Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Taim mayod, plus an annual call for sample-sale modesty

Taim, the falafel place I blogged about not long ago, has proven most tasty indeed. Sam got spicy falafel and I, after much deliberation, went for the eggplant-hummus-Israeli salad sandwich. I did not try the fruit smoothies since I'm a traditionalist and I believe diet Coke is the correct beverage to have with a pita-based meal.

In other news, I was about to change either into or out of a t-shirt-material dress I tried on at the Barneys Warehouse Sale, when, just like last year, I saw some male observers over by the women's changing area. This time, though, rather than there being men looking at women's clothing for themselves, men helping girlfriends or wives pick stuff out, or men just kind of hovering, there were three Orthodox Jewish boys, ages maybe eight to eleven, whose parents seemed to have lost track of them for a minute. I never feel right about changing at sample sales where men are roaming around, but somehow this seemed especially bad, not on the part of the kids, but just in general--these kids were so young, at least one of the three far too young to know what standing around watching women changing meant or to think of it as anything other than amusing, and all three from a culture that so values modest dress--so I waited for the boys to leave that area of the sale before switching outfits. Three suggestions: 1) These sales should all have at least a curtained-off area. 2) There should at the very least be an unwritten law keeping anyone male over the age of three away from said area, and 3) If nothing else, women should wear their most dowdy, cover-everything undergarments on days they attend these sales, since I take it women's habit of wearing thongs and no bra to these sales, then changing right smack in the middle of them, might, just might, be attracting members of the opposite sex.

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