...but chivalry is not dead.
At least not in Budapest's WestEnd City Center mall.
Camera work was not great, as I was trying my best to be inconspicuous.
Specifically, the Jono Yogo frozen yogurt store in the lower-level food court. Pictured above, you see a young couple (probably in their late teens or early twenties-- it gets harder to estimate with each passing year) about to enjoy a frozen yogurt sundae.
Possibly the perfect 'date night' fare, make-your-own froyo allows each person to exercise creativity, showcase personal tastes (extravagance or sensibility?), and ultimately fashion/mold/sculpt your dessert in a way that you deem would be the most impressive (or antagonistic) to your date-- a microcosm of the courting process itself.
Furthermore, speaking as a (once young) man, overplaying your expertise with the dispensing lever-spigot-mechanism could allow you to achieve the closest possible real-life thing to the pottery scene from Ghost.
"...and if you want both flavors woven together in a 'twist,' you have to use the middle lever, juuuust.....liiiike.....thisss..."
This is all very much besides the point, however, which I'll get to now.
Pixelation does cruel things to an attractive, faux snow leopard print.
In the above close-up, you can see that the gentleman in question is holding his girlfriend's handbag-- a testament to chivalry's sentience and much of the impetus for this post.
So you're at a froyo place, holding your girlfriend's purse... Ok, no penalty flags yet-- we definitely make concessions when it comes to pursuing love interests, and the guy's friends aren't around to witness this behavior of which they may vehemently disapprove.
Besides, maybe it's her birthday. Maybe it's actually a bowling ball bag and it's too heavy for her to carry. Maybe I shouldn’t be so critical.
One thing is absolutely for certain, though: the guy is not wearing a shirt that reads "BADASS."
Oh, but he is..
Well, to be fair, it's "BADA$$"-- because not only is he an intimidating, lone-wolf rebel who'd just as soon bite your nose off as look at you, but-- let's just say, money is not a problem either.
You'd think the dollar-sign-as-S motif would've completely jumped the shark by now; the first time I remember seeing it was in regard to the rapper Ma$e over 20 years ago. I don't recall being dazzled by its novelty then, and since, it has probably aged more in line with Axl Rose than Helen Mirren.
I know "it's just a shirt" and all, but isn't anyone else embarrassed for people wearing these trendy 'statement' shirts, especially when the message is demonstrably false? I grow frustrated with my own inability to determine which is more flagrant, the manufacturer of the shirts themselves, or the abject insouciance with which they're worn. Paraphrasing Jim Rome (regarding similar 'statement' bumperstickers) "I don't know if you're a genius or not, so why prove to me that you're not?"
Don't let this be you..
You can see in the pictures that he is both holding her purse and opening his wallet to pay-- two entirely honorable things-- it's just the shirt that makes the whole scene farcical. You may also notice that the guy is not having a frozen yogurt sundae himself-- just one for the girlfriend. I'm left to assume that the badass was either watching his figure, or that he was personally boycotting the place because the available toppings did not include masonry nails.
An added bit of context for what it's worth:
We were eating at the food court and I saw the couple walk by-- and even at that time, the guy was carrying the purse. My jaw dropped immediately and I scrambled to bust my camera out to get a picture of the guy in the badass shirt carrying his lady's purse. But in the few seconds it took me to get my act together, they were already gone. Thoroughly flummoxed, I continued to eat my taco salad.
I didn't really see that, did I? Certainly he was holding the purse for just a second while she tied her shoe or performed some other task requiring two functioning arms-- the moment was forever gone, and I had been asleep at the switch.
After about 3 minutes of contemplative silence, my determination had finally built in proportion to the guilt and scorn I felt for not having pursued them immediately. I got up, wiped the Hungarian interpretation of guacamole from the corners of my mouth, and speed-walked around destined to find what probably never existed in the first place.
Forty-five seconds of eager searching ended as I spotted the pair in the frozen yogurt place, and took the not-so-incognito shots you see above. The self-proclaimed 'badass' was still in possession of the handbag; for a brief moment all was right in the world.