An Ugly Storm

It was an ugly storm that hit Moore, Oklahoma today.

Mike Prendergast of SkyWatcherMedia.com.

The pictures hint at the storm’s size, as seen in this photo posted by Ben Holcomb on Twitter.

Ben Holcomb Twitter (@wx8ben)

When it was gone the devastation was extraordinary. This picture posted by the Oklahoma County Sheriff on Twitter gives just one view of the aftermath.

Oklahoma County Sheriff Twitter

The random nature of storm damage is always unsettling. Reports say debris from the tornado has been found in Tulsa, 90 miles away, and Branson, Missouri, 250+ miles away.

NewsOK Twitter

Moore is a community just south of Oklahoma City. If the city’s name sounds familiar, you may be remembering the 1999 tornado in Moore. That storm killed more than 40 people.

This is what’s left of the Moore Medical Center.

Dana Hertneky/NEWS9 Twitter

This was someone’s home.

Instagram

First responders were faced with catastrophic conditions.

Oklahoma County Sheriff Twitter

The property damage is almost impossible to comprehend.

Danny Moody Twitter (@Moody_D)

While the structural damage is staggering, the human toll is ghastly.

Associated Press via the BBC

A mother carries her child to safety.

Sue  Ogrocki/AP Photo

Children were pulled out of Plaza Towers Elementary School.

AP Photo Sue Ogrocki

Everyone raced to try and rescue children from the school.

AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki

You can’t help but see the look of shock on the faces of survivors.

AP Photo Sue Ogrocki

There are reports some children were told to hold onto walls.

AP Photo/ Sue Ogrocki

This woman is carrying an injured child to a triage are near the Plaza Towers School.

Via

As of this writing, some children from the Towers Plaza School remain unaccounted for.

At another school, Briarwood Elementary, the news was better, everyone is said to have made it out alive. Below we see teachers and parents moving children to safety.

Paul Hellstern/The Oklahoman

More photos are showing up on social media.

Madi Alexander Twitter

The destruction goes on for miles.

Ginger Zee/ABC News

This pup survived but is obviously shaken.

Oklahoma County Sheriff Twitter

One of the benefits of having almost-instantaneous access to information means that technology can help in the aftermath of a disaster. The City of Moore has already set up a website, Moore Recovers.

City of Moore

A Facebook page has also been set up as a sort of clearing house, “Moore Oklahoma Tornado” shows Oklahoman’s generosity.

Moore Oklahoma Tornado’ Facebook Page

There is also a Facebook page for Moore Tornado Lost & Found Pets.

We lived in Oklahoma City for three years, including 1995. That is the year when the Murrah Building was bombed. Oklahomans are the nicest people you will ever meet.  They are kind and they are polite and they are generous. They also have incredible fortitude and strength of character. Oklahoma City’s booming economy and revitalized downtown are demonstrative of the community’s backbone and resolve, they refused to become defined by the event.

But still.

Oklahoma County Sheriff

It is a lot for any community, let alone one that dealt with a very similar situation in 1999.  If so inclined you can help in a variety of ways.

• If looking for news on family members Safe and Well is a site run by the Red Cross. People can register themselves as being safe and well, loved ones can look for them on the site.
• Text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10, or donate to the Red Cross via an online donation or by phone.
• Text STORM to 80888 to contribute $10 to the Salvation Army’s relief efforts, you can also make a donation via phone at 1-800-SAL-ARMY.
• The Southern Baptist Convention promises donations will go directly to help those in need, providing tree removal services, laundry services and meals to victims of disasters, this is the page for that group .
• Animal care will be a challenge, it always is after this sort of thing. In previous disasters national animal welfare agencies have accepted donations targeted for specific relief aid, I imagine that will be the case again here. I’ll update with a link(s) should I find any.

Oh, Those Preppy Struggles

Hello-Hello, and welcome to a weekend. (Well, it’s almost here.)

In the spirit of ‘let’s have a little Friday Fun,’ we present a few items from “17 Preppy Struggles,” a post on BuzzFeed’s Community page. The series of “struggles” was originally posted last weekend, on the 12th.

Buzzfeed

Here is the first item in the post.

Buzzfeed

Another ‘struggle’ on the list references Lilly Pulitzer.

Buzzfeed

Parenthetically, is this spring’s collection brighter or more neon-like than I noticed….?

Back to our list, here is #11.

Buzzfeed

Hmmm. That seems to be another challenge I haven’t yet encountered, the trendy prep. (Perhaps I live a sheltered existence?) This next photo was also included under Item #11. Presumably someone decked out a pair of pseudo-Sperrys? I can’t quite make out the brand name of the shoe pictured, but let’s be fair: there have been some Sperry designs of late that aren’t all that far removed from the shoe seen below.

Buzzfeed

Second on the list was this item:

Buzzfeed

Full disclosure: we may have uttered the occasional snarkism or ten or two when it comes to the hipster topic. Hipsters were targeted more than once on the list of Struggles.

Another item on the list.

Buzzfeed

Struggle #15 it may resonate far more than any of the others.

Buzzfeed

Thank heaven The Consort came along when he did.

And then there’s this, Struggle #16.

Buzzfeed

At least we can help out with this one. Behold, the personalized barrettes by the Preppy Planet.

Personalized Barrettes by Preppy Planet

These just launched last week, and they are already one of our top sellers for the month. The monogrammed barrettes (hair clips?) come in either an oval or rectangular shape, both measure about 3′ long by 1.5″ wide. The barrettes are $12 or two identical clips for $20. As always, we’ll even gift box and wrap them at no additional charge. Below, a few more designs.

Monogrammed Barrettes at PreppyPrincess.com

Obviously the possibilities are endless when it comes to school colors and other themes (bridesmaids, sorority houses, etc.). We have already had inquiries about group buying rates (cheerleading squads, dance teams, etc.), we’ll certainly work with you on discounts for your organization or group. 😀

On that fun note, we hope you have a fabulous weekend and don’t let those ‘Preppy Struggles’ get you down. (Ahem.)

An AntiPrep’s Comeuppance? (Kind of NSFW)

Hello-hello and happy middle of the week to all of our treasured readers.

Today we wanted to chat about a news item involving a member of the AntiPrep Wall of Shame. Yes, we’re talking about these folks.

Abercrombie & Fitch

(With apologies, I wasn’t sure if this sort of picture would be considered Not Safe For Work, you wouldn’t believe how hard it was to get a screen grab that didn’t show more!)

Regular readers have been subjected to endless carping may have noted our occasional posts about the company. It’s true we are forever harkening back have referenced this artifact before, the label from one of my turtlenecks. (I know, it’s so last century.)

The Prepatorium

The garment is not from Abercrombie’s heyday, but it certainly predates current ownership and management by a few decades. Or so. We are nothing if not frugal.

The point is this harkens back to a company that would never target pre-pubescent girls for push-up bikinis (remember the ‘Ashley push-up triangle top‘ for those 8 to 14 years of age?), nor would they market to your tween and teenage daughters with ads like these.

Abercrombie Facebook

Or get them to sign up for the “A & F Club,” with a website front page like this.

A&F The Club

That Abercrombie & Fitch may have gone bankrupt and ultimately been out of business. But at least they didn’t engage in the sort of thing the current company seems to enjoy. Some readers may know where I’m heading with this. Yes, it’s more about those news stories from last week quoting from a 2006 Salon interview with the brand’s CEO, Mike Jeffries.

“Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.

The quotes resurfaced when a retail analyst, Robin Lewis, wrote about the company’s refusal to stock Large or Extra Large sizes for women. More from the Los Angeles Times:

“As far as Jeffries is concerned,” wrote reporter Benoit Denizet-Lewis in Salon, “America’s unattractive, overweight or otherwise undesirable teens can shop elsewhere.”

In this day of the interwebs the reaction was almost instantaneous. Many were outraged. A Ohio mother, Andrea Neusner, sent her daughters’ clothing back to the CEO with this letter.

Dear Mr. Jeffries:

Thank you for clarifying the reason you do not carry sizes larger than a 10 at Abercrombie. Your customer is an “attractive, all-American kid with a great attitude and lots of friends.” I am a mom of 3 daughters, ages 17, 13, and 10. They are all thin, attractive, all-American kids with great attitudes and lots of friends. They shop at Abercrombie. I believe they are your target audience.

Please find the enclosed clothing, purchased at our local Abercrombie/Abercrombie and Fitch stores. My thin, popular, cool kids will not need them anymore.

Not only will I not let my kids shop at Abercrombie again, I will not let them wear what they already have in their closets. Normally I donate our unwanted clothes, but in this case, I wouldn’t want any unsuspecting thin, cool person to send the message that being exclusionary is OK.

Sincerely,
Andrea Neusner

A Change.org petition was started asking the company to “make clothes for teens of all sizes”; it now has more than 20,000+ signatures. The organizer hopes to get to 25,000.

And yesterday word came of a California man named Greg Karber, who created his own method to “re-adjust the brand”. His idea? Purchase Abercrombie & Fitch clothes at the local thrift store and give them to homeless people, or clean out your closet and donate them. More from the Daily News:

It’s payback for outlandish comments Jeffries made in 2006, when he admitted he only wants to sell clothes to “cool kids” of a certain size and social status.

“Abercrombie & Fitch only wants a certain kind of person to be wearing their clothes,” Greg Karber says in a video explaining his project. “Today, we’re going to change that brand.”

Greg Karber You Tube

Here are Mr. Karber’s suggestions:

Greg Karber You Tube

Some are taking those suggestions to heart:

Buzzfeed

The ‘hashtag’ being used to promote giving A&F clothing to those less fortunate is #FitchTheHomless.

Personally, I am not crazy about the practice of making presumptions based on someone’s appearance, i.e., “the homeless”. Nor does it sit right thinking that homeless individuals are so awful they are bound to strike at the core of Mr. Jeffries being. But do I appreciate the notion of people doing something about a business practice they don’t like? Yes.

Buzzfeed has its own record of the goings-on.

BuzzFeed

Much of it actually seems as hostile as Mr. Jeffries’s attitude toward anyone over a Size 10. But there are also more reasoned approaches, like this image Jamie Smith posted on Twitter.

Jamie Smith Twitter Feed

In case you are unable to see what the note says, it reads:

I’m not a size 10 or under and I’m beautiful! I love myself for who I am and my size. You’re just an overgrown bully who isn’t happy in life. Remember that next time you want to judge people because of their weight.

P.S. Your clothes line sucks.

Love The Beautiful Fat Chick

Now, are Mr. Jeffries and his marketing department probably reveling in all of the attention the brand is receiving? Probably. But they won’t be if enough people stop buying their merchandise.

Vampire Weekend’s “Preppy Image” & Lilly Lovers Make a Heart

Hello-Hello, happy new week to everyone.

While we don’t own any Vampire Weekend music, we have gradually listened to more of their music over the years. (“More” is a relative term, we probably couldn’t name 5 songs.) And we have certainly written about the band’s image in this space before. The group has a new CD coming out tomorrow; in advance of that release there has been substantial coverage of the group, its image, music and many other things the last several weeks.

Vampire Weekend Modern Vampires of the City

We thought it made sense to revisit the group’s ‘preppy image’ topic by sharing a bit from a story in the Irish Independent last week. First, a contemporary look from the music video for the new album’s first single, Ya’ Hey.

Vampire Weekend Facebook

Now to that Independent story by writer Ed Power.

Of course, the question you really want to ask Ezra Koenig is: why are you so hated? Is it the fancy-pants Ivy League degree? The preppy good looks? The boat shoes?

He knows people, thousands of strangers, don’t like him, believe his band Vampire Weekend to be a bunch of jumped-up trustafarians who have coasted to the top of the charts on privilege, rich-kid charm and a well-thumbed collection of Paul Simon LPs. He okay with that. Lately, he can even chuckle at it.

Here’s a 2009 photo from the group’s Facebook page.

Vampire Weekend Facebook

According to the story the preppy image seems to have been something cultivated for the band’s branding, the following is a quote from Mr. Koenig.

“The preppy image – we knew what we were doing,” he says. “I didn’t grow up in a preppy household. I never dressed that way.

As a refresher, here is an image from a 2008 Underground Top Ten piece.

Underground Top Ten

And a 2007 photograph, this one via Stereogum.

Stereogum October, 2007

But even looking at a March 2013 Fader cover story, it’s still a fairly prep look.

Vampire Weekend Facebook

For those unfamiliar with the band’s backstory, they all attended Columbia. In the Independent article (and in many previous interviews) Mr. Koenig addresses this.

He appreciates why people would have a picture of him in their head as a privileged jerk, though. Going to Columbia, he encountered plenty just like that.

“I can give you a million reasons why I don’t fit the stereotype of the rich college kid,” he says.

“But, you know, I did go to those schools. It doesn’t surprise me that, in a deeply unequal society, things that are seen as a status symbol are going to anger people.

It’s safe to say I’m feeling rather moronic, I never presumed the wardrobe was more of an image-making maneuver than a reality. The following is from a story in Canada’s Globe and Mail last Friday:

But enough with the condescension; Vampire Weekend has received enough of that since the release of its self-titled début in 2008 (and again with 2010’s Contra). The indie-rocking New York quartet could not shake its preppy, advantaged reputation – sweater-wearers listening to Afro-pop and arguing about Oxford commas well into the Cape Cod night.

From a very limited scan of reviews it seems critical reaction to the new album is fairly positive. It seems rather unfortunate that so much time and energy during the group’s early years was spent on the group’s look as opposed to the band’s sound. It makes me wonder if VW had simply avoided stressing the prep styles, would the music have been what was discussed and commented on, as opposed to the clothes they were wearing?

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We also wanted to share some bright and sunny pictures most Lilly lovers will enjoy. In honor of the late Lilly Pulitzer, the West Palm Beach Green Market hosted a fun event yesterday.

West Palm Beach Green Market

Banners were set up with some of Lilly’s more iconic sayings.

West Palm Beach Green Market Facebook

This is one of my favorite Lilly quotes.

West Palm Beach Green Market Facebook

The Market was filled with a whole lot of Lilly.

West Palm Beach Facebook

There were mothers and daughters (and some Dads, husbands, brothers) sporting their Lilly. Below, Vicki Angelini and her daughter, Mary, from a story in the Palm Beach Daily News.

Meghan McCarthy/Palm Beach Daily News

And here is the heart made by those in attendance.

City of West Palm Beach Facebook

On that chipper image we say g’bye until next time!

Captain Wales Comes to Washington & One World Trade Center is Now 1776 Feet Tall

Hello-Hello, and Happy Friday. We have a fairly newsy post this morning, tidbits we hope you might enjoy seeing. The first involves Prince Harry’s visit to America.

The young royal headed to Capitol Hill.

Kori Schulman/The White House

He made an unannounced visit to the White House Mother’s Day tea, surprising children of active military parents.

James Birtles, Sky News Twitter

The tea party honored the HALO Trust.

James Birtles, Sky News Twitter Feed

Harry then joined Senator John McCain to view a new exhibit by the HALO Trust, “the world’s oldest and largest humanitarian landmine clearance organisation.”

Kasie Hunt/NBC News Twitter Feed

Harry is the Royal Patron of HALO’s 25th Anniversary fundraising efforts, below we see him visiting HALO Mozambique.

HALO Trust Flickr

Some readers may recall Princess Diana’s involvement with HALO.

Mirror Photos

At a dinner last night Harry spoke about his mother’s work with the organization, this Express story has more:

“…at the dinner, he evoked the memory of Princess Diana’s ultimately successful campaign in 1997 to bring about a worldwide ban on landmines.

“My mother, who believed passionately in this cause, would be proud of my association with HALO.,” he said. In her special way, she adopted it as her own. She would join me – along with all of you, I’m sure – in praising HALO for the amazing work that it has done over the past quarter century….”

One of the more interesting aspects of yesterday’s events was the crowd of young ladies waiting to see Harry, more from UK reporter Richard Palmer:

From the Evening Standard:

Harrymania…crowds of girls had screamed and cheered for the Prince in Washington DC on the first day of his official tour of the US.

This morning Prince Harry went to Arlington National Cemetery. He started his visit in Section 60, this is where those who have died fighting the global war on terror are buried.

Tim Ewart, ITV Royal Editor Twitter

For today’s solemn wreath laying ceremony he was in the ceremonial uniform of the Blues and Royals, that is his regiment. He also wore the Army Air Corps blue beret. Harry is an Apache helicopter co-pilot and gunner, he has served two tours of duty in Afghanistan.

James Birtles/Sky News

There was an Army Full-Honors Wreath Laying Ceremony.

A visiting head of state will pay formal respects to the sacrifice of America’s veterans in foreign wars by placing a wreath before the Tomb. Similarly, other foreign ministers may also include a wreath laying here as part of their official itineraries.

While not a Head of State, Harry is the Queen’s representative in this capacity.

Via Peter Hunt/BBC Twitter Feed

Back to the Evening Standard’s story:

The grave of US Army Specialist Michael L Stansbery Jr, who died in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan on July 30, 2010, aged 21, was chosen at random out of the thousands of graves in Section 60.

The headstone of Spc Stanbery, a recipient of the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, had six stones and glass beads placed on it by family members to mark their visits.

Harry visited John F. Kennedy’s grave.

Via Deanna Duray Twitter Feed

He then moved to Arlington’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

UK in USA Tumblr

Simon Perry of People magazine shared this photo, Harry saluting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Simon Perry, People Magazine Twitter Feed

The handwritten note that was with the wreath.

Via

It reads, “To my comrades in arms of the United States who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the cause of freedom,” and was signed “Captain Harry Wales”.

The focus of Harry’s visit is supporting injured servicemen and servicewomen from both the US and UK, he will be visiting Walter Reed National Medical Center and attending the Warrior Games in Colorado Springs. The Games are hosted by the USOC and include teams from the US Army, United States Marine Corps, US Navy and Coastguard, the Air Force and Special Operations Command.

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Our other news involves One World Trade Center.

Via WCBS880 Twitter Feed

The building is now at the symbolic height of 1776 feet, the spire atop the structure was permanently affixed by ironworkers this morning.

WCBS880 Twitter Feed

The skyline in this morning’s haze and fog.

Anne Thompson, NBC News Twitter

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We leave you with a few of our favorite looks from the Lilly Pulitzer spring/summer line.

Bloomingdale’s

A better look at the Malibu Blazer.($198).

Bloomingdale’s

The contrasting peter pan collar on the Andria Silk Top ($138) is cute as can be, but the way the piece hangs just didn’t wow me.

Bloomingdale’s

You may have noticed the pretty pink belt in the photos, here is a better look at the Bow Tie Belt ($48).

Bloomingdale’s

With that Pretty in Pink we say g’bye until next time!