The Attire for Tuesday. . .

None of the items featured today have seen the light of day in quite a few months save for the Land's End Hyde Park oxford cloth button-down collar shirt which is in the rotation year round. At least in more temperate weather between late September and the end of May each year.

The necktie, an old Land's End number that purports to the the regimental stripe of Britain's Royal Welsh Fusiliers (ex-23rd Regiment of Foot), hasn't had a wearing in I don't know how long. It remains one of my favorites however. The problem is that the ol' necktie collection has grown exponentially -- Let's call it a guilty pleasure. -- in the last dozen years or so, which makes it a challenge to sport favored items more than a few times a semester.

I suppose that there are a few I could donate to Good Will at this point given the infrequency with which they are worn. The problem is in deciding which ones to weed out.

Land's End used to sell quality neckties at reasonable prices for the budget-minded guy assembling a professional wardrobe, which I was during the early 2000s in my first teaching job after graduate school. At the time, it dawned on me that I would need a bit more besides a blazer, a tweed jacket, a couple of pair of khakis, a few ties, and two pairs of tasseled loafers (I know, I know!). This particular tie is hand sewn and made in the U.S. from imported silk, according to its label, and always knots wonderfully the first time.

Not sure of the quality of the few neckties still on offer from Land's End in 2022 (their print catalogs feature far fewer than 18-20 years ago), but given the disappointing quality of the final few items I purchased five or six years ago, not to mention the company's current focus on stretchy, synthetic-laced, shapeless "comfort" wear for the constant snackers out there, I wouldn't recommend purchasing even business casual gear from LE now.

But a bunch of decent workhorse Land's End items from about 2003-2004 remain in the rotation, have withstood the rigors of academia for quite some time now, and they continue to serve me well regardless of the season.

For anyone who might wonder, and since I rarely photograph myself standing up, I prefer an angled medium break on my suit pants and odd trousers with the rear of the cuff starting just above the heel of my dress shoes and a single break across the vamp in front. No break, to my mind, strays into Peewee Herman territory (And you know what he was arrested for!), while a full break, as much as I like the idea in theory, always looks sloppy.

An angled medium break is a solid compromise.

-- 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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