My heart goes out to Wendy.
If you read her blog, you will know what I am talking about.

Spent yesterday evening reading student research papers - haven't actually graded them yet, but have put comments on them in preparation for grading (I think that will start this afternoon). I get another stack of papers in another class today.

Over the weekend, I received a new catalog from a place called "L'atelier". I don't normally criticise things, but in this case - the catalog wound up in the trash for a couple reasons. The main reason was the graphic design - it was so chaotic I couldn't read the darn thing - every page was packed with stuff and had no clear focus. Maybe I'm just not very sophisticated, but I need whitespace and clear divisions between different sections. Well, actually, no, graphic design wasn't the main reason. The main reason was the precious editorial tone - that breathless, look-what-WE-just-discovered! attitude, the this-ain't-your-granny's-knitting-this-is-HIP attitude. I felt not unlike how I felt when I heard about sorority rush - first, a sense of "they wouldn't want me" and then the reverse-Groucho feeling of "any club that would reject me is a club I want no part of." Which is generally how I feel about anything that is so self-consciously and self-referentially hip.

It reminded me a bit of the J. Peterman catalog, and all those parodies of the J. Peterman catalog.
Am I the only one who is put off by that - I think the standard marketing model is that you sell things to people based on what they aspire to be, but when I look at any of those super-hip, super-glossy-cool catalogs, I feel like I'm on the outside looking in, like it's a private club I'm not a part of.

It was also exceedingly pricey. Including the opportunity to join a "private club" for $75 that gets you some kind of a discount and gets yarn samples mailed to you. But $75? For a year? I guess I'm just not hip, sophisticated, and with-it about knitting. Oh, and the yarns - mostly all novelty. Give me good old plain wool in a nice color, something I can knit up using a fancy stitch or lace pattern into a top that won't look dated in five years.