My New All-Clad Frying Pan

I have been pining for an All-Clad frying pan to supplement the huge saute pan I spent OVER $100 on about ten years ago (it's a lot more now--see below).

Guess what? I am the owner of one. As I was decluttering, I decided to pack away some of the pots I don't use too much. I'm keeping them because they might be desired by Miss Em or Frugal Son in the not-so-distant future. As I was packing things away, I uncovered--you guessed it--a 12-inch All-Clad with a $10.00 sticker. I must have bought it at a thrift and forgotten about it.

Unbelieveable. It says something about how all these bargains don't make a dent on my consciousness. I certainly neglected to honor the wonderful pan that came my way....when?

All-Clads are great. Now I just have to decide what I will get with the money I saved.

These are my beauties.


I don't have a lid, but this one does and is a pretty good deal for a lifetime pan.

Have you ever "lost" something wonderful because of clutter--mental and or physical?

Values and Values: Thrift Store Dilemma?

I LOVE thrift stores: let me count the ways. They are good for the community, good for the environment, and, not least of all, good for my mental and financial health. What's not to like?

As in everything, there is a dark side to thrift stores. I don't think I've ever written about this aspect of the thrifts; perhaps I will one day.

Today, I was reminded of the dark side and reminded too of the potential for conflicting values, even in thrift shopping. Since I had a library book to return, I went to the Food Bank Thrift Store, which is very close. This is an odd place, and has had the oddest series of managers. Still: who could argue with the mission? It funds the Food Bank and also a free dental clinic for the needy. So I like to stop by when I'm in the neighborhood.

As I gathered a few items, I heard one of the volunteers explaining to new recruits the items they discard: Harry Potter and other books of witchcraft. I realize this is a common (mis)belief. They were discussing the books in a jeering tone. I paid and left without saying a word.

What do you do when your values conflict with the values of an organization you patronize?

Poor books! I hope they found a home and were not relegated to the trash heap.

Overheard at the Food Bank Thrift Shop: Demographics High and Low

Since I had to return some items to the library (frugal habit number 1), I stopped--as is my wont--at the Food Bank Thrift Shop (frugal habit number 2). This is a rather weird thrift store, but the cause is a good one and I like to patronize when I can. The store caters to a much poorer demographic than Goodwill; many customers have vouchers for free clothing.

Tuesday is always a crowded day at the Food Bank next door. I have noticed that the cars are very fancy--many a Lexus and the like. I always thought these were the volunteers.

Au contraire, as it happens. The new guy working at the shop was regaling a customer with "things I've seen." He mentioned that people with iPhones and designer bags walk in with vouchers for $200 in food and clothing.

He said, "These people were only one paycheck from the Food Bank."

WOW. Be a good steward of your resources and amass that emergency fund (frugal habit number 3).

A Trivial Post for Troubling Times, with Hermes and Marcel Proust

I haven't posted for a few days. How to write about my little frugal adventures when so much bad stuff is going on?

Anyway, after 30 years of hoping to find one, here is my latest thrift purchase. After reading around the internet, I'm quite sure it is the real thing: weighs around 2.2 oz, has the detailing, has handrolled hem stitched to the front, etc.

I suppose trivial things are the most important. Or so says Mr. FS. Actually, Mr. FS attributes the idea to his favorite writer, Marcel Proust.



Are there any trivial events you would like to celebrate?

Cold Weather Wear for the Deep South

You would think that--living in the Deep South--I would have Florida temperatures year-round. NO. It has already gone below freezing a few times. Basically, we have horrible high-humidity heat for many months, followed by a week or less of autumn, followed by a coldish and damp winter, followed by a few days of spring. So even though I don't need the warmest winter clothing, I do need some. Plus, my old house is pretty drafty, in spite of Mr. FS's efforts to insulate and our use of ceiling fans.

Cold weather calls for comfort clothing. So does Finals Week, especially for teachers, who labor on after students have finished, and who have had several weeks of absorbing toxic levels of student anxiety and tales of disaster.

Naturally, in my case, the thrift store has provided. My latest comfort cold weather wear?

Bottoms (these turned up in a men's small, which fit me fine):

Outer layer on top:

The pants are the exact ones I found. While I would never spend that much on sport pants (since I don't do any of the winter sports they are intended for), they are toasty warm. The cape-jacket is similar. Mine is reversible navy wool (navy tweed inside) MADE IN WALES. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I get lots of things like that. I'm sure it was bought on vacation and never worn. I have already worn it non-stop since I got it.

In these two garments we see the opposing philosophies of cold weather wear. The pants are made of polypropylene, a synthetic I've probably misspelled. The topper is wool, of extremely good quality, which will last forever. The pants will probably pill and get disgusting in a few years.

Strangely, since the pants look like leggings, I can wear them when I'm out and about, and look perfectly au courant. And the topper is great, because I can wear layers and layers under it.

You may think this is outdoor wear...and it is. But I should mention that I am wearing the combo indoors too. It HAS been cold inside.

And what of my accessories? I found a pair of fingerless gloves that I bought Miss Em several years ago. They were bought for an 8th grader. Needless to say, they are too dorky for her now. They are great indoor and outdoor wear for me. You can even write a blog post while wearing them

Headgear: a problem. Since reading Duchesse's post about sheepskin earmuffs, I am filled with desire for a set for myself. Hey: a gift I would actually want!

Coffee, Tea, and Me

The above title is an allusion to a scandalous book of the 1960s titled Coffee, Tea, or Me. This book--unread by me--detailed the sexual adventures of flight attendants (then called stewardesses) and pilots in the swinging 60s. Evidently one of our neighbors (a pilot, never seen by me) was a character in it. His disguise was transparent and his wife Lillian divorced him and moved away with their 6 kids.

My Frugal Son has been home for a few days. He has been maligning me for buying too much (good) stuff at Goodwill. He has a point. But watch out for the forces of thrift store karma.



Frugal Son has become interested in loose tea. We searched--to no avail--for our tea strainer. So...when I went to Goodwill, what do I find?

Of course, this item was greeted with ecstasy by Frugal Son.

On to coffee. I made some nasty comments about the now ubiquitous coffee pods. Funny About Money replied with a survey of coffee making methods and paean to the French press, which is what I use.

This inspired me to waste some time--I mean, research--coffee making methods. I discovered this, which seems pricy for what it is. It seems like it would be less messy than the French press, however.

Has anyone used it?

The Award for Most Incongruous Thrift Store Find Goes to....

A truffle cutter. Yes, an Italian truffle cutter was donated to the All Saints Thrift Store, which benefits the Food Bank. Unlike Goodwill, which attracts people from all economic walks of life, All Saints has mostly poor shoppers.

That truffle cutter sat there for a month, moving from one shelf to the next. Finally, it was bought by YOURS TRULY. Perhaps I took pity on the poor gadget. I guess it makes a neat little gift for Frugal Son, who may one day have a truffle.

It looks kind of like this:

What, I wonder, went through the mind of the donor.

What's your most incongruous thrift store find?

Frugal FRIDA ; Frugal FASHIONISTA

My posting has been sparse, I must admit. I've been a little sick; semester has reached a stressful point; and today my dear daughter is visiting with a friend.

So, check out said daughter's frugal Frida Kahlo Halloween costume.

And for you fashionistas out there. I accompanied daughter and friend to United Apparel Liquidators, aka the best store in the whole world. There, I saw a new shipment of ELM DESIGN for between $40 and $120. I also saw some Dries van Noten ballet flats. My daughter bought a pair of pants for $8.00.

Then we hit Goodwill. I was not looking very seriously, but nonetheless came upon a Gerard Darel linen jacket. How the heck do these things show up in my sleepy town? Daughter didn't buy the jacket, but did buy a Gary Graham blouse. It was a sample, dated 2006, made of lace and silk. Totally gorgeous. We had never heard of the brand, but sprung for it ($3.00 with my discount). Once again: how the heck do these obscure brands end up in Goodwill?

I dropped daughter and friend off at tiny local restaurant, with some cash to treat themselves to lunch. I came home for my own lunch.

How wonderful these visits are! And blogfriends: you are invited for a day of shopping and a little lunch. Come on down.

Financial Independence= X times 25

Once again, Jacob of Early Retirement Extreme gets me thinking. Assuming that the oft-touted 4% withdrawal rate from your savings/investments will likely last forever(?) and will accommodate inflation, Jacob points out that you can take an expense, multiply it by 25, and see what you need to amass in order to support your lifestyle.

Here is what he says on food, obviously a need.

What about food expenses? These can range from less than $50/month per person to more than $500/month per person.

Required savings for $50/month:

$50/month = $600/year food expenses. This needs $600/0.04 = $15000 in savings. Whereas $500/month = $6000/year needs $150000 in savings. That’s a lot!

Aiming for the lower figure of $15000 is doable in a foreseeable number of years. After saving $15000 one NEVER needs to worry about food again. One is financially independent of the food expenses.

I like this model, because it tells me that I can save for retirement bit by bit, accommodating first NEEDS (shelter, food, utilities, transportation, healthcare) and then wants (too many to mention here, mostly revolving around TRAVEL).

It also might make me think twice about the many small purchases to which I succumb. Recently, for instance, I have NOT bought a Greek wool hat (for Mr. FS), a Chico's linen shirt, a really nice comforter, and STOP...this is getting embarrassing.

Even though each of these things is ONLY around $3.00, if I forgo, say, 5 a month, I will have eliminated $4500.00 from my retirement needs. Not to mention, the clutter that comes from bringing in 36 new items per year.

Do you think it helps to "multiply expenses by 25" to see what a retirement plan amounts to, or do you think it a silly gimmick?

I love it, myself.

Skirting the Edges of Too Frugal?: Garbage Edition

Now that the temperature is no longer in the 90s, Mr. FS and I ventured out for a stroll through our neighborhood after dinner. As I mention now and again, my neighborhood is filled with big fancy houses and little tiny houses. There are even some medium-sized houses, such as the one in which I reside. I like the diversity, so unlike the cookie-cutter suburbia in which I grew up.

It happened that one of the streets has garbage pick-up tomorrow. As an amateur sociologist I find it interesting to scan the recycling bins. People drink so much alcohol and diet coke!

You can probably see where this is leading. To add a bit of suspense, let me ask: have you ever read Laurie Colwin? I love her fiction, which features urban people with lots of education and interesting careers. She also wrote wonderful books on cooking.

One of her novels, Happy All the Time, features a character named Misty Berkowitz. I kind of identified with Misty because she has these great one-line zingers, not that I could ever have thought of them. Misty is also sullen and moody, just like me. In spite of her moodiness, the wealthy Vincent Somebody-or-Other falls madly in love with her. He lives off a trust fund, but works as a garbage analyst, writing important studies.

One of Misty's zingers to her garbage analyst is "Rich people make me sick." I can't remember what prompts this comment, but it does not deter the smitten Vincent.

Anyway, Mr. FS and I passed the once-beautiful, now falling-down house, that, according to Frugal Son who knew two of the girls who lived there, has rooms filled with garbage.

We went by the new, fancy house that sold for almost a million dollars. It was built on the site of a house that was torn down. A man who had killed his mother had lived there after he was released from a mental institution. The new house is quite ostentatious. There, next to their garbage can, was a giant cardboard box. I stepped closer to investigate. I never did figure out what was originally in that box, but I saw a grocery bag filled with hangers. At the top of the bag was a new-looking pair of white shoes.

Now I don't wear white shoes, but I took them anyway. I will donate them to Goodwill, where someone will be delighted to get a pair of Sesto Meucci flats.

We continued on our walk, stopping to talk to people who run a business called Holistic Pet Care. When we got home, I said to Mr. FS, "I'm going to go back and get the bag of hangers. The thrift stores are always asking for donations of hangers."

So I walked back and got the bag. Once I was home, I peeked inside. Under the hangers--neatly folded--was a pile of clothing, quite current, from Talbots and Rickie Freeman for Teri John. The latter, especially, were of the genre I call "rich lady clothes."

UGH. Why don't people donate these things? How horrible to just throw them out.

What would Misty say?: "Rich people make me sick."

Misty, by the way, ends up marrying the garbage analyst.

If you need some wonderful escapist reading, check out Laurie Colwin.

Her real masterpieces, I think, are her books on cooking.

Walker Evans and Walker Percy

I live in a little town. It is quite unlike the homogeneous suburbia of my youth. Oh, how I hated the suburban lifestyle.

I am always amazed at the heterogeneity of this town of around 8500: some very wealthy people, a smallish middle class, and lots of poor people. That's how a native described the demographic to us when we moved here around 20 years ago.

It makes for some strange contrasts. There are houses within a mile of my pretty house that look like they are from a Walker Evans WPA photograph. There is an active Habitat for Humanity here, thankfully.

Then we have the economic and cultural elite. As a newcomer (yes! still and forever, I'm afraid), I don't know or see some of these people. Some live in huge estates behind foliage, with houses far, far from the road.

When I wonder how a Dries Van Noten cashmere sweater ends up in Goodwill (I wrote about this a while back), I have to assume it comes from one of these houses. Ditto for all the Carlisle and St John that wends its way to the thrift shop. And then there's the Escada sweater with many insect holes that I recently wrote about.

I may know. In today's Times-Picayune, the local section featured an article on our Cultural Icons. One is Walker Percy, famous author who died in 1990, just a few months after I moved here.

His presence still looms large. I had a friend who was proud to be a member of Walker Percy's very exclusive book group, even though he was asked to join years after Percy's death.

One of the photographs in the paper featured the widow of Walker Percy. It is very poignant: she is holding a photograph of her handsome husband and, according to the text, reading his biography.

Strangely, the widow's sunglasses are as prominent as the picture of Percy. That is because the glasses sport the huge logo: ESCADA.

Because of that prominence, even before I read the story and saw that the photo commemorated a sad moment, I said to Mr. FS: "Maybe this woman is the source of the Escada sweater I saw at Goodwill!"

Yes, I am shallow and trivial. Still, it's interesting to think that the people who live in the Walker Evans-type houses may get things from the homes of Walker Percy's family and their friends.

Thrift Stores and the Lure of Perfectionism: Escada Edition

Yesterday, I whiled away a bit of time at Goodwill. My lackadaisical stroll was arrested by a beautiful sweater. White. Cardigan. Neat cut: long with a self tie in front. Checked the label: Escada! Wowzer: exquisite, timeless, seldom if ever worn. My size too.

Then I spied a small hole (moth?). "Oh," I thought, "my mother can fix that for me." Then I spotted a few more holes, and sadly bade farewell to a sweater I probably would have worn hundreds of times.

This happens a lot. I am filled with empathy (perhaps misplaced) for the person who bought it, thinking it a super-expensive but perfect sweater, then spotted the holes, and, in horror, donated it, hoping never to see it again.

If I were to buy something as expensive as that sweater, I would look and look, in search of the perfect item. Like most quests for perfection (the Holy Grail comes to mind), this one would be filled with self-doubt.

Even if a perfect sweater revealed itself, some moth or splash of coffee would no doubt be drawn to it as well.

Sometimes evil people appear to ruin your perfect WHATEVER. I remember walking in downtown Bloomington on a slushy day. A car of screaming (frat?) boys swerved toward me, sending up a huge splash from a puddle onto the sidewalk where I stood. They cheered as I was covered in greasy slush. All my clothes were ruined; no amount of cleaning would get out the grease. Of course, since I was a graduate student, I continued to wear the items, since I didn't have the money to replace them right away.

Like many people, I have a self-destructive attraction to perfection. I remember reading 20 articles on Antigone, searching for the perfect combination of perspectives to share with my beginner students: a handful would have sufficed.

At least I don't have to worry about perfectionism in attire. At thrift stores, you find what you find. There's more than enough that is almost perfect.

So in addition to saving money, thrift stores save you from perfectionism in at least one little pocket of life.

Do you suffer from shopping perfectionism? What do you do?

CPW and LBD: Some Thoughts

CPW=Cost Per Wear
LBD=Little Black Dress (LBD has just entered the dictionary, I read)

Sometimes I think the CPW concept just encourages overspending. All the experts--fashion mags, especially--counsel determining what's "worth it" by COST PER WEAR:if you buy a jacket for $1000.00 and wear it 1000 times, it only costs $1.00/wear, and hence is cheaper than the $3.00 yard sale sweater that languishes in your closet unworn. This seems to make sense.

I thought about a potential CPW fallacy when I was in a three-generation shopping excursion with my mother and daughter in Lenox Massachusetts. As a "resort" area, Lenox sports boutiques that tend to have very nice items and that tend not to have sales. I'm not too comfortable in these boutiques, but my mother likes the people who run one, and so buys a few things a year.

While we were there, Miss Em tried on a Michael Stars dress--just cotton, with some modal, and a bit of spandex--that was around $100.00. It was my fault, because I showed her the dress. Of course, being 19 years old, and extremely tall, Miss Em looks good in almost everything. I thought the price was too high for what was really an elongated tee shirt.

Miss Em exclaimed, "Think about cost per wear! I could wear this every week for a year!!" And, "I don't have an LBD!" And, "I need an LBD!"

I got all crabby and at the end everyone was mad at me: Miss Em and my mother, not to mention the store owner my mother likes so much. We did buy Miss Em a nice cotton gauze tunic, which she has worn a number of times.

I knew I had an argument, but I couldn't formulate it. Then, after a few days, it hit me! The CPW concept ONLY works if you have ONLY a few things.

If you have a closetful of stuff (all nice, by the way) as Miss Em does, by wearing the LBD once a week, you are displacing other items from your rotation. So, at one a week, the LBD would have a low CPW, but the other items would end up having a higher one.

Therefore, the CPW concept only works for those disciplined enough to have a very streamlined wardrobe. You can't stuff an expensive item into a full closet and talk about CPW, can you?

Interestingly, our next stop was Northern California, another very affluent area with a resort component. We were in Sonoma, where there is an excellent thrift store, The Church Mouse. There Miss Em found a Susana Monaco--you guessed it--LBD for $10.00. It was nicer than the first LBD.

Miss Em didn't want it, but I made her buy it. She recently thanked me for pushing it on her. The CPW is down to about $1.00!

What do you think of the CPW concept? Helpful? Or a marketing ploy?

If you're ever in Sonoma, stop by the wonderful thrift.

What's It Worth? Depends On Where it is.

Lucy Marmalade and I are still beaming about our trip to Buffalo Exchange. How nice to know that she has a gift card with $250.00 on it for the next year of shopping. We made a huge space in our closets too. Lucy says I'm not allowed to use the term feng shui--and mention that getting rid of stuff releases energy through one's environment. So I won't. But it's true.

One thing that always interests me is the question of value, what something is worth. Everyone who's ever known a dealer in anything has heard "It's worth what someone is willing to pay." In other words, value is determined not by the price tag on the item, but by what someone pays for the item.

Since I regularly go to thrift stores for relaxation and a spa-like feeling, I see lots of great stuff. Since I belatedly discovered the Buffalo Exchange last year, I often buy things that Lucy may or may not like: if she doesn't, I can take it to the Buf for credit. I also picked up a few things I thought we could get credit for: why not? My Goodwill is inundated with merchandise.

That is why I picked up a pair of men's SAS shoes that had never been worn. These are comfy shoes generally worn by old people. They cost around $100.00. I didn't think the Buf would bite, but I bought them anyway. They had been at Goodwill for more than a week. No one seemed to want them.

I also bought a pair of leather pants by Shin Choi, which sported a $538.00 price tag! These turned out to be too small for Lucy. I was sure the Buf would bite.

I usually don't watch when the buyer inspects my offerings: I turn into Chatty Cathy and get annoying. I did see the skinny and ubercool male manager ask the tattooed and also ubercool female other manager: "What are SAS? " "Comfort shoes," she replied, "30." So Lucy got $15.00 in credit. Neat!

When we got home, I looked through our bag of rejects. There were the leather pants, unloved and unwanted. Evidently, they are worth nothing.


Anyone know the technical terms for all this? Any economists out there?

Depreciation Appreciation

A post on depreciation at Early Retirement Extreme got me thinking on the topic of depreciation. Never borrow for depreciating assets is a personal finance truism I've read more than a time or two.

As usual for me, my success with the big stuff has been minimal.

CARS: We used to buy used cars--believing the oft-cited "It depreciates by 20-30% once it's off the lot. We did the math on our used Camry and discovered that we had, in effect, paid for the first owner's depreciation! Desirable cars retain their value and don't depreciate as much as you'd think. We've bought two new cars: a 1998 Camry and a 2003 Civic Hybrid, both still chugging away.

With the small stuff, we've done well. Consumer goods depreciate immediately after purchase and basically retain that value...forever. Unlike the proprietor of ERE, we do not live a minimalist lifestyle. We love owning books and CDs and have a fashionista daughter.

BOOKS: We used to patronize wonderful used bookstores in the various university towns in which we resided. At the time, we thought 50% off books was great! Now, we rarely spend over $1.00, and that's for a hardcover. I guess if we wanted to have a yard sale, we could sell all our 25 cent books for 25 cents. But usually we donate them back.

CDs: These used to be a major expense, but swapacd.com (affiliated with paperbackswap.com) has been a blessing.

CLOTHING: Even fashionista college students can find most of what they want at a good thrift store (luckily, we have one). "Mistakes" can be donated back or--sometimes--swapped at the Buffalo Exchange, which has been around for years, but which we only recently discovered. Lucy Marmalade used credit garnered at the New Orleans store to buy a pair of Frye boots at the San Francisco store.

Oh, how we appreciate depreciation. Do you?

$600.00 Deposit to my Karmic Savings Account

As you may have surmised, I've been on the road. Much of the road did not include access to the internet, though we discovered that if one sat with a laptop by my father-in-law's mailbox, one could pick up access from a neighbor. Still, it's hard to keep up on a tiny EEE computer, with its tiny keyboard.

Things I will not report include many stressful on-going dilemmas. Also, you will not be hearing about our night in the Atlanta airport, caused by running out of fuel while circling, being diverted, and having to wait 5 hours for another crew. OOPS! Well, Delta will be hearing about that one.

To ease back into my writing life, I will report on an event. I went to the grocery for some milk and, of course, nipped into Goodwill, right next door. As always, the workers asked about my vacation. Then a customer-pal said across the room, "You saved me $600.00."

REALLY? what did I do? It turned out that I mentioned to this mother of two boys that it was a good idea to acquire a tuxedo and accessories before the prom season. Each of her boys went to 3 proms, leading to a savings of AT LEAST $600.00.

I had forgotten all about giving that advice, though I have mentioned it a few times in this very place.

A tuxedo is a necessary purchase also for musicians, as I learned when I worked in a vintage shop in Bloomington Indiana, home of an acclaimed music school.

It is easy to find a tuxedo EXCEPT when you need one, so I suggest you start looking now. $5.00 spent on a tux will save $100 in rental fees, an excellent return on investment.

My only question is What should I spend my $600.00 on?

Frugality and Destiny: Thrift Store Compliments

Yesterday, I wrote about my efforts to depart ever so slightly from the frugal path, only to realize once more that it may be my destiny. This was brought home to me YET AGAIN at Goodwill.

I was cruising the racks in my usual blissed-out way. Another woman was doing the same, only she had a shopping cart (or buggy, as one says here) with two little kids in it. She suddenly burst out. "You're so lucky!" I snapped out of my reverie. She continued, "You're so thin! You can wear anything!"

I was wearing, if you must know, my Lands' End tunic, which I got on sale for about $11.00. It is sold as a beach cover-up, and has since gone up a few dollars. Still quite reasonable, I think. With it, I sported a pair of Athleta capri sport leggings, which I had gotten at GW.

I thanked her and we separated. We met up again. She said, "I had two babies after 40! It's so hard to find clothes." I commiserated and said that my younger child was born when I was 38. Then she said, "I love your look. You look so European chic."

I kid you not.

Compare to my experience, recounted yesterday, of my miserable time in the dressing room, trying on bona fide Euro chic clothing.

Frugality as Destiny, once more.

Thrift Stores and the Public Sphere: Hot Topic

In an effort to jazz up my posts, I will advert to an academic topic: the public sphere, as articulated by philosopher Jurgen Habermas. If you're too wiped out by the heat to look at the Wikipedia essay, here is the beginning:

The public sphere is an area in social life where people can get together and freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action. It is "a discursive space in which individuals and groups congregate to discuss matters of mutual interest and, where possible, to reach a common judgment."[1] The public sphere can be seen as "a theater in modern societies in which political participation is enacted through the medium of talk"[2] and "a realm of social life in which public opinion can be formed".[3]

The public sphere mediates between the "private sphere" and the "Sphere of Public Authority",[4] "The private sphere comprised civil society in the narrower sense, that is to say, the realm of commodity exchange and of social labor."[5] Whereas the "Sphere of Public Authority" dealt with the State, or realm of the police, and the ruling class,[5] the public sphere crossed over both these realms and "Through the vehicle of public opinion it put the state in touch with the needs of society."[6] "This area is conceptually distinct from the state: it [is] a site for the production and circulation of discourses that can in principle be critical of the state."[7] The public sphere 'is also distinct from the official economy; it is not an arena of market relations but rather one of discursive relations, a theater for debating and deliberating rather than for buying and selling."[7

I've been trying to figure out if two of the places I frequent--the public library and Goodwill--would qualify as public spheres. Not much talking in the library, that's for sure. i think Goodwill might qualify: there is a disregard for status: boundaries between workers and customers are regularly crossed. Also, among the customers, there is a crossing of the boundaries between wealthy and poor, not to mention black and white (and now, post-Katrina, Hispanic). Strangely, the thrift store also meets the criterion that it not be a place for buying and selling. I've seen both the current mayor (who averts her gaze) and the former mayor (a hale and hearty fellow) shopping.

Honestly, no one cares whether you buy anything or not. It is so hot here. Both the library and Goodwill have excellent air conditioning. You can sit as long as you want. Both have comfy chairs and lots of things to read. At Goodwill, however, you can chat.

The only long-term sitter that inspired some concern at Goodwill was a hugely pregnant woman who was taking advantage of the ac. There was some worry that she would go into labor then and there. I don't know about political discussions though: all we talk about in the public sphere (if it is one) is how hot it's been.

Hope you're all enjoying the summer. I'm not.

A Cast of Characters at the Thrift Shop: Me, Myself, and I

A few days ago, Duchesse, a Blogger of precise elegance, wrote a post about the cast of characters that inhabits her closet. She's trying to eliminate some of the characters (e.g. I'm with the Band) and stick to two (e.g. yogini). The characters mentioned in the comments are great: my favorite is probably deconstructed dramatic.

I, of course, can't figure out what my character should be. If I said deconstructed dramatic, everyone would laugh, as everyone laughed when I said my role model was Dorothea Brooke of Middlemarch.

One thing about thrift shopping is that you can experiment with various characters and, if you make a mistake, it's no big deal. It's fun to try on characters. It's even--shades of Dorothea Brooke--virtuous, because the thrift store makes money both when you buy something and then when someone else buys your donation.

My thrift store foray of today exemplifies the contradictory character mix. First, the new red headed cashier showed me a pair of capris by Vineyard Vines, with an attached price tag of $125.00. I'm not really preppy, but I loved the little whales on the inside of the waistband.

Then I found some other things. I believe this was an instance of thrift store karma because I couldn't think of anything to write about today and because I've been meaning to comment on Duchesse's post. I just couldn't think of my character: disheveled professor? crabby teacher? sarcastic scruffy?

So here are my characters to experiment with, courtesy of today's therapeutic visit (more therapeutic than my visit to the physical therapist for my back and leg pain).

1. Preppy capris
2. Athleta yoga pants (for the upscale exerciser)
3. Carlisle silk anorak with a print midway between leopard and camouflage (for the rich lady)

Do you--shades of Walt Whitman--contradict yourself?

Lucy Marmalade's Pink Pearls and Other Gifts

How can I resist? I just dote on Lucy Marmalade PLUS she's wearing some beautiful pink pearls PLUS her ensemble illustrates the magpie approach to fashion: here and there, high and low. Also, she's learning about gifts--both receiving and giving.

Hmmmm. Is part of the bliss of having a daughter that I have another person on whom to bestow thrift store finds? A rather disquieting thought. But check out this post: Lucy is wearing a Missoni sweater I thrifted a while back (yes, the famous Goodwill). Orange is not my color, so I couldn't wear it. I even tried to sell it on Ebay; would you believe that no one was interested? It has the label and all...

Perhaps there is an element of karma in the fact that Lucy and I have different coloring. Maybe that Missoni sweater was just waiting for her to appreciate it (she turned it down the first few times).

And Lucy's posts are early Mother's Day gifts to me. Thanks Lucy M.