Martha Stewart

MarthaStewart is a woman who has become a cottage industry from her craft/home decor type tips. Such things as putting several wine glasses stuffed with shredded tissue paper in the center of a table for a decorative centerpiece, or making your own potpourri from flowers grown in your own garden, etc.

Her two main problems are that she apparently is almost the opposite of her homespun image in real life, and that she has been convicted for perjury in connection with stock trading activities, and has spent several months in low security federal prison as a result. She has been rewarded with a lucrative book contract and a new syndicated daytime series now that she is released.

See also http://grault.net/adjunct/index.cgi?MarthaStewart

I see how people would think this page is OffTopic, but I disagree; Martha is all about Patterns, and is arguably as on-topic as is Alexander in that sense. People find lots of things to dislike about her (mostly ad hominem and therefore logically irrelevant), but disregarding her personal life and looking at her business/magazine/tv shows/etc, what she does is find extremely high quality Patterns for handling things in life, and presents them to the rest of the world who has mostly experienced only low quality.

To that extent, she is all about QualityWithoutaName when she makes geometrically perfect 3-foot-high Croquenbush and we see that Julia Child's lopsided effort is "peasant style" by comparison. Julia is the "Common Man"; Martha represents unattainable goals of perfection.

Or, Martha represents the triumph of style over substance.

Certainly Julia Child was a better cook. Personally, I think Martha is more about hype and taking credit for the work of others, than about quality. Strongly related: How well-known is she outside of the US? I, for one, had never heard of her until I read of her on this wiki.

Shhh. Don't let her know there's a market anywhere she has not penetrated!


See


CategoryWhimsy


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