George Gurley sez "Hide your feet!"
There's something both hilarious and horrible about this piece (which smacks a little bit of Phillip Weiss's brand of it's-about-my-neuroses journalism, only with a working sense of humor). While it seems at first glance more LA than New York to me -- body display as fashion that reveals a hidden and unspoken hierarchy of appearance that can be adjusted to any level, that's perhaps prejudicial, my desire to deflect its measurement of the kiddie-pool depth of local culture I swim in. It's a funny bit, of course, but for all that shudderingly revelatory of our reflexive (New York? American? Media-Class? Age-of-MTV?) need to combine spectation with anxiety. Perhaps, for the urban person in 2002, our sense of place in the world (I opine gaseously) has become so fluid, so indistinguishable from that of others, so contingent, that we are now given to seeking out the signs of our place in the Order of Things with increasingly hysterical attentiveness? Yes?
Or no. Maybe Mr. Gurley was just desperate for a story.
Posted by BT at August 08, 2002 10:39 AMHeavens to Betsy, who *is* this guy? As for L.A. vs. New York, the piece reads mostly like an extended mid-90s Seinfeld goof ("She's Got MAN FEET!"), which I suppose is kind of New York, right?
I'm pretty sure I missed your point on the rest of it, though. So I'll step aside.
Posted by: hackly_fracture on August 8, 2002 11:21 AMHave you ever wondered exactly what "Heavens to Betsy" means, anyhow? Who is this Betsy? And why are the heavens trying to get in touch with her?
Posted by: scott on August 8, 2002 12:26 PMScott, I think it is shorthand for the quintuple play, as in Heavens to Betsy to Tinker to Evans to Chance. Get one of those babies and your opponents already have 2 outs at the beginning of the next inning, which is very discouraging to them and leads them to often just go out on strike.
Posted by: hackly_fracture on August 8, 2002 12:53 PMI once dated a guy who had a massive foot-phobia -- couldn't bear women in sandals (and god forbid they should have toenail polish) but also wouldn't expose his own feet to anyone if he could possibly help it. Something in that experience warped my feelings about toe exposure. I stopped wearing sandals. This denial of the open-toe was only reinforced during my years in the city, where the thought of an insufficient barrier between street-corner effluvia and my skin was enough to keep me awake at night.
Ah, but California. Since moving here (and yes, I'm back here) four years ago, I've rediscovered the beauty of the exposed foot, and once again accepted my feet for what they are. I even polish my toes sometimes.
The thing I find funniest about the article is Gurley's exposure of his own phobia. As with that ex-boyfriend, the anxiety seems far more about Gurley than about the feet in question.
Posted by: KF on August 8, 2002 01:30 PMFrom the article:
>>Nearby, Matt Daniels, a 27-year-old actor, was smoking a pipe
The unedited version:
Nearby, Matt Daniels, a 27-year-old actor, was smoking a pipe. When he spoke, he opened his rancid mouth, displaying browned teeth. His wool, patched-elbow sportscoat was permeated with the smell of cigar smoke. This was the guy I wanted to talk to about disgusting things women do.
H-F, thanks for solving the Heaven's to Betsy quandry. Heaven's to Murgatroyd, I thought it would remain unsolved.
Posted by: teenidol on August 8, 2002 08:53 PMThat's the most unhelpful word-origins column I'v ever seen! "It's just traditional" is a shamefully inadequate response. If he can't come up with anything substantive, he should at least have some convoluted, snarky take on the subject to compensate.
Posted by: BT on August 8, 2002 11:55 PMi'm just pissed that george gurley is getting pee-ay-eye-dee to write a lame-ass 2,500 word front page(!) rant about ugly feet while i can't even cover my rent.
Posted by: mlang on August 9, 2002 12:24 PM