I Remember Fashion

Variations on a Theme

While we were on our way to work this morning, looking very St.Joan from Mad Men with our between-the-bosom pendant watch (sorry, we don’t own a gold pen… yet), we spotted a member of generation hoodie heading south to deepest SOMA dressed in the t-shirt version of this:

(which is available here. Only $20 with $5 going to charity! Get one now!)

This, of course, is a variation on the well-known British WWII poster “Keep Calm and Carry On”. Notice it’s brethren “Freedom is in peril. Defend it with all your might.” and “Your courage, your cheefulness, your resolution, will bring us victory.” don’t have quite the same appeal. Perhaps it’s the Eau de Orwell they’re wearing?

Well, since a box-load of these old posters were found a few years ago in an attic somewhere in England, variations on the theme abound (keep hitting reload, there’s another 5 every few minutes…). We’ve culled some of our favorites from around the Web.

Possibly even more British than the original:

The Bushian response to 9/11:

The meme-on-meme: 


The Gen-Xer (I presume…):

The Contrarian:

The (tasty, tasty) Pavlovian:

But really, in the end, this about sums it up.

That is all. Over and out.

Don’t Get Your Spanx in a Twist

We enjoy our daily dose of Gawker and there was a precious gem today. Who knew that Spanx was causing such an uproar? We overlooked how odd it was that this appeared on Gawker’s umbrella site rather than on Jezebel where all things estrogen-y and self-loathing are relegated and just enjoyed the lively commentary. MisterHippity, always a treat, posted this:

(via MisterHippity)

To which Naugahydeinplainsight replied:

No thanks, said Manx,
I won’t wear Spanx.
They’re known to bind,
In ways unkind.
And if you have an itch,
they’re a serious bitch.
You wouldn’t you ask a doggie,
Or a Hippity-hoppity froggie.
So don’t call me wussy,
I’m a liberated pussy.

To which we add: We agree. We are spanx-free.

Play Misty for Me, Italia

Now that we’ve been back in the US from Italy for almost a week we’ve had time to think about the things that we will always remember, and regret a few things that got away.

Things we’ll always remember:

- a bottle of wine with lunch and dinner every day. Extremely civilized. Also makes the day much more pleasant and bearable.

- being groped on the 64 Termini bus. Sounds a lot better in theory than in practice.

- the wonder that is Castroni.

- attempted pickpocketing on the bridge to Trastevere. How we would have loved to club that little f#$%er with our umbrella. Still, he got nothing from us, so nothing lost.

- the awfulness of Italian TV.

- watching all the episodes of HBO’s Rome on our laptop since Italian TV was so awful.

- how it is impossible to find an bad view in Rome.

- how we were nearly paralyzed by the ancient IKEA sofa bed in our rental apartment near the Campo dei Fiori.

- nearly biting it trying to cross the streets around the Piazza Venezia.

Things that got away (this time):

- Lovely knit cardigan from Coin. We couldn’t bring ourselves to try on any knitwear on in 29-degree Celsius heat, unfortunately.

- Silver bracelet from F.lli Peruzzi, near Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Unfortunately the bangles don’t jibe with the laptop.

- Purse from Leather School in Sta. Croce in Florence. We’re just too hard on our leather bags, so we couldn’t justify the expense. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t though… Get yerself a Hermes bag at a fraction of the price…

- Frette jammies on sale on via Nazionale. Everything was either wrong size or wrong style. Sigh.

- Silver anemone necklace from a jewelry shop on the via dei Serpenti. A little too expensive for what it was.

- Ice cream from Crispini. We’re sorry, the wait was just too long.

- Absinthe. Sadly, the Green Devil is still of questionable legality in the US. Otherwise we would gladly have welcomed a new monkey to our back.

That’s it for now, smell ya later Italia!

Salsaccio Fiorentino

One thing that is unavoidable in Florence is sausage in both its literal and metaphorical forms.

The farther north one travels in Italy the more meat specialties one encounters. In Florence the ‘menu turistico’ typically feature ‘ragu’ sauces, hearty stews and some lovely sausage. At the family-run and thus highly entertaining Trattoria Buzzino, located at the exit to the Uffizi, we enjoyed a lovely lunch of penne al ragu followed by salsaccio e fagioli. Homemade sausage, fresh and very good.

We encountered a more entertaining - or sinister, depending on how one sees it - form a sausage in the window of a pet store. Perhaps it was our disorientation from having wandered for over an hour in the twisting streets north of the Duomo, or perhaps it was the surprise at seeing a middle-aged, bottle-blond prosie exiting a car, doing up her pants while pocketing loose change, but this window of a pet store near l’Accademia both enthralled and frightened us just a little bit. All those aggressive plastic bulldogs and regimented legions of mice made of catnip and bunny fur.

And then we spotted all those grinning, plastic sausage links. No wonder Italian dogs are so weird.

The next day, while waiting our turn to tour the Uffizi Gallery, we were reminded what makes all men happy. Is that a feedbag strapped to your face or are you just happy to see us?

Of course, one doesn’t have to go too far in Florence before spotting the ‘salsaccio di marmora’, the most common form of sausage in the city. At l’Accademia we saw the city’s (likely the world’s) most famous marble sausage on Michelangelo’s David. Unfortunately, in his case, big feet just means he wears large sandals. Still, surrounded by Mapplethorpe’s nudes, there was enough well-muscled sausage to satisfy even the most ravenous appetite.

On that happy thought, our trip to Florence was at an end.