Baby Genius Fabric? Give Me a Break!

When I need fabric for a quilt or other project, my go-to place is equilter.com. I also receive print catalogs from Keepsake Quilting and Hancock's of Paducah. I had quite an interesting reaction to a line of fabric included in the most recent Hancock's catalog. There are many genres of fabric that I would never buy, but in most cases I can think of someone who would, quilters being a very diverse lot. I'm not sure a fabric or fabric line has ever raised my blood pressure before, but this one did. The fabric line in question is the "Baby Genius Speaks Up" line from Benartex. Here's the description from the catalog. So, let me get this straight. This line of fabrics is going to help my baby learn sounds? I need fabric for that? I need this specific fabric for that? Isn't anything I say to my baby about anything going to help said baby learn sounds?

Perhaps it's because the fabrics themselves are designed around the works of famous artists or genres of art. This, for example, is one of the colorways of the Dada fabric. The line also includes Cubism and Picasso. I can't believe that they think I'd use the fabric to discuss art and artists with a baby. I certainly don't need this fabric, or any fabric for that matter, to share colors with my baby either.

If I want a fabric something through which I can interact and play with my baby, the simplest thing may well be an I-Spy quilt made of shapes cup from novelty fabric. "I spy a puppy! Do you see a puppy?" "I spy something green! Do you see something green?" That sounds just so much more fun and age-appropriate than "Can you show me the Dada square?" What? Babies are a market force, you say, in terms of their parents' buying power? If we make it and tell them their baby needs it, they will buy it? I think I need a glass of wine.

Is There an Editor in the House?

I expect better from The Washington Post than this sentence-long paragraph I found in one of the short reports in today's Sports section. The article concerned the naming of Mike Munchak as head coach of the NFL's Tennessee Titans. I actually wish I remembered more about diagramming sentences so I could try it with this one. Ready?

"This will be the first head coaching job for Munchak, who turns 51 in March, with the only franchise the offensive line coach and Hall of Fame lineman has ever played or worked for since being selected eighth overall by the franchise, then in Houston, in 1982."