Consumerism 101- An Experts Guide to Trouble in the Marketplace

I wish I could remember where it was, but recently I read a little article about how to make shopping more... wonderful.. this year. The article was advising shoppers to regard their fellow voyagers as friends and neighbors (as in don't tear the truck from their hands, don't bite, don't pull hair??) and to treat the sales people with patience and respect.  As in: don't scowl and make unseemly, inflammatory remarks when she will not get off a personal phone call to come and help you, do not mention incendiary devices above a whisper, smile, treat everyone like family and you will promote a spirit of conviviality and cheer and WA LAA! you too will be a spirit-filled shopper and, yep, you guessed it, we can make the world a better place for you and meeee.  (digression: The only reason Michael ever sang about this stuff is because he never actually had to deal with any of it.  He lived in a castle/paradise/zoo surrounded by a moat and 500 raging bull security people who would bring him whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it.. and his very own self was left to ride the rides with little kids, cover his kids up with veils, shawls and masks, and have someone else buy their Christmas gifts).

Today, it being a dreary day and needing to clean up some pesky details, I decided to make myself a super duper reservation at the spa at Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC.   Check it out.



The spa has an indoor grotto with a lap pool, a heated salt water pool, and a couple of hot tubs, one of which features a nice waterfall.  Another hot tub outdoors, where you can get your massage if you like, and then steam rooms, a sauna, a soaking tub, and various spa amenities and services: Swedish massage, aromatherapy, River Stone massage, facials, etc etc.

I like to splurge when we go each December during the first weekend for a conference with one of P.'s long standing (22 years plus) clients.

 So, I get Ruth on the phone in the Grove Park Inn Spa.

R:  Are you staying at the Inn?
Me: Yep, back for the 23rd year..
R:  Well, before we can reserve a service for you, I will need your confirmation number.
Me:  Well, I don't have that.  My husband may, but I doubt it.
R:  Well, I will hold while you call him on another line or text him but I will need that.
Me: Why?
R: To make sure you are a guest at the hotel.
Me: Don't you serve people who are not hotel guests?
R: Yes, we do, but now that I know that you are a guest I will need your reservation confirmation.
Me:  I don't have that. Let's just pretend I am not a guest.
R: But you already told me you are. Can't you just ask your husband
M:  Well, he is not standing here next to me.  He works during the day, and allows me to make plans and reservations without his comforting presence.  I have been doing it for years all by myself...(growing a bit testy here...) Can't you just look us up to see that the Academy is coming this weekend with several hundred guests and that we are on the list and registered?
R:  Oh, yes.  I see you here!  But we will need your confirmation number. Can't you just call your husband?  We are not allowed to divulge the names on the registration list because sometimes we have very famous people here who want to have their identity protected.
Me:  WE ARE NOT FAMOUS. YOU ALREADY KNOW WHO I AM BECAUSE I TOLD YOU. YOU SEE MY NAME THERE. I HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR 23 YEARS. AND I AM STILL NOT FAMOUS.
R: I am only doing what I have been told to do. Maybe you could call your husband. ....

Me:  ring ring ring ring (deep sigh, heavy exhalations, etc)  Hey, can you give me the confirmation number for Grove Park Inn?
P:  I don't have it.  The Academy makes the reservations for me every year.  I am on the master list.
Me:  (other ear).  Ruth, he didn't make the reservation. He doesn't have a number.
R: Oh, you mean he didn't make his own reservation. Oh, ok.  I didn't KNOW that.   I see your name here, and your address. I guess I can just treat you like you are not a hotel guest...
Me: But I am a hotel guest. You see my name.
R: Well, we can make an exception, I suppose.

Eh?  Why should it be hard to make a reservation for an expensive massage? 

Go figure.  Where did I go wrong?  Where is the love?

I told her, at the end of the convo, thank you for making me feel so special and welcomed at the Grove Park Inn.  Aannnnd, what is your name?

 She will get a little cheer from me later.  I have my ways.

Wonderful Blogs

My whole family blog-watches. We share blogs, pass on links, exchange interesting photos, talk about them.  P's personal favorite is The Selby. Here it is. /http://www.theselby.com/

Anyway the Selby (is in your place) is a really voyeuristic look into people's homes. http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/
Who doesn't like that?  Posted on November 21, 2010 is a peek inside the home of Kate and Andy Spade. Andy Spade seems to have a lot of collections like P does little boxes, pens, books books books.  Have I told I finally found some new bookshelves from Restoration Hardware?  They are coming in December... I digress.

See all those little silver boxes? P has boxes too: silver, wood, brass, glass, you name it. He has a lot of the wooden ones back in the bedroom, ostensibly to keep stuff in.  The ones on his desk are mostly silver and are purely decorative.  He keeps them neatly aligned, sort of like this though not so numerous.  He also, at the moment, has a little tiny glass vase near them filled with violets.  Maybe I should take a photo of HIS desk.. P has books stacked up on the coffee table, just like Andy does, but P's have overrun the place, towering in stacks from the TV cabinet, stacked waist high in about five stacks on the floor. It's like a fortress.. Wonder what he is protecting himself from (or whom..?).  Nonetheless, it's an impressive library filled with financial books, political books, thinking about thinking books, political satire books, political expose books (ie Karl Rove, the Architect) etc etc. Catching a theme here?

A. Likes Scott Schuman's The Sartorialist (as does P)    A. just wrote a paper about blogs, I think.  Scott and his girlfriend Garance Dore travel around to Milan, Australia, Paris, London, etc, but call NYC home. They take photos on the street, and it seems they make a bunch of money.  I could do that for a living, if I could take decent photos.  It's all about fashion and lifestyle..

http://www.garancedore.fr/

Now isn't this a lovely photo- Scott has these in abundance, on any given day.  He took this one in Paris.  He also blogs about cool places, such as the Clic Gallery and Bookstore in NYC and I gotta admit it looks like a neat place. His girlfriend, equally successful it seems, Garance, also does some fashion, some lifestyle, and even some silly commentary.. She seems to be in Istanbul right now, checking out shoes and such. And interesting books.  Ahhh me...

.  

So, there are other favorites, too.  I wish my linker was working.. 

But here are a few.. http://www.stylelist.com/,  http://www.bluetramontana.com/2010/01/in-street-helen-levitt.html,http://www.nomagazine.co.nz/good, http://dossierjournal.com /http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/22-incredible-photos-of

Closing with a lovely photo for the day..from my modern met (above) taken by Steve McCurry, the National Geographic photographer who took that haunting photo of the green eyed Afghani girl with the shawl covering her head... 

World War II Photographs

Looking through old family photo albums, we have two delicate old albums with treasures from the past.  Delicately patched inside these albums with their thick black pages are photos taken by Gerald Johnson Maynard during his years in Europe during World War II.  He was commissioned as a photographer, spending most of his time in England and in Scotland during those years.  We have no idea what kind of "action" he may have seen, because there are no photos included that he would not have wanted his family to see.

There are hundreds of them, and J. has scanned a few of them. I thought they were worth sharing.

The best clue to location and timeframe is this photo of Queen Elizabeth, mother to Elizabeth II who currently reigns and was born in 1926, assuming the throne in 1952.  She was the wife of George VI and died in 2002 at the age of 101.  Known as the Queen Mother, Elizabeth frequently toured to visit troops, and medical facilities during the Great War, always decked out in a fancy hat of some description.  Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne when George VI died,  because she was merely a Consort and the throne passes to the the daughter.  She was lauded by her public when she stood her ground rather than fleeing England when Hitler's bombs began to fall.

Queen Elizabeth circa 1943

This amazing shot of a soldier is haunting.  The lighting is especially beautiful. 

probably taken in Scotland.. 

WACs?  Is that what women in service were called then? 

The photographer, Gerald Johnson Maynard, and his bride,
Mary Lou Wall Maynard probably in 1950 or so.