A Calm, Sunny Saturday. . .

A vintage 1930s ad for menswear that is new to me. But, given my penchant for double-breasted blazers and suits, I liked it immediately.

A delightfully sunny, calm November Saturday here in The Grand Duchy!

I've spent it doing my own thing while The Grand Duchess and Young Master attended his various Tae Kwon Do classes and ran a few other errands. After a shower about 11am, I donned a tweed jacket, dress cords, an oxford cloth button-down shirt, braided leather belt, and penny loafers for my own set of errands.

That included another visit to the tailor's to pick up and drop off a few more items.

The first item of business was to try on the two heavy wool navy blazers (one single- and one double-breasted), corduroy sports jacket, and three pairs of wool flannel pants left last week, including two brand new pairs of the latter. The items in question looked amazing in the three-way mirror. If such a thing is possible, my tailor seems to be doing even more exacting work than he has in the recent past. I had no idea off the rack clothing could look this good.

As so many other, more knowledgeable menswear enthusiasts have noted in the blogosphere, if/when you find a capable tailor, cultivate that relationship and have your gear altered over time. Even one or two relatively simple alterations make a tremendous difference in how you look (and feel) in your clothing.

I cannot wait to wear some of this stuff come next week.

As always, I dropped off a few more pieces for similar work (waist suppression for jackets plus taking in waists and seats of the pants). This time, the final two bold tweed numbers and another two pairs or wool flannel pants.

Following a few additional small errands, I returned home to a quiet house and enjoyed another mug of coffee before changing into more casual attire. It was then time to moisturize and shine my oxblood penny loafers and dark tan single monkstrap loafers.

Since these are a more casual shoe, I prefer a softer sheen to the the usual high shine lavished on my lace-up models. Safir Renovatuer and shoe cream in the requisite colors produce very pleasing results.

All told, it has been a lovely day for this shockingly vapid, middle-aged popinjay. But it's not over yet.

Call it spousal and fatherly intuition, but I suspect my wife and son might have a few things planned for dinner and dessert this evening. Not a bad way to mark the latest 29th birthday.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

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

CharlottesvilleNovember 8, 2021 at 6:17 AM
Happy birthday, Heinz-Ulrich! I hope it was as enjoyable as it sounds.
WSTKS-FM WorldwideNovember 8, 2021 at 10:01 AM
Thank you, Charlottesville! It was a relaxing weekend all the way around.

Kind Regards,

H-U

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