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October 16, 2006
The Daily DimWit: The Unbearable Lightness of...Man-dals
It's good to know that in these decadent times when so many standards seem to have gone the way of the dinosaur, there are still lines certain people just will not cross:
"They're not something a man wears," said Matthew T. O'Neill, an emergency-room doctor in New York. "It's baffling to see all these guys walking around wearing them with all the [dirt] that's around here on the streets in this city. This isn't some tropical island paradise. This is New York. Flip-flops aren't combat boots — they're not manly.""They're non-manly for casual wear," added New Jersey lawyer David A. Brooks. "I wear sandals, but not flip-flops. I use flip-flops as my shower shoes at the gym."
"I think the cheap ones are non-manly — they are [lacking in] power," said Mark Wright, a business-school student in Cambridge, Mass. "They are physically weak (unlike, say, a boot); they're cheap, suggesting the wearer is poor (unlike, say, a nice Italian shoe); in addition they make no statement and have no character."
While she does think there's a backlash against the metrosexual trend, Siefert came to the defense of the flipped-on flip-flop, saying DMX wasn't taking into account the vast cultural and geographic differences that make the beach shoes a no-no in Minnesota and perennially de rigueur in Southern California.
Advertising “man expert” Rose Cameron, of the Leo Burnett agency, said that if anything, the flip-flop backlash is a sign of men "trying to regain their sense of power in this shifting world" and refusing to be perceived as pretty boys.
“Let's be honest here,” she said. “The flip-flop is a frivolous piece of footwear with no substantive purpose in life [other] than as slip-and-go footwear. It's not a performance piece of footwear, and shoes really do make the man. What DMX is essentially saying is flip-flops ain't making that man. The poor little flip-flop is getting trashed by this.”
But Paul Friedman, a 32-year-old New Jersey lawyer, thinks flop-flops can fly — on some occasions.
"The simple, unadorned look says something like 'I just got out of bed to get some coffee and didn't feel like getting dressed up and I had these lying around from last weekend's trip to the beach, so leave me alone,'" he said.
"But when flip-flops start using a lot of leather and are more than just a stop-gap measure until something more masculine can be found, it smacks of a contrived effort to look casual, and is a little feminine to boot. If one doesn't have a sense for these distinctions, I'd say its better to avoid them all together. Did Ronald Reagan or John Wayne ever wear man sandals? I doubt it."
Something tells me that some people are overthinking life just a wee bit.
Not that we would know anything about that.
*cough*
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Finally, an explanation for those CNN scrolling news banners...
CNN founder Ted Turner has objected to displays of the American flag by journalists — saying they should have a more neutral posture. And now Turner says that he was not sure which side he was on in the War on Terror following the 9/11 terror attacks. Turner spoke to the National Press Club in Washington yesterday, and referred to a quote by President Bush in February of 2002:"Our president said it very clearly. He said 'either you're with us, or you're against us.' And I had a problem with that because I really hadn't made my mind up yet." Turner did not say whether he has since made up his mind about which side he's on.
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Poetry isn't what it used to be.
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...let’s look at the loud protestations that North Korea’s entry into the nuclear club was not a result of the Clinton administration’s earnest effort to deal with a manipulative dictator. Instead, the Bush administration is blamed for taking a tough stand when North Korea had already violated its agreements. Rewriting history to make yourself look better is one thing, but what is alarming and inexplicable are the calls to compound past errors with new appeasement. North Korea wants direct talks with only the United States, excluding four neighbors who have a major stake in the outcome and significant means to influence North Korea.
It seems to us that in the run-up to the 2004 election, we kept hearing that the glaring sin of the Bush administration was its failure to embrace multilateral solutions (a coalition of over thirty nations unblessed by France is, apparently, entirely too unilateral for folks like Jean Francoise Kerrie). America should never, we were told, "go it alone" - only by including the international community can "legitimate" diplomacy be conducted.
North Korea wants a big stage, upon which it can inflate its own importance and set up a good pratfall for the United States. And there are American politicians who want to reward Kim Jong Il’s saber-rattling by giving him what he wants. This is absurd.
Welcome to the world of the Democrat apologists. But why should this surprise us? Let's not forget the country where Bill Clinton feels most ideologically at home. The country he believes most typifies progressive values: the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Here is what Clinton said at a meeting on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, just a few weeks ago: "Iran today is, in a sense, the only country where progressive ideas enjoy a vast constituency. It is there that the ideas that I subscribe to are defended by a majority."
Talk about your inconvenient truths. But then a lot of surprising things tend to be said in Davos by progressyves, don't they?
Posted by Cassandra at October 16, 2006 05:43 AM
Comments
Flip-flops must be Massengill Kerry's footwear of choice...as 'twere.
Posted by: camojack at October 16, 2006 07:31 AM
Iran is progressyve? Since when? I can hardly wait to publish that news on the Professym's site. I just KNOW he'll want to take a gang of midgets and a copy of the Kama Sutra over there for a performance.
And Clinton feels at home there, ideologically?
Gee, wonder how Juanita Broderick thinks about that? I take that as a good sign to feminists everywhere.
Posted by: Cricket at October 16, 2006 08:08 AM
Clinton is at home there? Then why doesn't he just stay -- and take his bag(gage) with him. I'm sure Hillary will *love* the new wardrobe she'll be given (free of charge!) upon her arrival. And oh, how she will thoroughly enjoy walking 10' behind Billah Insistah Di'Na'Hail.
I can see it now.....the call to prayer, all those bodies bent in prayer, Billah just happens to glance up....and, well you know that saying about taking the boy out of the country...
Once a per, always a perv, in my mind.
Posted by: Sly2017 at October 16, 2006 11:53 AM
Flip flops are for when you're on vacation at the beach. Other wise, flipflops tell me you are just too fat/lazy to bend over and tie a shoelace.
Men who wear flips/sandals as their footwear are borderline u-kno-what in my book.
Amd most people have ugly feet and unsightly nails. If you're gonna wear flip flops, be female, 18-40ish, and have very pretty feet. Otherwise it just looks like a livestock show, some of the feet I've been forced to witness.
Posted by: barry at October 16, 2006 12:39 PM
Well, my husband will not wear man-dals. But whatever.
I don't care as long as someone's feet aren't hideous. I'm the same way with women - as long as you take care of your feet (I have a thing about that) sandals are fine in the proper context. Not at the office, and not somewhere where you ought to be wearing shoes, but I'm a person who hates shoes so if you are just tooling around, I am not one to look askance so long as you are reasonably well groomed.
But do NOT show up at the White House in them. And
I don't think tacky rubber flip flops are really all that attractive.
On the otter heiny I have a really pretty pair of black bugle-beaded flips that I throw on all the time in summer with shorts or black capris, and they must look OK because just about every time I go out I get tons of compliments on them. I think I paid maybe $8 for them and I just have worn them to death because they're so pretty.
Posted by: Cassandra at October 16, 2006 01:41 PM
I went to a funeral the other day for the mother of one of my son's classmates. There were many 15-year-old girls there, in flip-flops. I shudder. There is a time to be uncomfortable and show respect.
Posted by: MathMom at October 16, 2006 02:00 PM
That is an example of an inappropriate time and place.
I don't mind people wearing flip-flops to the grocery or convenience store if they are picking up a gallon of milk in the summer if they are in good shape and their outfit isn't trashy. Times have changed and I've seen nice outfits with nice looking flip flop sandals.
Going to the mall, IMO, is stretching it a bit. Put on a nice pair of sandals, for Pete's sake. You are going out in public. Take a few minutes not to look like you are not going to a po' white trash costume party - if I see you in those terry cloth shorts with the elastic waistband I *will* walk up behind you and give you a wedgie.
Rats. I was hoping that was my crystal, but it was just the Unit's jogging shoes.
Ppppppphhhhhhtttt.
Posted by: Cassandra at October 16, 2006 02:11 PM
Ick! Granted, I'm lazy... and I hate my shoelaces and I wish that they made velcros that are suitable for a business environment... but I'd rarely wear anything that's open toed. Being the total klutz that I am, wearing flip-flops anywhere that there is possibility for me to stub my toe on some hard surface would be disasterous.
Posted by: Kevin L at October 16, 2006 03:05 PM
I live in the middle of Queens where there are a lot of broken up sidewalks and broken glass and shreds of sharp plastic in the streets. Are these people nuts? If you want to wear flip flops at home, be my guest. If you want to walk right out of your shoes on the streets around here, I do not want to see your cut up feet and your ugly and dirty toes when I am in line to get my food or around the supermarket.
As for the elasticized shorts, I agree with you on that one. I also think that women who haven't seen their feet for 20 years have no business wearing spandex or jeans that look painted on. Have mercy on our eyeballs, please!!
Posted by: dick at October 16, 2006 03:42 PM
The worst thing I ever saw, Dick, was in Miami.
Why oh why does every zaftig chick in Dade County own a shiny hot pink spandex outfit?
[shudder]
Posted by: Cassandra at October 16, 2006 04:06 PM
And Dick, it is clean where I live :)
I would not, though, wear flip flops if I thought my feet were going to get all dirty and gross. I agree with you - that is disgusting.
Posted by: Cassandra at October 16, 2006 04:07 PM
The Beach Boys popularized huarches. Had a pair every year from the time I was seven until just recently.
What drives me batty are the all terrain type sandals, Birkenstocks and clogs, sans socks.
Having a Klingon sense of smell, need I say more?
Posted by: Cricket at October 17, 2006 09:29 AM