It's enough to make Kings and Vagabonds

Rabbi asks "what kind of kippah do you want to wear?"

"Just a little black one that fits under my cover"

"Excellent, here's what you do. Get a Bukharan kippah, the more colorful the better, and wear it tomorrow."

"But rabbi, I don't want to wear a Bukharan kippah, and I don't want to wear a colorful kippah."

"Trust me."

So the servicemember wears the brightly colored Bukharan kippah.

Later that day, an officer comes to see the rabbi.

"Rabbi, you have to help me. There's a servicemember at my command who started wearing a kippah, and it's so big and brightly colored. Please, rabbi, you've got to talk him down."

"Ill handle it."

And the servicemember switched to the little black kippah he'd wanted all along, and everyone thought they'd come out ahead.

Sophia, the Victorian ghost who haunts a lamp I bought at Brimfield: not the least among them Joanne. though I suppose her business acumen must have been wanting if she gave the shop her Christian name- it just seems undignified. was that what drove her customers to other establishments?

me: well, nothing- it's a chain, and in most places, there weren't any other fabric stores.

Sophia:

Sophia: there weren't. any other dry goods stores. selling fabric.

me: not usually, no.

Sophia: in a whole town

me: no.

Sophia: and now there will be nowhere to purchase fabric at all in those towns

me: not in person. I guess people can buy it online

Sophia: what if they don't know what different weaves feel like? how will they learn if they never get to handle them?

me: some places have free swatch service on their websites-

Sophia: so they'll wait a week or more for a swatch, decide if they like it, then send away for the full amount of goods they need and wait even longer for that? what if they want something finished sooner?

me: they'll just be frustrated, I guess

Sophia: wait, why did Joanne's shops close? if she had such a monopoly, surely she'd have made quite a profit regardless of the name

me: an even bigger company bought them and couldn't use them to make billions of dollars, so they're forcing them to close

Sophia: