We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
The relatively-recent Italian owner of Brooks Brothers is determined to keep the brand going strong. Traditional, but with necessary updates. Let's face it, if you wear a 15 year-old suit, you look out out to lunch. Men's clothing is trimmer now, and so are men.
This frivolous topic comes up because a friend teased me last night at a Christmas party about my shirt. Being sort of conservative types, we 3 guys devouring the sliced filet were all wearing Brooks shirts (and jolly ties and jackets, as befitting the event). Not Barney's shopper types, or Armani types.
We stupidly got on the topic of dress shirts, and the friend accused me of wearing a Milano. Guess what? Brooks now makes 5 fits of their classic dress shirts.
It's about time. You could fit two people in my old Brooks shirts. Here's a related topic: They still have the classic cotton, but their big sellers are the no-iron ones. The no-iron ones feel less comfortable to me but they do not wrinkle up in one day and save a lot on laundry bills.
Re Christmas, most women appreciate a Brooks silk blouse. Silk seems to feel good to female skin.
I hear you asking about my other favorite contemporary novelists. OK, Mark Helprin and Cormac McCarthy, not including beach books with snappy, wacky, sociopathic dialog like Carl Hiassen.
Lots of Saturnalian and also northern European pagan aspects to this season around this part of the world. It's a multicultural festival season.
- Cocktail parties, lots of them. Saturnalian, but on a civilized level. Time to look great and behave well. Get hair done and dig out that tux for the fancy ones. Gotta show up or people will forget that you exist.
- Excesses of foods and hors d'oevres. Saturnalian. Control oneself.
- Random reckless holiday drunken sex. Saturnalian. Sounds exciting, but I have not seen this yet around my neighborhood, so no worries.
- Decorated evergreen trees. Ain't they purty? Pagan German/Scandinavian. I do not think baby Jesus had one, though. We bought one for outdoors and one for indoors. Almost bought a fake one for indoors. It looked perfect, and had 1000 lights but I hate white lights. They look like a bank lobby and if you're not sensible, you might need to visit the bank for Christmas anyway.
- Presents? Sort-of Saturnalian (jewels for your mistresses - they can give you Viagra), sort of European with St. Nicholas. And the wise men with their perfume and stuff. You know what She wants - A Pucci scarf and ballet tickets. We guys generally want nothing other than family happiness. Presents are the worst thing about Christmas unless they are food (we like rare stinky cheeses). We go with 1/person only to keep the tradition going. Yes I know - little kids love opening gifts. Adults don't.
- Snow and cold. Not real Christmassy - northern European. Lucky for me, I like snow and cold and the only thing I love as much around here as a powerful hurricane is a beautiful blizzard that stops life in its tracks and gives us time to not be busy.
- The Messiah. It was written for Easter, for heaven's sake.
- Christmas - it was illegal to celebrate it in New England until, like, a few years ago. You could go to jail for making a savory mince-meat pie at Christmastime. They had pie-police sniffing on the streets of Boston. I have (well, had) and old-tyme Connnecticut Congregationalist pal whose family still refused to acknowledge Christmas. As a Congregationalist by ancient family tradition, I do not think of Christmas as "holy" either but there is nothing not to like about it and the hymns and carols are as good as it gets.
- As for me, any excuse for assembling family is good. I have a big one (5 sibs), and I love them all. Not certain about vice-versa... The holiday decorations are fun, and lovely. Church on Christmas Eve always brings tears to me but whether they are holy or sentimental is hard to tell. All has little to do with whether I am a Jesus-follower or not but yeah, I feel He's worth following as best one can and I take it seriously. Not a grinch, not a scrooge. Birth (Christmas), or re-birth (Easter) - all good lives of the living Spirit.
Different categories, with some overlap. Here at Maggie's, we are sometimes busy with preserve hunting of pen-raised birds. Not the real thing but good for the dogs. Sort of Disney hunting. Golf with firearms is the way I think of it.
My love is grouse hunting in the North Woods. BD is the same. Hours of tramping over hill and dale and marsh, hoping to find a stray grouse or woodcock. With dog, of course, preferably pointer. You barely need 12 bullets in your pocket for a whole day and if you come back to the lodge with a grouse or two, it's a banner day.
Both strenuous activities require layering and you need to add an inch to your trousers to handle cold weather under-stuff. Also, if age adds an inch (which it should not, God forbid), take it into account too. Best thing: suspenders. Filson tincloth winter gear requires them. This gear is not for "bird" hunting in the southland but it is good for brush-busting in the northern regions.
Hiking, especially mountain hiking, keeps you warm and you peel layers off into your daypack as you begin to sweat. Bird hunting is slower and colder, more methodical, tactical, and there is no daypack to put stuff into.
Do the young'uns these days live on their ipads and junk like that? It's a damn shame.
If you have kids, or grandkids, let's get back to good toys and things which add real life, vs virtual life, to real living.
I am thinking of blocks, pick-up-sticks, wooden train sets, Legos, Chess (can be learned at 5), board games, card games, etc. Poker should be learned as young as possible, because it's part of life. Books at their levels, of course. Real books. Older kids, BB guns, bows and arrows, etc. By age 10-13, fishing rods, 28 ga shotguns, .22s, and big boy and girl toys like that.
Everything imaginable is on Amazon.
What ideas do our readers have for kids, for Christmas things?
It seems reasonable to think that the downtrodden might be most interested in obtaining status and money. But this is not the case. Inhabitants of prestigious institutions are even more interested than others in prestige and wealth. For many of them, that drive is how they reached their lofty positions in the first place. Fueling this interest, they’re surrounded by people just like them—their peers and competitors are also intelligent status-seekers. They persistently look for new ways to move upward and avoid moving downward. The French sociologist Émile Durkheim understood this when he wrote, “The more one has, the more one wants, since satisfactions received only stimulate instead of filling needs.” And indeed, a recent piece of research supports this: it is the upper class who are the most preoccupied with gaining wealth and status. In their paper, the researchers conclude, “relative to lower-class individuals, upper-class individuals have a greater desire for wealth and status…it is those who have more to start with (i.e., upper-class individuals) who also strive to acquire more wealth and status.” Plainly, high-status people desire status more than anyone else.
In the beginning, I never thought that with all his warts and his tweets and all his rants and ravings that the broken human named Donald Trump could be God’s chosen instrument to try and mend this broken kingdom, but there he sits astride the world like some Strange Colossus.
Then again God chose the shattered Saul in order to get to that young unknown musician, David.
This feels like it comes from some supernatural place:
Like rock stars, famous tenors get all the girls they want. Women go nuts over them. In the TV news business and in Hollywood they have a term for them: "star-f...ers." We used to term them "groupies."
Mrs. Barrister advises that, the closer a person reaches maturity, the more important it is to dress well without appearing sloppy. I agree with that, and I notice it. Rightly or wrongly, appearance has impact.
It matters more when you have a coat and tie job, or a suit and tie job. Have you ever noticed how well even elderly gents look in an up-to-date well-fitted suit?
However, I am writing this post to discuss shoes for coat-and-tie men, or even no-tie. Surely it matters as much or more for women, but my knowledge there is minimal because when Mrs. B says "Jimmy Choos" I think she is saying "Mumble Shoes."
Men's dress/work shoes can range from London's hand-made bespoke shoes to Nordstrom's off the rack. The more expensive, the longer they last. Good ones last a lifetime, and get seasoned with time, if not abused so guys rarely need new good shoes. A good rule is that pretty good shoes (over, say, $350-400) should rarely be worn 2 days in a row.
I generally have a modest dress shoe shelf, a black and a corduvan dress loafer, and a black and brown pair of tie shoes. My old black Brooks tassel loafers finally had to go - my feet flattened too much for them and they proved unstretchable.
Many, like Van Gogh, felt he was a magician but in his lifetime his work became unpopular and less profitable, he made some bad investments, and died in poverty.
It seems that what we value most about Rembrandt today are his portraits, but he did all sorts of work in all sorts of styles. The 17th C Dutch art show at the Met Museum now was interesting to me for a few reasons.
One was that Rembrandt was an outlier in much of his work. Baroque, and humorous/bawdy, were popular, money-making styles of his time. Franz Hals, for example. Also, landscapes of rich guys' estates.
Also interesting to me that this was going on during the time when the Pilgrims were in Holland, or planning to leave to New Amsterdam (but accidentally ended up in Cape Cod). Pilgrim clothing was conservative Dutch Reform dress.
My photo of one of Rembrandt's many self portraits. He was 55 at this time. He often used himself and his family as models.
Nat, a 47 year-old veteran of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, believes his years as an agent runner are over. He is back in London with his wife, the long-suffering Prue. But with the growing threat from Moscow Centre, the office has one more job for him. Nat is to take over The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies. The only bright light on the team is young Florence, who has her eye on Russia Department and a Ukrainian oligarch with a finger in the Russia pie.
Nat is not only a spy, he is a passionate badminton player. His regular Monday evening opponent is half his age: the introspective and solitary Ed. Ed hates Brexit, hates Trump and hates his job at some soulless media agency...
Blake was one of a kind. He completed his formal education at age 10 and became an engraver. However, later he attended the Royal Academy of Art for a while. Contemporaries thought he was mad. He had a wonderful life.
Perhaps my favorite contemporary novelist, the late Walker Percy: 
Lots of Saturnalian and also northern European pagan aspects to this season around this part of the world. It's a multicultural festival season.
Mrs. Barrister advises that, the closer a person reaches maturity, the more important it is to dress well without appearing sloppy. I agree with that, and I notice it. Rightly or wrongly, appearance has impact. 
Many, like Van Gogh, felt he was a magician but in his lifetime his work became unpopular and less profitable, he made some bad investments, and died in poverty.
