The Way We Live Now: Besieged by indignity. H&H Bagels is drowning in debt! Book fairs and organic dairies are threatened! It's a veritable Yupocalypse:

Everybody knows H&H Bagels. It is the most famous bagel store in New York. It is a landmark of the Upper West Side, as much as people who seem to have stepped off the set of Seinfeld are. Well, it's closed now because of nonpayment of taxes.

Sure, it may reopen. But ask yourself: are you to blame? The answer is yes. The bagel store failed because you failed to support local business sufficiently. Organic dairies are failing because you failed to purchase enough maple-flavored yogurt at the farmer's market. The book industry is failing because you failed to pull out your wallet and support the genius of, say, Keith Gessen. Have fun with your Dunkin Donuts bagels and bodega milk and John Grisham novels, America. It's what you deserve. You people are terrible yuppies.

Also the New York Times has published an entire "news" story today revealing that some people who have gotten pay cuts are now buying less stuff, as a result. Just to make you mad.

[Pic by Cemile Kavountzis]