Snippets

[magid]

Seen

• graffiti on a sidewalk between the Yard and the science center: "do not settle". In Cambridge? Or for a partner?
  
• metallic red devil horns on a blue bike helmet

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Halacha geeking: Would there be issues of beged eesh if I wore a Buddhist monk's skirt?

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Last night I got to drive home to an incredible lightning show, getting home before the thunder was audible. It had been already cool in Wellesley, but was still warm in Cambridge, so I got to feel the changeover, as the lightning got closer, the thunder got louder, and the rain started. The fan was blowing air that kept changing temperature erratically, which was rather fun.

And while I'm glad that the heat has gone (for now, anyway), and the humidity is a bit lower, this summer has been less difficult for me than previous years (though there's still August to come...). Maybe I'm just getting old, but the heat isn't quite as debilitating as usual. Which is at least a good side effect of aging...

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Linkage

• Osewalrus' take on a work-religion issue, about pharmacists refusing to fill scrips
  
• Tigers & Strawberries on Thai basic herbs, how to use and grow them

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Porch notes

• The wire windowbox planter holders fell, making a mess in the back yard (and on the house, and the gate, and the house next door). Goodbye marigolds and mixed flowers (all from seed). It's more annoying because this is just what I've always worried about, and it happened (making me even more nervous about putting in an AC, if I ever get one). Only the kind that sit on top and over three sides of the railing for me.
  
• Both nasturtiums are blooming, in different shades of orange. Also in flower: lavender (which looks like tiny purple butterflies alighted on the flowerbuds) and sage (also purple, not as small). I'm particularly glad about the latter, since I'm hoping it means it's stabilizing after the abrupt transition to container life.
  
• I need to get the arugula and watercress out of the sun a bit more; they've been unhappy.
  
• Still haven't transplanted the ginger.
  
• Still haven't done another concerted organizing effort to get more flowers and other plants.

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Weekend highlights

• Shabbat dinner on the porch (and the unanticipated satisfaction of being able to host a random person at the last minute)
  
• conversation Shabbat afternoon (especially because long Shabbat afternoons alone can be hard)
  
• canoeing in Gloucester; I haven't been in a canoe in a bazillion years, and was mostly a passenger, but this was lots of fun, riding out the wake of the faster boats, seeing the variety of architecture from the water, going through the partly submerged grass. Many thanks to the hosts who had a canoe available, and to the one who steered. Also to the obtainers of fish that ended up double-wrapped in foil with freshly-picked herbs; I haven't had schrod in far too long, and it was excellent.

Comments

[cellio]

Halacha geeking: Would there be issues of beged eesh if I wore a Buddhist monk's skirt?

Usual disclaimers -- IANAR, speculating rather than citing sources, etc.

I would think that there would be in India and would not be in the US. Context matters. Isn't there a ruling (err, somewhere... Shulchan Aruch?) that women can wear pants that men wouldn't wear (e.g. pink and lacy, maybe), because they clearly aren't men's garments? To the average American a Buddhist monk's skirt is not clearly men's clothing. Yes, those are different cases, but I can see similar reasoning applying.

(I am astonished that, hours after you posted this, I have the first comment on this topic!)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I believe context does matter, but depending on the community, matters more or less (or there are absolute boundaries that are not crossed). Though I think a lot of those boundaries are about tzniut (modesty), rather than strictly beged eesh. Which is why the monk's skirt is fascinating: there's no question of it being considered modest for any community I've heard of (being around ankle-length, and not pants (which is definitely outside the pale for many places)).

Given that Buddhist monks are a rarity in the US, so their clothing wouldn't be as obviously designating male-ness and monk-ness out of context, maybe a better question for the US would be a kilt, except that that's already been made a gender-neutral garment, plus it's just knee-length, so shades over into questions of levels of tzniut.


Usual disclaimers
That's what I was more interested in, really, the conversation :-). Though if I found a place I could buy one...

(First comment: who knows what people were busy with yesterday/inspired to write about/etc.)