Repp Stripe Monday. . .

The attire for today. Key items include a vintage Black Watch necktie from Reis of New Haven, found in my wonderful old thrift/charity shop across the street from Bro-Menn Hospital in our old haunt Bloomington, Illinois, which reliably had all kinds of good menswear there from -- presumably deceased -- doctors and lawyers.

How do I know? Because categorically no other men of any age or profession in or around Bloomington-Normal dressed presentably that I saw in the 100 [10 actually. It just seemed like 100.] years we lived there. And I mean no one. You had to go to Chicago or possibly Springfield [the state capital] to find reasonably well-dressed, though not necessarily stylish, men in Illinois. But that is probably true most places the further one travels from large governmental and/or financial centers everywhere. . . As well as the two coasts in the U.S.

The pants today are leftover from a long gone 'trio suit' by Jos. A. Banks. These come with a coat and two pairs of paints, one solid to match the coat, and a second muted patterned pair. Presumably to make business travel for a few days easier? Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Yeah, I know. I know. But the pants are wool, and I like the quiet pattern. Plus they go very well with a blazer and are comfortable even in warm weather. So, I kept 'em even after deciding a dozen or so years ago that the suit (navy coat and pants) did not work for me thanks to a boxy, overly generous cut.

But best of all, I spotted a couple of young guys on campus earlier today in navy blazers, khakis, tucked in shirts, and repp stripe ties of their own with (Wait for it!) red Converse high top Chuck Taylor sneaker. Ok, maybe a bit too David Letterman for some, and there was a recent thread on sneakers with tailored clothing over on the Ivy Style website if memory serves, but these two undergrads pulled it off pretty well. And I must admit to doing something very similar myself a few times years ago.

These two were probably fraternity pledges given the time of year although without the visible beanies or pledge pins of yore. . . Cue Douglas C. Niedermeyer, as played by actor Mark Metcalf, and Dee Snider!

-- Heinz-Ulrich

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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

Classic Style

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