Oh, I hope my consignors don't read Mary Alice Powell's column today.

Did you see her column in today's paper? I don't usually read it, but the headline was about what to wear on Easter to church. Today IS Easter Sunday, so that advice is a little late. So I thought 'this'll be good.'

OHMIGOD! She is advocating holding onto old clothes and decried that now is the time to get them out and wear them. Mary Alice, what were you thinking????

Her main point of the article is how nice it would be if women were to wear more skirts and dresses instead of pants. I have no problem with that. But then . . . So what goes around comes around in fashion . . . There's a reason we hung on tight to our favorites even when the slacks craze overcame us . (Mary Alice, the slacks craze began over 30 years ago!)

And then the worst: For Easter Sunday church, she decided to wear a suit she had stored in her attic. The suits were culled from the attic and are estimated to be at least 15 years old. (editorial note: !!!!!!!!) They were classics when new and I believe I will feel OK wearing them all these years later. I am glad that I saved them. (The word "classic" is almost a joke among us resalers. It's a word others use for "out of style, but I hope you don't notice.")

Okay, I'll give my fashion-savvy readers a few minutes to recover. ____________________________________________________________________________
Those of you who know me well know that I'm a pack rat. Guess I feel if I throw anything away, I'll need it some day. And it just happened - last night while cleaning out a bookcase, I found a handful of magazines from 1997. Of course, I don't throw out magazines without going through them. I laughed at the styles. One picture in particular showed 7 or 8 women in suits - the sort of one piece dress/suit that was popular then. They were butt-ugly and shouted "I'm out of style!" And that was only 11 years ago. (And don't confuse 'vintage' with 'out of style.')

I threw the magazines out and of course, wanted to photograph them this morning to put in this post (by then, my neatnik husband had thrown them in with the nasty, smelly garbage).

It is true that in the fashion world, styles do come back. But as my friend and image consultant Louise Kahle knows(see her blog at take-the-time.blogspot.com) , when a style re-emerges, it's always a little different - different enough to be noticed and clearly differentiated from its predecessor.

So if any of my consignors read this, please don't let Mary Alice's opinion influence what you bring in to me. And if Mary Alice reads this, I understand if you don't like what I've said. But you haven't been in my store in 10-1/2 years (as far as I know), so I've got nothing to lose.

If you read Mary Alice's column today, was your reaction similar to mine?

P.S. My husband suggested she might still be in Florida for the winter. Don't Florida church-going women care how they look?)

Buying locally

If you're from the Toledo area, you may have heard current radio advertising where local business owners repeat, "Buy local. Build local." And there's a new non-profit organization in the area called Toledo Choose Local whose members are business owners who want to promote the concept of buying local.

There was an article in the paper earlier this week about four locally-owned businesses that are closing (plus there were more last week). But the very next day, there was a Blade article entitled "Franchises show resiliency."

We have tried to buy local for years. The restaurants we frequent are all locally owned (vastly different than a chain restaurant with a local franchise owner): Ansara's Steakhouse, Brownstone Tavern, and Al Smith's to name a few. And with Toledo being a 'restaurant town," there are many locally-owned ones from which to choose.

I recently read an article about Wal-Mart. While proponents tout how many jobs Wal-Mart brings to a community, studies have shown that more jobs are lost when Wal-Mart comes to town - primarily the jobs that were in the locally owned smaller businesses, including "mom and pop" stores that are particularly burdened when the big-box behemoth comes to town.

I'm a "mom and pop" store. I especially think of my maternity clothes. (You may know that I claim to have the largest maternity selection in the area.) I fortunately don't have much competition in the area when it comes to maternity clothes. But you never know what will happen.

I hope people take pride in this area and want to support our local businesses. My new mantra? "Buy local. Build local." It'll be good for all of us.

What will you do to support local businesses?

Movies in our home theater: Moral dilemmas at their best

Okay, some of you have been to my home and know I don't have a home theater. Hey, if I'm watching a movie in my living room, it's a theater. And if it's my home, it's a home theater.

Dick and I love movies. And we've earned the privilege of purchasing theater tickets at the "Senior" discount rate. Occasionally, we don't want to wait until a movie comes out on DVD, but most often we do.

He usuallly chooses them, mainly because I have a lousy track record - I can't tell you how many DVDs I've picked out that as soon as I bring them home, he says, "We've seen that before." Sometimes he has to watch the first few minutes of the movie to discover we've seen it before, but it's happened many times.

But his lousy track record is for the number of bad movies he's chosen - usually if there's no one in it we've ever heard of, it's a clue it might be bad. But sometimes he forgets that the description on the cover of the DVD is designed to make it sound good even if it's a bomb. "There's no stars in this one, but it looks really good." Yeah, right.

My point today is how I've noticed the running theme of many movies we've recently watched - the dilemma of moral consciousness.

Have you seen "Gone Baby Gone" with Casey Affleck, Ben's younger brother? It is excellent - but everyone I've talked to about it has said the same thing - "I loved it except for the ending." I won't ruin the ending for anyone, but it's about a very difficult decision someone has to make and whether or not he/she follows his/her moral code. And of course, we all have different beliefs and moral codes.

Another great one is "We Own the Night" with Joaquin Phoenix (one of my favorite hotties). It's the story of two brothers - one good and one bad - or is it?

And most recently, we watched "Michael Clayton." An awesome story about several people who are faced with a moral dilemma - who makes the right decision? Who makes the wrong one? It makes you wonder how some people can sleep at night.

So when I'm asked what my favorite type of movie is, my new answer is that it's a story where the main plot includes a moral dilemma, because it's fascinating to see the decisions people make.

So what is your favorite type of movie and why?

I know it's been a while . . .

\since I blogged - almost a month. And I don't have a really good reason (don't you hate it when people always have an excuse for not doing something?). Part of it might be I'm much busier than I used to be. But that doesn't account for all the time I waste playing Scrabble on the computer.

But I'm so busy (whether it's worthwhile or not) that I simply forget to blog! Someone e-mailed me the other day and asked if blogging was time-consuming. It's really not - once you decide to do it and have a topic.

And lots of times I just don't have a burning issue I want to discuss. My friend Debby posts on her blog every day and it's always so interesting. But some people post on a blog just because it's there - whether they have something interesting or thought-provoking to say or not. I don't want to have that kind of a blog.

Thanks to those of who who read this and let me know. I promise not to bore you with drivel. Unless you think info about my granddaughter is drivel, in which case you can eat worms.

So let me update you on my last blog post. I finished David Yonke's book about Gerald Robinson's murder conviction. It was fantastic. And my husband, who usually only reads fiction, also read it and loved it. It just came out in paperback so I highly recommend you get a copy.

Some of you won't like this, but the book has given me a new perspective on both the priesthood, the Toledo Diocese and the Toledo Police Department. (Gosh, this may be one of those times that I'm glad not a lot of people read my blog.) Read the book and you'll understand why (Sin, Shame, & Secrets by David Yonke).

Is anyone reading me? Let me know.