Appointment Style. . .

Not bad, but it's just about time to visit the barber for a trim. The ol' hair is getting a bit puffy on the sides and top.

Well, the summer break is in full swing for yours truly here at Totleigh-on-the-Wold even though the Memorial Day Weekend is not yet upon us. Besides working on an article and a few other professional commitments, all of which can be done from home, it has settled down pretty nicely here since turning in final grades a couple of weeks ago.

However, there was reason to don presentable attire this morning once the Young Master was loaded aboard his school bus. The Grand Duchess and I had an appointment with our attorney in Downtown Lansing to finalize and sign our will, so what better reason? I decided that a suit might be a bit much for me, although I was happy later to see that our lawyer was thus attired, so I opted instead for a sports jacket (Hickey Freeman) and odd pants combo. Not visible is a braided brown leather belt and a pair of light green calf length dress socks with small navy polka dots.

The necktie shown here is a knitted silk number in a wine color, purchased from Land's End a couple of years ago, that seems to have become my "go to" the last few weeks when I have had journey into campus, or elsewhere wearing somewhat more professional dress than my usual summer wardrobe. Longtime visitors to Classic Style might recall that the latter consists typically of chino shorts worn with a casual surcingle belt and either a short-sleeve knit polo top, or one of my many cotton Madras shirts with a pair of leather Sperry top-siders. Casual, comfortable, and yet pulled together. What a concept.

-- 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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