Certain styles of shorts will mark you not as a slob but as a tourist, which is a fine thing to be, but if you want to avoid it: looking around I see dresses, skirts, pants, capris, leggings, one pair of stretch closely fitted denim shorts. I think it's not so much that people don't wear shorts, but if the do they're usually tailored to their body in some fashion, and are more likely paired with a shirt or shoes that do something to dress them up a little, maybe one piece of jewelry.
one pair of stretch closely fitted denim shorts
"I'm staring at your butt, yes, but I have a non-prurient reason."
I see dresses, skirts, pants, capris, leggings, one pair of stretch closely fitted denim shorts
...AND I THINK TO MYSELF
"WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD"
The best way to avoid looking like a tourist is wearing a t-shirt saying "I (heart) NYC". Nobody lacking a long familiarity with the city would know enough about it to really (heart) it.
Roller skates, Yankees baseball cap, clown face paint and hockey stick, and everyone will automatically assume you're a local.
Any interesting exhibits or parkstuffs that you'd particularly recommend?
Last time I was there, there was ice skating below a tacky, gold statue. There's also a really big park right in the middle.
If you order pizza in New York, be sure to make a remark like, "I suppose this is pretty good given that the crust is so thin."
Someone please take a picture of Heebie in a MAGA hat.
First, on looking like a tourist: don't worry about it. You probably will, but why shouldn't you? More than how you dress, worry about how you walk, and the only thing to worry about there is don't stop randomly blocking a sidewalk where other people are trying to get by. You want to stop, step to the side or next to a lamppost or mailbox or something.
You really can tell by the way I use my walk if I'm a woman's man with no time to talk?
Second, on the clothes? "Looking like a slob" isn't exactly what makes you look like a tourist. I spot someone as a tourist, and I usually think they're on the unusually tidy and well-put-together end of things. If you want to pass as a local, scruffier is a real direction to go in -- clothes that are just hitting your limit for too-worn-to-wear anyplace respectable will make you look as if you're not on vacation.
But if you're not going in that direction, you want to wear something at least moderately interesting (I say in a navy blue sheath dress. Look, I'm not expecting anyone to take me as a fashion example -- I'm talking about clothes that I see other people wear.) Doesn't have to necessarily be high fashion or super flattering on you, just not an outfit that could have come unchanged off a mannequin in Target or JC Penny or Talbots.
An adult woman in a clean, new, feminine-cut t-shirt and tidy new conservatively cut women's shorts, with gym-socks and clean new sneakers is a tourist not because she's wearing shorts, but because she's put enough effort into her clothes to be perfectly tidy and appropriate without being interesting at all. Be a slob, be a fashion plate, or be an individual. Or be a tourist, which is a fine thing to be! You people keep the city's economy running.
I don't think I've been to New York since 2003. Maybe it was 2004. So I'm sure my advice is useful.
New York City, that is. I was in upstate New York last summer.
sheath dress
I'm assuming that's like Wonder Woman's dress with the sword down the back.
The much missed Stabby sounded like she had the NYC outfit nailed.
Mean Old Dance Teacher? It's a definite look.
14: I am a litigator -- you think I'd go in to the office unarmed?
Let me be the first to suggest adding a little fresh salt to wahatever you wear.
Let me be the first to recommend the High Line.
I will often wander around The Battery at the very southern tip of Manhattan on my lunch break - it has lots of more-or-less active things to do. Grab a drink at Pier A, take a peek at the Sea Glass Carousel, sit on a bench by the water and stare out at the Statue of Liberty, visit the amazing (and free!) Native Fashion Now exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of the Native American. The crowd of tourists is a potential down- or upside depending on your perspective. If you ever read Eloise as a child there are two exhibits you might like, one about Eloise at the New York Historical Society and one about the illustrator's work more broadly at the NYPL Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Finally, I love the Ft. Tryon garden and Cloisters at the way upper tip of Manhattan, you can pay what you wish to visit the museum and it's a cool and shady refuge on a hot day.
If those all make you recoil in horror I can recalibrate and offer some other suggestions...
I know, I was surprised too! I got the name slightly wrong: it's the Museum of the American Indian. They have artifacts from across the Americans, there was a great exhibit of Central American pottery the last time I was there.
http://nmai.si.edu/visit/newyork/
*Americas, sigh. This is what I get for being all giddy at my first contribution to the comments section.
20: Are you me? Not that I offered anything helpful as a tourist, but you just hit the spots where I walk on my lunch hour and one of my home parks/museums -- I just had a graduation picnic for my daughter 100 feet from the Heather Garden.
Someone please take a picture of Heebie in a MAGA hat.
I was just thinking--has anyone seen one of these in the wild recently? I saw quite a few in DC the day of the Women's March, of course, and one or two in the weeks that followed here, but they seem to be--thankfully--mostly over, at least in this corner of blue America.
The flyover country anxiety about being poorly dressed in Manhattan is real, though. (To a lesser degree my wife and I have also experienced it in DC and Boston, and of course in California, although there it's more about fitness.) Although, embarrassingly, I haven't been there since before 9/11.
And it used to be the Customs House, and still shares the building with the Bankruptcy Court for the SDNY. The building has hilariously racist statuary representing the continents on the outside -- oh, look, Africa's sleeping!
25: Does the 'get scruffier' advice help with the anxiety any? I swear I'm serious about it.
24: Wow! LB, you could wear your "Who wants to sex Mutumbo?" t-shirt and then Eke will recognize you on your lunch walk.
23 Welcome! Who has the fruit basket?
I'm going with my usual scruffy slob look today.
N-Y Historical Society has a great exhibit of little known WWI paintings. Unfortunately I missed it this time around but Theresa nice write-up in the NYRB.
Theresa s/b there is. I don't remember who wrote it but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a Theresa.
LB, I'm pretty sure I'm not you in this universe - our kids are in college, I opted for social work school instead of law school, and I only make gingerbread houses from a kit - but maybe we *would* have been the same person but for the flap of a butterfly's wings somewhere along the way. I'm way too boring to wear anything with the word "sex" on it, too. But I'll keep my eyes open!
27: It does, actually--at least in the sense of blending in. I'm reasonably good at city etiquette so I think I could pull off shlubby New Yorker, at least after getting used to the peculiarities of your subway and dropping my affected Yinzerisms. But the high end of NYC (and non-flyover-city generally) fashion/put-togetheredness is so much higher than here--or maybe just generally it's a distribution weighted to the right--that just by changing location but otherwise appearing the same my shlubbiness would increase a degree.
There was a joke on 30 Rock about how they're all supermodels west of the Alleghenies, and it's not exactly false. (Although it was part of a long series of jokes that require you to assume that Tina Fey is not conventionally attractive, which is of course nonsense in any context.)
I'm pretty sure it wasn't a Theresa.
Probably not. My recollection is that the NYRB is better than the LRB on this score but not significantly so.
Adding to the scruffiness I'm badly in need of a haircut and i think I've gained 20 lbs since I've been back.
America: The water is safe to drink, but don't eat the food.
It's because of callous elite indifference like Moby's that the people of Michigan voted Trump.
36: Actually, we have the same issue with water here.
And the *real* Pennsylvanians voted Trump too!
Hey, touristy possibility -- the Chinese Scholar's Garden in the Staten Island Botanical Garden? It's an excuse to take the ferry, which is nice in itself, and then a bit of a walk (a couple of miles?) on the other side to a nice garden. I'm sure there's a bus, I've just only walked myself.
Also, Governor's Island is another pleasant ferry that gets you to a very nice park with a bunch of random stuff in it.
I forget if you are coming with kids or not. I will offer the Stormcrow "day in NYC with 3 kids without inflicting grievous personal financial harm" itinerary. Start in Brooklyn near the Brooklyn Bridge (aided greatly in our case by having a relative who lived near there), walk across the bridge (one of the great views in urban America), cut across to the Hudson and down to the Battery (street food along there somewhere), optionally do the American Indian Museum, Staten Island Ferry over and back, subway home. Bonus exhaustedness for the children for bedtime, although bad if they wore out a bit early.
Oooh, bookmarking this thread, since Iberian Fury and I will also be visiting NYC a month from now.
Not coming with kids!
An adult woman in a clean, new, feminine-cut t-shirt and tidy new conservatively cut women's shorts, with gym-socks and clean new sneakers is a tourist not because she's wearing shorts, but because she's put enough effort into her clothes to be perfectly tidy and appropriate without being interesting at all.
The funny thing is, I think she's just wearing her regular Houston suburbs clothes. I don't think she's trying to dress like a New Yorker and failing.
But on me in particular, I wouldn't alter how I dress except to avoid wearing shorts or wear shorts. Either way I'd give my best approximation of an Austin hipster, but in Austin you just wear shorts with your pearl snap shirt.
43: Right -- I don't think I'm spotting people that are trying to pass. They're dressing normal for them, but it's a not-from-around-here look. Anything that moves you off that look, you'll blend better, if that's what you want.
Not coming with kids!
Well, in that case, I've heard there is a Museum of Sex.
Where all the people with kids have put theirs
I was just thinking--has anyone seen one of these in the wild recently?
I saw at least one at the baseball game I went to on the Fourth of July. (There were lots of red caps, but only one where I definitely saw that it said MAGA.)
So anyway, the mere fact of shorts does not make you stand out in the summer? Grown women in New York wear shorts on their days off?
It's a common misconception that New Yorkers are ever "grown". They keep getting taller, but at a slower rate. If any lived to be 200, they could be over 8 feet tall.
I do? Admittedly, no one should dress like me -- when I'm wearing shorts, they're khaki dad-shorts I inherited from Tim many years ago. I'm passing as local under the scruffiness rule.
But even if you're less of a slob than I am, there's at least some shorts on grown women. I was checking at lunch, and while they're not the commonest outfit, there's some on people who aren't obviously tourists.
And anyway, there's nothing wrong with being obviously a tourist. It's NYC, we're not expecting everyone on the street to be from here. You can be from wherever you like so long as you're not blocking traffic.
Real New York women have camera crews following them at all times.
Yes, they do! https://www.instagram.com/p/BLT9x7xgQK2/
Although okay technically those are bloomers, but quite short ones!
Shorts, over the last few years, are complicated by the fact that the ones in style among the stylish youth are crotch-length and fit like paint. Sally wears shorts all the time, and looks perfectly soigné, but when you're seventeen you can dress like that without looking like an idiot.
I would wear more respectably fashionable shorts if it were a period where respectably fashionable shorts didn't show butt-cheek.
But yes, this is the summer of butt-cheeks here.
All I'm saying is that I'm peeling hardboiled eggs right now and it's one of the most miraculous experiences of my life. Egg after egg, just a swish of the side of my thumb and it peels like a dream. This is probably the highlight of my summer.
Done. 18 eggs peeled in under 10 minutes, stopping to make Jammies come over and admire, and also stopping to comment. Only one went less than beautifully. Bam.
59: Now you are so empowered you will run through the streets of Manhattan naked and everyone will assume you're a native.
I've been steaming eggs in the Instant Pot, and the shells usually come off beautifully, but at the price of the eggs being cooked pretty solid.
When I did it for the same length on low pressure, the yolks were tender and verging on orange, but the shells were a nightmare.
This summer will be very hard on anybody who had a family member or close friend killed by the lower quarter of a twenty-something woman's butt.
60: Sorry, bad choice of verb! Not "run'! Glide.
I will unsheath like the eggs, and slip through the streets with nary a peel on.
62: We were warned this would be one of the first consequences of global warming.
Are any Portland, OR commenters still around? I'll be there the week of the 24th.
In my aging-midwesterner opinion, hip and contemporary shorts can be approximated by wearing high-waisted relatively dressy ones that are comparatively tight and hit enough above the knee not to be mistakable for knee-length. The higher waist makes a lot of difference.
In re being Not From Around Here: I was in LA briefly for work back when I was a fancy secretary (now I'm a junior accountant, did I ever mention that? It's actually a lot more fun although sadly there is no travel.) and I was chatting with the cabbie who drove me to the airport, who was incredibly hip in a louche-but-not-creepy middle aged guy way, and he said that I smiled too much and talked too cheerfully, that was the real tell. I can't imagine that they're more chipper in NYC than in LA, so maybe you could dial down your general sunny disposition to blend in a bit.
"I smiled too much and talked too cheerfully" -- Frowner
Not what one would expected from the name.
who was incredibly hip in a louche-but-not-creepy middle aged guy way
How do you do this? Asking for a friend.
Does it involve cargo shorts or khaki pants? Because he has lots of those.
69: I dunno, he had normal casual clothes, not too new, sort of shaggy hair, I think he had a hat of some kind but not a fedora. The kind of guy who doesn't look stupid in sunglasses, I guess you could say. Sadly, I think you're either effortlessly louche-but-not-creepy or you're out of luck. It's like having perfect pitch or six fingers that way.
Also he was short. IMO that helps on the non-creepiness front since you can't really loom.
I don't think the man lets you have six fingers anymore. At least not on each hand.
Anyway, you're probably right. Forcing it would get louche-but-creepy.
Eggs: Haven't tried the Instant Pot but it seems like overkill if you have a pot and a steaming basket: 11-12 minutes of steaming, depending on how hard you like them, and going straight from fridge to hot pot and pot to ice bath, and they're perfectly done and peel easily. This technique
I was just thinking--has anyone seen one of these in the wild recently?
One of my sobrinas and I saw a guy in a navy blue TRUMP: MAGA shirt in DC last week.
She was absolutely stricken. I think she was mostly just shaken by being confronted with actual, in-person evidence that some people love him. In fairness, so was I.
At Penn Station, thanks to all who came out, LB, a nice surprise from Chris Young, dagger aleph, and Jackmormon and Mr Blandings; and apolologies for the lack of live blogging. See you all next year.
At Penn Station, thanks to all who came out, LB, a nice surprise from Chris Young, dagger aleph, and Jackmormon and Mr Blandings; and apolologies for the lack of live blogging. See you all next year.
At Penn Station, thanks to all who came out, LB, a nice surprise from Chris Young, dagger aleph, and Jackmormon and Mr Blandings. and apolologies for the lack of live blogging. See you all next year.
This way you don't have to post again until 2021.
And realistically we'll all be dead by then, so you can just chill from here on out.
Is normcore still a thing? In that case, Heebie should dress in mom jeans, a pastel sweatshirt, white Reeboks, and a fanny pack if she wants to look hip in NY.
Was normcore ever a thing? Once irony reaches a certain level, I can't tell.
I am in LA and wearing shorts. I haven't asked if I blend in. That I've been asked whether I live here makes me assume not but I haven't actually worried about it.
83: A sufficiently advanced irony is indistinguishable from complete sincerity.
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So when got home I had a raging fever and have a rash all over my torso. I'm hoping it's a heat related ailment like heat rash/exhaustion* and not shingles.
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This was one of the meet-ups with a sex grotto, I guess.
Oh, Freed laughed at me when I said: "Oh, you're moving to the Middle East, Barry? You'll need a colloquial Arabic phrase book. And make sure before you buy it that it includes the Arabic for 'Doctor, I find myself in considerable discomfort; it seems that my sex grotto's whirlpool tub was inexplicably infested with irukandji'". He laughed at my advice. TO MY FACE.
HE'S NOT LAUGHING NOW.
But I forgive you. Print this out
طبيب، أجد نفسي في عدم الراحة كبيرة. ويبدو أن بلدي مغارة الجنس حوض دوامة كان مصابا بشكل لا مبرر له مع إيروكاندي
and show it to your medical practitioner.
A rash all over your torso shouldn't be shingles -- shingles should be reliably asymmetrical, as an infection in a particular nerve. But that stinks: something unpleasant in the mac and cheese, maybe?
I wonder if I should read the novel Cold Comfort Farm or if the movie was better.
Read the novel first, it's the best thing ever and my bitterest regret in life is that I am not actually Flora Poste.
The movie's okay too, but it's not the novel. (The novel does, admittedly, maybe not get rolling in the most engaging way? You need to give it at least until she gets to the farm.)
I can't actually read the novel first.
Also, do you think it necessary to send more religious fanatics to America from the U.K.? We seem well supplied.
Well, if you can't read the novel first, read the novel anyway. There's all sorts of stuff in it that wouldn't fit in a movie, or that simply doesn't translate.
88: Maybe he laughed at the term "colloquial Arabic".
Excellent. You'll be scranleting the turnips in no time.
I hated the movie. It came across as mean-spirited.
So my mom took a picture of my backside where the rash originated and is the worst in order to show me and then accidentally posted it to Facebook! And couldn't figure out how to delete it.
101: But no one can tell it's you. Right?
She also accidentally tagged him in the picture.
104 No. At least she didn't tag it.
And i finally figured out how to delete it.
104: Now he knows why you shouldn't get your SSN tattooed on your ass.
95: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colloquial-Arabic-Levantine-Complete-Language/dp/041505107X
LB says you don't. Are you closer to being a doctor-doctor than she is?
Also, what ajay says. I've heard it's deeply unpleasant.
You knew you shouldn't have visited.
Oof, man, Barry, I hope you get well soon. What a rough year it's been for you.
So sorry! Fellow former sufferer here. I am generally staunchly anti-woo but consider finding a reputable acupuncturist, can be very helpful. (when i showed up in acupuncturist-friend's office years ago sick sick sick in lungs she called my doctor and told them i was coming so i couldn't slack off, turned out i had pneumonia. Then a year or so later doctor diagnosed me with shingles and he sent me to acupuncturist.)
And next time you have shore leave just come out to west coast! :)
Speedy recovery, Barry. My subpar attempt to rag ajay above makes me curious, is your skill mostly in classical/standard Arabic, or also any vernaculars? There must be an interesting essay [to be/already] written about what such distance between the registers does to linguistic culture.
Barry, that is a terrible recommendation for my upcoming trip. (feel better quick!)
I have a reputation and am willing to put needles into people in exchange for money.
Thanks all, it has been a fairly shit year.
117.last Thanks. I think I might do that.
118. Classical mostly. Also Moroccan/Maghrebi colloquial "Darija".
I posted a whole "native new yorker" comment earlier that I managed to lose by accidentally closing my browser window before posting so, the short (heh) version
Plenty of new yorkers wear shorts. I don't, because I personally hate them and find them uncomfortable. On hot days, I tend towards either - dresses with leggings or slip-shorts underneath (for the chafing!), or some sort of modified, bedouin-slash-grey-gardens-inspired, loose flowy layered outfit that includes my much loved yet ridiculous parasol with Frida Kahlo-esque skulls on it, so that I am officially a "character".
(I may have issues with the relatively conservative clothes I wear to work in the law department at my financial services company employer during the week - and even there I'm considered "a little wacky").
More than clothes, the things that will get you pegged as a tourist are really about the way you carry yourself and your stuff - I can always tell the tourists because they're either congregating in groups, looking at maps, or clutching their giant backpacks/cross-body bags (that they've packed as if they're going on a 3-day hike through the jungle - really people, we have bodegas!) like they're afraid of everyone coming near them. Also, zero sense as to how things like public transit work. Not that I think this is you, just basically how tourists easily stand out.
Also, I think I live RIGHT near the Monday night venue on the Upper West Side, so if I don't get stuck at work, I may stop by!
Glad you can make it, Sam!
So hey, what time do locals prefer their meet-ups to be? 6:30 or 7 or so?
I'll probably indeed be looking at maps and giving myself away as a tourist. Also I'm going to take dumb photos allllllll day long, but not rudely and certainly I'll step out of the way of the pedestrian traffic unless I'm super sure no Unfogged people are around.
I'll probably be able to get there between 6:30 and 7, yes.
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First World Problems: In-laws (two kids, parents, and a grandparent) are about to arrive at our house. We just barely beat them home as we head back from work/school pickup, and discover that our occasional housecleaners are running behind schedule and have just *started* cleaning the place. It hits both the direct problem of them being here at the same time, and the awkwardness of 'why yes, we hire housecleaners'.
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Just don't beat the housecleaners this visit.
Is there a reason that would be embarrassing?
They're regular housecleaners, right? Not topless or anything?
I also find it embarrassing! (and we do have a housekeeper.) It just feels like you think you're fancy-people.
Fancy is a step up from kind of gross, which is where I've settled down without a housekeeper.
We don't have a housekeeper, but I don't judge others for their classism and wanton extravagance.
I'm in the ADKs for the summer, which means I'm missing out on all of the good stuff (I almost hit a pair of wild turkeys on a state highway this morning, which was the most exciting thing to have almost happened to me in the past couple of weeks or so).
So sorry to have missed Barry; and alas, I'm about to miss heebie, too.
Re: NYC and shorts. When I lived in Astoria (Queens, so: outer boroughs, of course), I never even thought twice about wearing shorts to the park, to do local shopping, etc., etc. But I never, ever wore shorts into Manhattan (which just speaks to my non-native New Yorker inferiority complex, no doubt).
I used to have this great, wallet-sized (when folded up) map of NYC. On the subway once (the "N" train) from Astoria to Manhattan, I encountered a young couple (visiting from somewhere in the South, I thought?) who were lost, who had ended up on Broadway, Queens, when they had meant to arrive at, you know, the Broadway in Manhattan. I attempted to explain how best to get there, and then gave them my map because I was a little bit worried about them.
If you had left them to the crackheads there would be two fewer Republicans. Just saying.
Which reminds me. One time I was walking home from school and this woman stopped me to ask directions. All she had was a phone number, which from the area code belonged to a different city. She was at least in the right province, but still 50km away from the right city. I thought she must have come from the deep rurals looking for a relative or something. A government office maybe, the number was in the capital. I told her she needed to go there, and that was all I could do. Now I feel bad.
I think I need to hire a disaster crew of house cleaners for my apartment. Bears with furniture is a fine way to live, but I'd like to have people over without disgusting them. My carpet has rust stains on it due to a bit of stupidity on my part, and they simply won't come out. They look like blood stains so every time I bring someone home I have to warn them. "I totally do not have blood stains all over my carpet" is not actually a great seduction line, btw. For most women, at least. Eventually I'll buy a big rug to cover the stains, but until I get my ass in gear I'm stuck warning people that I'm not a serial killer.
On wood laminate the stains just blend in. Maybe the bears would scratch it up though.
At this point, it sounds like you're better off just moving and losing the security deposit.
heebie - there's nothing *wrong* with being/looking like a tourist. I'm just pointing out what's going to get you identified as one, if you wanted to avoid such things :)
As far as times...6:30/7 is usually a good time (I think) for most people who work. I usually get out of work at 6:30 unless something has gone horribly awry.
Oh, and I'm a local and carry a "real" camera with me everywhere (I added a link to my photo blog to my name for this one).
Nice. The person with the mannequins was probably also always having to tell people he wasn't a serial killer.
Bears with furniture is a fine way to live, but I'd like to have people over without disgusting them.
Come on, you don't want to be dating anyone who finds bears disgusting. I am assuming they aren't leaving half-eaten salmon (or moose, or hiker) around the place.
If I were you, there's no mf'ing way I would go to NYC in July without giving myself permission to wear shorts (and carry powder and a fan in my purse). I know you're from a hot place, but still, all that concrete not to mention subway platforms, ugh. I am so happy to live in London now.
Touristic suggestions:
If you are a transportation nerd, there is the Subway Museum in Brooklyn, and if you are a serious transportation nerd, there is the Roosevelt Island tram.
If you like an under-appreciated museum, there is the Neue Gallerie which has small but very well-curated shows of Austrian art and nice pastries for after, the Frick, which has a brilliant collection of the kind of works that nobody is interested in anymore, but is also cool as a view of how a rich person could once live in NYC, and there is The Cloisters, which is all medieval art which bores me to death but imparts the cool experience of feeling that you're miles away from the city even though you're actually still in Manhattan.
If you like an over-appreciated museum, you could go to the MOMA if you really, really like modern art and don't have any where you're from, or if you're a gay man of a certain age range and you go on a Free Friday and your real destination is not the museum but the line to get in and you're looking to find someone to have a fling with during your stay.
My favourite touristic thing I ever did in NYC was a boat tour of the industrial waterfront, which may not specifically be your thing, but I'm a big fan of waterbourne tours of cities that are on water. For a while one could go kayaking in the Gowanus; I don't know if that's still a thing but in all seriousness, if I were you I would look for something like either of these.
I could write at length with food suggestions but who cares what I think. However, if you wanted to strike up conversation with a local, I can't think of an easier way than asking about the best place to have New York pizza.
As a devilled egg and egg salad fan, I am crazy envious of your shelling prowess. Maybe you could share your secrets...
I keep forgetting New York has a Frick also. I bet they took the good art to New York and left the second rate stuff here. At least the art I saw here didn't have anybody I heard of.
Oh, come to think, if you want to spend a peaceful three hours or so chatting with someone, the Circle Line isn't half bad. Boat ride all around Manhattan, nice and cool on a hot day, and you get to look at the pretty city. It's long and there's not much happening for lots of it, so I'd only do it with a conversational partner, but if you're with someone, it's good.
"I came here to watch interesting parts of the city come into view and make small talk. And I'm all out of vistas."
For a while one could go kayaking in the Gowanus
What's a Gow?
on Sunday the Rubin has this block party with the theme The World Is Sound that I would go to if I weren't busy just then.
They've also just majorly expanded ferry service, so if you want to see NYC from the water maybe a ferry ride out from Manhattan to the Rockaways? There's supposed to be a pretty decent food scene out there, and you can watch the surfers (and, if you're like me, think WHY?!!?).
I wear shorts around the house and sometimes for long walks, but find myself wearing capri- or knee-length pants more often now. You'd never see my picture in the NYT Style section though.
I had heard good things about the museum of math, and so my hosts and I were going to visit it. It just occurred to me to look it up, and I realized I'd been hoping for a museum of math history, and this is definitely not that. This is more making math ideas come to life in hands on ways. Which seems fine and neat but I was really looking forward to a math history museum.
I'm waiting for the museum of set theory, because I've never understood that.
There is a museum of set theory; right now they have the empty set on exhibit.
It's probably labeled "Land owners in rural Wales without a hidden corpse on their property."
You're probably thinking of the installation, "Activities Welshmen engage in that don't involve brooding"
We went to the tenement museum and did a walking tour and I enjoyed it a lot.
Since this was a fashion advice thread: I just got the worst haircut of my life and the only quick fix I can think of is cutting it shorter. But is short all around worse than completely shaving your head? I'd rather not get too much sun exposure.
My hair sticks up when it's too short, so I warn them not to make it too short on the top, while shorter on the sides, but the person today had a very expansive definition of side, and cut too short, so it's sticking up in some places right next to where it's still fairly long in others.
Also, why not just put "product" on hour hair to make it not stick up? I have no idea what it is a product of, but it does hold your hair down.
Also, I highly recommend always get your hair cut by the same person.
At this point it's the sudden length differential that's the bigger problem. Keeping the hair down will apply no matter what.
The sudden fade worked for Vanilla Ice.
Probably the closer to spherical your head is, the harder to tell when the "top" starts.
And yet for years almost every single person who's cut my hair had pretty much the same idea of "side".
How about a wig?
Or conversely, could you do a long buzz? That way it wouldn't take as long to grow out but would be mostly even.
166: They were probably measuring the slope of the tangent.
I've consistently found that growing out my hair from a short one-length buzz looks better and has easier maintenance than trying to go from a styled short cut. This might be because I've been unsatisfied with so many of my cuts, though I almost love the latest.
I'd say if you're considering the options you suggest, get it all cut to the shortest current length. If you still hate it, shave shorter. It will grow, and you barely ever have to look at it so it's other people's problem anyway.
But is short all around worse than completely shaving your head?
Short all round is skinhead, n'est-ce-pas? Unless you have the kind of look where you could pass as an off-duty marine. If you shave your head everybody will suppose you have male pattern baldness and are trying to disguise it by looking hip minus 5 years. Up to you. Personally when this has happened I've gone the Moby route, because if you cut it shorter it'll still stick up when you grow it out.
I didn't know umbrella hats were found on that side of the Atlantic.
We're starting off at the Cloisters this morn.
171: I think of buzzcut and skinhead as different lengths. I think I'm going to go for shortest current length all around, which isn't quite skinhead short. And then it will stick up later, but hopefully after the conference I'm going to next week.
173: That's a tonsure. The opposite problem as far as relative lengths of different parts of the hair.
I'm going to ask them to make a shirt out of the cuttings.
Not that anyone's really following this, but I was persuaded not to go with a buzzcut because my hair is so thin it would expose too much scalp. So it's just more evenly short now, which I still think is an improvement.
Plus, in this heat it's nice to have less hair and as noted above, I generally don't have to see my own head.
You could bleach the remaining hair. Or frost it. Assuming you aren't blonde.
For a while one could go kayaking in the Gowanus
Did they really clean it up? I have vivid childhood memories of it as a reeking open sewer.
It's still an open sewer, but now we have hand sanitizer.
"Raw sewage. I love it"
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So ... if you get a mole removed, and it turns out it's melanoma, but it's stage t1a, which is the best you can get aside from the one that's totally on the surface, and all the blood tests come back normal, and the extra cutting-around-the-mole surgery comes back normal (this hasn't happened yet, but let's be optimistic), do you still get to call yourself a cancer survivor? Because that seems kind of bullshit - it seems like you should have to actually go through treatment rather than just having a mole cut out. OTOH, I can see an argument on the other side ("cancer enough to get denied healthcare by republicans"). I dunno.
Sorry, very non sequitor, just drunk on vacation in Portugal.
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I was born in early July. I've called myself a Cancer survivor ever since I learned about astrology.
Also, have you considered getting an umbrella hat. Protects the skin on your face and neck.
We bought this, which is close, except for not being a hat at all.
The tent thing from 185 is cool. I almost bought an Ikea one except we have no plans to go anywhere in the sun this summer. (Girl Scout camp was a HUGE success and Mara, who was terrified about it, can't wait to go back.)
My lovely host who I otherwise adore, does not really have wifi at her apartment. Uses her phone as a hotspot in a pinch. So probably no posting from me tomorrow, nor bumping this thread. Looking forward to seeing everyone!
Thanks Eke & others - some fun suggestions for when I visit for a day w/my 17yo later this month.
On the topic of urban shorts, this is one way Milan has changed drastically in the last 5 years. More men wearing shorts. Up from zero (other than me).
Probably because they needed to invent a type of Vespa that wouldn't burn their legs with the exhaust.
I brought loud flowered pants on a whim because they are very light and pants and I like them. I think I might just wear them all day and to the meet up. You'll know me by my brown, white, and green pansy pants.
I've worn pants to all the meet ups I've been to.
189: I bet an electric Vespa would make bank.
There's supposed to be one on the market later this year.
I will most likely be able to make it (barring any work emergencies this afternoon). I am wearing my standard (lawyer) work clothes of black pants and a white button down tunic.
I plan on switching out the 3-inch heels I am currently wearing for some sensible sandals before I leave the office though, so I will be my normal, relatively short, self.
(also, got my pictures from July 4th Coney Island posted, if anyone wants to see them over at my site!).
Am I right that the dive bar is on 96th? Just want to dive in the right bar. Not now. Later, at dive time.
Thanks!
Right now we're at the Chelsea Mall Matket getting ice cream. And we rode a ferry.
Were you very young and very merry?
Heading out -- I should be there around 6:30 or a little earlier. Anyone who doesn't know me, which is just Sam I think, I'm in a maroon?ish top and a long green skirt, shortish brown hair and glasses.
Live blog woo! Wish I were there .
On my way. Estimate twenty minutes to arrival.
Omg, there's barely anything on the front page. Tomorrow, folks. I'll throw some shit up.
The meet-up was super fun! The ratio of awkwardness to interestingness was extremely favorable.
It's not even 10 pm. You didn't give awkwardness a chance.
One! We met Sam, who fit right in and was good company.
She hasn't said anything, so I'm going to assume you ate her.
I'm here! Had a blast, and it was great meeting y'all!
