Corduroy Dept.

I was catching up on the New Yorker, and in the Nov. 28 issue, one of those little ads in the back caught my eye. It read: "Finally, horizontal corduroy pants ... cordarounds.com."

Finally? Who ever would have thought of such a thing, much less wait impatiently for it?

I persevered with the New Yorker rather than pursue the pants. Last night I moved on the the December 5 issue and found, to my surprise, that a whole Talk of the Town piece was devoted to corduroy. Specifically, to a fellow who founded the Corduroy Appreciation Club ("All Wales Welcome"). At an inaugural meeting on 11/11 ("the date that most resembles corduroy") the keynote speaker was the creator of Cordarounds, who brought along samples of his new invention, "'waffle cords,' which look as though they are covered with Braille."

Wow. So then I had to look.

Apparently horizontal corduroy is a more effective windcheat than vertical, as wind does tend to blow horizontally. Also, the site points out, "Don't you hate it when vertical cord friction heats your crotch to uncomfortable, even dangerous levels? Problem solved. Lindland's Cordarounds mesh evenly, lowering the crotch heat index by up to 22%!"

It's a very funny site with dry humor. On the page called "For now: pants" the rotating images go from happy people and piles of pants to tanks, oil rigs, and other products of the "evil multinational corporation" they aspire to be.

I just had to wear cords today.