Whether it should be viewed as a benefit or no, one of the side effects of reading is that one connects lines and snippets of literature to the stuff of everyday life. Last weekend, I was stuck at the mall for four hours — my car needed engine repair and my mechanic is located in the outskirts of the parking lot. So, marooned, I wandered, window-shopping and people watching. This latter activity brought to me the prevalence of something I had heard of but seen only a few times: Christmas sweater tights.
Teenager after teenager, college student after college student, I saw a dozen or perhaps a score of young women and girls wearing these substitutes for pants. Fascinating to think of the brief years between the widespread introduction of fashion tights and jeggings and these snowflake and Christmas tree patterned show-all garments!
Others interested in prescriptive fashion will and do (I am sure) have much to say about these bottom enhancing bottoms, as several of my friends have. But the first thing that ran through my head when I saw a gaggle of snowflake and Christmas tree sweater tight clad college coeds walking through the mall was a line from Shakespeare: oh brave new world, / that has such people in't.