I just came back from the loveliest dinner at Chanto with a dear friend of mine who dissed me on my birthday. He replied that he would attend and then never showed up. While he did call later in the evening to let me know, I was not too pleased. So the lesson from that story is that if you commit to going to an event, you should follow through or else your host just might hate you. What if your host is relying on a headcount or has prepaid for a meal? It's just rude not to show up. Granted if there was a true emergency like he was hit by a car, I would have been more understanding. But enough berating and preaching. So my dear friend made up for his absence by spending some quality time with me this evening at a new and delectable Japanese restaurant. I forgave him after we drank a bottle of sake. Chanto was stylish and nicely sized without being overbearing unlike certain other pretentious Japanese juggernauts in this city which I will not name. You can venture a guess. The quality of the fish was superb and the sushi was beautifully presented. The deal was sealed for us when we noticed that the clientele was mostly Japanese. Then you know it's got to be good.
During our meal we watched the summer night parade of the West Village. We watched groups of girls struggling to emulate Sex and the City. There were the usual tourists looking everywhere which no real New Yorker ever does. Then we saw a good-looking gay couple that decided that it was OK to wear their underwear out of the house. OK they weren't really that bare. They were wearing shorts and white undershirts. Whether they were wearing underpants was unknown to us. My friend offered to run after them with his new iPhone to take their picture. I declined. I think his offer was really a result of him wanting to show off his iPhone.
But back to the topic at hand. What is it about the summertime that causes people of all backgrounds, rich and poor, gay and straight, black and white, man or woman, to think that it is OK to wear undergarments in public places? Perhaps the heat bakes good judgment out of our heads. Or maybe it's our crotch-flashing (e.g., Britney, Lindsay and Paris), exhibitionist culture that encourages people to show off their bodies regardless of physical condition? I just don't know. But what I do know is that undergarments should stay under something or displayed in the privacy of one's home or at a strip club. Except perhaps if you're really, really hot, then you can getaway with anything.