To the Editor:

If you haven’t noticed, it is almost impossible to watch TV celebrities on news commentary shows in their homes, and not see bookshelves (mostly painted white) behind them.

And it is almost impossible to watch TV and not see women wearing a dress with a polka dot design. Amazingly, women have been continually wearing dresses with the polka dot designs since the middle of the 1800s.

Original polka dot fabric only had two colors and dots the size of a coin. The design has evolved to having many colors and multitude of different size circles and various designs that may not use dots but use flowers or other geometrical designs.

It is believed the polka dot design got its name from the polka dance, which was also very popular at the time. And the dance got its name from “pulka,” which means “half-step” in the Czech language.

The reason I am so aware of polka dots is because my husband and I ran a sewing machine store, and had a fabric and notions department. We always sold out our polka dot design fabric quickly, and would order any polka dot design fabric we could find.

After reading this, I believe you, too, will start to notice the great amount of bookshelves and polka dot design dresses on TV now.

Antoinette Adinolfi

189 Julia Court, Sandy Hook October 20, 2020