Friday, September 11, 2009

One Reason I Like the Past is Because It Did Not Contain Thomas Kinkade

1. The 1930 Michigan Census included a special check-box to indicate if a resident in question owned a radio. Ownership of a radio was seen as an indicator of wealth and modernity, and was carefully noted by the census-takers.

2. Did you catch last Sunday's New York Times article about the proliferation of self-storage in this country? "The Self Storage Association notes that, with more than seven square feet for every man, woman and child, it’s now 'physically possible that every American could stand — all at the same time — under the total canopy of self-storage roofing.'” The article also mentioned that on average, the typical American buys an article of clothing every 5 days.

3. Ypsilanti teen diarist Allie McCullough recently described buying one new dress for the upcoming school year, and sewing on another.

4. Train tracks do not run in circles within gigantic pine trees; they run on the ground. The ridiculous mashup of several sentimental ole-timey idioms in this item, while ignoring such realities as infant mortality, hunger, and tuberculosis, from the latter of which Allie McCullough died, is distasteful because it is dishonest.

5. Anyone impelled to purchase this hideous item needs to work harder on creating their own authentic holiday traditions, in lieu of buying a landfill-destined piece of tasteless electricity-wasting junk.

6. Dusty D's spleen is now fully and comfortably vented, thank you.

(Image taken from the pages of the "America Profile" magazine insert in this week's papers.)

10 comments :

said...

Love the title of this article. It says so much in so little!

Dusty D said...

Inga: Thanks for your nice comment. Guess I'm a bit grumpy today. Especially considering that the standard of living for past Ypsilantians was way lower across the board and did not include the option of buying such silly doodads as this ridiculous trinket.

Grr.

Dusty D said...

p.s.: Bob Ross; yes. Thomas Kinkade: no.

Heidi Renée said...

If someone ever gifts me a TK item I will be morally obligated to throw it at his or her head, screaming "Allie died of tuberculosis, you insensitive, junk-giving fool!"

Luckily I think everyone I know has better taste than that.

Dusty D said...

Heidi: That is the proper response. You are a highly intelligent lady, as we all knew already.

Dusty D said...

(Award for best laugh of the day goes to Ms. Renee--thank you for the chuckle and for making me laugh at my silly self and my ongoing failure to choose my battles!) :) :) :)

Language Snob said...

Wowee -- and those cute little trains actually get smaller and more winsome, the higher you go up the tree! I was just about to snap up my allotted specimen of this future keepsake (only $170, with s&h), but then I noticed the line at the bottom, with the reference to "it's impressive actual size." Sorry, but I cannot permit myself to become a party to such careless misuse of English . . . .

Dusty D said...

Oh, Language Snob--and you were so close! Plus the reasonable price probably tempted you to buy six or seven and make your own little Thomas Kinkade forest, all plugged in to a giant power strip with all the little trains twirling...twirling...twirling...

Such a shame! I s'pose you'll have to try and survive without them.

WayneJohnson said...

Goodness, this is a wonderful
site! Just discovered it this
evening, it's a jewel! Folks these
days are bombarded with all this
"Christmasie" commercialized
money-fueled economy, and how many
remember the reason for the season?
Have heard tales of the depression from Mom & Dad who grew
up in KY in the 20's-30's. We
don't know how good we have it
these days still.

Dusty D said...

Dear Mr. Johnson: Wow, thank you for visiting!

I for one would LOVE to hear any recollections you've heard about the Depression. My dad lived through it--saw his whole house and everything in it auctioned off and family made homeless.

There's also a Depression-related post here, about a grocery list.

And articles about the depression (scroll down for more) and about the 1930s (again, scroll down; the receipt has both tags) here.

I'd sure love to hear anything you had to say on the subject of the Depression, though.

Thanks for visiting!