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Now in Pajamas

Welcome, incoming. Somebody tell wwstaebler it isn’t the 30th yet, but I’m flattered to have such a diligent follower even if he can’t count. No longer in the Pajamas Media network, currently wearing clothes, and on this day in history, 5-28-09, I just renovated another one of my revenue-related projects. Crittenden’s Boutique Right-Wing Warmonger Bookshop and General Store. Kumbayah-singing lefties from TPM are just as welcome as frothing right-wingers.

OK, original post:

You may have noticed something different. I’ve joined the Pajamas Media network.  In fact we’ve been fellow travellers for some time, as I’ve been writing rants for them for several months now. It’s a mutual kind of thing.  You iron my pajamas, I’ll crumple yours. That sounds a little weird. Never mind about that.

The thing about blogging, which I’ve been doing for a little over six months now, is that you actually do end up spending half the day in your pajamas. 

I’m sure I’m not the first to observe this. In my case, I never used to wear pajamas.  Underwear and t-shirts.  Back in the day, when I was a kid in exotic climes among coconut palms and elephants, we’d wear big baggy Chinese pants and sarong kinds of things. It just happens that around the time I started blogging, by pure coincidence, my wife tried a bold experiment and got me some pajama pants.  I still wear t-shirts.  The whole pajama suit … I don’t think so. 

But I started finding myself on a stool at the kitchen counter, on the laptop, in my pajamas, and before I knew it, half the day was gone.  I needed to go out, and I really didn’t feel like I wanted to or needed to get dressed.  I felt like I was existing in an altered state, like Albert Einstein or some other absentminded genius, only stupider. These trappings of suburban American middle-class existence, clothes, did I really need them?

Are street clothes really that different from pajamas?  Not in Pakistan. There and in Afghanistan, they favor apparel that looks a lot like an old-fashioned nightshirt with big baggy pants.  Sandals, a lot like house slippers. In Arabia, they might as well be wearing nightgowns. These are very loose and comfortable clothes.  Are we really so superior, those of us who stick our legs into constricting trousers, button up our shirts, tighten nooses around our necks and lash down wingtips on our feet? You may be aware that the word “pajamas” is actually derived from the Derkaderkastani for “street clothes.”  And when I was a boy growing up in Derkaderkastan and Far Eastnam, we’d sometimes  go out in those baggy Chinese pants and Thai pakamas and Bengali longhees and no one would bat an eye, because half of them were wearing the same thing.

So I’m thinking. My kids got me some of those moccasin-style slippers a couple of years ago.  I never wore those before, either.  They work fine.  I wear them out when I take the dog to pee or go to water patches of new grass. So what’s to stop me from going to the supermarket or to my job at the Boston Herald in those slippers, a pair of plaid fuzzy pants and an old t-shirt with a couple of paint stains on it.  That would be OK, wouldn’t it? Really, what difference does it make?

Anyway, in Pajamas, there is a comfortable sort of mutual support thing going on for those who produce the strange Dreamtime fodder of the pajamosphere.  And in Pajamas, there are a lot of places, like virtual kitchens or living rooms, maintained by people in their pajamas, for people in their pajamas, where you can go and hang out in your pajamas.

Topics: blogs

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:18 pm on Wednesday, May 30, 2007

11 Responses to “Now in Pajamas”

1. gvanderleun Says:
   May 30th, 2007 at 9:59 pm

   I hate to confess it but I have developed similar habits. When I go to the store at the corner these days, however, I do dress in street clothes… except for the fur lined moccasin-style slippers, I keep those on. But only if I’m going to the store.

   I did go to the neighborhood coffee shop/bakery one morning in my slippers, bathrobe and pajamas, but that was on a dare from the staff at the bakery and the promise of free coffee and pastry if I actually did it.

   I did it only once. A man’s gotta have some standards.

2. alphie Says:
   May 30th, 2007 at 10:56 pm

   Yikes!

   Make sure they pay you in cash.

3. RebeccaH Says:
   May 30th, 2007 at 11:04 pm

   No doubt pajama-like street attire will be de rigeur by mid-century. With discreetly tailored pockets, of course. Can’t do without the pockets. Maybe pockets will replace ties as status symbols.

4. Ed Driscoll.com Says:
   May 31st, 2007 at 12:25 am

   The Circle Is Now Complete

   Jules Crittenden joins the Dark Side of the Force….

5. saltydog Says:
   May 31st, 2007 at 7:01 am

   The problem is that I fear the coming fashion will include burkas for the womenfolk.

   When one looks at the way the West dresses and the way the cultures mentioned above dress, there is a sense that the fashion discipline connotes the discipline of the mind. Lazy is as lazy dresses? Or something like that.

6. saltydog Says:
   May 31st, 2007 at 7:02 am

   I love all the pajama and lingerie ads this post has generated. Click click click.

7. Mr. Bingley Says:
   May 31st, 2007 at 7:11 am

   I’m thinking of getting a nice sapphire blue velvet smoking jacket, with scarlet piping, naturally, to wear about Netherfield as I cook and blog on the weekends.

   It’s the thing to wear whilst taking the trash to the curb.

8. El Cid Says:
   May 31st, 2007 at 2:21 pm

   http://www.discountcostumes4u.com/images/products/fw1445%20smoking%20jacket.jpg

   Sorry about the color, Bingley.

9. Congratulations Jules « Michael P.F. van der Galiën Says:
   May 31st, 2007 at 7:15 pm

   [...] 31st, 2007 by mvdg Jules Crittenden has joined the Pajamas Media [...]

10. Mgmax Says:
    May 31st, 2007 at 7:58 pm

    Crocs are the bedroom slippers you can wear outside.

11. El Cid Says:
    May 31st, 2007 at 9:27 pm

    Confabulations, Jules. You’ll be runnin’ the joint, in no time…Applause.

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