Tazi's Corner #21 - Facebook Debate, Civility, and the Biggest Issue of All: What Are "Slacks"?

Dear Readers,

I do not usually poke around my Mommie’s Facebook page, except to see if she is posting any embarrassing pictures of me.  This week, I stumbled upon one of the stranger habits of you humans: debating the pointless and insolvable as a form of entertainment.  

Usually Facebook debates get quite nasty.  Participants generally do not know each other, so they have no qualms about offending a stranger.  Factual evidence is thrown to the wind as people support their argument with something they found on the Internet, and complete disregard is shown for the source by those looking to prove or debunk a point.  "The New England Journal of Medicine?  What do they know?"  This quote was an actual comment I read while perusing a Facebook debate on medical care.  Another favorite of mine is when people source commentators like Rush Limbaugh in their arguments.  The Rush Limbaugh Show is not considered reliable by standard journalistic practices.  Mr Limbaugh himself admits to being an "entertainer", not a journalist.  (Conservatives, please don't hate on me...I personally LOVE The New York Post, but would give my own Mommie a Paw Slap of Disgust if she cited them as a source of scholarly research!).

Anyhow, my distaste for Facebook debating was overcome this week when reading a debate about the definition of the word "slacks".  The debate below all started when Mommie reported having a dream that someone had stolen her “new tan slacks”, to which she has become quite attached.  (Note to self: Find said  tan slacks and barf on them, thus killing this attachment to something other than me!).  

Those slacks are gonna get decked, too!

It was over this status update that the debate over the definition of "slacks" started; it rolled over onto a friend’s page, where it continued in such a hysterical vein that I decided to share it with the world.  Without further ado, I present The Great Slacks Debate! Ready...set....GO!

Mommie’s Friend (the Moderator): OK - so I probably should NOT bring this up on Facebook, especially given the roll I am on lately with “effbee” fighting and controversial topics, BUT this one is SOOOO important and involves a really dear friend, so here goes: SLACKS = a pair of "fancy pants" for a woman....OR....something that someone over the age of 80 calls any waist-hip-thigh-leg covering??? (and please let's not bring up dungarees and just stay on topic) Thank You!!!

The responses ranged from the serious to the hysterical; a sampling is below:

• I call the suit pants I wear to work…slacks!! and I’m pretty cool so your friend must be cool too!!!  [Note from Tazi: My Mommie is da bomb!]

• Those a "Britches" in the South, son. 

• Haven't you ever worn slacks? I bet you do!! I bet you hide in the closet and glorify in your slacks collection!

• I picture slacks to be outdated with pleats and sold at Goodwill with stains

• Slacks are for grannies!!!!!

• Slacks are polyester and generally have an elastic - or adjustable - waist

• My slacks are a rayon cotton blend, no elastic waist, no stains, and rather expensive!

• I've only ever heard my Yankee Momma say the word slacks. Usually talking about nice dress pants....Or on Brides Maids referring to the mom as “Ham Slacks” bahahaha

• I wear dress slacks over my girdle but not when I take my bundles home from the supermarket. I also wear rubbahs on my shoes when it rains. They taught me that in the ol' country before I came here on a Cat-tle boat. [Note from Tazi: Most likely, only New Yorkers and New Englanders will get this joke...]

• OMG I have not heard dungarees in forever. That alone got me cracking up!

• I believe slacks are what you would buy in the slacks section at Ann and Hope or Woolworth's on your way home from the Five and Dime.

• The consensus at my house is that they are polyester pants worn by old people

Baby got slacks!

• …and you wear a blouse with slacks

• I don't think slacks are something just WORN by the elder generation ... I think any pant-like item touched by an elder magically becomes slacks. So you could go to the store and buy yourself some pants. Your grandmother goes to the same store, goes to the same aisle and buys the same item, but when she goes and gives them to you for your birthday... BAM!...they become slacks. "Here, I made you a sweater to go with these nice slacks."...I think the item of clothing in question undergoes some strange alchemical transformation in which your grandmother is some sort of unwitting magical agent.

• My grandma calls sweatshirts jerseys. I just needed to add that.

Mommie’s Friend (the Moderator): I think the results indicate that most believe the word "SLACKS" to be an antiquated term reserved for use by the Octogenarian-Ensure-swilling crowd.

My question for all those Facebook debaters out there is this: Why can’t all Facebook debate be so civilized?  

My question for all of you, dear readers, is this: What is YOUR definition of the word “slacks”?  Please post your thoughts in the comments section below (you can post anonymously)…this debate is too lively to let it end! Let's take it viral, so the world...may...KNOW!

Snuggles,

Tazi

P.S.  Someone posted a Photo-shopped picture of me in plaid slacks!  Know that the picture below is a FAKE!  No matter how many crunches I do, I could never get abs like that!

I prefer Puss in Boots "No Pants Pants"!

[UPDATE: An actual poll is now available on this site.  Click Here to go to the page directly].

Ask Tazi! is ghostwritten by a human with a Bachelors of Arts in Communications. Tazi-Kat is not really a talking feline.