Nordic Skiing Style. . .

The Young Master trying out his Christmas skis for the first time this afternoon.

When it's cold and snowy, you can forgive people a lot of what we at The Average Guy's Guide to Classic Style might otherwise consider style don'ts.

Nevertheless, the Young Master really dressed up the slopes of a local park this afternoon as he joined his mother and me for his inaugural run under his own steam, stylin' on his new pair of yellow and black cross-country skis (a gift from Santa Claus). The outting went really well. No falls for him, even when he got his skis tangled up. And the Young Master even reminded me at one point to keep my own skis parallel to one another as we 'shuusshed' along the top of a ridge and down a slight incline before repeating the exercise a few times during the hour or so that we were out today. It was a moment I've waited for since before he was born.

In other style news, I walked into the better of my two local thrift/charity outlets yesterday, and there was a gray herringbone tweed jacket, in a sack cut, by J. Press. And it fits! Naturally, I snapped it up for less than US$10, and after dry-cleaning, I'll wear it on the first day of the new college semester later this month. Maybe over a Fair Isle sweater?

-- 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

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A Lazy Saturday at the End of June. . .

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