Ship of Fools: Heaven: Geschmackvoll? I think not.

Thread: Heaven: Geschmackvoll? I think not. Board: Limbo / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

I went to pee last night in the downstairs guest bath when I got home. Imagine my surprise when I lifted the lid (we have to keep it down due to a Lab who thinks it's a drinking fountain) and found the water in the toilet bowl was a deep, deep aquamarine blue. The color of the Gulf of Mexico off Destin.

It turns out the Sig Other, in an unaccustomed fit of domesticity, had purchased and dropped one of those blue cakes in the toilet tank, assuming I suppose that we'd never have to clean the toilet again.

I can hardly imagine anything tackier. I know whenever I go to someone's house and have to pee, if they've got blue water in their toilet bowl, they plummet in my estimation. It's a Well Known Fact that nice people don't have blue water in their toilet bowls. Only people common as dirt do. You know. The kind of people who have a duck motif in their kitchen or plastic covers on their lamp shades.

Now I suppose I'll have to find my Playtex Living Gloves and fish the damn thing out before any guests see it.

Besides, it's cheating to make cleaning the toilet any easier. Probably something Catholics or the Orthodox would do. Protestants know in their hearts they need to be down on their hands and knees scrubbing the damn thing, being careful not to mix bleach and ammonia, unless they are feeling suicidal.

Personally, being a pessimist, I'm always sure there is some hidden ammonia I don't know about in the toilet and that as soon as I pour some bleach in, I'll be immediately overcome by a cloud of noxious gas, only to be found dead some days later with a toilet brush still clutched in my stiffening hand.

Now being Good Christian People, I'm sure none of us (except RooK, of course) would dream of harshly judging our brothers and sisters in Christ merely based on some little quirk of decor or housekeeping. Yeah, right. In my experience we're all just little judging machines walking around taking other's inventories.

So what do you snicker about in other people's houses? What things make you pray "Thank God I'm not like them"?

What's just too tacky for words?

Attention Counter-Snobs who will be posting on this thread: You realize you're just as bad as the Snobs who will be posting, do you not? Actually, I think Counter-Snobs are worse than Snobs. But then I would.

[ 22. February 2005, 16:47: Message edited by: KenWritez ]

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sine Nomine:
I went to pee last night in the downstairs guest bath when I got home.

...

What's just too tacky for words?

People who pee in the bath. Especially if it's a guest bath. It's not at all nice for your guests. Especially if they're in it at the time.

I am shocked at your disclosure. I mean, shocked.

Um, was anybody in it at the time?

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

I would have peed in the shower, like Real Guys™ do, but I didn't feel like taking all my clothes off.

Posted by Viola (# 20) on :

Staying in the bathroom, cute, crocheted toilet roll covers. This kind of thing . Actually , I was looking for one that had been crafted to look like a Victorian doll, but I lost the will to live half way through my google.

In fact, I have a snobbish problem with lots of 'things to hide other things'. Coat hangers bedecked with ribbons and lavender bags - you know the type of thing.

K.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Viola:
Staying in the bathroom, cute, crocheted toilet roll covers. This kind of thing . Actually , I was looking for one that had been crafted to look like a Victorian doll, but I lost the will to live half way through my google.

My grandmother made one for us as a Christmas present. We still have it.

You know what would go well with the blue toilet flush? One of those transparent toilet seats/lids with brightly coloured fish printed on it.

Posted by Amos (# 44) on :

Ariel, I'm sure you know that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. Well, according to W.H.Auden, " Everyone pees in the bath.'

I am shamefully snooty about other people's ways of furnishing their homes. It must be my years in ECUSA. If I told you all the things that catch my supercilious eye, nobody would ever invite me into their house again. My own is a tip, of course. But a shabby-genteel tip, and all the pictures on the walls are of my own ancestors, and none are reproductions. [Razz]

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Viola:
Staying in the bathroom, cute, crocheted toilet roll covers. This kind of thing .

Oh Dear Lord in Heaven! [Projectile]

Someone actually took the time to crochet that. It's a sickness.

On the other hand I once knew a retired gentleman who, needing a hobby, took to making clear plexiglass facial tissue box covers in his basement workshop. Never did quite understand the purpose of that. Guess he didn't want to hide the oh-so-attractive patterns that came on the boxes.

He lived in the same small North Carolina town as my grandmother. You could go in all her friends' bathrooms and know Herbert had been at work. I even received one to carry back to Nashville.

I think he'd run out of locals to give them to.

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Amos:
It must be my years in ECUSA.

Yes, that would account for it. And people say we don't have standards.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

I once stayed in a guesthouse where the landlady had not only crocheted toilet roll covers for the bathroom, but also made a sampler with "I Heart Jesus" embroidered on it.

What I don't care much for is things in the shape of animals. Phones in the shape of cats whose eyes flash when it rings. Backpacks in the shape of Sean the Lamb, with four spindly legs sticking out. Umbrellas with bunny ears or frog eyes on top. Slippers with extra fur and rolling eyes.

Posted by Moschops (# 3034) on :

Plastic fish. That sing.

Posted by Amos (# 44) on :

Now the CofE is a thing all together, Sine. In the first parish I was posted to, my boss had seven sets of flying ducks around the house (downstairs anyway) and Winnie the Pooh decals on his kitchen walls. Mind you, he also had a pink pussycat embroidered on the neck of his stole where most of us have a cross. I wonder if you can guess why.

Posted by hiddenshallows (# 7220) on :

Perhaps the blue stuff in the toilet was the same as the blue stuff which serves as 'general bodily fluid' in TV ads...

Those plastic Coke cans that dance to the radio are pretty damn tacky; not as bad as the plastic fish though. I also have a bizarre and pathological hatred of valances on beds: what purpose do they serve except gathering dust?

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Phones in the shape of cats whose eyes flash when it rings.

Fortunately my Garfield™ phone's eyes don't flash. They open when you lift the receiver.

And it's in my bathroom on the floor next to the claw-footed tub, where a cat might possibly be.

And if I chose to have it, it's a "touch of whimsy", not tacky. It would be tacky in my neighbor's house.

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by hiddenshallows:
I also have a bizarre and pathological hatred of valances on beds: what purpose do they serve except gathering dust?

I thought they hid the dust. That's what mine does. Although not well after a certain point.

Posted by Amos (# 44) on :

You watch it, Sine, or the Sig Other will put a tacky blue cake under the bed.

[ 30. October 2004, 11:52: Message edited by: Amos ]

Posted by Coot (# 220) on :

What's wrong with blue toilet water?! It's nice and clean and antiseptic looking and smelling. My lav is the cleanest room in the house and I am quite partial to a blue flush thing that hangs over the edge of the bowl.

The latest one doesn't turn the water blue (even though it is blue gel) but it foams nicely. Oooooh I have to tell you about it ackshully. Tis one of those 'No touch' Harpic refillable ones. So satisfying. And I've got one of those self-sanitising rubber toilet brushes (doesn't scratch the bowl, ducks)

Of course Thrift Whore (I mean, enviromentally conscious person) that I am, I was experimenting with refilling the old Ambi-Pur one by squeezing Harpic toilet cleaner in it... didn't work. (And stay away from that squirty Harpic toilet cleaner. The foaming crystals are the ducks nuts, and my OTL)

Peasant Boys R Us!!!!

[I am so disappointed in you Sine, pet. You shoulda started this in Hvn [Waterworks]

]

Posted by Coot (# 220) on :

Dangly Toilet cleaners/deodorisers on the side of the bowl that are activated by the flush are classy!

Posted by Coot (# 220) on :

(It means you can afford them and that you pay attention to the fine details and small refinements in life)

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

Speaking of ancestral pictures, I once had a rather strapping young lad by the house who upon seeing the family photographs in the back hall said "Cool pictures. Where did you get them? The flea market?"

<shudder>

However I tend to cut strapping young lads some slack so I merely said "No. I found them in a box in my grandmother's attic."

Of course, come to think of it, Young Lad had a highly colored reproduction of Winterhalter's "The Empress Eugenie and her court" in his living room, which he had gotten at the flea market, so I guess he was making the best guess he could as to where things of that sort come from.

Fortunately he had a number of other redeeming qualities.

[ 30. October 2004, 12:16: Message edited by: Sine Nomine ]

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Coot:
[I am so disappointed in you Sine, pet. You shoulda started this in Hvn ]

Darling, I thought about it, but I knew the Counter-Snobs would so enjoy responding in Hell with just how awful the Snobs are.

...and I try to be thoughtful.

Posted by Pânts (# 4487) on :

All of these toilet things are great - except if you have a septic tank, and then you're not supposed to use them.

Chandelliers can look foul. The ones we have (rented accomodation) are sooooooo grim.

Posted by Coot (# 220) on :

I am tasteful. Really. Why, I have held off buying something to put my toilet rolls in because I just can't find the right something. The dolls are right out. And popping them on those turned wooden poles just does not do. What is it, an oversize nursery toy? The long thin cannisters with lids are not asthetic - the proportions are not pleasing - and I wouldn't want visitors to dispose their personal sanitary items in it.

I've been thinking of a understated and unadorned cane basket with handle. 'Come hither. Youth gathering nuts in May' that sort of thing. What do you think?

Posted by Coot (# 220) on :

PS. I love chandeliers. The bigger and more ornate the better. Like wot you see in Fred Astaire movies. Or the Titanic's ballroom. I checked them in Google's for sale section. They are about $15,000.

Can't wait til I'm rich enuff to buy one.

Posted by Francis' Little Helper (# 4903) on :

Teddy Bears seated on miniature chairs in the living room. Crocheted whatchamacallits on the back of the chairs. Shelf collection of Red Rose Tea animal figurines (both circus AND wild animal series).

And what's the deal with the small stuffed animals in the back window of the car?

Posted by Sioni Sais. (# 5713) on :

Ornate wall clocks, especially sunburst style. Mrs Sioni's neice calls this style "cataloguey" from the kind of good you buy mail order.

It's difficult to imagine any wall clock other than a purely functional one looking inoffensive.

Posted by Rat (# 3373) on :

I had to train Mr Rat out of blue toilet water when we moved in together. It was one of my first priorities, of course.

I once had a bit of an embarassment with a guest in my last flat. It was a tenement flat in a building originally built around 1850. I'd just decorated the living room, and was saying that what I'd really like to do if I ever got the time would be to carefully remove the years and years of accumulated paint on the ornate cornice and ceiling rose. "Why bother?" my visitor piped up. "They're only polystyrene, just knock them off and get new ones from B&Q." Um, I said, I don't think they are polystyrene, in fact. "Yes of course they are, and you'll get new ones in B&Q for less than a tenner. Much nicer ones than those".

Some wine had been taken and things could have got a bit dicey, especially as my guest made no secret that she thought I was a complete, rampant idiot for being fooled into thinking there was such a thing as ceiling roses and cornices that were not polystyrene. Eventually I decided that hospitality was the better part of valour, and agreed that I'd have a good look at replacement cornicing the next time I was in B&Q.

Posted by Rowen (# 1194) on :

Crocheted lace doilies over the back of sofas, which are befouled by hair oil and hairspray, and the owners of said doilies are unaware of the issue...

Living rooms which are temples to religious kitsch.

Posted by Callan (# 525) on :

I'm rather bewildered by this sort of thing. My main question about toilet accoutrements is 'will it kill things or clean things?' If the answer is yes, then it's fine by me. And if people like ducks flying across the wall, or whatever, then so be it. It's not my wall.

On the other hand, by the contents of their bookcases shall ye know them. I can get quite snotty about other people's literary taste. Or the contents of peoples CD racks. Any amount of cod-Victorian tat on the mantelpiece is less damning than a single Wilbur Smith or Carpenters CD.

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

I always check out people's bookshelves. After I scope out their medicine cabinet.

Posted by chive (# 208) on :

My pet hates are blessed thoughts tapestry and embroidery things framed round my house. My mother loves them but then she's the same woman that met me for lunch in a restaurant and told me, 'They do very nice scampi here.'

Also going to peoples houses and discovering no books at all. Instantly means they're not my sort of people. [Disappointed]

Posted by Jack the Lass (# 3415) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Callan:
On the other hand, by the contents of their bookcases shall ye know them. I can get quite snotty about other people's literary taste. Or the contents of peoples CD racks. Any amount of cod-Victorian tat on the mantelpiece is less damning than a single Wilbur Smith or Carpenters CD.

I rather like the Carpenters.

Athena posters bring out the snob in me though, I must admit.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

My local home furnishings shop has a sale on. I don't like lava lamps, but I've always liked those fibre-optic lamps that look like some weird kind of futuristic fern with tips of different, glowing colours that slowly change.

I was not, however, tempted at all by the skull in a bowl that breathes out mist, or the string of papier mache carrots, or the dish of pink plastic hardboiled eggs, nor the tartan toilet seat. There are limits.

I'm just a bit bemused as to why anyone would consider even manufacturing papier mache carrots and pink plastic eggs.

Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :

One of the worst things a friend's mother could say about a family, after visiting a house for the first time, was:
"It is a house without books."

Posted by Jengie (# 273) on :

I once used a blue thing in the loo. It was a great improvement. The loo was shared by postgraduate students. As one knows having been one, they are the lowest of the low in the University (undergrads are just by products), in the scale that has cleaners and secretaries at the top (i.e. the true scale of importance).

Jengie

Posted by Ann (# 94) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Coot:
I am tasteful. Really. Why, I have held off buying something to put my toilet rolls in because I just can't find the right something. The dolls are right out. And popping them on those turned wooden poles just does not do. What is it, an oversize nursery toy? The long thin cannisters with lids are not asthetic - the proportions are not pleasing - and I wouldn't want visitors to dispose their personal sanitary items in it.

I've been thinking of a understated and unadorned cane basket with handle. 'Come hither. Youth gathering nuts in May' that sort of thing. What do you think?

Several Christmasses ago, someone gave us a thing to hold a couple of spare loo-rolls; it hangs from a hook and is just a loop of material, as wide as the loo-roll and big enough to take two with a line of stitching between them. (The one we were given was an over-fussy pattern and inch-and-a-half wide lace trimming. When we redecorated I made my own from a pale blue - to match the wat ... sorry, paintwork with a dark blue lining and narrow plain ribbon trim.) As we are a big family and I buy loo-rolls in packs of a dozen, I also have a sea-grass lidded box, just big enough to take a new pack, but small enough to fit between the loo and the wall. a similar basket (I realised after they'd sold out that it would be a good idea (to me) to buy another one) on the other side holds the cleaning stuff.

quote:
Originally posted by Amos:
Now the CofE is a thing all together, Sine. In the first parish I was posted to, my boss had seven sets of flying ducks around the house (downstairs anyway) and Winnie the Pooh decals on his kitchen walls. Mind you, he also had a pink pussycat embroidered on the neck of his stole where most of us have a cross. I wonder if you can guess why.

The office loo in one of the local churches has a china plate on the wall with the words, "Thou God seest me." on it

Posted by Mousethief (# 953) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sine Nomine:
Besides, it's cheating to make cleaning the toilet any easier. Probably something Catholics or the Orthodox would do.

I have urinated in any number of Orthodox toilets (you can tell by the tri-bar flush lever), and not one of them had blue water.

Posted by Amphibalus (# 5351) on :

Never mind toilet-roll covers. One of my (otherwise fairly discriminating) brothers sent me for Christmas a few years ago a wine bottle cover. It is shaped like a penguin, and has a top hat (through which, I assume, you are supposed to pour the wine) and a pink bow tie which flashes when you press it. Yes, just the thing for those bottles of Margaux '95 that I have maturing in the 'cellar'.

I thought I had seen the last of it, but when I moved a year or so back it was rediscovered by the removers, and when they unpacked they deposited it on a high shelf in the back room, and now I can't reach it.

All of which reminds me of the 'in-house' umbrella at the local SPCK bookshop. No-one knows where it came from and we assume it was left by a customer who was finally too embarrassed to carry it around any more. It is shaped and decorated to look like the dome of St Peter's in Rome.

As none of the staff walk to work, there is never any other umbrella available, so this has to be pressed into service (extremely reluctantly) whenever there is banking to be done on a wet day - though one past member of staff would always rather get a drenching than be seen using it.

Posted by Amos (# 44) on :

I so agree about the books, Callan. Betweeen the people o have no books at all, the people who have large collections of brand-new hard-bound sword-and-sorcery novels, and the people who have every old-style Penguin ever published and arranged by jacket-colour on the landing, one simply doesn't know where to look. So one looks at the flying ducks.

Sine, apart from an old Staffordshire or Meissen shepherdess on the mantelpiece, can you think of any acceptable tchotchke? [Two face]

Posted by duchess (# 2764) on :

I do hate to admit it, but the blue water does unnerve me. It seems wrong.

My brother fixed my toilet a month ago and took out right away something that looked weird hanging in the toilet omitting some weird stuff, left by previous owner.

The toilet started needing cleaning almost every cotton-picking day after that. I will not go into detail even in hell about that. I went to Walgreens and for a buck, got myself a bleach tablet and dropped into the bottom of the tank. After a few days of bleach smell overkill, the bleach smell settled down and now I am back to not having to clean the toilet so much. I recommend the bleach tablets highly.

I have gone to bible studies the met at the home of a particular single young man and one thing that has frightened me is seeing pink candles plus cute little dust collectors objects and potpourri in a pretty bowl [Eek!]

. My word. The gentleman who had this, had served in Operation Desert Storm as a Marine and has Semper Fi on his car. I have sadly seen this trait in straight men out here in California ... it is becoming a pattern. It is so wrong to go into a bathroom that reminds you of one of your froo-froo friends while you look around and start choking on the obnoxious fumes.
California men need to take the froo-froo stuff out of their bathrooms, unless they have a wife who likes it, or they are gay.

[*Cough cough*]

[ 30. October 2004, 17:07: Message edited by: duchess ]

Posted by Pânts (# 4487) on :

Maybe they keep their books in a different room?

Posted by JohnBoot (# 3566) on :

Geschmackvoll is a delightful word. Whenever I say it, a childlike grin appears on my face, replacing the usual smirk.

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Amos:
Sine, apart from an old Staffordshire or Meissen shepherdess on the mantelpiece, can you think of any acceptable tchotchke?

I am reminded of a couple of comments:

Elsie de Wolfe (Lady Mendl), whom, as we all know, virtually invented the career of Interior Decorator for women, as well as being the creator of "blue hair", firmly believed every room needs a dash of vulgarity to come alive.

And an aristocratic French aquaintance of Edith Wharton's once said Mrs. Wharton's taste was too perfect and thus her decoration too cold. She further commented "Good taste removes your Great-Aunt's stuffed fox from the mantel, but experience puts it back."

So, in answer I would say that anything you truly love or that has significance in your life is an acceptable tchotchke, but not whatever they're pushing as the latest thing in Home Decor at Tar-zhay.

But I suspect you knew that already and were just testing me.

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by JohnBoot:
Geschmackvoll is a delightful word.

It is indeed. Thank-you so much. It Pays to Increase Your Word Power.

p.s.: Keep saying it.

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by duchess:
California men need to take the froo-froo stuff out of their bathrooms

Gee, maybe if you're real lucky, your little love chicken doesn't even bathe.

(p.s.: Please PM me address of froo-froo ex-Marine. He sounds both manly and sensitive. A deadly combination, in my book at least.)

Posted by babybear (# 34) on :

Sine, I have got to wonder how you would feel if the water wasn't blue, but a delicate mauve.

Pants, if you have books, they are in every room.

quote:
Rowan said:
Crocheted lace doilies over the back of sofas, which are befouled by hair oil and hairspray, and the owners of said doilies are unaware of the issue...

But that proves that the doilies are working! They are actually antimacassars, especially to stop hair oil from marking the furniture. (Macassar- a type of hair oil use in Victorian times.)

For toilet cleaning I keep some lemon scented mult-purpose cleaning fluid in the toilet brush holder. Each morning I give the toilet a quick whooosh. And everything smell lovely and lemony.

[Fixed code]

[ 24. November 2004, 16:53: Message edited by: KenWritez ]

Posted by duchess (# 2764) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sine Nomine:

quote:
Originally posted by duchess:
California men need to take the froo-froo stuff out of their bathrooms
Gee, maybe if you're real lucky, your little love chicken doesn't even bathe.

(p.s.: Please PM me address of froo-froo ex-Marine. He sounds both manly and sensitive. A deadly combination, in my book at least.)

Manly and sensitive is sitting through an entire movie of Pride and Prejudice without rolling his eyes and wondering why women get so hung up on this stuff, yet being able to deal with a robber who breaks in to your house with nice big gun.

Ex-marine is extremely straight as an arrow which makes the bathroom decorations worriesome for those who pray about our brethren. He asks people to pray for him to find a wife.

If I find a gay one like him, I will be sure to pm you with his digits, as long as you promise not to break hearts, you Carson-wanna-be-mack-daddy, enticing strapping young buck with flea-market painting, love em and leave em. Poor lad.

[Would the Fab 5 use candles and such in their bathrooms? Enquiring minds wanna know.]

[ 30. October 2004, 18:02: Message edited by: duchess ]

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by babybear:
Sine, I have got to wonder how you would feel if the water wasn't blue, but a delicate mauve.

...perhaps with a couple of rose petals floating in it, like in the finger-bowl at a formal dinner.

Now that would be really Ree-Fined lookin'.

Posted by JohnBoot (# 3566) on :

I know the hall-monitors are tetchy about being reminded to do their job, but aren't there tiresome rules on this board about pimpin'?

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by duchess:
He asks people to pray for him to find a wife.

I'll just bet he does.

(Girl, you are so naive I'm surprised they let you out of the house by yourself.)

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by JohnBoot:
I know the hall-monitors are tetchy about being reminded to do their job, but aren't there tiresome rules on this board about pimpin'?

Flirting. It's no flirting. I believe pimpin' is permitted as long as they get a cut.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by JohnBoot:
I know the hall-monitors are tetchy about being reminded to do their job, but aren't there tiresome rules on this board about pimpin'?

Does that make Duchess a Pimp-Daddy?

This is the kind of thing that keeps you penciled in (lightly) on my cool books, Boots. Quick, say something snide, I need homeostasis back.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sine Nomine:

quote:
Originally posted by babybear:
Sine, I have got to wonder how you would feel if the water wasn't blue, but a delicate mauve.
...perhaps with a couple of rose petals floating in it, like in the finger-bowl at a formal dinner.

Now that would be really Ree-Fined lookin'.

I'd wonder why the hell the last person to visit the toilet had been eating roses.

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

Obviously because they didn't know the purpose of the finger-bowl.

Posted by JohnBoot (# 3566) on :

Twice in the last week, I've typed in posts, then, when I've reviewed them on Preview-Post, I've thought - that's too mean, and I've aborted the post.

I'm losing my edge. What can I do to get it back?

Posted by duchess (# 2764) on :

Kelly! I am a pimp-mamma but no daddy. Anyway, I would give the digits for Uncle Sign for FREE for there would be no pimpin'. No profit cut. Hmph.

Uncle Sign, have you ever been to California? Where gay men act more straight sometimes than the breeders? I can assure you, having grown up here, my gay-dar is fully developed when it comes to gay guys.

Lesbians though are harder to spot sometimes if they do not drive a big truck and listen to country mustic (the in thing for awhile here), especially liptick lesbians.*

Sheesh, I ain't as naive as you would care to believe growing up jaded in this town, 45 miles south of SF. [Roll Eyes]

*Kelly and basso have a story about that one. [Biased]

[ 30. October 2004, 18:21: Message edited by: duchess ]

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by JohnBoot:
I'm losing my edge. What can I do to get it back?

Discontinue the new medication immediately.

Posted by Spiffy da Wonder Sheep (# 5267) on :

I have been looking everywhere for two items:

A black velvet painting of Jesus
A stuffed parrot in a wicker birdcage

Both items are intended as gifts, the parrot for my dearest friend A who has a Tiki Bar themed bathroom (yes, there is rum in the medicine cabinet). The velvet Jesus is for friend B, a neo-Pagan who has really pissed me off.

quote:
Originally posted by duchess:
Lesbians though are harder to spot sometimes if they do not drive a big truck and listen to country mustic (the in thing for awhile here), especially liptick lesbians.*

Although if they drive an H2, they're not neccessarily a lesbian, more likely they're a Realtor or mortgage broker.

And whaddya mean country music was only 'the in thing for a while'?!?!?

Posted by duchess (# 2764) on :

Spiffy! Long time no see!

I worked in with a group of lesbians who almost kicked my butt when I made fun of the big jacked-up truck one drove. Most of them were into country music, used to go to a place called Hambuger Mary's in San Jose for Country-Western Night. I learned from my mistake and barely made it out alive. I lost my job soon after faux pas too. [Hot and Hormonal]

Velvet paintings are so....wrong...please reconsider girlfriend. [Eek!]

Missed you at the last meet, however I found out you live in Sac and I was not realising that.

[I like the latest C&W lyric hit you have there in your sig line. Great song. [Smile]

]

[ 30. October 2004, 19:04: Message edited by: duchess ]

Posted by duchess (# 2764) on :

Whoa, just noticed painting is to punish evil neo-pagan...then by all means, find the painting and give it away.

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by duchess:
...who almost kicked my butt

...and barely made it out alive...

...we just have to accept that God does indeed have a plan and knows what He's doing.

Sometimes that's hard to do in the face of apparent evidence to the contrary.

Posted by duchess (# 2764) on :

I wish a thousand blue tablets would find their way into your toilet tank someday, Sign-on.

[or that you had a nightmare about that...blue meanie toilet tabs...]

[ 30. October 2004, 19:13: Message edited by: duchess ]

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

Duchess, you cut me to the quick. And here I thought you'd encourage me in my Faith Journey, what with being so religious and all.

Posted by .Gort (# 6855) on :

Sine said:

quote:
I always check out people's bookshelves. After I scope out their medicine cabinet.

As I have always respected Sine's opinion on these and other matters, I submit to you, through the miracle of digital magic, my medicine cabinet. [which I suddenly realize has no medicine!] Accessments please!

Sioni Sais said:

quote:
[...] It's difficult to imagine any wall clock other than a purely functional one looking inoffensive.

I found this 75lb. functional Regulator at a flea market; now it hangs precariously on my bedroom wall. Whatcha think?

Another item on my bedroom wall is this print. I should have shared it on the fox hunting thread. Think it's too conservative for a bedroom?

Most of my tchotchkes rest on or near the mantle. Is this too cluttered or plain for for a comfortable evening of wine with friends?

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by .Gort:
As I have always respected Sine's opinion on these and other matters, I submit to you, through the miracle of digital magic, my medicine cabinet. [which I suddenly realize has no medicine!] Accessments please!

You might have dusted the shelves before you took the photo.

quote:
Another item on my bedroom wall is this print. I should have shared it on the fox hunting thread. Think it's too conservative for a bedroom?

Appalling frame. Total fashion mistake. Get it reframed at once. While you're at it, get a different picture to put inside it.

Posted by RooK (# 1852) on :

What this thread needs is a boyz touch. Heaven Boyz, that is.

-RooK
Hellhost

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

Gort, apparently high-gloss marine varnish once meant a great deal to you at some point in your life. Unfortunately you don't appear to live on a boat.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

I used to merrily throw one of those bluey things in the cistern every 6 weeks or so (because I will buy/use anything that says I don't have to clean stuff). After a while I discovered they were making the porcelain permeable, and my toilet was dribbling blue puddles...

The bathroom is one of the three book-free rooms in the house (the others are the bedroom and the scullery). We're about to take in another 5-6,000, so even those redoubts may crumble.

Posted by Joykins (# 5820) on :

I disapprove of blue water in general. This includes blue water in miniature golf courses, which just looks weird. It also includes blue water in toilet tanks, because people who use it tend to forget that they need to clean their toilets, and then they have toilets with blue water and mold. Lovely.

I have crocheted a toilet paper roll cover [Hot and Hormonal]

It is very helpful because I know when it's deflated, it's time to restock the bathroom with a new roll.

As for tacky--Precious Moments, anyone? Overpriced figurines of children with alienesque large pear-shaped eyes?

Joy

Posted by The Prophetess (# 1439) on :

I have a librarian friend who has all her books alphabetized by author. I suppose it makes life easier for her, though it must also lead to some odd associations.

When we sold our last house (so our agent tells us), the people who wound up buying it played a guessing game of looking at all our books and trying to figure out my husband's and my occupations. As it was none of their business, I am gratified to report that they never did manage to figure it out---if pressed, I would have replied serenely, "Mother."

But back to the OP: What is truly tacky? Sine, I know that I am supposed to think that having a lot of new silver qualifies... but my heart wouldn't be in it. I adore Beverly Bremer's and have the receipts to prove it. So sue me.

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Prophetess:
I adore Beverly Bremer's and have the receipts to prove it. So sue me.

I can hardly throw stones regarding Beverly's little Buckhead emporium. You must pay a visit in person sometime. I started hyper-ventilating and had to sit down before I could whip out my Visa with trembling hands.

I believe saliva was also dribbling down my chin.

Posted by lamb chopped (# 5528) on :

Precious Moments! [Projectile]

I believe there's a whole chapel of it somewhere. Stained glass pics and everything.

Some irreverent friends of mine used to wonder how they handled the Crucifixion. [Ultra confused]

The stoning of Stephen, anyone?

Posted by Coot (# 220) on :

quote:
Originally posted by .Gort:
I found this 75lb. functional Regulator at a flea market; now it hangs precariously on my bedroom wall. Whatcha think?

Another item on my bedroom wall is this print. I should have shared it on the fox hunting thread. Think it's too conservative for a bedroom?

Most of my tchotchkes rest on or near the mantle. Is this too cluttered or plain for for a comfortable evening of wine with friends? [/QB]

Oh, Gort! A man after my own heart! [Axe murder]

I do so admire people who raise vulgarity (as do I wish) to an artform.

I also love sailboats. In bottles as well. And the print is just fine! As is the clock [Overused]

Ooooh. But the only thing better than that, would be a nice gold and white baroque number. I favour pine furniture and Louis Quinze (look at that console avec candlesticks, is it not instant hard-on material?) and the odd (XVI, heavy wood with lots of straight lines and twiddly bits and also gold and white - Oooh gold and white, you heartbreaker). Sofas should be Chesterfield. Not only is it hard to blend these styles. But. I am quite OK with REPRODUCTIONS!!!!!!!

But the medicine cabinet is a source of concern. Those blue and white things. Would they be a new design of anal plugs? Or enemas?

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Coot:
A man after my own heart!

Who isn't?

Coot, I have a Louis XV fauteuil covered with leopard print velvet in front of a mirrored 30s dressing table in the dressing area part of my bathroom. Is that vulgar enough for you?

[Edit: erk! accidentally editted instead of replying, the dangers of being a host - but it's all fixed now, thank goodness for backscroll]

[ 31. October 2004, 02:59: Message edited by: Coot ]

Posted by .Gort (# 6855) on :

Coot: [Killing me]

Thanks for the questionable support! The odd blue and white things are little water squirting things used for ear-canal cleaning! Too small for buttplugs or enemas..at least on me.

Posted by Coot (# 220) on :

Now what I meant to type before disfiguring Sine's post...

quote:
Sine:
Coot, I have a Louis XV fauteuil covered with leopard print velvet in front of a mirrored 30s dressing table in the dressing area part of my bathroom. Is that vulgar enough for you?

Woah! That sounds fabulous, Sine! The leopard print velvet is really what completes the mise en scene. I know it's wrong, but I really covet that. [Overused]

[And Gort: [Big Grin]

]

Posted by Left at the Altar (# 5077) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Viola:
Staying in the bathroom, cute, crocheted toilet roll covers. This kind of thing .
K.

Coming in late to the conversation here.... but my dear, departed, gran gave me one of these for my loo once. How lovely she looked, hiding the roll.

Really, I think that if you want blue water in the toilet, it's best to set if off with a nice furry cover in matching shade. . Luxuient toilet accessories really do make a house a home that others will envy.

Posted by babybear (# 34) on :

I have never seen a toilet tank cover before! Over here we get a set of 3, a cover for the toilet seat lid, a U-shaped mat for around the base of the toilet and an ovalish shaped bath mat.

Posted by Balaam (# 4543) on :

quote:
Originally posted by babybear:
I have never seen a toilet tank cover before! Over here we get a set of 3, a cover for the toilet seat lid, a U-shaped mat for around the base of the toilet and an ovalish shaped bath mat.

A mat for arund the toilet and a bath mat make sense. Both absorb drips. The toilet one would be unnecessary if men could aim.

But why, why, why would anyone want a piece of carpeting for the lid? Kitch of the worse kind! But if these people have blue water... [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Coot (# 220) on :

Mm. Toilets are wet areas, therefore carpet does not belong there. Having said that... the red shag pile in LatA's link did look rather sumptious.

What I need to know is, what can I actually put in the cistern of my toilet to keep it free of mold? I don't put the blue blocks into the cistern (preferring when I have the water colouring ones to have them hanging in a holder on the side) because I don't want them to discolour it.

But what can I put in there that won't degrade or damage the plastic (white)? Bleach won't do... I've been thinking a lot about this... would a capful of that Napisan or Milton stuff they use for sterilising baby things do it? Or maybe just a capful of Dettol every now and again?

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

I have been staring at the things in LATA's link in wild surmise. Why would you want to lag a toilet cistern? You only do that for things containing hot water. Ergo, these are the famous Boiling Toilets, where every flush releases a germ-scalding flood. Then the lid-cosy thing would to absorb the subsequent steam.

Posted by .Gort (# 6855) on :

Most common purpose (after the obvious decorative value) for a tank cover is to keep humid bathroom air from condensing on the tank in locales with very cold supply water.

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

Actually, I'm thinking tank covers are so out they're probably back in. I always like to be the first on my block to spot hot new decorating trends. This could be it.

Oddly enough I know a lot of smart decorators (and hair-dressers too, for that matter); I'll have to get their professional opinion.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

When I lived in New Hampshire, my well water was cold year round. When the temperature was ninety and the humidity was high, the water condensing on the tank made huge puddles on the floor.

Unfortunately the toilet tank and bowl were made in one piece, so I could not use a tank cover. I just had to wipe up the water frequently.

Tank covers can be very useful.

Moo

Posted by .Gort (# 6855) on :

[Handyman Mode]

There are internal toilet tank insulators made from rigid foam panels that fit up against walls of the tank. Easy to install and will save you the embarrassment of choosing the wrong external fuzzy cover design. See your local hardware store.

For that algae bloom and mold in the bowl, 2 cups of laundry bleach one per week, let stand till next use, swirl with brush.

[/Handyman Mode]

Posted by Spiffy da Wonder Sheep (# 5267) on :

Tank covers?!?!?

Isn't that what the books are for?

I mean, a lot of my books and magazines do wind up living on the toilet tank (just popped into the bathroom to take an inventory: Last month's Via, a Russian-English dictionary, a textbook on language diversity in the classroom, and the book I spent all last night looking for. Durf). They keep the dust off it quite nicely.

sooper-sekrit p.s. to dutchess: I would have made the jaunt most likely (as I'm a huge NB fan) if I had not been stuck here in Sacto taking a bloody useless final for aforementioned language diversity class.

Posted by Left at the Altar (# 5077) on :

This set is nice.

Posted by .Rossweisse (# 2349) on :

quote:
Originally posted by lamb chopped:
Precious Moments! I believe there's a whole chapel of it somewhere. Stained glass pics and everything. ...

There is indeed, not so very far away (as compared to, say, Manitoba) from here, and whenever we pass it, my husband threatens to stop and make me go through it. So far, however, my counterthreats (to actually buy and display, in our home, a Precious Moments collection) have proven effective.

LatA, my late mother-in-law once gave me one of those dolls. I believe that, tragically, it was lost in a move.

Rossweisse // that's my story, and I'm sticking to it

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by .Gort:
Sine said:
quote:
I always check out people's bookshelves. After I scope out their medicine cabinet.
As I have always respected Sine's opinion on these and other matters, I submit to you, through the miracle of digital magic, my medicine cabinet. [which I suddenly realize has no medicine!] Accessments please!

Sioni Sais said:
quote:
[...] It's difficult to imagine any wall clock other than a purely functional one looking inoffensive.
I found this 75lb. functional Regulator at a flea market; now it hangs precariously on my bedroom wall. Whatcha think?

Another item on my bedroom wall is this print. I should have shared it on the fox hunting thread. Think it's too conservative for a bedroom?

Most of my tchotchkes rest on or near the mantle. Is this too cluttered or plain for for a comfortable evening of wine with friends?

Plain versions of that regulator clock can look OK. That one isn't as nasty as a lot I have seen though.

As for the boat I'm afraid only schooner rigged boats are acceptable, and then only if one has sailed.

Posted by snowgoose (# 4394) on :

On the subject of books: An acquaintance once walked into my library, looked at all the books, and said, dismissively, "Oh, books for show," This was one of the more offensive comments I had heard in some time, but as she was a guest in my house (for the last time, I assure you), I just said, in as mild a voice as I could muster, "Well, actually, just about all of them have been read by one or the other of us."

These were not perfectly matched sets of anything, just a lot of books, paperbacks mixed in with hardcover, mostly history. Jeez, if I were trying to impress people, I'd have things like Sophocles in the original Greek, with clever notes in the margins.

Eventually the acquaintance moved to California, taking few, if any, books with her. We stayed in Williamsburg but moved to a bigger house in order to accommodate more books.

As for Precious Moments:

I know someone (much nicer than the aquaintance described above) who had a special glass case made so she could proudly display her precious moments collection in the living room.

Hummels are just as bad, IMHO. I loathe cutesy little statues of all kinds.

Posted by Rat (# 3373) on :

A few years ago we went to visit some sort-of-long-lost relatives in Northern Ireland. A nice couple, quietly religious - very into bracing outdoor walks and the like, but otherwise very pleasant and hospitable to us.

Their living room was frighteningly tidy and there was no music in evidence. There was a bookcase at the far side, but only 3 neat books on it. The rest of the space was taken up with statues of elongated shepherdesses and the occasional big-eyed puppy dog.

After chatting politely for some time, our host asked if we'd like him to put on a cd. Phew, we thought, now we'll find out what makes these people tick (and hopefully encounter a fruitful topic of conversation too, since there is only so much you can say about bracing walks without the spectre of having to go on one raising its ugly head).

Instead of opening a cupboard or producing a cd rack from another room, however, our host trotted over to the bookcase and brought back the 3 books. They weren't books at all, but pretend plastic book shaped covers disguising the only 3 cds in the house. And the choice was - Richard Clayderman, Hooked on Classics, or Dire Straits. Now I quite like Dire Straits, but it was Brothers In Arms and, really, even a good Dire Straits album wouldn't have made up for the other two. Even if the plastic fake books hadn't already moved things beyond the pale.

I'm sure you'll understand, we had to get the next ferry back to Scotland. What else could we do?

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

During my childhood an aunt of mine travelled abroad frequently and every time, she brought me back a doll in national costume. It never seemed to register with her that , tomboy that I was, I never played with or showed the slightest interest in dolls. They all ended up wrapped in tissue paper in a bottom drawer and my mum eventually gave them back to her.

Nowadays they are displayed in a glass-fronted cabinet in her hallway, rows and rows of them staring glassily and giving me guilty pangs and shudders of revulsion every time I go and visit her.

Posted by Henry Troup (# 3722) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pânts:
Maybe they keep their books in a different room?

I don't think that there is a room in my house without a bookcase. Actually, I know that there is no place to put another bookcase.

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Coot:
I am tasteful. Really. Why, I have held off buying something to put my toilet rolls in because I just can't find the right something.

I keep mine in a pine CD tower from MFI. After taking the plastic rack out of the middle, of course. And I can stand a plant on the top.

Posted by Henry Troup (# 3722) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Henry Troup:
I don't think that there is a room in my house without a bookcase.

OK, I'm wrong. Neither bathroom has a bookcase. Currently, there are no books in the bedroom bathroom. There are books in the main bathroom.

Posted by Rat (# 3373) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:

quote:
Originally posted by Coot:
I am tasteful. Really. Why, I have held off buying something to put my toilet rolls in because I just can't find the right something.
I keep mine in a pine CD tower from MFI.

Oh dear. I didn't even know you were supposed to have a thing to put your toilet rolls in. I always just pile spare ones on the floor beside the toilet.

[Eek!]

Posted by geroff (# 3882) on :

I have spending quite a lot of time lately designing bathrooms for clients. They can range from ultra modern sleek to gothick horror, although we do tend to let clients decide on fittings and I just advise on where the pipes go.
This is an example of what I'd call [Projectile]

.

And also for the client who has everything I might choose one of these. [Eek!]

Posted by Ann (# 94) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Rat:

quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:

quote:
Originally posted by Coot:
I am tasteful. Really. Why, I have held off buying something to put my toilet rolls in because I just can't find the right something.
I keep mine in a pine CD tower from MFI.
Oh dear. I didn't even know you were supposed to have a thing to put your toilet rolls in. I always just pile spare ones on the floor beside the toilet.

With small boys in my house, that would end up as a pile of soggy toilet rolls! (Even with bigger boys, now.)

I went trawling through Google and came up with this as an example of what I've got - heavily modified to match coulour and lose the lace and embroidery (see middle picture). As I said, I also have a box for the rest of the pack of a dozen.

Whilst I was looking ...

Posted by duchess (# 2764) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spiffy da Wonder Sheep:
Tank covers?!?!?

Isn't that what the books are for?

I mean, a lot of my books and magazines do wind up living on the toilet tank (just popped into the bathroom to take an inventory: Last month's Via, a Russian-English dictionary, a textbook on language diversity in the classroom, and the book I spent all last night looking for. Durf). They keep the dust off it quite nicely.

sooper-sekrit p.s. to dutchess: I would have made the jaunt most likely (as I'm a huge NB fan) if I had not been stuck here in Sacto taking a bloody useless final for aforementioned language diversity class.

Girl, you should have blown off that useless final for stupid diversity class. [Disappointed]

There is no T in my name, but I forgive thee.

BTW, I will confess here, I love magazines so much and newspapers, I have a drawer next to my commode that I stick all the mags/news in for discreet viewing. Sad but true.

I have smelly candles too, plus dust collecting sea shells on dish...and weird big fish on tank.

Someday I may break down and get cabinet to go over that area, but probably not.

I needed to add, I put large 1000 sheet toilet rolls onto the toilet plunger. This means they are easy to find should company run out, plus they hide ugly toilet plunger. Very handy, I must say.

[needed to add one more thang]

[ 01. November 2004, 15:04: Message edited by: duchess ]

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by duchess:
I have a drawer next to my commode that I stick all the mags/news in for discreet viewing.

I can so relate. I have a similar drawer next to my bed for magazines I wish to be discrete about.

Posted by .Rossweisse (# 2349) on :

quote:
Originally posted by geroff:
...And also for the client who has everything I might choose one of these.

What? No escape from the horrors of television even in the bath?

[Projectile]

We have books and CDs in every room and hallway of the house except the bathrooms. But it's easy enough to stumble over them on one's way there.

Posted by *Mamacita (# 3659) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ann:
Whilst I was looking ...

At first glance I thought she was holding her nose! Now, that would really be tacky.

Posted by Coot (# 220) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Left at the Altar:
This set is nice.

People just let themselves down in the small details. I mean, what could classify as a folkart toilet becomes merely a repository for surplus material from the Playschool Useful Box.

The pearls are crooked. The cistern-top mat is irregularly cut. And the leopard skin lid cover is rumpled.

People have no standards.

Posted by Left at the Altar (# 5077) on :

A tasteful toilet brush holder is difficult to find.

However, help is on the way.

The craft bear and friends, Lion,
Moose, Mini floral loo.

I found this soap holder too. It apparently goes in this bathroom.

Total revamp of Altar bathroom now planned.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Coot:
The pearls are crooked. The cistern-top mat is irregularly cut. And the leopard skin lid cover is rumpled.

Stop carping. It's supposed to look like that.

It's not its fault it didn't win the Turner Prize.

Posted by .Gort (# 6855) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sine Nomine:

quote:
Originally posted by duchess:
I have a drawer next to my commode that I stick all the mags/news in for discreet viewing.
I can so relate. I have a similar drawer next to my bed for magazines I wish to be discrete about.

[pedantry]

I'm shocked that you would wish to be separate and distinct from your magazines. Did you mean that you wish to be discreet? [Snigger]

[/pedantry]

Posted by Celsti (# 4523) on :

I think he means he's using his discretion. Thus the question is of noun/adjective choice rather than word choice, which is slightly less heinous and only warrants a small fine and five grammar demerit points. See me.

Posted by .Gort (# 6855) on :

[Big Grin]

Posted by Celsti (# 4523) on :

Thank you. I try. [Big Grin]

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

It has been pointed out to me privately that in the interest of full disclosure, lest I appear to be setting myself up as some sort of ghastly good taste maven, I should reveal I'm anxiously awaiting a set of penis refrigerator magnets currently winging their way towards me as a late birthday gift from another shipmate.

This shipmate, who has been in my house, kindly suggested I should also disclose the fact that there is not a flat surface in my house, either wall or table, not covered with something. (Mostly dust these days.)

There -- are you happy now? I wasn't trying to fool people. Really I wasn't.

Posted by .Rossweisse (# 2349) on :

They do say that confession is good for the soul, Sine.

(Happy All Souls Day.)

Posted by Benedictus (# 1215) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sine Nomine:
It has been pointed out to me privately that in the interest of full disclosure, lest I appear to be setting myself up as some sort of ghastly good taste maven, I should reveal I'm anxiously awaiting a set of penis refrigerator magnets currently winging their way towards me as a late birthday gift from another shipmate.

This shipmate, who has been in my house, kindly suggested I should also disclose the fact that there is not a flat surface in my house, either wall or table, not covered with something. (Mostly dust these days.)

There -- are you happy now? I wasn't trying to fool people. Really I wasn't.

Sine, darling, I didn't say any of that. All I said was that I thought it was funny that someone had asked you about tasteful tchotchkes. What with the refrigerator magnets and all your other lovely things. The rest was, apparently, your own guilty conscience.

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

Actually, I just wanted to brag on my refrigerator magnets.

Posted by Brains (# 5518) on :

When my great great aunt was in the old folks home, they used to knit/crochet covers for coat hangers while sitting around waiting for someone else to fall off the perch.

Get this. They used to cut up plastic bread bags into thin strips, and crochet that. A lovely recycled gift, perfect for those who vote Green.

I think Mrs Brains made me throw it out when I explained what it was made of. I do still have a coathanger momento from great great aunt, made before times got quite so tough.

By the way, has anyone ever seen a real "live" concrete aboriginal? I gave one to a friend for his 21st once. And yes, it was a joke.

Brains

Posted by Leetle Masha (# 8209) on :

In the 1960s, I got roped into cutting drycleaners' plastic bags into long strips, making the strips into pom-poms, and tying the pom-poms onto frames made of wire coat hangers to form "pom-pom poodles". Truly ghastly, both in the process of being made and in their sales value (nil) at the church bazaar, er, bizarre. [Projectile]

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

"Tasteful" people can be tacky too.

I had occasion Monday evening to be at the home of a rich (3rd generation), recently deceased, prominent citizen of our city, expressing my condolences to his widow and children.

The family was receiving in the drawing room (yes, they actually have a "drawing room") and as I snaked my way through the line, I noticed a pair of 18th century chairs with decrepit needlework covering had ribbons tied across the arms so none of the hoi polloi would sit in them.

So I'm standing there thinking...who's going to flop down and get comfortable in the presence of the grieving widow anyway? Do they not trust the good manners of their supposed friends and business associates? Why didn't they just take the chairs out of the room for the evening? Did they want to be sure, sure, sure we all knew they had a pair of 18th century chairs? (Like, duh. Two chairs and about umpteen million dollars.)

After a suitable period of mourning I shall have to ask the daughter, who is my connection to the family, what the hell they were thinking.

(I must say the whole experience was such a cliche of Old South Old Money it probably deserves a thread of its own.)

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

Re: the OP - I once moved into an apartment where the previous tenant had put one of those blue cleaner things in the tank. I guess I'm passively common, because I didn't remove it. It was OK; I never had people over.

Anyway, it turned out to be helpful. My landlord (company) was really good about sending maintenance over right away, but sadly, the maintenance guy was just plain dumb. For example, when my self-defrosting freezer wasn't defrosting, he told me that you just have to manually defrost self-defrosting freezers every now and then. I knew that wasn't true so had them send a professional (GE guy) over who fixed it.

So back to my toilet. (How often is that said?) I had a leak from the tank - I noticed water on the floor. The maintenance guy tried to tell me it was only condensation. But... it was BLUE! If that blue tablet thing hadn't been in the tank, I don't think I would've thought of coloring the tank water to prove to the dumb maintenance guy that it was a leak and not condensation!

Of course, in later apartments I've had less responsive landlords and have had to resort to fixing things myself, thus bypassing any dumb maintenance guys the landlord may or may not have hired...

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Viola:
Coat hangers bedecked with ribbons and lavender bags - you know the type of thing.

Viola, my dear, I'm rather afraid that I don't.

[Disappointed]

Posted by Gracious rebel (# 3523) on :

While we're on about tackiness and toilets, what do people think of those acrylic loo seats that are transparent and have colourful items set into them? My sister's downstairs loo has one with 'licorice allsorts' in it - normally she has excellent taste, but I really think she's lost it with this one!! [Projectile]

Edited to add - wow my 999th post! i'd better think of something profound to say next time!! [Biased]

[ 24. November 2004, 16:13: Message edited by: Gracious rebel ]

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Gracious rebel:
While we're on about tackiness and toilets, what do people think of those acrylic loo seats that are transparent and have colourful items set into them?

My ex-wife has one with barbed wire in it.

Posted by Gracious rebel (# 3523) on :

yuk, I don't think I could bear to sit on that at all!! [Eek!]

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Viola:
Coat hangers bedecked with ribbons and lavender bags - you know the type of thing.

Ooh yes. Are we talking about the padded coathangers?

Any minute now someone will say that plastic and wire ones are tacky and you should only have real wood ones. They will have to be made of a certain kind of organic wood from non-endangered renewable forests with wholesome non-toxic CFC-free varnish, or be antique ones.

Posted by KenWritez (# 3238) on :

I protest some Shipmates' "no books/magazines in the loo" policy.

Barbarism!

Every room in the house ought to have books, especially the loo. What a disfavor to your guests, to deprive them of necessary reading material and forcing them to gaze undivertedly at your taste in bathroom wall decor and sink top accoutremont.

The KenWritez household loo features a lovely view of the newly de-papered east wall sheetrock, with the newest Clive Cussler "Dirk Pitt" novel (beyond wretched), plus a book on surviving the Chicago Commodities Trading Pit as a Christian, and Cook's Illustrated "New Best Recipe" cookbook guarding the wife's bathroom scales from overzealous use.

Upon the sink counter we have some lovely stacks of Cook's Illustrated magazines, a Coldwater Creek catalog for the Sturdy Wench, novels by such lights as Terry Pratchett, Neal Stephenson, Richard Cohen, Martha Grimes, David & Leigh Eddings (this one in case we run out of t.p.), P. J. O'Rourke, Constance Hale, an American Sign Language dictionary, speech therapy textbook, as well as home improvement magazines and catalogs.

All of which allow our guests education, entertainment, (pray, even enlightenment!), as well as comfort and necessary diversion during what would otherwise be unavoidable periods of ennui.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by KenWritez:
Every room in the house ought to have books, especially the loo.

It's about germs. Who wants to read a book that's spent its life in close proximity to your toilet?

Also, more crucially, if you have to share a bathroom you don't want to encourage anyone else to spend any more time in there than is strictly necessary.

Posted by RuthW (# 13) on :

Do you really need that much reading material in the bathroom? Couldn't you just take Metamucil?

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

I second the germs objection.

Although, an artist friend of mine used to have an old toaster as a book holder in his bathroom, and my first book of poetry was in it, and I took that as a compliment. [Smile]

Hopefully no guests of his would come to associate my writing with any nasty toilet experiences they might have there, though. Let me re-phrase that: with any toilet experiences! [Snigger]

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :

quote:
Originally posted by RuthW:
Do you really need that much reading material in the bathroom? Couldn't you just take Metamucil?

Dunno. What's the plot like? Are there any pictures?

Posted by The Coot (# 220) on :

Um. If a non-reader in the toilet may enquire... do ppl reading in the toilet do same while waiting to... go, or is it more of a leisurely pit stop - read a few pages after you finish communing with nature?

Posted by KenWritez (# 3238) on :

For me, it's a matter of reading while going and then afterward for a few moments while the body makes its post-flight checks and ushers out any stragglers. After all, it's an automatic process and after about the age of 5 it's not that interesting. Hence, a distraction from the--excuse the expression--business at hand.

Germs oughtn't be an issue if you wash your hands with soap and water after each visit, as I was taught to do, and you don't store the books immediately adjacent to the commode; they're on the counter, a few feet away.

RuthW, it's not a question of reading material quantity but diversity, something I thought a card-carrying liberal such as yourself would appreciate. [Biased]

Really, it's not that big a deal.

[ 25. November 2004, 03:30: Message edited by: KenWritez ]

Posted by Mamacita (# 3659) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sine Nomine:
"Tasteful" people can be tacky too.

Yes, indeed. Two examples (of a more earthy nature) come to mind:

The perfectly spotless bathroom in the perfectly spotless apartment of a newlywed friend, whose wife had set a large can of air freshener spray in a fancy glass coaster on top of the toilet tank.
The "pom-pom poodle" bottle cover. When my family lived in Iowa in the mid-1950s, the state was dry, or at least had very restrictive liquor laws, and if you wanted a drink in a restaurant you had to B.Y.O. So the ladies would knit or crochet these little poodles that would fit over a bottle of booze, and people would actually carry these when they went out. Like no one would guess what you were holding.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by KenWritez:
Germs oughtn't be an issue if you wash your hands with soap and water after each visit, as I was taught to do, and you don't store the books immediately adjacent to the commode; they're on the counter, a few feet away.

We're almost all brought up to do that but in practice not everyone does.

Combine that with the habit that some other people have of licking their fingers each time they want to turn over a page and it all starts looking fairly unsavoury. I sometimes wonder about just how many hands (and mouths) a library book has passed through.

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Any minute now someone will say that plastic and wire ones are tacky and you should only have real wood ones.

At the risk of sounding like you-know-who, what on earth would you hang on wire hangers except dress shirts back from the laundry?

Trousers go on slack hangers so they hang straight. Jackets and coats must be on wooden or molded plastic hangers so the padding in the shoulders doesn't get screwed up. Sweaters shouldn't be hung at all.

Posted by Left at the Altar (# 5077) on :

What would one hang this on?

Posted by Sine Nomine (# 3631) on :

I think it needs to be stored horizontally on a shelf, much like the late Queen Mary's beaded court gowns.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Left at the Altar:
What would one hang this on?

Speaking of 'not geschmackvoll'...

Moo

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