Super Size Me, Baby

In a society growing ever fatter, clothiers assuage our guilt by changing size labels -- so that a size 10 of yesteryear is now a 6. Talk about some fashion spin.

In the infant world, those truly tiny ones among us, this phenomenon is turned on its ear as children's sizes are labeled larger for smaller. In other words, a 6 month old can wear 9 - 12 month sized clothing. Have you seen an article of clothing described as "true sizing"? Those wacky folks actually label the clothing to suit the age. With the rest of the infant garments, woe to us hapless new parents -- confusion and too small clothing abounds.

Ever struggle to get a dress onto a protesting 6 month old because the damn thing says that age? Meanwhile your child's arms are being bent in ways known only to a few yoga masters, all the while she's giving you a look that says, "I will never, never forgive you." Yes, we are all frustrated. And cute clothes are going unworn.

Now please excuse me as I go change into something more comfortable. This size 6 is starting to pinch.

Daily Candy With Fries

Random annoyance: You know Daily Candy has jumped the shark when it offers an email blast about McDonald's.

She Told Me To Walk This Way

Just noticed: Someone in our neighborhood has gone around the various walk signal signs (the ones above the button) and changed the man in pants to a figure in a skirt, some plain white and others with small colorful details. I will try to take a photo so you can see these tiny art pieces.

Wipe That Smile Right Off Of Your Round, Yellow Orb

There seems to be some contentiousness in the world of the happy face. This text was found on a site that offered "“Smileys" for PC (not Mac) users:

"Some internet companies have copied our icons by using yellow, round faces to express various feelings. Those companies are counterfeiters and are being sued for their infringment of our Intellectual property. We believe that use by others of yellow, round faces as icons is damaging to our Intellectual property. If other parties really wanted to be different from us, they would use a color other than yellow, or an oval face, for example, to make their icons dissimilar to ours. Additionally, they could add distinguishing ears or a nose to their face-shaped icons."

Let me quickly go off on a tangent and ask, why the random capitalization and lack of spell check? Talk about adding humor.

Now, on the one hand, I think people could use distinguishing noses and ears for originality's sake -- though eyes being the window to the soul and all that they might bring more expression to the experience than ears. But I am not sure (having done little more than taken a passing glance at this site) that this company really can say that they are the originators of the round, yellow smiling (or otherwise) face. They are, however, the registered owner of the name Smiley, which leaves me wide open for a big fat lawsuit for not using the appropriate registration mark. Would they send a cease and desist complete with round, yellow faces to express various feelings including Your Ass Is Ours? I guess I will have to wait and see.

Put On A Happy Face

First, let me say I am not a smiley face kind of person. In fact, I have never written a note on paper and added a cute smile anywhere. But somehow I appreciate emoticons on IM. The ones that are built into the system so that they actually appear as graphic icons, not the typed squiggles people favor in emails. Why? Because they add unnecessary emphasis and, thus, can be used to spice up the hilarity of a conversation as quickly as you can say :-*.

But I have iChat and I must say that the stock emoticons offered are really limited, hard to read (foot in mouth), out of balance (angel, but no devil) or difficult to interpret (money mouth?). Seeking help in this realm, I did a quick web search only to find challenging programming, expensive software, lame designs and incompatibility with Macs. This final affront proves that there is a serious void that can be filled by designers, especially those with a sense of humor. Wait, that could be the root of the problem -- – emoticons are not being designed, they are being programmed. And not for the creative community. Do any of us really need an animated smiley picking its nose? What is that supposed to imply to the reader?

"“Guess what? I saw an amazing film last night? Oh and I have a disgusting personal habit I wanted to share too...."

I asked my husband if he ever received emails where people used emoticons and he said, "No one smiles when they send me an email."

So if anyone out there wants to design some cool smiley faces, better make some nicely designed bitter or cynical ones while you are at it.