Slim Fit

Today starts Week 4 of the XXX-Country Tour, and all this while I've been watching what I eat so that my slim, "garden-chic" suit (as required by the invitation) still fits when Megan's wedding rolls around next weekend. Then, I open this morning's Wall Street Journal to read . . .

Levi Strauss & Co. added room in the seat and thigh in its newest skinny jeans for men. True Religion added what it calls a "four-way stretch" spandex material to its line of men's jeans . . .

(from Tight Squeeze: Making Room for a New Men's Fashion)

Dammit. Spandex is always the answer. I just wish I'd realized that back in Tennessee. (BTW, there's a great slideshow of bluejeans history in that WSJ article.)

This guy, found at the Hoover Dam this afternoon, seems to have his own set of jeans issues.


Unkempt models aside, the Hoover Dam is an impressive place, and I enjoyed it way more than expected. In particular, the museum does an excellent job -- if a bit melodramatic -- of describing the benefits that the dam provides the surrounding six-state region. As expected, the museum omits description of the environmental devastation caused to the Colorado River's fish, etc. But such is life, fish.


One other thing that struck me about the Dam: workers completed its construction two years ahead of schedule. Instead of taking seven years to build, it took five.


Talk about slimming. Or maybe just our earliest (and best) incarnation of shovel ready.