The Uniform Here in Washington

Our hotel and the location of our conference are both in very close proximity to the Capitol South metro stop as well as both House Office Buildings, where the 435 members of the House of Representatives have their offices. I can tell whenever a train's just stopped at the Metro station, as a swarm of people come up from underground in true Eloi fashion. **see below

Ah, fashion.

There's a definite uniform, especially for men, here in DC. Dark suit, light shirt, flashy tie. You might think, that's the uniform everywhere, Darren, but it's not. Anyone who's not a tourist is wearing it here. I can walk down the streets of Sacramento and see plenty of men wearing suits, but it's not like this.

There are a lot of young guys here. Pages, interns, congressional staffers. All of them wear exactly the same clothing. It's more than a little Children Of The Corn to see these teenage boys attired so. Some may think they look good dressed that way. To me it looks like they're pretending--in the words of Holden Caulfield, they're phony.

I thought about it yesterday, as I was touring about wearing shorts and a Starfleet Academy t-shirt. All the good-looking young guys around here are dressed like middle-aged fat men, and I as a middle-aged fat man was dressed like a good-looking young guy.

DC can be a very strange place, when you think about it.

**Yes, it was the Morlocks who lived underground, but the Eloi lived above ground and had become frail through lack of physical work. The Eloi probably descended from people who wore dark suits, light shirts, and flashy ties.