An Evening out with the Guys. . .

Had a good time yesterday playing pool, enjoying a few beers (Stella Artois for me), and losing quite a few games of Nine Ball with a couple of good male friends, a chemical engineer and a poet/English professor. While I did finally manage to win two games by evening's end, more through dumb luck than any great skill, the conversation during all of this was priceless. We covered everything from critical theory and psychoanalysis (I know, I know.), to Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan war literature, to sci-fi movies, to 1960s garage rock, and bebop vs. cool jazz among other things.

Before we knew it, four hours had elapsed, and it was time to say goodnight. However, we've decided to do it again before too long, and our English professor friend has even invited us rock climbing, something I've never tried before, but one must be open to new experiences. Oh, and all three of us were dressed decently for a summer's evening. Very casual and nothing particularly outstanding or outlandish, but comfortable and certainly acceptable for a neighborhood bar/pool hall here in the wilds of Central Illinois. It was, by all accounts, a delightful evening.

As far as shoe style goes, our English professor friend was wearing a pair of navy Toms on his feet, which seem to be a modern take on the classic espadrille. The entire line of footwear and accessories can be viewed at Toms.com. Prices seem reasonable, the company also offers a variety of accessories although some of these strike me as a bit hipsterish. In addition, the company seems to have its mindset in the right place though I must admit that I remain more than a little skeptical of companies that make their "green" stance such a prominent part of their marketing efforts.

Navy linen Toms like the kind worn by one of my friends during our pool and B.S. session yesterday evening. I like these. Photograph lifted from the Tom's website.

In any case, the shoes pictured above look good for very casual summer footwear and succeed in hiding the otherwise unattractive male foot -- with its typically hairy toes, calluses, and yellowed toenails in dire need of a trim -- covered during the warmer months. I might just have to add a pair of these linen numbers in navy blue to my own summer shoe rotation.

-- 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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