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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Art, Debt, Sharecropping

What does it say about me that I wrote about a consignment shop in Alabama before I wrote about the Kentuck art festival, which was why we visited Miss Em to begin with. I guess I am shallow.

The festival was wonderful, but there was so much to look at. It was quite overwhelming. Since I suffer from decision-making anxiety, I didn't get anything. Miss Em bought a pretty ring; she is very sure of her decisions.

One of the booths had a huge line. The artist--who, according to Miss Em is very well-known--produces letter press posters. These had pithy sayings, many having to do with coffee. Some shaded to the too-cute-for-me. One celebrated Samuel Mockbee, the great Alabama architect who, before a too-early death, focused on housing for the poor. Miss Em's friends hadn't heard of him, but I told them to look him up.

One of Miss Em's friends said, Miss Em: you should buy this one! It was a poster saying A penny saved is a penny earned. I guess Miss Em is frugal like her mom and dad.

Then I saw another one. Sadly, I cannot remember the exact saying. It was along the lines of Don't be a sharecropper to your credit card company. Unlike the Franklin saying, this one took a bit of time to figure out. Like the Franklin saying, this one is full of wisdom. Truly, if you have credit card debt, which often involves ridiculously high interest rates which make it ever harder to extricate yourself from debt, you are working for the credit card company. The company gets a piece of what you earn, perhaps forever.

Have you seen any pithy sayings of late?

3 comments:

Duchesse said...

Maybe my favourite on that topic: "Debt is the slavery of the free man."Attributed to both Publilius Syruys and Karl Marx.

I am fond of letterpress printing; sounds like a fun fair@

Frugal Scholar said...

@Duchesse-It was great! Must track down that quotation.

Shelley said...

Graffiti on a wall in Ghent -

"Buy your happiness today, cheap. We'll send the bill tomorrow."