Does leather burn?

[Carlisle Blues]

Then again, Gandhi was cremated.

.

But did he just lay there or did he put up a fight[huh]

 

[Edward]

The lighter trick is a standard I've seen in action in all those shops on Oxford Street, and in a number of the places in Camden also. It is clearly based on the notion that plastic will melt, while leather will not (obviously they're wrong in terms of burning), and they obviously consider it a canny sales technique. Never seen or heard of them attacking a customer's jacket before, though! As you will have discovered, in any case, these places generally sell jackets from the lower end of the scale, at a premium (eBay is a much better source if that's what you want). Best avoided.

What was amazing about London was that the stupid comments were almost non-existant (only one Inspector Gadget tune hummed when I had my trench coat on). I suppose that London is so multicultural that non-conformity is hardly noticable.

The joys of central London.... I've been out at three or four in the morning, central London, in full Frank'n'Furter drag and never had a problem.... Liverpool, on the other hand.... now there's a place I'm never going back to.

 

[nickn5]

No-one better try the lighter trick on my lovely Aero ANJ-3 I bought from the gentleman above (Edward) - I can't get over what a great snug fit it is on me, despite me being a size 38 and the label being 42.

Up where I live it's more likely to be attacked by rampaging sheepdogs and/or copious quantities of rain...

N.

 

[miss_elise]

when I was in Florence, Italy, a men in a leather shop showed me that trick... but he only demonstrated on his own jackets not my own.

 

[armod]

I'm not standing up to him, I just think he's too much of a waste of time to get wound up about. And after all, my jacket is still wearable and the damage is hardly noticable now. And as for shy, let's just say I'm not. I'm not going to bore everyone with the details of my personal life but I am easily able to give a speech in front of 300 people while pretending to be an evil Russian without any stagefright, so I don't condsider myself shy.

performance = apple

social interactions = orange

tell me then why you didn't confront the salesman about burning your jacket at the time of the incident you did stay around and talk about jackets with hime for a short while. why not confront him about damaging your personal property?
___________

when I was in Florence, Italy, a men in a leather shop showed me that trick... but he only demonstrated on his own jackets not my own.

it's a routine that's used alot. you see steak knife infomercials where they cut shoes and copper pipes to demonstrate their products quality. it's a technique thats been around almost as long as the notion of trade but to damage somebody's clothing is unacceptable.

I do miss florence though. left quite an impression on me when I lived there in my younger days. probably the seeds of my interest in vintage clothing and old architecture

 

[stephen1965]

I've lived in London all my life. There are so many people I bump into everyday who would, unfortunately, given half a chance, burn my jacket, burn my house, steal my car etc. Sometimes I think I'll just let it pass or I'd be fighting everyone or getting an ulcer/heart attack. Mostly I just either avoid those people or places I suspect might lead to confrontations while also developing an aura of 'don't mess with me'. But the 'don't mess with me aura' takes time and it's a bit of a shame that it's necessary. So, if the jacket is not a something you're too bothered about, you might want to let it pass. It's just the kind of thing that happens when you're a bit younger... Nowadays, at my age, I don't think the guy in the shop would have approached me like that. But I'm a lot different now than I was at 16. Then, I would have been a bit bemused and just left it.
You have a number of choices: 1.The get physical approach. 2.The try to explain and convince why that's not nice approach. 3. The official route of complaint/legal proceedings. 4. The forget about it.
You just have to weigh the situation then decide.

 

[dr greg]

indeed

Sounds like there may be some stories to tell...

One major memory of that period is hearing the blast from the IRA bombing of Parliament as I came up from the Tube on my way to work, but on a sartorial level, I used to spend all day in a locked cage packing luxury lighters for Dunhill, so I learnt my brands, and occasionally in my breaks I'd spoil myself with some small delicacy for my lunch from Fortnum and Mason's then wander around Bond St etc looking at lots of clothes I couldn't afford, and probably wouldn't have bought anyway as I looked like this at the time.....

 

[avedwards]

performance = apple

social interactions = orange

tell me then why you didn't confront the salesman about burning your jacket at the time of the incident you did stay around and talk about jackets with hime for a short while. why not confront him about damaging your personal property?

I found him too pathetic to bother with. By not telling him that I found his behaviour inappropriate, I found I was showing him up more by indirectly saying to him that his sales ploy was useless. And as for my social interactions, while not giving you all the long-winded and depressing details, I wouldn't consider myself shy.

 

[bobalooba]

not to sound like dumb American...

But what exactly is a yob?
fftopic:

 

[dr greg]

yobbo

But what exactly is a yob?
fftopic:

backslang for boy...
In australian: boofhead
In the US...dunno, but it generally means an aggressive youth, unintelligent, obnoxious etc proud of his own lack of sophistication...maybe young redneck?

 

[bobalooba]

thank you greg, I kind of assumed it was some kind of hoodlum but I'm not up on my british slang.

 

[WildCelt]

backslang for boy...
In australian: boofhead
In the US...dunno, but it generally means an aggressive youth, unintelligent, obnoxious etc proud of his own lack of sophistication...maybe young redneck?

I prefer the term thuglet (but I don't think it's in wide use).

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Huevon. (The Chilean word for it.)

.

 

[avedwards]

But what exactly is a yob?
fftopic:

Actually it stands for "youth of Britain", which is why I don't like the term as not all British youths are violent. None of my friends are, or am I.

 

[nickn5]

Don't worry avedwards, 'yob' doesn't stand for that, as it came from the word 'yobbo':

Yobbo or yob is a slang term for an uncouth or thuggish blue collar person. The word derives from a back slang reading of the word "boy" (boy or boyo reversed becomes yob or — slightly modified — yobbo).

My personal definition is: someone who wishes to shelter from the rain all evening in a bus shelter because they have nothing better to do, but then decides to vandalise that same shelter while they're in it so that the roof and sides are smashed, letting the rain in... :eusa_doh: :eusa_doh:

N.

 

[nickn5]

Looks at photo... looks at avatar.... looks at photo....

N.

 

[avedwards]

Whatever a yob is, someone should shoot them with a vintage revolver one day, so that not all teenagers are typecast as being like this, as none of my friends are yobs and they are all teenagers. Of course, we are isolated by being in a grammar school but even my state school friends are not yobs.

 

[bobalooba]

now I have another question

What's the difference between state and grammar school?
Is it like public and private schools in the us?

 

[stephen1965]

What's the difference between state and grammar school?
Is it like public and private schools in the us?

It is almost. In the UK there are private schools such as Eton and Harrow etc, fee paying schools which are referred to as 'public schools' for some strange reason. The rest of the school system is known as 'state schools'. State schools used to have a tiered system a bit like the old class system and Grammar schools were at the top of the state school/non fee paying system. To get into a grammar school one generally had to pass a test at 11 years old and/or an entrance exam.. Nowadays there aren't so many grammar schools around but some became independent of the state and charged fees when the state school system was changed to a 'comprehensive' school system where there was supposed to be equality of education (for the non fee payers). So there are some independent grammar schools still around which no longer can be regarded themselves as state schools even though they once might have been
So There are a) Fee paying boarding and non boarding schools
b) Independent schools which might be fee paying but which perhaps were at one point part of the old grammar school scenario.
c)state schools (non fee paying).
Any clearer? Of course students at state schools tend to be regarded as yobs more often than students from fee paying schools. Chances of entrance to Oxbridge and other highly ranked universities is vastly improved by attendance at a non state school. Rebellious tendencies from state school students is/are generally labelled as loutish or yobbish.

 

[bobalooba]

ahh the powers of fedoralounge

I'm learning so much about other cultures.