Power Outage Thursday Attire. . .

The upper half, featuring a few favorite items that include a thrifted Harris Tweed jacket, a Tattersall OCBD from Land's End (purchased before stiff, plastic collar linings became the norm), a thrifted navy wool tie, and a thrifted silk pocket square.

Well, it might be Spring according to the calendar, but no one seems to have told Mother Nature. At least not here in Lower Michigan, where it has been cold, gray, and wintry since just after Easter Sunday. We even continue to have spells of snow, and while nothing has really accumulated enough to get the skis and toboggan out one last time, it has hardly been warm enough to contemplate brushing down, zipping into breathable storage bags, and storing the winter wardrobe while swapping in the warm weather linen, cotton, and wool gabardine.

Too bad, since I have a wonderful new tan three-piece suit by Hart-Shaffner-Marx (Ok, let the Obama tan suit jokes commence!) and a lovely Ralph Lauren Blue Label linen suit, for which I splurged, that I'm eager to wear, but we are rapidly running out of time. Our current semester finishes here at the end of April, and there are painfully few reasons to dress nicely in professional clothing during the warmer summer months. Sigh. Another time I guess. Maybe at the end of August when the fall semester begins once more?

So, although I have been contemplating making the twice yearly wardrobe switch for two weeks now, I have continued to rely on tweed, corduroy, and occasionally heavier wool flannel suits. I am especially pleased with the overall look of today's combination of items. Some days, my look, admittedly, doesn't quite nail it since I don't always think too much about what I throw together early in the mornings. And of course, you later catch sight of yourself in the men's room mirror and think, "Oh, my! That's a little busy." This morning, however, the stars seemed to have been a bit more in line. See what you think.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

P.S.
The title of today's post has to do with a power outage that has knocked out much of the MSU campus. As you might expect, that has thrown a rather large wrench in the works since so many of us rely now on WiFi and use of laptop computers in our teaching to conduct classes and lectures. And no one seems to know exactly how long it will take to fix the problem either. Needless to say, it took some doing to escape the faculty/staff parking lot where my car was located.

And here is the lower half, featuring those comfy, 12-year old golden tan dress cords from Land's End, a pair of Argyle socks I've had for years, and Allen Edmonds longwing brogues, one of my most comfortable pars of shoes.

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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