Some of the loopy things we humans do

If there's one thing humans can be depended on it's doing weird things. Do you remember when we wouldn't dream of stepping out the front door if we weren't wearing sailor-type flares.

 A few short years later, we wouldn't venture out into the street if we weren't dressed in 'straights'. Later on - or maybe before - didn't baggy pants take over as a weird mandatory costume if you were 'hip'?

 And what of dance hall costumery - when this ancient used to deafen patrons in a dance band - when jeans, denims, were absolutely verboten.

 Who would go out to dance these days if they weren't adorned in denim?

Quirkiness doesn't change

 The human quirkiness doesn't change. Rule something definitely forbidden if you want it to be tomorrow's must-have.

I edited a website for a few years for a high school in North London back in the early part of the millennium, and the regular warnings by the administration to kids who even thought of wearing hoodies!

It seemed the punishment for murdering a playground enemy or two might be rather less than being caught with a hood raised.

Nowadays, even people of a certain age, people well into their twenties or beyond, wander along the street with hoods up. What an easy life it must make for muggers.

Perhaps one of our species' more ridiculous trends is set to explode onto our streets. Vaping they call it, and vaping shops are springing up all over.

New way of smoking

It is big time in the US, as the Americans would put it, with people of all ages, well, vaping. And what is vaping?

It's the drawing in vapours of nicotine with strong exotic flavours. As I mentioned the other day, even the upmarket New Yorker magazine features an article on the weird new way of 'smoking' over the Pond.

Encouragement for the more sane of society comes from the BBC which says that while many try vaping, few actually take it up.

Wikipedia, of course, is there to keep us informed. In it's review of vaping it uses the original term of e-cigarette.

'The health risks of e-cigarettes are uncertain,' Wikipedia reports. 'They are likely to be safer than tobacco cigarettes but ... their long-term health effects are not known. When used by non-smokers, e-cigarettes can lead to nicotine addiction, and there is concern that children could start smoking after using e-cigarettes.'

If there's any consolation for the strange happenings in our time, perhaps we just have to look at history. Continues on the blogs for my ocean adventure book, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com