Discussion: Chief Florist's Style Was Reportedly Too 'Fussy' For First Lady

system1 · March 25, 2015, 4:05pm

Discussion for article #234683

trumpdog · March 25, 2015, 4:14pm

OMG
So basically someone said someone thinks someone did something.

I’ve seen more definitive reporting from the Enquirer.

I truly can’t believe a florist leaving is worth the attention the news agencies seem to be giving it.
Or is this more about trying to find something scandalous?

littlegirlblue · March 25, 2015, 4:18pm

Let us now talk about the carnation print dress Mrs. O wore in Cambodia. Equally newsworthy.

marby · March 25, 2015, 4:18pm

Treating this as a national story is absurd - what desperate source started this made-up drama? (and please, TPM, why is this at the top of your news category?)

srfromgr · March 25, 2015, 4:22pm

There may be more to this story yet.

Gee. I can hardly wait…

Trying to dig up dirt on the florist is like trying to blame the cook for a fly in the soup.
Waiter. Take this bowl of soup away, immediately!!!

People are still trying to make petty bullshit out of nothing-burgers when it comes to the First Family.
Hey, maybe Michelle just wanted to go all-out Feng Shui instead and the woman couldn’t accommodate her.
http://www.lakeworthflflorist.com/images/T81-1A.jpg

Personally, I like this one myself.

trumpdog · March 25, 2015, 4:23pm

I love that dress.
She wore another one - I think she was leaving Cambodia and heading home…? - that was also very flattering.

chelsea530 · March 25, 2015, 4:23pm

Maybe she was caught with her ear to the door of the Oval Office.

These stories are tiresome teasers. Come out with it or move on.

littlegirlblue · March 25, 2015, 4:25pm

Looked at the WaPo website and the story is posted in the Reliable Sources section, and its speciality is gossip and nothing else particularly newsworthy. Whoever thought it would be valuable here should have disclosed that.

mrcomments · March 25, 2015, 4:25pm

Yes, but flowers grow from dirt. So it’s obviously a conspiracy then…

lio · March 25, 2015, 4:26pm

“The Washington Post continued to dig up dirt…”
The reporter didn’t read the Washing Post piece or doesn’t know the meaning of the idiom " dig up dirt".

littlegirlblue · March 25, 2015, 4:29pm

This one’s pretty awesome.She was on a Let Girls Learn campaign beginning in Japan. That she participates in worthwhile causes while also looking spectacular is overlooked.

ncsteve · March 25, 2015, 4:32pm

Once again finding it hard not to be objectively pro-DC meteor strike.

mantan · March 25, 2015, 4:32pm

The WP seems to hint the manufactured tempest in a flower pot stems from the Old Family Dining Room, “refurbished by Michelle Obama in her first major attempt to leave her mark on the interior of the historic house.”
Clearly visible is a painting by 2009 right wing White House art bete noir Alma Thomas. While the dining room’s “Resurrection” shouldn’t have “Watusi, Hard Edge”'s 2009 Matisse ‘problem’ for the right, the artist remains a (sigh!) black woman. Then there’s the dining room’s new rug based on the ethnic weavings of Anni Albers and the large visible Josef Albers painting whose modern geometry should give the right wing new fits in this latest outrage trial run.
The fussy table center piece and mantle arrangement could use a splash of color and more height while the buffet server seems naked…
Personally, I’d dump the gray (brushed metal?) Albers frame and let the painting float, same for the Thomas. I’d also dump the red swag drapes and emulate the fantastic rug’s color and pattern in panels, perhaps adding gold elements to bring in the gold leaf from the TR mirror. Then there’s the chandelier…Any Quezel in the WH collection or buy a Chihuly?

abbymac · March 25, 2015, 4:37pm

I fail to see what, if any, “news” there is on this. So an employer decided he/she did not like the performance of a contracted employee whose function was to meet the employer’s requirements and taste. If this were anyone but Mrs. Obama (e.g., a CEO of a major company, a celebrity etc) no one would find this either unusual or newsworthy. Why does TPM even post this, much less make it a main focus of its webpage?

ottnott · March 25, 2015, 4:39pm

My friend’s cousin knows this guy who was there when it happened.

navamske · March 25, 2015, 4:46pm

I thought the First Lady had too much style to get involved with petal pushers.

ralph_vonholst · March 25, 2015, 4:47pm

…Dowling’s decidedly French, “fussy” flower arranging…

All’s well then.

longtom · March 25, 2015, 4:48pm

Somebody at TPM needs to find something for Catherine Thompson to do.

pluckyinky · March 25, 2015, 4:51pm

Okay, I get why this is a story. It’s all about reinforcing this ridiculous stereotype that FLOTUS is some kind of Imelda Marcos, Leona Hemsley character firing people for minor infractions and having them unceremoniously escorted off the WH grounds. It’s feeds into the right wing’s Queen Michelle bullshit in which she’s some kind of expensive champagne swilling, black power loving, anti-whitey, bitch of all bitches who flies across the globe frivolously spending their hard earned tax dollars.

astro_walker · March 25, 2015, 4:53pm

What, is TPM taking their story cues from Fox now? Who gives a flying fuck about the florist getting fired. This is even less scandalous than a blow job in the oval office.