SCENE ON THE STREET : Mad About PLAID

The design we call plaid--what the Scots call tartan--is first referred to in Scottish literature in the 1200s. Now these colorful collections of lines and blocks are found almost everywhere in the world, as if a tiny grid just sprawled in all directions during the seven centuries since then.

The MacPhersons and MacGregors and MacLeods and MacTavishes and Stewarts and Campbells and all the other clans developed their own designs and often two of them: one for every day and one for dress. But now we all wear them, Scot-free of family associations.

In Altadena, Pasadena and South Pasadena (among other places) the design is all around, plaid as the nose on your face. (Who runs those towns, anyway? Plaiding Commissions?) Ask the mayor of Pasadena, Jess Hughston. He’s the one sitting on the bench. And plaiding guilty, your honor, in a pale jacket.

The socks are beyond the pale! (Just kidding, your honor.)