CrushedVamp

Very valid points on everything... Kind of an interesting note on ankle bracelets and femme fatale's. In the Femme Fatale novel I wrote, I had my main character wear an ankle bracelet with a little locket on it. She said it was the ashes of her late-mother, but in reality, it was where she kept her cyanide that she killed several men with. It was kind of a cool way to always have a means to kill on her with nobody really the wiser to it. She also owned sheep, so she had all the ingredients on hand to cook up her own cyanide. On the other end of the spectrum with them though there are those in India where women typical have some opulent ankle bracelets because that is how they show they are married. It works over there because of their style of dress but I am not so sure that would work so well in western cultures. It would be kind of awkward to pull up the cuff on a lady's jeans to see if she was married or not before hitting on her at a dance club! 🙂 As for those that think the ankle bracelet is shameful in some way, it has that in common with the pineapple. I have heard that putting displays of pineapple symbols around your house, like pineapples on your porch, of having pineapple shaped wall decorations or the sort is a way people who have open marriages tell others of their lifestyle. But that is not the case at all. Pineapples have typically been status symbols because prior to refrigeration, to have such costly tropical fruit meant the owners had money. They even showed a university that is well known for degrees in the hospitality industry, having pineapples all across their campus to show that. The one piece of jewelry I think is very unique, but have never seen on a person in real life, is the waist chain. I wonder what kind of secret meaning that is supposed to have? 🙂

I cannot think of a reason why men shouldn’t wear them. And what would it matter, all forms of jewelry are bondage like. I mean necklaces are collar-like, bracelets resemble handcuffs, ankle bracelets are leg iron-like, etc. Its even been said wearing jewelry started out back when cave men chained his cave women to a cave wall so she would not run off as he went out and hunted down his wooly mammoth. Then one day he saw pretty shiny rocks in a stream, pounding the soft metal into a chain, and gave that to her instead so she had something shiny to wear instead of being chained to the cave wall. Other cave women saw her jewelry and wanted that from her special caveman. I have my doubts on if wearing jewelry started out that way or not, but it was what I was told. Myself I have never looked at a woman wearing an anklet as anything but wholesome, but I also grew up going to church and a lot of women wore them in the 1980’s, and now in a resurgence, are wearing them again. In looking around last year, I counted 7 women wearing anklets out of 350 church members. Its not like everyone is wearing them at church, but at the same time, not uncommon to see in a respectable setting. But I once saw a lady who did not think the same way as I do. We had just got out of church so my wife was dressed up in a dress, pantyhose, ankle bracelet and high heels, and needed to grab some things from a big box store that sells hardware. As we were grabbing some things for a home project a couple came in the same aisle, and she looked down at my wife’s ankle, then looked at me, then down, then at her husband, and from her raw inquisitive look you could just see that she had heard that ankle bracelets can mean sometimes open relationships. We do NOT do that, my wife just likes ankle bracelets, but you could see the woman was mortified.

You make some valid points, but I am not so sure "Planned Obsolesce" is so much about planned failure about exact places of weakness, as much as it is in knowing they could do more to fortify the shoe... or product... and just don't. In that way, "planned" is kind of an arbitrary word, kind of like how someone might say "passive-aggressive". It is more of a case of, only 10% of the produced product fails so they do not do anything about redesigning it, but if 75% fail, then to prevent costly returns, they will. The Pinto was the classic case for this. It was originally going to be the safest car because it was designed with a gelled gas tank, kind of like how WWII planes had, or stock cars, but they took it out of production due to production costs.

Good for you! No matter the gender, I am just glad to see when people dress nicely. What that entails is subjective of course, but when I see anyone, of any gender; dress sharp, it is impressive, and often times the bolder they are, the more I am impressed. Overall its just a dislike of mine for todays dress like a slob attitude that seems to permeate fashion. My daughter now wears Bear Jeans. I call them that because every time she wears them I ask her if she needs her AR-15 to take out the bear that attacked her and shredded her jeans to nothing but gaping holes... I was looking at getting my wife another ankle bracelet the other day and got sidetracked on a blog post where the woman railed against ankle bracelets pretty much just saying they should be worn at the beach. IN reading the comments below her post however people slammed her for being so close-minded. Some of her points were that they should not be worn by anyone over the age 40, and NEVER to work and got hounded for saying as much. Kind of like how people supported you in your skinny jean post. Again, good for you, and I am glad you got so many likes.

What is the difference between an onion and bagpipes? No one cries when you cut up bagpipes. (Just an old joke I heard a long time ago. Bagpipes don't bother me, but my daughter learning to play the alphorn might). 🙂

I think it is called Planned Obsolescence, which is where they design things to fail in relatively short time frames so that people are forced to buy more of them. I once worked for a company with a highly respected product yet KNEW the paint was bad and so the product would rust out quickly. It took a class action lawsuit to get them to change their ways. I had to replace a pair of shoes of mine yesterday that I wear at work. I love them, but the sole that is glued on cannot handle the oil I work in, so slowly the sole comes apart. I am hoping they change their glue, but if these fail I'll have to go to a different shoe.

My wife has a pair that is multicolored but in that they are very shimmery and change from gold to silver depending on what light they are in. In some light it changes color midway, like at a bar the vamps might be gold but the toes are silver. They are not sequins either, but gritty in texture but really change color. I think she got them at Macy's, but gosh, ten years ago.

What are people's thoughts on "having a way out" for those who wear high heels? For my wife who LOVES her high heels and wears them a lot but not every day; they can get painful at times so we always have a less painful option for her if it becomes too painful. Like having a pair of Keds (primisols) in the car that she can put on, or a pair of ballet flats. It depends on what she is wearing of course so she looks stylish even in shoes without high heels, but we have a way that she can quickly change from painful to painless. Or do you feel working through the pain is best to toughen up and get more accustomed to high heel wearing? I know sometimes for me, I am a little disappointed because she can be quick to change, especially if it is the main event we are going to, but she wants to switch out to flats when I think she would look more refined in heels. But it is not my feet in them, and I am not the high heel police.

The sad thing is... I considered giving my daughter an Alphorn just for that reason: she lives with her mother (my ex-wife). It is a very valid point. We do semi-have a place to play it as here I live on a river in a VERY rural town, in fact our town is 41 square miles in size with only 1100 people, so she could go down by the river and belch out her music. She also lives along a river with her mother, but in one of the most mountainous areas of the country. But would she play it? The real good wooden Alphorn's cost $7000, but a cheap carbon fiber one is only $1500 so it is temping to get for her.

Nice to hear, and good for your son in doing so well with his music. Myself, I dislike music for my own reasons, but atlas you may get a kick out of this: my eleven year old daughter wants me to buy an Alphorn for her to learn how to play. YES one of those... think of the Ricola Cough Drop Commercials here. What the heck do you say to that request? I mean I want to support her, but can you imagine the awful noise as she is learning to play it... miles from the house even?

I will not say anything more about the old muscle car as a work in project as I understand how these things can be. This may not be the case with you regarding that car, but I know a few times I have spoken about projects to people online and then it takes on a world of its own. They are not doing so for nefarious reasons, but rather the opposite; to be congenial and in trying to converse with you on something they know you like. But then the project is not done for the right reasons. Its hurried because I want to show that its something I am working on, or money that should not be diverted to the project is because of external pressure. Ultimately it just ends up not being fun because the best part of some projects is just working on them… being in the moment instead of being so focused on the end result. It took me a long time to figure that out. I do a ton of woodworking projects, but slowly learned I was more pleased slowing down, doing things by hand like making hand cut dovetails instead of cutting them via machine, not only made the woodworking more enjoyable, but they came out better because I was not rushed to get the project done, start the next one; then rinse and repeat. No need to feel pressured about telling us car stories as I hope its a project motivated by a father just to be with his son. In fact, that is the novels theme I am writing about now. It is about an orphan who is a Cabin Boy in 1792 America. As the Captain of the Revenue-Marine, the boy and the captain's love interest (Abigail) take on a ruthless pirate, the orphan (11 years old) feels like he was never loved until the end of the novel when he realizes people love him so much, they will die for him. It is a true father/so story with its own nautical project; the son just happens to be an orphan. It sounds corny in a brief write-up but is a VERY powerful story about a father's love, just not the boys birth father, but father nonetheless.

That is great to hear. My co-worker just bought an old car to drive around and restore as well. I don't know what it is, but I know it has a 455 CID engine in it! My daughters are all into Theater which I have always supported. There is so much too it, from breaking out of their shells, to public speaking, to the creativity of making the costumes and scenery, as well as engineering for some of the sets, and obviously not getting into trouble after school because they are so engaged in theater. So there is a lot to it than just what meets the eye and so we support them. So much so that we went to a Broadway show just to keep encouraging them. Great to hear your son is also stepping up while you're at work so much. Sounds like you are doing well as a parent!!

I think that got carried over for the police as well, at least in the United States. Typically, when they enter a person's home to talk to the occupants, they remove their hat before entering. In a similar situation, but different I watched a woman talking on her phone, absentmindedly doing heel play with one of her heels. All was good until it fell off... and she was on a bridge over a river! The look on her face was priceless when she realized she had to walk home with one heel on and the other lost to the watery abyss. It was the look of pure shock!

I do not judge anyone on what they take in their coffee... My tastes in coffee have really swung wildly over the years. Like most young people I started out going light on the coffee and heavy on the sugar and cream. Then somewhere in the middle I was using that French Vanilla stuff that has more sweetener in it than a sugar factory. Seeing that was not good I switched to half and half, and finally now just a splash of whole milk. Myself, I wish I never started drinking coffee. Granted I have never drunk alcohol, ever smoked, have ever done any kind of drugs, or ever gambled, so in light of those vices, having coffee is relatively minor. But when I think about all the money I have spent on it over the years it is pretty disgusting. Granted I have never broken into an elderly lady's house and smote her over the head just to get a good fix of java, but I am not sure anyone would want to be around me in the morning without it! I also commiserate with you on your Saturday work. I had an emergency call-in Friday Night and had some work yesterday to do that took an hour. It sucks, but when you work on the largest machine in the world (the grid) people expect electricity to be on 24/7/365. As the Blackout of 2003 proved, people die when there is no electricity.

I am in no way the Ankle Bracelet Police so who am I to say how they are to be worn, but I would think wearing them rather obscurely seen under pantyhose or stockings would mute the point of wearing them, not to mention them snagging and laddering the pantyhose or stockings more often. I will concede though that it would keep the ankle from bouncing around as the person walks if that proved to be bothersome to the wearer. It would certainly prevent that. But I am not sure there is another form of jewelry that is as roiled in conflict as that of the lowly olde ankle bracelet. There are supposedly so many differing meanings for a person wearing them, from meaning the person is in an open marriage, to be married or not depending on what ankle it is worn on, to challenging social norms. For my wife… she just likes how they look on her ankle. We are not into wife-sharing or any of that anymore. And for whatever reason she prefers silver over that of gold feeling as if silver is more casual then the gold ones, although she owns several of both. She also wears her on her left ankle because she is married and that is the same side her wedding band is worn. And finally, typically her ankle bracelets has a pendant of some sort to them, usually a cross, but also dolphins, and the initials of our children. The company I work for really got caught up in large data centers, really banking on them for future growth and now is losing a LOT of money because of it. It stems from AI Data Centers consuming a LOT of electricity, I mean some were going to take nuclear power plants powering them like Three Mile Island being taken out of moth balls and fired back up just to run them, and all behind the meter!!! But the Chinese figured out a way to do AI with a fraction of the electricity needed, so now everything is out the window. No one should make assumptions like that though, that the only way to do something is this way, because you just never know how innovation will change things, and especially if you think you can corner the market on something. That just makes people innovate that much more to get out from under your controlling hand. I never liked hot tea, always preferring hot coffee until I went to Ireland for the first time. We were staying at a farmhouse and the couple that lived there offered me tea, so to be polite I accepted and that was when she asked how I took it, with sugar or cream. My grandmother was a tea drinker, but always had hers "black" so to speak, so it never occurred to me that it could be tamed with cream and sugar. After having some cream in it, I have grown to really love hot tea. Call me what you wish but I take mine as I do my coffee, just a splash of whole milk, so not flavored creamers, or creamers at all, and no sugar. Just milk.

You are not alone in that! 🙂 I was once on a flight sitting in the first row where ahead of me a flight attendant sat, but in looking back at the cabin reversed-too so to speak. Its odd I know, but I like ankle bracelets and she was wearing one, but it was the first time I ever saw a woman wear them UNDER her stockings. That took me by surprise, but when I looked up, she was looking back at me like I was some sort of pervert. I am not, just at that time I had never seen anything like that. Since then I have seen others wear them that way, under their pantyhose or stockings, but still can't figure out why. My wife wears her on the outside. As for me, I have been thinking about a new job myself. As a guy I think a lot of my identity is in doing what I do, and it does not help that it is kind of unique what I do. It always paid well, but over the years the pay has leveled off and other jobs are increasing. Part of that is working insane hours, like literally being on-call 24/7/365 days a year. My wife even says "it feels like we live here" whenever we have to drive to my job for something. Now I am beginning to wonder if "having a cool job" is actually worth it though. I could work a job for the same money, 5 miles from home, 4 days a week, its just a boring every day sort of job. I do have a job interview there next week, so we shall see how that goes, then make my decision. As for high heels, maybe it is because it is early mud season here, but I have not seen anyone wearing high heels, even at church. It is one of the reasons I have not been on this site much myself.

You are right, and that is because it specifically says for men to not wear hats, and this it is okay for women too, directly in the bible. Some today say that it was for very specific reasons why AT THAT TIME the bible says to do that, and so they dismiss it because they feel it is not relevant today, while others strictly abide by it still. I am not sure because there are other specifics on how to dress that are ignored routinely. An example is make-up, as it says for a lady not to wear it. Well, back in that day, the oldest profession advertised what they did by wearing bright red lipstick so I could see where it might be forbidden to be worn, but today it is general practice, so seeing a woman wearing lipstick does not mean she is a prostitute. Myself, I just feel do as you are lead. Myself I ALWAYS wear a hat, but not in church, taking it off at the start, but I have seen others wear it all through the service. I have seen others take it off just during prayer. That is up to them though as I can't judge them, my life is hardly perfect...

Myself, I do not care what people wear for the most part. I say "most part" because if I am in a bad part of town, and the only other person on the street is wearing all black, with a hoodie and it drawn over their heads, yes, I'm flipping my firearm off safety. That is not judging, but being situationally aware and prepared. If nothing happens, so be it, but how a person is dressed can be indicative of future behavior! But I have seen the opposite. Some of it is region and certain society, but I remember being in church and a some were upset that this guy came in and did not remove his ball cap. They seemed surprised, and I was like, "just be glad the guy came. who cares that he wore a hat through the whole service". But just so everyone knows, if we are going to talk politics, I won't be on this forum at all. There are plenty of forums where people can do that without stating rhetoric on her no matter what side their perspective is from. I have not read a newspaper in a decade, and chose to read books instead of watching television for the past seven years, and generally like to be blissfully unaware of things I cannot change.

While I know we are not supposed to judge others, myself I see it as inevitable and more so, is even logical to do. It is how we are wired to operate. We see things, we experience things and then we remember patterns. That can be both good and bad. On a plane which is the exact same situation repeated and repeated again, with clothes people are wearing being the only thing that really changes, oh for sure you are going to make associations with behaviors and how people are dressed. As a writer it can be fun to choose to work with these associations or write the opposing for contrast in my characters. For example, if it’s a minor character and my novel is already approaching the word limit, I might just have the typical alpha male so I do not have to describe the character as much and focus on the plot because people have experienced that combination a lot in life. But the plot might alternatively be about a nurse who kills patients by giving them lethal injections and thus also kills the stereotypical a “nurse is always caring” rationale. Part of that can be what the characters are wearing too. I once wrote a mystery where the killer walked through blood because she was wearing high heels and left triangular prints behind. It ended up being a false clue though because while seemingly it was the suspect that always wore high heels all through the novel, it was actually the hipster who typical wore sandals who did the murder. She only wore heels that night because she was going out on a dinner-date with her husband and was uncharacteristically dressed. But I could have easily changed the gender... what detective would ever think the killer was a MAN wearing high heels?

A lot of excellent rulings came out of the 1960's on First Amendment Rights so I am not surprised that it started there. My Father in Law had a case go before the Supreme Court in 1970 on First Amendment Rights that he won which I thought was pretty cool because so few attorneys can say they had cases go to the Supreme Court and win them. There are some excellent ones coming out now too, so this is another era of importance in the history of the Supreme Court. Like the overturning of Chevron Deference that went widely unnoticed but is going to have MASSIVE implications moving forward. It should have never been allowed in the first place, but just the same, once the lawsuits start simmering down and case law is established over the ruling the United States will be in a much better place where we can derive strategic planning on numbers instead of whim.

It is a tough question for sure. As the Judge in the Larry Flint trial once said, “I cannot define what art is, but I surely know the difference between pornography and art when I see it”. While different, the idea is the same here for me. I cannot define what is inappropriate, but I know it when I see it. I fully understand freedoms and have always said, “Freedom is indeed scary”, but kids… kids is where I draw the line. They should not be subjected to seeing anything inappropriate; they already see that enough without my sense of “freedom” adding to it. I thought your reply was spot on. I love the human figure too as I LOVE art, and in fact as I type this have a large lithograph of John Collier's Lady Godiva above my desk, but there are places to appreciate art... and the human form, and places that should be sanctuary from seeing that. Just because YOU CAN do something, does not mean YOU ALWAYS SHOULD!

For us flying is a little different because we got private planes. Because of clients my wife's family carts around for real estate sales, they keep the planes very clean, but they are also very small planes. Since we are not "out in public" and usually flying into camp via the float plane, we seldom are dressed up. And... as sad a reality as it is, small planes are known for not always flying so we like to be ready for a swim or night stay in the forest after a plane crash. A lot easier to do that in jeans and a t-shirt then be dressed up nicely. But as much as I like high heels and pantyhose on a lady, I am conflicted with the dress requirements of flight attendant's. I can see where if they make it a career their compression stockings (they don't wear average pantyhose they wear compression tights) helps in the compression/decompression of take offs and landing for their better blood circulation, but in a crash a few flight attendant's have suffered severe burns because their nylons melted to their legs. It would seem to me that due to the unlikely event of a crash for a commercial plane, maybe compression tights would be better? Thoughts?

Nice to hear! It seems it takes about a year for fashion to arrive from Europe to where I live in the United States. I remember being over in Ireland in 2008 for the first time, and a lover of the miniskirt, I saw a woman wearing and ultra-miniskirt but with leggings worn under it to tame the audacity of it. It just caught my attention, but a year later I noticed the same "new look" over where I live. Whether you love or hated the fashion trend, it just verified what I saw over the years, a year delay in fashion trends.

We have always called them sneakers here, but I live in a strange locale where we are different even from the rest of the United States. We got some strange terms for things I consider are everyday words and others have no concept of what I am talking about. As a writer I have to be wary of that because not all readers will be from around here. But oddly my wardrobe is changing, and I am not sure why. I used to NEVER wear sneakers, but after discovering Sketchers Step-in's which are sneakers you do not need to tie. You literally just slip them on. I even went out and got composite toe step in work shoes by sketchers. I have not worn boots in over two years and before that I LIVED in them. But its beyond changing boots to sneakers. For 50 years I wore crew socks. Loved crew socks. Only wore crew socks and recently discovered ankle socks and now only wear them. Who know, if I keep sticking around you guys, you will convince me to wear high heels! 🙂 (Said all in good fun)

This pretty much describes me too. I wear leggings a lot and while I have tried to buy better ones, the ones I like the most, and fit best for me are the $5 kind found at thrift stores. I have worn them for so many years that I don't even pay attention to them anymore. I don't wear them in public except for maybe mowing the lawn or working in my woodworking shop. In all the years I have been doing this I have only had issues twice. Once was when I was sitting on the couch and the wife took a picture of a woodworking coffee table I had made. I was out of the picture... I thought... but the reflection in a mirror showed me which my mother-in-law just said, "Mr. Crushed Vamp looks very relaxed"... The other issue has been... well... women in leggings SOMETIMES get Camel Toe, but being tight pants and male, let's just say sometimes I show "Missile Toe"! 🙂