Classic Style

    Other Ways You Can Help the People of Ukraine. -- Heinz-Ulrich

  A s a counterweight to the sartorial mess that has become the rest of the working week in so many places, I suggest that we institute a 'Formal Monday.'  Provided the ice and snow have been cleared from walkways, there is nothing quite like the smart click of leather heels on pavement and tile floors.   Undoubtedly, this too is a microaggression of some kind against some marginalized group or other lurking somewhere in the woodwork.  Sigh. -- Heinz-Ulrich

Verified Charities Working to Help Ukraine  -- Heinz-Ulrich

  T hursday's attire.  Toasty, warm, and colorful in an otherwise dark, cold, and bleak world.  Have we actually reached Dystopia yet?  Or do we still have a few miles left before we are there? -- Stokes

  Y esterday's attire.  When the world was still a different (?) place. -- Stokes

 

  Bad Dad and The Young Master leer at the camera during a brief pause on Day #2. The Young Master demonstrates Step One of the Dead Bug Method for getting up after a fall. The Young Master leads the way on Day #1. You've got to watch your step -- um, diagonal stride -- with these German-Swedish-American gals! N o, not tweed jackets, corduroy pants, oxford cloth shirts, or wool neckties, but healthy, bracing winter outdoor fun at Forbush Corner Nordic Center outside of Frederic, Michigan.  Our second visit this winter.   15 miles on cross-country skis over two days with some pretty challenging hills on certain intermediate and difficult runs.  Very cold temperatures, blowing snow, wind chills below 0 Fahrenheit, and near whiteouts at times on Day #1 completed the picture.  It was almost our own Heroes of Telemark (Anthony Mann 1965) moment minus Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris and without the heavy water plant guarded by German soldiers above a forb...

  A handy photograph from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources website.   A fter a warming trend with rain midweek, the weather has turned cold again, new fluffy snow is on the ground, and trail reports from up north are for very good (cross-country) skiing this weekend.  The skis are brushed down and ready to load into the car later today for another weekend jaunt to Northern Michigan following a haircut this morning and a few other work-related loose ends.   Blame it on Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris, and the fetching Ulla Jacobsson.  'Live to XC Ski!' as the saying goes on a favorite bumper sticker decal. -- Heinz-Ulrich

    A delightfully soft and warm wool flannel double-breasted number (4/2 in this case) today from our old friend Ralph.  A not unpleasant combination of items along with it, including a vintage pair of wine-colored braces with tiny art deco designs to hold up the bottom half of the suit.   The overall effect is spoiled only by the presence of two large flecks of lint or something similar stuck to the navy socks.  There is a lesson here.   Um, gentlemen?  Always, always, always double-check your fly before exiting the men's room.   -- Heinz-Ulrich

    A more visually pleasing combination of items for today.  The shoes, however, could use some attention with Safir Renovateur and shoe cream plus sole dressing at this point.  The ensemble was topped off by yesterday's gray fur felt fedora, a vintage camel-colored double-breasted polo coat, and my well-worn University College, Dublin scarf, which must be about 25+ years old by now. -- Heinz-Ulrich

  T he ensemble for yesterday (Tuesday).  A bit busy, but not bad.  Quieter socks, or perhaps a different tie would have made everything calmer and more harmonious.  But live and learn.   The hat for the week sits at the bottom.  A Borsalino again.  Nice, soft, and they develop an acceptable asymmetric droop to the front part of the brim with very little help.  I like these best of all.  Very comfortable and certainly distinct in the sea of backwards baseball caps and knitted ski beanies worn year round.   A heavy tweed overcoat and schoolboy scarf in cardinal and white completed the picture. Heinz-Ulrich

  A dinosaur pocket square (a nod to our son's continuing fascination with the beasts) and some socks featuring my Alma Mater's mascot Mr. Bucky Badger.  A warm double-breasted navy polo coat, schoolboy scarf (University College, Dublin stripes), and the hat for this week top off today's attire nicely.   I am home once again as I write this, but remain dressed thusly for a 3pm meeting via our old friend Zoom.  Five similar fur fedoras are now in the rotation, in various dark tones though not black, and I wear a different one each week.  The mistake a lot of guys make, when I see photos shared in online fora, is in wearing their hats straight across the face, akin to an Amish farmer.   No, no, no.  If you're going to wear such a hat, commit to it, and wear your chapeau to one side at a jaunty angle.  It also helps if you reshape it carefully with some judicious rolling and careful rumpling to make it yours and impart just the right attit...

      I t is my considered view, which will be disputed by some, that one can never be overdressed.  Under dressed?  Darn right.  We see it all around us everyday.   However, I always make a point of complimenting students when they are really, actually, truly dressed on campus.  Usually for some kind of presentation in a business course or other.   Doesn't really matter why they are so attired though, simply that they are and, for a few hours at least, no longer resemble a shambling mound of soiled laundry with legs ambling around a shopping mall or supermarket parking lot with no greater purpose in mind than that. Today's attire, for the classic menswear aficionados out there, includes a Mercer shirt, Brooks Bros. Makers necktie, a vintage Polo University Club suit, Allen Edmonds shoes, and wool socks by Dapper Classics with some vintage Polo braces beneath the vest/waistcoat that feature an interesting art deco design. Overdres...

  M ore moments of joy on the Michigan trails.  I have not skied this much in years.  And what a blast when it's the three of us.  Sunday was a near perfect day.  About 30 degrees Fahrenheit, decent snow through the woods, an interesting network of trails, and good glide, plus many happy skiers besides us.  It doesn't get any better. -- Heinz-Ulrich

    L eaving the ski trails behind for the (asynchronous online) classroom once again.  A bit colorful perhaps, but not unpleasantly so. In less than two weeks, we will once again head north to ski two different Nordic ski centers.  But who's counting? I cannot wait! -- Heinz-Ulrich

        I ncreasingly, I am convinced that if more people in the world met on cross-country skis, more of us could get along pleasantly more of the time.  The activity exercises every major muscle group in the human body.  Next to swimming, cross-country skiing has been found to be the best for of exercise there is.  It is also something that you work to perfect continuously at your own pace, making the sport whatever you want it to be.  An easy stroll with an occasional "schoosh" down a hill, or a more grueling jaunt at speed uphill and over dale. But back to the point of the post. Today on the trails during almost four hours of skiing, I met happy and friendly groups of skiers from Germany, France, Russia, China, Japan, and India plus a couple whose language I could not quite place although the husband and I spoke in English for a few minutes at the fire pit near the rental shop and warming hut.  And even an African-American family skiing ...

  O n a completely different note, here's another thought for 2022 as we move into February.      Let’s cultivate the habit of self-reflexivity.   Let’s make an effort to become more introspective and willing to look more closely at our actions, choices, behaviors, and attitudes.   Not to the point of inactive stasis, but let’s   take an occasional a look at ourselves and our approach to life, eh fellas?        Doing so more than seems typical in our, at times, appallingly superficial hustle-bustle, digital world of the 21 st century might help us recognize certain self-defeating, or even destructive patterns and make concrete changes to smooth the road before us.   Cultivating a habit of self-reflection might also help us to become more considerate of those in our immediate orbits, making us easier to take day to day and, in the process, generally more pleasant to be around.         Call me ...

  Public Enemy #1 on the loose again.  This time using Madshus skis.  This is the pair I purchased in Norway more than two decades ago when I learned to ski on the miles of groomed municipal trails just outside of Trondheim.  No better place to do so given the extensive network that surrounds the city.  Like yours truly, the skis are showing their age, but they still wax up pretty well and seem to have some life left in them.  I'll take 'em up north with us in a couple of weeks and leave the Fischers at home. The beauty of the Michigan woods in the newly fallen snow.  Whether or not you love the winter to the same degree that we do, there is not denying the quiet majesty of a winter landscape.  Stunning to observe through a window with a hot drink (or something medicinal) in your hand.  We just happen to enjoy being out in the thick of it. W e've spent as much time as possible on our cross-country skis the last month here in The Grand Duchy....