Self-Presentation in the Time of Covid-19. . .

The proverbial overflowing hamper of dirty laundry, which seems to be the look many men of various ages strive for actively in 2020. I maintain they just don't know any better.

Whether you are lucky enough to be able to work from home via online applications like Zoom, Teams, Monday.com, etc., or you are back in the office wearing a mask and social distancing, do everything in your power to avoid looking like an overstuffed lawn & leaf bag with legs. How you present yourself to the world counts, guys.

Business casual does not mean turning up for work in anything resembling pajamas, t-shirts with ironic sayings, sweatpants, cargo shorts, or anything with wrinkles, rips, tears, food, or grease stains. Unless you intend to resemble a terminally 30-year old cafe barista with a five-day growth forever working your way part-time through some kind of indeterminate masters degree program that people still don't understand even after hearing you explain it five times in as many days.

As I've said before, suits may no longer be entirely necessary in much of the working world here in the ol' U.S. of A., but for the love of God, pull yourself up out of the gutter and get some decent looking clothes to wear Monday through Friday. Things that won't make you stick out like a sore thumb in a professional setting, cause supervisors and co-workers assume a homeless person has wandered in off the street, or invite them to question your skills and abilities because you insist on turning up attired like you don't give a damn.

There are loads of websites and recent videos on Youtube that explain clearly and concisely what Business Casual is and isn't. I'd suggest starting right here at Classic Style though by revisiting a post I wrote on The Problem of Business Casual Attire back in April 2018.

Appearing at the office, or turning up for Zoom or Teams meetings looking like you rolled out of bed five minutes ago doesn't cut it anymore, boys. it's long past the time when we should up our game where personal grooming and presentation are concerned. The late 60s and early 70s were a long time ago. It's high time to tune in again, plug in once more, and rejoin the rest of adult society. And how about shaving during the week, huh? Your undergraduate years and that part-time job at Hollywood Video are behind you. You need to do more now than simply show up before you can win 'Employee of the Month.'

--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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