Winter hats for "style" in summer weather are maybe the dumbest thing ever

I took this photo last month of somebody waiting for the bus.  It was 84 degrees out that day, in the shade.  I can't even imagine how hot and uncomfortable she must have been standing there with the sun beating down on her:

To be honest though, I hate to throw this girl under the bus--this is more of a guy issue.


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Did you know Kmart has a Nicki Minaj Collection?

I know what you're thinking: That can't really exist.  It's easy to fake a picture like this these days.  Photoshop technology can do amazing things.

But it's real.  I was there.  I saw it with my own eyes.  I took the pic myself.  And with the help of the magical google machine, I've discovered there's even a TV commercial:





All I'm going to say about this is that it's pretty ballsy of Kmart to use the word "collection."


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My sports fan fashion rules for double logo-ing

Probably too much.

Sometime in either high school or college I came to the realization that wearing two logos at once is a bad idea.  It just looks silly.  From time to time my friends ask me about it, so here it is:

The "double logo" clause can apply to multiple articles of clothing of the same team, or different ones.  Wearing your Bruins hat with your UNH hoodie is just as bad as putting on two Red Sox things at once.

Now obviously there are some exceptions.  Layers is the No. 1 case against the rule.  If you're going to the game and you want to make sure you're always displaying your team's logo regardless of the weather, I totally get it.  It's fine to wear one under the other as long as only one is visible at a time.

There is also the "big game" exception.  This has two parts:

A) If you're going to a game and having the chance to see your favorite team live is a very rare occasion (like once a year or less), I understand why you want to show your pride by getting all decked out--but there's no need to be putting on a full Patriots uniform every week.  And even in this case, you're still probably better off just wearing one logo.

B) Playoffs.  Everybody gets extra pumped up for this, and rightfully so.  But it also has to be taken on a case by case basis.  For example, this afternoon's Patriots contest is not that big a deal (unless you combine it with corollary A from above and have the uncommon opportunity to go).  The Pats make the playoffs every year, we expect this game to happen. If it was the Bills hosting a postseason game it'd be a different story for their fans getting dressed as they head out to the bars today.  But if New England makes the Super Bowl, then it's probably OK to waive the no double logo rule.

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Why does it have to be 38 degrees out for Opening Day?

I'm going to the Red Sox home opener at Fenway today, followed by the Celtics vs the pathetic Sixers at the TD Garden.  I'd like to wear these and change shirts in between:

Or possibly my green outfit that works for both teams:

Unfortunately I don't think the cold weather will allow for either.  Why does MLB do this?  Less than half of its teams have outdoor stadiums in places that are still cold in early April.  Why not just always play the first few weeks of the season indoors and in warm weather?  I just don't get it.

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Red Sox visit White House, David Ortiz takes a "selfie" with President Obama

With the World Series champions playing in Baltimore yesterday and tomorrow, they had some free time today to swing by the White House and hang out with the President.

What an honor! Thanks for the #selfie, @BarackObama pic.twitter.com/y5Ww74sEID
— David Ortiz (@davidortiz) April 1, 2014

It's funny to note that standing in the background of Ortiz's photo is Edward Mujica, a new member of the Red Sox bullpen who was actually on the World Series-losing St. Louis Cardinals last October.

Jonny Gomes ditched his military helmet for a patriotic blazer.

Normally I don't like to just regurgitate the top stories of the moment without adding any unique insight of my own, but this is just too good.  The President also gave a speech in which he invoked memories of his spectacular post-marathon address almost one year ago.


RELATED: Looking back at the magical ride of the 2013 Boston Red Sox


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Lena Dunham's annoying/ironic Glamour Magazine cover really irks me

Despite the fact that I find Lena Dunham extremely irritating, I do enjoy her HBO comedy Girls.  One of my biggest complaints about the show (and I'm sure this is a very popular criticism) is her bizarre need to constantly appear naked.  For whatever reason she regularly goes out of her way to show off her slightly-less-than-fun-to-look-at nude body.

Apparently other similarly confused people ask her about this a lot, and she's sick of talking about it.  Clearly the best way for her to avoid having to discuss this topic is to tell people as much while posing for the cover of a major magazine.

Whatever Lena.


RELATED: Ironic photo of the day nominee


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The Celtics will finally be stuck wearing sleeves. Ugh.

A little over a year ago the Golden State Warriors announced that they would wear sleeved jerseys on occasion.  When this happened my immediate reaction was "Man, I hope the Celtics never do that."  Every team who played on Christmas Day this season also wore sleeved jerseys, but when Boston traded Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett the previous summer the league decided to pull the C's from their annual December 25th lineup (even though a Celtics uniform was created).  This year's All-Star game featured more of the same, but no Boston players were in it.

But now news has broken that the Celtics (and Bulls) will in fact be wearing uniforms with sleeves on St. Patricks Day (pictured).  Boston plays in Dallas that night, I may have to boycott watching.

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Ironic photo of the day nominee

There is a "style" that some young men subscribe to that blows my mind.  I'll admit when I was an adolescent I thought it was cool to wear my pants low on my waist; but they still hung above my hips, and wouldn't fall off if I stood straight up with my legs together (although my mother might beg to differ).  But I have troubling comprehending what is going on when I see guys wearing jeans below their butt.  It forces them to walk and stand in an odd manner, with their legs constantly spread at a strange angle in order to keep their pants from sliding down.  I'm probably just becoming a grouchy old man, but at some point the complete lack of function and comfort has to become a priority over fashion, right?  I'm not even going to get into the ridiculousness of the style to begin with, but when I saw this person I had to laugh at the irony of the situation:

Also, if it's cold enough outside to wear your hood (which it was), it's got to be extremely frigid on the parts of your body covered by nothing but your underwear.

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If you insist on playing Quidditch, don't half ass it

Recently while going for a jog along the Charles River in Boston I came across some people playing "Quidditch."  This happened to me once before two summers ago; read this in order to get some background on the "sport," and my opinion of it.  In this particular case last week I was extremely unimpressed by the participants attempt to recreate the Harry Potter game involving balls and flying brooms. The players weren't wearing any sort of uniforms, and the "brooms" they carried between their legs didn't even resemble brooms, they were just sticks with nothing on the end.  Why would anyone want to hold a stick between their legs while running around playing a game?

If you're going to play (or perform?) Quidditch, it should go one of two ways: Either it's theater, or it's a sport.  It's not both.  If it's theater, that's great, but I want to see real brooms, robes, and logos commemorating Gryffindore, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw (for the record I remembered 3 of the 4 houses off the top of my head, I had to look up Ravenclaw).  If it's a sport, that's even better.  But then make it a sport.  Ditch the brooms and everything else altogether and just turn it into a crazy game of rugby/soccer/hockey/handball involving multiple balls and goals.  Doing it halfway in between just makes the players/actors look like a bunch of chumps.

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It's time for the Super Bowl to ditch the Roman numerals already

The big news of the day is that the NFL has just decided to play the 50th Super Bowl in the San Francisco Bay area in 2016.  But the stupid thing about it is the fact that it is referred to as "Super Bowl L."  And even stupider is "Super Bowl LI," chosen to take place in Houston in 2017.  Nice job NFL opening the door to a bunch of idiotic Chinese jokes.

Back when I was 9 years old I had an awesome Patriots vs. Bears Super Bowl XX shirt (very similar to the one pictured).  And ten years later when the Cowboys and Steelers met in Super Bowl XXX, the Roman numerals were still pretty cool.  But you know what isn't cool?  Trying to figure of what next year's Super Bowl XLVIII is.  The numbers are just too big now, and nobody knows what they are anymore.  Get over yourself NFL.

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Marathon Monday.

It's my favorite day of the year.  This year it also happens to be my birthday, so it should come as no surprise that the content on this page is a little light.  Here's what I wrote to describe this day a year ago, and a photo tribute to the occasion that I posted the year before that.  And this is what I will be wearing today:

Yeah, it's kind of weird that I've used pictures of t-shirts on consecutive days, but considering the circumstances how could I not?

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LucidSportsFan t-shirt: Version 2.0

Exactly one year ago I made the first LucidSportsFan t-shirt.  In honor of that occasion I decided it was time for a second edition.  Here's what the new one looks like:

This time there is more than just one however.  In fact, there are many.  Send me an email at LucidSportsFan@gmail.com if you'd like one.  These things are going to be huge when beach weather comes around.  My early polling data already suggests that they're way more popular than the Golden State Warriors short sleeved NBA jerseys.  For the moment the t-shirts cost $20, but depending on how many people are interested the price is likely to go down.

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How come men use cash and women don't?

This is something I have noticed time and time again while working behind a bar.  If a man walks up and buys a single drink, 9 out of 10 times he'll hand me a $20 bill to pay for it.  Conversely, if a women does the same thing, she will almost always use a credit card.  Why is this?

It's not because it's too difficult to carry; I'm not talking about college girls on "club night" who go out in a tight dress carrying nothing but their phone, ID, and a credit card.  This is men with a wallet in their pockets compared to women with a bag hanging from their forearm.  If anything the men have less room for the cash.  I assume it's not a fear of getting mugged, isn't the trauma of that scenario far worse than worrying about losing $50-$100 in cash?

Is this conundrum related in some way to great-grandmothers who always write a check when buying groceries?  I don't understand what it is about cash that is just more manly; or at least perceived that way by men, women, or both.  If you have any theories on this please let me know.  Either via comment below, tweet, or the facebook.

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Short sleeve NBA uniforms?

The Golden State Warriors have announced that they will wear short sleeve uniform jerseys for three of their remaining home games this season.  My gut instinct tells me that this is a terrible, terrible idea.  Here's the promotional picture they have just released:

Actual NBA player.

Equally as poor as the decision to wear these uniforms is the selection of photograph used to show them off.  When do you ever see a basketball player do that?  Harrison Barnes (Warriors #40, pictured) can not be pleased.  All I can think of when I see this outfit/pose combination is Olympic team handball:

Some guy from the Olympics.

Come on NBA, you're better than that.  Seriously.

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Blazers on women: attractive or not?

Last night was my work's staff holiday party (since restaurants are usually throwing everybody else's Christmas parties in December, they tend to have their own in January), and now that it's almost dark outside I've just about recovered.  But the subject of this post is actually a conversation that I had last fall, which I was reminded of by one person's choice of attire for the party.

I am of the opinion that females do not look good in blazers.  While they might often look "nice" or "professional," basically any time women wear a blazer they are always going to be more attractive when they take it off.  While I have yet to obtain any hard data on this, my guess is that a very high percentage of men would agree with me.  I don't remember exactly when or how this topic came up, but the women I had the conversation with were very surprised I felt this way, and slightly stunned that I believed pretty much all other guys did too.

Weigh in if you have an opinion (either in the comments section, on facebook, or on twitter), and vote in the poll on the right.  And please don't be offended, I'm just curious.  I wouldn't have used this as a topic if the aforementioned females hadn't suggested it was a good one.

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Reebok Pumps still exist?

When I walked into the locker room at my work yesterday, these shoes were sitting there on the floor:

Apparently Reebok is making Pumps again.  Or maybe they never stopped.  I just know that I hadn't seen them in a long, long time.  Twenty-some years ago they were the coolest shoe on the planet, and my adolescent years were mildly traumatized by being unable to afford them.  The second I saw this pair I instantly though of Dee Brown.  In 1990 the Celtics rookie was my favorite basketball player, and he wore Pumps just like these.  Dee gained national fame and stardom (while also becoming Reebok's #1 salesman in the process) later that season by winning the 1991 All Star Game Slam Dunk Contest.

He pumps his shoes at the :42 second mark of this clip, and does the famous "no-look dunk" at 4:28.  If you have time, I highly recommend watching the whole thing.  Rex Chapman got robbed, he had no business not making the finals (despite his spandex):

This led to Dee being featured in a major Reebok commercial shortly thereafter:

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October is kind of a long time for the NFL to wear pink

It's breast cancer awareness month, and the NFL does their part by outfitting players, coaches, and other sideline employees in a variety of pink gear and merchandise.  Obviously it's a great cause and I have nothing against it.  But, I think it's silly that they do it for the entire month.

Colors that just aren't meant to mix.

October 1st this year was a Monday night, a perfect time for the league to debut the pink garb on national television.  However that means that 5 out of the 16 weeks of the NFL schedule will include the unusual attire.  It's kind of ridiculous that some teams may end up wearing mismatched pink outfits for nearly a third of their season.  And I seriously doubt there'll be many people sitting around watching TV in late October thinking "you know, it didn't really affect me the past 3 weeks, but now that pink is making me more aware."

Plus it feels like a lot of the novelty/impact is lost because it lasts for so long. After a while you just sort of get used to it.  Major League Baseball goes with the same theme once a year on Mother's Day, to me that makes a lot more sense.  Although it'd be pretty hysterical if MLB did it for this whole month as well; every playoff highlight from now on would be tinted pink.

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When was the last time you saw one of these?

I was at a bar on Boylston St in Boston Saturday night a couple weeks ago, and I saw a kid wearing this baseball cap:

Instantly I had a flash back to 20 years ago when it was all the rage.  The hat was cool for two reasons; one because if you were 15 years old it was funny to wear something that said "Cocks" (the Oregon St. "Beavers" version was popular as well), and two because the only hats that were cool were that particular brand, which featured this logo on the back:

Everybody I knew in high school had a college hat made by "The Game."  Here's mine:

It's quite possible I wore that thing every single day from 1991-1995.  The dirtier and more "broken in" you got it, the cooler it was.  Now I don't think I've put on my Dartmouth cap since college, but I wonder if the "Cocks" hat is going to come back into style.  Fashion and pop culture seem to recycle every couple of decades.  That and the fact that after crushing #5 Georgia 35-7 last week, the South Carolina football team is now ranked #3 in the country, the 2nd best ranking in school history and highest since 1984.  It may well be short lived though, the Gamecocks travel to #9 LSU this Saturday.

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Two fingered rings should not exist.

The other day I noticed a lady sitting at my bar wearing a ring that looked something like this:

It was the first I'd seen or heard of "two fingered rings."  It looked ridiculous; reminded me of one of those grill things rappers think are cool to wear over their teeth (also ridiculous).  So I did a little research, and apparently this two fingered ring business is for real.  But I don't care if Lauren Conrad or my girl Rihanna likes them, they're stupid.

  

Why would anyone still use this?

Supporting my case is the fact that the friend of aforementioned lady in my bar was carrying around a non-digital Nikon camera (they used to have something called "film" inside them) from about 1995.  And not like a serious photographer's camera, one of the cheap point and click things that pretty much every cellphone in the world now comes equipped with.  They even had me take a picture of them with it.

But, the really big news here is that this inspired me to create a new post category (which is no easy task, I had to reread everything I've ever written on this site), "fashion."  Take a look, lots of good stuff.  That and all the others are listed on the right side of the page below the contact email picture.

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Tory Burch scares me a bit

What does that logo remind you of?

I first noticed the logo on a pair of shoes late last winter, in early March I think.  Then I started seeing it on bags.  As the weather turned nice women all over the place were wearing flip flops adorned with it.  And just last week I was talking to a girl who had it displayed on her cell phone case.  Amazingly she paid $50 for the plastic iphone cover, just because of it.

Tory Burch is so hot right now.  Like Hansel hot.  And that is peculiar to me.  Not for the obvious reason that it seems ridiculous for anyone to pay large sums of money for a logo (and then hang it from your elbow?), but for the logo itself.

I can't be the only person out there who thinks it's eerily similar to a swastika, right?

Also check out my daily Celtics links post at CLNSRadio.com.

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