Shirts and Giggles

There are a lot of funny shirts in world. And once in a while there are really funny shirts. Check out this ebaynham.com site for other howlers.

Since I have my High School Reunion thing coming up next weekend - Scotty, now would be a good time - I’ve had a trickle of memories of old Stuyvesant High times and days. I didn’t experience high school as a period of dread, as some do; more one of incompetence. You’re big enough to get out of the sandbox, but you still love the sand. From this remove I don’t remember much of it at all, actually.

One night back then we were talking about girls, which is basically all that ever happened in high school, though it sometimes sounded like other subjects depending on the context. My friend Adam opined that a Melissa we knew was gorgeous, based largely on some particularly lavish endowments from nature. I disagreed. I was already developing my obsession with trim dangerous pixie types (can someone explain to me how they can all be Scorpio? Surely that can’t be right?), and my heart lay elsewhere. But since we were self-consciously witty sorts, we went at the subject at some length.

Finally, to set the matter at rest, I testified. “Bloomie,” I told him gravely, “Gorgeousness transcends tits.”

That May the gang made me a T-shirt printed with that quote - blue, with white letters - and I wore it proudly for many years. It was the seed of many interesting and sometimes heated exchanges, often in the subway. I never understood why people took it personally, but I dug the attention. Wonder where that shirt got to?