I’ll cite when you will, Andy. You still owe me from long before. You first.
It’s called hyperbole. I took it for granted that people would realize I wasn’t serious.
Actually if you’d read the OP in full you’d see that I mentioned three experiences this year alone: her birthday, Mother’s Day and Christmas. So no, it’s not based on one experience in one store, it’s three experiences in two Hallmark stores, not to mention last year. Self-absorbed? Hardly. I’m not sure what your beef with me is, and I don’t really care. If this thread bothers you so much maybe you should bow out. It was a thread written to vent annoyance, nothing more.
Slainte, I’m not being combative here, but I just wanted to point out that there are other greeting-card manufacturers besides Hallmark. American Greetings, for one. And the Shoebox branch of Hallmark, though your OP gives me the impression that you wouldn’t want anything with an irrelevant tone.
Try the small circular racks off to the side of the store: they usually contain cards from the smaller companies (I can’t think of any names right now, but they do exist). Or try a boutique that sells figurines/incense/accessories; they usually have cards as well. Or a bookstore—a large one like Borders or Barnes and Noble. Or a local-hippie-artist store might have some non-mass-produced cards.
Slight hijack.
matt_mcl, I’ve had good luck with holiday cards from the Sierra Club. They tend to be pretty nature scenes, cardinals in the snow, stuff like that, with secular greetings on the inside. Plus, the money helps support a good cause.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/413785/103-3387712-2003018
Wow, look who’s talking now. I know you’re just trying to stir shit, as usual, but since a whiny little turd like you wouldn’t know the difference between “crying victim” and a legitimate Pit thread, here’s a clue: The OP was a semi-serious rant about a frustrating shopping experience. Any one of your posts in this is an example of “crying victim”. Also, the OP is about the least self-absorbed person you will never have the pleasure of knowing. You, on the other hand, are a pathetic jerk.
Slainte, in case you didn’t know, SAL is a one-trick-pony. His trick is misogyny. Ignore him, seriously.
I hardly ever look at the ‘fill in relationship’ cards… heck I know exactly what my Dad loves! Just get him some funny/slightly crude Christmas card and he loves them… now if only I could come up with gifts as easily…
Disclaimer: I don’t know Andy. But it’s not misogynistic to note the stats he posted. Regardless of the snark, the point was a very good one. For a long time now the media has been happily bashing men, yet I still hear people complaining about the opposite. Even things that are blatantly anti-man are sometimes twisted around and viewed as misogynistic. It’s gotten ridiculous, and it’s fair to make note of it. Judging by the stats, Hallmark seems to favor the feminine sex which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if that’s where their market is, and that is who is buying cards. That would just be business.
I wonder if people would have called a man whiny and victimized (maybe even misogynistic) if he’d started a post about how Hallmark hates sons/fathers and had posted the numbers though. Something to think about.
Scarlett you are right. Personally I get annoyed that the cards all do specify exact relationships. Why in the heck aren’t cards a bit less detailed and specific in that regard anymore? It’s getting ridiculous. JMHO but I’d prefer they didn’t spell out every damn detail for me. Put a pretty or funny picture and maybe a verse or a joke and let me write what I want.
I suppose this thread would be good one to point out that, according to Miss Manners, greeting cards are tacky, and we should all be writing short personal notes on plain or personalized stationary to mark personal occasions and holidays.
Hm. Miss Manners’ specific objection always seemed to be “not taking five minutes to write the words ‘thank you’,” for example. My interp was that greeting cards with messages were okay as long as you wrote something personal inside it - didn’t just sign your name. That’s what I always do if I happen to want to send a greeting card. I do, however, prefer blank greeting cards (I have some lovely ones with pictures of metro artwork) or stationery.
After doing a little research, I see that you are pretty much right. Miss Manners will allow greeting cards for a casual ‘Happy Birthday’ or ‘Merry Christmas’, so long as a personal note is written. However, she does think personal stationary is the more charming choice.
I love a card so long as it’s funny - just a brief joke type of thing - and there’s a little note inside. The sacchariney pre-digested spewage that passes for “sentimental” just leaves me ice cold. Miss Manners is right about this one, IMHO.
I could have predicted a thread title like this would attract the type who whine “misogyny” as a pre-emptive strike on any alternate opinion, and you don’t disappoint. You go, cuauhtemoc. Sisterhood is parful!
If that was the case, it was far more successful in the creation than the expression of it.
Now off to Womyns Studies with you. There must be a bajillion other examples you haven’t yet found of how you’re a poor iddle victim of atrocities – like stores (gasp) not having china in your pattern.
BrandyFine, don’t get me wrong, I think statistics are great, that’s not why I think the little pissbubble is a misogynist. I think he knows perfectly well that the OP isn’t seriously trying to make the case that Hallmark hates daughters. He just highjacked this thread for a little attention, like any little bitch would.
The “misogyny” part only becomes apparent when you look back on his other posts. Take a look at the linked thread which he derailed with his over-the-top caterwauling. His pet theme is that feminist writers hurt his widdle feelings, and now it’s up to all the women in the world to apologize to him while he sucks his thumb and jerks off to Gor novels.
So, you may ask yourself, just what is his problem with the OP that he has to deliberately over-interpret her words and insult her for no apparent reason? Based on the evidence at hand, I must deduce that he simply doesn’t much care for women. He was an asshole in this thread, and I think that’s why.
Disclaimer: No offense is intended to other people who jerk off to Gor novels.
My thread annoyed you? 
Please, say it isn’t so.
Especially after you were forced to read it and to respond several times. How ungracious of me.
What a trip down memory lane – to when any objection to feminist extermism is “misogyny.”
There are still people like this? How quaint.
quote:
Originally posted by margin
Oh, Slainte watch it----now Andy’s got you marked as one of those perfidious female victims, even though, you know, you didn’t claim to be victimized. Watch out.
Your own words following closely upon the heels of this request for a cite, for one, numerous “the feminists are taking over the earth” posts in many other threads secondly.
Oh bRUTHer! She was just making a mild, semi-rant, and was being silly at the same time. You appear to be the only one who took her at face value.
Well, I took it at face value too. Not to say I think she believes Hallmark literally “hates” daughters, but rather that she believes Hallmark is biased against women. It seemed like a serious post to me, I didn’t get the impression she found it funny or was laughing. Maybe because of words like “bitter disappointment.” However of course I don’t know either poster. So making a judgment call on that would be pointless for me to do obviously. I’m only saying that from the outside, to someone who doesn’t know anyone involved, it really didn’t seem like a joke and it did seem like a complaint that is likely far off-base, based on the evidence that Hallmark favors women above men. Not that I care if they do, as I mentioned. If it makes them money, so be it.
cuauhtemoc, I didn’t see a linked thread. I will look again and check it out if I find it. Thanks.
Well, I don’t blame you for not “getting it”. But FYI, when people post “rants” in the pit, they normally use over the top language and exaggerate for fun and “venting” value.
I seriously doubt that Toy Blimps are really seen as Evil entities by anyone either. But do a search the word blimp, and you’ll find a hilarious rant about just that.
I have had the same experience as the OP, it seems that whatever card you’re looking for, they are usually out of at the time you go to look for it. IMHO, it was quite clear that in this case that just happened to be daughters.
I remember having a devil of a time finding one for my aunt, MY hallmark rant could have read “Hallmark hates Aunts and Uncles”.
There was every other relationship, including bosses, brothers and sisters-in-law, and even a few step siblings cards.
Had I written the rant, for fun and ranting’s sake, I would have added highly exaggerated silliness too. Most people do.
If you just came in and said “Gosh, I had trouble finding the right card today”. That’s not a rant, it’s just a statement.
Anyway, if you do a search on “feminism” you’ll find plenty of SAD posts to support what cuahtemoc said.
FTR, despite SAD’s search ONLINE for those stats, the OP was about what was available in the STORE. Sheesh.
“I have had the same experience as the OP, it seems that whatever card you’re looking for, they are usually out of at the time you go to look for it. IMHO, it was quite clear that in this case that just happened to be daughters.”
Is that it? While I took the “hates daughters” statement to be tongue-in-cheek hyperbole, the sentiment of the post did not in any way seem to believe the store just “happened” to be out of daughters, but that Hallmark is in fact biased according to gender. Not, again, that I care if they in fact are (and apparently their production may be biased, in favor of women.) Businesses may do what suits them and makes them money, IMO. If I am really wrong and the OP honestly didn’t think Hallmark was biased based on gender, it was very hard to tell, even assuming that it was meant to be semi-serious and hyperbolic.
As to the thread that was linked, I’m pretty surprised now, having read it, that anyone would point to it as an example of how SAL is a whiner, a victim, or a misogynist. In fact had I been one of the people railroading him, catsix and others on that thread I would be pretty embarrassed to link to it. JMHO, YMMV