Up the Dubs

While watching an updated version of The Playboy of the Western World, set in modern day Dublin with a Nigerian immigrant playing the the title character, something struck me about the Irish demographic for ages 18-24: they are walking billboards for clothing companies. Now the last time I ever remember my peers wearing Abercrombie and Fitch clothes without reservations was in 8th grade (I don't want to point any fingers for the decline in popularity, but 9/11 didn't help), but if they're popular here, is it I who is behind the trend? To be honest, I wouldn't be caught dead in a shirt that proudly read A&F (I've never worn Abercrombie. In fact the only Abercrombie clothing in my house is a ratty old man sweater my father wears when he feels like doing his Fred Rogers impersonation.), or American Eagle (The only time I ever wore an AE shirt was when my mom bought one for me, during my solid color polo shirt days. Not knowing that those types of shirts were designed for meathead jocks who could bench more than my max of 70 pounds, I wore the shirt twice until the foot and half between my bicep and the fabric became too embarrasing), Aeropostale (When I first saw an Aeropostale shirt I thought it was the German form of Abercrombie), H&M (Once again, until about two years ago I thought this was a discount pharmacy), or Wal-Mart. Instead of extolling the glories of capitalism by serving as an unpaid, walking billboard for the corporation, I prefer to do it in more subtle ways: wearing cheap, sweatshop produced Fruit-of-the-Loom t-shirts that are either blank, somehow attached to credit card schemes, or ballgame giveaways (In fact, the only time I ever lied about being 21 was to get an XL t-shirt at a cardinals game). But seriously, why do these good, free trade, hipster Dubs insistent on wearing the most main stream, over priced, trite American clothing? Do they secretly love the culture they so quickly denigrate in philosophy and politics courses for its greed? Could it be that Europe, the beacon of light for authenticity and culture, is no better than the fast food, strip mall, Kevin Federline United States?

It's not just the Dubs' clothing that makes me think I'm in 8th grade standing outside room 1, waiting for Doc's Latin Class to start. Yesterday I saw people playing Magic Cards. Magic. I never started, understood, or could look at a card withoout thinking of David Bowie as the Goblin King in Labyrinth. I should probably feel some kind of bond with college students who play Magic in public; we'll probably both end up relying on the same mail order bride service. Still, I could never partake in a game that is associated with wiccans. Maybe it's because I'm terrible at card games. I like to tell people I refuse to play poker because I have a gambling problem. The real reason I don't play poker is because I am terrible at shuffling cards and dealing. Only I would lie about having a serious addiction to cover up for the fact that I couldn't shuffle cards.

So Notre Dame plays Air Force this weekend. I would like to remind everyone that there is still a war going on and to root for Notre Dame would be demoralizing to our troops. Support our troops. Is there any more pointless phrase in the American political lexicon? Maybe Secure our borders. Or The middle class. But whenever I hear "I support our troops" I'm reminded of an article by Larry David where he said he didn't support our troops. If they were an army of sex offenders, then he would support them.