Uggs

I’m a peaceable man – not easily provoked.   And I suppose I should have known it was a mistake for a man of a certain age to start commenting on fashion and/or lack of it in the book trade (see The Whole Art of Dress below).  But what has happened since then is that the blog has been bombarded with a wave of spam “comments” intended to advise us on these matters – and in particular the highly fashionable sheepskin Ugg Boots.   Why?   What have we done to deserve this attention from Ugg robots?   Just because we say “contemporary sheep” to describe a binding it doesn’t mean that we are contemporary sheep (or that we want to wear it).  

The excellent WordPress spamware routinely weeds all these spurious comments out – but now and again asks me first whether I want to allow the comment to stand.  And, just for today, I will – six Ugg “comments” (out of about 200 received in the last month) – all illiterate, all totally incomprehensible and all received within a few hours on New Year’s Day.  Links over to the right.  

Elephant Girl

Let me make it clear – I have no particular animus against Uggs.  To be sure, they are just overgrown granny slippers – and the worst and silliest fashion since leg-warmers.  They are of course guaranteed to make even the most elegant of girls walk like an elephant – and they’re (a) hot,  (b) smelly,  (c) very bad for your feet, and (d) ridiculous.   And they are not even waterproof, so bloody useless in winter. Sheepskin – sheep-brained more like it.   Sheepskin is perfectly serviceable as a cheapish binding material – but for fashion? – just think about football commentator John Motson for a moment.   But I was happy to leave Uggs alone – I wouldn’t have felt the need to say any of this unless you – Margiotta, Melody, Main, Logero, Bastic, Marinacci and Ponti (whoever the hell you are with your g-mail addresses) – had not taken to spamming me every five minutes.  It’s come to something when the only way you can sell the wretched things is by trying to interfere with a blog about the rare book trade.

They are hereby formally banned from all ABA bookfairs and bookshops.  

But if you must wear them elsewhere, then at least listen to the lovely Katherine Akra tell you when and how (scroll down to Video Links bottom right).  Yes – she really does say “matchy-matchy is always a no-no” – a hint here perhaps on arranging your stock at a bookfair and a worthy catch-phrase to take us into the New Year.  (But also read the delusional comments her piece has attracted). 

Never fear – help is at hand – a new vaccine, Uggcitrin, has now been developed – and again there is a link to the right under Video Links.  Do please watch this (as well as The Uggs Song) and start the New Year with a broad smile.