0924blog

Tightie Whities

I’ve had something on my mind for quite a while, well not really quite a while but at least for the last 15 minutes while I took my morning constitutional, and it involves my tightie whities.

Here is the burning question: Do I wear tightie whities because they are cheap or because I like the way they feel and if I could afford a pair of “Nice Laundry” underwear with a gold monogram for $1,000, would I wear it and finally why would anyone buy expensive undies if cheaper ones feel just as good and no one will see them except for the guys in the gym and who cares what they think? Your significant other would see them but if she or he is really concerned that you wear fashionable, expensive undies then maybe you should break up and find someone who’s interested in climate change.

And that leads me to my disgust but not surprise with the decision by a grand jury in Louisville, Ky., not to indict on murder charges the three white officers who killed Breonna Taylor, an African American, in her Louisville apartment on March 13. One former officer was charged with “wanton endangerment,” not for shooting Taylor but for shooting into her neighbor’s windows and endangering the neighbors.

The two officers who shot and killed Taylor were not charged. The three officers fired a total of 32 shots after they stormed Taylor’s apartment. Prosecutors found that the two officers who shot Taylor who was sleeping next to her boyfriend at the time, were justified in using force because they had identified themselves as officers and had then come under fire from Taylor’s boyfriend, who said he began shooting because he thought intruders were forcing their way in the apartment. Something is very wrong with this picture when a young black woman is shot to death and nobody is held responsible.

So after reading the tragic story about Breonna Taylor and how her promising life had been snuffed away, just like that, I had to go to the bathroom and the required reading material I found next to the pot was the New York Times Style Magazine. That’s where I saw that none of the models smiled and my Google search explained that smiling would take the reader’s focus away from the clothing and that it was about the clothes and not the model and because models try to develop what they call the “haughty killer look” to set them apart from you and me. I have to remember that in the rather unlikely event that I am ever hired as a runway model.

The style magazine is an advertising vehicle with a few stories sandwiched between the models.

Among many others, I saw ads for a Phineas Cole and Paul Stuart necktie for $195; a Commedes Garcons shirt for $1,100; a Paul Smith coat for $1,995 with pants by Paul Smith for $695; a Loro Piana sweater for $1,695; and who could be caught dead without topping it off with a Commedes Garcons hat for $135.

I guess someone wears that pair of $1,000 “Nice Laundry” underwear under their Paul Smith pants and Commedes Garcons shirt and Paul Stuart necktie, all bundled up cozily with a Loro Piana sweater ,Paul Smith coat and Commedes Garcons hat.

Now, I bought a new pair of sneakers a few months ago because my toe was sticking out of the front of the old ones. But as far as new additions to my meager wardrobe, that was about the only purchase. Even if I had the money I wouldn’t buy a Phineas Cole and Paul Stuart necktie for $195; a Commedes Garcons shirt for $1,100; a Paul Smith coat for $1,995 with pants by Paul Smith for $695; and a Loro Piana sweater for $1,695; Commedes Garcons hat for $135; and a pair of “Nice Laundry” underwear for $1,000. By the way, that comes to a grand total of $6,815 and certainly it’s just for routine clothing not to be confused with really expensive stuff.

I don’t know why anyone would spend their money on such absurd commodities, maybe it’s just because they can and they can then feel haughty and better than the rest of us commoners. Maybe they feel better knowing their undergarment has a gold monogram so that if they lost it someone could easily find the owner by the monogram and return it to the owner. I don’t know.

I don’t know if those rich people care very much about Breonna Taylor but I do know they live in an utterly alien world compared to my world and certainly their orbit has nothing in common with the world of Breonna Taylor. I don’t know any people who can afford such extravagant clothing and I don’t even know where their world is except that it is so far out of sight as to be invisible to me. So I can’t talk to them and they can’t talk to me and pretty soon you get the point that we are locked in our classes that resemble the caste system of India where the rich who control everything don’t talk to the rabble like us that control nothing and vice versa.

I do know that the N.Y. Times cares about those people who can afford the expensive undies and more and that the Times apparently sees no contradiction between accepting the pricey ads for undies and running stories about the chasms in our society that led to the murder of Breonna Taylor.

It’s just strange to say Breonna Taylor and Commedes Garcons in the same breath but I do know that it is infinitely more important to be concerned with Breonna Taylor’s death than with a wardrobe that costs more than the GDP of some African nation.