I am currently watching a finely dressed couple -- she is slinky with long dark hair and clothes that scream of fashion. He, obviously an employee of the top scale department store, is immaculately attired in a dark suit and expensive paisley silk tie. He has a moustache & goatee, but it is connected down his cheeks with sideburns that funnel in the shape of a very wide "L." The hair is thin, a small line connecting the patches of hair like a river joining two seas. I'm sure it is stylish and quite difficult to maintain, but it is also phenomenally ugly.

This couple reeks of teenage society and "the look." I don't remember being so obsessed with such things in high school -- but from old photographs, I definitely was. I look back through images of me -- wearing my leg warmers with an izod skirt in the endless sunshine of southern california -- and flinch at my trendiness. As I've aged, I'd like to think that I've abandoned these things for other pursuits, but I realise it is just old(er) age and laziness.