No Such Thing As Too Many Pockets

For years, I carried house/misc. keys in my front left pants pocket, car keys in the back left, change in the back right and wallet in the front right. As long as all my pants had at least those four pockets, I was all set.

Then came the portable appliances. For a while, I was carrying both a cell phone and a PDA. This necessitated two additional pockets, or one of those lame-looking belt holsters. I finally got a Treo, which serves as both phone and PDA, reducing my pocket requirements to five. Being an avid photographer (and stereo photographer, remember?), I find the Treo camera totally inadequate. So a small camera brings the requisite number of pockets back up to six.

There are cargo pants to meet these needs, and more, but I haven't yet seen them in dress versions, with pinstripes, etc. Even cargo jeans are hard to find if you don't want to look like those wacky carpenters from Green Acres. Even casual cargo pants don't seem to come in enough colors to get through the week. Remember when pants used to be blue, brown, black, tan or gray? Now they're heather, sage, rust, stone and pumpkin. Ugh!

So what to do? Male handbags have never made the cut, though a few resistance fighters still carry backpack like things or, more daringly, shoulder bags. Photographer's vests look totally dorky unless you're a photographer. Come to think of it, even if you're a photographer. Ok, especially if you're a photographer.

Belt holsters are ok ... if you don't mind Commissioner Gordon flashing the Bat-signal at you. Ordinary backpacks, particularly well-travelled ones, might be the best bet, but they have a habit of not staying with you. I want to wear all my essentials so I have no chance of leaving something vital behind.

I think it's time to bring back the Captain Kangaroo look!