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Avoid the Seamy, the Sordid, and the Sleazy. . .

 

Hopefully, this fellow from 1935, sporting a seersucker double-breasted suit and tartan socks (a nice touch), is contemplating how to avoid becoming ensnared in anything seamy, sordid, and/or sleazy.


In our ongoing campaign to encourage a greater sense of style and self-improvement in the broadest sense, let's talk briefly today about the seamy, the sordid, and the sleazy.  You can look the words up online.  They mean about the same thing.  

The seedy, the tawdry, and the disreputable are all around us in 2021.  You needn't look far to find them.  Either online, or in the real world.  But you want to steer well clear of anything, anyone, or any activity in that particular constellation.  Use your common sense here.  

You remember what common sense is, right?  Surely visitors to Classic Style have and exercise it on a regular basis.  Good.  I thought so. 

Then let's return to the point at hand.  

My maternal grandparents, parents, and extended family used to advise us kids 40+ years ago, if you have to ask whether, or not you ought to pursue a certain course of action -- in this particular case whether, or not you should involve yourself with something that is potentially seamy -- then that is probably not a choice you want to make.  

Turn yourself around and get out of the trouble tunnel before you reach the tipping point, and the situation becomes more difficult to rectify.

In short, spare yourself the potential for drama, discord, shame, and embarrassment.  Keep your nose clean and stay on the straight and narrow.  Life is simply easier and, dare I suggest, far nicer when you avoid the sordid and sleazy. 

-- Heinz-Ulrich


Comments

  1. Heinz-Ulrich - You have been on a roll lately with daily posts of excellent advice. I could not agree more. Also, I wish that our fellow humans dressed as well as the men and women in the illustrations you have chosen for your posts.

    I love these 1930s menswear illustrations from Esquire and Apparel Arts. Although, to be completely honest, even if I had a time machine I think I might choose to live a few decades later when central air conditioning was more readily available. It has been hot and humid here in Virginia this week. Still, I am at the office today in a poplin suit, striped shirt, repp tie and cordovan longwings, with my Panama hat hanging nearby on the hat tree. No need to dress for work like a beach bum just because it's summer.

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All opinions are welcome here. Even those that differ from mine. But let's keep it clean and civil, please.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

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