Shoulder cutouts

119 Shoulder cutouts

Months ago, I noticed a fashion trend that exposed the shoulders about six or seven inches on each side of the garment. I thought ‘wait and see how this plays out.’

Well, guess what! It is everywhere. Shoulder cutouts first showed up on television and sometimes that does not translate to everyday life. But somehow, someway this exposure of the top of the arms has made it into most stores and brands.

From Target

Sweaters, dresses, tee shirts, and any covering of the upper body for women are showing up with the shoulders, sticking out like beacons in the night. When I see something on a rack in a store that catches my eye due to appealing fabric or style, I am often turned away as I realize the shoulders are missing. Often the item may be hanging a little lopsided due to the lack of the top of the garment on both sides so I have learned to not waste my time.

Surely, this trend will not make it through the winter when a cold breeze could blow through the opening and chill the rest of the body. Is this part of the body attractive and needs to be exposed? I don’t think so,

From Macy's

Thank goodness, I have not seen the trend in outerwear but you never know. It has made it to the racks of children’s clothes which is a little odd. Of course, children are cute in just about any style, but not grownups who often need to hide various parts of their bodies.

I like sleeves in my clothes. In fact, I wear them even in warm weather to hide arms that aren’t what they used to be. I shop high and low to find just the right sleeve length to flatter what I have left to flatter.

Some of the items reveal not only a few inches of the shoulder but plunge down the arm for eight or ten inches. I wonder how the sleeves stay in place or maybe they don’t. I have never tried one on so maybe that will be my challenge this season --- to see if the should cutouts will hold up through daily life, such as driving, cooking, computer work, etc.

Evidently, shoulder cutouts have a place in fashion history. This look surfaced more than 20 years ago but was prevalent in more formal attire such as an evening dress. In fact, Hilary Clinton wore the look. According to The Guardian, Donna Karan’s cold-shoulder dress was a favorite of Clinton’s. We definitely see the resurgence in today’s fashion.

Some fashion writers exclaim that exposed shoulders look great on everyone while others say it is time for the trend to bite the dust for now. We all know it will probably resurface again, maybe in another 20 years.

Also, if you look deeper into fashion information, directions are available on how to cut the shoulders out when making or remaking garments. The Pinterest site offers 201 examples of cutouts. You just can’t get away from it.

But we have survived many fashion trends that were not practical --- many really aren’t. I remember the high necks and low cut backs that required various bras that had to be purchased, usually at a high price. I learned to ignore those. I have also learned that if you wore it when you were in your 20s and 30s (such as mini-skirts and strapless dresses), it won’t happen later in life and really shouldn’t. 

Comfort is now the name of the game for me. I recently went on a hunt to find denim pants that looked like jeans but are more like stretch pants. I was successful, but I am not sure they really look like jeans. I will keep trying for the sake of comfort!

So shoulders you may not be bare much longer! Fashion will dictate and cover you back up probably very soon. But don’t worry, you will be exposed again some day.

Frances              

118 What you are reading

A logo that was never used

What YOU are reading (that we wrote)

This is our 118th blog posting, a nice even number to reflect upon your preferences in our blogs. I have tallied the number of views each the blogs had. We use our Three Savvy Broads facebook page to encourage people to view the blog. In fact, sometimes some of us have promoted a facebook posting to reach more potential viewers. The count also reflects multiple views--if one of us or one of our readers revisits the page, it is counted again. And some blogs keep getting more views even when they are a couple months or years old. Our first blog appeared August 4, 2014.


I have decided that the number of viewings of one blog is not as meaningful as the total views by category of blogs. Here are the categories of blogs that were viewed an average of 250 times or more:

Categories           Total      Average.view            blogs       by category Clothing 2 1014.5 Pets 4 530.3 Politics 3 509.7 Entertainment 13 472.6 Food, restaurants 6 454.3 Holidays 8 452.6 Travel 13 447.3 Books, literature 10 426.7 Family 8 397.3 Famous people 9 354.9 History 10 349.2 Shopping 3 345.7 Our blog 4 322.3 Language 10 299.0 Home & garden 7 252.4

We wrote 17 blogs about Human nature but that fell a little behind the top categories, garnering just 207 average views. Other topics that had lower totals include:

Exercise--average for category--197 (who wants to?)

Technology--188 (you were not as frustrated as us!)

Nature--165 (more into nurture?)

Health--157 (you healthy enough?)

Religion--145 (guess I don't need to comment)

Personal care--nails, hair--139

  (you are better groomed than us?)

Education--95 (done with that?)

Random thoughts--71

  (That should be popular; all our blogs are 

   random thoughts!)

Seriously, we appreciate all the readers of our blogs and especially like hearing what you do or do not like. And soon I can add one more tally to the Our blog category!

Trish                        

171 The bottom of us

Getting to the Bottom of Us 

Dear Readers, I was having a really hard time thinking of something for this week’s blog. You are aware of my liking for lists – 10 ten, most popular, etc. Googling some lists the past few days, something caught my eye: most often items for which people shop. 

Well, lo and behold, I had not thought much about it, but toilet paper was high on every list. Everybody needs it. It is also one of the needed staples collected by Red Cross and FEMA and other aid agencies for victims of catastrophes. So…

Although paper was used as padding and wrapping in China as early as the 2nd century B.C., it was not used for human cleaning until the 6th century A.D. The evidence was found in 589 A.D. when a scholar wrote that “no paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the sages” could be used for personal cleansing. Jumping way ahead in Chinese history, during the Ming Dynasty (1300 -1600s), sheets of paper (two feet by three feet) for the royal court. Meanwhile, the Japanese were using chugi sticks pictured here.

During these early days, other cleaning sheets for the wealthy were lace, wool, and hemp, while the poor used their hands and afterward washed them in the river. Some Middle Eastern cultures still use this method of hand and water.

Native Americans used wood shavings, leaves, hay, moss, ferns, and seashells. 

The Romans used a sea sponge on a stick from a bucket of salt water and vinegar placed in the public latrines. Use the stick, insert in a bucket, and pass it to the next person. (Oh, those glorious days of Rome!)

Meanwhile, the Greeks were using small pottery shards (three/person) with a scraping motion. Warriors often etched their enemy’s names on the shard before using. (Beware of Greeks….)

As the agrarian society developed, plants husks and corn cobs were the most popular items sometimes used indoors but mostly outdoors. My friend Walt, a world-traveled hunter, described something similar even today. 

If there is no outdoor toilet, find a good tree and then use biodegradable special toilet tissue made for this outdoor use. Maybe I should give Walt a Farmer’s Almanac for Christmas. 

Apparently, the Almanac used to have a small hole in the upper left corner so it could be hung on the outhouse wall.

And the Sears catalog – well, yes!! 

On to modern toilet tissue which also has an interesting and truly rough evolution. Toilet paper, as we know it today, first hit the market in America in the 1880s. Several brands and designs were offered which varied in size, roughness, weight, and water absorption.

John Gayetty introduced his brand in 1857 – flat sheets - which he advertised as “the greatest necessity of the age.” 

The first brands in rolls were one ply thick and often contained splinters due to crude production techniques. It was a man named Sam Wheeler from Albany who obtained the first patent for toilet paper and dispenser in 1883. The Northern Tissue Company used in their ads: “splinter free.”

Looking again at my many lists – Charmin Ultra Soft is the number one selling tissue in the United States. Here is a quick Charmin evolution. 

And remember this man? And my final factoid is that more than seven billion rolls are sold yearly in the U.S. alone with an average of just under24 rolls/person/year. Wonder if I could figure out how many trees that would take?

Finally, we need to once and for all time resolve the “over or under” question of how to hang the roll on the dispenser. The patent shows the paper OVER (Wheeler 1891). And you know we need least one cartoon for an industry that generates $6 billion per year!

Hope I have gotten to the bottom of a few historical facts. 

Glenne             

170 Roll tape

Roll the tape!!

It is rare that we watch a TV show live. We either tape it (as we refer back to the old days when there really was a tape) to pausing the show while we run to the kitchen or to take care of other chores around the house.

Then we return and fast forward through all the commercials – the number of which has increased or appears to have doubled or tripled. Therefore, it only takes about 20 minutes to watch a 30-minute show.

We do catch up with the taped (recorded) shows when we have the time to enjoy the productions while fast forwarding the commercials. Not only is the frequency of
the commercials concerning but also the types of ads–-drugs, insurance, law firms. 

When did prescription drugs become the target of the TV-watching population? You used to go to the doctor, get a diagnosis if there was a problem, and maybe take a drug if needed. Now we are constantly assailed with the latest drugs that will make our lives so much better. These seem to drag on for minute after minute, showcasing grandchildren who patiently wait for the grandparents to take these miracle drugs. 

But wait for it--a longer list of side effects is accompanied with music that tries to soften the blow of stroke, dizziness, vomiting, etc. I know this is probably required but it makes you wonder is it really worth it! I keep waiting for a drug commercial to list one side effect as death which is inevitable in the long run.

I definitely push the pause button on these commercials especially since the same ones are shown over and over and over. I guess they think if we see it often enough, we will run to our doctors and beg for this medicine that will cure all our ills or possibly cause more problems with the side effects. Really, how stupid and gullible do they think we are or maybe we are.

My second most hated commercials are ones from the insurance world. Goofy characters and small animals portray agents of various companies trying to convince us they are the best. Again, the ads are shown over and over and over and sometimes within the same few minutes of a break from a TV show.

Would I really believe these people who grovel and grumble as they try to present the very best deals available for car, life, house, boats, and other coverage? I have had the same insurance company for about 40 years. The agent has changed but the service hasn’t. I can trust them to let me know when an adjustment is needed. In fact, they go out of the way to try and compensate me when I make a claim that I know is not covered but I try anyway!

Now medical insurance is another animal. We recently had our Medicare advantage insurance change so I decided to do the research. After hours of phone calls and online searches, I found out certain policies were not available in our state and sometimes in our city. If we lived in the neighboring county, we could have been covered, but not within the city limits. Figure that one out. 

They don’t tell us that on the commercials. My research took us back to the policy we had originally, but of course with a higher price tag. When we visited our agent, she basically said the same thing I had deduced. Again, I warn don’t depend on the commercials, do your own research.

Cost of these ads is reported to be growing in leaps and bounds. One of the most sought-after ad times is during the Super Bowl with costs rising 76 percent over the last 10 years, according to Kantar, a tracker of ad spending, as reported by Variety. In 2006, the average for a 30-second ad during the championship football game was about 2.5 million. In 2017, the price was from $4.5 million to more than $5 million.

I am sure these commercials I have referenced don’t cost that much, but what if these companies saved all that money they spend on ads and put it to work on policies they offer us. Would the premium go down? I doubt it but it would be nice not to be insulted hourly, daily, and weekly with these sometimes untrue or clouded sound bites constantly beamed across the TV screens as well as on radio and the Internet.

Join me in my crusade to not listen to these constant harangues--pause the show, turn it off, tape it for later watching and fast forwarding, or come up with your own way to make a personal statement.

Frances