Fashion

How to Avoid Making a Fashion Statement

These days, almost anything you find on the rack at the so-called “department” store is either “trendy” or “vice versa,” whatever that means. Which is to say that whatever you put on in the dressing room makes you immediately feel stared-at when you walk out the store without having paid for it. You know, how […]

Lifestyle T-shirts: The New “Thing”

T-shirt that reads: I GO TO THE GYM

Do you see as many “lifestyle T-shirts” as I do? It seems like they are becoming more popular every day. Lifestyle T-shirts are the ones that bear relatively simple messages proclaiming an activity (supposedly) engaged in by the wearer, who is apparently proud of his particular lifestyle (as if he’s part of an elite class […]

Male Clothing Emancipation Movement Gaining Ground

Aristotle and Alexander the Great wearing robe and tunic.

Much like the bloomer movement for women of the 1850s (although rather late by the standards of modern revolt), a new emancipation movement in male dress is striking down centuries-old restrictions on clothing for men. While the bloomer movement saw women throwing off dresses and tight corsets in favour of bloomers and pantaloons,1 the men’s […]

Three Piece Suits Newest Trend In High Visibility Wear

In the minds of most of us, high visibility clothing (also called, presumably by marketing executives who failed spelling class, ‘hi-viz’) means bright orange T-shirts that strike the viewer with palpably violent force, plastic pants of a green that leaves an after-image lasting three weeks, and hats of a yellow shade so disturbing that they […]

The Python

The Python     A Python I should not advise,— It needs a doctor for its eyes, And has the measles yearly.       However, if you feel inclined To get one (to improve your mind, And not from fashion merely),     Allow no music near its cage; And when it flies into […]

A Handy Guide to Shelf Life

Have you ever wondered if your favorite treat, your newest purchase, or your moldy leftovers are still good enough to eat? Perhaps, when walking into your kitchen, you’ve been concerned about the freshness of your cabinets—maybe you’ve left them out too long. If you have any such worries, just refer to our handy guide:   […]

Are Your Tennis Shoes Tracking You?

Special News Agent Ryan Rocifero uncovered a little advertised feature of many athletic shoes: the tracking system. As the cutaway view below shows, the typical athletic shoe now contains, in addition to air cushions, a heart rate monitor, and one or more plasmapheretic catheters, a sophisticated wireless tracking system. Power for the tracking system is […]

The Necktie: Instrument of Destruction

The Origin of the Necktie1 Many years ago, I happened to glance at a book about inventions that changed history. It contained essays by different scholars (or I assume they were scholars—it was a long time ago, and I don’t even remember the name of the book), each arguing that some technology or other was […]