Know The Tea Cup Hierarchy, Or Suffer the Consequences

The other day I was wandering around my local op, blithe as a lark, when I overheard this conversation between two elderly volunteers (hello ladies):

Vollie 1: That’s a nice tea cup
Vollie 2: Yes, not too…thick
Vollie 1: I won’t drink tea out of a thick cup. I just can’t do it.
Vollie 2: Oh, I know. And everyone these days seems to drink tea out of mugs – Mugs!
Vollie 1: Unbelievable
Vollie 2: Quite

This came as quite a shock to yours truly. As a child of the 80s, I have never seen anyone turn their nose up at the idea of drinking tea out of a mug. I tea-mug almost daily. Does this make me some kind of philistine?

Aarrgh, Salty Sea Dog! Beware the Hidden Meanings of Your Tattoos/Retro Tattoo-Styled Items

I was reading today about the coded messages of sailors’ tattoos in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and must say it made for some interesting factoid-alicious trivia absorption.

It seems especially important to be aware of these things in an age where images are so often severed from their contexts, and thus their cultural meanings start to get diluted. Kind of like this exchange in Daria (oh my godfather did I love that show), after Trent gets a Maori tattoo:

TVD Dress Up Box: What I Have Learned From Dressing as a 40s Style Cigarette Girl

Last Friday, I was engaged in peddling various wares at the launch of a magazine. Us peddlers were instructed to dress as “cigarette girls” of yore, and then carry various thingos around on a tray and use our powers of persuasion/feminine wiles to sell sell sell.

Now, I’m always up for some costume-related hi-jinks – every party i’ve ever thrown has basically involved me dressed as someone/thing ridiculous (Michael Jackson/Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle/a Prophet of Doom/pirate/flapper/Miss Scarlett from Cluedo etc etc etc) and trying to convince all invitees to do the same. So this was not necessarily a problem for me. But it’s a pretty high maintenance costume, so if you ever happen to find yourself in a similar situation, here are some pointers:

Costume Envy: The Pajama Game, 1957

OK, now before I get started, please don’t take my minor love affair with this movie to mean that a) I’m secretly in love with Harry Connick Jnr, who starred in the 2006 stage version, or b) I approve of the ridiculous American spelling of pyjama as pajama.

But this film is surprisingly addictive. Largely for the costumes. Because man-o-man, did they know how to rock volume in the 1950s.

Stakeout: St Vincent de Paul Op Shop, Paddington

I was briefly in Sydney this week, and while I didn’t have time to do a good ransacking of the western suburbs’ finest op shops, I did get to have a thorough going over of one of the city’s best ops – the Paddington St Vincent de Paul Op Shop.

If you happen to be wandering down Oxford Street in Paddington, and have already stopped at the cupcake bakery for a ridiculously over-iced cupcake and at some of the many, many boutique-y style boutiques, I would highly recommend a wade through the wonder that is this tardis-like SVDP located in the thick of hip-Sydney heartland.