Become a Man of Letters. . .

Ok, one more time, guys. This is your brain. This is your brain on a steady diet of typical guy stuff --------------------------------------------------. Right. Try using your brain for something besides memorizing batting averages and recalling the number of touchdowns in last season's Superbowl.

Another part of kicking up one's style a notch or three that should not be forgotten is the mind. In short, use it for something more than trivial crap. There's more to life than large screen TVs, football jersey collections, being gross in the company of male friends, and your "little general." Figure it out.

In short, don't continue to be a nowhere man. Get with the program. Stretch yourself. Step outside your comfort zone. Learn another language. More than half a dozen carefully memorized phrases. Plan a trip somewhere besides Cancun or Cozumel. Try to think in different ways. Read some books on things besides sports, the American Civil War, Iraq, and WWII. Try other more current non-fiction or, oh, I don't know, some REAL literature. No, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Lee Child don't count. Hell, take a crack at some cultural critique and theory if you want to go whole hog. It will piss you off, and keep you thinking about it for days.

Otherwise, read a newspaper, online or hard copy. But not simply the sports section. Find out what's happening in the world today and why. Here's an idea. Take a look at news and current affairs publications like The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Christian Science Monitor, U.S. News and World Report, Scientific American, Psychology Today, or The New Republic from time to time. Time and Newsweek are empty shells these days, so save your money.

Don't worry. There won't be a quiz later. No final exam. You needn't memorize anything. But become conversant in current events and discussions besides what is presented as news on Yahoo or ESPN.

The point is this. Become an intelligent and involved citizen of the world and develop informed opinions. Sure, it might seem safer within the narrow confines of your own little microcosm. But for the love of God, make it your business to find out what is happening beyond your man cave, outside your front door, beyond the borders of your state, and elsewhere on the planet. Believe me. It will help make you much more interesting and contribute in no small measure to your overall style. Remember, it's not always about the clothes and shoes.

Comments

Up North Style. . .

Bad Dad makes a friend. YMP and Bad Dad on the shores of Lake Michigan. Or was that Crystal Lake? The Grand Duchess takes a selfie in her kayak. How NOT to impress the girls sunning themselves along the river. YMP and Bad Dad kayaking on the Platte River headed toward Loon Lake. J ust back from a week in Northern Michigan in a charming and spacious house on the banks of the Betsie River outside of Thompsonville. A largely pleasant seven days despite some challenging episodes with the Young Master, who has picked up some very questionable habits and language from his friends in the 8th Grade during the school year just ended. But otherwise, we enjoyed ourselves and contemplated remaining for a few days longer since the house was available. In the end, we decided to return home as planned originally since neither my wife, nor I wanted to spend the remaining days chained to our computers in Zoom meetings from our vacation destination. I actually managed to leave the laptop and ip

Mid-June Thursday Style. . .

A nother pretty typical variation on the theme for late spring, summer, and very early fall. I'm a huge fan of Madras and have several such shirts in the seasonal rotation. Lightweight, exceedingly comfortable, and even dressy when pressed and tucked in, which is the usual way of things here at Totleigh in the Wold. Now, if I had my druthers, I'd still rather be skiing the trails in the upper half of "The Mitten" (of Michigan), in the Upper Peninsula, or Ontario. But summers ain't so bad either, and I'd look pretty funny walking around in cross-country ski attire during June. -- Heinz-Ulrich

A Lazy Saturday at the End of June. . .

A sleepy first half of the weekend here at Totleigh. Warmer and quite humid ahead of an approaching cool front here in Mid-Michigan. Perfect for yet another pair of chino shorts an a seersucker shirt -- tucked in of course -- with the usual leather deck shoes and ribbon belt. Otherwise, not much accomplished beyond a page or so of writing and monkeying around with audio settings for an upcoming podcast episode. However, I was not completely useless yesterday! I made a huge fruit salad for dinner, which the Grand Duchess and I enjoyed a short while later at the table on the back porch. The Young Master, as is his wont on Saturday evenings, took his dinner on a tray in the TV room upstairs where he whiled away a couple of hours on Flight Simulator, flying some sort of commercial airliner to some destination across the Atlantic or Pacific. I would have loved that sort of technology at about nine or 10 way back during the late 1970s, aka The Stone Age. As it is, my sister and

Classic Style

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