So this one time ––
––(at bandcamp! you’re not a GenXer if you don’t automatically say that)––
–– my husband Gary and I were outside on a hot day shooting some baskets. We were in our 20’s, no kids, just outside and hot. So Gary proceeds to take off his shirt. The conversation went as follows:
No skins/shirt games for girls
ME: “Why do you get to take off your shirt?”
HIM: “I just do.”
ME: “I don’t get to take off my shirt.”
HIM: (shrugs his now-naked and visibly much cooler shoulders)
ME: “That’s not fair.”
HIM: (takes basketball, aims, shoots.) “That’s just the way the world works.” swish
Now whenever we encounter some obvious advantage awarded to a person based on tradition and/or prejudice, we say, “That’s just the way the world works” and make a little swishing noise to emphasize the point.
Apparently HT/NYC resident Moira who occasionally *does* take off her shirt on a hot day has her own version of swish.
Moira likes to walk around without a shirt on a hot day. She’s made the rounds on Facebook already. And the Philly papers. This is really old news. But I gotta hand it to her, she’s got guts. I admire her conviction to bring unequal treatment to light.
If I did this in my town in the Poconos where I grew up, no-one would notice. Firstly, there aren’t enough people around. I’d be shocking a bunch of trees. Secondly, there wouldn’t be enough boob around to even shock the trees.
I just want to ask this question: if Moira is going swish-commando and sees old friends on the street, does she give them a hug?
Havertown photo by Alan Kin on Flickr