Disgusting. . . Repulsive. . . Decadent. . . Fantastic!

An early birthday gift to myself: a new pair of velvet Smythe & Digby Prince Albert slippers in navy blue, acquired via Ebay for a song.

Not really a bedroom slipper kind of guy, but I could hardly pass these up when I saw them on Ebay. I actually won the auction for a change too.

My first encounter with similar slippers/loafers was now well over 40 years ago, when I was occasionally invited over to her house to play after school by a preschool and kindergarten schoolmate, who was part of our Monday through Friday neighborhood carpool. The Maiers were a German-Yugoslav family, and I'm not sure what Herr Maier did for a living, but Mrs. Maier had their large house covered in Turkish and Persian carpets. The genuine item. Naturally, family and guests were required to change into house slippers in the entry hall, and Mrs. Maier kept a box of spares in various sizes in the hall closet for the guests to use.

Another thing that I recall vividly. . . Mrs. Maier and my mother didn't really resemble all of the other mothers I saw dropping off, picking up, or coming in occasionally as room mothers (remember those?). Both women channeled Audrey Hepburn-Jackie Kennedy with adjustments made considering it was the early 1970s by that point. Dark glasses propped on the head when inside (worn on the face outside and in the car), hair pulled back, minimal but tasteful makeup and jewelry, and fairly plain but elegant attire whether a dress, skirt and blouse combo, or pants with a blouse. Both women also carried themselves with considerable poise and dignity, a couple of concepts that seem to have disappeared for both women and men in the decades since. Sigh.

I wonder where Mrs. Maier and her daughter my former classmate 'Jasne' are now?

-- Heinz-Ulrich

P.S.
My wife, the Grand Duchess, will hate these.

P.P.S.
She replied on seeing these for the first time, "They are really you. You're not going to wear them outside of the house, are you?"

The Pleasaures of a Well-trained Dog. . .

A few final photographs from my visit to my sister in Washington, D.C. last week. These include one of 'Mr. Beau,' my sister's meticulously trained and truly wonderful Doberman, another of my sister, second cousin, step-father, and yours truly on the steps of the church outside Lexington, North Carolina just after our late mother's interment service, two of me solo at the National Cathedral, and a final one of my sister and me hamming it up during a long evening walk the day before I returned to Michigan. My sister routinely walks to the cathedral, about three blocks from her place, to enjoy the grounds and gardens. The Bishop's Garden, in particular, is a place she likes to sit for quiet contemplation and internal dialogues with our late maternal grandparents and mother, very much in keeping with the Episcopal side of things. Our grandfather, who was raised Methodist, became an Episcopalian when he married our grandmother. Before you ask, I am not sure tha

Almost Mid-June Sunday Style. . .

A fter two months, Blogger has decided to allow me in the door once again, so I can add a long overdue post documenting my take on classic male style. Since we are almost in the throes of summer, let's go with a warm weather theme this morning. Now, the items above will not be to everyone's taste: Deck shoes without socks, shorts, pleats, skinny pale legs, etc. All invite tisk-tisking and debate in certain online fora, but that's ok. I wouldn't wear attire this to campus Monday through Friday, or to church. But for relaxed, comfortable warm weather-wear around the house during the weekends, with maybe a quick trip down the road for a gallon of milk at the super market, this will do nicely, thank you very much. It's certainly preferable to the wrinkled, torn, stained sloppy alternative we see everywhere in 2022. Neither is it at all far removed from how the various men and boys across three generations of my extended family presented themselves during even

Classic Style

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