Now for a Personal Question

Some of you out in the world are fashion-minded and I would appreciate your help. I have set my sights on a Claire McCardell dress (pictured) from the 40s. Now, I know that usually McCardell pieces are museum pieces, obviously this number is not nice enough to be a museum piece or it would have been snatched up already. However, the question remains...is it too nice for me to be wearing out and about town? You know that "too precious to wear so it hangs in your closet because you are ridiculous and don't want to damage it through use so you damage it through the moths in your wardrobe" type of "too nice."

The dress's lines are a bit old-fashioned but I think it is a very sweet little number and a Claire McCardell to boot, a designer I have always loved and adored. Anyway, please offer opinions in the comments...I need them!

Waaaah, Why Won't He Marry Me?!?!

Ok, this isn't really related to manners, but I'm cranky and this irritated me so I decided who better to foist my irritation upon than the internet?

In my Sunday morning watching of crap TV while I eat breakfast, I'm watching "Moving Up" a show where old owners of houses go back and trash the new owners' taste. It is truly a terrible show, I don't even know why I watch it, other than to see how people react, but anyway, moving on to the quote above...

There is this woman who is moving to Newport, RI and the first words out of her mouth were "I don't know why he won't marry me???? We've been dating for 15 years and after 10 years when I started talking about marriage and kids--he bought me a dog." She goes on to say that she is moving to entice her boyfriend to marry her and that she will decorate to his accord so that he'll marry her.

Well readers, she is one of those people that you can't even get all angry and feminist to because she is so sad and pathetic you just want to hug her, take her out for drinks, and explain why she should move on and he will never marry her. Or buy her a copy of "He's just not that into you." I wanted to reach through the television to just give her a wake-up call even though I know she'll be that woman who is never happy and never has a fulfilled life the way she wants to have it because this guy is not for her. I'd also like to scream at her that a woman doesn't need marriage and that she should move for her, decorate for herself, and live her own life, but you know, even I have a soft spot.

The Domina in a Rage

There are some situations that stress the bounds of manners to their breaking point, and the murder of Dr. George Tiller is one of those situations. Tiller was one of the few doctors in the United States that will still perform late term abortions and therefore he drew the ire, and malice, of extremists on the other side of the issue. I understand that not everyone agrees with abortion and that some people who do think there should be limits on it. I am not one of those people, and yet, I respect their opinion as their own opinion.

My question for the murderer of Dr. Tiller is this--you believe abortion is murder and that murder is a sin, so why is it acceptable for you to MURDER another human because you don't agree with him? Do you not think that is a sin that you will go to hell for? Because you have indeed sinned again the God you claim to believe in and you are no better than Dr. Tiller even by your own standards. This has always mystified me, that a supposedly "pro-life" person could murder an abortion doctor--yes it is ironic, but even beyond that, do these people really not see the great hypocrisy involved in being for one life and taking another?

I believe Dr. Tiller did this nation a great service, a service that is quickly becoming unavailable to women because less and less doctors are performing late term abortion and even less are learning how to do the procedure. I fear for women in our country and the continuing restriction of our rights and I beg you, even if you are not pro-abortion, consider being pro-choice because even if you wouldn't have an abortion for yourself, surely you must understand the need to have the choice, nay the freedom, to our own bodies.

Bad Teachers

Some of you may or may not know this, but, I have a job in the arts, and I love my particular field, but I am finding that my field does not really love me. To wit, a few years post-grad school and no great dream job, not even a job I love, or maybe kind of like, just a crap job in my field. So, not one to wallow (HA!), I am thinking about retraining in something a bit more practical and job friendly. Don't get me wrong all of you readers in the arts, the arts are fabulous, and if you can get a job, hold onto it for dear life, it is just I am in a niche section of arts, and I fear there are just not nearly enough jobs or funding to support all of us training in our niche.

So, back to retraining--I am taking classes at a community college, which makes me most likely the oldest person in history to ever attend classes at a community college. I know. I feel like a grandmother most of the time, but, I MOST feel like a grandmother when I have to work in group projects. In one of my groups, one of the members submitted her portion of our paper entirely in text speak. I am not kidding. First person, text speak, LOLs included, all the way. I quickly offered to "edit" the entire group project and made something out of this girl's mess, but it left me wondering....how did this girl get through high school? Or even middle school?

If I remember correctly, back in the dark ages, we had to diagram sentences in 6th grade, maybe 7th, and we were NEVER allowed to use colloquialisms in our writing in high school. It had to be professional, formal speech all the way if it was going to be submitted. So where in the [too many years] since I graduated high school did things change? I know there are good teachers out there, because I am related to some of them (!), but are there so many bad teachers out there that they just don't care to help these students in life? What about her previous college professors who let her submit work of that quality? I'm putting bad teachers on notice (to take a page from Stephen Colbert), because even if text-speak is becoming horribly ubiquitous, it is never acceptable for business correspondence or resumes and isn't a teacher's job in life to prepare their students for living life in the real world? Whatever happened to that notion?

Has it really been this long?

In fact it has been so long that I am almost on the verge of the proverbial "close up shop." It has been a beast of a semester and now that I am both working full time and going to school full time I remember why I worked merely part time the first time around in college. Wow does this suck. Kudos to all of you who work, go to school, and have a family to raise because how the heck you do it, I don't know.

Anyway, now that the semester is almost over (1 final to go!) and I can breathe for a week, I present to you your first mannerly post in ages.

Woman at the testing center--where are your manners?
This woman insists on sounding REALLY put out if you call to try to arrange a testing time (for distance learning) and after having to call her all semester I am teetering on the verge asking her if maybe she didn't want to find a new job that did not wholly encompass scheduling people for testing. Please do not bitch at me when I am merely asking you to do your job. You don't have to be my best friend, just schedule me.
Also, when I come in to take the test, and you send me off to the remote testing room of your choice (Bio lab!) please do not come in and LOUDLY rearrange the room. It is not your job to actually proctor the test, but I don't even mind your presence, however, perhaps read a magazine or book while you proctor me? Please do not try to accomplish the absolute loudest possible feats of imagination. This woman was literally disassembling a skeleton (fake) and slamming every bone down on the lab table. Then loudly huffing and the job and throwing it all, bone by bone, into a suitcase. No lie. I wish I had a picture of the skeleton in the suitcase but alas, I do not.

How has everyone else been lo these past months? Run into any manner-beasts?

Bad Blogger!

Ok, I've been away a terribly long time......sorry lovely readers, between school and work and local theater stuff I've been too swamped to be irritated by bad manners. Wait, that's not really true! Anon!

The woman who had 8 babies:
Now, I believe in reproductive rights, and I think that everyone has the freedom to do what they want with their family. The fact that she is on welfare and lives at home with her mom would mean that she probably can't afford 14 children in total and I have heard her say that she loves the surge and attention of having babies b/c babies are great (which leads me to think she might be slightly mentally ill). But it is not the mom whom I am taking to task here.....I am taking her doctor to task. Implanting 6 embryos!!! Absolutely unacceptable and from what I know about standard infertility treatments, that is NOT what is the usual. Usually you have about 2 or 3 embryos implanted for the safety of the babies and the mother. What kind of doctor would agree to do this? Why is he not being scrutinized by the media? That is where our ire and focus should lie.

A Reader Submission--Thank You Notes, What Not to Do

I have been a bit remiss in checking my email as of late, so imagine my surprise when I opened it today and found a lovely email from a reader, we'll call her S. S linked me with these on Craigslist. Oh, the humanity! This is a horror to my eyes and my sensibilities! FILL IN THE BLANK thank you notes (in case the pictures are not large enough). S wondered if perhaps she was old-fashioned for thinking that thank you notes should be written out by hand (or I guess typed if you are lacking hands) and related an amusing anecdote about Santa taking back all the presents if he was not properly thanked.

Reader's, I hope this is just an anomaly and there are not more out there, but I FEAR for our society in which, when one receives a thoughtful gift, one is too busy to take the time to write out an equally thoughtful note and instead turns to this meaningless, fill-in-the-blank abomination. All this does is alert the gift-giver that one is not deserving of a gift in the future.

And for good measure, a proper thank you note should be hand-written (as discussed above), one should open with a sentence or two about how good it was to see the gift-giver, or how it has been too long since you have seen said gift-giver, and then move on to how thoughtful the gift of X (if money, it is alright to just say gift) was and how precisely you will use it or what you will do with said gift. Then you sign off with some mention of how you look forward to seeing gift-giver soon, or something lovely of the sort, and then sign off with your platitude of choice (sincerely, love, best wishes). And yes, you do this even if you don't like the gift.