Free Pants

Inevitably, anyone put on a pedestal eventually falls on their head. Mike Doughty tilted to the side (right, not left) by playing a gig for The Gap on 54th St in NYC. Playing in front of a wall of denim and adding, "Did I mention I got free pants?" doesn't quite cut it. I suggested he give the pants to someone in Eritrea or Ethiopia to clear his conscience. He's been there. He knows. Nothing's really free when it's made in a sweatshop.

It's not that I don't have any Gap clothes in my closet. I do. But I use a few strategies to get around the corporate cesspool that is the garment industry. One big one is buying used. It means somewhere, someone else committed the offense. By the time it gets to me, the money usually goes to a good cause. A small way of circumventing the evil empire. The other is to buy less (which is less successful than buying used).

Listening to a big pile of Jayhawks CDs ("some rare") I got off of eBay, and enjoying having a pic of a Chilean friend with Michelle Bachelet, the President of Chile (their first woman President), on my fridge.

Second Thai proverb of the day: Do not try to break a knife handle on your knee.