My wife only redecorates (often) when I'm more than 500 miles from home (often). She knows how complicated things can get when I turn my mind to anything. I asked if I could do anything to help with the redec (being polite), she asked me to pick out a few designs for the bedding (being polite).
Thinking I'd finally impress her with some style sense, I stopped in on a Memphis suburban K-Mart. I wasn't going to buy anything but I was going to look. So that I could say I looked. And so I could check out a few garden pruner snipers while I was there. And if I found a real bargain, I justified, I could spend a little more on some of that fine Memphis Barbecue and in and around Beale Street later on Saturday night.
In the bedding section I found myself much more interested in department store floor-space politics than the bedding itself. I couldn't help but notice that a territorial war raging between Martha Stewart and Jaclyn Smith branded products. Got me thinking about the strange phenomenon that calls itself the American Dream, and those that profit from it. Hannah, Spongebob, Mizrahi.
These two ladies, God bless 'em both, were fortunate enough to be born into a time in history where they could put their respective names and smiling / scowling faces on a bedpan and actually make money for doing it. That's the kind of scam I'd like to get in on! They were born in a land that let them profit enormously from their notoriety/celebrity, and in this case, just by choosing objects and "endorsing" them. I have to assume they actually have a choice of what their name is associated with. Lucky ladies. God bless America.
In that store, Jackie seemed to be winning the border skirmish in the bedding department. As with any hostilities, my first thoughts are for the victims. And in this case the main victim seemed to be the U.S. Cotton Industry (not to mention local manufacturers of poly based fabrics). I couldn't find not one piece of branded stuff by either American Merchandising Diva that was actually MADE IN AMERICA or from AMERICAN raw materials.
Now, I hate to wag my finger (just being polite), specially since I couldn't put my money where my mouth is, but is that any way to repay the American Dream?
Godspeed on all your shopping and travel (& redecorating) adventures, Cvetko Ostroznik.
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Related Links Research:
- U.S. Cotton Industry: http://www.cotton.org/
- Some Facts and Figures: U.S. Textiles: An Industry in Crisis http://www.cotton.org/econ/textile-crisis.cfm
- Cotton Council International: U.S. Cotton http://www.cottonusa.org/
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