Wishing You Champagne Dreams and Minded Manners
The night they invented champagne
It’s plain as it can be
They thought of you and me
The night they invented champagne
They absolutely knew
That all we’d want to do is
Fly to the sky on champagne
And shout to everyone in sight
That since that world began
No woman or a man has ever been as happy as we are tonight!
-Lerner and Loewe, from the musical “Gigi”
The night we drank too much champagne
Was an embarrassing night indeed.
The spill stretched
from the sculpted green carpet to the Harris Tweed.
No woman or man or woman we ever met
Was as upset
Of ruining taffett(a) as the VintageGent and Gent-ette!
- V-Gette
Ah, yes…the holiday dinner party. This time of year, the party invites are too numerous to do more than “put in an appearance” at while the Champagne and wine hostess and host gifts insulate every cabinet, hope chest and ice box. Liquor is a traditional gift, and therefore a retro choice, but its time to update the etiquette book.
Tried and True Etiquette:
- As has been tradition, do not expect the bottle to be opened and served with the meal or during cocktail hour.
- If the host/hostess should offer you the unopened bottle to take home, insist that you intended it as a gift, but do not make a spectacle of yourself. The host/hostess may have assumed the bottle was for dinner. If they insist, graciously accept.
- Do not give guests free tickets to your sideshow. If the host/hostess offers alcoholic beverages, do not drink to the point of interesting propositions and colorful language. Rather, enjoy a glass properly balanced with food or follow with soft drinks.
Coffee or soft drinks is a safe second course.
The New Etiquette
- Observe the host/hostess. If they have never been observed nursing a glass of mashed grapes, they might not drink alcoholic beverages for medical or personal reasons. If they do not, rethink the gift.
- Offer to be a designated driver. Deliver revelers home, and swiftly return to the party.
- Choose theme wines and champagnes. A selection that has a connection creates conversation if the host is not a particular wine connoisseur. Choose a wine from a newcomer’s native state, or something with an unusual or clever name. While impressing someone with good taste is important, humor breaks the advice, so long as the name is not off-color. The point of a party is to converse, not to dazzle other guests with your snobbery.
Did I invite you over? Then I might interest you in my uncle’s special vintage, adorned with inkjet paper labels. I have no idea which variety I have, since water droplets splashed on it and ran the ink. Guests will surely play “name that wine.” Bring your own and tear off the label. Should be fun. Cheers!
entertainment, gift ideas | Comment (0)Fashion Swap
Ever since Wagglepop came and went, the inbox runneth over with press releases, pitches and recommendations for new auction and selling sites. Tradze.com is a new one to me. Apparently, its in the barter websites format. Users list items that they want to get rid of, and other users may trade for them with credits. Each user receives 200 credits for signing up, and from there, credits are accumulated through listing like-new and collectible items for the perusal of other site users. The site heavily promotes users to sign up their family and friends, so they can swap through their own trusted network. There is a clothing category in the mix.
Upon inspection, there is little to no Feedback action. Either users are not ingrained with the courtesy of leaving other users feedback stars, or the site just has little action. The site itself appears to be in the early stages as some pages, such as FAQ, are not quite filled in yet. Users do have to register to flip through the item catalog. Be persistent, as almost always only four items show up. Click on subsequent page numbers to browse the entire category.
The full potential of the site lies on the concept of users having a comfort level of bartering in “T-Bills” that only work on this site, versus receiving money. It will not attract folks hoping buy and sell to raise some cash, but it will attract users who truly just want to rid themselves of a few items. There is great potential for an established group to barter, such as a special interest hobby club, a parents group, or an association to park their people there and make it their own. Hosting a clothing swap sometimes is hard to get together because of conflicting schedules and an uneven representation of sizes. If the extended network swapped with credits, everyone would be held accountable to delivering.
In the meantime, I’ll be watching to determine if this is a worthy place to score a fashion find.
modern fashion | Comment (0)Thanksgiving Delight
No one, apparently, got the memo that Christmas music is absolutely not to be played until at least the day after Thanksgiving? If i ruled the world, the sleigh bells wouldn’t ring until December 15th. This way, we could all truly enjoy it instead of burning out on it by December 5th.
Dad, ever the astute observer always defends his position with: “There just are no Thanksgiving carols, are there?” maybe not when he was growing up, butt if you delve into the early days of rap and hip hop and transport yourself to 1979, there is ONE Thanksgiving carol, even though it is hidden within a 14 minute, 36 second long song. Well, the Sugar Hill Gang probably didn’t intend it to be festive.
We used to trick dad into listening to the full version when we didn’t want to clean our rooms. “Dad, listen to JUST this one song. It’s really short.”
Have you ever went over a friends house to eat
and the food just ain’ no good?
I mean the macaroni’s soggy the peas are mushed
and the chicken tastes like wood.So you try to play it off like you think you can
by sayin’ that you’re full,
and then your friend says momma he’s just being polite
he ain’t finished uh uh that’s bull.So your heart starts pumpin’ and you think of a lie
and you say that you already ate
and your friend says man there’s plenty of food
so you pile some more on your plate.While the stinky foods steamin’ your mind starts to dreamin’
of the moment that it’s time to leave
and then you look at your plate and your chickens slowly rottin’
into something that looks like cheese.Oh, so you say that’s it i got to leave this place;
I dont care what these people think
I’m just sittin’ here makin’ myself nauseous
with this ugly food that stinks.So you bust out the door while its still closed
still sick from the food you ate
and then you run to the store for quick relief
from a bottle of kaopectate.And then you call your friend two weeks later
to see how he has been.
And he says i understand about the food
baby bubbah but we’re still friends.
With a hip hop the hippie to the hippie
the hip hip a hop a you dont stop the rockin
to the bang bang boogie
say up jump the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie the beat
May your Thanksgiving be full of cozy, Rockwell-inspired moments (Norman, not the “Somebody’s Watching Me” Rockwell and far more delectable food than what the Sugar Hill Gang was subjected to.
1970s, entertainment | Comment (0)The Windsor: Where Wands/Walruses/White Houses Meet
This post brought to you by Zenni Optical. All opinions are 100% mine.
Just a ponderance: Harry Potter added another reason why the Windsor eyeglass style remains iconic, but are children who wear the style automatically enlisted in the cool club or are they mercilessly teased ** if they are over a certain age?
Now that Harry Potter has put down his wand, at least on the screen, what is to become of the Windsor eyeglasses, trend-wise? We've all seen this before. John Lennon popularized the style in the 60s and 70s, and prior to that President Theodore Roosevelt sported them and so did Ben Franklin. Does there need to be a "cool down" period for folks to expand their associations? It seems like few consider the Windsor merely a classic, perennial style and most merely use them as an excuse to catcall "You are the Walrus!!!" or "Where's your wand?"
Of course, going with the style that best bits your face shape and features is never out of style. Personally, I only think folks poke at them is if, say horn rims, Windsors, or black plastic frames don't fit your face. THEN folks get awfully non-creative.
If you are really looking to try a trend and don't want to commit to $300 + 3 years of your life, you can always go to the costume shop and buy some falsies – some twisted wire Windsor or some glassless Buddy Hollys. Sifting through the thrift store rack is cheap, but you'll have to pop the lenses out. You can also try some places like Zenni, that have cheap eyeglasses and get your prescription. A basic Windsor runs about $19.00 including basic, single vision lenses vs $100+ at the optical store vs $5-15 at the costume shop vs a buck or two at thrift lens-less. I'd take the pair that I could see out of – with the 80+ savings I could afford some clothing to go, or better yet, I'd psyche people out. Have a completely different pair in my pocket. When someone makes a comment, I'd just pop the other pair on and turn around. "What glasses? Oh these?"
**= No, teasing is not bullying! Innocent (notice, I said innocent) teasing is a child or preteen's way of trying to get the attention of another child in an unlearned and ungraceful way. They just lack the social skills to say "Greetings, fellow child. I don't know you, but I want to get to know you and I am a clod," "Or dearest bff, I am a little cranky today. And I am upset that you have an older brother and a dog, and I am envious of that condition."
Standing on the Corner…Watching all the Icons Whiz By
This post brought to you by LG DoublePlay™. All opinions are 100% mine.
Silence used to be golden. Driving to and from was almost a moving meditation. I sat in my car, listened to silence or music and the burdens in the head began to clear. Nothing was really that important that couldn't wait until I returned home or to the computer. Now, I lost several connection opportunities and jobs because I didn't answer my messages.
Then, I started accessing the browser on my cell phone, but struggled with the number keys. Oh well, at least I knew someone was looking for me so could circle back. Then why did I suddenly feel that I had to answer them? Probably because I was making the emergencies of other people my own emergencies.
Where is my keyboard?? Truth be told, I tried a smartphone and it took me a minute to stay in control of my icons that seemed to whiz by me with a slip of the finger, but now I have the hang of it.
I noticed that LG DoublePlay™ that T-Mobile offers has both the Qwerty keyboard and the touch screen format. The keys are microscopic, but you can't compare them to a computer. If one focuses on the qualities of the keypad as a typist's tool, its a major improvement. The fingers are less crowded, as the keyboard is split in half. For the true multi-tasker, or scatterbrain, depending on how you look at it, there is actually more touch screen icons between the split in the keyboard.
Yikes. Things do change at a lightning pace don't they, as far as technology? So glad that the tie, long underwear and the three-button suit evolve at a creeping pace. There is some comfort in stability, at least. I am holding onto my old phone until it becomes "retro." Maybe it will be dead, but it would make a great prop.
Do you think having everything all front and center will affect the way you text and network? How many texts would you say you send, and how much time to you use your phone for social networking, in hours? My last text message was at 1:46 on Thursday the 17th. It was a good friend of mine asking me to call her. Folks don't usually text me unless I don't respond and they want to get my attention while I am on the phone. If you add up all of my time texting from the past six months, it probably works out to one hour!
How would the The LG DoublePlay™ change how you interact with your social networks? I think that for me, it would make things more front and center so more people could text and Facebook message me to call them…because I am not picking up my phone for some reason.
A Brief History of Skincare: New (?) Under the Sun
Tanda Skin Care recently created a chart about the history of skin care. Some of the info I was already intimately acquainted with, laced with tidbits of shocking new. While the madness and illness lead powder left behind is legendary, I had no idea that it was used for spot treatments as late as 1900. The idea of exfoliation and microdermabrasion is actually not so 20th and 21st century. The earliest skin smoothing junkies used sand paper to soften their outer layers and slough away scars. I thought the strigil was abrasive, but at least Romans at first covered themselves in oil so scraping all the dirt away at least would glide more like a razor. It is all conjecture, as of course, strigils are just not something you see at the store these days. If so, they would be mistaken for a personal possession of Captain Hook. You’ll have to settle for a squeegee.
The only thing “new under the sun” might be treating psoriasis with UV lamps and also acne light therapy. Then again, English doctors sent ailing patients to the south of France and Italy to hopefully healed by the sunlight. It is merely the act of going to a professional and receiving blue light in an isolated and concentrated fashion.
What grooming practice today do you think we will look at quizzically ten, fifty, or even one hundred years from now?
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Via: Tanda Skincare
Uncategorized | Comment (0)My Strange Addiction
Thanks for the guest post by Esteban Vinson
I am a total sad movie addict. I know most people don’t enjoy feeling sad, but could there possibly be anything better than curling up in a warm blanket on the weekends and watching a good tearjerker on Direct TV?
I have a lot of friends who think I am really strange because of this, but to me, it’s totally normal. My mom, sister and I all have this strange penchant for loving sad movies. I have too many favorites to even name. I’m not a movie snob who only watches the Oscar winners either. I love them all, even the bad ones.
I sometimes get upset when I go to the movies to see something that I think is going to let me get a good cry in and then it ends up having a super happy ending. I know most people go to the movies for a bit of fantasy but everything can’t have a happy ending! I guess I like it so much because I’d rather cry about something completely made up than something that really happens.
Uncategorized | Comment (0)
