My favorite answer is:
I firmly believe any place that writes an “A” like this is upscale pic.twitter.com/7wP3HtOQJ7
— scott (@Zimmer_down) July 2, 2020
July 2, 2020
"Alright, Madison. I'm getting flak for calling Hilldale mall 'upscale.' Is it or is it not upscale?"
An amusing, intra-Madison discussion at Twitter.
My favorite answer is:
My favorite answer is:
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46 comments:
Brands that use the open "a" aren't necessarily upscale, they just want to be seen as upscale.
If I were more adept at such things, I would temporarily have "Althouse" in the banner written with the crosspiece missing from the "A."
The shops in the mall aren’t upscale. As a comparison, the Short Hills Mall in New Jersey is considered upscale,
Oh for crying out loud it's got an apple store there...I think that makes it upscale on that alone...
they just want to be seen as upscale.
I thought that was the implication.
I firmly believe any place that writes an “A” like that WANTS to be upscale.
No actual upscale establishment would ever.
It is upscale. Compare and contrast to West Town.
Nah, looks like it's got a Target. You need a Neiman Marcus like Scottsdale Fashion Square to be truly upscale.
I agree: 100% Upscale. It's got a Peloton and a Tuck-It store, Lululemon, LLBean and Apple. Of course it's upscale. It's not luxury though.
Nothing says upscale like outdoor shopping at 20 below.
Quasi upscale. No Gucci, no Tiffany, No David Yurman, no Rolex,no Cartier. On the plus side, no JC Penny. An aspirational mall I would call it. Apple and Peleton.
On the other hand entirely it has none of the edgy street art and Earnest deep thoughts scrawled across your boarded up shithole downtown.
Any mall with Ace Hardware likely not. Some of the more recognizable names also have outlet stores I believe so that was a mark against.
That White House Black Market store looks problematic these days.
Are we sure it's an A. It could be a wayward lambda looking for trouble.
Odd that English insists on that useless b. It's rather tiresome to have it intrude on the word for the better sort of mutton, (Who can even say lam-bah without provoking piteous stares?) but to stick in the name for the Greek fifth letter just to vex the necessary D is obnoxious.
When I was a student at UW back in the early 2000s, I believe they held the "Brat Fest" in the parking lot at Hilldale Mall.
The Johnsonville company brought in a giant semitruck trailer that folded open to reveal a large grill, on which they cooked bratwurst and hot dogs. The meat was served in regular white bread buns, and you could add ketchup, mustard, onions, sourkraut, and pickle relish.
The year we went, they set a new record, and I was personally responsible for destroying about 5 of the brats sold.
So yeah, Hilldale Mall is pretty upscale.
If I were more adept at such things, I would temporarily have "Althouse" in the banner written with the crosspiece missing from the "A."
And Quaestor would send everyone to the "Lluthhouse" blog, just out of cussedness. If asked I'd say the first L-sound is silent, like the P in "Psmith in the City" (An amusing read, btw. When asked about the initial letter, Ruppert Psmith said it was pronounced like the initial P in pshrimp.) or pronounced like llama.
It's upscale: no morons there, only oxy-morons.
Malls are not upscale.
"A chevron (also spelled cheveron, especially in older documents) is a V-shaped mark, often inverted. The word is usually used in reference to a kind of fret in architecture, or to a badge or insignia used in military or police uniforms to indicate rank or length of service."
Sounds racist. Better burn it down.
Leaving out the crossbar in A strikes me as trying much too hard to seem avant-garde; but then how can one be avant-garde if that train has long since left the station?
One could be the avant-garde's strategic reserve, one supposes; but then the reserves get second-best of everything.
To really garner those classe supérieure laurels, the Professor could delete the crossbar from the T, tempting the hoi polloi to say they follow "Allhouse", to the knowing giggles of the rest of us. Or how about that dingus on the lower case e that makes it clearly not a c? Althousc... it's Hungarian.
Well Ann, if I can call you that; I'm pretty confident that you might rightly be lumped into The Basket of Upscaled.
It's missing an "S" infront of the inverted Vee, then it sounds posh
It strikes me as more existential or nihilistic rather than avant-garde.
"It is upscale. Compare and contrast to West Town."
It's West Towne. The 'e' makes them upscale too.
Has the Apple store taken the plywood down yet?
Aren't the corn fed middlebrow normals of the middle west more at the "upscale" tipping point?
The altered 'A' is an affectation trying to make the place look cool. And it very well may be. Sort of like 'Ye Olde Barber Shoppe.'
But creative naming is a huge part of branding and marketing.
There are a lot of new housing developments (big, multi-unit boxes) near where I live that are close to a busy freeway on one side and surrounded by dry scrub brush on the other. They have names like "Positano" and "Sorrento." It's almost like being in Italy : )
Titus said...
Malls are not upscale.
You just want to scream it, don't you?
In Kansas, we check for how upscale something is by how English its title is: Derbyshire Centre, trying to be uppity. Pretty Flowers Estates: Down to earth, will probably let you park your RV in the front.
What is a mall?
Is that some historic relic?
"Any mall with Ace Hardware likely not. Some of the more recognizable names also have outlet stores I believe so that was a mark against."
Now, we have to argue about whether a detached building set somewhat down the entry road of a mall is part of the mall....
But we're arguing about what words mean, and "upscale" is a media word, an advertising word, that is, it's an effort to manipulate, to sell, to get away with it.
Before "upscale" the adjective, there was "upscale" the verb, as the OED tracks down the oldest usage:
1945 Newsweek 2 Apr. 68/2 The Mullikin selling method, which he called ‘upscaling’, aimed to build up the idea that prefabricated houses were rich-looking, comfortable and permanent.
"Nah, looks like it's got a Target. You need a Neiman Marcus like Scottsdale Fashion Square to be truly upscale."
Truly? What's with the Dillard's?
Not upscale just overpriced sonthe left wing elites in Middleton can shop and feel good about themselves. There is nothing that one can buy at Metcaf that one cannot get else where for half the cost.
Quaestor (2:24pm):
Pronounced or not, the B in 'lambda' does not come from English 'lamb'. The word is 'lambda' or (more frequently) 'labda' in ancient Greek, so it's the M that's intrusive, not the B, if either letter is.
It strikes me as more existential or nihilistic rather than avant-garde.
These concepts are hardly mutually exclusive. Berlin in the 1920s was quite comfortably all three at once, it just depended on which table you sat at in Moki Efti. And what's Dada if not avant-garde nihilism? As for existentialism, deleting the crossbar from A doesn't make you Camus. it doesn't even make you Dino Buzzati, though he might just try to convince you that the missing crossbar has been disappeared by magic.
Tells me it's not a mall to go to for a beer. No bars.
Speaking of Target, Hilldale should be denying any upscale rumors lest it become one.
Has it got plywood or windows?
What does meatloaf have to do to be considered upscale? Would a haughty chef with flared nostrils do?
Carter,
They have it covered with a brewpub across the street.
You the best Q
In Kansas, we check for how upscale something is by how English its title is
My cousin in Lynchburg VA moved into an upscale retirement condo complex called Westminster Canterbury. I told him it was rude of them to have "bury" in their name, and "canter" for people who can barely walk.
You want a capital ‘A’ without a crossbar? You might look at a Greek lambda. Can you insert a Unicode symbol into your name? In hexadecimal it’s 039B.
Banjo said...
What does meatloaf have to do to be considered upscale? Would a haughty chef with flared nostrils do?
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/1770-house-meatloaf-recipe-2109034
Not well studied on her nostrils but have at it.
Hilldale has always been upscale. I grew up just west of there and knew it well from the 1960's to the early 80's. My stepfather actually grew up in a house where the πr2 building once was on University. He recalls when the Hilldale land parcel was a UW experimental farm. I vaguely recall Hilldale being built. The anchor stores were Gimbels, A&P Market, and Wullf-Kubly & Hirsig Hardware. Only the hardware store was local -- I think they started downtown on the Square. In the 70's, A&P grocery and Gimbels were swank. Especially A&P. My mom shopped Jordan's on University Ave, Piggly-Wiggly, and later Eagle Foods and sometimes Krogers. A&P was for the well-off Shorewood people -- well until they put in Kohl's.
“Hilldale with the classy A” reminds me of the several very klassy California malls named “Towne Centre.”
You can google it if you doubt me.
7/2/20, 7:34 PM
Blogger Ralph L said...My cousin in Lynchburg VA moved into an upscale retirement condo complex called Westminster Canterbury..."? 7/2/20, 8:17 PM
I've seen this combo several times in other geographic locations - makes no sense. Westminster is located in the heart of London while Canterbury is approximately 60 miles Southeast near the English Channel. I guess maybe if you used two 'cool' sounding names you get double the attraction and double the price for rent?
Do places like Hilldale still use dramatic phone numbers in their advertising? 247. 555. 1111. That was thought upscale for a very long time. Last time I saw it though was on a poster in the ARC thrift store on Colfax.
("deleting the crossbar from A does not make you Camus." Very funny.)
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