pull up your [sagging] …..

Pants!!  …. what were you thinking?!  

It used to be  “pull up your socks” in my youth.  It probably has its figurative roots from the “slack” look of those whose socks had seen better days and had lost elasticity.  What should normally be pulled pristinely up to just before the calf, had slid to the ankles, causing much distress to parents and teachers, as it made us look unkempt.  And I guess the association with unkempt is endless… untidy, undisciplined, a lackadaisal attitude etc….etc…etc…

My school teachers used to launch into a tirade of “you better pull up your socks, young ladies” when our grades were going south.  It was not meant to be literal of course.  Just that we had lost some of the edge and were becoming slack, like socks that had lost elasticity.

My Secondary 2 classmate whose Maths grades had slid badly was chided with the same refrain, by our Maths teacher who was also our discipline Mistress, and she, whether in defiance or was clueless, actually bent to pull up her socks.   Let’s just say “we (the Maths and Discipline Mistress… er…that’s two right ) were not amused” and my classmate was sent to stand outside the classroom, daughter of the science teacher notwithstanding.

These days it’s “Pull up your pants!”  But it’s not figurative.  Well, even if there were a figurative meaning behind this, that’s not my intent for today.  Trust me… not on my blog. :)  Seriously, this is literal.  Please do.  ”Pull up your pants!!”.  “Do It!”  (Borrowing from Nike’s fashion statement) :p

Did you read the Non Sequitur cartoon by Wiley, today?  It’s entitled “Bert makes a fashion statement.

Can you see Bert’s fashion statements?  In case you are pulling away and walking to the other end of the room to read from your PC or laptop screen, :p the sign says  (and I’m only “reading out” the sign on the left that I am commenting on),   ‘PULL UP YOUR PANTS!!”

Yup… “Pull up your pants” gets my goad.  I don’t know about you… I happen to agree with whoever who disagrees with the current fashion statement.  It’s not even about low-slung pants anymore.  I think the pants have been unslung!  Unhinged!  It’s a fashion statement if you wear your pants at impossibly low points, showing off everything that’s meant not to be shown in public?!

Have you seen them walk in those pants… ?

It would appear, if you have seen them walk in those pants, that they are trying somehow (look Ma no hands) to hitch it up with every step.  So it begs the question right?

Even though I am no longer a youth, I believe, I’m not quite the stick-in-the-mud.  Is that what we non Gen ? (which Gen are we at now… Y?) always say?   … I do agree that certain cut of jeans that are worn on the waist, are not hip … ok, ok … corny… but some can look mumsy depending on what tops you team them up with.

And I do wear jeans, cargo pants, cropped pants that are somewhat low waisted.  Alas, my reasons are different.  It’s not as much about making fashion statements, as it is to keep somewhat protruding bellies in check

And there are some people who wear very low slung pants but at least their t-shirts or shirts are worn to the top of the pants.

But I really don’t believe in butt cracks (apologies if this is too offensive for a G-rated blog )… or boxers in plain view.  It’s one thing to make a statement and another when you are the butt of it.

To me, sagging as I think it’s called, is no more about making a fashion statement, it’s calling out for fashion exclamations against it.

Many have spoken against it.  New York State Senator, Eric Adams, is now campaigning against it.   He’s put up a statement on his YouTube  site and has started putting up hoardings, like the one below, to make his own statement.

Larry Platt sang about it (whether or not it’s an orchestrated rip off of the Green Brothers’ song “Back Pockets on the Ground”), during the auditions of the recent American Idol, to make a point:

Pants on the ground

Pants on the ground

Looking like a fool with your

pants on the ground.

Seriously… don’t you think the expose  :p has gone far enough?

who do we unfriend?…

Note: After a long hiatus (blame it on personal schedule conflicts, but more so my HP laptop which is still in the HP Customer Centre after more than three months!!!, sadly), I am now at a borrowed computer “publishing” the last draft I wrote before my laptop issues arose. I am really disappointed with HP. Maybe I should just get a Mac. Anyway…that might yet be another blog by an aggrieved customer….. Also, please note, the following is a tongue-in-cheek response to an article I read, so please don’t get up in arms with me, ok? :p

The New Oxford American Dictionary, named “unfriend” — as in deleting someone as a friend on a social network such as Facebook — its word of the year on Monday, [16th November 2009]. Oxford University Press USA, in a blog post, said “unfriend,” a verb, had bested netbook, sexting, paywall, birther and death panel for the honor.

It’s scary that “unfriend” gets to be word of the year, even if it were in a virtual context. It just speaks to the type of friendships online. I guess we can join a community of people with shared interests and have some meaningful and warm conversations even. But I’m not sure if it constitutes a real friendship without personal interaction. Virtual is too easy. Too clinical. Chats can be easily edited.

I think the acid test is when it crosses to the real world where words once out, can’t be edited. Where annoying habits and behaviour are exposed. Where things are just messier.

I heard over the air recently, of people who just keep “adding” friends. No reason. No need. There’s not even much contact, even virtually. Why? How does that constitute friend?! It is not a friend, someone you can “unfriend”, just by deleting a name.

Oxford dictionary defines friend as “a person with whom one has a mutual affection, typically exclusive of sexual or family relationships”. Dictionary.com speaks of “a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard”.

There are some you are friends with, in both virtual and real worlds. Do we “unfriend” in the virtual world those we know in real life as well? We couldn’t possibly unfriend someone in the virtual world and yet be friends in the real world, can we?

I think it’s too easy in the virtual world to befriend someone. It doesn’t take any effort except to add a “friend”. The rest of it is adding cursory remarks on your wall for others to keep abreast of your life and follow updates. Sometimes someone writes on your wall and you respond. Most times, it’s just that – an update. I am thinking that if it’s someone you can “unfriend” so easily, then perhaps they were not friends in the first place.

On the flip side, if we took “unfriend” into the real world, it would seem so primary school. So I guess friendships in the real world is not as indiscriminate. You can’t possibly be friends to all, can you?

There is a person I used to interact with, who thinks you can. Just be inclusive and rotate lunch sessions with all in the organisation and they are all friends! He is sadly misguided. Thankfully though or there’ll be lots of “unfriending” to do.

So if we took friendships the good ol’ fashion way, at what point, can we “unfriend” anyone.

To me, it’s when a friend betrays another. For whatever reason including ideologically and emotionally.

What about socially? Can we accept that a friend can befriend someone who has betrayed us? There’s nothing wrong with a casual “hi” and “bye” and occasional catch ups or “no-choice-have-to-interact-at-work” interactions.

But sleeping with the “enemy” literally and figuratively, might not be kosher. I don’t have to explain the “sleeping” in the literal sense But figuratively, I guess any interaction on a deeper level might be awkward. That to me, is when we have crossed the line and made an emotional connection.

Someone I know said, “We can’t choose our colleagues [or family], but we can choose our friends”. So the more fool we, who do not choose well.

I guess the virtual world does not have categories of friendships. You either are friend or not. It’s too difficult to have BFFs, BF, Friend, Lesser Friends, Lesser Mortals, Mere Mortals, Not Mortals, Mortal Enemies… hahaha… it will be anarchy displaying these sub-categories in plain view of all “friends”.

Regardless, my point is we can, in the real world, demarcate good friends, casual friends, friends of a season, fair weather friends, so we should choose well. “Unfriending” in the real world is messy business.