LILEKS (James) :: the Bleat"The other day I took Gnat to the Medium Mall to get some crafts material, and as we passed the J. Jill store I remembered that my wife had liked the aqua-hued jeans on page 4 of the latest catalog. Hey, maybe they had them in stock. Her birthday was coming up. Almost three years as a sort-of stay-at-home dad has made me feel completely at ease in the Afternoon World of Women, the culture of browsing and shopping. I don’t have that nervous behind-enemy-lines look guys get in Victoria’s Secret. I will forever be a foreigner, of course, gaijin, a dog who walks on hind legs, and that’s fine by me – it’s not my culture. But it’s where I spend much of my time, and while I don’t know the language I know the culture. (This might be why I always end a trip to the Mall with a visit to the Apple store; it’s like an embassy where I’m a citizen again.)"