USPA vs Ralph Lauren Polo

I do want to start this piece, by first modestly declaring that I am absolutely brand-insensitive. I like to think that I am a sagacious buyer, who buys stuff that appears to fit most utility criterion, and that fits the budget. Luckily, my husband shares the same view, and so our family is almost never seen in anything that even remotely serves as a walking billboard for any company. Yet, every once in a blue moon, one comes to be in the neighborhood of stores which beckon you by their sheer variety of products and attractive price-tags. Thus this story.

Like any bargain hunter, I was obviously very excited when I was able to see, feel, pay for, and get home a 'Polo' winter jacket for my daughter, at an absolutely unexpected price at TJ Maxx. I had no reason to doubt anything----there was that guy-on-the-horse-with-a-polo-stick logo in the front of the jacket, and then after all I was in a store that officially boasted of being the inevitable outlet for authentic designer stuff, and whose TV Commercials too show a supply chain of designers who 'overproduce' their wares, then hand them down to TJ Maxx, who is then only too happy to share the loot with all of us--me included.

Once home, the toddler sees the jacket, and just as she claims everything in the household with 'ITS MIIIINE', (including birthdays----'her' birthday is now 'celebrated' three times a year---one time for each family member!), so it is with the jacket. It fits her well, and she looks as pretty as any two year old would (in anything). However, since this would have been the first ever 'Ralph Lauren (RL)' outfit I would have bought for my baby, somehow I was a little curious about my purchase. Having had a gnawing feeling somewhere in the back of my mind, few hours after the little one had first slipped her arm into the pink sleeve, it just dawned on me that nowhere in the jacket's labels had I actually come across the proper noun of RL. The jacket only honestly claimed to be a product of the 'US Polo Assn' (as in the USPA). It was then that I sat down to google and realised that even when I just started to write 'USPA vs Polo' in the search box, I only had to write the first two words of this search phrase, since the phrase in its entirety just popped up on its own----clearly this line of query being not so uncommon in the world. Yes, indeed I can see that many a simple souls like me, have come home to finally acknowledge that they were taken for a ride by a guy on the horse!

Here is the gist of the two reports, I read, and you can of course read them in detail at their original web-sites. US POLO Assn has NOTHING TO DO with RL POLO.

Are their logos same?

NO: every guy on a horse is NOT a knight-in-shining armor! Watch carefully, if you have merchandise with both logos to compare at home (I did not have any RL at hand----my husband's only shirt from that company, is God-knows where), and you will note that RL has one guy and one horse, unlike USPA's which has either two guys on one horse, or maybe two guys on two horses or some such combination.

(USPA on the left and RL on the right).

Verdict: Mister Lauren (by the way that is not his original last name), is aware of the gullibility of naive customers like me, and has tried (in vain) in the past to sue USPA for copyright/trademark infringement.

SO, let us just be aware ourselves of the fact that the two brands are different.

As for me, I am only too happy to learn that the 'little horsy' sitting on my daughter's pink heart is just another regular steed, not a stallion from a designer stable.

For more info on USPA vs RL POLO, check out:

http://mommysavers.com/boards/product-talk/104747-what-difference-between-u-s-polo-assn-ralph-lauren-polo.html

http://www.lawdit.co.uk/reading_room/room/view_article.asp?name=../articles/Polo%20Ralph%20Lauren%20v.htm

(source for the picture:http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4218663&id=212808447505&ref=fbx_album)

We grow, we evolve, we contradict ourselves?

I am bloggging here after a long time now. So, just to refresh my mind, as I read through my older posts, made a year or more back, I can see how much we manage to announce and how much we manage to not keep up with the announcements, and how we can sometimes contradict ourselves (or oftentimes?).

Is this the beauty of purely voluntarily logging in hours on self-notes like our blogs? We can go back, and see how we have changed?

My eye on the phone--my I-phone.

When does a 'want' become a 'need'? As an economist, I have repeated several times, to my students, and to myself, that demand for something is when we have willingness and ability to pay for that good/service. In this world of cheap credit (is it really that cheap still?), 'ability' to pay for most things, is, typically well taken care off (we will deal with the bankruptcy courts later---lets first dip in the inviting jacuzzi in the bathroom!). Then what we are left with is the 'willingness' to pay for something, which translates into desire to own/use that something. Is it then the intensity of this willingness to pay, that differentiates a 'want' from a 'need'?

I have seen my want become a need recently. With most friends sending e-mails with signature lines of 'sent from my I-phone', and with a brother who is spending many a sleepless nights making and marketing app(s) for the I-phone, it is only understandable that conversations I start from, or receive on, my non-I-phone cell phone, somehow always 'appear' to be lost in translation--yes it is mere appearance, because after all a phone, is a phone, is a phone----it will invariably miss signals when lost in the mountains, and almost always spew whopping roaming charges, when you use the phone even at the Canadian side of the Niagra Falls. Even so, as the pressure builds up on me, and as my husband continues to take me on Saturday outings, on 5th Av, starting at the transparent cube of an iconic Apple store, I have 'evolved'. From considering the I-phones as mere fads, I have now imagined various uses to which my very own I-phone can be put to, from carrying on my online teaching while 'keeping an eye' on kiddo when she plays in the park, to reading/writing(??) books travelling on the subway. And then of course the fanatics (led by my brother?) tell me, almost everyday of some funky app they are superly enjoying. Perhaps I can seek my nirvana in some app too?

Whatever be it, today morning, I heard myself saying to myself---'I need an I-phone'. I was myself surprised at the choice of words of my subconscious, and I take it as an honest desire with an intense willingness to pay. Hubby dear---I hope you have enough ability (to pay).

the mommy guilt

Is there actually a super-mom? Even when a woman has done the best she can for her child and family, is she actually ever satisfied with her work? Or, is it just me. I mean I know I have not yet done the 'best' that I can do, but I know I am trying really hard. And ever since I became a mom, caring for my little one has become a full-time occupation-a lot of work, with even greater rewarding moments. Like when she wakes up clapping or hugs me tight round my legs. But that eternal source of anguish remains---her food. She is an 'officially underweight' child ---her weight at birthday no.1 was less than atleast triple the birth-weight (an official guesstimate for appropriate weight growth). And getting food into her mouth is a chore----it takes forever, she refuses everything and she is never hungry! While I am OK with all the struggles that are involved in feeding, its not OK that the digits on the weigh-scale are almost constant for a while. Everyone around, including the ped, says that she is fine, what with her super active schedule. But I am really looking forward to some visible signs of growth, of dividends for the umpteen hours being put at the high-chair. And this anxiety has now given way to that ultimate mom's-guilt. Did I not do the right things? Am I missing something? I am now constantly dwelling on those stray meals that she missed---was it them? I know I need to overcome this, but for now, this is me.

REPORT: MALPRACTICE: Continental AIRLINE SLAPS AN UNDUE FEE

This friend of mine, AT, bought 2 international air-tickets for Continental Airlines. Soon after, due to some unavoidable circumstance, he had to abandon the plans for that international trip. Knowing that its an international flight, where tickets can be thus changed, he called the airlines for the same. Continental told him that he can get credit but not a refund. Fair enough. A week later, he booked himself 3 tickets for Florida, using the credit he had collected. He made these reservations on the phone (which is what one would use, if one has to use the credits). All well......till he gets his credit card bill, which shows that he has been charged $750 extra.....why? Continental tells him that when they make such reservations on the phone, they charge $250 per ticket! No one told AT anything about this, when he was making the FL reservations. He repeatedly called the airlines to rectify this charge-----but to no avail.

CONTINENTAL.......BAD-BAD.

Lesson: ALWAYS before signing off on any telephonic deal, ask the agent to repeat the charges you will incur, and do also take the agent id, name etc for your records.

    

New on this blog

So having celebrated my particular birthday now, I feel I have walked long enough on this earth to start giving back some 'wisdom'. Additionally when even on a continent so far removed from the country that I grew up in, in almost every other party I end up meeting someone who says s/he knows me from x years back, I know I am a veteran enough now. So capitalising on this known and unknown social circle of mine, I feel its time to further share the shared wisdom. What I will do now is to start chronicling the notable interactions of mine or of people I know, in order to spread the word about best finds, malpractices of corporates or some such everyday phenomena. These chronicles can be trusted, since I put my trust on the person(s) in the center of these, and hopefully they will provide some insights which will then make our lives a little better too. 

Knowing no better way to lay them out on this blog, I will start the title of any such posting, with the word: REPORT. This will be followed by a word indicating what kind of report it is. For example: MALPRACTICE, or BEST FIND, or SMART WAY. This will then be followed by a title that will hopefully best capture the gist of the post. 

Also, at the start of every month, I will post this above paragraph about the 'filing' method of reports to keep the reader reminded of the system.

The caterpillar is not so young after all

Today Google celebrates the 40th anniversary of the 1st release of Eric Carl's 'The Very hungry Caterpillar'. For those of you who have never had close interaction with small kids in the Western hemisphere, this is a book you probably do not know much about. Rightly so! It is a children's book--no, its no Harry Potter though. Its very small chidren's book. I had the honor of being introduced to the book once I had a kid of my own. Today as I read of Google celebrating the 40th anniversary of the book, I am a little surprised myself. Just because I first came to know about the book when I bought it for my 'fresh' new baby, DOES NOT mean that the book is all 'freshly off the press'. Its been around for a GOOD 40 years! 

And then, when I casually talked to some older kids born in the US about the book, well, they seemed to know all about it too. I know thats a childhood memory I do not have and can't share with my kid. All the same, the fact that I almost never realised that the book is so old, speaks about the timelessness of the very cute, sweet and simple tale of the very hungry caterpillar.