The author might consider a t-shirt that says "Tight Ass Not Happy."

Chuck

...it's amazing the LW didn't throw a rant in there about how disruptive it is to have women in the workplace. He's an old-school sexist who should concentrate on his own work instead of playing office Cotton Mather. Jerk.

You just expressed, perfectly, what I have felt and struggled with since my first "adult" job, also right out of school, about 17 years ago.

It doesn't sound naive at all. It sounds like reality to me. Office jobs, with their petty politics and pathetic little fiefdoms, are nothing but a tragic waste of human life.

crossing from a nicely filled T-shirt with a questionable phrase to unelected governments and its authoritarian effect on our lives, degrading our communal experience and personal projects back through our heroines rebellion against all she finds oppressive.

On the other hand, maybe she likes wearing T-shirts that would make her soon-to-be ex husband grumpy since there's a good chance he's been petting another kitty.

Remember, sometimes a T-shirt is just a T-shirt.

Seems like Cary's answer to this one could have been one word. Yes, anyone who thinks that "a good slapping" is an appropriate response to a t-shirt, or something to inflict on one's wife, is a bad person. Why try to reason with someone like that?

And I must be clueless, but I can't find a double entendre in the shirt. Do I just not have a dirty enough mind, or am I overlooking the obvious?

Is the Kitty in question Hello Kitty? Does this guy really have perverted thoughts about a CARTOON character?

My dick is a Harley

You kick it to start

I understand that when my 18 year old niece wears a tee shirt with the logo "home grown peaches" and the old crate-style line of peaches, placed just so, over her bosom, that it's a (not too rude) double entendre. And of course there's that English sounding word for kitty. But LW didn't describe a risque picture, and kitty is a step away from the other term, so I'm not sure why this has gotten to him so much. Is there something I'm missing?

"These darn kids these days, razzem frazzem razzem frazzem...what with their blue jeans, and their tee-shirts, they're insolent young whipper-snappers they are, razzem frazzem razzem frazzem..."

S L A P!!!!!!

Someone give this crotchety old fool his daily dose of Geritol and send him back to the home!!!!!

The shirt is in questionable taste for an office. And you are an old fogey who should MYOB and update your views on wife beating.

From reading the letter, I don't see any indication that the woman in question is in a public, customer service, front desk kind of situation. If she were, I might have objections, but in a real live office, with real live adults? Let her have some space. Chances are she'll tire of the shirt within a month or so and it will no longer be an issue. As to the LW's suggestion that wearing such a shirt would make a husband want to slap her around, errr, sounds like he should be getting some counseling re: his proclivity towards domestic violence. ~ STS

you might recall that there is another word for kitty that starts with a P, ends in a Y, and has USS in the middle ...

The LW informed the supervisor of this young woman about her "inappropriate attire". This is as far as he gets to go with his personal opinion-after that, it's all ego-busting.

He should stop looking at the T-shirt and just get on with his damned work. The bosses will take care of "kitty" soon enough.

I hope his wife knows that he is a sexist pig, too. Sounds like a real winner to me-and I hope she slaps him up side the head next time he thinks he's the only person in the universe who has sartorial taste.

Lots of us belabor under dress codes-and for those who break them, all hell comes down soon enough. Let the girl alone!

A t-shirt that says "Kitty Not Happy" is probably not approprate for the office. However, your boss doesn't have a problem with it, and it's not your job to enforce the office dress code.

Any man who would slap his wife because he didn't like her t-shirt has bigger problems than her clothing.

It sounds like you are treating her like a child: you place a lot of importance in the fact that her parents are upstanding, she sings in the choir and all that. Now she's wearing a shirt you don't like and you would theoretically slap her for it? Geez. Why is the shirt any concern of yours to begin with? She's an adult making her own choices, and no one else seems to care.

By the way, it sounds like a Hello Kitty T-shirt like those kids have worn for decades, not a double-entendre.

Unless the background showed a buxom babe in garters with her legs spread, then Kitty Not Happy is cutsy, kind of japanese-kitch, but it's just not very risque. The LW is clearly off-put by this woman's mentioning to all and sundry that she is contemplating divorce. Could it be that her impending divorcee status has sparked prurient imaginings about her character? If so, LW, you just need to get happy and let her get on with things. Further, if you've got so much time to be a cunt to your co-workers, then you need to change your work habits.

I got the impression that he was more interested in controlling the young woman's attire than in her best interests. Any credit for good intentions I might have given the LW disappeared with the reference to a good slapping. Condoning slapping as a form of sartorial disapproval is a far greater crime in my book than wearing a T-shirt with a slight double entendre, especially when the wearer's boss is OK with it. If he had really wanted to give some useful advice to the young woman, it would focus on the wisdom of telling everyone you work with about your marital issues.