No Pajamas In The Courtroom? No Sh!t.

It is not cute when grown-ass adults need to be told basic this-is-how-to-live-your-life stuff.

pjs to workDo you have friends who are new teachers or parents of little ones? Get enough pinot gris in them and they’ll start regaling you with hilarious stories — hilarious to anyone who didn’t have to clean up the resulting mess, that is.

All the seemingly obvious stuff that kids need to be explicitly told never ceases to amaze me. Gems like, “don’t put that marker in your nose,” “don’t glue the cat to the wall,” and “don’t put that lollipop that is on the floor, covered in ants, back into your mouth” are commonplace. But part of the adorableness of these situations is that with every f*ck up kids are learning how to be functional adults. It is decidedly less cute when grown-ass adults need to be told basic this-is-how-to-live-your-life stuff.

In related news, Catawissa (Pennsylvania) Borough Police Dept. posted this image to Facebook:
pjs in court

That’s right, people seem to need a reminder to GET DRESSED when they are going to court. The sign was the brainchild of Columbia County Magisterial District Judge Craig Long, who tells WNEP this sign has been some time in the making:

“We have a growing problem of people not dressing appropriately for court. I just put it out there as a reminder of the code of conduct that should be followed when appearing in court,” said Judge Long.

It seems to be a trend that more and more people are wearing pajama bottoms out in public.

Judge Long tells us that’s fine, but there are some places pajamas shouldn’t be worn and the courtroom is one of them.

“Just like if you’re going to church, you should dress appropriately. We think that if you’re going to court, you should dress the same way.”

Lest you think the judge is overly gung-ho on respectability politics, he explains that this doesn’t apply if you’re just picking up paperwork or paying a fine at the courthouse, but only if you are making an appearance in front of a judge. This seems utterly uncontroversial to me, but we live in a country where a buffoonish reality t.v. star is likely to win the Iowa caucus tonight, so of course some people are pissed:

Other people we spoke with believe people they should be able to wear what they want.

“I don’t think it should matter,” said Michael Phillips of Catawissa Township. “If you want to wear pajama pants, wear pajama pants. It’s the person’s discretion as far as I’m concerned.”

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Which is dumb. It really only takes a modicum of self-respect to get dressed in the morning, and if you have to appear in court you should at least make that minimum of effort. But this is just common sense, and as Judge Long knows, that is something you can’t legislate:

“It’s not a law. It’s not a rule or something we can enforce. It’s just there as a reminder.”

Well, here’s hoping the judge’s gentle reminder works.

Judge: No Pajamas in My Courtroom! [WNEP]

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