Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Short Stuff: No Shirt, No Shoes, WTF
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: Hey, you welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
- 0:06Speaker 1: there's Chuck and there's Jerry, and this is short stuff
- 0:09Speaker 1: in the house. Let's talk. You know, a song I've
- 0:12Speaker 1: been singing all day, I do know, and I really
- 0:15Speaker 1: hope you won't sing it because I've been trying to
- 0:16Speaker 1: get it out of my head. Really, do you think
- 0:19Speaker 1: it's the same one. It's got to be, because it's
- 0:21Speaker 1: basically about this, Well, it's got to be. Did it
- 0:24Speaker 1: did eighty? Was it? From the I think sixties and
- 0:27Speaker 1: then an eighties metal band covered. Let's just not talk
- 0:31Speaker 1: about it any further, all right, we won't, because that
- 0:34Speaker 1: is what this is about exactly, That's right, uh, And
- 0:38Speaker 1: we're talking about and this is uh. This is a
- 0:41Speaker 1: shorter article from Earl Buddy Dave Bruce from the housetof
- 0:44Speaker 1: Works dot com website, and it's about uh. I don't
- 0:50Speaker 1: even want to say the word now, but it's about
- 0:52Speaker 1: when you enter an establishment and there may be words
- 0:56Speaker 1: printed on poster board that say no shirt, no shoes,
- 1:01Speaker 1: no service, yeah yeah, written by Vinny apparently, yeah, get
- 1:07Speaker 1: out of my barreau. On the other hand, it might
- 1:11Speaker 1: say shirt and shoes are required, but the upshot is
- 1:14Speaker 1: this And do you know what inspired me to to
- 1:16Speaker 1: pick this one? I have no idea. This is the
- 1:19Speaker 1: exception that proves the rule. Ah. So the the exception
- 1:25Speaker 1: is that there are places where you can't enter without
- 1:28Speaker 1: shoes or a shirt. They won't give your service, meaning
- 1:31Speaker 1: that it implies other places you could be without a
- 1:34Speaker 1: shirt or shoes. Okay, at any rate, I's so fact though,
- 1:40Speaker 1: there is a strange backstory to the no shirt, no shoes,
- 1:43Speaker 1: no service um placard. Uh. And that is that apparently
- 1:48Speaker 1: it was created. Not okay, so it wasn't created, but
- 1:51Speaker 1: it exploded in popularity in response to dirty hippies in
- 1:56Speaker 1: the late sixties and early seventies. Yeah, and I love
- 2:00Speaker 1: of the research behind this, because there's two things at work. Uh.
- 2:03Speaker 1: In this how Stuff Works article, Dave got in touch
- 2:06Speaker 1: with the uh, well, he didn't get in touch with
- 2:08Speaker 1: the first one. But there's something called the Society of
- 2:11Speaker 1: Barefoot Living. No surprise, Society for Barefoot Living. Oh would
- 2:15Speaker 1: I say of? Yeah, they're not even just of they're
- 2:17Speaker 1: actually actively trying to to promote it. There's like, we're
- 2:21Speaker 1: of it, but you should be for it. So we
- 2:23Speaker 1: went to their blog and he found that these placards,
- 2:27Speaker 1: uh they say, didn't exist until nine and that's when
- 2:30Speaker 1: they really sort of took off because of hippies. So Dave,
- 2:35Speaker 1: researcher that he is, reached out to an author named
- 2:38Speaker 1: William H. Roarer Ball, author of something called a book
- 2:43Speaker 1: I guess called American Hippies. He's from the University of Washington,
- 2:47Speaker 1: and said, hey, is it true that these placards started
- 2:49Speaker 1: sprouting up because of hippies? And it sounds like his
- 2:53Speaker 1: answer was basically yeah, sure. He's like, yes, it's true,
- 2:57Speaker 1: leave me alone. You isn't very emphatic about it. He
- 3:01Speaker 1: was just like kind of like, yeah, that sounds about right.
- 3:03Speaker 1: Yeah he was, And he basically made the point. He
- 3:06Speaker 1: was like, this is not like they didn't create these
- 3:08Speaker 1: to put out hippies. It just so happens that roar
- 3:12Speaker 1: baugh Um came from grew up in a coastal Florida
- 3:16Speaker 1: town and he was like, we had these signs long
- 3:19Speaker 1: before hippies, but they were pretty much relegated to coastal
- 3:23Speaker 1: Florida towns with beaches because it was a lot more
- 3:26Speaker 1: formal back then. That's not usually the case now. If
- 3:28Speaker 1: you could walk into a beach bar in Florida. They
- 3:31Speaker 1: don't care what you're wearing or not wearing. But in
- 3:33Speaker 1: the fifties, you said, people were more formal, So these
- 3:36Speaker 1: things did exist, but it wasn't until the hippies came along.
- 3:39Speaker 1: They really started popping up all over the country in
- 3:42Speaker 1: businesses that wanted to keep hippies out. And this was
- 3:45Speaker 1: a really easy way to do it. I thought we
- 3:48Speaker 1: had sort of a nod a wink agreement to not
- 3:50Speaker 1: say the S word. And you already said it. Oh
- 3:52Speaker 1: did I? Yeah? What did I say? Well, you said that,
- 3:56Speaker 1: I know, But where did I say? Can we can
- 3:58Speaker 1: we crop it out the middle of that sentence? Which opence?
- 4:02Speaker 1: I'll redo the sentence. I really didn't want to sing.
- 4:05Speaker 1: It's okay, it's okay. We we just won't sing it.
- 4:09Speaker 1: Keep I screwed things up this badly, Chuck, I'm sorry,
- 4:13Speaker 1: that's okay. But the same author, I think, points out
- 4:17Speaker 1: that even though he was seeing these placards up in
- 4:20Speaker 1: Florida in the nineties when things are more formal, that
- 4:24Speaker 1: you go to Florida today, something that you may see
- 4:26Speaker 1: occasionally even which is the attitude is and sometimes they'll
- 4:30Speaker 1: even have this posted no shirt, no shoes, no problem.
- 4:35Speaker 1: Welcome to my pizaria. If any moved to Florida, Yeah,
- 4:39Speaker 1: with your toes, bring them in. Yeah. So um right,
- 4:44Speaker 1: Because he was saying that the culture was more formal
- 4:46Speaker 1: back than in the fifties, which is why they would
- 4:49Speaker 1: have a mini billboard in their window that said, um, no,
- 4:54Speaker 1: no shoes, no shoes, no service. Yeah. But now it's
- 4:57Speaker 1: it's uh, it's Margaritaville. It's Jimmy Buffetts style. You can
- 5:01Speaker 1: go in there with your flip flops on, no problem. Right.
- 5:04Speaker 1: So if you looked at some of these um squares
- 5:07Speaker 1: of cardboard that were in a window, it just doesn't
- 5:11Speaker 1: matter anymore now. If you looked at some of these signs,
- 5:16Speaker 1: especially back in the fifties or in the sixties or seventies,
- 5:20Speaker 1: they would say something probably like by order of the
- 5:23Speaker 1: health Department. It turns out that this was a bald
- 5:27Speaker 1: faced lie, as dirty a lie as the hippies feet
- 5:31Speaker 1: were dirty. And I think we'll talk about that right
- 5:33Speaker 1: after a bright con chuck. It sounds like a great
- 5:36Speaker 1: cliffy and shock like I'm never going to live this
- 6:11Speaker 1: down in my own mind. I'm so disappointed in myself
- 6:16Speaker 1: that's okay, you didn't say, and just you saying it's okay,
- 6:19Speaker 1: it doesn't make it okay. It's not okay. You didn't
- 6:22Speaker 1: say long haired freaky people need not apply. Yeah, we
- 6:25Speaker 1: just might as well as just let it all hang
- 6:27Speaker 1: out now. I actually like that song, do you well? Sure?
- 6:33Speaker 1: I do. I think it's kind of fun and like
- 6:35Speaker 1: the original or the Tesla version more well. I was
- 6:39Speaker 1: into Tesla for a little while because as a just
- 6:42Speaker 1: learning guitar player in high school, Tesla had some really
- 6:46Speaker 1: great guitar songs, good licks. I wouldn't I never saw
- 6:51Speaker 1: a Tesla in concert anything. I wasn't that deep, but
- 6:54Speaker 1: I liked the music videos that they aired. But the
- 6:58Speaker 1: Five Man Electrical Band, the original version, has this really
- 7:01Speaker 1: great intro before it slows down into the song that
- 7:05Speaker 1: I really really like. They're still around and they're Canadian. Okay,
- 7:10Speaker 1: I'll bet they like Gordon Lightfoot. I hope this makes
- 7:13Speaker 1: up for my Gordon Lightfoot comments. I don't know if
- 7:15Speaker 1: it's going to, but it's a good start. I'll bet
- 7:18Speaker 1: Canada says I love Rush too. Sure, who doesn't love Rush?
- 7:22Speaker 1: I mean, you'd have to be crazy not to like Rush.
- 7:25Speaker 1: Absolutely so I said something about the health department, um,
- 7:29Speaker 1: and saying that, no, you can't come in with shirt
- 7:32Speaker 1: or without a shirt or shoes. It's just dirty. And
- 7:35Speaker 1: we're the health department, so we don't we don't truck
- 7:37Speaker 1: to that kind of thing. And um, apparently it's not
- 7:40Speaker 1: the case because the Society for Barefoot Living. Of course
- 7:45Speaker 1: they did. They went to the trouble of writing to
- 7:48Speaker 1: every health department in the country, every state health department,
- 7:51Speaker 1: so fifty different health departments they wrote a letter to,
- 7:54Speaker 1: probably a form letter. I'm sure they didn't personalize each
- 7:57Speaker 1: one from scratch, but they got sponsors from them. They
- 8:00Speaker 1: posted them on their site that says to a health department, No,
- 8:05Speaker 1: there's no law whatsoever saying that a customer can or
- 8:08Speaker 1: can't enter a an establishment with or without shoes or
- 8:13Speaker 1: a shirt. That's just not a law anywhere in the
- 8:16Speaker 1: United States. Yeah, they're like, if you work there, you
- 8:18Speaker 1: gotta wear shoes and assured. I think it's just called
- 8:22Speaker 1: proper it's higher. Yeah. No, one wants a chest hair
- 8:24Speaker 1: in their pizza, no as much less Vinny's. That's not
- 8:28Speaker 1: what you want, especially Vinny in Florida, because then it
- 8:30Speaker 1: smells like cocoa butter and it's muggy. But the Health
- 8:34Speaker 1: Department doesn't care what the people that dine there are doing. Um,
- 8:39Speaker 1: they're concerned about the people running the business. Who does
- 8:43Speaker 1: care about ensuring rights is the US federal government. And
- 8:47Speaker 1: depending on who you are in this country and when
- 8:50Speaker 1: this was, but the nineteen four Federal Civil Rights Act
- 8:54Speaker 1: basically said, hey, if you've got a business, you got
- 8:57Speaker 1: a hotel, you gotta store a restaurant. You can't say
- 9:00Speaker 1: someone's got to leave because of their religion, or their
- 9:04Speaker 1: race or color, or their national origin. What about their shoes? Uh?
- 9:10Speaker 1: And then the Americans with Disabilities Act then extended that,
- 9:13Speaker 1: of course to people with disabilities, and certain states have
- 9:18Speaker 1: gotten on board with extending those rights to all Americans,
- 9:23Speaker 1: but the federal government has still not gotten on board
- 9:26Speaker 1: with extending those rights to all Americans. Again, though, what
- 9:30Speaker 1: about the shoes? And the upshot of it is this,
- 9:33Speaker 1: you can, as a business owner require certain forms of
- 9:37Speaker 1: attire and be well within your legal rights to tell
- 9:41Speaker 1: people they can't come in, as long as you're not
- 9:44Speaker 1: just applying it to one protected group and not all people. Right,
- 9:49Speaker 1: that's the key. So if you're just like Um, you know, uh,
- 9:55Speaker 1: Irish you have to wear shoes. Everybody else is fine.
- 9:59Speaker 1: You're gonna get in trouble if you do that. Um.
- 10:02Speaker 1: At the very at least the Irish are going to
- 10:03Speaker 1: be mad at you because they'll be like, what what
- 10:06Speaker 1: do we do? Um? But that's pretty much the key
- 10:08Speaker 1: to the whole thing. Yeah, exactly. Oh that's it, that's
- 10:13Speaker 1: the end. Huh. I have got nothing else I got.
- 10:16Speaker 1: I'm wearing slippers right now. Yeah, me too. Are you
- 10:20Speaker 1: wearing socks with your slippers? Know what kind of slippers
- 10:23Speaker 1: you were in these days though? Sas sasha Washi slippers. Okay,
- 10:29Speaker 1: they're Japanese, but they're really nice and comfortable cloth slippers.
- 10:35Speaker 1: I have gotten into these Olokai products in general. Uh,
- 10:41Speaker 1: this is gonna make me seem aged now. But I
- 10:44Speaker 1: have my Olakai springing summer slippers that aren't super hot.
- 10:50Speaker 1: But then I was also you know, we went to
- 10:52Speaker 1: uh I took our first trip to the Bahamas over
- 10:56Speaker 1: the holidays, and I found myself in a predicament when
- 11:00Speaker 1: it comes to and this kind of dovetails with this
- 11:03Speaker 1: episode as far as like beach ware and like how
- 11:06Speaker 1: you got a dress at a restaurant when you're at
- 11:09Speaker 1: a beach place or a beach resort, yeah, usually, but
- 11:15Speaker 1: there's like it's still pretty casual. Like what I found
- 11:19Speaker 1: is there's like, and this sounds so terrible, but there's
- 11:21Speaker 1: like resort where that you can wear to a nice
- 11:24Speaker 1: place at a resort, but it's not like a nice
- 11:27Speaker 1: place in New York City. Yeah, like you don't want
- 11:30Speaker 1: to wear Tommy Bahama too. You know, I can't even
- 11:34Speaker 1: think of a nice place in New York, but you
- 11:36Speaker 1: could as resort where. Yeah, But what it basically was
- 11:39Speaker 1: ahead of predicament and that I never feel like I
- 11:41Speaker 1: have the right shoes down there. I have my flip
- 11:44Speaker 1: flops for the pool, and then I have my like
- 11:49Speaker 1: you know, my my new balance, my walking shoes or whatever,
- 11:52Speaker 1: and neither one of those feel right at a restaurant
- 11:55Speaker 1: like that. So I got some olakai like uh sort
- 11:59Speaker 1: of resort where she okay? Nice? Are they like woven
- 12:02Speaker 1: and kind of like doc ciders or are they like topsiders?
- 12:06Speaker 1: These are sort of um, sort of topsider esque, uh,
- 12:11Speaker 1: not woven. But then I also got a pair of
- 12:14Speaker 1: those like woven sandals that are kind of nice that
- 12:16Speaker 1: you could wear into a restaurant. I am not going
- 12:19Speaker 1: to resort any time in the planned future. But I
- 12:23Speaker 1: was at Nordstrum and saw that they had Sperry topsiders
- 12:26Speaker 1: on sale, and I was like, I'm getting those because
- 12:29Speaker 1: they're a bargain and I'm going to put them to
- 12:31Speaker 1: use someday. So I'm ready to go with the resort
- 12:34Speaker 1: wear shoes. I love it. We should meet up in
- 12:36Speaker 1: the Bahamas. It's very nice lets and I'll be like,
- 12:39Speaker 1: nice shoes, and you'll say, nice shoes. Let's go get
- 12:42Speaker 1: some tomorrow. Oh no, not down there, No no, no,
- 12:47Speaker 1: you could drink drink some rum or something. Okay, we'll
- 12:51Speaker 1: do that instead. Okay, Uh, that's it, right, Chuck. Yeah,
- 12:55Speaker 1: we we successfully patted this one out to twelve minutes. Well,
- 12:57Speaker 1: since Chuck said, we padded that me short Stuff is out.
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