Did you know about
the "Hall of Fame-Gate" scandal that has rocked the world of scrapbooking?
At first, [Kristina] Contes found the uproar amusingly absurd. She replied on her blog.
"Apparently, many lives have been destroyed by this catastrophe."
Her post prompted a barrage of responses on message boards on sites such as Scrapsmack and Twopeasinabucket. One message thread about her received more than 1,255 comments.
"I guess her response is 'dignified' if you live in the same trailer park as she does."
She "doesn't have a moral bone in her body."
Mortified and hurt, Contes stopped scrapbooking.
What outrage can you commit with a scrapbook? (She didn't take her own photographs.)
Posts
46 comments:
What, no lameness tag?
So...she did a lot of coke and drove under the influence?
Lord, don't go crossing scrapbookers. Honest to God, the die-hards are worse than snippy old church ladies, and I know whereof I speak.
Ms Althouse,
I respectfully request you live blog the New York Giants vs Dallas Cowboys football game this afternoon. I'm sure your take would be unique.
It will be a hoot.
(I have quite the collection of scrapping materials myself, though I never quite get around to using them anymore. Useful stuff for school projects, though.)
enthusiasts young and old, conservative and radical, grudgingly put aside differences to compete in national contests, attend global conventions
This shows that there's no human activity too simpleminded to be free from competitive frenzy.* Excuse me while I go to my favorite paper airplane pro shop; the next set of semifinals is due to begin soon.
*I'm not sure about my collection of navel lint, but I believe it should be competitive at least on the state level.
Can you explain those new links to Stumble It! Digg it! and Del.icio.us on every post? Is this a new year's [birthday] resolution of some sort?
Ruth Anne, I saw that I was getting some significant traffic from Stumble Upon, and it motivated me to finally add the buttons. It's something I've meant to do for a long time -- because I want more readers -- but it was a hassle figuring out how to do it. It had nothing to do with my birthday (or my upcoming blogiversity).
What a weird thing to get bent out of shape about -- especially since Contes apparently openly advertised the fact that a different person had taken the photos. That would suggest that she didn't realize she was breaking a rule.
I know someone -- let's call her Person A -- who lives next door to Person B, a rock-star scrapbooker.
Person A is not much into scrapbooking, but made a page. At the time, it was the only page she had ever made. Person B included that page in her scrapmaking book.
Person A was surprised to discover that some of her acquaintances suddenly regarded her as a scrapbook celebrity.
Just curious: Did all those other scrapbookers make their own materials? I mean--they didn't buy any prefab shapes or doodads that they then used to decorate their pages, did they? Hmmmm??? (Anyone else here ever visited a scrapbooking store? Looked at the ads etc. in magazines such as Creative Keepsakes? I sure have.) Never used a picture that granny took of their whole family, but instead made sure always to use that auto-thing-y which lets you set your camera on delay for a few seconds while you madly run to get into the picture with everyone else?
Revenant makes a good point, too. Now, if she broke a rule, whether she knew about it or not, that doesn't mean she shouldn't except the consequences--that is, losing the contest. But she hardly seems to deserve the barrage of insults.
my upcoming blogiversity
The Ann Althouse School of Blogging?
LOL.
Blogiversary.
To paraphrase Henry Kissinger: "The politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small."
"She didn't take her own photographs."
Dear miss "I can hire little people to do my scapbookin' pictures for me",
I know, you may think you're pretty special now with your store-bought binders and fancy glitter and magic! markers!
But I see a little further than you ever could.
I see you when you're 70 or even 80 years old and wantin' to re-live some pleasant memories so you pick your lah-dee-dah scrap le book off the shelf. But funny thing, aint it? Somehow those pictures taken by some fancy photograph dude with his big city ways and fancy bow tie don't quite warm you inside. Before long your whole wicked, phoney scrapbook seems like a big pack of lies and you throw it into the fireplace and choke back your bitter tears wishin' there was something of _you_ in that scrapbook.
Meanwhile, I look at my barely out of focus pictures in my hand-sewn binder (my great granny taught me the special stitch that makes the cheap handmade pages easier to turn) and feel warm and proud. My scrapbook might not win any byooty prizes, but she's good enough for me. By a long shot.
-Sincerely
Poor but proud Scrapbooker
Does the Brittany Spears of scrapbooking overly trim her photos?
The rules are the rules. She broke the rules. Too bad. She deserves the criticism. Every bit of it.
The end of the article lays out how scrap booking is a big business. If a group representing that business allows rules to be broken for contests, a big business tanks and is replaced bu an honest one.
Lawgiver, tied at half time baby. The Giants are able to move the ball. It might end up with who has the ball last. (Fingers crossed)
Special teams seem to be playing well today. (Toes crossed)
I grew up near Philly -- you could see Veterans Stadium from the top floor of the high school. So who's an Eagles fan to root for when the Cowboys play the Giants? I'm thinking I dislike the Cowboys more than the Giants today.
If a group representing that business allows rules to be broken for contests, a big business tanks and is replaced by an honest one.
I agree. And I don't even think the woman here did anything 1/100th as bad as say, making a page about her nonexistent dead Iraq War hero daddy, which Ann is prepared to wink at.
THE GIANTS WIN! HOLY SHIT! (MY EYES ARE CROSSED)
The LA Times article is more complete and includes photographs.
(From the article Rick Lee linked; emphasis added:) Scrapbooking bloggers called it "Hall of Fame-Gate," naming it the top scrapbooking scandal of 2007.
Wait. There were more?!?
Wow.
Althouse: I'm surprised to say that I found reading the LA Times article was worth it--some interesting cultural/life stage stuff in it. In at least one place, I found myself thinking: "How bloggish!"
As far as Contes' actual blog goes:
She made her blog private, partly to avoid the "hordes of evil stalking" scrappers, and she limited her readers to about 20 friends.
Hordes of evil stalking commenters: anyone able to relate?
Does anyone have Bitney Spears phone number? I want to pass on to Bret Farve.
Trooper: Favre is still hung up on Cameron Diaz, much to Ben Stiller's dismay.
OT:
Was anyone here even TEMPTED to liveblog the Golden Globe award announcements (currently airing, I just realized, on CNN's LKL)? Or look to see if anyone is doing that?
Just goes to show: when it comes to awards shows, it's all about the style, not the content.
Now, excuse me while I go flip away.
/OT
Despair in Dallas. I wasn't able to watch the last part of the 4th quarter and I just saw the final result.
I will support the Giants throughout the rest of the playoffs in a show of division solidarity. If it was Washington or Philly I couldn't say that but I like Strahan and the Giants' overall guttiness. Congrats trooper, I owe you some Texas BBQ and Shiner Boch!
OTX2Oh, OK, I just found myself oddly arrested by King's goshawful commentary and the pitter-patter of scattered applause. Yippee for Ratatouille!
I will now try, once again, to go and honor the instincts of better self.
/OTX2
OTx3: Damn it! I'm losing the battle. Julie Christie got the GG nod for "Away From Her," Althouse; the post you did about that, by the way, was one of my faves from last year. Early Happy Blogivers[strike]ity[/strike]ary!
(M-u-s-t c-u-t t-h-i-s c-r-a-p o-u-t.)
/OTx3
(Added: Hey! Mary Hart has morphed from a "pear" into an "apple," just like me! My self-esteem just skipped a beat [though she's still got far and away a better figure, to be fair] [and given that caveat, I'll rate my own comment as just 1/2 of a "miaow"].) (As indicated by the "added," I'm not counting this as OTx4. So there.)
(Second Added: Damn. I wanted "Lust, Caution" to win, just 'cause of the name. Never heard of it before now, but you know it's gotta be good. Right?)
(Is it really OT to bring up a movie titled "Lust, Caution" on a blog that's been spending so much time on the Clintons recently?
I don't think so!)
(Nods to "Mad Men" and "There Will Be Blood."
Wait, is this the GG award announcements, or commentary on this election cycle?
I'm getting confused.)
(Definitely commentary on this election cycle.
"Atonement"!!!!!
I am confused no more: what a relief!)
"I would like to thank the members of the Althousiversity for their support, sufferance and self-control regarding tomato-throwing during this brief interlude of threadjacking."
---Signed, Guerrilla RIA
(Sigh.)
Oh, and--for real this time:
/freakin' OT
; )
Ooooohhhhh, the absence of Golden Globes. I've always blogged them in the past. Sad. I'm glad I guessed Julie Christie was this year's actress. I've seen so few movies, but I saw that I just assumed she'd win the Oscar for it... for it, and for being a pretty wonderful actress for a long long time. And now she's got the Golden Globe. She'll get the Oscar too.
And Johnny Depp. He's my favorite actor. Him and Daniel Day-Lewis.
Makes it seem it was a good year for movies.
I should go to some.
Who wrote the rules for scrapbooking anyway? For one thing, if you have to take your own photos then the majority of photos of the scrapbooker him or herself (especially outdoors at a distance) were very likely taken by someone else. Who cares?
The question before the congregation is will the professor be rooting for her new if temporary hometown Giants, or will she be cheering for those cheeseheads. And Lawgiver, thanks and welcome on board. We are going to give it a good shot. The Giants seem to be a great road team and have a nasty running game and an improved defense. LETS GET IT ON CHEESEHEADS!!!!!!!!!!!!
It really wasn't a very good year, movie-wise. Not abysmal but far from top-notch. A lot of good-to-middling movies, not a lot of really stellar stuff.
'course, our tastes are different.
Ruth Anne and I may have to throw down.
The rules are the rules. She broke the rules. Too bad. She deserves the criticism. Every bit of it.
That's ridiculous.
She accidentally broke a rule. It isn't like she secretly used a photographer and concealed the fact; she openly publicized the fact that she had used a photographer. She called the people running the contest and asked them to give the photographer a credit -- and the company approved it!
Accidentally breaking a rule that even the contest runners weren't particularly aware of is not grounds for the over-the-top moral condemnation the women experienced.
It's considered the same as entering a Marie Calender pie in a state-fair pie contest. Discriminates against all the scrapbookers who took their own pictures. That sounds a little silly, too, but it's really an unfair advantage.
It's considered the same as entering a Marie Calender pie in a state-fair pie contest.
That's silly. If the offense was that obvious, both Contes and the people running the contest would have immediately realized she was breaking the rules.
To use your metaphor, it would be like entering a Marie Calender pie in a contest with a "by Marie Calender" label on it, then asking the contest organizers to be sure that Marie Calender got recognition -- and having the contest organizers not notice anything odd about that. That's a bit ridiculous, don't you think?
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