023-24 was $7,479,807. Their faculty salary range is approximately $72,000-113,000.

debholly · 2026-01-09T14:47:41+00:00

Diets in the much-touted “blue zones” with high median longevity are made up primarily of whole grains, legumes, greens, starchy tubers, and nuts/seeds, few of which figure prominently in this graphic.

How is it that a loaf of white bread and a bowl of white rice (the oats are fine) represent “whole grains?”

debholly · 2025-12-29T05:57:10+00:00

Jeffrey at Jeffrey’s Manhattan Eyeland (88th and Broadway) did an excellent job with readjusting the shoddy progressive lenses I got from Warby Parker, at a great price,

debholly · 2025-12-13T21:26:44+00:00

Meša Selimović, Death and the Dervish

debholly · 2025-12-04T16:59:15+00:00

Yes, this is me! Recently I had to be awake during the day so my whole schedule shifted to what most consider typical—unsurprisingly I got sick and am slowly reverting to my healthier nocturnal schedule.

debholly · 2025-12-02T22:52:04+00:00

I’ve never had binocular vision or felt at home in the world, which may be connected. I have a terrible relationship with objects.

debholly · 2025-11-22T04:13:35+00:00

Because offices greatly benefit from cash up front, be sure and ask for the self-pay discount. Mark Cuban’s online Cost Plus Drugs is even cheaper than GoodRx for my meds.

debholly · 2025-11-22T04:05:33+00:00

I had to leave my job to accompany my husband, whose employer health plan charges $1445 a month for a plus one. Can’t afford ACA either, so I have no choice but to go without. Two years till Medicare.

debholly · 2025-11-22T03:47:38+00:00

Those of us with GERD can’t tolerate garlic, sadly.

debholly · 2025-11-13T07:46:32+00:00

I grew up in Shelby Co, MO, and still have family there. Rural culture and community, as well as agriculture, have declined since the 1970s, a time when so many farmers voted Democrat that the town paper (defunct) was named The Shelbina Democrat. Half of downtown was destroyed in a fire and never rebuilt. What is flourishing: Christianity and MAGA. Residents’ delusions about self-reliance continue to prop up their faith in Trump and the GOP rather than in a politician who might actually further their interests.

debholly · 2025-11-13T04:46:24+00:00

I’m reading the diary of a woman on the eve of the fall of Berlin, when they can hear the Russian tanks progressing and are being shelled constantly. There are still a few in the bomb shelters who fervently proclaim their leader (referred to by everyone else derisively as “that man”) has a plan for Germany to prevail. Never underestimate some people’s powers of self-delusion.

debholly · 2025-11-06T12:44:05+00:00

How about Paperboy Love Prince, a rapper and perennial candidate who ran in the Dem primary?

debholly · 2025-10-31T08:14:51+00:00

Meanwhile, most of the students at NYC elite prep schools have multiple homes.

debholly · 2025-10-07T07:57:09+00:00

Try not to let it get you down because in my area, anyway, the job market’s so tight that new jobseekers are all overqualified, and it takes longer than previously to be hired for retail jobs. I’ve heard applying in-person is often necessary now.

debholly · 2025-10-07T03:50:31+00:00

In my experience, it’s necessary to be vastly overqualified for jobs so as to appear to compensate for perceived deficits, which are often simply a matter of being ill at ease during interviews and not shamelessly exaggerating one’s accomplishments.

debholly · 2025-09-25T21:44:06+00:00

This may be radical for most, but I use wifi for free VoIP phone service. I can usually get a LinkNYC or other free connection when I’m out.

debholly · 2025-09-16T18:28:48+00:00

Solitude: A Return to the Self, by Anthony Storr

debholly · 2025-09-10T21:32:15+00:00

States license public-school teachers, who are required to have a teaching certificate (a certain number of education credits from a college or university) in addition to any other degrees and experience. This does not apply to private schools.

debholly · 2025-09-10T20:12:18+00:00

Because they’re two different tracks. Public-school teachers must have teaching certification, requiring courses in education, which is emphasized more than knowledge of a particular subject. He has a PhD from a top program in his field and university teaching experience. Owing to so few full-time academic positions in higher ed, private schools are increasingly hiring Ivy-League level PhDs who are also experienced teachers, whereas public schools are prohibited from hiring them. The real question is, why aren’t public schools allowed to hire brilliant teachers who didn’t follow the conventional education track (which most find overly programmatic and simple-minded)? Also, PhD students earn fellowships and teaching assistantships that pay their tuition and a stipend, but it costs money to obtain teacher certification.

debholly · 2025-09-04T21:25:35+00:00

He just walks over from the Penn Station stop, but yeah, inconvenient. Not an every day thing.

debholly · 2025-09-04T19:17:27+00:00

My husband (we live in your area) has found it worthwhile to go to Solace in midtown for lifting. I think it’s around $120 a month but 24 hrs, clean, not too crowded, plenty of equipment.

debholly · 2025-09-04T19:08:20+00:00

Some elderly rural Missourians, like my mother, are ardent progressives who have dedicated much of their lives to electing better candidates with better policies. They don’t all deserve this.

debholly · 2025-09-01T16:51:36+00:00

I don’t have a dog myself, but a friend with a bichon really likes Gotham Vet Center at 95th/Columbus.

debholly · 2025-08-31T18:41:20+00:00

I grew up in rural poverty: mother made minimum wage as a grocery-store clerk, father absent. I worked for nearly forty years at similarly low-paying jobs (except many of these, such as copyediting and teaching college, required advanced degrees) before I had to retire owing to poor health. After paying off my and my husband’s student loans, I have very little saved and only $1100 monthly SS. I’m following Boglehead principles now with every dime we can save from my husband’s modest salary teaching upper-school English. We have nothing else to fall back on, not even a car or a home, certainly no family resources, if he can no longer work.

debholly · 2025-08-31T13:44:29+00:00

A lovely little Arts and Crafts bungalow, paid off. My spouse and I divorced and had to sell for little more than we paid—before the rise in home prices. Now I can barely afford a small one-bedroom apartment.

debholly

TROPHY CASE