Althouse: "I love that Etsy gives a platform to someone who can crochet these shorts and sell them to men who love pants made of yarn."

April 16, 2015

"I love that Etsy gives a platform to someone who can crochet these shorts and sell them to men who love pants made of yarn."

"I’m probably going to buy this glowing owl necklace right after I publish this story. I need this coffee mug. I like Etsy just the way it is. And that’s why I’m taking time to soak in the company as it exists today, before Wall Street forces it to change."

35 comments:

Ann Althouse said...: I know crocheting and knitting are 2 different processes, but I have a knitting tag, and I'm not going to start a crocheting tag. I apologize for this lumping to my knitting readers.; 4/16/15, 9:56 AM
David said...: Yarns.
Telling Lies.
Emerging theme.; 4/16/15, 9:58 AM
lgv said...: Etsy, where whatever you buy gets thrown out when you have to move.; 4/16/15, 9:58 AM
TosaGuy said...: From the article: "Over time, most companies are forced to adopt the same playbook, which involves increasing shareholder returns at all costs."

People who write like this refer to shareholders as some mysterious group of which they could never be a part.; 4/16/15, 10:04 AM
Skyler said...: Real men are not fashion conscious, and do not extend their wardrobe beyond looking practical and neat, or formal and neat. Men who think drawing attention to their wardrobe are not very manly.

That's about as politely as I can put it.; 4/16/15, 10:06 AM
Rob said...: Is one of those shorts-wearing individuals Adolf Hitler?; 4/16/15, 10:06 AM
Known Unknown said...: I am very anti-shorts on men. However, these demand special consideration.; 4/16/15, 10:09 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: The absorbency of those shorts can only be a plus.; 4/16/15, 10:12 AM
Gahrie said...: People who write like this refer to shareholders as some mysterious group of which they could never be a part.

The truly ironic part, is that most of them are shareholders.; 4/16/15, 10:12 AM
CStanley said...: Wow, the third from the left looks just like an afghan my mom made for our living room circa 1975.; 4/16/15, 10:15 AM
MayBee said...: I recognize rhhardin's legs when I see them.; 4/16/15, 10:16 AM
sparrow said...: Hard to imagine anyone wearing one of these, male or female.; 4/16/15, 10:20 AM
Jason said...: Search for "vagina" and "placenta" crafts.

You're welcome.; 4/16/15, 10:21 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: The nice thing about having the thick crocheted shorts is you won't be able to see the guy's camel toe.; 4/16/15, 10:24 AM
Fen said...: See? This is what happens when you don't filter all those female hormones out of the water.; 4/16/15, 10:26 AM
Jason said...: Sadly, April Winchell has taken down her hilarious site, regretsy.com. She used to feature and mock the very worst etsy crafts... The scarfs made from placenta, human hair and toenail clippings. (No, I'm not exaggerating.) Even the Web archives have been scrubbed.

I wonder what they paid her to disappear that site down the memory whole before the IPO.; 4/16/15, 10:32 AM
Jason said...: Those boyfriends they recruit as models must put up with an awful lot of shit.

Look up "herb" in the Roissy/Heartiste Dictionary and there you'll see: Behold the Etsy model!; 4/16/15, 10:35 AM
Bill said...: "The most useful of all arts, that of making men, is forgotten."

-Rousseau; 4/16/15, 10:41 AM
John henry said...: I am probably horrible person for saying this but those shorts look so gay. Sorry, that was my first reaction earlier today. Looking again, it is my 2nd and 3rd reaction as well.

And I am a person who generally has no problem with shorts on men.

John Henry; 4/16/15, 11:05 AM
Peter said...: Codpieces.

Let them crochet codpieces. And then let's see who's willing to wear them.; 4/16/15, 11:14 AM
Jane the Actuary said...: These are scary-looking and I can't even begin to fathom who the customers are. And I'm assuming that, from the alternate options displayed, there are some actual customers.

I was also disappointed to learn that the vendor doesn't even crochet these herself, but acquires granny-square afghans and takes them apart. What an injustice to the afghan!; 4/16/15, 11:16 AM
PatHMV said...: Jason, I e-mailed with April a couple of times after the hilarious Regretsy folded. I don't think she got paid anything to scrub it, she just stopped being willing to fund the website enough to keep it up. Even if you try to archive everything and close all comment threads, etc., it can be difficult to maintain an archived website like that, and with the site's popularity, the bandwidth costs wouldn't have been entirely trivial.

But boy, I loved reading that site. Some funny stuff.; 4/16/15, 11:18 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: I guess you have to crochet them longer, down to the ankle, for formal occasions.; 4/16/15, 11:25 AM
Sam L. said...: Skyler, how about Beau Brummel?

EMD, I presume you mean something along the line of "Take these idiots out and shoot them."

I am certain our hostess here put this post up to see how much ridicule it could draw, and I suspect she is somewhat disappointed.; 4/16/15, 1:31 PM
Jaq said...: The most useful of all arts, that of making men, is forgotten

This is so true.; 4/16/15, 1:33 PM
Jaq said...: Investors are like waves beating on the shore: Eventually, they make all the rocks basically look the same.

Is that really a place for a colon? I guess it comes under Rule 4: "A colon instead of a semicolon may be used between independent clauses when the second sentence explains, illustrates, paraphrases, or expands on the first sentence."

But it sure looks clumsy to me. It seems like a more modest semicolon would have served better. It just seems like strict adherence to these obscure rules of punctuation is more about social signalling than it is about clear writing that stays out of its own way.; 4/16/15, 1:42 PM
walter said...: I remember the cop's shorts being integral to Ann's reaction to the Eric Garner incident. Maybe these can be standard issue for "community" policing. Police are much less menacing when being laughed at.; 4/16/15, 1:55 PM
lgv said...: I can't believe I haven't already seen these shorts on the Sartorialist website.; 4/16/15, 2:04 PM
Joe Schmoe said...: The funniest thing to me is that my maternal grandmother, God rest her soul, made an afghan/throw that was the same exact color and pattern as the third shorts from the left. She kept it draped over one of her couches. As a young boy occasionally given over to potty humor, I was continually amused by the choice of colors.

Upon seeing this picture, my first thought was how did that guy fashion shorts out of my Nana's afghan?; 4/16/15, 2:16 PM
Douglas B. Levene said...: What's unique about the Etsy IPO is that Etsy is a "Benefit" corporation. That means that it is organized under a separate provision of the corporate code that says that the directors do not have a duty to the shareholders to make money for them - the directors can spend whatever money the firm makes on all kinds of public goods, whatever suits the management's fancy. B Corps are quite rate among public companies for obvious reasons - who wants to invest in a company where the directors don't give a damn about making money for you and there's not a damn thing you can do about it? If Etsy trades up and stays up, that will indicate that there really is a market for fools, and more offerings of B Corps can be expected.; 4/16/15, 3:53 PM
khesanh0802 said...: I find the photo truly frightening!; 4/16/15, 4:15 PM
Meade said...: "Is one of those shorts-wearing individuals Adolf Hitler?"

3rd from the left.; 4/16/15, 4:28 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: Oh I get it. You're anti-pastiness, not anti-shorts.

Where's all your scorn for the black and well-tanned mens' legs? Or the semi-nude male models adorning the inserts of Vogue, etc., for that matter?; 4/16/15, 6:48 PM
robother said...: Have you, finally no decency, no shame, Ann, in your jihad on men's shorts? In a single day, you have violated Godwin's Law and now this, this... obscenity (and like the SCOTUS, I know it when I see it)!
I may never look on my sainted German mother's Afghan without remembering this photo.; 4/16/15, 8:03 PM
Scott said...: I'm posting this to my Facebook page.; 4/17/15, 9:48 AM