Classic Style

Matt and Bob White of Hubert White on the Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis.  The firm has sold menswear to the more discerning since 1916.  Highly knowledgeable, very pleasant sales staff in my experience. I cannot recall the last time I have encountered a genuinely helpful retail salesperson (for a litany of reasons).  It is rare to stumble across someone who is actually trained to assist rather than virtually untrained, knows his or her stock, or who does not attempt a hard sell.  As the saying goes, you can't find good help anymore, and that has certainly applied to retail clothing stores for many years.  Once in a while, however, there are places that stand out when it comes to true customer service.  In late 2003 or early '04, not long after grad school and in my first teaching job at a small area college, which has since closed, I visited Hubert White (men's clothier) on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis for a couple of new neckties and some ot...

Mr. Young Master helping his students settle in on the first day of school by describing for them what the summer session will look like. And Mr. Young Master's class.  A real menagerie before he called class to order. S artorially, not much going on here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold.  Summers are pretty quiet here attire-wise.  However, The Young Master and I do toss on decent looking, casual though collared shirts of one sort or another daily when we dress each morning along with with (my) chino, Bermuda, or Madras shorts and (his) jeans.  The Young Master sports a recent acquisition above, one of a number of new polo shirts his mother, The Grand Duchess, purchased for him last month given his rapid growth since January.  Children grow like weeds as the saying goes.  As for me, otherwise known as 'Bad Dad' around these parts, I'm wearing a new seersucker number this morning, a Father's Day gift yesterday, with tiny navy, light blue, red, teal, and white checks...

'Dad Rat,' as The Young Master calls him, joined us at the breakfast table this morning.  He is very particular about his coffee for a rodent. A lovely, sunny, cool morning here in Mid-Michigan.  The emerald green grass is freshly cut in long, straight diagonal rows, the flower beds are freshly edged, the Marigolds and Begonias are in full bloom.  The reconfiguration of formerly face to face courses for teaching in an asynchronous online environment is underway.  Ahhhh.  Right now, it's almost possible to forget the ugliness of the world and the rudderless ship on which we have passage. -- Heinz-Ulrich