It’s amazing what goofy or nonsensical things people will do in the name of fashion. If it is perceived that something is “cool,” it doesn’t seem to matter much if it’s safe or attractive or even practical. “Cool” is critical, and fashion is determined thereupon.

Some examples of what I’m talking about:

  • Reclining the driver’s seat in a car so far back that the car’s frame between the two doors blocks your vision and you can barely see over the hood (yes, I saw this today)
  • Females wearing pants so low cut that they can’t bend over to pick up something off the ground without scandalizing the entire room
  • Playing around with fireworks
  • Lying in the middle of a highway at night because you saw it in a movie
  • Alaric tells me kids at school wear visors upside down and backwards
  • Trying ever more extreme skateboarding tricks (ever seen all the video clips circling the Internet with people wiping out?)
  • Drugs
  • Getting a cell phone, but never turning it off when you’re in a meeting or class
  • Wearing your pants hanging down off your butt just because a rapper does it

It’s like on the second Back to the Future movie, where kids wore their pants inside out because it was cool.

As for me, I’m with Gilda Radner, who said: “I base my fashion taste on what doesn’t itch.”

Current music: Autumn, by George Winston