Brown's Tirade Days Before Vote a Lot Like Susan Boyle

This article was originally published by Technorati on 28 April 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Anyone remember Susan Boyle? Of course you do. She's an international recording star now. England's Prime Minister Gordon Brown is showing shades of Boyle in the run-up to general parliamentary elections one week from today--and I'm not talking about his baritone pipes.

The parallels are uncanny: just days before an important vote, Boyle popped off at a couple of reporters in a hotel lobby, and it cost her the crown. But at least she had the decency to tell them what she thought of them to their faces.

Today, Gordon Brown on the campaign trail in northwest England popped off at a potential voter, and a sympathetic one at that. After the woman held forth on taxes, the national debt and immigration--all the usual stuff--Brown got into the back of his limo and rode away . . . with a hot lapel mic still in place.

Designer Jeans are Extensions of Ego

This article was originally published by Technorati on 27 April 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Is this a joke? $345 for a pair of jeans! Some of us are hopelessly out of touch.

In a recent Good Morning America segment, reporter Marysol Castro detailed an extensive scientific, double-blind, peer-reviewed (not) study pitting a $29 pair of jeans from Old Navy against a $200 pair from Sacks Fifth Avenue. We got a glimpse of one price tag that read $345.00.

One woman claimed to have 2000 pairs of jeans in her closet. And later, Elle Magazine's Fashion News Director, Anne Slowey, actually said, "Most people are charging around $200, so you definitely want to get as much value out of that investment as you can."

No, four shares of Wal-mart will run you about $200, that's an investment. Unless you're name is Levi Strauss, denim is not an investment. Does that woman with 2000 pairs of jeans in her closet realize that at a going rate of $200, she's pissed away several pairs of Sex-and-the-City level designer shoes and handbags? Probably not. ($400,000 for those of you keeping score at home.)