Don't forget, it's Seersucker Thursday. Hide the kids! And if Rick Santorum or Billy "White Shoes" Frist should show up, just throw the bum out!

Note to Senate bouncer: You see either of these
lovebirds, toss him out on his ass. They're history.

Yes, friends, the dreaded day is here! Our friend Melody, who's been providing the background material for DWT's extensive Seersucker Thursday 2007 coverage, also dug up these photos for us--from Seersucker Thursday 2004! Setting aside the small matter of this being Your U.S. Senate at Work, if this doesn't make you feel better about wherever you are and whatever you're doing, nothing will.


POSTSCRIPT: A SEERSUCKER FAN'S DILEMMA

The DWT Ethics-in-Style Department has received the following heart-rending e-mail:

Dear DownWithTyranny Ethics-in-Style Dept.:

I've been following DWT's Seersucker Thursday 2007 coverage with fascination and horror, and seen the stomach-churning pictures. My problem is that I own a seersucker suit, which I used to like to wear sometimes in the summer. Oh, it creases like crazy, and stains something awful, and is hell to try to keep clean, but on those really hot days it can feel a lot cooler than a normal "summer" suit. (Would you believe, in my lousy job I've got to wear a suit! It really is a lousy, low-paying, dead-end job, but these days I figure I'm lucky to have it.) And I have to say, I even kind of like the look of it.

Or I used to. Now that photo of Rick Santorum with the pink tie is causing me nightmares. What do I do? I mean, I have this powerful impulse to burn the damn thing. Help!

Tom in Cincinnati

Well, Tom, this is a tough one. We would never encourage you to destroy property that you paid for with your oh-so-hard-earned money, all the more so since you once liked the suit.

On the other hand, there's no getting around those photos--although perhaps the Seersucker Thursday 2007 coverage will make it seem less like a perversion of ultra-right-wing loons. (Will we see Harry Reid in seersucker? Would that be good news or bad for seersucker fans?)

Maybe other DWT readers will have some helpful thoughts for you, but in the end, Tom, this is strictly a matter between you and your conscience. With one obvious caveat: for the love of God, no white shoes.

IN PREPARATION FOR THAT SCHLEPP TO THE SEERSUCKER STORE TODAY...

As Ken points out below, another Seersucker Thursday is almost upon us. It just sort of creeped up when no one was lookin'. Compliments of our pals at PoliticsTV and The Young Turks, here's some music you may find as appropriate as we did to listen to while you're getting ready to brave the heat before going out on this, the last shopping day before Seersucker Thursday, 2007. Share with us-- and the whole nation (minus 28% of insane people)-- a bit of a dream, a dream the whole world is more or less praying for. And, although infinitely better than the Air Canada ad jingle-- or, for that matter, any Celine Dion song-- I have a feeling these particular musicians may be part of the 28% who might prefer a third Bush/Cheney term.

In any case, here's Sweet Home Gore-Obama:



And, along those lines, every day can be Seersucker Thursday with humor like this:

President Bush, First Lady Laura and Dick Cheney were flying on Air Force One. George looked at Laura, chuckled and said, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out of the window right now and make somebody very happy." Laura shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I could throw ten 100 bills out the window and make ten people very happy." Cheney added, "That being the case, I could throw one hundred $10 bills out of the window and make a hundred people very happy".
Hearing their exchange, the pilot rolled his eyes and said to his co-pilot "Such big-shots back there. I could throw all of them out of the window and make 256 million people very happy."

The pilot underestimates-- by several billion.

Oh man, is it Seersucker Thursday already? And all my seersucker's at the dry cleaner! (I get all my fashion tips from Trent Lott and Thad Cochran)

"It's crinkly, cool and comfortable," says Hattiesburg haberdasher John White.

You're chugging along, trying to keep the wolf at bay, and suddenly you realize that this Thursday is Seersucker Thursday! One of the fashion-savvy days on the Senate calendar. Man alive, where does the time go? My goodness, do you realize that this is the last shopping day before the big day?

Yup, seersucker's in the air. The biggest event on the fashion calendar since Spats Saturday. Boys and girls across the country dressing like mini-versions of their fashion gurus, Trent Lott [the fashion god pictured here], Thad Cochran, and apparently Dianne Feinstein (see below).

So mothball those heavy wool suits and the thermal underwear, and break out your seersucker.

Hattiesburg (Mississippi) American

Seersucker: A classic Southern look for summer

By Rachel Leifer Norman

Seersucker - like any timeless classic, it never goes out of style. And with summer's official kick-off this week, it's time for the Pine Belt to settle in to seersucker. [Pictured here: seersucker aficionado, Mississippi's other senator, Thad Cochran.]

"To me, it looks like the South," said John White, owner of John White Ltd. men's and women's fashion boutique on South 40th Avenue. "It makes you think immediately about a Southern guy in his suit going to church in the summer, or pairing the pants with some white bucks and a navy blazer and heading to an afternoon wedding."

Few fabrics are as evocative of a particular place and culture as seersucker, the light-weight woven cotton material traditionally presented in blue-and-white-stripes. It's generally more economical than wool and more low-maintenance than linen - but that it's all but synonymous with steamy Southern summers is its true attraction.

Think seersucker and the image instantly springs to mind of a prosperous businessman taking a stroll on a honeysuckle-scented evening, or a shrewd attorney working after hours in his office under a lazily rotating ceiling fan.

But seersucker isn't just for silver-headed gents anymore. In the last few years, White has begun carrying seersucker shorts, shirts and other separates in tropical colors like lime, pink and orange. Women are donning the fabric in skirts, suits and sleeveless summer button-downs.

"You can dress it up or down," White said, noting that a seersucker blazer does wonders for a pair of jeans, and that a surcingle belt in the proper shade is a perfect accompaniment.

For more formal occasions, "you can set it off just right with a white or a pink button-down shirt, even a yellow tie," he said.

Unfortunately, the fabric's mix-and-match versatility seems to have diminished the appeal of the classic look, a full seersucker suit. But the tradition is being maintained in the U.S. Senate, where lawmakers observe "Seersucker Thursday." Officials as unexpected as Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. [right], are taking their summertime fashion cues from Mississippi's Republican Sens. Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, who according to published reports never fail to don their seersucker every week.

So be bold - set those dull khakis aside and be a part of this Southern summer fashion tradition. White said he can order seersucker in a kaleidoscope of colors and cuts and have it specially tailored within three days.

"It's crinkly, cool and comfortable," he said.

For the record, last year (according to The Hill) "some 20 senators" showed up in seersucker, the list headed by then-Majority Leader Doctorbill Frist, who went whole-hog, donning white shoes. Since then, the Tennessee fashion magnet has all but disappeared from public view. Reason enough to celebrate, I think. But there's more. Last year's Seersucker Thursday, which apparently coincided with Pretty in Pink Day on the fashion calendar of then-Sen. Rick Santorum, left this unforgettable image, which reportedly sent small children all over the country screaming into their mothers' arms, and had them suffering nightmares for months to follow:

Can you believe that a mere year ago this yutz was still taken seriously?