Peak Elitism at the NY Times

I think it was Charles Murray who first described the pretentious wedding announcements in the New York Times as the “mergers and acquisitions page,” and certainly the typical mix of Stanford MBA working at an investment bank marries Harvard lawyer working at Steptoe and Johnson underlines a phenomenon that Mickey Kaus flagged in his 1992 book The End of Equality, namely, that the higher rates of intermarriage of highly educated elites would widen inequality. We’ve commented on this before, noting how the Times copy editing desk (what copy editing desk?, you ask—good question) might cover a wedding in Arkansas.

The Times, which never shuts up about inequality on its editorial page, positively revels in elite nuptials on its wedding announcement page, and this week offers maybe the greatest one ever:

Grace du Pont, Conor Sutherland

Grace Hays Holcomb du Pont was married Sept. 30 to Conor Jackson Sutherland in Manhattan. The Rev. J. Donald Waring performed the ceremony at Grace Episcopal Church.

The bride and groom both graduated from Princeton, she cum laude and he magna cum laude. . .

She is a daughter of Jean Young du Pont and Pierre S. du Pont V of Tarrytown, N.Y. The bride’s father is a partner, in Manhattan, at HPM Partners, an investment and wealth management firm. . .

Mr. Sutherland, 30, helps buy, manage and sell companies in the portfolio at Apollo Global Management, an investment firm in Manhattan. . .

She is a daughter of Jean Young du Pont and Pierre S. du Pont V of Tarrytown, N.Y. The bride’s father is a partner, in Manhattan, at HPM Partners, an investment and wealth management firm. Her mother was until 2016 the president and chief executive of the Garden Conservancy, an organization in Garrison, N.Y., and is now a legal, strategic and development consultant.  . .

He is the son of Denise Jackson Sutherland of Glen Cove, N.Y., and the late Donald J. Sutherland. His mother was a principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet in Manhattan from 1969 to 1986, and served from 1987 to 2014 as a trustee of the Professional Children’s School in New York.

Here’s the very best part though:

The couple dated at Princeton, but had met a few years earlier, in 2007, in North Haven, Me., when Ms. du Pont offered a ride to Mr. Sutherland and a friend, whom Ms. du Pont knew. The two men had just moored their sailboat and were preparing for a long row back to the dock, whereas she was piloting her family’s motorized tender. They took the ride.

This has to be the peakiest “Peak Elitism at the Times” piece ever.

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