LA Weekly

Sir Laurence Olivier was once asked by a reporter how he produced his famous scream in Hamlet. He said he thought about how ermine are trapped in the arctic -- with a frozen salt lick. The animal's tongue sticks to the icy block, and gets stuck there until it dies.

So, anyway: PETA's ongoing campaign against J. Crew is making it more and more difficult for the Fur Commission to sell itself as the green alternative to synthetic fibers.

Don't look at this Web site if you're the sensitive type and prone to nightmares. On the other hand, if you like J. Crew's cheap t-shirts and don't think their decision to re-introduce fur procured from China in their 2006 line is so bad, you might check out a video or two.

The fur people have a point that killing animals for fashion doesn't promote widespread planetary destruction -- although it's not exactly environmentally benign, either, not least because trapping doesn't always nab the intended target. But how do we categorize environmentalism? I'm not sure I know. I'm just sure I can't wear clothes trimmed with the skins of animals caught in traps.But I'm a vegetarian, too. And I eat granola (but I don't wear Birkenstocks -- my feet need more support than that).

I do, however, believe to some extent in the power of the free market, and a robust boycott campaign is part of that wonderful system. So I'm boycotting J. Crew. All the clothes I got from them fell apart, anyway.

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