Re: Big T little t, what begins with t? Tactile textures textiles. T, T, T.

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I never opt for certain clothes because they feel good.

You crazy. Texture is the absolute criterion for my clothing purchases.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:00 PM
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The softer the fabric, the smaller the brain. It's in my intro organic chemistry textbook, so you know it's true.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:01 PM
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1: I can't quite figure out the connection, but it's the flip side of not liking skin-on-skin. Like there are only negative touches to be avoided, like itchy wool, and beyond that I'm indifferent.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:04 PM
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They tell me all bras are itchy. Maybe certain people just wear them too tight.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:04 PM
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Bras must be binding, in order to avoid negative touch.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:05 PM
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3 is easily explained once you accept that you're made out of antimatter.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:06 PM
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Big T little t, what begins with t? Tactile textures textiles. T, T, T.

Has now put me in mind of:

Big A little A bouncing B
The sytem might have got you but it won't get me
1 2 3 4
External control are you gonna let them get you?
Do you wanna be a prisorner in the boundaries they set you?
You say you want to be yourself
By christ do you think they'll let you?
The're out to get you get you get you get you get you get you


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:07 PM
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Those eco-stumpers are funny.

I'm texture-sensitive, but not texture-averse. The only thing I hate about satin is the clammy way it feels when you sweat in it. (Thanks, high school choir dress, for the memory of the smell of ten girls in rarely-dry-cleaned, often-worn dresses each made out of six yards of heavy satin.)


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:08 PM
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Baby clothes should be made of burlap, because their tiny skin needs lots of stimulation. You know it's working if they get a "power rash" all over their bodies. This improves vitamin uptake, develops a killer immune system, and reverses the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome in cases when that's necessary.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:17 PM
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I am also one of those freakish people who refuses to wear synthetic materials of any kind. Every once in a while I get fooled into an acrylic blend of some sort, but in general, for me, satin means silk.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:23 PM
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Really? Not even polyester? So many of my greatest dresses are polyester.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:26 PM
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I was going to make a burlap joke. I feel so close to you now, John.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:30 PM
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There's no reason to believe that fetal alcohol syndrome is a factor in this case, but better safe than sorry.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:36 PM
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As I said a couple of days ago, at 4.5 years old the beloved grandnephew has become a real pain in the butt. He talks constantly, demands attention, and whines in a way he didn't use to. Fucking maturation process.

We still love him from a sense of duty, and on general adult principles.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:41 PM
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Polyester is an abomination. It doesn't drape, it doesn't breathe, it doesn't age well; it feels clammy, and it smells.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:44 PM
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Noah and the beloved grandnephew are almost exactly the same age. You have my sympathy. Turns out I am not nearly the calm and patient parent I had believed myself to be.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:50 PM
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The inappropriate phrase STFU pops into my head far too often.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:55 PM
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15: Polyester's an immensely versatile material; it's amazing how different various forms of polyester clothing can feel, and how differently they breathe, etc. It's come a long way since what I've heard of the 70s.

Pretty much all fleeces and sporty thermal underwear are made out of polyester these days, mostly because some forms of polyester breathe so much better than cotton or wool and feel warmer if they get damp.


Posted by: Po-Mo Polymath | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 12:57 PM
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"The bigger the belly, the smaller the brain! No really, it's based in science!" Which I heard a hundred times, but all one hundred were from the same person

I can understand why you let him live after the first or second time, but one hundred times?


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:00 PM
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Was it Jammies? Were you just letting him live because he is the father of your child?


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:01 PM
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19: She's a colleague...


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:01 PM
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Oooh, I hate the way fleece feels. yech.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:02 PM
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I can't wear polyester thermal underwear twice; after one day's wearing, it smells and has to go into the laundry. I usually (but not always) regret wearing it, even on the coldest days. We're talking about high-tech, recently manufactured, REI shit, here.

My silk long underwear, on the other hand, has been great. Durable, pleasing, and long-wearing. A very light-weight silk long underwear set fell apart within a couple of years, but I've got a medium-weight set that has been doing great. It's not quite as warm as the thicker polyester stuff, but I wear it much more.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:02 PM
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I am also one of those freakish people who refuses to wear synthetic materials of any kind.

I'll fess up to this as well, though I like rayon, which is semi-synthetic. It drapes and breathes nicely.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:06 PM
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I'm similar to Jackmormon, although not as dogmatic (I do wear acrylic fabrics). I have a very hard time wearing clothes that don't feel good to the touch, which of course rules out so many cute, cheap clothes. Though I've also found there's a pretty good aesthetic reason to this as well - fabric that doesn't feel good to the touch to me also usually indicates a garment that will not drape correctly on me or which will likely be poorly made and gape in odd places, etc. So, the touch rule keeps me away from things I'd be tempted to buy because they were oh so cute on the rack/cheap.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:07 PM
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acrylic should be synthetic, in 25.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:07 PM
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So, the touch rule keeps me away from things I'd be tempted to buy because they were oh so cute on the rack/cheap.

A lot of my anti-synthetic prejudices date from my time combing through boxes of clothes at the flea markets of Paris. The clothing made of real materials stood up so much better to abuse and time. The touch test was a first form of triage: find clothes that feel good, pull them out to see if they're decently well made, then check for size and damage. I sometimes got home with things that made no sense for me to wear, but found some real treasures, really cheap. Nowadays when shopping I can't help imagining what these cute new clothes would look like crumpled up in a box in the puces. Not many in my price range withstand that test.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:14 PM
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22, 23: Yeah, I never liked the feel of thicker polyester long underwear that much, I've only ever liked the super-thin stuff. I still have a heavier-weight long undershirt from when I worked at North Face, but I never wear it for exactly those same reasons.

Mostly I felt the need to speak up because my favorite boxers are all made of ultra-lightweight polyester. Silk, cotton, nothing else has compared. They're like god's own undergarment.

As I said, polyester textiles are crazy diverse depending on how it's spun into fabric. When they try to make it as light and breathable as possible, it's great stuff. Otherwise, yeah, it can kind of suck.


Posted by: Po-Mo Polymath | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:14 PM
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28.2: How can this be? There is no garment more comfortable than silk boxers. In fact, they're a little too comfortable, IYKWIM.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:18 PM
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I am currently wearing some extremely synthetic running shorts and sports bra.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:19 PM
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However, they only get worn for about an hour at a time and then go directly into the laundry, and their primary virtue is to be firm and supportive. Hold tight to my body, running clothes! This thread has conveniently reminded me: while I wait my turn for the shower, I am going to place an order from Bare Necessities to replenish my supplies of all-cotton-thank-you underpants.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:24 PM
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I'm not totally dogmatic, though. Some of my favorite pieces of clothing are woven out of really good cotton blends with like 10% Lycra: the brand Theory has some super nice stuff in that line that works well on me.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:24 PM
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You're welcome.


Posted by: underpants | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:26 PM
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Linen-rayon blends can be very nice, too.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:27 PM
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7: Crass!

That aside, no synthetics except for tights in the winter and even those bug me a little. Acrylic feels like it's shedding bits of decaying synthetic when I touch it. And frankly those new baby fabrics give me the creeps.

Modal! Modal really annoys me. What's so wrong with making a cute women's tee shirt out of a nice lightweight cotton jersey? Why must everything be modal? I suppose my ultimate worst-ever clothing nightmare would be a modal tee and a skirt made out of that horrible poly ponte knit.

In Doris Lessing's Mara and Dan, the village people in the awful future all wear these tunics that are made of something sort of like ponte knit--it never wears away, it never stains, and they all hate it passionately.


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:29 PM
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What's modal?


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:30 PM
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Aw, underpants, you're the best.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:32 PM
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Remember when Umbros were fashionable, circa 1990? Like half fuschia, half turquoise Umbros? What a lowpoint in fashion.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:34 PM
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29: I don't know! They have a feel very similar to silk, since that's what they were modeled after, but it's less... slick or satiny feeling. However awesome silk feels when you first put it on, I've always thought it felt a bit clammy if you sweat at all, since silk boxers usually have a really flat weave that's bad for wicking/breathability.

So yes, I don't know what the magic is, but they're amazing boxers. That's what we get when really smart people go into chemical and textile engineering instead of finance. Just goes to show how screwed up our allocation of human capital was for the past couple decades.


Posted by: Po-Mo Polymath | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:35 PM
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Modal is another cellulose-derived fabric, like rayon but newer. It feels all flinky. It's like rayonized cotton.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:37 PM
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40: Modal tends to be knit very thin, has a very fluid drape and usually (in my experience) deteriorates rapidly after a few wears. You'll often see an adorable knit shirt with a cute detail like dolman sleeves or a big ruffle, race up to it determined to purchase and discover it to be modal. Modal, come to think of it, does a tremendous amount to keep me on the straight and narrow of buying thrifted clothes only. Come on, capitalism, provide me with a new product that I actually want!


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:56 PM
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You're supposed to dryclean or handwash modal. Bull. Shit. Do not want.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:56 PM
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Modal is also often semi-sheer, so you have to layer it. And I am simply not buying a $30 tee and then another $20 camisole to wear under it. Not on. For that kind of money I expect a durable item.


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 1:57 PM
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7: Dammit! I was going to comment something like that!

||
Oi! So "excluded and referred [children]" is basically a British euphemism analogous to "EBD" in the US? I saw it last night in the newest issue of Permaculture Magazine and it stuck out.
||>


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 2:01 PM
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I'm with the natural fabric folk, except for good rayon.* It drapes beautifully and feels nice. And lasts. Polyester gives me a rash [but then, so does wool.]

"The bigger the belly, the smaller the brain! No really, it's based in science!"

One of my professors, when urged to "breathe" by her husband during labour, snapped 'I have a fucking PhD; I know how to breathe, so just shut up!'

* Tho' I draw the line at this.


Posted by: DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 2:03 PM
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My only textile aversions are velvet, velveteen or anything made to resemble them. I Can. Not. Stand. The feel of them on my fingertips (especially if fingertips are dirty or greasy even in the slightest degree). It freaks me the fuck out. I guess I know what I'll be doing in Room 101.

My favorite long underwear is still the blue medium-weight Duofolds that I bot several years ago. They're holding up pretty well. The silk long underwear I bot from Cabela's is nice, but not very durable. Probably should have handwarshed it.


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 2:10 PM
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45.4 Yeah, kinda solipsistic, what?


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 2:11 PM
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9:You know it's working if they get a "power rash" all over their bodies.

No pain, no gain! No rash... no, not going there. No rash... the phrase is not wishing to turn here.

Jammies just sent me this highly entertaining nugget.

But nothing could be as entertaining as Fred Zen:

On the contrary, what Schlaes made clear is that your 'consensus' is a piece of tawdry dishonesty typical of the left. When you want to claim that the new deal improved the economy the relevance of changes of employment to this claim is only for employment that is productive. The government fake jobs were quite properly not counted for the very simple reason that such jobs are not producing anything that anyone was prepared to pay for off their own bat. No doubt the choir that you're preaching to will go along with what you say here and in the other post where you 'explain' why fake work should be counted, but no one both honest and not stupid will buy your arguments.

David Broder is even funnier. I'm at a loss, here.

Maybe I should ask why we can't have solar-powered fake jobs paid for with tax money.... and the fake jobs would involve a synthetic boot stamping on a oppressed torture memo author's face forever!

Yes, the tri sexfecta!

max
['Recombinant.']


Posted by: max | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 2:12 PM
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You know, I used to say that the only thing standing in the way of complete capitalist hegemony was radical Islam. Unfortch, it seems like radical Islam has sold out, and now the only thing standing in the way of complete capitalist hegemony is free market zealots in the US. It's a funny old world.


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 2:19 PM
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46.1: Oh geez, yeah. Peach fuzz does that to me as well. Something about the feel against my fingers just sets my teeth on edge. It's really inexplicable.


Posted by: Po-Mo Polymath | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 2:19 PM
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Tho' I draw the line at this.

Back in her poorer, crunchier days, my spinning/weaving sister made some yarn for my knitting sister made of fur from the family dog. It smelled—surprise!—like dog.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 2:25 PM
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A friend of mine spins yarn from her rabbits' shed fur. I view this as charming rather than disturbing, however.


Posted by: Frowner | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 2:37 PM
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46, 50 - C's like that too. Velvet, peaches, etc. We have to have nectarines. When #1 was a baby she seemed to have a disproportionate amount of velour babygros and he couldn't pick her up if she was wearing one.

14, 16, 17 - 4 is a shitty age. Forget the terrible twos and suffer through the fuckin-awful fours. Basically I have decided that the even years are worse than the odds. 6 = crying a lot. 8 = smartarsitude. 10 = prepubescence. 12 = pubescence.


Posted by: asilon | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 2:40 PM
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I love the twos and threes.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 2:45 PM
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asilon: but I'm correct in my assumption about "excluded and referred", right?


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 2:46 PM
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EBD = emotional and behavioural difficulties?

Excluded and referred isn't a euphemism though - means excluded from school, and referred to a Pupil Referral Unit (i.e. the place they get to go when no school will take them). They're probably accepted to be gits and criminals.


Posted by: asilon | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 2:52 PM
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56: So, it's more like an in-school ASBO then, something with weight? The way it was used as a term of art made me think it was somewhat more generally applied as a euphemism for criminials & gits, yes.


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 2:54 PM
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Criminey! Criminals!


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 3:01 PM
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My experience of parenthood is that it's straight downhill from about six months in.

The texture that really bothers me is wet paper. The day in which wet paper clothes become fashionable can't be far away.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 3:24 PM
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so hot today, i mean, to talk about fabrics
i had a headache after walking in this heat
then made a hot coffee which i drank all hot and the breeze now seems like a bit cooler, b/c sweated b/c of the coffee, such a relief
and it's only April
i think i won't come out of the lab the whole summer until August to go home


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 4:12 PM
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If you didn't like artificial fleece, I cannot recommend pile to you. But for everybody else, pile is a great layer between organic polypropylene and artisanal gortex.


Posted by: Heptic Econolicious | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 4:57 PM
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My subconsciously racist reaction to the Joe Barton/Steven Chu exchange was that it reminded me of the scene in Best in Show when Parker Posey is flipping out in the pet shop looking for a replacement for "Busy Bee" (sequence is about 2 minutes in). The common element being soft-spoken Orientals patiently dealing with deranged white persons.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 5:23 PM
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62: Posted by: | JP Stormcrow | 04-26-09 5:23 PM


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 5:24 PM
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45.4: I donated my hair when I had my first major haircut (about 10 inches when I was 21) to an artist friend who used it for textile weaving, but that was an art-school thing. I wouldn't want to wear my own hair. That's gross.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 5:30 PM
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All my texture aversions involve food. Fabrics don't bother me at all.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 5:33 PM
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65: have you ever eaten burlap?


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 6:17 PM
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66: Burlap is the king of roughage.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 6:29 PM
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Have you ever worn kale?


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 6:36 PM
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68: Only collards. Wouldn't want people to think I was getting all uppity and above my station or anything.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 7:37 PM
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69: Yep, kale is pretty hoity toity. But there are some nice, affordable kaleen garments out there.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 9:19 PM
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70: There clearly aren't enough public toilets in Kaleen.


Posted by: Nakku | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 9:31 PM
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The old guys are right. Four year olds suck. People who talk about the "terrible twos" are pulling a bait and switch on you; two year olds are east to distract/pick up.

Heebie, you've been warned. Schedule Punchy for boarding preschool for the 2013-14 academic year.


Posted by: Bitchphd | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 9:50 PM
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I think four is the cutest age of all, which, according to the law of nature by which child-murder is often avoided, is a very useful cuteness indeed.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 9:52 PM
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I am also one of those freakish people who refuses to wear synthetic materials of any kind.

Nothing has made me happier than finally splashing out for synthetic, wicking workout clothes. Cotton is too damn hot.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 04-26-09 10:02 PM
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re: 64

One of my cousins used to teach textile 'stuff' [I don't remember the exact formal title] part-time at a FE college.* She was into spinning her own yarn and weaving her own cloth from unusual fibres. People would bring her bags of combed out dog hair, human hair, all kinds of stuff. Some of it was remarkably soft.

* She had briefly worked for some major Parisian designer back in the 60s, but then was away from fashion for a couple of decades...


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 04-27-09 12:08 AM
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I think the only synthetic fabrics I own are a couple of never-worn cheap formal shirts that are some cotton/polyester blend and some high-tech compression shorts and sweatpants for 'kickboxing'.

The high-tech sport fabric used in the compression shorts is very good.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 04-27-09 12:10 AM
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I'm pretty relaxed about fabrics these days (especially the natural/synthetic divide). I suspect the vast majority of my clothes are cotton/synthetic blend. In my youth, though, I had a near pathological aversion to wool, and consequently didn't own any sweaters for at least a decade. Luckily, I love the feel of fleece.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 04-27-09 4:59 AM
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The beloved four-year-old grandnephew poses beautifully for the camera now. A (legit?) modelling agency has shown interest. Is it mere coincidence that he's become tempestuaous and high-maintenance?


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 04-27-09 5:10 AM
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A (legit?) modelling agency has shown interest.

Unfortunately, I now know a lot about this crap. First off, you guys need to decide whether you want to do this. Don't trust the people at the company to tell you straight up whether your nephew has potential: they honestly can't guarantee anything.

Second, you should look into the agency. Is it actually an agency? Or is it a "development center"? Agencies will usually take commissions; development centers usually ask for money up front to do photos.

If it's an honest-to-god agency, then the commission basis should be okay. The development center route isn't a terrible idea (most agencies than you might think contract out to them), but the up-front fees can be a bit brutal. You'd want to be sure that it was a legitimate company before giving them any money.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 04-27-09 7:25 AM
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Fortunately, the point is moot; travel would be prohibitive. I told my niece about the same that you did, with less detail. (It was a development center).


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 04-27-09 2:07 PM
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59: The last place I tried for a massage asked if I had brought a bathing suit. Uh, no. They gave me a disposable paper one and pointed me toward a kind of open shower area.

Wet paper clothes are indeed unpleasant, and towels do not dry them.


Posted by: PGofHSM | Link to this comment | 04-27-09 3:17 PM
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wait, what? who gets a massage in a bathing suit? all the massage places I have ever been to involve you being naked. well, I guess they give you paper panties sometimes. paper panties are hella lame.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 04-28-09 8:52 AM
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