This article — which is fantastic — was written by friend and loyal reader Soren Bowie.

Hi Joe,

I liked your column. As plausible as your explanations for the picture are, I suspect that there’s one you over looked.

Bees

“Ahhhhh!”

“Beeeeees!”

“They’re in my shirt, they’re in my shirt!”

“They’re in all my clothes!”

“I forgot my epi-pen!”

“Ahhhhhh!”

“Head for the water!”

“What about Louis?”

“Forget him, he’s gone! Goooooo!”

“We can’t just leave him, he stood up to Dad when no one else would!”

“You have to let go Kevin! The bees are gaining!”

- Soren

Sir,

I too enjoyed your column and podcast concerning the controversial commercial practices of Abercrombie and Fitch, but I felt that one important point went without discussion:

Isn’t there a base level of idiocy in a clothing company advertising using naked people? Wouldn’t that be like if Pepsi came out with a billboard showing a chalk-lipped teenager dying of dehydration?

As always,

Dan

Joe,
Congratulations on having women who like you, or at least like Bruce Willis and that makes you tolerable. My one question is this: Did you really wear a hoodie sweatshirt to this event? The photo you used, suggests that, yes, you did indeed.

I realize that a bald man must keep his head warm at the cost of aesthetics, and I realize that you were going into it from an objective perspective.. but I still don’t think sweat clothing is appropriate for a date of any kind. If you still don’t agree, I suggest you ask yourself this: if a woman showed up wearing a hoodie sweatshirt to a speed-date you’d expect the pockets to be filled with used Kleenex and Theraflu, wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you, Joe? Other than that, I really liked the article, and I hope something good comes out of it. By the way, my favorite X-Men is Xavier and my favorite M.A.S.K. character was the bald one with the kickass Jeep. Go figure.

Tough as Nails,
Soren

Joe responds: That photo was taken while wine tasting in Napa. You can’t tell from the photo, but I am not wearing any pants.