Jonathan Papelbon's wife's phenomenal taste

It looks way too much like those silly giant suitcase full of everything purses my mother and my teachers carried in the 1970s and 1980s. I think she had one almost exactly like that, but naugahyde and without the zippered pocket. Retro is in I guess, but it says "church lady" to me in the strictist sense.

Besides, you can't angle-strap it across your chest, it can't be laundered, it won't fit in a pannier or hook to a bike rack (and the leather might be damaged by bungy cords) and it doesn't look big enough for my laptop or to haul a change of clothing.

Then again, my next purse is likely to come from REI or from one of those places in Providence or NYC that sew messenger bags. Fashion is not for me I guess, but performance is.

p.s. My husband carries a "murse" - it's a "safari" bag purchased at the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park. Very tough to look at it knowing every house we passed between Escondido and the park is toast - even if the animal park was designed to partially escape and the animals were okay.

Mom-Bag

By Gareth
Tue, 10/30/2007 - 10:33am

Yeah, that's a mom-bag all right. I see it and immediately am brought back to my childhood, rooting around in the gritty depths after loose change. Except that my mom's voluminous purses were usually not beige.

Maybe she needs some Mom-Pants to go with that Mom-Bag. Then she'll be rockin' out in a totally retro Momly style. It's brave fashion, fashion that requires a suspension of disbelief, and fashion where irony slowly dissipates to become sad reality.

Hey, if you can afford a

By Miss M
Tue, 10/30/2007 - 10:38am

Hey, if you can afford a $2,100 purse, you can afford to hire someone to carry your laptop and a change of clothes for you!

SO not a mom purse

By Erin
Tue, 10/30/2007 - 11:10am

That's a great bag. I doubt she's worried about attaching it to her bike.

Depends ...

By SwirlyGrrl
Tue, 10/30/2007 - 12:18pm

On how old your mom is! If you are 35+ now, you'd remember that the 35+ set in the mid 70s wore those feminized suitcases everywhere!

Guilty as charged

By Gareth
Tue, 10/30/2007 - 12:55pm

I guess the young'uns don't know what we're talking about.

I'm talking about smushed up Tums roll-ends, forgotton, glued-together Life Savers, multiple key-rings, a wallet five inches thick, assorted makeup doodads, bottle-green hornrim sunglasses, school photos from three years ago, leaking pens, spare LEggs, checkbooks, receipts, an entire ecosystem of barrettes... and nothing electronic.

A Mom-Bag, something swung onto a counter with a thud.

But I guess now you can make one of those in beige, sell it for 2 grand, and it's tres chic. It's not a Mom-Bag unless you're old enough that your mom carried something like that.