Zurich plagued by underwear-clad teens
The headline on the front page of 20 Minuten this morning announced Zurich’s latest crisis – Public baths: trouble due to underwear trend. Naturally I snatched up a paper and began reading furiously, hoping to learn more about this disturbing story. Here is a summary of what I learned.
Apparently, it has become fashionable among teenage boys to wear boxer shorts underneath their shorts-style bathing suits while swimming at the city’s numerous badi (public beaches and pools). “Why is this a problem?” you ask? Simply put, “Das ist unhygenisch,” at least according to several of the city’s bademeister (pool attendants). One bademeister went on to explain, “You never know when those underwear were last in the washing machine.” The same boys’ ability to keep their bathing suits (or their bodies) clean, however, was not called into question.
Basel is far ahead of Zurich in fighting this hazard, having already instigated a poster campaign against swimming in the boxers + bathing suit combo. The Zurich officials are just not cooperating, laments one local bademeister, who has decided to take the law into his own hands and eject offenders from his pool on the spot (he also makes use of his “good eye” to distinguish today’s modern bathing suit styles from actual shorts – not an easy task for the untrained, apparently). Until he has succeeded in eradicating all the offenders, though, I can only beg you, dear readers, to inform yourself of the risks before swimming in the badi of Zurich. Or better yet, head to Basel. It’s safer there.
