One key unlocks them both, you know

[austin_dern]

I'd gone to the Jackson Outlet Malls in theory because of the possibility of buying new pants. I'm not currently short on pants, although I did accidentally step on one pair which was on the laundry room floor in just the right spot to shatter its button. I know that in theory buttons can be repaired, but I've never figured out the trick, and I have to conclude after all this time that buttons in fact cannot be repaired except possibly with Superglue. But I do have really only a minimum of acceptable-for-work slacks to wear, and while I haven't lost enough weight that they're awkwardly loose on me, I have lost enough that I really do need to pay attention to my belt as opposed to treating it as part of the costume.

Mostly, though, I just wanted to get out of the house. It's too easy to end up not doing anything but going to the office and coming back home, with a side trip at the start or end of each week to the library, and I was ready for anything different. So while I did poke my way into the Van Heusen store and find they didn't have anything that I liked, and the Brooks Brothers store to find that they didn't have anything that I liked and they cost a lot for pants, it was still a successful venture up to that point.

While there I stopped in the bathroom and my natural instincts for finding things to baffle me lived up to their reputation. There was the little vending machine for essentials you think of while on the road, of course, with one slot for getting a couple Advil and another for some Tylenol. There was one for a pack of Tic-Tacs, which seems like a less urgent need to me but then I usually drive alone. Another slot was to get a supply of CK One cologne, which is certainly among the five items most needed on the road. And then finally was ... a pack of glow-sticks of assorted colors. No brand name.

And so I was left trying to imagine circumstances which force a driver to say, ``I'm out of glow-in-the-dark sticks! I hope I can make it to the Outlet Mall!''

Trivia: The Franco-British geodesic expedition of 1787-88 used instruments which reduced measurement errors on the large surveying triangles to less than 1.5 seconds of arc; despite this, where British and French measurements overlapped, their angle values differed by as much as 12.7 seconds. Source: The Measure Of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey That Transformed The World, Ken Alder. You know, someday I'm going to have to count how many books I have in stock that talk about the invention, year, expedition, project, food, or other small noun which changed the world.

Currently Reading: Down To Earth: Nature's Role In American History, Ted Steinberg.

Comments

buttons

[moxie_man]

Shows you different things ah between rural Maine and the suburbs down your way. :)

Up heeya, everyone had to take Shop and Home Ec in Jr. High. That way everyone knew how to mend clothing (and replace broken buttons), cook a basic meal and safely use power tools prior to high school. ;)

It's a shame they didn't include auto mechanics in the mix.

Re: buttons

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I took both shop and home ec in junior high school. But while I could do all right with the stitching of a button or sealing up of a rip in the fabric, I never got the hang of that bit where you don't need the needle anymore and the thread stays where it's supposed to be or the button has enough play that it's not basically painted onto the pant. I understand the theory but it never quite works out.

I also have a problem where I measure carefully and cut the pieces of wood and then it doesn't assemble into a coat hangar the way it's supposed to. There's just odd angles that everything has to be at.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

I'd purchase and/or search the house[*1] for a new button for the pants, myself; toasters, DVD players, and 10-megapixel digital cameras are all firmly in the range of 'Cheaper to replace than repair' nowadays. Buttons probably entered that around the time of the Civil War, except for the shiny brass sort the officers might have wore.

I personally recommend Sears and JCPenney's for good mid-priced dress clothing, suitable for office environments. While I've quite adjusted to Walmart/Target for jeans, shirts, socks[*2].. even if it might be the same pair of Dockers sold elsewhere for $10 less, I just can't bring myself to make Khaki purchases at Walmart. It's not the place for that stuff.

--Chi

[*1] In your case, translate 'search the house' as 'ask your mother'.
[*2] I picked up a pair of jean shorts at Goodwill the other day for $4, heck. I can bargain-shop very intensely, especially now that I'm paying rent.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, the pants do have that odd little internal button that doesn't seem to serve any purpose; surely that could be repurposed. And there are various stray buttons in tiny plastic bags that I think came from other pants purchases which I keep around because, well, throwing them out seems contrary to the purpose of buying pants that come with little plastic envelopes of stray buttons. It's just assembling that's the problem.

I've done shockingly well on dress shirts from the Capital K Mart, although I admit they haven't had the right sort the last few times I've looked.

Now and then I feel like Target ought to have something suitable for me, but it doesn't quite work out.

[lexomatic.livejournal.com]

Sometimes those "odd little internal buttons" are there specifically as replacements, since the manufacturer knows you won't be able to find a match, certainly not when you need one. Same thing with some makes of polo shirt -- extra buttons inside at the waist.

And certainly the lodging industry expects people to have basic apparel-mending skills, or they wouldn't pack sewing essentials with the hygiene amenities.

Heinlein would probably have something to say on this matter, vis-a-vis self-sufficiency. Although you'd need a pretty strange school for Home Ec to include how to trap, kill, and cook wildlife.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

It's hard to figure what other use might be made for the buttons that are kept hidden to the side of the zipper and on the inside, or other structurally useless spots.

Zombie Heinlein would do well to get in touch with economic theory postdating 1775; there are really excellent reasons for the division and specialization of labor.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Well, there's always tailor shops; or once again, asking your mother. The tailor shop, obviously, will have a cost which must be evaluated against the cost of new pants; but the potential LJ fodder of you calling around and price-comparing button re-sewing gives added value to that tactic.

I more often find clothing at Walmart than Target myself, but I've recently managed an excellent find at Target, a T-shirt featuring a red/blue 3-D image of a mongoose playing guitar. ...and five other animals, but the mongoose is the one on guitar, so clearly, the most important.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

My mother really isn't a sewing type. (Among other things the sewing machine she got at her bridal party went missing several years ago; we believe we know where, but can't get it back; long story not necessarily suitable for public discussion.) Finding a tailor is probably more likely to produce interesting results, not to mention successfully mended pants.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I buy all my work clothing mail order, from Lands' End. I hate clothes shopping, and so I've gravitated toward that as a relatively painless way to acquire clothes. I am fairly short, and have short legs even for my height, so anything I buy off the rack will be too long by far, and will generally fit badly. Lands' End has a lot of stuff in petite sizes, which I really need, and hems pants to any length for free. All in all, it works out a lot better for me than going through the frustration of trying to find things that fit me in the shops.

For actual bricks and mortar stores, though, I think mongologue is right. Sears and Penney's -- I would say especially the latter -- are good places to buy work clothes.

And, yes, it's not actually that hard to replace a button. Even I have done it, probably not as well as someone who knew what they were doing could have, but well enough.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I've never got into clothe shopping by mail, or really any kind of shopping by mail. I'm stuck on trying stuff on in person, partly because I've always had trouble finding things that feel really comfortable and I want to try it on. I even try on when I'm buying a second or third pair of sweatpants in a size I've already tried on.

I don't remember shopping at Sears or Penny's lately, although it'd be easy enough to drop in on at least the Sears on Wednesday, on the way to yoga.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

I know that in theory buttons can be repaired, but I've never figured out the trick, and I have to conclude after all this time that buttons in fact cannot be repaired except possibly with Superglue.

Bone and nacre buttons (which are both porous) are sturdy after repair. Plastic buttons should just be replaced, if you wish to avoid a potentially embarassing wardrobe malfunction.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure this is a plastic button, mostly on the grounds that they're a fairly new set of pants and not in the expensive set. And yeah, probably there's some way to replace the button but I really don't know how to do it.