Monday, March 20, 2017

Dissed again in the news


Found in the New York Times last week, in a story about the alternative minimum tax:

"In a tax system with enough loopholes to fill a macramé tapestry, the idea was......."

I guess "tapestry" has become an all-purpose word for something made out of fiber that hangs on a wall (and to be fair, some people who make quilts, who should know better, use "tapestry" as a substitute for the Q word).  But macrame is not tapestry, and it chops me to see the technical terms of my field continually misused by people who search for a clever simile without knowing what they're really talking about.

I was further amused at the oh-so-correct use of the accent in macrame.  When we were all doing macrame, back in the day, none of us used an accent, nor do we today.  So that kind of adds insult to injury -- not only do you misuse our words, you misspell them, in the most la-di-da way.  Kind of like the grand lady slumming in a soul food restaurant who orders chitterlings.


10 comments:

  1. Hear, hear!

    No-one in fast-paced journalism has time to learn about strange stuff like this, nowadays. As for the la-di-da accent, could that be the spellchecker?

    A sort of sidenote on ignorance of textile terminology is the acquaintances who ask "Are you still making your ... um ... [I let them look for a suitable word, and let them suffer] ... your ... creations?"

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  2. Whoa, somebody woke up on the curmudgeon side of the bed today.
    What did we do before we had the internet to rant and vent? We must have taken it out on our friends and family, I guess.

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    1. I would have taken it out on my husband but he doesn't know macrame from a crochet hook so it would have been wasted.

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  3. I too tire of tapestry in particular being used as category for things that are not. Accuracy in word choice is important in my book but less so elsewhere these days. My personal "art" pet peeve is textile painting for a pieced quilt upon which not a drop of paint has been used. I've seen that term confuse even those well acquainted with textile terminology.

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  4. I'm with you, Kathy. Of course I would be since I do make literal tapestries. I just accept that when I talk to people I do have to define the term, since it is usually misunderstood and misused. I look at it as educating the public about fiber art. It would be nice if we fiberists could all be careful and informed about our own usage though.

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  5. I might be "crabby" as well (love your label) but I agree with you.

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  6. LOVE THIS! OMG - start using words correctly and stop dissing my art! We could say that there are federal policies out there that are going down faster than a sinking boat - and people would say - excuse me - that's a SHIP. I'm very crabby on any given day!

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  7. The world is, sadly, full of know-nothings attempting to be clever.

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  8. Crab away! How much ridicule would we get if we asked how many touch downs in an inning?

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