KITCHENETTE
241
Jo: Well, it's a euphemism. Actually, they had dew -- the panties
had dew stains, dear.
She drops her towel; he simultaneously drops the garment.
MIKIE:
Oh, well, I've never looked as good with clothes on as with–
out them - so what's the use of trying.
Jo: Oh, don't be so insecure, Mikie. You could look splendid with
the right clothes;
those
clothes just aren't you.
MIKIE:
Think so?
Jo
(advertising voice):
Of course, you just don't know how to shop.
Tomorrow we'll go shopping together, we'll get you some nice out–
fits. We'll start at The Miracle on 57th Street-The House of
Second Hand Furs.
MIKIE:
Do
you think so?
Jo: Certainly, I know so, Mikie; some of their furs are in such good
condition only the label betrays their former owner.
MIKIE:
I'd love to shop at The House of Second Hand Furs.
Jo
(sour):
Would you, love?
MIKIE:
Oh, yes, I would. Only one thing bothers me.
Jo
(shouting, very tough):
Don't let anything bother you, Mikie!!
MIKIE:
But one thing does: when you wear hand-me-downs some-
how you're not yourself completely. I mean you take on something
of the former owner's - personality. Because, I mean, clothes are
personality and furs are hair - do you understand? So I have
someone else's pubic hair wrapped around my shoulders. And then
there are those foxes, the whole animal, and you become a dame
destined to have a
whole
fox wrapped around your neck, includ–
ing the fox hole, and all. A foxy dame. Fox. Lox. Shocks. And so
on. You understand? Now if and when I go shopping and buy me
hand-me-downs I try to figure out who the former owner was and
if he had a personality similar to mine. That way my own per–
sonality doesn't alter that much by wearing
his
clothes, you under–
stand, Jo? And that way I can still understand my own personality
but also get to understand a little of his personality, or
if
they are
the same I can understand his personality and so get to understand
my own. But if I can't understand my own personality at least I can
get to understand
his
personality by wearing his clothes. I always
said, if you can't understand yourself, you might as well under–
stand someone else. Because somehow someone else, all the other
someone elses in the world, when you put together all the someone
