Twenty years ago, I wore this very outfit – leather pants and all – to a Christmas party. My kids were eight and eleven at the time, so if they noticed or cared, they offered no commentary. Please note that the top was a high neck, long-sleeved sweater, and the pants, though leather, were far less revealing than a pair of leggings at the supermarket. I’ve never been one for skin displays. If I could find a swim suit that is essentially a neck-to-hip box made of Lycra® and polyester, I could go to the pool with complete confidence.
A fun little feature of this strip is a tiny little non sequitur in the lower left hand corner of the first panel. The Sunday strips had to be created three months in advance of when they appeared in print, so this one was written and drawn in September. Topicality was not possible beyond the acknowledgement of the season; spring flowers, snowstorms, holidays – that sort of thing. However, I knew this would hit the papers the week of my son’s birthday, so I added that little message – not so much for him (the kids didn’t bother to read the strip until they were adults), but as a notation to my future self, when all of this would be a fond memory of a younger, more productive, perhaps sexier time.
Nah. I’ve never been sexy. Sexy people don’t pine for box-shaped swim suits.