"Careful. We Don't Want To Learn From This."

There is a great article in this morning's Wall Street Journal entitled "Of Birkins and Blackberrys: Essential Reading on Style." It is basically a discussion of books on style that teach us how not to embarrass ourselves. Now I love some of these fashion style books...you know, Tim Gunn's Book of Style, Nina Garcia's Top 100...anything by a so-called expert that purports to tell me what is stylish is fun to me. I take no offense to it, and when Tim calls me out for wearing black boots with a brown skirt...I make note of it and move on. (Unlike the reader of yesterday's blog who told me that "#16 is so mean!", this being in reference to my statement that white jeans are not advisable if you have extra weight. I felt guilty about that statement all day...even started to go in and edit it out....)

What I found really interesting in this article is that there are also books that teach us how to be young and hip. Evidently, in a book entitled "How Not To Act Old: 185 Ways To Pass for Phat, Sick, Hot, Dope, Awesome, or at least not Totally Lame"....we get instruction on how to text. Now I don't text...so this totally eliminates me from any of the above adjectives, but evidently, if you don't text with your thumbs, you are old. (Very proud of The Husband who I know uses his thumbs). The next issue discussed is "facebooking old". First of all, I have never heard of Facebook being used as a verb...so I am immediately worried that I am guilty of this. What the heck is "Facebooking Young"? I feel like I need to go out and buy the book to make sure I am "facebooking" correctly. What would be worse than someone looking at my Facebook page and thinking "Wow...really old and out of touch"?

And speaking of Facebook...I had to get off for a few weeks...As I noted early on, my original group of "friends" were added because I had evidently sent them an e-mail at some point in my life. This resulted in a very interesting group of people....small, yet interesting. Rather than deleting anyone, I just kept them there...and they became my "family"(except for one friend of a friend of a father of a friend, who took up too much space and time..) Now little by little, I added a few friends...but I prefer not to expand this little family. I like my privacy...and even though some very nice people have "requested" to be added, I can't bring myself to do it. I am well aware that this is some sort of weird part of my personality....but I'll take small and personal over large and impersonal all day long...So....I got off for awhile to get my bearings...but I am back on, happy to see my little 'family"....

But I digress...back to the article. There is also a rule in the book...#54...called "Don't Fear Rap". The author has listed a few 'easy listening" raps which you can throw out when people ask you if you like rap. These will evidently prove that you are hip, yet discerning.

There is also a rule about which famous dead people you can mention...You are allowed to say Abraham Lincoln and Coco Chanel, but you have to mention Kurt Cobain in the same sentence to maintain "dopeness". I'm thinking you can now substitute Michael Jackson for Cobain, but maybe we'll have to wait for the second edition to make sure.

Lastly, there is a list of "cool gear' that you can wear...Ray Ban sunglasses make the cut, as do Birkenstocks (really??)....but there is no mention of the no-no's...I guess I'll have to peruse the book in the bookstore to make sure I am not sporting any of the "aging" gear....

That's it for today. After reading this article, I'm thinking I should delete yesterday's blog, because the idea that anybody gets to tell us what is "in" and what is not, is really pretty ridiculous....However, I did spot the new Bazaar on the newstand, and I'm dying to see their new "in" list...

So until tomorrow, when I will be sure to wear my Ray Bans, hum along to Soulja Boy, and use my thumbs if I ever text....