"Suck in that stomach and put on some color!"

Several classic menswear illustrations featuring splashes of color and/or pattern that help to illustrate the point of today's post.

The title of today's post is a weak paraphrase of Shellie Tomlinson's 2008 book intended primarily for girls and women in need of some assistance with their sense of personal style. But that same advice is also applicable to a lot of men, who have also become lost in that impenetrable frumpy fog that has descended over so much of Western society since the early 1990s.

It's really no secret, or shouldn't be. Following the advice of those tough as nails drill instructors on Army and Marine bases that turn new recruits into fighting men and women, stand up straight, suck in your gut, and hold your shoulders back!

Better posture goes a long way toward making us look a hell of a lot better than we otherwise might. Even when clad in so called 'casual' attire and 'athleisure' technical gear. Puh-leeze!

Maintaining good posture is especially important in our era of either sitting hunched over computer desks, laptops, or staring into those godforsaken iPhones that have become permanently attached to so many peoples' hands. Standing and sitting up straighter is not only more healthy, but it makes us look better in our clothes, helps us to step lively, and appear more purposeful.

The next step would be for guys to get over themselves a bit, quit worrying so much about what others might think, and add some judicious splashes of color -- a necktie, a non-matching pocket square, with understated socks -- and pattern (fairly subdued unless we're going all madras during the summer, or bold tweed in cooler weather) to their overall look once they've got the basics nailed down (better personal grooming, pressed and tucked in shirt, decent leather shoes, matching belt, etc.).

You know. After these same gentlemen manage to move beyond presenting themselves for public consumption while wearing the usual sorts of sloppy attire that succeed only in making a person look like his self-image, self-worth, and personal outlook have hit absolute rock bottom. Cue UFO with Michael Schenker from 1974!

I know. I know. I am nothing if not a confusing, tangled, hot mess of contradictions.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

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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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