Sartorial Rigidity

Harv called this evening and during the exchange mentioned how hot it was this past week in NY and that he wore shorts to work one day. He had a good line too about when a couple showed up at his workplace. He said [paraphrased by me], "I sold them the same tombstone that I would have if I was wearing pants."

Then he pointed me to a NY Times article about shorts cracking the code and slowly making it into the workplace. Uh, "weren't they already in the workplace?" says Marc. After all, the most dressed up I've gotten at work is wearing shorts (ok, I guess I sometimes wear jeans too). I used to wear swim trunks to work as a lifeguard and swimming instructor and then I climbed around crawlspaces pulling network cable through ceilings and phone conduits. So wearing shorts is like dressing up to me.

But let's get back to that article. Harv reads a line from the story over the phone:

It was no more than a moment ago, in the sartorial long view, that a guy who came to work wearing short pants would have been shown the door — or anyway, given the address for human resources at U.P.S. All that appears to be changing.

My favorite line was:

"It seems so strange on an over-90-degree day to subject yourself to sartorial rigidity"

And for those who need a dictionary:

sar·to·ri·al [sahr-tawr-ee-uhl, -tohr-]

1.	of or pertaining to tailors or their trade: sartorial workmanship.

2.	of or pertaining to clothing or style or manner of dress: sartorial splendor.