No Applause Necessary

Wow. It's amazing when I am faced with physical evidence that my journalism work results in actual change.

Especially as the result of an article about weddings styles in The Jewish Week's "Catered Events" supplement.

Less than three weeks after the appearance of this article, with the accompanying photo which I myself took, Claire's has taken down the posters advertising the skeazy dresses from outside their store. Where the skeazy dresses used to be, are now empty metal frames. I never called the dresses "skeazy" in the article, I just quoted wedding planners as pointing out that, compared to what American brides like, Israeli wedding dresses tend to be "full full full of glitter" and "unbelievably revealing, so revealing there is nothing left to glitz on." But it's easy to put 2 and 2 together.

It will be interesting to see what they replace the old posters with. Who knows? Maybe they didn't see my story at all, and they took the posters down for cleaning or something.

Or maybe they realized that their location in "Little America" necessitates some lessons in American wedding aesthetics. (Which are not "better" than Israeli ones, just different . . . and yes, Americans often find Israeli wedding dresses to be skeazy. Probably the Israelis think we are quite Puritan and boring.)

Anyway, now I'm afraid to go in there to get a manicure or whatever. If I say my name, will they be all "Oh, you're the woman who called our posters 'skeazy'"?

Really, they should thank me for saving them. They are located in an Anglo enclave. And to American tastes, those posters were awful. The next time you are on Emek Refaim Street, if you are American, you can thank me for the absence of those posters, which would otherwise burn holes in your eyes.