Winter's Last Gasp?

It is still cold with falling snow (!) here in Mid-Michigan, so the suit and shoes I planned to wear today were replaced by my trusty J. Press tweed jacket and a pair of pleated cords at an early hour after I checked the weather forecast online. And we thought it was Springtime!

My late mother always maintained that April was the cruelest of months. Most people are ready for warmth and spring flowers, but so often, Mother Nature has other plans in store. Part of the reason ol' Mom always gravitated toward the tropics and lived for many years in Merida on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

Anyway, a quick trip by the cedar closet on my way upstairs from the (finished) basement where my home office is located made the switch relatively easy. So too did grabbing an oxford cloth button-down collar shirt from the laundry room closet where my clean shirts hang.

And voila! Warmer, yet presentable attire in about 90 seconds. This particular jacket and pair of pants reside on the same hanger, so there was not time or thought required to make the sudden change in attire after only one mug of very early morning coffee at 5:15am and before the usual shower and shave at 6:15am. It takes a while for the mind to crank into gear that early in the day.

Looking reasonably pulled together need not take lots of time or be an inconvenience. A tiny bit of planning and forethought makes it extremely easy as I always say in one way or another.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

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J. Press Goodness. . .

F resh out of the UPS box, three examples of J. Press goodness on a Friday morning. These shirts are replacements for three recently worn-through, more than 20-year old OCBDs from Land's End (two) and L.L. Bean (one). They were purchased shortly after I took my first teaching position at a now defunct local college outside of Minneapolis, immediately following graduate school, as the fall semester kicked off in September 2003. While some professional gear hung in my closet already, a few additional items were needed at that point to round out the weekly rotation. Said shirts all finally fell prey to small rips showing up in the now very thin, but incredibly comfortable, fabric within six weeks of each other this winter and early spring. So, time for a few replacements. The old friends will find new life as summertime lawncare shirts. Of the three new items above, my favorite shirt is on the right, but one cannot go wrong with a light blue OCBD either, so we're in good

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Job Talk #3. . .

C andidate #3 is, for my money, the person for the job. Considerable experience, broad perspective, well-connected throughout the college and university due to an array of collaborative pursuits of one kind or another, coherent and detailed vision laid out for the next three years and beyond. Yes. I am not on the committee that makes the recommendation to the dean, who will make the final decision and send the letter, but, were it up to yours truly, this is the guy. And he wore an actual suit (mid-gray), dress shoes, white shirt, and necktie as an added plus. 20 years or so my junior, but someone gets it. -- Heinz-Ulrich

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