The Catbird Seat

So, apparently my “Peeing in the Shower” post was funny to everyone except the company that makes my selection for “Chair of the Week”!

I hope you got a chance to see “Week 4″ of my “Chair of the Week” selection. If you didn’t…well, it’s too late. I’ve had to pull the image.

Why? Well, there’s a story. (Isn’t there always with me?)

I selected the “Spirit Song” chair, made by Diamond Teak, for this week’s “Chair of the Week” on Sunday night. Realizing that this company is much smaller (and, I thought, more personal) than most whose chair(s) I pick for my blogsite, I emailed the owner about my feature of the Spirit Song chair.

I had hopes of (a) finding out the first year the chair was made (b) pleasing the company owner with my acknowledgement of his really cool product and (c) getting some kind of positive feedback due to the free advertising of his company and product.

My hopes were dashed. Not only did I not get the information I was seeking, I got a fairly terse and patronizing reply from Kevin, Diamond Teak’s owner.

Here’s an excerpt from his email reply to me:

please follow up with the tiffanys who are the designers. ### ### #### if you do not put the patent numbers and their name then you CANNOT use the image. and i don’t know if they will approve of peeing in the shower and their chair on the same site. not really a good match. [my emphasis]

Apparently, I am just too unrefined for Diamond Teak.

I can appreciate the desire/need to include the patent numbers on the image.
I don’t appreciate the owner putting his discomfort with me/my blog off on the designers.
I’d have felt completely differently about this if he had said, “I would appreciate it if you did not associate our product with your blog and its foolishness.”

It probably still would have hurt my feelings (after all, I thought the “peeing in the shower” thing was hysterical), but I would at least be able to respect him for taking responsibility for his own opinion.

Alternatively, if he was not offended, but suspected the designers might be, then I think a better response would’ve been for him to check with them (first) and then email me.

To say “i don’t know if they’ll approve…” (again, my emphasis)…is to put words in the mouths of someone else. It irritated me.

Either you (the owner of the company) think its funny and cool that your chair was on my blog, or you think it’s inappropriate and refuse to associate your product with it. Which is okay. Either one, actually.

And yes, the owners are Harvard graduates, and have reforested a huge area of Costa Rica and are saving the planet by planting teak trees. And yes, the Tiffany’s have amazing credentials in design, and are graduates of incredibly reputable and sophisticated universities. Does that mean they don’t pee in the shower? Or think it’s funny? I don’t know. They might not.

I think I’ll call them and ask. I wonder what they’ll say?

[Aside: after writing this story, I DID call the designers. I spoke to Barbara Tiffany who assured me that she did, in fact, find it humorous. She actually said, “Anyone who says they don’t pee in the shower is lying.” By the way, she is truly delightful!]

But I digress…

In description of the Week #4 chair of the week, I jokingly put,

“Maybe I’ll email the owners of Diamond Teak and tell them I feature the “Spirit Song Chair” on my blog. Maybe they’ll be impressed! Maybe they’ll be so appreciative of the free advertising that they’ll give me one for free. (And maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt.)”
I thought it was funny. He (the owner) did not.

Obviously this man has no sense of humor.

Exhibit A: (the rest of his email to me).

i don’t think that you should use the chair unless you are in the furniture business and have purchased one for sale in your showroom

I can only guess he thought I was serious about the “free chair” insinuation; that’s the only reason I can come up with that would explain his not-so-subtle implication that I should purchase a chair before “showing” it on my website. Apparently cool, comfortable chairs are only to be praised from a furniture showroom. I am disappointed that he doesn’t recognize the power of the word of mouth (particularly when you are selling something).

Oh well. I guess I must face that I’m just too coarse and vulgar for some people in this world. Obviously, I’m too unseemly, or I would regret posting about peeing in the shower. (I don’t. Regret it, that is.)

Too bad. It was a cool chair. I think you would have liked it.

[Postscript: after talking at length with Barbara Tiffany, I have decided to re-post a piece from the Spirit Song line (with her approval) for the “Chair of the Week.” I hope everyone will click on the link and check it out.
Mrs. Tiffany also assured me that Kevin, of Diamond Teak is a hard-working, good and decent man, despite his negative response to my email. I say, he’s lucky to have her.]

Filed under: General, Catbird, Random Thoughts on March 22nd, 2006