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life

Stupid ideas make good
Girl Scouts go Starbucks. Plus: Put a sock in it.

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By Carina Chocano

April 9, 2001 | Next time someone corners you in the checkout aisle and assaults you with his or her special Kodak moments, here's your chance to get revenge. Pull down your pants and show them your Holy Poly panties.

Holypoly.com makes apparel for those avid shutterbugs who just can't keep their snapshots to themselves. The DIY T-shirt kits are clever -- the i-Zone Tee Kit includes a white shirt, a Polaroid i-Zone camera and six shots of film -- but what really caught our eye were the panties, which come with a see-through, i-Zone photo-shaped pocket in the front.

Imagine the pervy possibilities!

The Web site encourages wearers to "keep your fave picture as your special secret between you and your jeans!" We say it's a great, dramatic way to share images of loved ones.

Next time you want to freak someone out, try standing in front of a fan, fixing your quarry with a smoldering look and saying, "Nothing comes between me and my grandson."

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Speaking of adorable imps, the Girl Scouts of America will finally ditch their classic enlisted leprechaun-wear and adopt the uniform of the service-industry working classes.

They've chucked their traditional uniforms in favor of khakis and polo shirts, just like the kids at Starbucks wear! Girl Scouts USA national executive director Marsha Johnson Evans said the makeover is an attempt to modernize the organization's image.

"The new uniforms for older girls will help dispel the notion that it's not cool to be a Girl Scout when you're in your teens," she said. "Our goal is for girls to have a comfortable uniform they're proud to wear as they grow into strong, confident and capable young women."

Young women capable not only of selling cookies but of making a killer double nonfat decaf mocha with extra foam. But at least they'll be cool just like everybody else.

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More fallout from the girly revolution.

A few months ago, we checked out the allegedly popular Vivianlives.com -- and we will never again regain those 15 minutes. The experience took us back, oh, five or six years, to a time when it was easy to convince people with money that rummaging around a slow-loading simulacrum of a cartoon character's shallow life (in this case, the virtual apartment of a fictional New York fashionista) was the future of female entertainment.

In this era of dot-com meltdowns, it's nice to see at least one stupid idea make good.

Now the Next Model Management has signed Vivian Livingston -- the site's cartoon namesake -- to its roster of models. Vivian already is showing up in ads in Marie Claire magazine and has acted as an "official guide" to Yahoo Shopping. Amazingly, the crude and irritating sketch has also landed a gig as "celebrity guest editor" for Styleshop.com.

What's next? A National Magazine Award?

"One can forget that Vivian is fictitious and animated," Sherri Krantz, founder and CEO of Forever After Inc., the parent company of Vivianlives.com, told Fashion Wire Daily, temporarily misplacing her senses. "She is so authentic, vibrant and provocative."

One can forget that the sock puppet was little more than a talking shoe liner too, if one forgets to take one's medication.

Please, the sock puppet is so much sexier. We're not the only ones who think so, either.

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This really socks.

This month's Elle and Nylon are completely sock-obsessed. Both are partial to avant-garde shin dresser Eley Kishimoto, whose colorful and boldly patterned knee-highs are sure to draw comments, if not necessarily compliments. Fittingly, Nylon also likes the knee-high nude nylon look worn with '50s-style cocktail dresses and circle skirts.

They're just like the kind Grandma used to wear. If Grandma was, you know, kind of slatternly.

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About the writer
Carina Chocano is a senior writer for Salon.

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