I first noticed it a couple of weeks ago when I was in Tokyo with Marianne. This “no pants” thing, I mean.
Dude’s not wearing pants, you know what I’m saying? (Orange shirt lady knows what time it is.)
The not wearing of pants begs only one question, and that question is, “Why no pants?” It’s not the sort of question that comes up very often, so I was rather surprised when it came up again shortly after my return to New York. Let’s follow the trail, shall we?
So before I even went to Tokyo, Stacey says to me, “You wanna do this thing on Monday night?”
And I say, “Sure. What thing? Which Monday?” (Notice I agree to go before I even know what I’m in for. It’s all part of my latest initiative, Get Out Of The House More Before Your Body Parts Atrophy, Fall Off And Begin To Mold Campaign 2008)
Well, Stacey says it’s this thing. It’s called Girls Night Out. It’s on a Monday. You can buy stuff. They hand out free drinks. There’s a goodie bag.
Well, this was the Monday. The snaps turned out a little lackluster, so I’ll just give you my two favorites.
Changing pods. Obviously designed by men. Because nothing says privacy like transparency.
The beer & food pairing. I don’t even know where to begin with this one. There’s just something delightfully ludicrous about a man trying to convince you that Bud Light is the perfect beverage to serve with brie, that pomegranate-infused Budweiser is just the thing to go with the soft, sweet cheeses in your cheese repertoire, and that a lime-flavored Bud pairs nicely with the harder, tangy side of the cheese spectrum. I just couldn’t get past the dubious aesthetics of three misshapen blobs on a too-large black plastic picnic plate next to three sad little raspberries. Thought bubble: “Huh. This doesn’t look like the plating for any cheese soiree I’ve ever thrown. But perhaps I *will* serve lime-flavored Bud at my next party. Or not.”
We left the event with our goodie bags and headed to Little Italy for dinner. That’s when I saw him.
Strange little gold man. No pants.
Just a top hat and a short, formal jacket, some props and what appears to be a bit of strategically placed frippery or foliage over his naughty bits. All I know is that this is The Puck Building and that must be Puck.
If that’s not a call for a Wiki Safari, I don’t know what is.
Step 1: Wiki “The Puck Building”
Not too fruitful. A bunch of blah-blah about the building itself, but no decent in-depth analsyis about why Puck himself is not wearing any pants. I do learn that it’s called The Puck Building because it once housed Puck Magazine.
Step 2: Wiki “Puck Magazine”
Confirmation that the little gold man in question is, indeed, a take on Shakespeare’s Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He’s the mascot of Puck Magazine, referred to as “America’s first successful humor magazine.” Apparently, the earlier ones simply weren’t funny and since publication ended in 1918, apparently Puck Magazine likewise lost its sense of humor.
If we can believe everything we read on the Internet, then we can believe the following: “The jaunty symbol of Puck is conceived as a putto in a top hat who admires himself in a hand mirror and appears not only on the magazine cover but over the building’s entrance as well.”
Sadly, this passage still does not explain the sculptor’s blatant disregard for pants even as the man is willing to provide Mr. P. plenty to occupy himself with above the waist.
On the plus side, it’s always nice to see the word “jaunty” used in a sentence.
Step 3: Wiki “putto”
“The putto (pl. putti) is a figure of a pudgy human baby, almost always male, often naked and having wings–These images are frequently, and erroneously, confused with cherubs.”
Good lord! That’s marvelously funny. Can you imagine a face-off between the putti and the cherubs, all naked and pissed because they’re being confused for one another?
Apparently the difference is this: “If religious (sacred) – they were Cherubs. If secular or mythic (profane) – they were Putti.”
I. Did. Not. Know. That.
And I still don’t know why he’s not wearing pants.
‘Nite,
Liz
Filed under: General Babble, Out & About in NY | Tagged: Liz Maverick, Liz Maverick Thinks Too Much
Loretta Chase’s recent book “Your Scandalous Ways” explains these putti on the ceiling of her courtesan heroine. The men in her life come to like these boys, too.
He is wearing a fig leaf or some sort of shrubbery to cover his private bits at least.