People are strange.

Just another reason I'm glad I don't run in a wealthy milieu.

(The link may require registration. Basically it's a story about Insane Rich People who dictate where guests can walk in their houses, what they can bring as food, force guests to wear booties, or who COAT THEIR FURNITURE WITH SARAN WRAP BEFORE PARTIES TO PROTECT IT FROM SPILLS. And yes, I was yelling there)

I mean - seriously? Telling people to a potluck not to bring brown or red food? That's pretty compulsive. (And actually? I'd understand it BETTER if it were someone with some kind of odd compulsive disorder who hated brown or red.)

I can understand renovation nightmares - I lived through a minor sort of one, five years ago, myself. I still do not own a cat, in part because I paid $3000 to refinish the hardwood floors in my house and I'd rather not have something with claws running all over them and scratching them up. (That is not the ONLY reason however).

However, if I had guests over, and if they were wearing stiletto heels, or shoes that might pick up gravel - I'd not say anything. If they scraped a chair across the floor I'd not say anything (I would draw the line at someone wearing cleats, but seriously, what kind of a boor doesn't change out of their football shoes before coming to a friend's house?).

I mean, some things are reasonable. Coasters are reasonable. Civilized people use coasters. However, it is not reasonable to hermetically seal guests in an anti-stain bubble to protect your furniture.

And if I went to someone's house and they had little slippers or something and asked me to take off my shoes, okay. I take off my shoes when I walk into MY house. (But I don't ask my guests to). But even slippers seems a little far.

(They could always do like all the Italian Grandmammas in the part of the country where I grew up and get those plastic "carpet runners" - the ones with the little nubs on the underside that hold them in place - and plastic covers for all the upholstered furniture. Actually, the male couple quoted in the article kind of does that already, but to their wood furniture).

I don't know. This is another case of people valuing THINGS over other PEOPLE. I would be very uncomfortable if I came to someone's house and they made me, say, stand in the kitchen, while I drank a glass of red wine, because they were afraid of spills on their carpet. It infantalizes the guests - it says they are not responsible enough not to spill - it implies that they are all big slobs and that the safety of the Flokati rug or whatever is more important than the guests being made to feel at home.

In fact, you know? If I were invited to one of these Insane Lifestyle Mentioner's homes, I'd probably turn down the invitation.

You know what? Stuff breaks. It gets stained. Things spill. It is the way of the world for things to lose their newness and lustre. Get over it.

I like the attitude of the guy who bought a new sofa, then invited his little spaniel dogs to jump all over it, because, he said, things aren't perfect until they're imperfect, and once you get the first spot on something, you can relax.

I don't get the people who want to hermetically seal everything and try to preserve it. As I said, it's stuff - it's here for our use, and making ourselves miserable by having to (say) put a clean white "Texaco suit" (jumpsuit) on over our street clothes before we can sit on a sofa is just kind of pointless to me.

I kind of count this attitude in with the people with massive collections of first-edition books or something that they never open and read because the wear and tear of even careful reading "destroys the value." I don't get that. I don't get the whole mint-in-box idea. When I buy stuff, I want to enjoy my stuff. I don't worry about whether I can get bookoos of bucks for it fifty years hence.

'Cos guys, it's just STUFF. If it's so expensive that you're afraid to enjoy it, get cheaper stuff. That's what I do.