Too funny:

courtesy of Sew Wrong, here are Kim White Automotive Fabric Handbags. Yup. Handbags made from never-used automotive upholstery fabric.

They don't have a 70s Dodge Dart bag, or I might have been tempted (that was the car my folks had when I was growing up, and I still have fond feelings for the old beast - it was that dark metallic green with a white pleather or Nagahyde top). Come to think of it, the Dart's upholstery was white pleather or Naugahyde, so it wouldn't make much of a handbag - and probably Dodge used up all the stocks of it because it was fairly nondescript.

Speaking of Naugahyde, did you know the company used to make "Nauga" toys to explain where "Naugahyde" came from (and it looks like someone is making them again, be it the original company or no). The story is that Naugas shed their skin, so they don't have to be skinned to provide Naugahyde.

Which reminds me of another story, this one my mom told me: when she was shopping at the mall a couple years ago, she wound up standing near a couple of Pretty Young Things who were looking at a display of sweaters. Pretty Young Thing #1 asked "so what are these sweaters made of, anyway?" and Pretty Young Thing #2 looked at the tag and said "Wool.". PYT #1 asked where wool came from, and PYT #2 said she "thought" it came from sheep. PYT #1 immediately exclaimed "Those poor sheep! How many of them had to die to make that sweater?"

my mother said she refrained from being didactic and going over there and saying "well, actually, zero..."

You know, some school boards wonder about the value of grade-school field trips to visit farms...