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![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJ-d40sJFtOMZvdx2I5016ctQQ6_9RsEqIw7hCO6-WMkx-BYRmSOJqF5CK5vt6VWaGv0-kNkohxYHf9-dNyuDtOgUUGjWdCjufalDMbjeJO0PRguD_taI9m1ybjH9xvgEWTg15fMLfqBx/s400/31shorts-600.jpg)
According to the Times today, shorts are no longer "an office don't. These days, they are downright respectable" at the office.
EV Grieve responds:
"Shorts are no longer an office don't" — OH YES THEY ARE.
"These days, they are downright respectable" at the office — NO! NEVER! NEVER EVER.
That is all. Thank you.
Oh, if you must, an excerpt from the article:
The willingness of men to expand the amount of skin they are inclined to display can be gauged by the short-sleeved shirts Senator Barack Obama has lately favored; the muscle T-shirts Anderson Cooper wears on CNN assignment; and the Armani billboard in which David Beckham, the soccer star, appears nearly nude.
Not a few designers are pushing men to expose more of the bodies that they have spent so much time perfecting at the gym. “We have all these self-imposed restrictions” about our dress, said Ben Clawson, the sales director for the designer Michael Bastian. “As men’s wear continues to evolve and becomes a little more casual without becoming grungy, it’s not impossible anymore to be dressed up in shorts.”
While Mr. Bastian is a designer of what essentially amounts to updates on preppy classics, even he has pushed for greater latitude in exposing men’s bodies to view.
[Photo: Elizabeth Lippman for The New York Times]