Loft vs. Puff

Think back.

Does anyone remember a few years ago when we had on this forum a heated discussion about loft and it keeping us warm in a sleeping bag (or in a coat for that matter)? Everyone joined in the bantering over it's worth, thickness and how it was measured. It became so heated that two posters literally crawled out of their WM bags and verbally sparred in their boxer shorts.

I couldn't find the topic in a search -- it's too old I guess -- but it all came back to me, as it should you, while viewing this new (out on 11/2/11) Old Navy commercial:

The Trivialization of Loft

In those few seconds, Madison Avenue has dismissed our faith in loft, its thickness and its effectiveness, all in the name of a fashion trend and to simply make a buck. A real down downer for me.

I'm feeling like George in an old Sienfeld rerun.

And we can no longer talk at length (or height for that matter) about the loft of our WM, BA or SD bags; it's puff now.

Good God! The next thing you know, The North Face will be designing stuff to be fashionable rather than functional.

(OK, that last bit was inspired by Mr. Cain's prediction that if we aren't careful, China will soon have nuclear weapons.)

Most of my gear is pretty old and I had to replace a lot this year. I've noticed a lot of backpacking gear is what I call "backpacking style." It looks like the real thing, but it's not very functional.

To me a loft is that place between the beams under a bridge where we had to sleep after the cardboard house burned down.

Sooooo....you had matches?

No, my brother brought home some OPB's and one was still lit.

I'm a little more stubborn than to let advertisers blow me out of the water... loft is loft and I know how much I need. I'm down with it.

No need to get all puffed out about it.

lori:

So you agree with me that clothing mogul/ex rapper Sean Combs shouldn't be Diddy, P.Diddy or even his old Puff Daddy, but Loft Daddy?

Pretty sure the ad's voice is Fred Willard, who's been in most of the Christopher Guest movies and memorably (for me) Martin Mull's sidekick in Fernwood Tonight. There, he once complained about the city putting in skateboard ramps on all the street corners. When Mull told him they were actually for the handicapped the response was, "That's even crazier, handicapped people can't skateboard."

Anyway, whenever I hear Willard I think "mockumentary."

You had fire? We were too poor for fire and had to make do with the glow from my sister's windburned face.

Cheers,

I'm sure Sean will accept the change without quibble once we explain the difference.

kevon, you have waaaaaay too much time on your hands. OldScout

You win that one!

Excellent - we have a very worthy adversary!

enough of these lofty thoughts...

Old Scout:

You're right, of course, but there's too much snow to hike and not enough to snowshoe.

Rick D
Rick D said, "You had fire? We were too poor for fire and had to make do with the glow from my sister's windburned face.

"
You had a sister??
I was an only child, I had to go out in the winter mornings and warm up the outhouse seat for my parents.
It was so cold one winter on my birthday that the candles on the cake wouldn't light, in fact the matches wouldn't light either, and the cake was still in the box because the oven didn't work, but at least we had an oven, we slept in it to keep warm, me and both of my parents, and I always had to sleep on the bottom doncha know...
For many years the garment industry has tried to convince us that thinsulation is as good as puffulation or loftation. Don't buy pretend camping gear or camping gear wanna be.
Jim

We have a couple worthy adversaries. It's going to be difficult to prove I had it the worst.

You had a sister?

Well, to be honest we couldn't afford one so we fashioned her from bits of dryer lint and burlap pancakes. Our hope is to someday be able to afford a name for her.

We didn't have a dryer of course, but once a year we were allowed to visit the Great House and admire theirs. If it had been a good year for the pebble crop, they would let us take as much lint as we could gather in six minutes. Upon leaving we'd each be beaten with a left-handed tractor jack and rewarded with an onion, which we'd wear tucked under out belts as was the fashion at the time.

Back in my day, there was just dust in the fields and no pebbles. Unfortunately, Someone figured out how to make people from the dust and we just had more mouths we couldn't feed.

You had wind?

Where I grew up wind was a luxury. It was so cold out we had to bust a hole in the air to make our own wind.

We just ate beans.

When times were good we got two beans for breakfast, an ice cube for lunch, and let the beans swell for dinner. After that we got to bust the hole in the air so we could go outside and play by making our own wind

well, so much for puff...
Jim

That last one is pretty old and moldy, but sometimes you have dig them up and scrap them off for the benefit of the whippersnappers among us

You had belts?

No need for them with old feed sacks for clothes (only for Sunday, of course.) Naturally, without knives or scissors, it was hard to make the head and armholes, and our tooth was too valuable to waste chewing holes in the sack. And we didn't have anything to barter to the tailor (that's what we called the guy in town who owned the sharp rock) to get him to do it.

You had parents?

Well, technically the belts belonged to the owners of the Manor House, who required we wear them so there would always be one handy for a beating. Which we welcomed because they helped keep us warm. (And of course, beats were also for making faux borscht--so now you know where the phrase "Borscht Belt" came from.)

A tooth, huh. So, you had dental care?

Yeah, we always took great care not to lose the family tooth.

I am so out of my league here