Tag: Regrettable Acts

Every Minute

Fashion

…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.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

From some tart or other:

“I know he’s proud of me and what we have together, but no one else needs to hear that we sometimes do it five times a night and that my searing orgasms can go on for 15 minutes at a time.”

…which is why you shared your story with The Sun newspaper, right?

Not That Unusual Anymore

Technology

Following the recent Crowdstrike/Microsoft debacle, we apparently now have this little problem:

Students in Singapore are scrambling after a security breach wiped notes and all other data from school-issued iPads and Chromebooks running the mobile device management app Mobile Guardian.

According to news reports, the mass wiping came as a shock to multiple students in Singapore, where the Mobile Guardian app has been the country’s official mobile device management provider for public schools since 2020. Singapore’s Ministry of Education said Monday that roughly 13,000 students from 26 secondary schools had their devices wiped remotely in the incident. The agency said it will remove the Mobile Guardian from all iPads and Chromebooks it issues.

Allow me to repeat the warning:  the more centralized the dissemination method, the greater the vulnerability becomes, and the more people will be affected.

I’m not all for going that far back to when lecturers and teachers handed out paper copies of material, and students took actual notes by writing them out during class — but you have to admit that this Singapore incident would never have happened under those circumstances.

Sometimes, conveeeenience comes with a high price tag — something I’ve also often said before.

Just… No

Drive Time, Marketing / Advertising

Let’s say that many years ago your company stopped producing a popular car model in the line-up.  Now time has passed, and you want to reintroduce it, using the model’s old name in the hope of using its storied cachet to attract buyers.

Nothing wrong with that in principle, of course, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.  Here’s the right way:

The original 1969 Dodge Charger Hemi R/T, a roaring, powerful and dangerous muscle car pushing 375hp:

The relaunched 2010s Dodge Charger (SRT Hellcat), a still-more powerful, even-more dangerous roaring monster pushing a jillion (okay, 700+hp):

The styling may have changed,the engineering improved, but the essence of the beast remained the same.

Now let’s look at the (oh-so very) wrong way to relaunch a brand.  From Ford U.K.:

The original 1969 to mid-70s Ford Capri, a sporty, spirited and sexy little two-door number:

The 2025 proposed Ford Capri, a blocky, all-electric (!!!!) SUV (????):

…which retains absolutely nothing of the spirit of the original, and isn’t worthy of even carrying the name.

Someone From Marketing needs to get summoned into a windowless, soundproofed room for a four-hour ball-kicking.  (And yes, I’m quite aware that a woke model like this may well have emanated from a womb-bearer, or someone with pretensions thereto.  Or a committee — same thing, really.)

And no, I’m not taking bets that this abhorrent abortion of a vehicle is going to fail, abjectly and miserably.

Yeah, Whatever

Business, Marxists

It appears that the brand-new Brit Foreign Secretary doesn’t have too high an opinion of our next President:

Britain’s newly installed top diplomat [David Lammy] has refused to back down from his past comments branding Donald Trump as a “neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”.

Considering that he’s part of the Labour (a.k.a. Socialist) Party, that’s unsurprising.

What will be surprising (to him) is how Trump responds to this kind of non-diplomatic speech.

Because Trump is an Anglophile, he’s unlikely to expel the Brit Ambassador and freeze out the Labour Government — which is what I would do in similar circumstances — and to be frank, he’s heard worse from our own local Socialists.

Anyway, the real power in Britishland is not in the Labour government, but amongst the financiers in the City.

Kinda like the bond traders in Manhattan, really.

But understanding reality has never been a strong suit on the Left.  Just wait and see, for example, what happens when they re-nationalize Britain’s railways.
(Can you spell “C-A-T-A-S-T-R-O-P-H-I-C  F-A-I-L-U-R-E”, children?)

And the Izzies, of course, know exactly what side their bread is buttered on:

“Israelis and the prime minister remember very, very well the incredible support which President Trump, while he was in office, gave to this country,” said Israeli government spokesman David Mencer.

After the foreign policy failures of FJBiden’s administration, I suspect that more than a few countries feel the same way as Israel, and not like Britain.

Oh How Charming

Architecture, Disaster, Two-Minute Hate

From Dubai-on-Thames:

The tallest skyscraper in London that will rival the Shard is set to begin construction next week. 

Planning for 1 Undershaft began eight years ago but today City Corporation planning officers have finally recommended it for approval ahead of a committee meeting next Tuesday.

Towering at 74 floors, the architectural masterpiece would be built between other east London landmarks, the Cheesegrater and the Gherkin.

Apparently it’s not quite a done deal:

It will still need final sign off from Mayor Sadiq Khan and the next Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary.

“Levelling Up”?  What kind of fucking title is that?

Never a radical Muslim asshole with a stolen airliner when you actually need one, is there?