I do not own any denim jeans nor bow ties.

Someone should welcome Will to the 20th century. Right after they pry him away from the corpse of Emily Post.

It's ironic and amusing that Fred Astaire was on TV last night, performing in blackface, during Swing Time.

Will is a twit. He looks like a twit. He dresses like a twit. He writes like a twit. He thinks like a twit. He overcompensates like a twit.

He is ignorable. Ignore him.

Quote: 'OK, I made up that last part, but Will really did write a 747-word column on a fabric he doesn't like.

I'm at a loss.'

Simple, it's safer for Will to write this than to tackle difficult issues such as global warming or the economy for which he has neither the mental firepower nor the journalistic integrity.

Denim is the carefully calculated costume of people eager to communicate indifference to appearances.

This would have been a good line from a conservative writing in 1966.

He is entiteld to his opinion. At least he is not mis-quoting scientific reports and lying about the effects of denim on sea ice. It is a bit of a waste of newsprint but then so are his opinions about most other things.

Hey. He just crossed a line that he should not cross. Jeans are great because they are inexpensive and last for a long time. I've had 3 of the pairs I own for about 3 years now and they're still not even close to being worn out.

What's amazing is not that some bloated gasbag would write hundreds of words about a fabric he doesn't like. Crazy rich people get angry about all kinds of irrelevancies.

What's actually amazing is that the Post would want to publish this crap.

Started my day with this. What a great way to wake up. Apparently he thought he'd write about something noncontroversial. Like how he can't stand the most popular fabric in America, and as he's the arbiter of upper class taste....

Stay till the end, where he seems to endorse bringing back the styles of pre-Revolutionary France. In these declasse times, he doesn't get enough opportunity to wear his ermine cape. And, of course, he brought in St. Paul, who can provide moral guidance for anything. In this case, really anything.

Denim is responsible for global warming! Or the lack of it! Or something. Can you imagine Will at yesterday's D.C. tea party? The teabaggers meet the living symbol of those who profit by their work, and look down their fluty noses at them.

I appreciate that at least he is not willfully misinterpreting scientific data to justify his personal dislike of blue jeans.

George is just and ol' fuddy duddy.

Hey George, when I can afford my own freakin' costume department, then I'll dress like Fred Astaire.

Moron.

This would have been a good line from a conservative writing in 1966.

As would If Fred Astaire would not have worn it, don't wear it. For women, substitute Grace Kelly

I LIKE denim, it is not out of fashion.

I DO NOT like Will's coke bottle glasses, they are so pre-laser surgery / contact lenses.

Back in 1617 when Johanne Coke invented his glasses, they were originally meant for Galileo's telescope. It turned out attaching his lenses to wire frames, via copper rivets, helped severely near sighted people. Wearing them was a serious fashion faux pas, even back then, but now of coarse we can communicate to our fellow man the respect they deserve by upgrading to 21st century optics.

an archaic word that describes george will perfectly and should precede his name from now on: fuddy-duddy.

I don't see any reason for men, at least, to wear anything other than denim pants and some kind of pull over shirt (preferably a T). No dry cleaning, no ironing, no hanging, no folding if you're not in the mood...no fuss. Unless I'm going to a wedding or funeral, blue jeans are the only pants I wear. Levi Strauss should be canonized for his contribution to society.

Life's too short. Denim all the way.

Limbaugh has a problem with jeans also. At least he used to. Called them dungarees. Very low class. Never wore them while in high school. Explains a lot.

Did you see the note at the bottom of the column?

"This column brought to you by the Khaki Institute of America will additional funding from the Crinoline Council."

You missed the real zinger in this screed, where he basically said adults who play video games shouldn't be allowed to vote. Right, only people who are so connected to modern times that they hate denim and probably spend their evenings looking at etchings in the parlor should be voting. Why Will is still relevant to political discussions by serious people is beyond me.

Will's targeting is off.

As a thirtysomething liberal white guy, I struggle to trust any other white man of any age wearing a bow tie.

Throw in seersucker pants and all I see is Haley Barbour. Why? I don't know, but that's how I react.

Ladies and gentlemen, The Party Of Ideas!

But the appearances that people choose to present in public are cues from which we make inferences about their maturity and respect for those to whom they are presenting themselves.

And if you chose an appearance that includes the regular wearing of a bow tie, you are saying that:

1. You are a hopeless twit.
2. You fear that people won't immediately understand how brilliant you are.
3. You need to get out more.

I recommend that all Republicans get on the Fred Astaire/Grace Kelly thing. That is sure to fix their problems with the youth vote.

Will just took a beating over his denial of global warming. My guess is that this fatuous column is intended to draw fire from his opposition. He can then argue that his critics get worked up over nothing. Thereby, he can dismiss them. Just a guess.

"...the appearances that people choose to present in public are cues from which we make inferences about their maturity and respect for those to whom they are presenting themselves."

The topics that nationally syndicated columnists choose to write about are cues from which we make inferences about their maturity and respect for those to whom they are presenting themselves.

The only time Will is ever bearable is when he talks baseball. Otherwise he, like denim, is hard to get grass stain off of...

I am completely convinced that the reich-wing has a contest in progress to determine who is the looniest of the looney-tunes!

smiley wrote: "Limbaugh has a problem with jeans also."

I understand his preference. Some people look better in jeans than others. As usual, the problem comes in converting a personal preference into a universal prescription.

He gets paid to write crap like this?

The issue isn't that he's entitled to his opinion--we all have an opinion--that's abundantly clear.

And lots of those opinions are empty through and
through.

The issue is he gets paid to write shallow, moralistic whining about something as trivial and superficial as wearing denim (one of the most durable, versatile and comfortable fabrics around!).

This is just patently absurd.
Now if it were written as comedy (and I think Jon Stewart and others should run with this one)...well then!

Is he trying to be Ann Landers? (Even she wouldn't go this far)

Or maybe some sleazeball preacher (who secretly loves denim)?

I suspect jeanis envy.

George Will has my vote for Upper Class Twit of the Year!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Hm2HOZUNU

George Will is one of the columnists who rails against government telling us how to live our lives. So he uses his syndicated column to tell us all how to dress. Am I the only one who sees the irony here?

Uh oh - - didn't we see Reagan in jeans at times?

Men's suits are the most evil form of clothing ever invented. What's especially depressing is that with "business causal" being near death, the suit is poised for a big comeback. God damn it.

If this had been written by Dionne, Rich, or any other liberal or 'lefty' columnist you can name, the "he/she's an elitist" cry would have been deafening, especially if it had been leading up to an election.

I think George Will is attempting to show that if he is not allowed to lie about scientific matters, he has nothing but trivia to fill up his column.

What about the cravats? For God's sake, what about the cravats? Beau Brummell would not approve of such half-assed dandyism.

He reminds me of Millhouse. I'll bet he even carried a briefcase to kindergarden.

Add another to my ever-growing list of reasons to say yet again: Fuck George Will.

I gotta disagree with Peter. The necktie is evil, but the rest of the suit is great in my opinion. A nice suit can make any guy look pretty good. A suit jacker makes my shoulders look bigger and my fat stomach look smaller. woot!

He forgot to tell everyone to turn down that damn rock and roll music as well.

Most of these comments demonstrate that the wingnuts don't monopolize a moribund sense of humor. Getting indignant over a man's taste in clothing is the sort of thing that gave us eight years of George Bush. Millions voted for him not because of any favorable sense of what he would do but out of contempt for a fussy liberalism that was more show-off than substance. But at least this thread will make Will's day, and causing anyone to be happy is a good thing, of sorts

If you check the Washington Post's website today there is a slide show on what's new in jeans fashion. Featuring jeans (for woman) that go for a couple of hundred dollars a pair. If George really needed to complain about jeans, that's where to start.

As for bowties, some of us where them just to prove we can tie one. And black tie untied can look pretty damn sexy (see Bryan Ferry, not George Will);>

how could he waste his column a day after the monumental Teabag Protests? What will historians make of this?

One day long ago on campus, Professor Will's very serious son heard a girl laughing and decided that she was laughing at him.
There isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't recall that laughter. It really explains everything.

Holy crap, has Will forgotten the instrumental role that denim jeans played in the fall of the U.S.S.R? I was in Austria in the fall of 1989, and the flood of visitors who came over the border when restrictions loosened up headed straight for the department stores to buy -- guess what. Couldn't get 'em in a Commie country, you see, at least not at an affordable price.

Why does George Will hate America?

Next week, George F. Will on merkins. The Pubitzer Prize winning columnist will share how when he was a boy he once made a fine felt crotch wig from the worn wool he used to put under his ass as a cushion as he road his pony 'Assripken' to his one room schoolhouse uphill both ways.

A few years ago Will wrote a column on the failures of modern education, mostly which he attributed to jean-clad, tie-less professors.

And he's the smart conservative....

I agree with kahner. The necktie is all fluff and serves no function, but the rest of the suit is very utilitarian while looking nice. The Obama look! :P

John Turner: Having fun with a guy who has a 70 year old sense of fashion will bring us another George Bush? It's a "fussy liberalism" to support the wearing of denim? Westerners will turn against us?
You don't make any sense whatsoever. Very poor concern trolling.

Edmund Burke died in 1797. Yet I think we can infer what he would have thought about George W. Bush: "The wise determine from the gravity of the case; the irritable, from sensibility to oppression; the high minded, from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands."

Am I the only one who is deeply offended that this man insists that modern American women should ape the fashion sense of Grace Kelly, c. 1955? Even Grace Kelly would not be dressed like Will's imagined Grace Kelly were she alive today. You can bet that she would be wearing jeans with the rest of us and enjoying her emancipation from girdles and garter belts.

Actually, this screed sums up George Will quite nicely. His tastes lie in the 50s where the wearing of jeans was the province of Marlon Brando and James Dean (oh the horror), the rebels. Factories belched smoke, cars guzzled gas, bombers carried armed nukes and Bud Collyer wore a bow tie on Beat The Clock.

Those were the days..(cue Archie Bunker)

I had a straussian art history professor 30 years ago who would have agreed with Will's column. Other than that, I can't imagine any adult I've known would care about the subject.

Put this in with MoDo's columns decrying her inability to get a date. If that's all they can think of to write about, their employers ought to be finding some replacements.

Quote: 'OK, I made up that last part, but Will really did write a 747-word column on a fabric he doesn't like.

I'm at a loss.'

In fairness, one of those 18th century English essayists (Swift or Addison or someone in that crowd: I am too lazy to track it down just now) wrote a piece on the topic of how he had nothing to say. It's actually a pretty good essay, as it is well-written and witty.

My guess is that Will had this in the can for months, or even years, kept in reserve for the day he had nothing to say. Or, more accurately, the day even he realized he had nothing to say.

One more thing re Will's fashion sense--did he ever devote an entire column to Bush, the phoney denim-wearing phoney rancher? I'm gonna guess no.

I wonder if this latest "effort" is an attempt by Will to send a message to his editors and fellow columnists at WaPo, who rightly took him to task for horribly misrepresenting findings on global warming studies. I certainly hope this is the case, becausse if Will wrote this tripe honestly, he's even more of a dork than anyone expected.

I think what Will is saying is that jeans shouldn't be worn by girly men like himself and his conservative friends.

What puzzles me, Steve, is that you devoted that much space and time to the nonsensical column, even spreading it further. What a waste.

Okay, this is a parody of George Will from the Onion, right? No one's stupid enough to write for publication something this patently ridiculous.

No?

I used to joke about conservatives wanting to turn back the clock to 1815, but for the most part I didn't really believe it. Now I must reconsider that opinion.

The way that men's suits conceal large abdomens is the sartorial equivalent of sweeping dirt under the carpet. A man's waistline ideally should not exceed the lesser of (a) one-half his height, or (b) 35 inches, and under no circumstances whatsover should be over 39 inches (40 inches and up is the "death zone"). Stay within the guidelines and there's no bulging abdomen to conceal.

Denim!?! Sheesh!

Next I suppose we'll discover that 'real Americans' wear only boxer shorts and bow ties. I own neither so I guess I'll be making someone's 'list' sooner or later.

what an elitist snob. Lugging golf clubs... I wonder what the jeans-wearing plumbers, electricians, construction workers, gardeners, truck drivers, etc in the so-called "real america" would say if they actually ever read this crap? Do people hunt and fish in khakis? Well? No. They don't.

Bah. As I recall, even his writings on baseball are portrayed in Michael Lewis' Moneyball as, basically, twee sentimentalism that mainly serves to enshrine baseball insiders' deeply held, but often quite mistaken, beliefs as some kind of deep life wisdom.

This column is easily explained by George Will's great sense of frustration of not being able to GET INTO anyone's pants, particularly "tough" men's.

Eventually, however, he made tough pants, reinforced by copper rivets, for the tough men who knelt on the muddy, stony banks

See? I always figured the old queen was into bears.

I haven't owned a necktie since I got out of the Army in 1968. I own lots of jeans, because I make my living moving pianos.

It's what they call "blue collar" work, and that's why George wouldn't understand it.

"Today it is silly for Americans whose closest approximation of physical labor consists of loading their bags of clubs into golf carts [to wear jeans]"

No one here has focused on this one yet. Who wouldn't be embarrassed to have published this sentence? I'm as white collar and academic as they come, but even I mow the lawn, trim the hedges, ride a bike, paint the bedroom, clean the garage, wash the car, etc. The Fred Astaire look isn't compatible.

Most of these comments demonstrate that the wingnuts don't monopolize a moribund sense of humor. Getting indignant over a man's taste in clothing is the sort of thing that gave us eight years of George Bush ...

Posted by: John Turner

Concern Troll Fail.

Oh, and anyone who wears bow ties with anything other than a tux or clown suit (the latter of which I think would give Will more credibility) should really, truly, just STFU about fashion. Seriously. Dude's a What Not to Wear episode just waiting to happen ...

Will-fully stupid. I think his next screed will be about the horror of people who play golf in shorts.

The Maytag repairman also wears a bow-tie and we all know what he does: absolutely nothing!

I didn’t want to move or act like a rich man. I wanted to dance in a pair of jeans. I wanted to dance like the man in the streets.

--Gene Kelly

So, George, while Fred Astaire was trying to preserve this country, was Gene Kelly trying to destroy it?

I'm not sure which TV reference this brings to mind more: Buzz Killington from Family Guy, or Dana Carvey as George Will (on SNL) destroying a TV quiz show.

Will had merely spent the morning with his bong and his old Jethro Tull records. A couple of vintage quotes from Ian Anderson:

Just once I would like to persuade the audience not to wear any article of blue denim. If only they could see themselves in a pair of brown corduroys like mine instead of this awful, boring blue denim.

If Jesus Christ came back today, He and I would get into our brown corduroys and go to the nearest jean store and overturn the racks of blue denim.

A lot of those folks at the tea parties looked like they were wearing blue jeans...

Somehow I can't picture myself mowing my lawn or changing the oil in my car wearing a business suit.

Who the hell are Fred Astaire and Grace Kelly?

I think the ReichWing actually beleives the stuff the Jello Biafra wrote years ago

California uber alles
by the Dead Kennedys

Zen fascists will control you
100% natural
You will jog for the master race
And always wear the happy face

Close your eyes, can't happen here
Big Bro' on white horse is near
The hippies won't come back you say
Mellow out or you will pay
Mellow out or you will pay!

[Chorus]

Now it is 1984
Knock-knock at your front door
It's the suede/denim secret police
They have come for your uncool niece

Come quietly to the camp
You'd look nice as a drawstring lamp
Don't you worry, it's only a shower
For your clothes here's a pretty flower.

DIE on organic poison gas
Serpent's egg's already hatched
You will croak, you little clown
When you mess with President Brown

Denim is the best thing to wear if you have to fly coach, which is at least as much a challenge (and as uncomfortable) as kneeling in muddy, stony banks in Northern California creeks. Of coarse George F. is probably up in first class where it doesn't make as much difference.

As to Rush not liking denim, just my opinion but "big boy" jeans generally aren't as attractive.

"I'm at a loss."

Obviously, so was Will. For an idea to write about. Sounds like this one was brewing for a looong time.

BTW, Hubby was looking for an ascot recently (long story). Can't find them anywhere anymore. Note even Brooks Brothers.

So much for dressing like Fred Astaire.

Oh, and he DID dance in khakis, so I guess they're OK with Georgie Porgie.

Forget the bow ties and seersucker suits. Anyone who wears a toupee as bad as Will's -- sometimes I think that thing is going to get up and (stiffly) walk away -- has got to be the most un-self-aware guy in America to actually criticize others' dress and grooming.

Let them wear silk.

You dress to the occasion. If it's a formal dinner or business meeting, well you wear a suit and tie. (Bow ties are just pretentious)

When I work at home or run errands or have to sit in a office away from the public, I wear jeans. Just comfortable and easy to care for. Much to my sister's discomfort, I truly don't care what I dress in, though I wear clean, neat and well maintained clothing.

One wonders if George isn't slipping faster into dementia.

Where there's a Will, there's a waste.

Also, Edmund Burke wasn't literally talking about clothing. Oh, and beyond that, I think George Will just outed himself as an ancien-regime royalist.

"Denim is the best thing to wear if you have to fly coach"

I would have disagreed about this until last week.

I would have said denim can be a bit binding for sitting for a long time. I would have said fleece (in the winter) or light knit cotton (in the summer) were best for flying.

But then I bought the softest pair of stretch denim jeans at Wal-Mart. Yes I did. Made for Wal-Mart by Lees, the jeans that have always fit me best.

Sure I hate the politics of the Walton Family and the way they treat their employees, but damn, this is a great pair of pants.

(Why I was at Wal-Mart is a long story involving helping a disabled woman shop.)
These are now my number

He's a fuddy dud and never trust a man in a bow tie.

Steve,

You, of all people, should know how hard it is to write something on a schedule. George Will just had one of those days in which he had nothing to say, so he said it. I suspect that half of his baseball articles fall in the same category.

By criticizing him because you are not fond of his ideas (which I suspect is part of the reason your article appeared) just gives him more of the spotlight he needs to stay on at the various publications he inhabits.

I agree that the article was a) dull and b) stupid especially considering who wrote it, but it was just that, a dull and stupid article. I suspect that a man of Will's intellect is mildly ashamed of it.

... one favorite pair of pants. Sorry.

BTW, "Where there's a Will, there's a waste" gets the prize AFAIC.

Ascots! I finally had an occasion on which to wear my paisley ascot just a couple of weeks ago, at a "theme" dinner. Found it in a secondhand store years ago, and it's been stashed in a drawer since then awaiting its big moment.

On the other hand I still have, and occasionally wear, a couple pair of Levi's that were purchased new in the late '70s. They're looking a bit the worse (better?) for wear, but that's kinda the point of keeping them.

Gotta learn to tie a bowtie one of these days, just in case we ever throw an antediluvian-geek theme dinner...

"Today it is silly for Americans whose closest approximation of physical labor consists of loading their bags of clubs into golf carts [to wear jeans]"

Which "Americans" are Will talikng about?

The "American" floors traders who cheered Rick Santeli's "loser" rant?

"American" highly paid politcal pundit talking heads?

"American" highly paid "journalists?

"American" well placed and connected congressional aids?

"American" congresscritters?

"American" well connected, well compensated lobbyist?

"American" conservative think tank fellows?

"American" baseball team owners, mangers, coaches, players?

Who exactly does he know that actually gets his/her hands dirty, excepting of course his servants?

Just sayin...

George Will is ...
...the last surviving Victorian dowager.

Also, there were strange things done in the California sun by the men who moiled for gold...

Know what I mean, nudge-nudge?

Marco Roth at N+1 magazine actually made a more coherent rant about contemporary fashion than George F. Will, only from the left:

Corporations have destroyed liberalism and feminism in so many ways, including morally. Their fashions (sold with sex since they lack other selling points) do not deserve a liberal's hard-earned political capital. The injudicious defense of Hollywood violence, mainstream pornography, and bad art, along with the intellectual supervaluation of these same phenomena by people and institutions self-identified with the left has helped bring us to our current pass. Ah, when one's political fortunes ride as low as one's jeans!

What a cockatoo. George needs to visit Germany -- when my wife and I were in Dresden, EVERYONE, toddlers to grandparents, were in jeans. And as for "This is not complicated. For men, sartorial good taste can be reduced to one rule: If Fred Astaire would not have worn it, don't wear it. For women, substitute Grace Kelly," this is simple maundering for a day that has passed.

George Will, America's wimp

Note to self. If I get the opportunity to meet Mr. Will, wear Levi's.

maybe, of course, he did write a column, and the WPWG asked for a bit o' fact checking? and he had to sub in his fuddy-duddy routine? hmm.

According to Wikipedia:

The bow tie originated among Croatian mercenaries during the Prussian wars of the 17th century: the Croats used a scarf around the neck to hold together the opening of their shirts.

(Mercenaries?)

This was soon adopted (under the name cravat, derived from the French for "Croat") by the upper classes in France, then a leader in fashion, and flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries.

(Aristocracy?)

I'll take Denim and/or a Bow tie. Better yet, let's argue over buttons vs. cuff links.

Oh, my god...George Will is really Les Nessman! It's the suits versus the dungarees!

And it's not even as if Will is doing something original or transgressive here -- the WSJ ran an equally stupid op-ed by Daniel Akst about a month ago on the exact same topic!

"St. Barack's inaugural sermon to the Americans"

Uh, yea, whatever...

"Ours would be much more so if supposed grown-ups would heed St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, and St. Barack's inaugural sermon to the Americans, by putting away childish things, starting with..."

judging people by what they wear!

When did Andy Rooney hijack George Will's column?

Right after they pry him away from the corpse of Emily Post.

Um, I'm a pretty committed libertine, but that's nasty.
And I'm pretty sure it's illegal in all 50 states.

Apparently, George is channeling Herb Tarlick of the late, great WKRP - The Suits vs. The Dungarees:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFE31-GzjaY

It's a conspiracy!

What's especially interesting is that Steve's post on Will's column, which is being derided as stupid, beneath comment and ignorable, has generated more comments than anything he has written in weeks and five to six times more comments than his typical post. I guess we know what issues really push people's buttons -- or zippers, depending upon your fly preference.

Someone needs to tell Will, "Take it someplace else, buster!"

Oh wait. Someone did.

As events have gotten more exciting and dramatic George Will seems to have grown more dull and eccentric. His repeated columns on global warming and campaign finance border on obsession. And his diversions into subjects like the one today on denim are downright weird. I guess that even in earthshaking times like these, Will, the amateur historian, has decided to affect the faintly bored pose of someone whose seen it all before.

I'm reminded of the Will column I read years ago about Jim Morrison, laying out hundreds of words explaining what a loser the guy was because he had long hair and a drinking problem (or something like that), and consequently how pathetic Will considered anyone who liked the Doors.

George Will had his head dunked in a lot of toilets in high school, I think...

Just how many sharks does this guy have to clear before he's put out to...wherever it is that sartorially correct but irrelevant columnists gather to collect their pensions and watch golf on teevee?

I saw this latest bit of Will dryer lint in my morning paper and wondered how I'd been transported back to 1967. Out damn hippies, out!

And thanks to Google, here's the article from 1991, which was inspired by the release of Oliver Stone's "The Doors": http://www.newsweek.com/id/121777

A small taste:

"Jim Morrison is dead, dead as a doornail. He has been since 1971, when he expired, bloated and burnt out, in a bathtub in Paris at 27, not a moment too soon. His life was a bad influence. His death was a cautionary reminder of the costs of the Sixties stupidity that went by the puffed-up title of "counterculture." Morrison himself is not particularly interesting, except that he is an obsession to the sort of people who root around reverently in the shards of the Sixties. Now Morrison is back. He is the black hole at the cold heart of the movie "The Doors," which tells the short, sick story of that rock group and Morrison's role as singer."

What a miserable, nasty, bitter little man.

Will:

Seventy-five percent of American "gamers" -- people who play video games -- are older than 18 and nevertheless are allowed to vote.

As it turns out, I spend my days designing video games and reading about politics.

I know, impossible, right?

OK, Mr. Will, I'll get off your lawn now.

"...it is a straight line from the fall of the Bastille to the rise of denim..."

And with that, Will exposes his allegiances for all to see. Will is for a moneyed aristocracy with no accountability to a common majority. Will and his cohort are profoundly undemocratic in outlook and as a result, essentially un-American.

Well I have to admit I do enjoy early 18th and late 17th century European fashion.

George Will is right. We should reinstate the British monarchy and go back to wearing powdering wigs. This has got to be one of the most hilarious columns I've read

It's a shaggy pundit story.

"...the denimization of America..."

is the punchline.

Grace Kelly wore denim in the last scene of Rear Window. She looked fabulous.

I am not surprised that Will wants to lead the movement to return to the sumptuary laws of yesteryear. Important people will wear bow ties and pant suits. It will be easy to tell a servant by their denim garb. Will will never again be embarrassed by mistaking a foreign head of state for a servant.
Won't that be swell?

Better get Joe the Plumber some spats....

If Obama has a sense of humor, he'll have a photo taken by a Post reporter of himself wearing a pair of levis, a tee shirt, and sandals, in the Oval office, on a Sunday.

Actually, one thing Steve quoted really got me:

Edmund Burke -- what he would have thought of the denimization of America can be inferred from his lament that the French Revolution assaulted "the decent drapery of life";

May I just say, with the voice of one fully sick of George Will and ever other conservative that reveres that jerk, FUCK EDMUND BURKE. I swear, that douchebag has been the primary philosopher every one of these jackasses refer to because they HAVE no one else, and it is always drivel like this. Fuck him.

"It's the truth that you should never trust anybody who wears a bow tie. Cravat's supposed to point down to accentuate the genitals. Why'd you wanna trust somebody whose tie points out to accentuate his ears? "

Will and the guy he was citing were essentially making the same point my parents made to me when I wanted to wear jeans as a pre-teen in the early 1960s.

Why would you want to dress like a hillbilly or a sewer cleaner? We're better quality people than that.

"Do people hunt and fish in khakis? Well? No. They don't."
Posted by: sigh on April 16, 2009 at 11:17 AM |

Absolutely correct.
But they don't wear denim, either. They wear camo, of course.
And if you were a REAL MURKIN, instead of one o them LIEberal islamofascosocialists, you'da known that.

Will's comments remind me of Herb Tarlek's dungarees-versus-suits conspiracy rant in that old "WKRP" episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFE31-GzjaY

Denim is the carefully calculated costume of people eager to communicate indifference to appearances.

This would have been a good line from a conservative writing in 1966.
It probably was.
Has Will gone senile? I wore denim or dungarees as it was then called back in the late forties and early fifties.I've never worn denim since. I associated it with being poor which I felt I was back then. When denim became fashionable in the sixties although I could afford it I couldn't bring myself to wear it.Is he dusting off old columns or just having flashbacks?

Fred Astaire is Will's sartorial ideal?

Then how come we never see George Will in a top hat and kid gloves and patent leather tap shoes, eh? And where's his silver-topped cane?

George Will is obviously a slacker whose taste is all in his mouth.

So even if you are a minority in this country, your role models for how you look should be Fred Astaire and Grace Kelly? Interesting. Clearly he's had a wide range of life experiences and acquaintances.

Sorry for not having read all the comments on this topic.

Will is actually realizing that he's pretty much done as a right wing / conservative commentator - opinion maker.

Because of that self-awareness he needs to branch out. He's using 'company' time to write some stories that will hopefully be recognized for the brilliant fashion insights offered by him.

He's hoping for a gig at Cosmopolitan, or Seventeen, or any other giggly magazine with a huge readership.

He's pretty smart to think ahead.

:)