Usually when the subject is Illinois governors and someone
brings up cuffs, you know what they mean. But this week I’m talking about
attire, not arrests. We’ve had chief executives who preferred casual clothes –
Jim Edgar comes to mind – but Bruce Rauner prefers what I call casualty clothes,
because he looks likes a guy pulled from a boat accident who was dressed in
whatever the crew could spare.
Some readers will dismiss my complaints as trivial, even
mean. Trust me, I’m not criticizin,’ I’m just observin.’ If I want to insult Rauner, I can talk about his policies, which he also bought off the rack, apparently, at the American Legislative Exchange Council outlet store.
Not many people know this, but I began my writing career as a fashion critic. In my high school yearbook I described the pink and purple madras shorts worn by one of my intramural basketball teammates. Those shorts had a lot to do with our winning the school championship that year, since they had the same effect on defenders that flashing lights have on some epileptics. It was on the court that I learned then how important clothes are to a man.
This article appears in Mar 10-16, 2016.
