A Wee Bit Strange

Pins have their place and time. My grandmother often wears an unusual pin on her jacket, and it can look very stylish (then again, my grandmother is remarkably chic). So, I like pins. I get pins.

Most of the time. Clearly, in this case, I'm missing something. Why would you pin a bladder to your jacket? What does that achieve? Yeah, it's kind of quirky, but it's not that quirky. I mean, the socks that looked like shoes were quirkier than a pin that looks like a bladder. I mean, at least with the socks that look like shoes, you can see how the thought process went.

Designer 1: Hey, what if we made socks that look like shoes?
Designer 2: ... That's just quirky enough to work!

By contrast, here's my best guess as to how the conversation for the pin went:

Designer 1: What if we made pins that look like organs!
Designer 2: What, like the instruments? I guess, but -
Designer 1: No, like, from the body. You know, spleens, livers -
Designer 2: I guess ...
Designer 1: We can draw them like little cartoons, and give them clever names. Like, we can draw a little cartoon bladder, and we can call it the "You're in for fun" pin.
Designer 2: Oh, like urine! Got it. Yeah, that's just quirky enough to work.

Those are a lot of steps involved in the creation of a pin that looks like a cartoon bladder. As was evidenced by the socks that look like shoes, the more effort required, the less quirky it is. So, if you're wearing a pin with a cartoon bladder on it, you're not quirky. You're just trying to be. And trying makes you even less quirky, so really, when you wear this pin, you're one of the most normal people in the world. Just a normal person, wearing a pin shaped like a cartoon bladder.

Now don't you feel like a jackass?

ModCloth You're in For Fun Bladder Pin - $4.99

Sock It To Me

I am all for quirky socks. I went through a big phase in college of wearing socks with different patterns and images, after my roommate's mom bought them for her, but then she didn't want them. So for freshman year, I wore socks that could coordinate with zoo trips, holidays, and my mood. It was great. My favorite ones were covered in frogs. I don't know why. It might have been the lack of sleep, but I found them wildly amusing.



These, not so much. I guess it's because I already wear low-tops most days (at one point, my collection was up to 8 pairs but I've since had to weed it down after recognizing that I had a problem).

So I'm all for quirky, but do you really need socks that look like shoes?



Or worse, cowboy boots? The quirky is just so ... forced. It's like something that a character played by Zooey Deschanel would wear while dancing around in a vintage dress with her giant doe eyes, being all manic and pixie-ish. She'd say something about how she loves wearing socks that look like shoes, because then it's like she's wearing a second pair of shoes that only she knows about. And then she'd give a big twee smile and start talking about the Smiths as if they're some obscure band that only she knows about. Then legions of hipster boys would swoon, and the manic pixie dreamgirl would continue her reign of terror.

Modcloth Hi-Top Sock - $7.99
Modcloth Cowgirl Boot Sock - $7.99