Beauty, But First, Some Beasts

1. Tangled up in boos: Some days, we just leave the music at home, because we can't deal with the tangle. Even when we put away the plug cords carefully after use, they are tangled by morning. This happens to you as well, we know, but you were afraid to tell anyone. It's okay: no worse really than having your socks always come out of the dryer inside-out.

Rejoice. According to Fast Company, you can find a tangle free cord at: http://www.wearefrends.com/product_classic.html

2. Wasteful Receipts: We received the paper receipt shown on the right as a booby-prize from CVS. As you can see, it's more than a yard of wasted paper. We got this receipt/coupon for buying a single newspaper! They give you these wads of paper every time, no matter what you buy. The cashier tried to give me a plastic bag to go with it! For a newspaper. That happens all the time too and most of them wind up attached to our nearby fence.

We suggest that the cashier should only release  plastic bags after patrons beg, and that they should ditch their idiotic coupon receipt policy in favor of the trees.

3. Thom Browne's School Daze: A few years back, a famous Fashion Editor, whom we will refer to as She Who Must Be Obeyed*, suggested to her friends who run Brooks Brothers that they attach themselves to the designer, Thom Browne. He did some very nice things there with his Black Fleece line; in fact, we wore one of his oxford cloth shirts today. Unfortunately, he has not had any positive influence on the rest of the store, which is the JCrew That Couldn't.

We mention this here, because Mr. Browne also started a trend, which we refer to as the Pee Wee Herman look. It tries to make men into boys.

Let's be very clear: when men put on boys' clothing or boys' sizes, they look ridiculous, and we don't care who you are, where you work, or how your parents treated you when your were a wee thing.

Pant-legs to the ankle, shorty-short suitcoats, and sleeves halfway to your elbows are unattractive, look like "costumes," and RareBurghers would never wear them. Period. In fact, we're mildly embarrassed to even mention it.

4. Found these on a single day within a hundred yards of each other. Don't do this to yourself. Please.

5. Spill Great After All These Years: We have been to the Abstract Expressionist show at MOMA twice already, and may go again. Here's a piece of a Pollock we saw today:

And, here's another picture....same day....

                     ....Soho sidewalk, Prince St., near Lafayette.



We mean no disrespect to Mr. Pollock, whose art we admire; we just wanted to point out that a RareBurgher notices life's details.

6. Perfection: And we leave you on a high note: Rothko. No.14 (Horizontals, White over Darks 1961)

* Ed Note: aficionados of John Mortimer's Rumpole series will recognize that we have borrowed this title, which Rumpole reserves for his spouse. The Fashion Editor in question might also be called She Who Must Be Okayed. Anyway, as with Pollock, we mean no offense. We like her; she has really good taste and Browne's more eccentric style cannot be blamed on her.