Happy Belated National Seersucker Day!

Not the usual single-breasted, blue and white stripe combination that most of us probably think of, but a double-breasted model from 1935.

Well, darn it! I missed it as usual. National Seersucker Day was yesterday, June 13th. It was quite chilly and rainy here in Mid-Michigan, so definitely not seersucker weather even if classes were still in session, and I had the occasion to dress in a somewhat more pulled together fashion than my more relaxed summer attire mentioned here on several occasions. Still, it was fun to root through the folders on my computer desktop this morning after a check-up for our two cats at the veterinarian to dig up this old illustration.

As for me, I've got a vintage blue and white striped, single-breasted seersucker suit that enjoys a few outings in late August and early September at the start of each fall semester when it is usually still quite warm. Topped off by my panama hat, it certainly stands out, once in a while even getting a compliment or two from students , staff, and/or faculty around campus.

As I've written here before, compliments and favorable comments from others are not why I dress several rungs above the sad, pathetic average, but it certainly adds a spring to one's step when someone is nice enough to say something favorable about an item of attire sported by someone else. Kind words from strangers, you are probably well aware, have become about as rare as dressing presentably in 2019.

-- 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 forethought, take, and de

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

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