02.27.08

Body Jewelry

Posted in Opinion at 11:49 am by Administrator

I am happy that someone can make a joke about body jewelry. Recently, a comedienne mentioned that she saw a young person with a safety pin through an eyebrow, and she hadn’t even realized that eyebrows could possibly fall off. LOL

Nursing homes workers who have visible body piercings, with metal parts, must cover them with Bandaids. They are too disturbing for residents to see. Days like this, I think I must be old, too. They disturb me, not only visually, but because I worry about fatal infections for those who engage in such practices.

The biggest turn off is to see a food server with jutting metal parts. How can any of this be “cute” or attract the opposite gender? I sit in wonderment at the trend. More often, I stand in fascination and revulsion, especially for … lip jewelry.

The fact that young people think that this idea is just the ultimate of things to do to themselves is beyond my comprehension. I suppose it is a variation of the “ring through the nose” practice of earlier cultures. In terms of civilization, things like this seem to represent “one step forward, two steps back.” Nothing truly ever changes. Teenagers only think they are inventing something new, to be “different.”

If I had a family member who did this kind of thing, I would consider locking him or her in a closet until he or she came to his or her senses. I’d be mortified, disgusted, and feel a sense of betrayal. The idea of metal facial jewelry is an insult to God himself and is disgustingly ugly, as well as dangerous.

Yet restaurants keep hiring teenagers who “adorn” themselves in this manner. Why?

Perhaps the workers will get a brain infection and die. In this manner, at least, they will not procreate more individuals of the same ilk. In the meantime, they could be considered “handicapped,” based on their ability to “handicap” business by turning off customers.

Some people have so many piercings, they would need their entire head wrapped in gauze to hide them all. Though alarming, I suppose that amount of wrapping might engender sympathy; maybe even get some extra tips, as people envision that the party might have been severely injured in the war, or has just undergone brain surgery.

Usually, I say “live and let live.” In this case, I say, “If you are going to mutilate yourself, don’t expect me to look at you and admire the “work.” I don’t know who started the trend, probably someone with extra metal on hand. No doubt, it is, like everything else, all about someone putting money in the bank for a “service.” Only, in this case, the “service” is to disfigure someone … or worse.

And people wonder why older folks long for the “good ole days”????

Patricia Cummings

02.26.08

Dust? What’s That?

Posted in Anecdotes at 4:57 pm by Administrator

A few weeks ago, we were in the Vermont Country Store when, picking up an item, I exclaimed, “Ah, ha! Just what I wanted!” Jim wasn’t quite sure what it was, so I said, “This is a duster made of Ostrich feathers!”

As I ran my hand over the soft surface of the feathers, enjoying the tactile sensation, he asked, “Does this mean you are going to take up dusting?”

I said, “Yes, my QUILTS!”

Men can be so silly sometimes. :-)

Patricia Cummings

“This is New Hampshire!”

Posted in Announcements, publications at 2:20 pm by Administrator

I understand that my latest article in the May 2008 issue of The Quilter magazine reached at least one subscriber yesterday. I received a lovely phone call from a friend across the country to exclaim how much she just loves Jim’s photos and my writing.

For us, the article is a very special one! Why? The needlework and quilts we talk about were made by four generations of the Lewis family, Jeff Lewis being my husband’s first cousin.

This is the first time that we sought and found the gravestones of quilters about whom we have written. We traveled to South Sutton, New Hampshire. Knowing that I can still see and hold their work is strong testimony to the way that textiles are a tangible representation of a person’s life and what was meaningful to them. These quilts speak of New England frugality and using what you have.

South Sutton is not on the way to anywhere, and although I have lived in New Hampshire for most of my life, with the exception of about five years, I had never visited the lovely, still quiet town that has changed little since Jim, my husband, was a boy and accompanied his Uncle Harry Lewis when he delivered grain there, by truck.

Deciding which quilts to photograph was a difficult choice. I hope you enjoy seeing the selection of nineteenth and twentieth century quilts, etc. that I’ve chosen to share in print. See The Quilter magazine: coming to a newsstand near you … soon. (May 2008 issue)

To see who visited us, the day we visited S. Sutton, view the front page of our website:  http://www.quiltersmuse.com

Patricia Cummings

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