Flannel Three-Piece Tuesday. . .

The upper half today, another delightfully soft and warm Ralph Lauren wool flannel suit complete with my 'Drones Club' necktie. The stripes are in the wrong direction on this Brooks Brothers number, but otherwise, said item looks strikingly like the tie worn by club members in the Wodehouse stories.

And the lower half.

Finally, here is a close-up to showcase the Barney's cufflinks I was given by my younger sister for my recent birthday.

Overkill (for a public university campus in the United States at least) was the name of the game this morning, but I felt good, and that's the main thing.

It strikes me that, among the menswear blogeratti at least, there is way too much anxiety about wearing a suit in 2016. You know the kind of thing I mean. To wit: When do I wear one? How do I wear one? Why should I wear one? Where do I wear one? Is it appropriate to wear one? Am I trying too hard if I wear one? Will I send the wrong signals if I wear one? Will people make assumptions about my sexuality? Will I look like a dick if I wear one? What will others think if I wear one? Will people talk about me behind my back if I wear one? Will I drive women away if I wear one? Will I attract more women if I wear one? Will my pitbull bite me on the ass if I wear one? Will that big mean kid on the corner trip me and steal my lunch money if I wear one? Blah-blah, blah-blah, blah-blah. And so on, and so forth, ad infinitum.

That's hardly in the spirit of 'put on your clothes and forget about them,' is it? What are we, George Costanza? I suppose we have done this to ourselves in a social climate where pajamas, flip-flops, basketball shorts and sweatpants (sweatpants!!??) have become normal wear in public for, it seems like, about 98% of the male population sometime during the last 25 years, on all but the coldest day of the year. To such a degree that a guy in a suit is now unusual and immediately suspect. Bull----!

Here's the deal. If you have more than a single suit in your closet and enjoy wearing one from time to time, even if and when you don't necessarily HAVE to, put it on if you want and fugeddaboutit! End of story.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

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

Old SchoolNovember 18, 2016 at 8:59 PM
Just read this and admired your style choices even more:
"...professors dressed less formally at academic events as they gained higher status. Students also perceived unshaven, devil-may-care professors as more knowledgeable than ones in a dress shirt and tie."
http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2014/08/dress-codes
Tony LuptonNovember 28, 2016 at 12:17 AM
Late comment: Not sure that temperature is a real driver on suit or no suit. Attitude however, is!

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