Nouveau riche is better than no riche at all.
The east coast media looks down their nose on nouveau riche.
1 Like
I’m definitely showing my age, but I immediately thought of “Mighty Mouse”.
“Here I come to save the day!”
4 Likes
But can you do it in his tenor’s voice?
2 Likes
UConn has five.
1 Like
I Think the blue people are in WV…
1 Like
Thank you. I think you’re right in retrospect.
The University of Houston is a NC, or two, away from making the argument for being a “baby” blueblood (tier of UCONN, Villanova, Syracuse, etc)
We have the history and influence on college basketball to support that claim.
Especially since we’ve been #1 level dominant now in 3 eras- late 60s, early/mid 80s, now
But! We have to start adding National Championships to our resume and build long term Consistency which i think we have now under the Sampson Family
1 Like
Duke, Kentucky, NC, Kansas, even UCLA, and UConn all have blue color schemes… so blue blood? Nah I bleed red. Go Coogs
That lead guitar is hot, but not for a Houston Cougar man.
2 Likes
UConn is a whole lot closer to being a blue blood than we are.
2 Likes
OMG that is soooo 50’s. I hope that isn’t stuck in my head all day now. 
I have always wondered why people look down on the “nouveau riche” and give deference to “old money.” I have a lot more respect for those who actually worked hard and earned their wealth than those who just inherited it. If you go back far enough you will find that the ones who started their “old money” wealth were at that time “nouveau riche.”
3 Likes
Fr…can’t believe Cincinnati already has 2 Nattys in their basketball program history.
The amazing thing about Cincinnati’s championships are that they DIDN’T happen when Oscar Robertson was there.
It doesn’t make sense because the US has generally not had Old World social class systems (I argue that the plantation/slave system was one). We think of class as an income bracket, not as an actual position in the social order… but there are often certain character traits that one may distinguish. Especially in the last 20ish years, we seem to have started indulging in these stratifications, though by accident.
Alain de Botton wrote about “status anxiety” in 2004, and it’s a good description of the quiet desperation that “nouveaux riches” types demonstrate. David Brooks wrote about it in “Bobos in Paradise” around the same time, and we came up with the word “McMansions” back then, but these all describe a phenomenon going back to the Gilded Age. Or, as in “Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gansta” from the Office Space soundtrack, “Real gangsta ___ ____s don’t flex nuts, cause real gansta ___ _____s know they got 'em.” “Old Money” generally don’t feel the need to show off their wealth, and are generally better at maintaining it across generations, while “nouveaux riches” want to leap away from a middle class position toward an aristocratic position, and generally aren’t as good at maintaining wealth past about three generations.
In related news, most revolutionaries are bored second children of these upper middle class families. Napoleon, Marx, Castro, Mussolini, Hitler – none came from peasantry, nor from the ancient aristocratic establishment. Most of our politicians in both parties who talk about change may actually be talking about changing their own social standing.
As for basketball, there are some who have nothing to prove because everybody knows it, and some who keenly feel that they’re always looking up at their social betters, even if they think they belong in that category as well. I’d like to think that we should start by acting the way someone who belongs does, rather than our usual cloying desperation, and then it would be nice if we actually won some trophies also.
1 Like
We look down on all of you with plebeian social graces. It took generations for our family to develop our discriminating tastes and classy demeanor. The barbaric fumblings of the newly rich to try to fit in with us is gauche and pathetic.
1 Like
They actually did- the orginal Colonies were divided into 3 social class regions. Again, these are pre-Revolutionary roots.
- New England- these colonists were viewed as the upper tier. The City on the Hill- Families immigrating to this British Colony to create a better life. They came with very Rigid Puritan Protestant values and expected them to be witheld.
From there, New England quickly developed the first Universities and Hospitals and anti-Catholic ideology (similar to the upper class English in the British Isles) The multiple schools in Massachusetts lay the ground work for “The Ivy League” class. The origins of the WASP ideals were started here. They even had a term called Boston Brahmins to celebrate their elitism
- Virginia Bay Colony- This was the POLAR opposite of New England. Single British Men and Indentured Servants, criminals…perhaps even Scot-Irish fleeing persecution BUT NOT Utopian Seeking upper class Families settled here. Religion and values were not as rigid here. This colony was always viewed as more Agricultural than New England…more rough…more risky…and when it extended West, into Maryland, and South into the Carolinas, they were easily viewed as colonies inferior to the New England Colonies
Quick Fact- Sam Houston’s Scottish great grandfather first immigrated to Virginia. They were fleeing the Scottish persecution by the English
- Former New Netherlands. Now, the Dutch influenced attitudes and culture of the English colonies turned the English’s view of class on it’s head. The Dutch were PURE capitalists and had no problem with Entrepreneurship spirit allowing those to elevate their rank in a class hierarchy. Essentially, the American Dream is a Dutch philosophy…not an English one (they were way more rigid). Freedom of Religion and Freedom of speech was encouraged and its no coincidence that America’s most alpha city was the flagship city in The Netherlands North America Colony. NYC has always been a Dutch city, in spirit. Yes the English established Kings College but the New Yorkers quickly renamed it Columbia at the fall of the English control over the colonies.
2 Likes
I had to put on my monocle to read that.
5 Likes
I sure hope that was tongue in cheek.
Coogs going to dominate Duke, Duke is not that good this year; will win by at least 25. If I were at the game, I’d be looking for Duke people that wanted to bet. I figure if you could get 5 or 6 sitting around you; you could win enough to pay for your seats ! 
2 Likes