Oh, the thing I left out of my first long response — curved seams are not just different, they are *very much* more difficult. Lots of people can sew straight seams fine and not curved ones; or you add steps to production to keep the curves stable, and a new production order is actually expensive and hard to manage;…

Plus, wouldn't they just make a uniform design for each specific style and then copy that over and over, same as they do for other clothes?

Actually, it is more technically difficult to make clothes for curvier (not quite the same as larger) women. (Although I am dubious that this explains much of clothing companies' reluctance, since it's not like they're mostly paying much for labor. They may not be able to handle the quality control.)

Think about…

So they made the RL version of Princess Monster Wife

Ray's Boathouse in Seattle has a cookbook out. There's an amusing anecdote in it about a guy who came in with his girlfriend and was putting on all sophisticated. When the waiter came along, the guy asked to speak to "the chandelier." The waiter had to think about it for a moment, but figured it out and went to get…

(I just realized nearly all my stories now involve MrsPye's work, but my work doesn't involve customer service, and her work is also the only place in my neighborhood where I can go and have a coffee, so I'm there a lot.) ANYWAY.

A longtime regular customer of mine had never had sushi before and decided to go all out. A team of three came to the table and made a show of laying out a whole range of stuff, including a sushi boat, condiments in an array of dipping bowls, and a small carafe with cups. Everything he'd ordered, none of which was…

Dumb bookstore customer time! We had a customer come in, while our awesome indy bookstore was still three stories, and ask how to get to a section that was on the second floor. A friend of mine and coworker pointed out the very visible staircase. The customer asked him, I kid you not, "yes, but do the stairs go up?"

Actual verbatim gchat conversation that happened at 3:30 AM EST:

OMG! I won?! I won! Am I high? AM I BEING TOO LOUD, YOU GUYS?
He's moving in Monday, by the way. ;)

While her face looks a bit stretched, I love that this style of wake is becoming a thing. I know it's not for everybody, and it gives some people the creeps, but I like that the deceased's personality can come shining through one last time.

My mom teaches small children and occasionally uses a Count Von Count puppet (from Sesame Street) when working with math/numbers. She does the voice, the accent, the whole nine yards; the kids love it.

Now, if they could just charge taxes on it, imagine the revenue!

Everyone I've ever known who performed with Cirque du Solieil would like a word with you. They are better athletes than the vast majority of people that play professional sports, and you are an idiot.

Let's give Louisiana a hand for being the only state to stand up to Reagan and keep their drinking age 18. Sure it turned their roads to shit (he yanked federal highway funding) and they eventually had to go 21 anyway, but they deserve some goddamned kudos.

As someone who moved from New Orleans to Philadelphia last year, no truer words were ever spoken. What do you mean I can't buy any kind of alcohol in a grocery store? And that I have to buy beer either in whole cases or at a ridiculously jacked up price from a bar or bottle shop?? And I can't buy wine and beer in…

Oh goodie! I get to tell one of my favorite NOLA stories now. I lived there for a few years and wondered why so many born and raised NOLA folk had never lived anywhere else and many had never even left the city EVER. I met a woman who told me a story about the time she tried to leave. She said "I was accepted at…

Another bar tending story: