Sunday, July 8, 2012

The Cummerbund Response

From a dream:

The Cummerbund Response: a gesture, utterance, or choice of apparel whose degree of formality exceeds what is appropriate to an occasion, typically a result of social uncertainty.
A related post
Skeptiphobia (also from a dream)

[In my dream, the term showed up uncapitalized, but capitals look so good in Jim’s comment that I’ve added them here.]

comments: 2

Jim said...

I'd like to propose the antithetical Hawaiian Shorts Syndrome: a gesture, utterance, or choice of apparel whose degree of formality fails to achieve what is appropriate to an occasion, typically a result of social obliviousness. (The Cummerbund Response usually arises out of a fear of suffering from the Hawaiian Shorts Syndrome).

Michael Leddy said...

Very nice.

My dream lacked capital letters, but I’m going to borrow them — I like the extra formality.