See “all the WDW photos”:http://flickr.com/photos/martin_kelley/tags/wdw2006/

So I’ve decided to write down all the conversations or questions I get about my dress this week. I should mention that I actually prefer curious questions to the strange staring I sometimes get. So here we go:

• While ringing up a Gathering store order: someone I’ve known for years asked me whether my clothing was “a theological statement or if it was just comfortable.”
• While troubleshooting the store computers and answering a cellphone call from the office: compared to a literary character named “Cosmic Possum,” who was described to me as someone able to seemlessly live in both the past and modern world (at the time the reference was made I was working two computers and taking a cell phone call.
• Walking by the dining hall, an older Friend called out “Looks good!” I said “Huh?”, he replied “that’s a good outfit!”

Monday:

• “Nice outfit” again, this time from Nils P. As soon as he said it I warned him that I was keeping this log and that he should expect to see himself in it.
• I talked a little bit about dress with a friend from Baltimore Yearly Meeting, a gay Friend involved with FLGCQBC who is identifying more and more as conservative and thinking about going plain. One concern he raised was avoiding sweatshop labor. (I pointed out that plain dress is a cottage industry and that the seamstresses are usually local and believers.) He also doesn’t want to look “like a farmer” as he walks around the city of Baltimore. (I talked about how I have limits as to how plain I go and don’t want this to be a historical outfit but one which people might actually be able to see themselves adopting. I also talked about how I still want to identify on some level with urban anarchist culture, which has a sort of plain aesthetic.)

Tuesday:

• An extended conversation with a bookstore customer from California. She began by asking if I’m doing plain dress for the same reasons as another plain dresser here, who I’ve seen but not met yet. We began talking about motivations and what it’s like and how it is for women, especially who lead active lives. I talked about my wife’s Julie’s practice, which includes leotards when she’s working at a gymnastics coach. We also talked about different kinds of QuakersIt was a great conversation.
• While sitting on a bookstore couch blogging: “You’re looking very distinguished here, with facial hair and susspenders. Is this what married life does? You’re looking very Quakerly. Does thee also have a hat?”

Wednesday

• I spent sick mostly in bed…
• I did have a brief, fever-fed conversation with some of the other plain dressing youths and soon-to-be plain dressing youth. It’s not about dress, but about being Quaker and about how we live as Friends.

Thursday:

• I had an extended conversation with a couple who run the Equal Exchange table about plain dress, Gohn Brothers catalog and avoiding sweatshop-made clothing for union-made clothing. There’s a lot of people interested in this and the issues really connect with simplicity and justice issues.

A lot of the search phrases are predictable for anyone who reads my blog enough: “modern liberal Quakers”:google, “Quaker peace testimony”:google, “Quaker decline”:google, “Quaker theology”:google, “emergent church movement”:google and “catholic Quakers”:google. By far the most popular searches are for the plain dress page. Every day I get searches for “modest dresses”:google, “plain dress”:google, “Quaker dress”:google, etc. Most Quakers might have long ago dismissed peculiarities like plain dress as relic of the nineteenth century, but a lot of twenty-first century net surfers are curious about this tradition of ours.
Sometimes I get search traffic that is downright bizarre. Who searches for “Its light that makes me uncomfortable?”:google (I like it; the Light spoken of by Friends is one that exposes and convicts before it comforts). “I’m going to hire a wino to decorate our home”:google is not a tactic I’ve ever considered (thanks Melynda). I’m apparently a world expert in “insecurities of young people from fashion modeling.”:google And if you want to know if “armageddon [is] gods way of getting rid of human race”:google I’m the guy to talk to. My Lutheran grandmother will rest easier in her grave knowing that I’m an important figure for “christian young adults”:google and a leading voice on “morality in twenty somethings”:google, but if all this righteousness gets to you I can also show you how to “beat a dead horse”:google.
More in the bizarro “why me?!” file: “baby arm picture”:google, “hand wash experiments”:google, “liberal protestantism and safe sex”:google, “unused cell phone numbers”:google. I’m not sure who thinks I know anything about the “statue of liberty holding a guitar”:google. “Do amish women wear bras”:google?: I don’t know.
Some of the phrases are so generic that I marvel that they point here. Are there really so few sites talking about “twenty-somethings”:google, even generically? Shouldn’t there be lots of mainline Protestants worried about their declining numbers and asking “why are churches dying”:google. There ain’t much movement to the “emergent church movement”:google if I’m the number one hit. I’d be happy to guide visiors to “gay christian websites”:google but I’m hardly an expert (or does Google know something about me that I don’t?). I’ve never been asked to give any major “Quaker speeches for peace”:google even though Google seems to think it’s about time; if you want lighter fare for your conference, I can also give a presentation on “fun things to to do with your Quaker”:google.
For the record: I have never met “mel gibson’s wife”:google, though I do know “Theo‘s mom”:google quite intimately, having been “married in south jersey”:google (want proof? How about some “baby Quaker pictures”:google ?). I don’t run “the social network for gorillas”:google but if I did it stands to reason I’d be something of an authority on the “theology of the planet of the apes”:google. If I knew “where thriving young adults can be successful”:google, do you think I’d be working for nonprofits?? I’m also afraid I don’t have much advice on “how to flatten new sod”:google. I do agree that “there were no good old days, these are the good old days”:google.
Finally, my favorite search phrase: “baby theo”:google. I have at least one Friend that uses this search phrase instead of bookmarking my site (he complained when my Baby Theo page temporarily fell out of first place).

h4. Methodology
bq. The linked words in this post are a sample of actual phrases that have brought actual visitors to my site from search engines. All of the links are to Google, the most commonly-used search engine, but some of these visitors used other search engines to find my site (which is why I won’t necessarily come up when you click the Google link).
h4. Updates
* “How crazy am I survey”“http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=active&q=HOW%20CRAZY%20AM%20I%20SURVEY (9/2006)