A Sunny and Temperate Madras Tuesday. . .

A delightful late summer's day here in Mid-Michigan. I dressed accordingly for another jaunt to campus, where I was able to get in a few hours of uninterrupted preparation work for the upcoming semester plus a meeting with a (Turkish) colleague. We are serving together on a couple of different committees this year.

A very pleasant way to spend the first half of the day, made even better with a vintage Madras jacket from Corbin and a Land's End 'Signature' oxford cloth button-down collar shirt among other items. A fantastic collar roll today, if I do say so myself, by the way.

You have to be comfortable with sticking out like a sore thumb when wearing a Madras sports jacket. There are no two ways about it. But then, if you are dressed reasonably well in most places outside of very large city centers in the United States in 2022, you already stick out like a sore thumb anyway.

It certainly helps if one develops and approaches the rest of the world with -- to borrow from the Yiddish and Spanish languages respectively -- a certain amount of chutzpah and brass cajones. Indeed, one commenter advised as much in a recent discussion about double-breasted navy blazers in the Ivy Style forum a day or three ago.

Self-confidence is key in all things.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Comments

Flannel and Suede Tuesday. . .

W hew! Almost three hours spent reading and providing feedback for 41 self-evaluative reflections submitted by students at the end of last week for one of my two courses this semester/term. A largely thankless task since most will pay no attention to the probing questions asked and suggestions made. There are ten such low risk (two points each) formative assignments between Week Two and Week 13 besides three collaborative projects (due at the end of Week Five, Week 10, and Week 14) and a semester capstone that students complete individually (due at the end of Week 15). The format is similar for all of the courses I teach whether face-to-face, hybrid, or asynchronous online. So, why spend the time providing feedback for the ether? To create a paper trail of sorts. That way, when students come to me with either belligerence or crocodile tears (it rarely varies) and complaints that they won't be able to earn their A+ -- a foregone conclusion out ahead of the invariable medical

Halloween Monday Style. . .

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Fall Break Monday Style. . .

T he Young Master and I had some fun yesterday (Sunday) afternoon while digging out a few exterior seasonal decorations from the furnace room. Enlarge the top photograph to see what Mr. Bones is reading about at my son's suggestion. Personally, I would be happy to skip the Halloween decorations outside beyond a couple of jack-o-lanterns glowing on the front porch for trick-or-treat evening, but The Young Master, who turns 13 this week, still enjoys it, so what are you gonna do? He will be answering the door this year, however, rather than heading out himself. But fear not all you advocates of kids hopped up on sugary treats! His Tae Kwon Do studio has organized a trunk-or-treat for Saturday afternoon, in which our son will indulge following his morning classes toward Black Belt Recommended status (testing in December). Fall Break the first two days of this week, so a bit more work from home since, officially at least, the university is not closed for faculty and staff. J

Classic Style

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