In 1899, the Swedish sociologist Thorsten Veblen coined the phrase “conspicuous consumption” in his book “The Theory of the Leisure Class”.

Surprisingly, for such an odd and difficult man, Thorstein Veblen represented a high point in American optimism.

Veblen, meanwhile, lives in a bungalow she's turned into a little paradise of urban wilderness — a sanctuary from her difficult, hypochondria-ridden mother.