Rainy Mondays & Chipp Poodles. . .

Sounds like a line from a Carpenters tune.

In any case, chilly autumn weather is here! So, I have started the twice yearly routine of swapping warm weather attire for cold weather, and moving things between the cedar closet in the basement, the wardrobe in our bedroom, and the overflow closet in the TV room across the upstairs hall.

Good thing too since today is dark, wet, and seasonal. And if I cannot have winding, snowy ski trails through the forests of Norway or Michigan, than I am perfectly happy with the wet, colder conditions forecast for this week ('vaermeldingen' as they say in Norwegian).

All of which is a long-winded way of explaining today's heavy wool blazer, flannel pants, Merino wool socks, trenchcoat with liner, and one of my long woolen scarves plus a Tattersall umbrella from Brooks Brothers.

The fedora is from Optimo Hats of Chicago, and was a 50th birthday gift from my late mother. Since these are made to order, it was not ready for shipping until just before my 51st birthday several years ago. I like the hat, but prefer the softer construction of those by Borselino. Still, I try to wear this one for one week a month between October and mid-April.

There are now five similar, though slightly different, models in the cold weather rotation, and I enjoy them each year once the weather cools. Now, lot's of people take the attitude that men who wear hats -- REAL hats mind you, not those damn backwards baseball caps on almost every male head in the Midwest and elsewhere, or what they now call knit beanies (we used to call them watch caps or ski caps -- are somehow affected idiots. And I am using more polite language than has become the norm in online fora.

As the late Burt Lancaster once said in, I believe, the film Tough Guys, in which he starred with Kirk Douglas, "I'd say you have been misinformed." With that said, it's time for me to get to work and accomplish something before class at 10:20.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

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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

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