[crinoline]

lucizoe- I actually enjoy the belts, because I feel like they are bringing us closer to the natural female form. (but then again-I really, really enjoy 1950s tight belted sweater-skirt combo)
For so long it's [fashion] been all sacks on a stick, I'm ready for some curves to be thrown in.

COT of the day- I don't know if I've posted this before, because this is the second time I've seen it, but:

Cute Brunette sorority girl, voluptuous (I mean all over, not just boobs)
She wore flip flops, sorority shirt, and...now this is the bad part...
Okay, so ya'll know those little plaid patchwork mini skirts and shorts that Old Navy barfed all over the place?
This was made of that fabric, except it was BALLOONED! Which can be totally cute in a non-bulky, non-QUILTED fabric (also, non-plaid)

But the worst part about this hellish garment was the length, it was as though the skirt had an identity crises. It was too long for a mini, even a mid-thigh mini, but also way too short to be a knee length or calf length skirt.

The hem hovered uncertainly in a terribly unflattering no-mans-land of thigh flesh.

I think this upset me mostly because she could have looked so NICE in something else. it baffles me.

[dusty]

Heh, Pepper, oh NOW you tell us he's straight...I've never seen him but my friend has, I can't tell you if he still does that.

[lucizoe]

to continue the bathtub mary ot-ness - There was a house in my hometown that had both a bathtub mary and an enormous great dane (as great danes are wont to be)...I drove past once and the dog was pointing (ears pricked, front paw lifted off the ground, tail straight up) at the statue

well, I thought it was funny anyway

I'm ready for big honking leather belts to be gone. It's like everyone is wearing back bracers on the outside of their clothes.

[pepper]

oh, i totally forgot about rollerbladers! ha ha ha! ah, the joys of living in a very hilly mountain town. rollerblader free!

i have a friend who used to (maybe he still does, anyone here from T.O.?) rollerblade around town in the summer in nothing but his fuzzy little pink g-string. ok, sometimes he'd wear a cowboy hat and/or his camelback.
man, good thing he was so buff and cute, but still, how does Anyone pull that kind of thing off? and, sure, he was straight....

[bunnyb]

I'm Catholic but I'm not sure where you would have to go to buy that stuff. In parts of Ireland they even have the statues along roadsides.

[lady_ell]

Yeah, it's a Catholic thing. My dad calls them "Mary in a Bathtub." My great-grandmother had a BV (Blessed Virgin, abbreviated as such) in a bathtub on her lawn, as did all of her 13 brothers and sisters. I've got a soft spot for them and could conceivably put one on my lawn at some point. I'm not even Catholic, but hey, New Hampshire Episcopal is basically some extremely liberal Catholicism so I think it'd be OK and not totally fucked up. Mary in a bathtub with a rainbow flag background, or something like that. It's a plan.

Back to COF's:

rollerbladers bug the shit out of me. I guess that's a lifestyle CoF.

I'm actually feeling remarkably cheery and un-bitchy today, so I'm letting a lot of things slide.

[herculesgirl]

Fetus flag description: it was about the size of a standard flying-from-the-front-porch American flag, had a white background, with a weird cartoonish drawing of an upside-down, smiling, Caucasian fetus in a womb outlined in red and blue, and the words "Choose Life!" in red at the bottom. Now I'm all for expressing religious and/or political beliefs and had no problem with the flag, it's just that the fetus was CREEPY.

They took it down about 6 months ago or so.

[lowredmoon]

in the west village last night, from the bottom up:

silver stiletto sandals
black fishnet tights--large-holed weave
black "peasant" skirt with silver mirrors (?) sequins (?) on every flounce.
a black off-shoulder short-sleeved sweater.
a blonde bobbed wig.

i'm fairly sure she was a drag queen--i only saw her from the back, but there were some fairly broad shoulders and no hips involved. and some scary wrinkled elbows that make me think she wasn't as young as the rest of her implied...honestly, i'm HOPING she was a drag queen, because NO ONE else should be allowed that sort of outfit. i was also very impressed by her ability to walk in those heels over a brick walkway.

[lilacwine13]

I think lawn marys are a Catholic thing, since I can't recall seeing anything like that on a lawn owned by a noncatholic. I've seen several here in the Southwest and a couple in the Midwest, so I don't think they are only on the East Coast.

However, I'd take that over a fetus flag any day.

[misspissed]

a fetus flag? wow.

yeah, i guess lawn mary is an east coast thing.
or a catholic thing, i dunno.

[wombat]

Fetus flag!!

[herculesgirl]

Are the lawn Marys an Eastern US thing, specifically East Coast...?

I recall seeing them years ago when I was a kid in Norfolk, VA, then we moved to AL and not a Mary to be seen (not a very Catholic state). Surprisingly, things were similar in TX and CA (although one of my neighbors out here had a creepy fetus flag for awhile)...

[misspissed]

i know this is totally OT, but i never understood the virgin mary on the lawn thing.
while my parents are off the boat italian, they always refrained from public displays of religion like that.

there's this house the town over, that is COVERED with statuary. i mean, imagine a regular house in the suburbs, the neighbors are 10 feet away, and statues everywhere -- over the lawn, on the porch, not to mention the HUGE (church size) crucifix affixed to the front of the place. i have no idea how that thing stays on.

i need to take a picture of this place and post it!

/ot sidetracking...back to fashion.

[bunnyb]

I like gnomes and OTT o/s Christmas decorations (although not when put up in November).

[wombat]

Hi, lady -ell! Good to see more Bostonians on Bust!

I kind of like tacky lawn ornaments. My family and my town was so consciously trying to be "classy" that they just didn't DARE. This was the kind of place where neighbors would mutter to each other if you didn't rake the leaves or mow the lawn fast enough for their taste.

Boston has a large working-class family population from catholic nations: Ireland, Italy, Sicily, and Latin America. I like the Mary's and the other silly things -- "fancy" stone walls with "lanterns" and the like. Putting grape vine lattices over your driveway -- look, a carport and wine too! and the Christmas decorations are so over-the-top that they're legendary.

[pherber]

really pherber? how about the lawn mary? in prayer, enclosed in a plexi glass fronted vaulted cubby? how about the gaudy corinthian pillars avec plaster lions in mid growly leap? hmm? or the fancy pebble labyrinth "lawn" with fountain center? can we all agree that that is all just hideous? i think we can.

i bleach my eyeballs now at the painful memories...

I swear I have never seen such things...
Maybe because I'm European, sounds hideous, though.

hmmm..considering that said curtains are in little old church ladies' homes, and not some hipster's place in brooklyn, i think they are meant as a serious statement.
where does one even GET religious themed curtains?

I didn't doubt, that she meant it as a serious statement.
It's just still the same object, no matter, how it's meant....
(hope that made sense)

[bunnyb]

So, I indulged in a CoF yesterday... I bought leggings. Oh yes I did. Black ones. I have resisted for so long and vowed I wouldn't but I also bought a huge cowl neck grey jumper which will look good over them. The leggings look okay on and teaming them with flat black shoes. I own footless tights too but haven't worn those yet.

[lady_ell]

Seen in Boston this weekend, on the arm of a man in stupid hot topic bondage pants and armbands and goth platform boots...

gray tweedy formal short shorts that did that balloony thing (i.e. looked the rubber pants we wore over cloth diapers as babies)
gray heathered leggings, not in same shade as formal shorts
tiny shrug/bolero thingy that laced up the back
gross henley T-shirt thing with long sleeves

Also - college kids are back, and so are the gauchos.
WHEN WILL IT END?

[misspissed]

I mean what's gross to someone might be "tres kitsch" and "oh so camp!" to someone else...

hmmm..considering that said curtains are in little old church ladies' homes, and not some hipster's place in brooklyn, i think they are meant as a serious statement.
where does one even GET religious themed curtains?

how about the lawn mary? in prayer, enclosed in a plexi glass fronted vaulted cubby?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! the horrid memories.

my neighbor around the block has the best lawn ornament ever:
A LAWN PIG. with a monkey riding it.
even better? they dress it up according to whatever holiday is coming around.

[pepper]

really pherber? how about the lawn mary? in prayer, enclosed in a plexi glass fronted vaulted cubby? how about the gaudy corinthian pillars avec plaster lions in mid growly leap? hmm? or the fancy pebble labyrinth "lawn" with fountain center? can we all agree that that is all just hideous? i think we can.

i bleach my eyeballs now at the painful memories...