{"id":27443,"date":"2009-10-30T11:00:09","date_gmt":"2009-10-30T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/gregladen\/2009\/10\/30\/i-need-your-help-picking-out-a\/"},"modified":"2009-10-30T11:00:09","modified_gmt":"2009-10-30T11:00:09","slug":"i-need-your-help-picking-out-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/30\/i-need-your-help-picking-out-a\/","title":{"rendered":"I need your help picking out a tee-shirt."},"content":{"rendered":"

I would very much like your help in picking out a tee-shirt to wear around town. Let me tell you about the town, and you’ll be able to make an appropriate suggestion.
\n
\nI live in a conservative, working class, quasi-religious city, though my heart is in a nearby radical lefty atheistic edgy cool city. To put a fine point on it, a few blocks from where I sit right now is Michele Bachmann’s congressional district<\/a>, but the congressional district I’ve mostly lived in while in Minnesota, and to which I hope to move<\/a> within the next year, is represented by the first African American Muslim member of congress ever, and by local standards, Keith Ellison<\/a> is not off any kind of scale. We think of him as politically run of the mill, very smart, and very honest.<\/p>\n

Anyway, what this means (among other things) is that when I go to the grocery store I see more mullets<\/a> than people in Keith’s district will see in a lifetime, but I am also seen. I’ve noticed that when I wear one particular tee-shirt that says “Evolution” in large letters on the front (it’s from a conference<\/a>) I get stares. Sometimes they are hostile stares. At the gym<\/a>, even worse.<\/p>\n

It is a little different, but not much different, when I wear my Scienceblogs blogging shirt to the gym (and this shirt is one of the shirts I wear to the gym normally).<\/p>\n

Let me put this even more starkly perspective for you. I’m walking out of the locker room at the gym the other day, wearing my Scienceblogs blogging shirt (which says “Blog Science” on it) and walking apace and a bit behind me are two local males. One is a young guy (in his 20s) the other is an old guys (in his 70s).<\/p>\n


\nYoung Guy:<\/strong> “So, are they going to let him in?”<\/p>\n

Old Guy:<\/strong> “Hmphrh”<\/p>\n

Young Guy:<\/strong> “Into the White House.”<\/p>\n

Old Guy:<\/strong> “Hmphrh”<\/p>\n

Young Guy:<\/strong> “Are they going let him into the White House?!”<\/p>\n

Old Guy:<\/strong> “Hmphrh”<\/p>\n

Young Guy:<\/strong> “The Black Guy. Are they going to let him into the White<\/em> House?”<\/p>\n

Old Guy:<\/strong> “Hmphrh”<\/p>\n

Young Guy:<\/strong> “Obama<\/em>, the Black<\/em> Guy. Are they going to let him into the White<\/em> House? … Get it?”<\/p>\n

And please don’t think for a moment that offensive ignorance of this kind is atypical. It’s what I see, what I hear, all the time around here.<\/p>\n

But my Evolution tee-shirt is getting worn out. I need a new tee-shirt. The words should be visible enough that they can be easily seen from some distance. Although pro-evolution\/science\/whatever sloganry can be on the back, I’d really like it on the front too, so I can see the reaction. Both front and back would be good, I guess.<\/p>\n

So, help me pick out a tee-shirt. I’m mostly interested in Evolution, but other issues are good too. And, most importantly, it should be good quality, all cotton, better than average fabric. I’m going to be wearing this thing all the time.<\/p>\n

So, which one (or two) should I get for wearing around Coon Rapids, Minnesota?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I would very much like your help in picking out a tee-shirt to wear around town. Let me tell you about the town, and you’ll be able to make an appropriate suggestion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[33],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5fhV1-78D","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}