Dear Author
Dear Author,
Damnit, in an otherwise useful and evenly written book, why did you have to have a sudden chapter of constant fail? And so pointlessly! All you had to do was not make such blatant and sweeping generalizations about your readership.
Your chapter on the household notebook could have been so useful, too. I have a similar concept and it's the bee's knees, the cat's pajamas, and other animal kingdom apparel or anatomy.
But no. You just had to define "everyone" as parents of small children, parents of school aged children, or parents of grown children. Period. And even they apparently don't have overlapping interests, because in your examples the parents of none of these children play sports themselves, nor do the parents of any but adult children make gift lists or travel.
*headbang*headbang*headbang*
And then, while I'm still trying to recover from that, barely a page later I hit how to handle an emergency request for bake sale items as "Note it on the calendar and add 'cake mix' to the shopping list."
Lady, there are some of us who like to bake. Men and women and yes, even children. (When I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to eat a lot of store bought sweets, but I was allowed to bake little coffeecakes anytime I wanted. By the age of 11, I could whip out a pan in 30 minutes flat without looking at the recipe.)
What KILLS me is that making the overall point without being irritating or offensive or exclusive would have been so damned easy! All you had to do was say "Everyone needs this book. You will customize yours to contain all the details about calendars, sports events, gift lists, etc., that you need..." and "Note it on the calendar and add whatever you need to the shopping list." There. It's clear, it isn't drawing attention saying "see, I'm being PC," and it doesn't have anything in it to irritate or offend anyone.
Would that have been so damned difficult?
ETA: It is not a good sign that my response to the very second ingredient in the "uber shopping list" for The Stocked Kitchen was "EWWWW, YUCK!" There are going to have to be some changes. (Seriously... why raspberry jam and not strawberry?)
Damnit, in an otherwise useful and evenly written book, why did you have to have a sudden chapter of constant fail? And so pointlessly! All you had to do was not make such blatant and sweeping generalizations about your readership.
Your chapter on the household notebook could have been so useful, too. I have a similar concept and it's the bee's knees, the cat's pajamas, and other animal kingdom apparel or anatomy.
But no. You just had to define "everyone" as parents of small children, parents of school aged children, or parents of grown children. Period. And even they apparently don't have overlapping interests, because in your examples the parents of none of these children play sports themselves, nor do the parents of any but adult children make gift lists or travel.
*headbang*headbang*headbang*
And then, while I'm still trying to recover from that, barely a page later I hit how to handle an emergency request for bake sale items as "Note it on the calendar and add 'cake mix' to the shopping list."
Lady, there are some of us who like to bake. Men and women and yes, even children. (When I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to eat a lot of store bought sweets, but I was allowed to bake little coffeecakes anytime I wanted. By the age of 11, I could whip out a pan in 30 minutes flat without looking at the recipe.)
What KILLS me is that making the overall point without being irritating or offensive or exclusive would have been so damned easy! All you had to do was say "Everyone needs this book. You will customize yours to contain all the details about calendars, sports events, gift lists, etc., that you need..." and "Note it on the calendar and add whatever you need to the shopping list." There. It's clear, it isn't drawing attention saying "see, I'm being PC," and it doesn't have anything in it to irritate or offend anyone.
Would that have been so damned difficult?
ETA: It is not a good sign that my response to the very second ingredient in the "uber shopping list" for The Stocked Kitchen was "EWWWW, YUCK!" There are going to have to be some changes. (Seriously... why raspberry jam and not strawberry?)