Festive Tweed and Cords for Advent. . .

Above today, December 7th, featuring a jacket by J. Press, a Pendleton wool necktie, and a pink OCBD from Land's End. I have a few different wool tartan ties, but this one is my favorite, and it gets a lot of wear during December each year.

On the lower half, a pair of vintage Florsheim 'longwings', some wool dress socks by Dapper Classics, and a pair of dress corduroy paints again by Land's End.

My final day of classes for the current academic term today (Hurrah!), and now the grading, tallying of numbers, and online submissions of final course grades for almost 150 students spread across three courses can begin in earnest (Hiss!).

In any case, I felt like dressing with a nod to the season this morning, so here we are. A bit matchy-matchy, and even bordering on the dandy for some tastes perhaps, yet not an unpleasant ensemble by any stretch. It occurs to me that, should a man wish (or be asked) to "dress up" for any sort of holiday occasion -- parties, dinners, church services -- in the next few weeks that it's hard to go wrong in 2017 with a tweed jacket, cords, and tartan wool tie, and a pair of wingtip brogues. Still pulled together, mind you, but a bit more casual and relaxed than a full suit.

The latter item certainly has its place though, so be prepared should a more formal gathering call for it. My maternal grandfather and father, for example, always wore suits for Christmas Eve church services and Christmas dinners at home as recently as the 1980s and '90s. Sports jackets, cords, and, in the case of my father, a black or navy turtleneck pullover ala Steve McQueen worn with classic oxblood penny loafers were for parties during Christmas week or on New Year's Eve.

I like the particular combination of garments shown above so much, that I might just have to replicate it for our big Christmas Eve dinner and church service around the corner and down the street from our house.

Last but not least, we woke here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold to a seasonal dusting of snow and bracing Michigan cold early this morning. Can Christmas and cross-country (Nordic) skiing be far off?

-- Heinz-Ulrich

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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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