Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[Betelnut]

Joan Crawford, as in "Mommie Dearest"? "No wire hangers" Joan Crawford?

Yes. I think her insistence for perfection and attention to detail was one of the reasons she was the great actress she was.

I hope that she is remembered for her body of work, not her quirkiness. That would make my brain hurt, too.

Agreed!  I love Joan Crawford...as an actress.  That picture of her is awesome though!

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

Along the lines of museum-esque parlours in homes.

Don’t get me wrong—there are quilts that are made purely to hang on a wall, or at a show, or as some other sort of decor and to never be used otherwise, but I do not make those. I make ones to cuddle up with.

I made my mom a very simple, quick (in so much as a quilt can be made—it took me maybe 10 hours to cut, piece front and back, and quilt) for Mother’s day one year, because she doesn’t really have any bedding or blankets of her own and is always cold. I know she uses it all the time—which makes me really happy. But every time I visit, she talks about how she knows she should just fold it up and use it for display so she doesn’t ruin it.

She had a house fire just before thanksgiving and one of her church members gave her a quilt—still not incredibly intricate, but certainly more complex than the one I made—which she has no problem using all the time or wearing out, since her daughter didn’t make it for her, I guess?

No amount of "Mom, please use it. I made it for you to use. If it gets ruined, I’ll make you a new one." will get through to her that I want her to use it and not set it aside for display. It’s not like it’s some crazy snail trail piecing with additional intricate applique and quilting—it really is just a utility quilt made of some nice coordinating fabrics.

I give up. At least she does actually use it the 358 days a year I’m not around.

[lady_disdain]

Could you make a deal with her that you will make her another quilt just for hanging as long as she uses the original to snuggle in?

[mmswm]

Growing up we had one room that was off limits most of the time, though my mother wasn't nearly as bad as some of you were describing.  We could use that room to practice piano/oboe/cello (depending on the kid in question), and that was the room that Christmas and Easter were always set up in, but for day to day use, it was off limits.

My mom also did the plastic thing, but at least she had a very good reason.  For a number of years my grandmother (father's mother) lived with us and she had a "dribbling" problem and refused to admit it.  Everything she sat on wound up smelling like pee, so my mother basically shrink wrapped every piece of furniture in the house.  When Grandma passed away, mom uncovered everything. 

[lowspark]

Syntax brain hurt.

The phrase "Up to $50 or more" always makes my brain twitch. You can have something up to $50, or you can have something $50 or more, but please do not say that it is "up to $50 or more".

There is a local shop that always has a CD sale rack with a sign saying "From under $10". I often wonder if they realise that that description includes every single number.

I get that. What they are trying to say is that this rack has some CDs in it that are as cheap as (probably) $9.99 (under $10), but also some which are more than $10. Yes, that encompasses all possible prices but I think the emphasis here is on how low they go (under $10) which is to say (in their estimation and for the sake of advertising) incredibly cheap!

In other words, the sign is saying, "Look in this rack! there are some CDs in here that are so cheap, they are less than $10! Be aware, though, they're not all that cheap, just some of them."

Yes, thank you, I did understand what they were trying to say.  My point was that they are communicating it in a very sloppy way indeed.

Ah yes, sloppy communication. These days I'm impressed if they can just get the spelling right and not put apostrophes into plurals. I just saw this today on a restaurant sign: Field of Green's -- is the name of the eatery. Now, they can call it anything they want, it's their place. But the name implies that it belongs to Field of Green, not that it is a field of greens. Oh well, whatever.

[gramma dishes]

...    For a number of years my grandmother (father's mother) lived with us and she had a "dribbling" problem and refused to admit it.  Everything she sat on wound up smelling like pee, so my mother basically shrink wrapped every piece of furniture in the house.  When Grandma passed away, mom uncovered everything.

Sometimes plastic is the lesser of two evils.   

We can all "forgive" your Mother.  I'd personally much rather sit on plastic than someone else's pee.

[Piratelvr1121]

...    For a number of years my grandmother (father's mother) lived with us and she had a "dribbling" problem and refused to admit it.  Everything she sat on wound up smelling like pee, so my mother basically shrink wrapped every piece of furniture in the house.  When Grandma passed away, mom uncovered everything.

Sometimes plastic is the lesser of two evils.   

We can all "forgive" your Mother.  I'd personally much rather sit on plastic than someone else's pee.

Pod to that one!  We had a living room and a family room, growing up.  The living room was for Christmas and company, reading or playing the piano.  Anything else was done in the family room, where the tv was.  Brings to mind the Victorian way of having a parlor that was closed off for company and one for the family. 

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

Could you make a deal with her that you will make her another quilt just for hanging as long as she uses the original to snuggle in?

I don’t think she wants to hang one… that’s not her decorating style, and the one that I made her is closer to twin bed size than wallhanging size. I think she just has this idea that quilts shouldn’t be used to death (we don't have much of a quilting tradition in my family), even though I’d rather she did. I do plan on making her a nicer one at some point, but even then, I’d want her to use it.

[lady_disdain]

Now my head is really hurting.

[mmswm]

...    For a number of years my grandmother (father's mother) lived with us and she had a "dribbling" problem and refused to admit it.  Everything she sat on wound up smelling like pee, so my mother basically shrink wrapped every piece of furniture in the house.  When Grandma passed away, mom uncovered everything.

Sometimes plastic is the lesser of two evils.   

We can all "forgive" your Mother.  I'd personally much rather sit on plastic than someone else's pee.

Pod to that one!  We had a living room and a family room, growing up.  The living room was for Christmas and company, reading or playing the piano.  Anything else was done in the family room, where the tv was.  Brings to mind the Victorian way of having a parlor that was closed off for company and one for the family.

Oh, yes.  She gets a pass on the plastic because of the reason she did it.  There are sometimes reasons why these things should get done.  On a side note, both the living room set and the family room set are still in use, and while they aren't as shiny and new as they once were, they make perfect furniture for the playroom at my parents' house and the basement of one of my sisters' houses.  The old family room set isn't in as good shape as the old living room set, but they're still comfy and functional.  The other furniture that got shrin wrapped included the dining room set (still looks showroom quality, even though it's been used every day for 40 years) and the office furniture that's also still in use.  My father is the type that will spend a lot of money on very high quality stuff and then expect it to be properly taken care of and last forever.  For the most part, that's what happens.

[CharlieBraun]

Joan Crawford, as in "Mommie Dearest"? "No wire hangers" Joan Crawford?

Ah....Joan....well, we gotta figure - we gotta *know* that wasn't the first time she'd told them?  It was probably the 100,006,745th time.  So yeah, she mighta been cranky at that point.   

[Carotte]

After the furniture-must-not-be-used there is the books-must-not-be-read kind of people.
My SO is a bit paranoid with his books, he tries to read them without creasing spines and all. I understand (up to a certain point, even more if they're beautiful or antique..), but for 'cheap' paperbacks it's sometimes not easy to keep them pristine. We have the same collections of Discworld books, the british paperpacks from Corgi, his are new-ish but when I lended him one I made it a point to say that he could be careless (up to a certain point of course) since I had read it a good half-dozen times and that my pet rat had, at the time, also enjoyed a few pages .

[Virg]

lowspark wrote:

"I just saw this today on a restaurant sign: Field of Green's -- is the name of the eatery. Now, they can call it anything they want, it's their place. But the name implies that it belongs to Field of Green, not that it is a field of greens. Oh well, whatever."

To me, that name is the same as saying Green's Field.  That is, a field that belongs to someone named Green.  I agree that it's probably not what they meant, though.

Virg

[Hmmmmm]

lowspark wrote:

"I just saw this today on a restaurant sign: Field of Green's -- is the name of the eatery. Now, they can call it anything they want, it's their place. But the name implies that it belongs to Field of Green, not that it is a field of greens. Oh well, whatever."

To me, that name is the same as saying Green's Field.  That is, a field that belongs to someone named Green.  I agree that it's probably not what they meant, though.

Virg

I went to this restaurant a few weeks ago with my DD and her vegan friend. I think they figured out their mistake because their website just has Field of Green but their sign still has Field of Green's.  Honestly, I didn't think much of it, but DD and her friend were both highly amused by that errant appostrophe.  They wanted to ask to meet Mr or Mrs Green.

[Adelaide]

My aunt and uncle have three indoor dogs. My aunt is always complaining about how much cleaning she does and how much of a hassle it is to get anything done. How she's always tired from having to get up early/in the middle of the night/whenever and let the dogs out. How they're underfoot all the time, etc.

They just adopted a fourth dog. Which is great. But my aunt can start off griping about cleaning/messiness in one conversation and by the end of it start beaming about how she just looooves her new "addition to the family". She literally does not connect the dots between all of the work she does and how tired she is to the fact that she lets her dogs live indoors and shed all over the furniture. People have tried broaching the subject. Once my mother said "Oh, that's too bad, have you thought about putting a dog house on the covered patio so hair won't get all over your furniture?" My aunt shrugged and replied "He won't sleep outside."

I've just come to the conclusion that she's one of those people who isn't happy unless she's miserable, so she isn't going to remove her reason to be miserable.