Josi (O-Josi-O) ([info]eris_devotee) wrote,
@ 2009-06-17 10:32:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend  Next Entry
Here is my rule of thumb when it comes to garment designs I feel are worthy of being published patterns:

If you saw it in a boutique window, would you (want to) buy it? If someone gave you a $200 gift certificate to a swanky store, and the design-in-question was on a mannequin, does the style & fit & construction make you want to try it on?

If the answer is no, then why the hell would ANYONE take the time to make it for themselves?

* * * * *

Brett Favre continues to make me laugh. I hope he plays for Minnesota and then gets smeared by both the Bears AND the Packers and then gets dumped and loses every last fan he ever had.

* * * * *

Letterman is a jackass for going after someone's kids. That's cheap and his comment was sleazy even if he did mean it to be the older daughter. That said... the same people taking umbrage would've voted in a man who made unprovoked comments about Chelsea Clinton... so PUH LEASE on the outrage. It's not credible.

* * * * *

So far, no chest pains this month. They usually come 2-3 days before my period arrives. My cycle might finally be getting longer again (I was down to 24 days!), so I might still be due... but I think the motrin is keeping the swelling down enough that I am relieved of the pericarditis.

* * * * *

I've gotten the hang of knit/purl. I can do stockinette, garter, ribbing, seed stitch and simple cables. My combo piece is coming along and I think y'all are gonna like it.

(11 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]carneggy
2009-06-17 06:26 pm UTC (link)
Letterman is a jackass for going after someone's kids. That's cheap and his comment was sleazy even if he did mean it to be the older daughter.

Everyone is 'someone's kid'.

The older daughter in question is an adult who has recently made herself a public figure by serving as a media frontperson/spokesman for an organization, including making appearances on national talk shows and holding interviews with national media outlets.

So I have zero sympathy for the notion that it's not okay to make risque jokes about her just because her mom is famous. So's she, and she's not a child, and she's deliberately put herself into a category of people for whom being satirized and joked about happens constantly.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]eris_devotee
2009-06-17 06:49 pm UTC (link)
She was a media/spokesperson for preventing unwanted teen pregnancy - that hardly opens her up for an attack about getting knocked up by A-rod.

I hold Sarah Palin as accountable as Letterman, though. She thrust her pregnant teenage daughter under the microscope of a national political campaign and publicly spoke about her daughter's decision to carry her child. But... that *should* invoke our empathy for Bristol Palin - she's still a teenager (although over 18).

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]carneggy
2009-06-17 06:57 pm UTC (link)
She was a media/spokesperson for preventing unwanted teen pregnancy - that hardly opens her up for an attack about getting knocked up by A-rod.

Agreed.

However, being a media/spokesperson whose most notable trait is 'got knocked up' - so much so that the organization you're a spokesperson for publically declares that you're "the highest-profile teen pregnancy of the year" and that this is the primary reason why they wanted her participation in the first place - does, to me, make you pretty much fair game for someone to make jokes about you getting pregnant again/easily/etc.

She's absolutely made the fact that she got pregnant the focus of her public persona and appearances. So why does this exempt her from people making jokes about that very aspect of her?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]eris_devotee
2009-06-17 07:09 pm UTC (link)
*teen* pregnancy. *teen* pregnancy.

Yes - I think we should exempt *teenagers* whose only public persona is to be a representative to prevent the mistakes the she learned a hard lesson from. I abso-freaking-lutely do. Bristol Palin is not her mother and shouldn't be judged or criticized for her mother's sins. She's a kid who got knocked up and decided to raise her child, and then go on to counsel other young women about why that's not the best way to go about becoming a mother. I see nothing about that scenario which earns Bristol ridicule, and the only reason she's a target for Letterman is because she's Sarah Palin's daughter. If she was just unknown girl who got pregnant and then tried to help people - no one would be poking fun at her. She's actually doing something admirable.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]carneggy
2009-06-17 08:18 pm UTC (link)
True. Although if she was an unknown person who got pregnant and then tried to help people, she wouldn't have been granted national interviews in the first place either, and as you noted some of the blame for the shining of the spotlight on her should fall on her mother. (And still more on the national media itself, when both campaigns were asking it to be downplayed or ignored during the campaign.)

And I do agree that her attempting to counsel other teens is a good thing, especially since she personally is taking it beyond the 'abstinence only' focus of the organization and actually discussing real consequences.

However, clearly you and I draw a different line between when someone should be given consideration via age - for you, it clearly is 'when you're no longer a teenager', i.e. 20. I tend to view things from a 'when you're legally an adult and thus no longer accountable-to-your-parents' - just as I'd give less leeway to a minor who has emancipated themselves from their parents and thus declared themselves societally 'not a child anymore'.

Mind you, I'm sympathetic about 'got pregnant unexpectedly and made mistakes' regardless of age - I'm fine with giving Bristol Palin a margin of acceptance for her specific circumstances.

I don't know. The more I consider it, the more I'm finding it a grey area - if she wasn't nationally-known already via her mother, the joke wouldn't have been made in the first place. Noone would think to make a joke about 'keep A-Rod away from Susan Jones, the unwed mother that lives on E-street.'

On the other hand, I don't recall anyone chest-thumping about how totally inappropriate and awful it was for dozens upon dozens of comedians and programs to make fun of Bush's then-19-year-old-teenage daughters for getting repeatedly caught and arrested for underage drinking and using fake IDs.

So in general, I think that yeah, the fact that the jokes were made with regards to her _teen pregnancy_ are what makes them blame-worthy and going too far - not that she's a teenager in and of itself.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]eris_devotee
2009-06-18 02:39 pm UTC (link)
the fact that the jokes were made with regards to her _teen pregnancy_ are what makes them blame-worthy and going too far

Yes - it's the teenage-ness + the pregnancy + her only personal use of her infamy is charitable

I think it was A-ok to poke at Jamie Lynn Spears when she got knocked up - she was making bank on her image as a squeaky clean role model.

Just like I think it was ok to poke at the Bush twins when they broke the law. I don't think anyone is owed any privacy when they break the law.

So - it's not just about someone's age... it's about their... culpability vs innocence. I feel really badly for Bristol Palin. She's got 2 assholes for parents and she got sweet-talked by some jerk in high school. She made stupid choices and has been exploited for them. I can't imagine being 18 or 19 year old girl from the rural suburbs, and having my errors-of-youth become the fodder for late night comics. That's gotta suck on a level I don't think I'd have the grace to manage.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]clovecigarettes
2009-06-18 09:09 pm UTC (link)
and the only reason she's a target for Letterman is because she's Sarah Palin's daughter.
I missed the drama, but I'm sure that sentence just about sums it all up.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]infinitehaiku
2009-06-18 01:55 am UTC (link)
I keep wanting to yell, "It was a BAD joke. BAD. Not funny. Tacky. Rude. Dumb."

It wasn't illegal, immoral or dangerous. It was stupid.
A better response by Palin would have been a dignified, "Well, you know, the joke was in very bad taste. We'd prefer to not comment further."

And David L. could have apologised just like he did.
And the world would live another day.

Seriously, people.

(Reply to this)


[info]browniegirl322
2009-06-18 03:43 am UTC (link)
i can't wait to see what you've knitted! :) YAY

(Reply to this)


[info]clovecigarettes
2009-06-18 09:05 pm UTC (link)

If you saw it in a boutique window, would you (want to) buy it? If someone gave you a $200 gift certificate to a swanky store, and the design-in-question was on a mannequin, does the style & fit & construction make you want to try it on?

If the answer is no, then why the hell would ANYONE take the time to make it for themselves?

My general rule of thumb is only to make something I would want myself. Actually, it's not a rule, I just can't be bothered to even brainstorm about an idea if it isn't something I'm interested in. I had 2 (small) yarn companies ask me to make things I wouldn't necessarily wear myself, but those were exceptions rather than the rule and I just did that for kicks (back when I had a lot of time -- no job and no kid).

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]clovecigarettes
2009-06-18 09:08 pm UTC (link)
Also, I've been really keen on knitting lately. I'm not very good at lace (which is fine, because crocheted lace is easy and very very nice), but I can do colourwork (which is so much more of a pain in the ass when you're doing colour changes in crochet).

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(11 comments) - (Post a new comment)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…