Hilarious Conclusion to 2019

 Before, above and after below.  Keep reading for the story.

Greetings, dear readers.  Read on to find out just WHY you are so dear to me!

If you had holidays to celebrate recently, I hope they were dandy.  My Christmas was fantastic, in no small part because both of my daughters have brought fabulous new people into the family.  One daughter married in October, and her new husband is from a lovely family that has been very welcoming to me.  And he has two small nephews!  Yay, kids!  And my other daughter and her partner bought a house together and the partner has a small daughter. Whoop De Do!  And my niece moved nearby to finish up her degree at UNC on a full free ride.  Pretty impressive, amiright?  And she has two terrific teenagers.  So my holidays were full of parties and activities and family fun.

My chronic fatigue syndrome has been minimal since returning from that awesome vacation to Newfoundland that I keep threatening to tell you about.  I did quite well all the way up to almost the end before collapsing in a little pile of melted dragonpoodle.  I did miss out on a few parties at the end (sorry Patty!).  But I'm springing back and and optimistic about 2020.

But now let me tell you about Alex.  I don't know who Alex is or where he or she is from.  Day before yesterday I received this comment on an old blog post of mine titled Stripping the Paint from a Singer 27.

Alex  December 29, 2019 at 12:19 PM

I believe you are an ignorant American moron and probably the only one person on this planet to do such thing as to destroy that beautiful decals on this gorgeous sewing machine.

Although it appears that English is not Alex's first language, still he or she did a fine job of conveying their opinion.  (I'm using "their" as the gender neutral singular pronoun it deserves to become.)

However I am a bit confused about why Alex thought this machine had "beautiful decals".  I didn't post extensive before pictures of this machine but you can clearly see from this photo that the decals were pretty well trashed.

And what was my reaction to being called an "ignorant American moron"?  Did I weep and wail?  Did it send me into a deep depression?  Spoiler:  NO

I replied to Alex on the blog thusly.

DragonPoodle  December 29, 2019 at 2:10 PM

I have no idea how you meant this post to be interpreted but I am choosing to regard this comment as HILARIOUS! And I feel no compulsion to defend myself but in the interest of my readers let me assure you that this model is so common that I have been unable to even give them away.

 

That's quite true btw.   We're talking about a Singer 27 with no motor boss, meaning no hand crank or motor can be attached (at least not easily or simply) that can only be treadled.  I took a similar machine to the 2018 NC TOGA, an annual gathering and swap meet for the vintage-sewing-machine-addicts and nobody wanted the thing.

Anyhow, after thinking things over for a bit I found that I had even more to say to Alex.  So I said it online.

DragonPoodle  December 29, 2019 at 2:20 PM

And I'm considering adding "ignorant American moron" to my business cards, Oh, Alex, you brought me so much joy today! I will be laughing all day.

And I did.  And I'm still laughing today.

And this is why you, my dear readers, are so dear to me.  I started this blog in 2009 and this will be my 213st post.  Although my memory is notoriously unreliable (What did I have for breakfast?  Did I even have breakfast?) I have NO memory of a single unpleasant or aggressive or attacking post in all that time.  Maybe there was a minor snipe or two that I have blocked out.

But Alex, I will never forget you!  Too bad your comment was set to "no reply" so I could not email you directly with my response.  I will just have to hope that you look back at my blog to see what I had to say.

Alex, I hope you enjoy being laughed at.  Which is really the only reasonable reaction.

Want to see that repainted Singer 27?  Decals purchased on eBay.

I feel no guilt about stripping and repainting this machine.

Sincerely,
Cheryl, ignorant American moron

Not-So-Ugly-Betty

First let me explain Ugly Betty to non-US readers (or US readers who don't follow all the TV shows).  Ugly Betty was the name of a TV show, one I never watched. Since I never saw it I don't know if my following comments are relevant to that particular show.

In the American film industry if you put an actress in glasses she is therefore classified as "ugly".  The glasses are your cue to view the actress as ugly.  She may later in the film remove the glasses and then a miracle occurs! Now she is attractive! Who knew?  And once she becomes attractive she can now become a love interest!  Isn't that just AMAZING?

Or maybe, just maybe, it is NAUSEATING.  You decide.

So what does all this have to do with that cute little Elna Lotus SP shown at the top of the page?  Not much.

Apparently the Lotus was filthy dirty when Barbara got it from shopgoodwill.com and she named it Ugly Betty.  By the time I saw it she had cleaned it up and I like it.  She's still not crazy about it but we had a good time looking it over.

The obvious comparison is to a Featherweight or those mini Kenmores we talked about a while ago.   Today we're comparing the Elna Lotus SP with the Kenmore 1040 and its cousins with just a brief mention of the Featherweight.

Stitches

Featherweight:  straight stitch only
Kenmore 1040, etc.:  have a variety of stitches, click on the link to see the earlier post
Elna Lotus EC:  straight stitch only, the economy model
Elna Lotus ZZ:  zigzag.  We don't have an EC or ZZ to examine
Elna Lotus SP:  the top of the line model

• straight stitch
• zigzag
• buttonhole
• "elastic blind hemstitch and edging stitch".  Imagine that a blind hemstitch and a multistitch zigzag had a baby
• "overcasting stitch and special zigzag".  I saw this on Tuesday.  I'm writing this on Friday.  I  have no memory of what this stitch looked like.  Probably because I was so enchanted by the offspring of blindhem and multizig.

Barbara explained the controls to me.  On Tuesday.  My takeaway, on Friday, is that I would be heavily reliant on the manual for a while.

There is a big difference in how much this matters depending on whether you own one machine or multiple machines, and whether you sew frequently or infrequently.  

Gears

Kenmore 1040 etc:  Metal
Elna Lotus SP:  Plastic

Belts

Elna Lotus SP:  Cleated.  Now we know nothing about Elnas but experience with other brands suggests that replacements for these are difficult to find. If you know otherwise, please chime in.  It is also tucked away in the interior of the machine, probably not easy to reach.

Kenmores 1040 etc:  Two easily accessible belts.

Case

Kenmore 1040 etc, click and scroll to the bottom to see the case:  All but the last model had a plastic rose-embossed case.  Barbara and I agree that it is kind of a pain to finagle the machine into the case.  If this were your main machine I'm sure it it could be easily mastered.  Also, plastic breaks, duh, and of the three rose embossed cases that have gone through my hands, one was broken and there was no way to fix it.  On the other hand, they are quite cute.

Elna Lotus SP:  There are metal flaps that fold up and click in place and that creates the case.  They are not removable and when they are folded down they create ramps up to the machine bed.  Barbara and I both think this would be an odd and uncomfortable way to sew.  And because they don't come off we can't envision any way to get the machine bed level with a larger surface.  She also thinks that fabric might snag on the metal edges.

Portability

Kenmore 1040 etc:  No handle on the machine itself.  Weighs 15 pounds, 17 with case.
Elna Lotus SP:  We didn't think to weigh it.  The Google machine tells me it weighs 13.6 pounds.  And it has a built in handle.

Accessory Storage

Kenmore 1040 etc.:  a small rectangular plastic box that slides into place on the front edge of the machine bed.
Elna Lotus SP:  a molded tray with slots for each accessory, located at the top of the machine and accessible by flipping the top back.

Bobbin Winding

Kenmore 1040 etc.:  The usual method.  Turn the clutch knob to release the needle from moving.
Elna Lotus SP:  This is an unusual feature of this machine.  There is a knob underneath the hand wheel with three settings.  One for stitching, one for bobbin winding mode, and one for something else which Barbara DID explain to me.  On Tuesday.

I often think that it would be fun to blog more frequently, with shorter posts, rather than being the George R.R. Martin of the blogosphere.  (If only...)

This post is about as quick and snappy as you can expect though.  Obviously I could have called Barbara and gotten clarification on all the things I had forgotten between Tuesday and Friday.  My normal procedure would have been to do that, and maybe even go over to her shed and take more pictures, especially of that cute accessories tray on the top of the machine.

But I am a hopeless night owl and calling Barbara at 2:00 am would NOT have been a good idea.  And by now it is Saturday morning, the Saturday before Christmas, and I'm just going to send this off to you with my cheeriest holiday wishes.

Happy Holidays!  A salutation meant to be inclusive and embrace everyone.

Merry Christmas! if that is what you celebrate and do NOT believe the culture warriors who have tried to make you believes that anyone finds this offensive.  No one does!  And never did!  That was a cynical ploy to divide us.

So let us not be divided but enjoy the season and embrace all humanity in love.

Shameless Promotion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2roa0WexMCc&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR2jOsKi_EYbyK9nMgYIINGuWCDyjUBJHpEiRBGRmk4nRHKnMP4RqYyzOzY

I made my more-or-less-annual visit to California in September to see Amber and Greg and their adorable children.

One of those children is a skilled builder of Lego models, including ones he designs himself.  During my last visit he was building steamships.  An impressive Titanic about a yard long and another one whose name escapes me.

This year he is into Star Trek, a passion we share, along with every other member of both of our families.

He made a YouTube video showing his re-creation of the Enterprise, NCC-1701.  Click on this link, or the same link under the picture above, to watch it.

And he would LOVE it if lots of people viewed it and hit the like button.

So that's exactly what I am asking you to do.  Watch the video.  Hit the "like" button.

Hit "subscribe" also if you want to see music videos from his dad's band, Cuddlefish, who seem to be channeling my generation (60's rock was THE BEST btw).

Thanks for doing this if you do it and thanks for being a reader of my blog whether you do this or not!  I appreciate all of my readers and am grateful for you.