Conspicuous Consumerism

Not that this post will register even so much as a distant blip from the far outer banks of any of the great blog lakes, but one never knows what rings of what pebble dropped into its waters might resonate out far enough to register. So at the potential risk of this post getting noticed and thus incurring the scorn of the Boing Boing loving world (of which I’m normally a devoted member), I sometimes have to wonder hopefully and in wide-eyed skepticism (and a good measure of greening envy) if self-promotional posts such as this one:

…by the site’s co-founder Mark Frauenfelder are cooked up with a sheepish wink and a nod and posted with at least something of a knowledge aforethought that apparently there’s nothing they can’t make, autograph, overprice and deliver — no matter how trivial — that their adoring readership won’t snap up.

Yes, I know Frauenfelder is a virtual lord of the internest and his cred is not to be questioned and certainly not be the z-list likes of me. But as a non-fawner I have to admit to a level of incredulity not only when I see stuff like that being so blatantly shilled, but that it sells like limited edition hotcakes.

Perhaps there’s some context or connection I’m missing. Maybe this gape-mouthed gremlin is much sought-after iconography that my lack of fimilarity with his work precludes me from understanding. But even so… six bucks for a palm-sized cahier notebook? Even one with a fancy cover, signature and gape-mouthed gremlin? Maybe that makes a ripple as a gott-have-it bargain in some ponds, but not in mine.