November 2013 – Page 2 – I Don't Get It

Red Capris

My friend, Debbie, passed away yesterday from cancer, but this is how I choose to remember her–dancing in red capris. She is in heaven now, and we will lay her body to rest tomorrow. Goodbye, Debbie.

Camel And Flare Red

There’s no denying the magical combination of camel and flare red, and no better time to cover your body with it than fall. Autumn. November. And that’s NOW. So go get your camel and flare red on!

The youth of today love Taylor Swift, and even she proclaims, “Loving him was red.” Look at those models and how interested they are in that gawky adolescent boy, holding a strawberry malted. Loving him is undeniably red.

WOW–even the sign is in camel and flare red! What a power couple–like Kim and Kanye, without the limitless ego and shameless self-promotion.

Jessica Simpson knows what time it is: time to carry a Fendi leather bag. In camel and flare red.

Nevermind that she’s still in character as Daisy Duke in those ratty shorts that are binding up at her crotch, and please overlook the shoulder-padded jacket she stole from Melanie Griffith in Working Girl. The point is the BAG. The neutral and the POP of color.

But let’s not get distracted. It’s not the Hump Day Camel.

Nor is it Jennifer Aniston’s flair in Office Space.

And certainly not these flares.

It’s camel and flare red! You must admit there’s no denying the magic of camel and red.

See how happy he is?

Like Dig What’s New

For people of my generation, Bob Denver will forever be Gilligan, the Skipper’s “Little Buddy.” But to my parents’ generation, Bob Denver remains Maynard G. Krebs from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (also known as simply Dobie Gillis ), a sitcom that aired from 1959 to 1963. Maynard was TV’s first beatnik and jive-talking bongo player, and wannabe hepcats thought he was cool. Even Montgomery Ward took notice and offered trim tapered cotton ivy shirts for those in the know.

In case you missed it, here’s a close-up:

So it wasn’t Moon Zappa or Valley Girls who coined “like” after all. Mainstream American catalogs were doing it way back in 1962. They even used Maynard’s bongo-playing likeness to sell their combed cotton eversheen coats.

Facial hair? What the what? And check out these bobble heads. I wonder what they’d be worth today, American Pickers? Antiques Road Show? Pawn Stars? Anyone?

In case you’ve never seen Maynard in action, here’s a clip of him, showing his classmates the first portable music player, so he can listen to smooth jazz.