July 25, 2005
Watching Mr. Roberts
Lileks levels the Screed-Ray at Robin Givhan of the WaPo over her catty article about the Family Roberts dressing too formally for Dubya's Tuesday night announcement:
It’s an article by Robin Givhan in the WaPo about the clothing worn by the Roberts clan – sorry, klan – sorry, family during the announcement that Roberts would be using his cool, serene, gay eye-beams to make everyone forget about Karl Rove. Read it all. Apparently they dressed not wisely but too well. Here’s what I love:Dressing appropriately is a somewhat selfless act. It's not about catering to personal comfort. One can't give in fully to private aesthetic preferences. Instead, one asks what would make other people feel respected? What would mark the occasion as noteworthy? What signifies that the moment is bigger than the individual?
Good questions. Big questions! And now, the problem:
But the Roberts family went too far.
Did your neighborhood civil defense sirens go off when they appeared on TV? Mine did. Now I know why.
Heh. More:
You can’t blame the Roberts family for wishing to dress up nicely. But the Roberts went too far. Do you understand? They went too far. If that child’s nice old-money anti-hoi-polloi skirt didn’t sound your klaxons, you’re just not paying attention. People who dress like Mormons are creepy. Creepy as real Mormons. Women who do not feel a surge of resentment when they put on hosiery are traitors to the gender; men who carefully knot their ties are repressing something, probably sexual; parents who put their kids in nice dress-up clothes that are 21% more formal than a newspaper reporter would have worn on Friday are rejecting modernity and the lower four quintiles. You. Have. Been. Warned.
Now go read the rest.
And when you're done, head on over to Wuzzadem for a foretaste of the Roberts nomination hearings in the way that only John can do.
Speaking of which, if Drudge is to be believed, the S.S. Hillary '08 has tacked to starboard on the matter. This should surprise absolutely nobody.
Posted by Robert at July 25, 2005 09:59 AM | TrackBackMore Mormons. What would the reviewer have made of them?
Posted by: Mark Sullivan at July 25, 2005 10:28 AMPeople who write like that are as creepy as the NYT.
And yay for them dressing appropriately. It is about time that good clothes and dressing for something that is life changing becomes the NORM instead of the exception.
Let's suppose the kid did wear a Spongebob t-shirt. Robin would have been upset that it was inappropriate and he should have been dressed nicely, and obviously the Spongebob was a ploy to try and make the tragically unhip Bush administration seem cool. There would have been a brouhaha over the whole thing, and it would have been remarked by some that the whole thing was an attempt by the administration to bump the Rove - Plame thing off the front pages. And obviously the whole thing was planned by Karl Rove.
Posted by: rbj at July 25, 2005 01:43 PMNot to mention the fact that Spongebob would've just added fuel to those other rumors.
Posted by: PC at July 25, 2005 08:17 PM"Too formally" for a nomination to the Supreme Court?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at July 26, 2005 02:24 AMDang. PC beat me to it about Gay Spongebob. We could have made it SpongeRoberts, if only the kid had worn the right shirt! Anyhoo, when writers head down the path Givhan is paving, I just think how sad it is when a job becomes a drudge and you have to think up ways to make describing people's attire seem relevant and important in order to pick up sixty to eighty G.
Then again, I probably shouldn't waste much compassion on someone who will eventually become rich by launching the PhD program at Harvard for studying the science of political clothing psychology and ideology. And you thought Women's Studies was a wasted major.
Posted by: tee bee at July 26, 2005 11:26 AMThey don't look too dressed-up. Shoot, the boy looks absolutely un-formal. He should be wearing long pants, gosh durnit!
Posted by: TheRoyalFamily at July 26, 2005 11:45 AM
