The Carmel Dress Code

There are many towns in the United States whose lawmakers are considered a bit loony. Our town is one of them, apparently -- that is, if you were to believe this local law, which dozens of websites around the world claim is absolutely authentic:

In Carmel, N.Y., a man can't go outside
while wearing a jacket and pants that

do not match.

No doubt we all agree (well, mostly all) that it's a sensible rule of thumb, and can see to its enforcement without a formal law. One website commenter, with tongue in cheek, thought it to be excellent:

This law isn't silly. Write your legislators today
and get this PASSED in your area now!!

As the keepers of Carmel history, may we categorically state the obvious, for the benefit of webmasters everywhere, that it has never been a law in Carmel -- alas.

It gained its popularity around 1991 in a book by Robert Pelton, a satire on actual rules of early America that seem outlandish now (for example, that a flagman must lead an automobile through city streets), and was assigned randomly to Carmel. The idea may have originated in a humor article, or perhaps in one of those fund-raisers where a local figure is "jailed" for a silly reason until the population donates his "bail money" for a charity.

Loony Laws That You Never Knew You Were Breaking (Westminster, MD: Ivy Books, 1991) is still found on the used-book market.