Sunday Casual Attire. . .

From the Land's End website, a men's short-sleeved Madras sport shirt. I discovered these almost 20 years ago when I finally cut my hair and joined the adult world.

We are in the midst of the long Memorial Day holiday weekend here in the United States, traditionally seen as the start of the summer season although we actually have about a month to go until the summer solstice.

In any case, it's a quiet, pleasantly cool late Sunday morning at the von Boffke residence, and here is my suggestion for decent looking, yet totally comfortable summertime attire. Today, I'm wearing a short-sleeved Madras shirt on top much like the one shown above, faded well-worn chino shorts on the bottom, and a pair of extremely well-worn leather boat shoes on the feet. No socks obviously. Perfect for lounging around the house, backyard, or even a quick run to the supermarket before a later afternoon barbecue. You know. For the hamburger or hotdog buns and a large bag of ice.

My father and maternal grandfather had a few such Madras shirts in their wardrobes and wore them during the summers. The self same item has also been a permanent feature of my own summer attire since the mid-90s when I finally concluded, after a year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, that my continued adherence to stereotypical rocker attire was not in line with my intended life trajectory. But that's a subject for another time.

Since those heady days, I've found that it's hard to go wrong with a Madras shirt during the warmer months. It is a versatile item and looks good with khaki camp shorts, creased chinos, and even jeans. Ahhh. . .   Time for another cup of coffee I think.

-- 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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