Drop It Mister!

When I was a kid, my parents bought me a pair of sunglasses that looked just like Dad's RayBan "Wayfarers" -- sunglasses with a cool, almost timeless style that has been "hip" more often than "uncool" over the past 50 years.

But did my parents think I wouldn't notice.....or care?.....

...my new sunglasses were a TOY. Instead of leaving the things alone -- or making essentially a kid-sized Wayfarer....

....the manufacturer stuck little six-shooters in the upper corners of the frames -- thereby making my sunglasses into a juvenile version of Dad's glasses.

I didn't WANT a juvenile version of Dad's glasses. I wanted Wayfarers that fit. When I was a kid, I didn't like things that were decorated in some manner that some adult figured would make my stuff look like kid's stuff. If I liked something that adults had -- clothing, tools, sports equipment....sunglasses....I wanted them to be JUST LIKE the adult's version.

But there are lots of reasons --beyond "juvenilizing" a product -- why people who make stuff may unnecessarily decorate those things that ought be better off left alone.

The Potter's Dictionary has a listing for "Clobbering". Clobbering is the act of adding decoration --LOTS of decoration -- to a pot on the assumption that the more decoration a potter can fit on a piece, the more value he's added to it. Kind of a "more is more" mentality.

Well, I'm not the ultimate un-clobberer. I like decorating a pot with my stamps and my slips and my carving. But just as often I come across a piece I've thrown that just begs to be left alone.

No six-shooters.