T Shirt

It's startling to observe the changes you go through when you move to another country - changes in the way you interact with women and men. Even the way you dress. I started to think about acculturation after I moved from Germany to Southern California. I was sorting through clothes to see what to throw away, and I discovered a pink T-shirt. I hadn't worn it since the move, but when I put it on, I noticed that I still liked it. A lot. I've always liked pink because it's more intriguing than, say, red in the same way a complex jazz harmony is deeper than a simple triad.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Personalized T-shirts — The Better Business Bureau is warning that a company that sells made-to-order T-shirts has pocketed consumers' money without delivering the goods. The consumer group said it has received more than 100 complaints from consumers who said they paid Personally Yours for personalized T-shirts but did not receive them and could not get refunds. "When making online purchases, the best recourse consumers have is to pay by credit card," said Robert Crockett, chief executive of the BBB serving Southern Nevada.

Re "Free-speech fashion," editorial, April 26 If the slogan "Homosexuality Is Shameful" isn't "fighting words" and does not attack individual gay students, then it would follow that the slogan "Hitler Was Right" would be stylish attire for the classroom too, or "Slavery Was Better Than Affirmative Action." How about "Illegal Immigrants Are a Virus and Should Be Treated As Such"? Would words like that not simply offend but distract Jewish, black and Latino students? Or is that their problem?

Watching the demonstrations move down Wilshire Boulevard on Monday, I was once again reminded of the power of the T-shirt, the most democratic of all garments. In recent years, white T-shirts have been associated with gang activity, but on Monday they conveyed a message of peace and acted as a canvas for humanist slogans.

A 14-year-old was reprimanded for wearing a T-shirt to school depicting The Penguin, Batman's arch enemy. His mother said the principal complained that wearing the shirt was a sign of devil worship. James Bateman said he is tired of the rigidity in Colorado City, a primarily polygamous, breakaway-Mormon town in the Arizona Strip, a mile from the Utah line. He said he was hassled by students and teachers two years ago when he wore short-sleeved shirts to school.

Shanghai's best-selling T-shirt, which bears the design of the American flag, has been banned by city authorities, who say patriotic Chinese should not wear such clothing. The Shanghai Liberation Daily said high-level officials ordered the ban because the shirts, 30,000 of which had been sold, "were having a bad effect on society."

Phil Burnett, a resident of Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, has tapped a frustrated population of residents and merchants on the crowded peninsula, where they are buying his original-design T-shirt as fast as he can have them made. One side of the white T-shirt features a picture of a parking ticket with a red slash through it and a caption reading "$27 for a parking ticket is a crime."

Saul Shechter struck out in his lawsuit against Billy the Marlin in the case of the flying souvenir T-shirt. Jurors took more than 7 1/2 hours over two days to decide in favor of the Florida Marlin mascot, the Marlins' baseball club and Pro Player Stadium in the negligence case that arose from a baseball game two years ago at which Shechter was injured. Shechter, 77, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., attended a Marlin game on July 20, 2000.

Call them what you want -- bazookas, muskets -- the wide-mouthed guns used to zing T-shirts into the stands are one of America's greatest inventions, along with Weber grills and the telephone, not merely life-altering advances but social achievements that bring us closer as people. Sports sociologist that I am, I have wanted to fire a T-shirt bazooka for years. When I first spotted one, I got the same sensation that Gretzky must have had when he first spotted a hockey stick. Or Dolly Parton a synthetic wig. So here I am, on this hot August night, during the most significant homestand of the Angels' season, learning to properly fire the T-shirt gun. Obviously, I make the most of my free time.