Category: Rant

Dear Target,

Ever since I first discovered you in college, when I went away to school to a Land That Had a Target when my hometown did not, I have loved you. I was very happy when, by the time I graduated and moved back home, we had Targets galore in my city. And now, if I think, as I often do, “I need to go to Target!” or more likely, “I need to find an excuse to go to Target because I LOVE TARGET!” I can rest assured knowing there are not one, not two, but three Target stores equidistant from my home and two more a little further out if need be. Whew!

All that to say, Target: I love you long time.

I love your bright lights, clean aisles, and your printable, mobile, and Cartwheel coupons. I love your clearance. I love your Red Card that is linked to my checking account and saves me 5% every time I shop.

What I DON’T love? Your girls department. To be honest, most of my 7-year-old daughter’s clothes are very nice hand-me-downs, and I’ve never really taken a good, hard look at your girls’ department until last night, when I was trying to find her something appropriate for “super hero dress up day” at school. And then, I took a very good, L-O-N-G look.

You know what I found in the girls’ department? Minnie Mouse, My Little Pony, Ever After High, and Hello Kitty. You know what I found in the boys’ department? Batman, Superman, SpiderMan, the Avengers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Forgive me if I’m just a little frustrated.

There should be hero options in the girls’ department. There should be options beyond pink and sparkle. Does my daughter LIKE pink and sparkle? Yep.  Does she LIKE Hello Kitty? Yep. Does she LIKE superheroes? Yep. Should she have OPTIONS available for both types of clothing? Absolutely. I wasn’t even looking for a GIRL superhero necessarily (although a little Wonder Woman never killed nobody. Right?) but some of those lady Avengers would’ve been cool. But I’d also have been cool with SpiderMAN, BatMAN, and SuperMAN t-shirts in the girls’ department. Because you can be a fan of a superhero regardless of said hero’s gender.

In the end, after a l-o-n-g tour around every part of the store I thought could POSSIBLY offer a solution to this problem, I bought my daughter a Batman t-shirt from the boys’ department, a Batman hat from the boys department, a yellow mask attached to a set of underoos from the boys department, and a pair of black leggings from the girls’ department. It turned out pretty cute:

 

But my shopping experience left me jaded. Target, my friend, our girls deserve better options. So why don’t you go back to the drawing board and make more and  better t-shirt options for them? My daughter loves Super Mario Bros., Sonic, LEGO, and pretty much everything else that’s available in the boys’ department. And while we’re at it, why not make KIDS some t-shirts with real heroes on them, too? Like Amelia Earhart or Neil Armstrong, for instance. I’d buy those t-shirts.

I love you, Target. But I know you can do better. So DO better.

Love,

Jenny

The following is a guest post from the third SuperCousin, Anna. Also known as Emily’s sister. Because, when someone emails you a rant THIS GOOD, you have to publish it! Enjoy!

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Dear Microsoft,

Once upon a time, I was a young, recent college graduate, working at her first full time job. And as it happened, I didn’t have enough to do to keep busy. Ok, that’s an over- statement, I was mind numbingly bored and blogs and Pinterest didn’t exist yet (most unfortunately, because I was also planning a wedding!) and one can really only play so much solitaire. So I decided to learn Microsoft Office programs. And you captured my heart. The words “mail merge” are dreamy to me. And Access, O Access, how I heart thee, let me use an Excel spreadsheet to count the ways.

That’s why I hate to tell you this, but I think we might have to break up. And there is one thing to blame: Windows 8.

Because, Here’s the thing, you’re not cool. You’re just not. You’re not creative. You’re not something hipsters and art students are going to be excited about using. But what you are (or were!) is familiar. You’re what 95 percent of people know how to use. I never wanted to use Apple because I knew how to use you so well. It was your one strength, the thing that made me loyal to you.

And with Windows 8, you’ve pretty much blown all that to crap. There isn’t even a start button, for goodness sake. The first time I turned on our new computer, I couldn’t figure out how to play my daughter’s music cd. Do you hear me? I couldn’t even play a CD. I couldn’t find “my computer.” I couldn’t figure out how to shut the damn thing down.

For the love of Bob, why would you think that it was a good idea to take something that 98% of everyone knew how to use? Because not needing to learn something new is what you had going for you. iPads? Oh wait that’s not you guys. iPhones? Nope, not you either. iTunes? uh uh. But you had this one thing: I knew how to use you. But now, I might just make the jump. Because I don’t know that I want to invest in a relationship with a bunch of nincompoops.

From Weezer’s “Buddy Holly” video to CTL+ALT+DEL, you won my heart at spell check. I’d like to say “it’s not you, it’s me”, but it’s you. Bring back the start button and maybe we can talk again. I’d even take being able to upload the pictures on my camera. Until then, I will remain formerly loyal user.

Love,

Anna

P.S. You suck.

Tuesday a very sad event began taking place here in my city.  It was the demolition of my elementary and high school building, the building that from 1974-2004 housed Dayton Christian Schools.  I attended kindergarten through 4th grade here, then shuffled over to a different building for middle school (where I met Bobby), and then back to this glorious building for high school.

I won’t use their pictures, but if you have just a minute I hope you’ll click here to see this gallery from the Dayton Daily News of some beautiful pictures of the building as I remember it.

The building was first opened in 1927 as the Julienne Catholic Girls High School.  From 1927-1973 high school girls got a Catholic education there.  The Sisters who ran the school lived in the convent that was attached to the high school building.  In 1974, Julienne merged with the boys’ Catholic high school, Chaminade, and Dayton Christian found a home in the “Julienne building”.  The Catholic church de-consecrated it for us Protestants but it was still sacred to most of us who walked it’s halls thereafter.

The convent where the nuns lived was converted into the elementary school.  So, our bathrooms had tubs in them which was a little weird but for the most part it was like any elementary – just much more beautiful.  The chapel (there is a picture on that gallery I linked to, I hope you’ll look at it) in the elementary was the nuns’ chapel, and it was gorgeous. Absolutely breathtaking, and I have SUCH special memories of that room.  We had chapel in there once a week, and it was where I learned to worship as a child.  I learned it at church, too, of course, but also at school.  We had such fun chapel services conducted by people who wanted to help kids learn about God in a fun way.  So, that room is very special to me, and it’s beauty still speaks to me, even though it’s gone.

I can’t count the number of times I walked up and down this hallway…isn’t it beautiful?  The building won all kinds of awards when it was designed, and was recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places, although that did not save it from demolition.  It was just a beautiful, beautiful place.  It not only had the arched windows you see here but plenty of stained glass, a lovely courtyard, and pretty marble-ish floors.

It was a gorgeous place to go to school.

But it outlived it’s usefulness, and now it’s gone.

In 2004, after Dayton Christian moved out of the building, which was basically too expensive to maintain because of it’s age, Dayton Public Schools bought it.  They used it for a couple of years to house Stivers School for the Arts, a 7-12 grade school whose own old beautiful building WAS being saved from demolition and was going through huge renovations. After Stivers was done, it sat empty, and Dayton Public decided to demo it.  The neighborhood association and Julienne alumni fought hard to save it, but to no avail.  It’s very sad.

But it’s not why I’m upset.  Because I’ll always have my memories.

What upsets me is that as I was looking through the pictures of my old school on the Dayton Daily News website, I also read every single article pertaining to the demolition that they had on their front page, like this one and the captions of the gallery linked to above, and all these articles called the building “the Julienne building” and mentioned that it was “most recently home to Stivers School for the Arts”.

Not one mention was made of the fact that from 1974-2004, Dayton Christian Schools owned and used that building.  THIRTY YEARS, as if they never happened.  Thousands of graduates, forgotten.  It’s despicable. Despicable, despicable, despicable.

It seems to me that Dayton Daily only prints news about Dayton Christian if it is negative.  And since for the thirty years DC was in that building, it was a positive thing for the building and the neighborhood, there was of course, no mention of it even though it was clearly relevant to the background of this story.

Let me tell you something, Dayton Daily News.  That building was important to ME.  And not because it was beautiful and historic, but because I went to school there – Dayton Christian School.  For THIRTY YEARS that was the Dayton Christian building.  And you act like it NEVER HAPPENED.  That’s some crack journalism there.  Really.  Way. To. Go.

When you fail to mention DC, you make a glaring omission in the history of the building in question.  Stivers only occupied the building for two years and yet they always make the cut.  Why gloss over thirty years of top-notch education that was done there?  It doesn’t make any sense, and actually it’s completely and totally FREAKING RIDICULOUS.

Tuesday when I griped on my Facebook status about the Dayton Daily News’ gross error in their coverage, one of my friends commented, “useless newspaper.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.  And I mean that in the most Christian way possible.

I was weepy after looking at your photo galleries the other night, Dayton Daily, but now I’m just pissed. (Yes, Christians get pissed.  Sometimes even righteously.) You took thirty years of good and made it into nothing. You really pulled one over on us Christ-ers, great job. Did you think we wouldn’t notice?

I am thoroughly disgusted.

You can gloss over our memories but you can’t make them go away.

What do you think, DC Alumni?  I hope you’ll share a special memory of OUR building in the comments.  And maybe tell DDN where to stick it. In the most Christian way possible.

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I ganked those photos from Flickr. Click on the images for the credit. Please don’t sue me random guy from Flickr, I’m totes broke.