Thang Nguyen 555

Here we go, Lions, here we go.

Last year,  there was a Nittany Lions “white out”, with 20,000 wearing all white (post Labor Day) at  Beaver Stadium.

http://www.csmonitor.com/photosoftheday/index.php?image=5&date=specials/last_chance_summer/

It’s time to unpack those sweaters, and look forward to the traditional  Thanksgiving season.

I cherish those autumn moments at my parents’ s graves in Virginia where fallen leaves cover the engravers, but not thick enough to block out many fond memories of my early life.

On (Lunar) New Year’s eve, they would take turn whipping out poetry (although they both spoke French just as well)

to welcome the approaching year, one of the twelve symbolic animals, Year of the Cat for instance.

Something about those foliage which reminds us all of the passage of time. The author of Passage was interviewed

this morning . The segment was about 4 million Americans who turn 30 this year.

And for this group, the average earning is 50 grand, while debt is half that.

When you are 30, you are self- conscious around your peer, especially if you were still single (1/3 are).

Definitely you are fashion-aware: dress for success.  I used to be in sales training class in New York with some guy who wore Brooks the whole way. Others wore Madova, or carried Mont Blanc. My thing was silk ties.

But I never let myself go “Larry King” (suspenders).

It’s true that perception is more real than reality itself. In Gladwell’s “Blink”, we learn that people often made decision based on first glance and gut feeling (heart)

Everything after “blink” is just rationalization ( head.)

Even at Penn State during my time, we had an unstated fashion code: varsity T’s and belt bottom blue.

The Rocky series had just arrived on the scene (one hand push ups, all-gray sweats) . So was disco which slowly displaced the 60’s hair.

And Happy Valley guys started wearing those Travolta shiny shirts on the disco floor. Freak out!

I still have my graduation picture to prove this (except for the PROOF stamp on it).

We have gone a long way from a hunting-gathering society to today’s knowledge workers’ era.

ATT came up with the regular blogger (hair, glasses, short sleeves) as an answer to Verizon’s “can you hear me now” .

I am sure in this post- Mercantile post-Recession era, the last thing on someone’s mind is to be fashion-forward.

Yet “September Issue” is hitting the big screen, and promises a behind- the-scene look at “the Devil wears Prada” Vogue Editor. Meanwhile, American Apparels in Los Angeles is laying off its undocumented workers this month (last month, we read about the closing down of NY garment district itself).

First, North Carolina (textile and furniture)  then New York, and LA. I hate it when wearing DKNY (NY stands for New York),

yet made-in-Vietnam or elsewhere, on trips back to Vietnam itself. My friends there often

laughed and said I had gone a long way round for my shopping trip. The thing is, if I were to make a trip this fall to Vietnam, they have yet made those H1N1 surgical masks in any color except white. Then, I would have to commit a Fashion Faux Pas.

Here we go, Lions, here we go. 20,000 white masks in Beaver stadium

is not a bad entrepreneurial idea. Keep those cheers coming. Just don’t let white masks or the visiting teams stop you.

Defense! Defense! Defense!