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After we got over our initial antipathy, we opened this week's Observer 'Family Issue' and breathed a sigh of relief. In the thick of this slow news month of top ten lists and shopping guides, we thanked god that someone was going out there and reporting on original, newsworthy topics. And even better, the Observer is finally giving attention to the underreported families of New York, like the the Mortimers, Schnabels, Jong-Fasts, Foers and Hearsts! And what of these Trump upstarts we keep hearing murmurs about? We've always wanted to read a feature that gently mocked them while lavishing them with backhanded compliments. And today, we did! We learned so much! For example, did you know:

  • That the Foer brothers are successful and envied?

  • For a particular breed of literary and journalistically minded New Yorker, the trio of bespectacled Foer brothers seems to hog a disproportionate share of the career breaks.

  • That the Jong-Fast clan is Jewy as hell?

  • In a way, it's like living in a modern-day shtetl, an upscale one, where everyone just happens to live on the Upper East Side, or maybe Upper West, where the floors are covered with fine Persian rugs instead of dirt, but also where the sprawling, honking insanity of New York seems suddenly to contract to a few narrow streets, a handful of industries which are at once cozy, familiar and approachable. "It's like mishpucha," said Susan Shapiro,

  • That the Trumps are into branding?

  • But what he's really tried to get through when raising us is to try to instill values in us, give us the best educations, all the instruments we would need to carry a brand.

  • That there is no downside to being a Schnabel?

  • There is no downside to being a Schnabel,' [Vito] said.


  • One Happy Family [NYO]