Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Annals of Irony

Ms. McArdle links to this site, placing herself firmly mid-scale in the world of lying around. When the heat's been turned off, & you're desperately hoping to find work before the laptop battery runs out for good, you'll want one of these things. Good place to put your money, if you're one of the lucky scores of Americans w/ two (Or even three!) nickels to rub together. 

And the Slanket pitches itself between the two, playing to young middle-class anxieties about selfishness (Slanket donates small amounts of profit to various popular charities) and productivity (the website purrs, “Call in sick at work. It’s just one day.”) It’s creature comfort for people who don’t usually indulge in creature comforts, or at least like to think they don’t. This explains why, in the wake of the Snuggie, some Slanket partisans have rebranded their product as the "Web 2.0," “hipster” alternative. Sure, QVC and in-flight catalogs, its advertisers of choice, are hardly indie media, but infomercials make strange bedfellows.
Combine this w/ Megan's attempted mockery of a QVC product & we start to wonder. Is Megan going to go the Sarah Palin route, deny even Atlantic-level intellectualism, & join the new post-consumption, simple board games around the table by the hurricane lamp, real-American know-nothings? 

W/ no economy left to speak or type of, house-hold tips on making soap from hog rendering, feeding six for the price of two & the like may be the best direction for A.I.

5 comments:

Susan of Texas said...

The Nuddle, as Matthew Brimer has pointed out, markets itself to affluent husbands who can afford to let their wives lounge around the house all day — reviving the cult of domesticity, in colors like “chocolate” and “latte.”

They can kiss my ass. Those "affluent" husbands would really be middle-middle class, are always working, and their wives do everything else.

Sure, Megan might decide to be faux domestic and frugal instead of materialistic and spendy. It would suit her concern troll personality. And it's something she can still do when the Atlantic is put to sleep before it hemorrhages much more money.

Anonymous said...

"It would suit her concern troll personality."

Perfect. Go put on your Slanket and have a drink, SOT. You're done for the day.

Anonymous said...

More stupidity from the queen of the set that has nothing to offer the world except their selection of consumer goods. I have an electric blanket that I used on the couch. Do I blog about that? No. Because nobody gives a shit.

NutellaonToast said...

You have an electric blanket? Tell me more!

Anonymous said...

I'd like to tell you all about my electric blanket, but I'm up for a blogging gig at The Atlantic and can't burn through my "A" material before I get there. I can promise a complete inventory of my kitchen utensils and a description of my trip to the dentist once the blog starts up.