What are you wearing?
You don’t have to answer that.
But me, I went with my first Hawaiian shirt of the season today. I believe I have about a dozen, almost all purchased on sale.
Years ago, I was suspicious of those wearing such garments. I regarded these shirts as the uniform of what Calvin Trillin once described as “the party as a verb crowd.”
Serious people didn’t wear them to work.
Then, as if to emphasize their absurdity, we had a stretch here at the paper where certain Fridays would be a designated “Hawaiian Shirt Day” in the newsroom. Yes, forced frivolity at its finest.
Eventually, I lightened up. It helps that they are comfortable bike-riding attire.
Maybe clothes make the man. Or, as I prefer to think, perhaps it’s the other way around.
* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "The Slice." Read all stories from this blog