# Men's shorts, I pit thee **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 5, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-shorts-i-pit-thee/495442 "2009-05-05T18:08:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Monstera\_deliciosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monstera_deliciosa/32/109_2.png) [@Monstera\_deliciosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstera_deliciosa)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-shorts-i-pit-thee/495442/81 "2009-05-15T21:19:14Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > Yes, but this one was first. So, neener neener neener. > > And your ‘solution’ is no solution. Any bum can cut their pants into shorts, but cutoffs fell out of fashion around the same time as parachute pants and mullets. I like to look good in my clothes, not like I’m a ditch digger. > > No disrespect to ditch diggers. You could cut them to length, and _hem_ them. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-shorts-i-pit-thee/495442/82 "2009-05-15T22:15:59Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > And your ‘solution’ is no solution. Any bum can cut their pants into shorts, but cutoffs fell out of fashion around the same time as parachute pants and mullets. I like to look good in my clothes, not like I’m a ditch digger. No, as of last year they’re back! [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/fashion/10CODES.html?\_r=1&scp=5&sq=shorts&st=cse](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/fashion/10CODES.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=shorts&st=cse) [QUOTE=The New York Times] “They can get a little precious,” Mr. Macko said of the preppy dress shorts that men have embraced so zealously in the last year or two. Plaids, seersuckers, madras, even embroidered lobsters are as much a default setting as cargo shorts once were. So a tweak was in order, and as one might say in the fashion patois, it’s all about a cutoff. And we’re talking not just about jeans or khakis, but about a frayed hem (and a few inches more leg) on the dressiest shorts you have. “It’s just cooler, more casual,” Mr. Macko said. [/QUOTE] I learned this week that pleats are coming back too. What the fuck is happening? ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-shorts-i-pit-thee/495442/83 "2009-05-15T22:21:36Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > Trust me, it’s no less ridiculous than yours. > > I’d love to see you try to survive a summer in the South. Everybody down here wears shorts. I’ve been in plenty of hot places and never resorted to wearing shorts. I lived in the desert and never wore shorts (I did wear skirts, though). There are plenty of hot places where wearing shorts isn’t culturally acceptable, and yet people survive. It’s nice that everyone wears shorts in the South, I’m still going to go on thinking they look stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-shorts-i-pit-thee/495442/84 "2009-05-15T22:23:50Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > I’ve been in plenty of hot places and never resorted to wearing shorts. I lived in the desert and never wore shorts (I did wear skirts, though). There are plenty of hot places where wearing shorts isn’t culturally acceptable, and yet people survive. It’s nice that everyone wears shorts in the South, I’m still going to go on thinking they look stupid. I can always count on someone on this board, at least once a day, to put forth an opinion that is absolutely jaw-droppingly stupid. Up next: Why socks are for morons. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-shorts-i-pit-thee/495442/85 "2009-05-15T23:16:56Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > Up next: Why socks are for morons. News Flash: The color red is only appropriate for professional and amateur clowns. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-shorts-i-pit-thee/495442/86 "2009-05-20T08:02:27Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > News Flash: The color red is only appropriate for professional and amateur clowns. And wrestlers, both WWE and Lucha Libre. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-shorts-i-pit-thee/495442/87 "2009-05-20T12:45:14Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Yes. Or a skirt. Of course, I’m a girl, I can get away with it. But sure, I’d wear jeans. I only have one pair of shorts, that I bought to wear at the gym. I’d never dream of wearing them in public. > > I just think shorts look stupid. imho, ymmv, all that. My family and I go hiking as much as we can on the weekends and I often see people wearing jeans and sneakers on the shorter trails (i.e., not backcountry). Now, _that_ not only looks stupid, it is. It really drives home the ridiculousness of it when you see them sitting at the trailhead dripping with sweat and looking completely wilted in saggy denim. Jeans were not designed for hot weather and they perform really lousy in it. In other words, if you want to stay cool and comfortable in hot weather, leave your jeans at home. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-shorts-i-pit-thee/495442/88 "2009-05-20T15:09:31Z")
Wait, people are selling designer shorts the come with ragged cut-off legs, at $300 a pop, and there are people buying these? In other news, I guess I need to lay in a supply of shorts now before this idiocy sweeps the stores and I can’t buy anything for a year. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-shorts-i-pit-thee/495442/89 "2009-05-20T23:10:09Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > Jeans are worker’s clothes. You look ridiculous wearing them outside of a work setting. And by work of course I mean a factory or other blue collar work. You better go on home or you’ll miss _Your Hit Parade_. Seriously, are you a time traveler visiting from the past? It would be a far poorer and far sadder world if the women didn’t wear jeans! And, as far as I can tell, jeans look better on most guys as well, and are fine for informal social situations. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-shorts-i-pit-thee/495442/90 "2009-05-21T00:29:30Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > You better go on home or you’ll miss _Your Hit Parade_. Seriously, are you a time traveler visiting from the past? > > It would be a far poorer and far sadder world if the women didn’t wear jeans! > > And, as far as I can tell, jeans look better on most guys as well, and are fine for informal social situations. I don’t want to speak for **Fuzzy Dunlop** , but I think that jeans post was tongue-in-cheek. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-shorts-i-pit-thee/495442/91 "2009-05-21T00:57:12Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > I don’t want to speak for **Fuzzy Dunlop** , but I think that jeans post was tongue-in-cheek. Tongue-in-cheek would imply a joviality that wasn’t intended. It was supposed to be a derisive illustration of how stupid **Kyla** ’s opinion about shorts being for children is. But certainly I didn’t mean it, in any event. PS I don’t really think red is only appropriate for clowns. PPS Clowns DO look great in red. So do other people. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mens-shorts-i-pit-thee/495442.md?page=4)