Friday, May 29
Wearable Towels Redux
Another reader comments, in re Cato the Younger, as to whether he was pretentious or not:This is clearly the ideal summertime uniform for all NR employees. [...]
Update: I love Corner readers. A reader corrects me:
[...] That's not a toga, that's a chiton. A toga is 12 yards of wool cut in a trapezoid shape that you have to throw over one shoulder, wrap around the body and drape over the opposite forearm. While the ancient, ancient Romans used to wear it with nothing underneath but a loincloth, by Caesar's day only a pretentious git like Cato the Younger did so. Everyone else wore a chiton underneath-—more evidence of sissifying Greek influence, I'm sure.
Update II: He adds:
By the way, only citizens could wear the toga, whether patrician or plebian. And the monly women allowed to wear it were whores. Respectable women wore a stola and palla.
Cato was indeed pretentious, although I'm not sure exactly what a "git" is. [Watch more Monty Python -MGA]. His pretension was seen by going commando under his toga, the rough equivalent of an America pol running around in cocked hat and knee breeches in memory of George Washington. If that isn't pretentious I don't know what would be.How is dressing up like George Washington pretentious? I think it'd make C-SPAN actually worth watching. Let's get some doge's caps and full-bottomed judges' wigs while we're at it. Though, semper ubi sub ubi, pace Cato.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
