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Craft or Crap?

Entry 398, on 2006-09-23 at 17:51:01 (Rating 3, Activities)

Today, my wife and daughter dragged me with them to a craft show. I always find these events rather tedious - I rarely see anything that I'm really interested in. My plan was to ignore the so-called craft and sit in the cafe drinking strong coffee and writing a blog entry. Unfortunately a lot of other people had similar ideas and the cafe was full, so here I am sitting in the car instead, writing this blog entry.

So what is it about people that they enjoy wandering around in a crowded building looking at a whole lot of stuff with no real practical use? I don't know. I notice most of the participants and women so maybe that is significant in some way.

I suppose there's nothing much wrong with craft. I would prefer to buy something off a local person instead of a similar item from a factory in China. But when it comes to shopping my preference is to do things quickly. There's an old joke going around showing the path of a man and a woman in a shopping center who are both buying a single item. The man goes straight to the shop, buys the item, and leaves. The woman prescribes a torturous route through the shops, buying all sorts of items, and finally exits without the thing she was originally looking for.

Maybe it would be more real if the man avoided the shopping completely, and just went straight to the nearest cafe for a coffee, then exited without the item. At least that would be the scenario for someone like me.

I suppose, amongst the many items at the show, there were a few which were moderately interesting, but the healing crystals were the end for me. Once I saw that sort of nonsense I was out of there!

Comment 1 (275) by Allan on 2006-11-16 at 21:14:20:

I would agree on the whole, but I must say that some of the pottery or woodwork at the craft shows can be worthwhile. As for the healing crystals, give me a break!!

Comment 2 (276) by Jim on 2006-11-16 at 21:19:23:

Absolutely nothing that can be disagreed with here. Should form base study material if there's ever to be a meaningful degree in women's studies - but what normal guy, confronted once with the above sort of situation, would ever seek any sort of such academic involvement.

Comment 3 (277) by OJB on 2006-11-16 at 22:02:57:

I've always had problems with the credibility of women's studies. Because I work at a University, I tend to respect most University courses, but anyone I've talked to, who has had much to do with the course says its not particularly academically rigorous. Of course, I haven't attended any lectures myself, so I might be being unfair. My suspicion is that women's studies is more about propaganda than anything else.

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