Often times I wonder how our discussions end up at certain topics, and today was no exception.  While eating lunch, a former post-doc from our lab who is in his early 30s began talking about some of the interesting fashion fads that were big while he was in middle school.  The younger ones of us ended up laughing hysterically at his favorite fad, tight-rolling the bottom of pants.  Take the below picture for example.

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Amazingly, or maybe not, a few other guys in our lab actually subscribed to this ridiculous trend as well.  And of course, this led to other crazy, short-lived fashion trends.  A number of distinctly 90s fads came to mind, and throughout the day, we continued to recount others.  Namely for hair fashion were the bowl cut and the butt cut, as well as rolled/folded socks.  Baggy pants and sagging also made the honorable mentions list.

A few of the guys in their late-20s ended up going nuts over the obsession with silk clothing, most importantly silk shirts and boxers.  And a way out there trend also included water beds.  We amazingly had a 20 minute discussion about water beds and how crazy it must have been to actually buy one.  Issue number one for me would be the actual possibility of sea-sickness in your own bed.  Steve mentioned his uncle who actually had a water bed and how he changed the water every three months.  It must have been hilarious seeing a garden hose running through the house up to the bed to refill it.  But really, why the need to refill?

Basically, this is exhibit A for the fact that not all talk in a chemistry lab is either chemistry or, based on the previous posts, serious.  Many more like this one to come.