Lebanon embraces sweatpants during the outbreak

THE ODDITIESThe EconomistThe Economist Today begin the moment you step outside in Lebanon, now in its fourth week of near-total lockdown. Streets once choked with traffic are empty. At the entrance to a supermarket shoppers don masks and plastic gloves, while staff check their temperatures. But the strangest sight is inside. Customers stroll the aisles in sweatpants, pyjamas, even flip-flops. Asked about this unusually fashion, one shopper observed, with mock horror, that the Lebanese were starting to dress like Americans. Her tracksuit top, coincidentally, had the stars and stripes sewn on one arm, a relic of more casual days studying in America.