Shirt Spite

I bought a shirt at Goodwill recently. Really I bought several, all of them pretty great, but one in particular seems remarkable. It especially made me glad I perused the menswear section on that day when I really just meant to buy some records. It was a brand-new shirt, as far as I could tell. Like one of the other shirts, it was new enough that it still had a sticker naming the inspector who approved it (and not by number, but by first and last name).

The shirt references something from the recently-concluded hit show "Breaking Bad". I watched the first few episodes of the first season and concluded that it was not for me. It subsequently became a huge phenomenon that all my friends love dearly. I'm left feeling left out and frustrated, which my friends know. I try not to bring it up, and I try not to say anything about the subject if it comes up anyway. That wouldn't help anything.

Anyway, the shirt depicts the "Los Pollos Hermanos" restaurant from the show, which I think might be some kind of front, but which I'm not certain isn't an actual restaurant. Any fan of the show would love to have the shirt, and probably would have paid the full price charged by the site that sells them. They especially would love to have found the shirt in fantastic condition for the price of two dollars at a thrift store. It's funny then that I would find it and buy it.

I really did buy it mainly out of friendly spite. It's a sharp looking shirt, but it doesn't mean a ton to me except that it was bound to provoke a reaction from my friends, who know well my disinterest in the show. I'm reluctant to wear the shirt around people who don't know, because they're likely to think I love the show and know all about it. I'll have to explain the whole story, and then it still won't be the same as with friends who already would know. No, this is a shirt for select occasions, but I'm glad I bought it.