Yesterday, a week before September, the men of Sydney doffed their Winter socks and runners, and dug out their trusty thongs (flip flops for my US readers), from the dark recesses of wardrobes all over the city, to enjoy more fully the gorgeous Sunday sunshine that we received.
I went down to Penrith Showground to check out the annual display of students' art and craft in the Penrith District Show - my class really cleaned up on prize ribbons last year - and although my school did quite well, I didn't have the same emotional response since - now I'm in the library - I'm not teaching any art and craft. Sigh.
In any case, as I was saying, yesterday there was an hilarious increase in the number of Aussie men displaying tanned legs and lily-white ankles above their thonged feet. You'd think they'd spend a few days getting a more even tan around the backyard before venturing out, but no... yesterday was the first appropriate day for thong wearing, and wear thongs they did! Tan lines? Who cares about tan lines!
I would guess that, in a few more weeks, the fashion conscious guys will realize that last summer's thong varieties are so passe, and there'll be a sudden switch of styles. Gone are the days when Aussie double-pluggers were manufactured here (by the Dunlop tyre people, of course), and worn for years until the foot outline wore through to the pavement underneath, and the thongs literally fell apart. (Unless the lugs broke on the straps first.) Nowadays, Aussie men are allowed to be metrosexual enough to own several pairs of thongs at once (eg. Bodie in "Big Brother" this year entered the house boasting seven pairs, each pair colour-coded to his designer outfits!). Keeping up with the new season's designs is almost compulsory.
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4 comments:
Great Guardians, Ian! All this talk of thongs and double-pluggers could get an American in trouble! :)
Hehehehe!
I hadn't thought of that. People find this site, accidentally, all the time when they're Googling. I guess a lot of Americans Googling "thongs" are going to be disappointed.
But now I'm not game to think of what a "double-plugger" might be.
Poor John de Lancie (Star Trek: The Next Generation's Q) got into terrible trouble at an Australian convention once. He came on stage after several other events, and the audience was looking a bit jaded. He told everyone to "Stand up and rub each other's fannies". He was greeted with audience hilarity. The compere had to whisper the Aussie meaning in his ear; the look on his face was precious!
Tell you what, Ian. If you ever find me good and drunk, remind me to tell you the American meaning of "double-plugger" :)
Or you could just Google it, I guess.
Weird! I had the opposite happen to me the other day, trying to explain to an American that a double plugger is Australian footwear and not some weird sex toy is hard.
I even commented on it here....
Great post :P
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