Saturday, July 15, 2006

Separating the holy from the profane

Our students in Israel are fine. They were moved today from Tiberius to Tel Aviv but they were precariously close to the violence. It was definitely not a typical Shabbat experience for them. They spent time in the bomb shelters, and were then confined to the hotel lobby space. Because there are windows in hotel rooms (duh), they weren't allowed back in their rooms for a while. Once they were, they were given 10 minutes to pack and get the hell out. In between the lobby time and packing, they fit in a few bar/bat mitzvahs for which the students had been preparing. And while there wasn't candy to throw, the hotel did give them popcicles so they could have a little celebration.

Havdalah

Tonight I was walking around Dupont Circle with Toby. We decided that there are really only two circumstances underwhich anyone should be wearing flipflops. At the beach, or in a shower that isn't yours (camp, gym etc). I think it could also be possible, under the right circumstances, to allow them to be worn when going out to pick the paper up from the end of the driveway, but really, I'm not so sure about that one. They should not be worn on a date or with fancy clothes.

What we saw were many, many girls all dressed up and wearing flip flops. It just didn't work for them. The other part of that problem was that the boys they were with didn't seem to work for them either. They were wearing ripped, slouchy jeans and t-shirts. And whether they were on a date or just out as friends, they (again, a lot of them!) could not have looked more mismatched.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dude, I am QUITE chic, and I wear flip flops all the time! However, I do not wear them (1) with office attire, (2) without a decent pedicure, or (3) with skirts of any kind. Puh-lease. I believe the gals you saw in Dupont were part of what I like to call the "attack of the summer interns." Those gals need to get some decent footwear and stuff their boobs back into their shirts. They also need to stop invading all of my favorite restaurants, coffee shops, and any sidewalk that I need to traverse. I'll cut them if I have to... :)

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