San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
SANDERS SPAWNS SPLASH OF MEMES WITH ATTIRE
Wearing mittens made out of recycled materials and a warm winter jacket, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders pulled off a casual inauguration outfit — and vibe — that only he could.
Amid the dark suits and bright coats dotting the Capitol steps Wednesday morning, the 79-year-old Vermont senator was photographed sitting masked, cross-legged and bundled up against the frigid weather in Washington, D.C. Soon after, the image, taken by photographer Brendan Smialowski for Getty Images, began to circulate on social media.
Then came the memes, in which social media users took the original image of Sanders and found new locations for him. He was inserted into history, sat on the couch with the cast of “Friends,” and enjoyed the sun at a closed state beach in New Jersey with that state’s former governor, Chris Christie.
Others brought the Sanders image to the movies, showing him on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise in “Star Trek,” and as a member of the Avengers.
The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame capitalized by selling its own version of the pose. Nick Sawhney, a software engineer in New York, created a tool that allows you to insert Sanders into any street address in Google Maps street view.
The senator’s avatar visited a museum and sat on the Iron Throne from “Game of Thrones.” It dropped in on a curling match and photobombed a Leonardo da Vinci painting.
There was a cameo in “Mario Kart,” a news conference in Mexico and a trip to the surface of the moon.
In an interview with CBS, Sanders laughed off the attention.
“You know in Vermont, we dress warm, we know something about the cold, and we’re not so concerned about good fashion, we want to keep warm. And that’s what I did today,” Sanders said on Wednesday.
People were particularly enthralled with Sanders’ mittens, which were made by a Vermont elementary school teacher who has a side business making mittens out of recycled wool.
“I love it that he loves them, and that he wears them,” Jen Ellis told NECN-TV. “And I’m totally honored that he wore them today.”
Ellis has never met Sanders. But when her daughter went to a child care center owned by one of his relatives, she was able to slip a pair into his hands.
The widespread interest in the mittens prompted Ellis to tweet Wednesday that there were “no more” of the coveted hand warmers.
Sanders has donned the mittens before while running for president in 2020 and in interviews with Vermont journalists, the station reported.