<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV>(also just posted to my blog at <A href="http://danesecooper.blogs.com/divablog/2007/08/ashlee-vance-wh.html">http://danesecooper.blogs.com/divablog/2007/08/ashlee-vance-wh.html</A>)</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><DIV><P style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#666666" face="Georgia" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><B>Ashlee Vance, what in the world do you have against knitters?</B></SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Register shock-reporter Ashlee Vance wrote a </SPAN></FONT><A href="http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2007/08/08/sugarcrm_osi_roberts/"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#426317"><B>ridiculous piece</B></FONT></SPAN></FONT></A><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> about a panel on which I participated at this month's Linux World Expo in San Francisco. Not sure what SugarCRM paid him for the misleading headline, but my favorite part of the piece was his assertion that I must be "desperate for attention" because I was knitting during the panel.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">I have been knitting since I was 5 years old, and have been a public knitter for many years now. To date I have only caught approbation from Ashlee, despite the fact of my tendency to knit in public at conferences and long meetings has been well documented in blogs and various other commentaries.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Oh, wait, I nearly forgot. When I was in 7th Grade pesky little Michael Grossman tried to rat me out to our Math teacher because I was discretely knitting during class (under my desk). The teacher calmly told Michael that when he was earning a 4.0 GPA, he could knit in class too.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Perhaps Ashlee, like pesky Michael Grossman, is unaware that knitting enhances concentration in many people, and also allows the knitter to create something useful while otherwise killing time (as I was doing waiting to be included in yet another panel discussion about badgewear licensing).</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Here are a few interesting posts on the subject of knitting in public...</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px"><A href="http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris/entry/danese_inside"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><B>The post</B></SPAN></FONT></A><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> where my Sun colleague Jim Grisanzio choose to memorialize my public knitting tendencies in his blog</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">A blog about </SPAN></FONT><A href="http://www.purselipsquarejaw.org/2006/08/knitting-and-public-politics.php"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#426317"><B>knitting and politics</B></FONT></SPAN></FONT></A><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> - Ashlee will especially enjoy the quote about "brain-work" being impossible for some women....seems right up his alley, I'm sure he can make something of that.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Christian Science Monitor's </SPAN></FONT><A href="http://www.csmonitor.com/1988/1202/bknit.html"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#426317"><B>review of "No Idle Hands"</B></FONT></SPAN></FONT></A><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">, Anne Macdonald's book (from which the "brain-work" quote in the preceding cited blog was taken)</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Fastcompany </SPAN></FONT><A href="http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/112/features-shesgottheirnumber.html"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#426317"><B>article</B></FONT></SPAN></FONT></A><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> about mathematician Brenda Dietrich who unashamedly knits during meetings at IBM.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px"><A href="http://www.fgcquaker.org/gathering/2007/workshop-25"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><B>Class offering</B></SPAN></FONT></A><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> from a recent Quaker Gathering - seems knitting during Quaker services is pretty acceptable. Tolerant people, Quakers.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px"><A href="http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/books/kernel1/kern1004.htm"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><B>A somewhat long blog post</B></SPAN></FONT></A><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">, written by a woman more timid (Ashlee might choose to say less desperate for attention) that I. But the last two paragraphs are cogent to this blog.</SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Oh, and there's this last one I found...you should look this guy up, Ashlee...he could be your new best friend. Apparently a shock DJ in Wisconsin tried to start a smear campaign against a newly elected School Board member, one Lucy Mathiak. </SPAN></FONT><A href="http://www.madison.com/post/blogs/militarymatters/83912"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#426317"><B>Great post</B></FONT></SPAN></FONT></A><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> about shock-tactics backfiring.</SPAN></FONT></P><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Danese</DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Aug 21, 2007, at 2:53 PM, Ashlee Vance wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">Danese Cooper is knitting the minutes into a quilt. Please be patient.<BR> <BR>The OSI moves at needle not internet speed. <BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>