First a note to the person(s) authoring recent highly irate drive by emails, expressing their opinion that there was no possibility this would come up again…. because the US Government was too busy instituting Socialistic take overs of private corporations…
Truth is, I kept hoping you were right - but here we go again.
And if you care,
Then best you get ready to defend them… Again
I know many of us have been working on effecting the final form of the CPSIA legislation, but it looks like we will soon be back on the front lines of “Orphan Works Opposition”
This writer has been on target before, so fasten your seatbelts.
Please remember - the best way to reach your congressional representatives & senators
is to call AND write to their district offices. Mail to the Capitol is often delayed because of security concerns.
The “ranking” of response is:
Telegram (costs money)
Letter (costs nominal funds, but time)
Telephone calls (make them frequently and be sure to say you are a voter in their district. if you work from home like me, put the number on speed dial, and call every day.
Ask, if they got your letter, Ask if the Congress Critter has read it.
Email is almost useless. Unless you have a real email for the proper staff person, it may not even be read. Of course, filling up their email box has been known to get their attention
To learn more about the Orphan Works Opposition, please visit
http://www.owoh.org
“I think this is a great time for the craft industry. It’s a matter of the ’suits’ fine-tuning their messages…
… you have to CONNECT with your followers. Folks should be hiring viral marketing craft experts to do these jobs for them; the return on the investment would be significant.”
To say this hit a nerve will soon be obvious ( and yes, this is a day for understatement)
It might also help if “the suits” AT LEAST hired some one to make sure their emails are easily read. A.C. Moore comes to mind - all greyed out graphics and no text other than a copyright statement.
Now Michael’s does have some newsletter issues, but AT LEAST the link is there to view on line. AND they make it easy to print their coupons - besides their stores are usually cleaner even if the aisles are too close together.
Someone needs to tell the graphics department that Internet Exploder continues to steadily lose market share toFireFox, Opera, and even a growing trend towards Google Chrome browser.
Why is this important?
If I CANNOT READ OR SEE CONTENT,
what’s the point of cluttering my mailbox.
The FIRST line of every e-mail promotion SHOULD be a link to the “if you are having difficulty seeing this add, click here or cut and paste this link…”
Some stores, like JoAnne’s, puts out a readable newsletter each week. However if they are interested in that part of the population willing to spend a bit more for a better quality product, well let’s just say JoAnn’s increasingly seldom has what I want to buy. Still read their ads - even if the links never work - but I can print coupons for use at either JoAnn’s or Michael’s .
Please also make sure the text does not show up in
inch high or larger letters
Just another way of saying PLEASE DO NOT USE WORD to create your news letters and convert them to HTML or other silly microsoft product (Interweave, Kalmback, and others) these get immediately deleted -
NOTHING will make me leave a website faster that “BEST VIEWED WITH….” Who are you to tell me what Browser I should use. Especially if you are telling me to use one that is so insecure as Exploder. Emails just get deleted unless I need the coupon to use at Michael’s and almost never do I visit those sites.
I sincerely hope ALL of the “CHA/Chain” stores need to “get” that Cheap may well be costing them dear…
Those suits seem to think their only customers are unwilling to buy any thing but the cheapest of cheap.
Lately it seems that when the cashier says “did you find everything you need” Our answer is almost invariably “No, but that is not your fault”
It may take a coupon or two to bring’em into the store. Once there, it is that next group, who may buy less but are willing to pay for better quality that will make them money. IF you stock in in your store.
So, Margo, it would be nice if the “suits” realized that lip service to the WWW and the Internet would certainly have a better ROI if ONLY they would THINK - perhaps even take a look at the demographics of who is buying their stuff.
Better yet would be to NOT ignore the “style” of the internet in favor of continuing to use what “worked” in print media or even junk mail. Mr Suit might not be “comfortable” but the people who shop in your store will be.
Please note I am NOT Anti-Chain - I keep WANTING to buy things but if the local stores Chain or Indie, who employ my neighbors and thus are worth supporting continue to eliminate better products
Many Indie’s could use some help as well, but few can afford the services of “professional marketing” so we will cut’em some slack.
Want My Money?
Give me a Newsletter I can read, and quality products and often as not, coupon or not, many like me will buy something and more than one item.
At least then I won’t have to keep opening wholesale accounts and offer these products through my own e-commerce site because I REFUSE to wait 10-14 days for the Chain fulfillers to be me the product.
Unless of course someone needs to abdicate their responsibility as the head of state in these United States of America.
Besides I was reminded earlier to day that I haven’t ranted for awhile. SO here we go…
There are many who actually know me who will tell you that I am possibly one of the most tolerant of people on the planet - at least for things we have no control over, gender, ethnicity, sort of age (yes you can be too young or too old but you do need to be tolerated) etc.
Add to that I would not have lived past age of 10 but for the dedication of an Iranian Muslin Doctor doing research and surgery at Columbia Pres in the early 1950’s. Again in 2008, owe my survival to two other wonderful Muslim Cardiologists - stories unto themselves, so suffice it to say that if you knew these men you could never be anything but tolerant and welcoming to those true to the Muslim faith and the true teachings of the Koran (and yes, I have read an English translation several times)
Not just for that, but because I was raised by true Christians, the kind that while they believed their religion to be the “right” one; they also believed and taught their children that there was room in the world for diverse opinions and it was not a requirement that others adhere to the one chosen by our family.
So here we are, at a time when, according to the famous CIA World Fact Book, a publication I have a bit more confidence in than Wikipedia,
In 2007, the entire US population was estimated to be approximately 307 million souls.
The Religious breakdown in the US Religious Population is conservatively estimated at:
Protestant 51.3% 157 - 157.49 million
Roman Catholic 23.9% - 73.37 million
Mormon 1.7%, 5.21 m
other Christian 1.6%, 4.91 million
for a total of 78.5% 240.9 million of the US Population in 2007
It goes on to list:
Jewish 1.7%, 5.21 m
Buddhist 0.7%, 2.15 m
Muslim 0.6%, 1.84 m
other or unspecified 2.5%,
OR 5.5% of the population was not Christian, but still claimed affiliation with an organized faith.
With the remaining 16% saying they are not
unaffiliated 12.1%,
none 4% (2007 est.)
So where does that put the USA in the context of “one of the largest Muslim countries?
In fact, EVEN if you take some of the more agressive numbers - say 6 million instead of the .6% of the population (1.6 million from the CIA World Fact Book), The USA would STILL Rank in the bottom half of anyone charts including those that originate from Muslin sources such as Islam101.com plugged into the information of Muslim populations world wide? Okay move the USA up to 36th out of 70 - still not even in the top half.
As the grandchild of those who left the USSR in the early 1900’s to escape the oppression of growing Socialism, I continue to believe these United States can be big enough for all religions and ethnicities.
There is no need to hate, but there is need to for concern - just as we have been in the past over all forms of organized crime -
So I can’t help but think beyond the old saw, to,
Do we REALLY want someone setting foreign policy who obviously want to create greater divisions and and not unity, but rather to willingly to insult the intelligence of 78% of the citizens of the USA by saying we are not a Christian country?
Do we REALLY want someone who cannot do basic math governing our banks and our businesses?
P.I.G.S. or Projects In Grocery Sacks, are an inevitable part of the Creative Crocheter life style, from childhood to the age of wisdom and beyond.
After all, we all can get “tired” of a project or even if we just ascribe to the “there needs to be at least three P.I.P. s - Projects in Progress
So how does this effect “so many hooks”. easy,
By the mid-1950’s I had already”discovered” that not all crochet hooks are created alike. Yes, even then a G was not necessarily a G,
Add to that my early sense of organization not only included keeping the Pattern leaflet with the in progress P.I.G., but the “hook used” with that project.
Why, you ask, can’t you just look at the pattern and use the same size hook. Well the problem with that is because again, even then, I did not think Crocheted garments needed to resemble suits of armour. Secondly, I have never been able to ‘write in a book’ and pattern leaflets constituted books in my warped brain. Copious notes on sheets of loose leaf paper, but nary a mark on the pattern itself.
My father once commented late in his life that he thought the reason I was good at writing/editing patterns so almost anyone could do them, was because I seemed to have spent my entire life writing out my own version of my favorite patterns, including any changes.
At some point (teen years) I decided that it would save me hours of frustration (and allow me to have P.I.G.S that did not end up in the trash because I could not remember the added details) if I bought a hook at the same time I purchased the pattern and yarn… or was absolutely sure the likely size hook was “free in my sewing box”. Admittedly it took me a bit longer to realize that since I seem to prefer using a hook at least 1mm larger than the pattern stated, that is what I should buy.
Once I figured that one out, so began a nearly life long habit of carrying around any “hooks not in use” or more accurately “not buried in P.I.G.S”
Later in life it meant that I had “a supply” that could be used for teaching the “next generation” or even just introducing mine to the satisfaction of crochet.
Does this make me rather “A.R.” probably those with the proper degree will say yes,
And, yes, this penchant for assembling all that the project requires “in one place” before beginning does carry over into other handwork as well.
I just say, No, it makes me efficient in getting started and eventually finishing…
