this is not me. this is joshua bell, hottie violinist numero uno.
Oh, Sew Fast / Sew Easy! How wrong we have been, to bristle at your harassment, when in truth it is you, YOU who are the victims!
Please peruse the inspiration of my lament, a press release from SFSE, addressed to "members of the sewing, knitting and crochet community," (that's us, y'all!). Marketing director Gregory Garvin (some of you may remember him better by his alias, Marketing Toady), has bemoaned the shoddy treatment his employers are receiving at the hands of angry wimmin with sticks, just because they tried to have all our online forums shut down. [Update: the letter has been removed from the SFSE website. Thanks to the Geeky Knitter for preserving screenshots. Read here.]
How misunderstood! How victimized!
The new strategy: divide and conquer.
The real villain here is not the Evil Seamstress Overlords! It's Debbie Stoller, (a.k.a. "Miss Stole-It" in Evil Seamstress Overlord lingo - I think they must be trolling our blogs for funny ideas), who un-feministly "steals" our ideas for her rip-off books! Geez, when I submitted that profile of my knitting group to Debbie, I had no idea that she'd exploit us so shamelessly by printing our picture in her book and letting us describe ourselves in our own words. The nerve!
So, new story, everyone is mean to them, Debbie Stoller is a big fat liar and idea-stealer who unfairly victimizes knitting groups, and everyone is welcome at Evil Seamstress Overlord Web Forums as long as we don't say anything mean about anybody, because it's wrong to be mean. And by the way, here's a cease and desist order for your blog.
Okay, that last part hasn't happened yet, but I'm waiting. Meanwhile, if you just can't hate enough on Sew Fast Sew Sleazy, check out the great new Stitch & Bitch timeline over at Free to Stitch, Free to Bitch, and more legal analysis of the trademark question (plus some gossip) over at the Girl from Auntie.
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And finally, the "4 Things" meme. Saun always hips me to the internet bandwagons. And I always jump.
Four jobs in my life (these are all more interesting than my current job, which I love):
1. Guard of beach chairs in Margate, NJ (on average I read one whole book every day at this job)
2. Karaoke DJ at a crappy boardwalk karaoke stand
3. Tutor/babysitter to insanely bratty Austrian child, Ingrid (this is a story I must one day share).
4. Cheerleader/cowgirl/beer party hostess for Coors European marketing strategy
Four movies I could watch over and over:
1. A Room With a View (believe me, I have)
2. Playtime (Jacques Tati)
3. ....
4. (I don't like watching movies over and over).
Four places I have lived:
1. Charlottesville, VA
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Carrboro, NC
4. Pomona, NJ
Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Budapest, Hungary
2. Paris, France (oh la la!)
3. Acadia National Park, Maine (just last fall)
4. Zion National Park, Utah
Four websites I visit daily:
1. Environmental Health News
2. Bloglines
3. NC Conservation Network blog
4. Flickr
Four of my favorite foods:
1. Hot Thai curries with tofu
2. Malai Kofta
3. The sampler platter at Neomonde
4. Is tea "food"? If so, then a big pot of Darjeeling with lots of milk and a little sugar.
Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. On my couch knitting and listening to archived episodes of This American Life with Simon in my lap
2. Hiking in the Shining Rock wilderness area with HWWLLB
3. Value Village with Miss Bugheart
4. Protesting outside Sew Fast / Sew Sleazy's NYC headquarters
Tag, you're it: Bugheart, Angelia, Jenn, and Kristy (this is my frail attempt to get Kristy to post something again soon). What's yer four things?
Ok. I'll post my 4 Things answers...but you may fall asleep while reading them! :-)
ReplyDeleteCan't find the So Sleazy press release...will look at their website. (insert MUCH sarcasm here) The poor, misunderstood, mistreated company!
Love your knitters against bush button too - can I steal it?
Thanks for keeping me in the loop on SFSE; though their press release doesn't appear to be on the site any more...hmmm.
ReplyDeleteOh, and yeah, you'll get my 4 things...
Yes, please steal my anti-Bush paraphernalia.
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of pure stupid evil, SFSE apparently took down the press release due to its many typos and mean-spirited barbs. Luckily the Geeky Knitter saved screen shots! http://deety.completelyfreehosting.com/?p=117
Thanks for the comment you left me about this issue, I had never really heard the community aspect of this drama put so well. I agree completely that it seems that SFSE is trying to benefit from a hip brand.
ReplyDeleteIf Stoller gets a SnB-related trademark, I'd have much less of a problem with it. She has been actively encouraging knitting groups, and has been a supporter of women's groups for much longer than that (yep, an old BUST reader here). The trademarks that she filed for involve things like knitting kits, bags, and a television show, and I have no problem with her trying to use a name she helped popularize for that kind of thing. Nothing that she registered for sounds like would cause trouble for groups wanting to do something as simple as using Yahoo.
Oh, and Carrboro? I used to live there. It was great at the time, but I'm enjoying being in Raleigh these days.
LOL. You know, there's a countdown (# of days left in office - for GWB - in case you're confused about what I'm talking about) clock that can be put on a blog. Enchanting Juno has it on her blog.
ReplyDeleteIt's a sad, sad, day. Alito has been confirmed. I think we should all have a moment of silence.
ReplyDeleteIn the zeal to trademark a term that has been used for ages, it was Debbie Stoller who came after the Stitchin' Bitches out west; she did not want them to use this form of the name or sell T shirts and mugs either. So, now she is experiencing some of the same karma.
ReplyDeleteIt is unfortunate that the spirit of captialism is superceding the spirit of knitting; when my aunt held her weekly stitch and bitch group back in the 60's, I remember this being radical in the sense that her girlfriends didn't like the word "bitch" being used. How times have changed. Now folks want to capitalize off it.
SFSE fired a male friend of mine for speaking out against their policies. A company that used to be cool, is now a bitch, cause it wants to make money. Lord.
It's now a fantasy, but I wish everyone would stop being bitches, and create; isn't this why we do it?
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