When you are bankrupt of ideas, insult the customer

The Thoughtful Dresser has been on the lookout for attractive mid-heel shoes. She has not found any.
Read It's true. Shoe designers hate us.

Or read the article she refers to, Linda Armstrong's
Is it time to knock down skyscraper heels?

“So,” I asked the head of the shoe design studio at Louis Vuitton in Paris recently, “when are you going to do a shoe for you know, wearing?” The slightly wounded reply was that if they had money for every time someone made a smart-aleck comment like that, they would be very rich indeed, but that actually, there were no plans to introduce lower heels in the foreseeable future.

It's pretty much the same story at other fashion shoes houses - officially, at least. “Our customer is a fashion customer” one PR said, implying that anyone not prepared to stagger through her day in 105mm has obviously given up the fight to look good. Another told me that their 35mm to 55mm heels were doing very nicely - with the “older” customer.

Great. Wanting a shoe you can walk in now categorises you as a geriatric. In some of the more fashionable stores, you actually have to ask to see a mid-height heel - they're not on display.

Coincidentally, did you see Bill Cunningham's audio slide show on Sunday about the wholly impractical shoes of summer? The Appeal of the Heel Notice how many of the women on the street, beside the women in ultra high heels, are wearing flip flops. Ugh. Can the shoe designers give us nothing in between?

I have arthritis. I can't even wear mid-heels much less high heels. I cannot wear flip flops to work. I like fashion. I earn a professional income and am willing to pay for quality. Rather than cater to me, the designers would rather insult me by calling me geriatric?

From the archives:
What is Wrong With This Picture?

Not so free range kids

Judith Warner has really hit her stride as a blogger at Domestic Disturbances.

Read her essay about how affluent parents teach their kids that rules are for the little people, Camp Codependence. I wonder if that is how they also pass on the philosophy that "taxes are for the little people"?

It reminds me of Oona's piece about the code "Never Complain, Never Explain" or Death of the gentleman's code.

It also reminds me of the time I sent home a student from Freshman Chemistry Lab for coming to class, late and stoned. He always ran a bit late. That day, he came in after the rest of the class had already measured out their ether and set up their Bunsen burners. He proceeded to rush through setup, spilling ether all over the bench. I rushed over to help him clean it up before it caught fire in a neighbors' Bunsen burner.

That's when I noticed the size of his pupils. I didn't go to Berkeley for nothing. I knew why his pupils were so huge and his hands were so unsteady; I wanted his dangerous ass out of my lab. I told him that he needed to put his stuff away and come back during a makeup session.

The next day, the laboratory coordinator called me in for a dressing down. His mother had called her to complain about my conduct. When I told the coordinator my reason, she said that I must have been mistaken. His mother was an educator and said that her son doesn't do drugs.

If I had been savvier, I would have marched him immediately down to another lab (or the laboratory coordinator's office) to corroborate my observation. It never occurred to me that my judgment would be questioned when he was so obviously stoned. This is another reason why I never wanted to go into teaching.

The NYT article:
Dear Parents: Please Relax, It’s Just Camp

She's too clever II

We had major IT troubles at home this week. It took a fair amount of wrangling and we are still not fully in business at home. While I was doing the basic stuff like disk cleanup, backing up the disks, updating virus and spyware definitions and scanning the disks, I had a great idea.

Why not use child labor?

Iris is always looking for ways to earn extra money. Why not train her to do simple IT tasks?

I couldn't convince her.

"You know how you are always looking for ways to earn money? Babysitting only pays $8-10 per hour. But you could earn $25, maybe $30 per hour doing computer maintenance. I will teach you how. Both Mac and PC. I will even teach you UNIX Sys Admin. You are so lucky you have a mommy who can teach you all these things."

"No, thanks!" and she went back to her book.

"What do you mean, 'No, thanks'? You are always trying to earn money, and I am willing to teach you valuable skills for free."

"It looks boring."

A budding Megan McArdle.

From the archives:
She's too clever
Child Labor
Child Labor II