2015 is THE Year of Polish and Sophistication. . .

The wonderful Stephen Fry as the Wodehousian character 'Jeeves,' the very embodiment of polish and reserved sophistication.

Two weeks into the new year, but let's resolve to make 2015 the year of "polish and sophistication," to use a term that recently came from the mouth of my five-year old son. Make it your business to learn how best to present yourself to the world through improved attire, speech, and personal behavior.

There are lots of books out there on these subjects -- my personal favorites are by names like Peter Post and Bernhard Roetzel for example -- or you can drop by The Average Guy's Guide to Classic Style for occasional how-to musings and discussions of why this kind of thing remains important and relevant in the 21st century despite the fact that many people in 2015, inexplicably, seem to take great pride in being coarse.

With a nod to the infamous 'Dean Wormer' in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), badly dressed, crass, and smelly with a habitually foul mouth is no way to go through life. You can to better than that. I challenge average guys everywhere to make 2015 your year of polish and sophistication.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

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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

The Power of Ideas. . .

T he end is nigh! The autumn semester/term approaches. And while we still have almost two months of summer left according to the calendar, "Summer is over and gone," as the crickets sang in Charlotte's Web . At least for those of us who head back to the classroom in less than a month. In advance of a meeting with my program director late Monday morning, I spent about 40 minutes total during the weekend to jot down several ideas about planned workshops and related activities for the coming 2024-2025 academic year. At an opportune moment, I mentioned "I have a few ideas," and opened my leather portfolio. My director was highly receptive to almost everything I suggested, and we had a very productive planning session for just over 90 minutes. Just about everything I sketched out on Sunday aligns with his own ideas. It's nice when meetings go that well, and two related things occur to me in hindsight. One, it pays to exercise...

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 19...

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