The picture here is more “gift-shoppy” (read: ridiculous) than the shirt he was wearing, but I think the picture is instructive just so we all roughly know what I am talking about.Ultimately, this guy was making a conscious decision. He was silently saying, “I like outer space, and I don’t care if this is a socially marginalizing choice, what I care about is that the solar system is awesome.” Because it really is a socially marginalizing choice. Wearing an outer space themed shirt, or a similar museum-gift-shop dinosaur shirt in your everyday life effectively cuts you off from tons of social circles. If you're going to rock shirts like this, it's a wrap for you on having sex with anyone who doesn't also wear these shirts.
Upon further reflection, I think this is rather unfortunate. I’ve been to a couple natural history museums with friends recently, and everyone is psyched to check out the dinosaur exhibits. And excluding the reputational damage from the time Lance Bass almost went into space, space travel still seems pretty sweet to most people I know. But although I still think space travel and dinosaurs are sweet, I’ve long since passed the age where it’s acceptable to be truly enthusiastic about such things, or enthusiastic enough to wear t-shirts like the one my friend’s friend wore. It’s been so long that my actual enthusiasm has diminished, and I presumably will never recover that. Had I known this was going to happen, I would have soaked it in a little more. If I could live life over again, I would definitely make sure I saw “Jurassic Park” in theaters instead of watching it three years later on NBC.
Regrets, I’ve had a few.
10 comments:
Recently, I've been musing on a related issue: "How come nobody aspires to be an astronaut anymore, when that's what everyone wanted to do as a kid?" Maybe you've solved the mystery!
I'm not sure that's the same issue. Becoming an astronaut doesn't seem to be a "socially marginalizing choice." Actually, I imagine they can get laid whenever they want to.
One thing that was cool about being an astronaut was getting to eat dehydrated "space food" out of the tubes, but now we find that sort of gross.
I feel that this has hurt the astronaut field.
Did you read jurassic park when it came out?
i would go on a date with a guy who wears this shirt. maybe he could teach me linux commands! further proof that i am God's gift to nerds.
i think "being in space" is a deterrent to getting laid whenever.
Plus, from this NYTimes Article:
"Past experiments in long-term isolation have shown how intergroup conflicts can endanger a mission. During a nine-month simulated Earth-orbit mission starting in 1999 and conducted at the same Moscow institute, a male Russian’s attempt to kiss a female Canadian colleague ended in accusations of sexual harassment and the Russians’ being barred from the woman’s module."
Not so smooth.
cosmonauts and astronauts are birds of a differnt feather. the russian probably stunk of vodka and pickles.
MVEMJSUNP
Screech was a genius.
Your post reminds me of the "30 Rock" episode where Jack wants to recreate the feeling of being so excited, he throws up. "Watch out, he's going to jack!"
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