From the department of reader deterrence
Some reasonably sensible advice on how to throw a dinner party, from "The Awl". One thing I don't get though - I understand why she specifies Italian pasta and French bread, but what's so special about Polish glassware?
In the US, Polish glassware is inexpensive but looks and feels reasonably nice, so you can stock up on enough glasses for a good-sized dinner party without breaking the bank.
ReplyDeleteOr, y'know, it's "polish", as in the verb for how to get glassware shiny.
ReplyDeleteI think this may have been the gag. I thought One Foot In The Grave did it better, when Richard Wilson's character was sent to the supermarket for the first time in his life with an insufficiently demarcated shopping list, and returned to his wife saying "I've no idea why you wanted me to get Polish Sherry, but eventually I managed to find a weird ethnic shop that stocked it".
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely right John. I don't know why anyone bothers with Twitter; if you have a blog you can just post short and silly remarks on that.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why anyone bothers with Twitter
ReplyDeleteAs I've noted before, and as Mrs J would be happy to confirm, you can call Toby Young a pillock and get a huffy response from him. This is a rather specific USP, I'll grant you, but it is quite useful to know.
Is there actually anyone alive who has the slightest interest in calling Toby Young a pillock and getting a huffy response from him, who hasn't already done so? I kinda thought that was what he was for...
ReplyDeletePerhaps so, but back in the glory days of the Left Business Observer mailing list, you could call him a pillock and get him to mention it in his autobiography!
ReplyDeleteActually, quite a reasonable chunk of my assets are indirectly dependent on Twitter's success, so I do sort of have a vested interest.
ReplyDeleteIs there actually anyone alive who has the slightest interest in calling Toby Young a pillock and getting a huffy response from him, who hasn't already done so?
ReplyDeleteIt has diminishing returns, though his recent huffy
"In the not-so-distant past, the Guardian would have been supportive of a writer trying to set up a high-performing school"
in Graun comments was just asking for a "yes, but they asked you instead."
Perhaps the Polish glassware is so affordable that it can be tossed out (recycled, please!) when it becomes smudged, and need never be polished.
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of Walmart, which is loads more interesting than Polished glassware.
ReplyDeleteAbout the time Walmart started operating in Germany my dad for some reason was teaching English to senior German supermarket executives. As you do. They all had Walmart stories. Apparently Walmart's sole marketing strategy in Germany was cheapness. That was it. Seems they never actually bothered to research the hyperefficent, ultra-lean German supermarket sector... Also known for its cheapness. Their attempts at union busting didn't go down so well, either. Being illegal and all. And then there was the Arkansas executive who was running the place from London (well they speak English in London).
There's a van around here with a big "Southern Polish" sign on the side (oddly, in a sort of blackletter/Celtic mishmash of a typeface). It's a mobile car-polishing service, I gather, but it confuses me every time.
ReplyDelete