drapery talk

[beeja]

Do you know what is the drapery talk?

The context is...

We allow our precious life energies to be spent on worry about what others think of us, petty concerns about appearance, or what labels we are wearing. We consume our lives in anguish over squabbles with family or coworkers and fill our conversation with drapery talk. Ego becomes the driving force of our lives with our self-importance presistently taking center stage.

Tks,

[Delmobile]

Well, I'm stumped. Never heard this phrase in my life.

A "curtain talk" or "curtain speech" is when someone comes out before a play or other entertainment begins and says a few things ("we'd like to thank the members of the board...please turn off your cell phones...the role of Diana will be played tonight by Eve Backstabber" etc). Could that possibly be what the author means? That would work in the context of preceding the "real" conversation, and being inconsequential and unnecessary.

[Anglika]

Getting there - but "drapery talk" = inconsequential chatter - deriving from "discussion of the niceties [details] relating to making curtains and drapes"

[Delmobile]

Is this a relatively new expression, or one that's been around a while?

[Anglika]

Don't honestly know - it's not what I would call common.