You know I think most men in shorts look like overgrown children, so what can you say when the man carries balloons? You can say the younger man is carrying a little girl, and the older man must be carrying the girl's balloons for her.
July 3, 2010
Madison men out and about in their shorts...
You know I think most men in shorts look like overgrown children, so what can you say when the man carries balloons? You can say the younger man is carrying a little girl, and the older man must be carrying the girl's balloons for her.
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35 comments:
College professors or Federal employees.
A new fashion: men walking in adult diapers.
Just got back from Scout camp.
A whole week of many men and boys in shorts and knee socks.
That would drive poor Professor Althouse mad.
I just thought up a new theory about purses. (Stop me if this sounds too weird.) My theory is that carrying a purse immunizes a woman from looking childish. It's an accessory that marks one as adult. Men have no equivalent "adult" tag for their clothing, so they have a harder time not looking childish when dressed casually.
This thought was inspired by looking at the women in the picture, who honestly are not dressed any better than the men. And yet they don't look like overgrown children. Why? The purse!
The old guy's shorts don't fit his boney ass. The younger guy's shorts look fine, but the long sleeved shirt is counter-intuitive.
As if shorts aren't bad enough, is that an elastic waistband on the shorts on the left?
Bad-ass ballooning.
jaed said...
"And yet they don't look like overgrown children. Why? The purse!"
First I Look At The Purse
Some fellas look at the clothes
I don't care if her eyes are red
I don't care if her nose is long
I don't care if she's underfed
I don't care if her clothes are worn
First I look at the purse!
OK, if Ann thinks shorts make men look like overgrown kids (and the two she picked here stack the deck), does the same apply to women?
I'm sure there's ample evidence to support that one, too. A lot of women in baggy shorts can make the same case.
And saying some women look sexy in shorts doesn't count. I don't doubt there are plenty of young studs jogging around campus in track shorts that make the Professor's heart go pitty-pat.
(And don't get me started on the People of Walmart.)
Shorts play a large part in evading the Peter Principle, and are comfortable in addition.
A plus plus.
I'll say it a gain: I promise to stop wearing shorts when women stop wearing pants.
Wearing long pants in the Austin or Rio summer is dumb. Ann needs to head to places, like Rio, where the men are actually dumb enough to wear long pants most all the summer.
One of our local pundits has questioned:
Should men wear Crocs?
Can we decide- should men wear Crocs and shorts?
What say you, our summer fasionista?
jimbino said...
Wearing long pants in the Austin or Rio summer is dumb. Ann needs to head to places, like Rio, where the men are actually dumb enough to wear long pants most all the summer.
____
And yet, people did it all the time. Without airconditioning even. Imagine that. And, with style.
I go to an outdoor market a lot and pretty much everyone wears shorts. I have a feeling if AA saw what I saw last week - an extremely attractive (and slim) Indian couple in bermuda shorts, and (for the man) a nice polo, pressed, tucked in, with a stylish but subdued belt, and wonderful NON TENNIS SHOE shoes, she might well change her opinion.
Could it be the WAY we wear our shorts, or the way men wear their shorts?
I rushed through Jimbino's comment without reading the whole thing. I thought he was going to talk about how hot it is in Austin, and that you just gotta wear shorts.
Just thought I'd explain.
Ok, Ann, you win. I'm 30, sitting here holding my first baby, and I've decided you're right. I haven't worn shorts in about a year, despite living in Tucson, and I won't wear them again. Not being Jewish, I never had a Bar Mitzvah, so this will be chance to say "Today I am a man." Without the presents, unfortunately,
I have approved of some men in shorts. I have some exceptions (high heat... sports where the official clothing is shorts) and I give some guys a pass based on the whole look. Click on the men in shorts tag and maybe you can find these manly men in shorts.
Well, if that's what the men and around Madison look like, then I can see why you're so dead set against shorts.
Here are the 2 men I've given a pass for overall looks:
1 (scroll down)
2
Okay?
I saw something really weird last week. A guy was standing at his mailbox on the road, he was wearing shorts, and he had an artificial leg.
What, no black socks?
As I was packing for a trip to San Juan, PR in early June, Ann's comments about shorts made me leave them behind and bring extra kakhis. Curiously, none of the locals male or female ever wear shorts. All the turisticos do. My wife found it interesting that even the young and shapely women NEVER wear shorts. And this in a place where the heat index is always above 100. A lot of the men wear long sleeve shirts, go figure.
"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
- 1 Corinthians 13:11
I wear shorts year-round, hiking or not. And, some times when I go hiking I end up getting dirty such as by crawling under and through bushes, having to slide down steep parts on my butt, have blood flowing from various parts, and so on. Sometimes that looks a bit strang, such as when I've had to butthike. Sometimes I'll go to downmarket stores after that.
Just thought I'd add that.
I think I've figured it out. The reason you find men in shorts unattractive is because they are men from your area who have white pastey legs that never get to see the light of day except for those few months when the weather is nice enough to wear shorts.
Consequently they (the legs) look like something that was left too long in the dark. Unexercised weenie legs. Mayonnaise legs.
Compared to the legs of men in more temperate areas of the country who exercise more often, enjoy the sun more often, work outdoors in the sunshine wearing shorts, men whose legs are tan, muscled and strong looking....no wonder you feel that way.
Its a geographic phenomenon
I saw something really weird last week. A guy was standing at his mailbox on the road, he was wearing shorts, and he had an artificial leg.
Not weird at all. It is easier to pull on shorts for some handicapped people.
I have two friends who wear shorts year round, even in freezing weather because it is too hard to put on long pants with their difficulties. They are both single men. One of them has a non-functional hand from birth. The other has had a stroke that has incapacitated his left side.
For both it is just easier, using the one hand that they do they have available, to pull on a pair of elastic waisted knee length shorts instead of jeans or trousers. Pants that also require two hands to zip up.
Your artificial limb guy probably puts on his shorts BEFORE he puts on his leg.
Easier.
DBQ, there was a guy at our school with an artificial leg who wore shorts quite a bit of the time. I suppose it may have freaked out some of the students the first time they saw him, but everyone got used to it after a while.
And seeing as how the guy is in his 70s and bald, he doesn't look at all like a little kid with shorts on. (Again, I think we get the "Texas exemption" from our hostess' standards down here, even if she might not agree.)
It's OK for girls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OOTr04YTwE
www.forgotten-ny.com
The problem is not that they are wearing shorts but that they are slobs.
It's the socks, sandals and the stupid hats.
jaed: sorry, little girls love carrying around purses, too.
Of course, little girl purses look very different from the adult variety. Usually. My girls have Tinkerbell purses, but they also have small purses I could use as an elegant clutch. Odd.
Turing word: pelesse... oh, one letter away from being in an Austen novel. And everyone carried around "purses" [akin to wallets], and then they had reticules...
little girl purses look very different from the adult variety
Of course! I thought about adding a comment about little-girl purses but thought it was obvious. Little girls wouldn't be caught dead carrying around an adult-type brown leather hobo or black nylon shopper. Also, little girls usually carry purses when dressed up, not for everyday.
I think the point still stands. A little-girl purse is not the same type of accessory as a grown woman's handbag.
Look, unless you're the perfect picture of fashion -- which doesn't include wearing skirts that look like hearse curtains and the relentless striped t-shirts -- you don't have a lot of room to complain about old guys wearing shorts. Poor slim-shanked, white-skinned fellows! Is their sin trying to be comfortable in the wet Wisconsin summer heat?
I think DBQ's theory explains it all quite well. If that picture is what you think of when you think of men in shorts, then by all means, complain away! Actually, the guy on the right might not look too bad in the shorts if he didn't come across--as Class Factotum noted--as a bit of a slob. At least he appears to have better legs for shorts. And as your counter-examples in your comment make clear, you are willing to tolerate various exceptions, so presumably this would pass muster whereas an average guy who doesn't look as good in the same outfit would not.
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