subject: When Getting 'framed' Isn't A Bad Thing [print this page] Remember when Billy Crystal used to portray Ricardo Montalban on Saturday Night Live? His trademark phrase was that he would rather look good than feel good and Crystal delivered it perfectly every time. It became a popular quote of the day.
While not wanting to get on my soapbox I must say that something made in China is often made to LOOK good but not BE good. Living in Asia (where I call home) there is a flood of these inexpensive goods on the market and buying American means spending quite a bit more because of tariffs and import duties. It's been my experience that most people here prefer to buy 'cheap'.
Mom sent me the latest photos of herself and Dad and this required a trip to the mall to find suitable photograph frames. The place we went had a display of hundreds of frames of every size and style imaginable but not a single one that wasn't produced somewhere here in Asia. I realize now I should have gone online to find a quality product that would suitably frame my octogenarian parents but I bit the bullet and laid down my 100 Philippine pesos (about two bucks worth) for a couple of gilt-edged models that looked pretty good. At least they were the right size.
Trying to put the pictures in the frames was challenging. Several of the retainers broke and the back was too loose in the frame. This caused the photos to slide down, which I remedied by applying some duct tape to the back. This worked pretty well and was hidden from view so it looked okay too.
The next idea was to employ the use of two 'gold' colored rubber bands to hold the frames together and this definitely worked but looked terrible. I certainly didn't want to dishonor my forebears with this cheesy kind of set-up. It was back to square one... new frames.
As I probably should have done in the first place, I went online and found a huge assortment of not only picture frames but also certificate frames (which I also needed). It was easy to find something that looked good and was QUALITY made and, guess what? Made in the U.S.A.!
Metal frames, wood frames, shadowboxes and custom-made units all available and most very reasonably priced. True it would take some time for delivery but anything was better than looking at the cheesy rubber-band set-up. Anyway, Mom and Dad deserve to be displayed with some style and panache.
