Thinking on your feet

I've been assailed by terrible shoe fashion advice through ads and influencer videos that make me believe women have not come a long way, baby, at all in terms of rational dress (see http://www.sageandsavant.com/2018/04/09/background-information-rational-dress-movement/).

Women used to bind themselves in corset that prevented them from breathing properly and even could shift organs out of place, but women today are doing the same kind of thing with their footwear, especially if they are slaves to fashion. So the point of this blog is to counter the really bad and potentially harmful advice that many influencers on YouTube are promulgating in promoting pointy-toed shoes.

These women have sold their souls and your toes out for the sake of the brands pushing this current fashion monstrosity. They recommend women actually torture their feet for the sake of "elongating" the look of their legs.


 Quite frankly, I find point-toed shoes repulsive -- not attractive. The human foot is not at all shaped like this, and picturing feet shaped like that or how they are getting misshapen is not at all attractive.

 Those are what I picture squished into those point shoes, and that i  not a pretty picture. The picture above comes from the video below.

Do you think shortening your calves is a good thing? Well that can happen just from high heels, but when you add on the point toe that the high heels force the front of your feet into, you get even uglier effects like foot pain, blisters, bunions,in-grown toenails, and even really ugly hammer toes. So even if you delude yourself into believing you look great while wearing such shoes, once you kick them off, you'll see your feet are paying the price and making you look worse than you would have if you had worn something that really fits a human foot.

But it's women themselves who opt to torture themselves with footwear that is the antithesis of empowerment. They want to buy into fairy tale fantasies that are as flimsy as the Emperor's new clothes.  At least, that's what Boden's marketing team seems to believe. Here's the ad I got in my email today:

So it's the glass slipper idea that is meant to sell you on a pair of point-toed leopard patterned boots that you would believe will win you a prince and a happily ever after ending. But since they brought up that Grimm's fairy tale, let's take a closer look at the foot fetish at the center of the story and what that entailed for those who tried the slipper.

Unlike the Disney version that showcases a glass slipper left behind by accident, this story features a golden one that the prince traps on purpose. When the step sisters try it on, their mother encourages them to cut off parts of their foot to fit -- very much like women do to themselves in squishing their feet into pointy shoes. Her argument is that they would not need to walk when they are queen, and, indeed, part of the reason high heel originated as a fashion statement for the rich was as proof that the wearer had no need to walk. So here's the central part of the text:

When evening came Cinderella wanted to leave, and the prince tried to escort her, but she ran away from him so quickly that he could not follow her. The prince, however, had set a trap. He had had the entire stairway smeared with pitch. When she ran down the stairs, her left slipper stuck in the pitch. The prince picked it up. It was small and dainty, and of pure gold.
The next morning, he went with it to the man, and said to him, "No one shall be my wife except for the one whose foot fits this golden shoe."
The two sisters were happy to hear this, for they had pretty feet. With her mother standing by, the older one took the shoe into her bedroom to try it on. She could not get her big toe into it, for the shoe was too small for her. Then her mother gave her a knife and said, "Cut off your toe. When you are queen you will no longer have to go on foot."
The girl cut off her toe, forced her foot into the shoe, swallowed the pain, and went out to the prince. He took her on his horse as his bride and rode away with her. However, they had to ride past the grave, and there, on the hazel tree, sat the two pigeons, crying out:

Rook di goo, rook di goo!
There's blood in the shoe.
The shoe is too tight,
This bride is not right!

Then he looked at her foot and saw how the blood was running from it. He turned his horse around and took the false bride home again, saying that she was not the right one, and that the other sister should try on the shoe. She went into her bedroom, and got her toes into the shoe all right, but her heel was too large.

Then her mother gave her a knife, and said, "Cut a piece off your heel. When you are queen you will no longer have to go on foot."
The girl cut a piece off her heel, forced her foot into the shoe, swallowed the pain, and went out to the prince. He took her on his horse as his bride and rode away with her. When they passed the hazel tree, the two pigeons were sitting in it, and they cried out:

Rook di goo, rook di goo!
There's blood in the shoe.
The shoe is too tight,
This bride is not right!

He looked down at her foot and saw how the blood was running out of her shoe, and how it had stained her white stocking all red. Then he turned his horse around and took the false bride home again.
"This is not the right one, either," he said. "Don't you have another daughter?"
"No," said the man. "There is only a deformed little Cinderella from my first wife, but she cannot possibly be the bride."
The prince told him to send her to him, but the mother answered, "Oh, no, she is much too dirty. She cannot be seen."
But the prince insisted on it, and they had to call Cinderella. She first washed her hands and face clean, and then went and bowed down before the prince, who gave her the golden shoe. She sat down on a stool, pulled her foot out of the heavy wooden shoe, and put it into the slipper, and it fitted her perfectly.
When she stood up the prince looked into her face, and he recognized the beautiful girl who had danced with him. He cried out, "She is my true bride."
The stepmother and the two sisters were horrified and turned pale with anger. The prince, however, took Cinderella onto his horse and rode away with her. As they passed by the hazel tree, the two white pigeons cried out:

Rook di goo, rook di goo!
No blood's in the shoe.
The shoe's not too tight,
This bride is right!

Kind of gory that story, and really not what a woman who expect to be able to stand on her own two feet should aspire to, especially not in our supposedly enlightened age.

Related post: https://uncommoncontent.blogspot.com/2018/06/feminine-feet-study-in-contrasts.html

Collection of quotes on integrity

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.  —  Albert Einstein

Goodness is about character — integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people. — Dennis Prager
In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And, if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you. – Warren Buffett

If you believe in unlimited quality and act in all your business dealings with total integrity, the rest will take care of itself – Frank Perdue

Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, and treating people with respect. – Stephen Covey

Integrity is the most valuable and respected quality of leadership. Always keep your word. — Brian Tracy

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.V Dwight D. Eisenhower

It is true that integrity alone won't make you a leader, but without integrity, you will never be one.  —- Zig Ziglar

Power really is a test of character. In the hands of a person of integrity, it is of tremendous benefit; in the hands of a tyrant, it causes terrible destruction.  —  John Maxwell

Losers make promises they often break. Winners make commitments they always keep. – Denis Waitley

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out. -Thomas Babington Macaulay

Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught.  — J.C. Watts

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.  — Douglas Adams

Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will.  —  John D. MacDonald

Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy; and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.  — Brene Brown

Honor your commitments with integrity  —  Les Brown

My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition there.  —  Indira Gandhi

I’ve learned many things in my life. What never fails is integrity, consistency, and loyalty. — Bahiyah Shabazz

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. — Mark TwainWisdom is knowing the right path to take. Integrity is taking it. - Anonymous

Undiagnosed malpractice

A conflation of events prompted me to write this blog today, though it's not among my standard topics..

I'm in the middle of the Heath brothers' book Decisive. On pp. 104-107, they bring up the problem of a doctor who doesn't really listen to his patient but quickly diagnoses probably causes for what afflicts him. In one case, the patient was even put through a battery of tests, as well as a regimen of medications, for what he had identified as dizziness. It took a visit with a doctor who not just asks the right questions but notes the patient's answer to realize that he meant a kind of mental or emotional confusion due to feeling lost after his wife's death rather than physical ailment.

Unfortunately, such misdiagnosis is fairly common. Doctors are very likely to chalk up complaints to what they've learned is the major cause.

 In the case described in the book, this led to unnecessary tests and useless treatments, which are a drain on resources and physically taxing. But in other cases, doctors claim nothing is really wrong with the patient. One of my online connections shared this clip from the Golden Girls series today:

I think I may have seen it before, but it particularly resonated with me today in light of the book's revelation  and with my own experience of real harm caused by misplaced confidence in a doctor's diagnosis.  In Dorothy's case, she wants the doctor to know that his dismissal of her signs of illness as the standard effects of aging caused her great emotional pain. Even without finding a cure for her condition, knowing that  she wasn't simply losing her energy as a result of growing older was a comfort to her.

This really hits home for me now because a year ago, my mother had the same problem. At the age of 87 she underwent hernia surgery because she was told that would rectify her condition that was causing her pain. The surgeon didn't use the techniques for operations today in which incisions are minimized but cut her straight down the abdomen with a single, very long cut. He considered the surgery a great success and told her he wrote it up for a journal. But she continued to be in pain that just grew worse, and she revisited the hospital a few times after the surgery.

Each time she spoke with her surgeon, he dismissed her complaints, saying recovery takes a while and suggesting she speak with a psychologist about her feelings. He said it so confidently that one of my siblings who accompanied her on her visits believed it absolutely. That belief persisted even when she got the diagnosis of the real cause of her persistent pain - pancreatic cancer.

It took a while to get that diagnosis, and at that point it was quite advanced and not at all treatable  (though some in the family remained in denial all the way until the just three days before her death). Given her age and condition, it is unlikely that her life could have been prolonged even with an earlier correct diagnosis, but that's not the full problem that results from I call undiagnosed malpractice. 

The problem is that people who are in real pain cannot get the relief they need -- both in terms of medications that could alleviate the physical effects and in terms of the psychological relief of being understood rather than dismissed.

The refusal to see what the real cause was also caused problems in the family, as some member insisted on clinging to the belief that the cancer could be overcome when it could not. And that brings me to another form of malpractice from doctors. 

In their insistence on clinging to false hope, some members kept shopping around for those who would tell them what they wanted to hear. My mother was pulled out of the hospital that had diagnosed her correctly because they had brought up the possibility of hospice for palliative care.

The next hospital's doctors also could offer no hope because they were honest. So when my mother was in the facility for rehab, she got taken out to meet with another doctor who made it a point of policy to always extend hope, even offering some form of chemo with the idea that it could have the placebo effect even when it could not possibly cure the condition. 

This was a complete disaster because even he could not admit her to treatment but would not say so outright, claiming that she just had to get her strength up and want it. That was absolute poppycock that was insulting to the patient as well as her family.

Of course, she was growing weaker each day and being in a facility in which there was no great expertise on the kind of pain management she needed and where medicines and food were continually administered orally resulted in her being unable to sleep, in constant pain or nauseous and delirious, and, ultimately, contracting pneumonia. She returned to the hospital that could not do much for her and recommended she be moved to a hospice. 

She moved there on a Friday and only lived until Sunday and was barely conscious during that time. Had the doctor not offered false hope, she could have entered palliative care sooner, enjoying a more pain-free last few weeks with family that would not have been as restricted from visiting as they were at the hospital.

A grand vision of Victorian architecture and engineering

Let me tell you about the very rich,” F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in his short story, “The Rich Boy.”  “They are different from you and me.”

Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum entrance. It leads into what was originally the kitchen. 

Those of us who are not rich and wonder at just how different their lives were than our own, can catch glimpses of it in tours of elaborate mansions that were once the homes of the wealthy elite. Certainly, that’s a big draw for tourists to Newport, Rhode Island. It was the place to summer in for the super rich and fashionable during the Gilded Age. But before there was one area designated by fashionable society, the rich may have chosen any area, and one man chose his own birthplace for the most well-appointed summer home ever built in the United States at the time. 

                       Interior view of conservatory (photo by Ariella Brown)

    Exterior view of conservatory (photo by Ariella Brown)

Grand plans

LeGrande Lockwood, one of only a handful of millionaires in the country at the start of the Civil War, and the first millionaire native of Norwalk, Connecticut, opted for his birthplace as the neighborhood in which he would build his summer home. It still stands there, though, not quite in its full glory, as a registered historic landmark called the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum.

The interior can be seen through a docent-led tour, which is limited to the first floor during the colder months due to the difficulty of heating the entire structure. The tour reveals interesting facets of the history of the house and its occupants, as well as details of its construction and design.

You can experience a kind of virtual mini-tour through this video:

The house’s appearance was largely inspired by the French chateaus that Lockwood had seen and admired on his trips to Europe to raise funds for the American Civil War. In fact, the mansion is considered one of the earliest examples of French Empire Style architecture in the United States.

Detail of the ceiling and French wallpaper. a roll
was found in  the house, which enabled
reproductions and restoration and restoration.

While the architectural style was rooted in tradition, the features and comforts utilized the very latest in technology for the times. This house was equipped things you may expect from that time period, like gas lighting, plumbing that allows for both hot and cold water, flush toilets, and central heating powered by coal. But it also includes some things you may not have anticipated.

Even when electricity was not set up for lighting, it was used for a burglar alarm. Most surprisingly -- and, possibly, the most important feature for a summer house -- this house had central air-conditioning, though it didn’t run on electricity.

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion  Museum is set to resume tours in April. As of now, masks are required, though it does graciously offer to provide a disposable one for visitors who did not bring one that complies with its standard. See lockwoodmathewsmansion.com/your-visit/

Related : Have desk, will travel

Sights that are out of this world

Our view of the night sky reveals only a tiny fraction of the stars in space. Our view is obscured by light pollution as well as our position in the galaxy and the distorting effects of our atmosphere on the light that does make it over. One more factor is the the fact that some of these stars are so far away that their light is still working its way over to us.

The HST captured this stunning image of Messier 3 in April 2019. 

Messier 3 Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, G. Piotto et al.

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) grants those of us stuck on earth a view from space that reveals sights that are truly out of this world. Named for the astronomer, Edwin Hubble, HST, was launched on April 24, 1990. Since then, it's had a number of adjustments to fix an error in the mirror and then again improve the image capture. 

You can see the marked improvement in image capture in the two photos below:

Here's the improvement in gif form:

The blurry the image taken with Hubble's Wide Field/Planetary Camera 1 in 1993 contrast with the one captured in 2009 by its Wide Field Camera 3 instrument, thanks to another service mission to upgrade the telescope again.

The Hubble's camera has the capability to detects not just the light we can see but also the infrared and ultraviolet light that cannot penetrate the earth's atmosphere. We now have a collection of truly amazing images taken over the past 29 years by the HST that you can admire on the Space Telescope site. You can also follow the HST  Twitter,  Instagram, and

 Facebook.

Among some of the most recent picture captures is this one, which was released only on May 16, 2019:

This galaxy that is millions of light years away has a very interesting story, as recounted on the Hubble Site:

The irregular galaxy NGC 4485 shows all the signs of having been involved in a hit-and-run accident with a bypassing galaxy. Rather than destroying the galaxy, the chance encounter is spawning a new generation of stars, and presumably planets.
The right side of the galaxy is ablaze with star formation, shown in the plethora of young blue stars and star-incubating pinkish nebulas. The left side, however, looks intact. It contains hints of the galaxy's previous spiral structure, which, at one time, was undergoing normal galactic evolution.
The larger culprit galaxy, NGC 4490, is off the bottom of the frame. The two galaxies sideswiped each other millions of years ago and are now 24,000 light-years apart. The gravitational tug-of-war between them created rippling patches of higher-density gas and dust within both galaxies. This activity triggered a flurry of star formation.
This galaxy is a nearby example of the kind of cosmic bumper-car activity that was more common billions of years ago when the universe was smaller and galaxies were closer together.

See it in this video:

Another recent capture highlights the improvements the HST has had in results when compared to the before version. You can see that in the paired photos below. they show the Eagle Nebula, also known as the "Pillars of Creation" located in Messier 16 (M16):

 The original photo, taken in 1995, revealed a three giant columns of gas, an image that was  so popular that you likely have seen on TV in a movie or even on a shirt or  pillow.

But after 25 years, astronomers decided they could improve on it. "It allows us to demonstrate how far Hubble has come in 25 years of observation," observed  Paul Scowen, of Arizona State University, as quoted in  Space.com  

Here's the video version showing how the pillars transformed from opaque to transparent, thanks to the vast improvement of image capture.

Why is this year's Haggadah different from the one distributed all other years?

You don't have to be a coffee drinker to be familiar with Maxwell House Haggadoah. The paper-backed English versions of the classic seder liturgy have been been a staple of the spring holiday shopping scene since 1932. It holds a place of distinction in the Haggadah chronology, which shares some insight about its origins.

The Haggadah was the brainchild of the Joseph Jacobs Advertising Agency of New York City. This was content marketing before the term was likely even used, building up an association between the holiday with the greatest focus on food and family in the Jewish calendar with a major brand name that wasn't even Jewish.

Why did Maxwell House do it? Maxwell House Coffee was kosher for Passover certified way back in 1923. Coffee itself is not a product subject to leavening or classified with legumes, though instant coffee may contain maltodextrin, which can be derived from both of those categories. Most major brands of coffee produce instant coffee that is acceptable for Passover, although none have linked their name with the central text of the seder in the way Maxwell House has done.

Consequently, the translation of the traditional Hebrew (with some Aramaic) text adopted by the Maxwell House Haggadah  held sway over many Jewish American homes for a large part of the last century. . It remained fixed until 1998 when it was first revised and then again in 2011 when the text was further updated, dropping antiquated expressions, as well as references to four sons in favor of gender neutral children.

But this year's Haggadah is different from previous ones because it includes a a special limited edition  available for orders on Amazon. This Haggadah declares it to be a "new edition: not for 2019 but 1958. That's because it's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" edition. Just as in stores, this Maxwell House Haggadah is free with purchase of the coffee, which would have to be ordered on Amazon.

So now we have a multiplied content marketing effect: the Haggadah that promotes coffee is also promoting a show on Amazon Prime. Or maybe it's the show that would end up promoting the coffee, as fans likely will order some coffee just to get their limited edition Haggadah. Considering the fact that the free Haggadah is currently listed for sale on eBay for $1202.53, it would seem a wiser move to lay out $6.02 to get it along with some coffee with your Amazon order.

P.S. A couple of days after I posted this, I got an email informing me of a significant price drop on this Haggadah at eBay. Here's what it said:

From a relative position $60.47 appears to be a bargain -- were it not for the fact that you could still get it free from Amazon. But Amazon also has some sellers looking to take advantage of consumers who would be willing to pay for a free item. It also has the Haggadah listed for sale, and the price is still lower than than the eBay's listing even after the price cut. 

True love meets marketing

In email from Modcloth

from Banana Republic

When a holiday invented on a TV program becomes a real thing, we can only marvel at how right Oscar Wilde was in declaring, "Life imitates art far more than art imitates life."



Galentine's Day was born in a script for the 22nd episode of Parks and Recreation that first aired on NBC on February 11, 2010. In the episode named for the newly invented holiday, the holiday is presented not to supplant Valentine's Day but to offer a supplement to it. It sets aside February 13th as the day to celebrate women's friendship,with gifts and gatherings.





As someone who has never watched the program, I had not heard of Galentine's Day until a couple of years ago when businesses started to latch on to the day as cause for marketing clothes, cosmetics, brunches, etc. In fact, this year, I already received emails from the likes of Target, ModCloth, Gap brands and Olay with messages like the ones I copied here.

Clearly, marketers know an opportunity when they see it (even if some publications on marketing have failed to take note) and by 2019 Galentine's Day is a marketing holiday in its own right. Granted, Galentine's Day has not yet made it to the status of being counted among the holidays covered by National Retail Foundation (NRF). However, the force behind the Galentine's Day movement is a factor in the revision of Valentine's Day itself.

 The Evolution of Valentine's Day 

A 2013 article entitled "The Reconceptualization of Valentine’s Day in the United States: Valentine’s Day as a Phenomenon of Popular Culture"argues that the holiday was reborn in the US in 1840s, largely due to the rise of marketing, which extended the celebration through the promotion of gifts and cards: " Even though the holiday historically involved primarily young men and women, the range of individuals included in the celebration of Valentine’s Day was expanded in the United States to any and all ages through aggressive marketing techniques directed at both the young and old, consequently increasing the amount of Valentine’s Day consumers."

Certainly, there is no let up of marketing around such a lucrative holiday. This year, the NRF estimates a record-breaking  $20.7 billion will be spent on Valentine's Day, and that's even in the case of just 51 percent of people saying this will be celebrating it. That's because those who are spending are spending more, and not just on the red roses and romantic dinners. Cards and gifts for friends and indulgences one buys for oneself are propping up those spending amounts. As the NRF itself observes, the spending patterns for Valentine's Day have changed over the past decade.

The Galentine's Day Factor and Modern Princesses

The change noted by NRF fits well with the timing of the rising influence of the Galentin'se Day Phenomenon over that same period of time. Even for those who do not set aside February 13th as the day to mark the value of female friendships, the attention it -- among other key relationships outside romantic ones -- deserve has taken over a greater share of Valentine's Day itself. For an easily accessible barometer of pop culture, we'll look at the evolution of  Disney movie plots.

The cultural shift in celebrating various loves in life can even be seen in Disney movies of this period. While the classic princess stories, starting with the 1937 Snow White,  had always culminated in finding her prince, that has also evolved. Let's look at 2010: in Tangled, Rapunzel does meet a man she falls for her, he is not a prince, and they do not even commit to marry by the end of the film. So there is some deviation from the classic romantic plot there. By 2012, there is no romantic interest interest offered at all for the heroine of Brave who is motivated by her love for her family. But the really big change arrives the following year in Frozen in which the trappings of romantic love are presented only to be rejected, and the transformative power of true love is shown to be the bond of sisters.

True love, no longer the province of a  princess bride now can be taken to apply to friends and family, and so Valentine's Day itself is being redefined as a holiday of love that is not bounded by romantic tropes. Of course, marketing will take advantage, and we even have sellers who can take advantage of those whose spending is devoted to "anti-Valentine's Day" gifts.