Tuesday, January 06, 2009

More ways to improve the (first) world:

The people who want a minute for the environment, gay rights, and so on, and so on, and who have convinced me that wherever I live next year, it won't be Park Slope,

a) should not bother a person clearly rushing to or from the laundromat, and

b) should not take the fact that someone carrying detergent and clothes and stuff ignores them as an excuse to make snide comments on what the person in question is wearing to the laundromat. Fine, so maybe it is a Patagonia fleece, something worn every day in some late high school or early college past life, simultaneously preppy, out-of-style, and unfashionably worn-out. (Still waiting on that 1999-2002-era revival.) But it's laundry. The thing has pockets that zip. And whatever your cause, sir, you're not getting any of my many, many quarters.

3 comments:

Dana said...

You have to come over here, where you would never be out of style. We live in fleece in our country granola "I could go hiking at any minute" liberal college town.

Plus, Patagonia stuff lasts forever, so of course you would keep wearing it.

Sometimes I can't imagine living in NYC, what with my inability to walk in heels higher than 2". Especially in snow!

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

Patagonia stuff sure does last forever. I've been mocked for this particular hideous fleece for more years than I care to remember. I've since gotten a more elegant fleece, at Uniqlo, but that one a) has pockets that don't zip, and b) is too nice to risk getting near bleach.

My guess was that the Greenpeace (?) gentleman was not so much asking me to wear heels as calling me a yuppie, or the contemporary equivalent thereof. Anyone owning a Patagonia fleece must have the spare cash for everyone asking for money on the street, and should therefore be chastised for not paying up. Rather than going into the rather impressive cost-per-wear of this particular item, I chose to keep walking. Either way, it beats yesterday, when my building's water was shut off unannounced, and when, upon leaving the apartment, teeth unbrushed, a woman punched me in the arm as she passed by on the street. Park Slope, so charming...

Anonymous said...

You should be sure not to move to the Union Square area, either- those people are always there, driving me nuts while I try to buy stuff at the green market.