Mind Games: Sometimes a White Coat Isn’t Just a White Coat

I think the scientists should have checked the students tongues, and those with white coats sent home....clothes DO make the man,afterall, who amongst us has not had their heartbeat quicken due to certain uniform/costumes? for example, a Policeman/MeterMinder,a Clergy, a wedding dress? I think the distinct'snap' of the latex glove also may prove as attention riveting as a white lab coat....

and now that the Supreme Court has said even a Police Uniform can utter "turn your head and cough", well, lab coats might struggle for that posiition of'intimate encounter

RoadYacht, I suspect that you may have been sampling a wee bit of the peach brandy.....lol. Goodnight, my friend.....

BERT~I was merely trying tosave it after it hit the ice,but alas, it went down smoothly......

Wearing a white Chef's Coat, which in no way resembles a lab coat, I cannot begin to count how many times I have heard "Are you a doctor?" "Yes" I always reply, "I am a Salad Doctor." I rarely get a laugh except my own CMU (cracking myself up). I do change my Specialty according to mood and season.

I have one for you Chef Deb, if you don't mind the grammar....Them ain't pizza stains on the sleeve, honey.  (That CMU thing, I do it all the time).

I only wear white shoes in the winter, during snow storms.  It doesn't make me think it's summer.

Talent show ends today...11:59:59 PM Eastern time.  Don your white doctor's coat, don your gay apparel, whatever gives you inspiration.  Miss Jane78 where are you?

I love my white sport coat this time of year & like the clever Mark Twain completely agree that "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."

Before lotlot gets here ~ Who gets paid to do these stunningly so what' bits of research?
Let a group of nursery school kids loose with the dressing-up box and at age 4-5 they are already aware of what to wear, which garments imply high social status or special skills. Well, more or less, I have seen a cowboy prancing around wearing a tiara. He grew up to be gay. Do I conclude that all little boys who fancy wearing a tiara for a while will be gay? The 'research' presented above assumes that all Doctors are smarter than all house-painters. Which ain't necessarily so.
Do you do School Uniforms? Fascinating the creativity kids can put into being 'different' in uniform. If you are a Doctor going onto a children's ward, ditch the white coat or you'll have a dozen kids going into hysterical banshee wailing. White coats for grown ups only - and if you could see their toes plaiting under the bed-covers.....
There is a hierarchy of clothing  in hospitals originally designed for rapid identification of staff present in any situation. The person in the crisp white coat is not always your best bet. Sometimes people who you would call a janitor(?) in his humble brown coat can turn things around. I knew several who'd give up half their lunch break to feed a couple of patients, chat to them, plump up their pillows.
A similar hierarchy exists in industrial environments where the technical people get to wear white coats, then we go through various shades of blue and green to the brown. It's a thinly disguised caste system.
 

I heard on the TV news the other day that at least one hospital was having an identity problem because all the workers from doctors to janitors were wearing white coats.
They were considering a change to different colors for different jobs.

Any ritualized action can influence one's behavior.  I'd buy that putting on a white lab coat puts somebody in a particular frame of mind.  I think about the different clothing I wear and how it changes my behavior: when I am in my gardening clothes, I don't worry about getting dirty.  When I wear my aikido gi, I know my posture is 100 percent better.  When I am at synagogue, my prayer shawl is another bit of clothing that affects my behavior.  Putting on certain bits of clothing put me in a particular state of mind: its an additional layer of context.

And all the ladies know about "that" dress that makes you feel a million dollars - or maybe those shoes or ...... going to work in your boring work 'uniform' and only you know that you are wearing really sexy underwear.
The idea in the article above that garments can transmit a mind set by some sort of osmosis put me in mind of a book by an Irish author whose name I can't remember. It was about a country policeman who rode his bike over bumpy lanes - the man and the bicycle exchanged molecules in the process and became one. Anybody?

Hi Hazel, and SAJJohnson and korthal TTpaolos bert Roadyacht and ChefDeb please tell me I didn't miss anyone if I did it wasn't deliberate.  I will echo paolos question WHERE IS MISS JANE?  It's been a while...                         And TT, your comment that nekked people don't have much influence on society?  While the nakedness lacks a certain something, oftentimes it leads to baby making which is hugely influential.  Aside from that - and bathing - being nekked mostly just leads to trouble, and I prefer your description of white sartorial summer splendor... 

So would wearing a straight jacket make you believe you're crazy? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzHtm1jhL4  ;

TT- I quote my pal Twain on a daily basis. Today, you've done it for me. And that's a good thing.

Hazel 10:33,&Korthal right after; you miss the obvious- Neck Ties! Everyone in the same blue blazer at the work place,with the distinction of the "higher caste" worker wearing the more"influential"" necktie......and what does that say about the lowly bow tie?  Well,it is clownish, except that is the only one accepted with black tie tuxedo....(unless you can wear a bolo, as it is accepted in certain regions,with silver& stone, as the high power badge)

 Overheard in an undertone but loud enough to be heard as I visited a facility with a very large workforce of every ethnic, educational, social standing you can imagine... "Here come tha white folks in the suits...man, I'm so happy ' cause I know our troubles are going away now."

Park, Jane was a late show on Friday.....and I miss IVAN.....Good Penney had to wear an Ivan suit to convey his traditional blessings.

Plaids on stripes make me crazy......more so than usual

Park4- I am going to plagiarize you and your comment about being nekkid. It gave me quite a good laugh, and after this weeks dental surgery, I needed it.

I have observed, however, that there is a distinct difference between being nude, naked and nekkid.

Usually being nude one is performing personal hygiene, showering, etc. Or even volunteering to have oneself painted at the local liberal arts college sans clothing.

Being naked means you got caught without your clothes on, and by someone you'd have just as soon kept what they saw in you naked a complete mystery to everyone (especially the witnesser of you naked. And their friends)

And last but not least, there's nekkid. Usually when you are nekkid, you are headed towards baby making, or at least baby making practice.

"I don't know nothing 'bout birfing no babies". 

Naked??? That can get real ugly.

the coin operated mirror has a 'gauze effect'  key that allows you to see yourself through that slight haze that eradicates wrinkles...but alas, it also hides thise laugh lines that show your real appeal....oh well, you can't pu-leez  every one.....

As an after thought, I'm guessing that may be one of the reasons Mother Nature lets our EyE sight get not as sharp as we get older, so we won't be as critical of our looks, but we still find each other in a crowd.....

Dispite how delightful it can be to be nude, naked or nekkid, I'm going to go back to clothing and say I think clothes can make the woman, too.  Remember such expressions as "Sunday best" or "business suit.  And then there's "birthday suit."  Back to clothing. 
 
I have certain clothes in my closet I wouldn't wear very far from my house and others I put on only to go out "all dressed up."  Now someone is spending a lot of money to find out what most of us already knew, and we spent the money on clothes instead.

A bird -- in its coat of red -- has been just outside my window, happily moving about the back yard for some time today.

Puts a nice coating on my day.

J.Peterman sells some mighty fine colored clothing

The most elegantly and expensively clad person on the planet cannot turn my eyes.
One small naked woman can get the garage cleaned and a dark load washed and dried in two hours.

Love these small sample, pseudo science, Sunday supplement studies.
If medical professionals in their white coats, paid half as much attention as the kid at Baskin-Robbins does in his, we would all be better off. When was the last time you were given the wrong cone?

The Lutheran high school that I went to didn't have uniforms--unlike the Catholic schools that all had uniforms--we, instead, opted for very nice dress clothes.  Boys wore khakis or chinos and cotton plaid or plain sport shirts and usually loafers, although some did go for Oxrfords.  Girls wore lovely sweater sets and wool skirts in the winter with hose and flats.  Warmer weather called for cotton dresses or skirts and blouses--still with hose and flats.  Once a semester we would have "dress down" day--jeans were acceptable, shorts were allowed.  And while no one ever looked ragged or like a hobo we were "dressed down."  My father (the assistant principal of said school) dreaded those days and everytime came home shaking his head at the behaviour change for that one day.   Our clothes reflected our attitudes, hence our behavoiur.   Even on our dress down days we were better dressed than the average high schooler today on their BEST day!!   ******** At preschool when teachers held pajama days (I never would!!) the kids had more unruly behaviour all day than when they were in school clothes.  Who wouldn't??

S.A.J.- really liked your 11:18 AM post...especially the " it's an addition layer of context."

Still no IVAN?!?! I'm gettin' a posse together...the weather out his direction worries me...meh.

Stoney~ your 2:31 made me do  a double take...where do you find a naked lady to clean your garage?

P4- As usual you are correct Ma'am. I shall add a fresh carnation in my lapel before I serve the mint juleps in your honor.
p- I submitted my short tale this morning for larks. My photography is utilitarian at best and my artwork is normally stick figures.
Umm- and then there's buck nekkid
Stoney- I see a Tide Commercial only for cable viewers of course.

RY- if you got enough cabbage, you can get anything done by nekkid folk.

"...it's an additional layer of context." sheesh, i shoulda played it safe and used 'cut and paste!'

There's a little mom and pop wine shop at the coast called "Basket Case." In the window just below the shop name is a white jacket that buckles in the back. Kinda cute cept when my date threatened to put it on me :)

I hope Ivan is lying down in a darkened room recovering from feeding everyman, his brother and his dog for a week. This page just isn't the same without his bold typed opinions - and thanks Penn for the Friday Nite Blessing.

I'm off to wallow in the bath and put on my almost white towel coat/dressing gown thing. It does not raise my brain power, it's a soporific garment.

If I owned an insane asylum I'd put it in a bucolic calming setting and  I'd name it Cliff's Edge...............Speaking of insane asylums, Do you know how many asylums for "moronics" there were around this place where I live?  I know you don't, so I"ll tell you:  lots.  In the town of Lake Geneva there were 3 and that's a lot, it's not a big town, it's only got what? 4 cross streets and 2 stop lights and it's not big.  But three asylums during the 1890's and up till the 1940's when they vanished. Probably slid down the cliff..............I do find it odd that such a small area had so many asylums for the terminally nervous wrecks and those who were just temporary nervous wrecks, of course.  I just felt like talking about this...I don't know what clothes they wore at the asylums, but I imagine there were straight jackets, because I saw photos of female patients and they looked as though they were a bit wound up.  

Hey Penn, Thanks! Surprised nobody has mentioned a "wolf in sheeps clothing" as a counter-argument!  

Re: Hazel's 11:34, and "that dress" - the one that makes you feel special in all the important ways:  I've always loved Herman Wouk's description of just such a dress:
 
"She picked the black dress off the chair and smoothed it gratefully.  It had done its work well.  Other girls had flounced through the dance in wretched tulles and flounces and taffetas...but she had held out for the tube of curving black crepe silk...and had captivated the son of a millionaire."
 
-- Marjorie Morningstar; Herman Wouk
 
 
Has anyone read any of Herman Wouk's novels?  I'm doing a reread of Youngblood Hawke, and it's spectacular, better 25 years after the first read.  We all know Wouk for The Caine Mutiny - I first "discovered" him with Marjorie Morningstar, and then War and Remembrance.  Herman Wouk is definitely worth considering if you're in search of an author -- other than our own Jim Hall, of course.

Oh no, PARK4~ don't start me on asylums. Here I am, all bathed and toothscrubbed and drinking hot cocolate, so I will have to do the teeth a quick scrub again.
Early night for me - Nos da, dear people, x 

I'll bet you have great asylum stories, Hazel...are you sure you have to nos da so soon?  I just can't stand these time differences.  How can we get Wales to be on Central Time?  xx nos da Hazel....

 FROM THE SCREEN PORCH
At the end of a spruce bough
Even with my eyes
Was a small pair of black and yellow
Butterflies
But I am old and just to be nice:
It might have been one quick one
And I saw him twice.

STONEY: If that isn't the best Spring sentiment I ever heard ...

I like that...a lot.

Yesterday was the last day of passover so Ivan may be resting for one more day.  I bet he is back tomorrow.

OK, then, PARK4 ~ just one story ... I had to visit a client in a home in South Wales which was in a bucolic cliff edge location. It was a crumbling old mansion with most of the downstairs windows boarded up due to client vandalism. It was dusk and a bit creepy, but I eventually located a door to knock on. The door was answered by a male in a white coat!!!!! with a scar on his forehead that looked like something from a Frankenstein movie. He explained that his Dad (the manager) had gone to the supermarket, leaving son in sole charge of 20 mental patients. The majority of the patients were in a communal room, some on chairs rocking back and forth, some wandering around clutching teddy bears or comfort blankets. Eerie!!! The client I needed to see was in his room on the third floor. I was briskly escorted up there and left to take my chances with a man who, according to my notes was crazy. (That's illegal and dangerous.) The allegedly crazy man and I had an hour of interesting conversation. I found my way back downstairs to discover the white coated neanderthal dispensing pills for the residents. Asked if he was qualified to do it, he gloomily said "No, but someone has to do it." And the place smelled of stale urine and boiled cabbage. Now you don't want any more asylum stories.

only you, Hazel, only you.     ************************************Ladies!  Can you imagine what it would be like if all it took to be a s-x bomb(!) was the right lack of clothing????  So...........just don your bra and knickers and......oooh la lah!  there you go!  Instant---Instant--transmogrification to......Lady Gaga?  Marilyn Monroe?  Jane Russell?  Who?  Only in your mind apparently!

...and then there is that old tale of the regal old dowager that called her faithful man-servant,Jeeves,up to her 'chambers'one evening...."Jeeves" she said quietly,"remove my blouse and skirt"...Jeeves began to comply, but was visably shaken...."..and now remove my bra,and knickers.." and indeed, Jeeves was now in fact,shaking.....The dowager now cooed "Jeeves.....if I ever catch you in my clotes again, you are fired!"

OH Hazel!  I just knew you'd come through.  I sense this is just the tip of the old iceberg (I'm still on yesterday's topic) - you must tell more stories, more asylum stories, please!  Why is it that England and Wales and the whole UK has especially fabulous stories about white coated neanderthals overseeing the crazy people in old and crumbling buildings...gee I am jealous.  When you get up after nos da-ing, please think of more stories.  I'll be ready to hear them!

Uniforms or dressed up, people will behave better the better they are dressed, as observations of teens in high school for 30 yrs. will attest. On those theme dress days ( Hippie, camo, pajama, baby, and colors) of 'Spirit Week" the behavior eroded considerably.

On dress up days for Homecoming week, the behavior improved markedly. Coaches helped limit the misbehavior by having all the players dress in jacket and tie on Fridays before the big game, and the whole atmosphere of the school was more reserved and well -behaved. Just the Court of nominees for Queen and King dressed up in "Church clothes" for the days they were being voted upon made them all behave much more well -mannered...."Likewise for the ones nominated for Senior Superlatives....Dressed up, they acted more mature and responsible. Sure, clothes make a difference!

When your blood pressure goes up in the doctor's office, there's a reason they call it "White Coat syndrome."

...well four days without Ivan, and taxes due. My friend tells me, "no complaints on the yacht." OK, OK, but this is getting to be a formidable task.

Penn~ I have it on good authority that Ivan is OK- - dunno why he has'nt checked in...might be one of those password glitches....it happens...but worry not....

RY, thank you so much! I was worried! Whew....