I'm not sayin', I'm just saying...

The tailoring job is going well. Basically, the cutter/fitter will take the interpreter into the dressing room, try a bunch of clothes on them, and pin up anything that needs fitting. Then I get the garments, and I have to turn the pins into neat seams and corners, keeping in mind period details and the possibility of ripping it all out when the spotty junior interpreters hit their growth spurt. Right now I'm working on the "small clothes" for a new Fife & Drum Corps member. Small clothes are anything that's not hugely fancy or expensive. Breeches, shirt, waistcoats, etc. All these fife & drummer kids are incredibly skinny, which leads to seam allowances the size of bedsheets. And I tell you what, nothing will cure your tendency to pull threads with your teeth like a faceful of spotty fife & drummer armpit odour.

Ooooh! Oooh! That reminds me--the Fife & Drum Corps are marching in the Macy's Day Parade on Thanksgiving Day!! Put it down on your calendars: you can see them marching in the shiny coats I helped make! They are shiny!

Meanwhile.

Being from Green Bay, I am sort of filially obligated to have an interest in the Green Bay Packers. But I have to tell you, loyal readers, I'm sort of perplexed by the news that's coming out of there right now. A few months ago, Brett Favre announced he was retiring, amid tears and gasps of "the end of an era." Seriously. It was bad. Grown men were crying in broad daylight, propped up only by their frosty beer mugs. Favre swore he didn't want to do "anything" for a year, but perhaps sit atop a mountain and contemplate his existence. Okay. I can understand. Seventeen years is a long time to do anything--no doubt the man has earned a bit of a rest. I was kind of struck at the time by the overly dramatic tone of his announcement, a sort of high choler that's usually evinced by high schoolers breaking up with their BFFs. But, whatever. It's football. I don't pretend to understand it.

Then recently Favre has announced he'd like to come back to the Packers. But as the starting quarterback. The Packers say no. Suddenly the entire world (fine, the United States) is caught up in the drama of will he or won't he--until the NFL Commissioner deus ex machina'd from on high and said he could go back to GB. But now I read today (yes, dad, I read the Packers news occasionally...especially when it's the featured story on Yahoo!) that he did not join the team practise today, but instead spent six hours talking with head coach Mike McCarthy.


McCarthy had a lot of non-things to say about their conversation, apart from "Brett's got a lot of hard decisions to make" and "we had a really good conversation" and he also mentioned they're meeting again tomorrow. Seriously? A six hour conversation--and yet still the organisation hasn't made up it's mind? It's a good thing I'm not a stockholder. I don't particularly care about football (except I like when they win, because then dad is in a good mood), but this seems a little, well, drama-queeny to me. There. I said it. Brett Favre is a huge drama queen. And there's no place in football for drama. I can't believe that the Packers organisation is tolerating this kind of behaviour...I guess it's true that the game isn't what it once was. Oh, fifty years ago now, if someone tried to pull this stunt, they'd get a curt "You're out. Man up and get over it." Now they "have conversations" and "make decisions." What decisions? It's a game--some you win, some you lose.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about that. I've been following it down here with some interest, partially because Brett Favre is practically family, partly because anything to do with the Packers makes me homesick (up to and including when I wear my green breeches with my yellow stockings), and partly because some of the women at work will poke me and say "didja hear the latest?!" Urgh, yes. And did you know that Wisconsin's exports include more than football--including some particularly fine beer and cheeses?