AFS

…just another stupid acronym, this time standing for Another Fucking Snob.

This guy Nicky Haslam claims to be an arbiter of “class” or more often of what constitutes “low class” or “common.”  Like most of his ilk, he’s simply a waspish little poseur, this time with his list of things or people he finds “common”:

  1. Selling art
  2. Artsplaining
  3. Sistine Chapel
  4. Christie’s
  5. Downlit art
  6. ‘Art is subjective’
  7. Silent auctions
  8. Children by Renoir
  9. Symbolism
  10. Hanging photographs
  11. ‘Can’t see what you see in that’
  12. David Hockney (can’t paint for toffee but can draw like a god)
  13. Francis Bacon is the campest artist since Gustav Moreau
  14. Waldemar Januszczak’s real name
  15. Giverny
  16. The Mona Lisa
  17. Oil paintings of big game
  18. Oversized garden art
  19. Studio visits
  20. Philistine
  21. Genres
  22. Frieze
  23. White
  24. Trauma
  25. Interpreted
  26. Banksy
  27. Validation
  28. ‘Have you got anything to fit this space?’
  29. Meaningful
  30. ‘I’m afraid it’s reserved’
  31. Kate Moss
  32. Tapestry wall hangings
  33. Have you noticed there is no ‘school’ of Lucien Freud
  34. Saint Laurent
  35. Buying art at weekends
  36. The Biennale

Most of it flies right over my head (which would probably make him add me to his list), but whatever.  (And I’m sorry, but art is very much subjective, or else there’d only be Thomas Kincaid’s paintings hanging on every wall and in every gallery.)

All that said, however, there is nothing that shouts “common” to me more than this choice of wardrobe:

…which happens to be what this little tit was wearing when he oh-so proudly displayed his latest tea towel.

You Asked For It

Here’s one that could cause a Schadenböner:

A clip shared on TikTok  has prompted a battle of the sexes as increasing numbers of women argue men should give up their seats on public transport so they can sit down instead.

The video, which has been liked more than 1.4 million times, was filmed on TfL’s Central line and shows a whole row of men sitting down on the tube, while a row of women are standing in the aisle and holding on to poles.

[Another] user posted a clip that also showed a whole row of seats taken up by men on a Jubilee line train, while she and her other female friends stood on the side.

She wrote in text over the video: ‘Men used to go to war for us and now we can’t even get a man to let us sit down on the train.’

My own feelings on this are quite explicit.  I always stand up and offer my seat to a woman — always have, always will.  It’s how I was brought up.

However: I was also brought up during a time when women were ladylike, gracious and always grateful when a man surrendered his seat to her.  It was an acknowledgement of manners, rather than a matter of divine right.

However, young men have been brought up today in a time when men are savagely browbeaten and instilled with the mantra that women are not the “weaker sex”, are equal to men in every respect (even though they often aren’t), and equality reigns supreme.  And their attitudes reflect that:

One TikToker said he would only offer his seat to pregnant women or elderly people. ‘You equal woman can stand up just like I would if there were no seats,’ he added.

Another wrote: ‘Full grown adults expecting other full grown adults to give them a seat for no reason.’

Completely understandable.

So you womyns won’t get any privileges just because you’re a woman, then, because that would be sexist.

You feministicals wanted to live in this world, so STFU when it’s not always to your advantage.


And I apologize to my long-suffering Lady Readers, none of whom (I suspect) are women like the above womyns, would always be properly appreciative of the occasional gentlemanly gesture, and might indeed be even more dismissive of the Modern Womyns than I am.

Every Minute

…a fool is born, goes the saying.  And chances are that the first thing said fool will do is slap down $600 for a pair of… flip-flops?

I’m not kidding.

How the humble flip-flop became the shoe of the summer with unbelievable price tags to match

JHC.

I remember the wonderful little speech given by Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, in which she schools ingenue Anne Hathaway about the importance of the color “cerise” and how great minds in the fashion industry planned its future appeal, years before it became “fashionable”.  (Don’t bother looking it up;  it’s dark- or cherry pink.)

I thought the speech was a great example of how easily people can be fooled into thinking that something of little value or consequence actually matters.

As an Olde Phartte of many summers, I can recall many stupid fashions — platform shoes, wide psychedelic neckties, wide lapels on suits, etc. etc.

But I never ever dreamed that fucking flip-flops — which should all be burned on a giant bonfire (along with their wearers*) — would become the new overpriced trend.

When I see F1’s Lewis Hamilton wearing a pair of Laboutin flip-flops in the pits, then I’ll know how far we’ve fallen.

Time for gin?  I think so.


*Note:  No snide references to Australians, the worst offenders in this footwear folly.

Not Alone

Seems as though I’m not the only one out there who is looking askance at the current “dressing down” (or as I refer to it, “prole drift”) of society.  The redoubtable Laura Perrins of TCW* Magazine has an even more jaundiced view than I:

Never trust a politician without a tie

I’d post an excerpt, but her entire article is just too delightful for words, so go there now.

And while she uses Oily Little Shit Tony Blair as her exemplar of the Untrustworthy Politician genre, there are several Over Here, too.  Like this fucking asshole:

Q.E.D.


*stands for The Conservative Woman — and has nothing to do with the Brits’ version of our Stupid Party.