Moving

The Long-Suffering Trad has a new home.

Please come over to www.longsufferingtrad.com and take a look around.

I will soon have an info page with some stuff on it.  Probably later tonight.

I'm not sure if anonymous posting is working yet, but I'll make it happen.  Or you can register.

Please do come by.

lw

Trad Lifestyle Blogging - Ladies' Magazines

One of the facts of married life is that you will frequently find yourself stuck in a situation, usually in the bathroom, where there is nothing to read but one of your wife's magazines.  After 22 years of marriage, I am now able to look back at some of the magazines that I've gotten to read as a result of that joyful union.

As always, the early years were golden.  Back then there was always a Vogue or an Elle around.  I never had much use for Vogue, but those were the early days of Elle magazine and it wasn't bad at all.  Of course there were the lovely pictures to marvel at, but I remember that they had some of the best movie, book and pop music reviewers around.  Pop culture has always been my culture and Elle filled the bill. They had good travel articles as well.

I sometimes wondered if my wife ever read it though. More than once I would suggest a move, something like "My Dinner with Andre" - that kind of thing.  My wife would say "Never heard of it." "Oh? There was a great review in Elle."  "Must have missed it." The early years of marriage have their rocky moments, and in those times I had visions of custody battles over the Elle magazine subscription.

Fast forward ten years and the magazine is now Martha Stewart Living.  Say what you want about Martha Stewart, the girl is nothing if not practical.  You could learn a lot from Martha Stewart Living.  I like food, and I've been known to pick up the spatula from time to time so being stuck with Martha wasn't a terrible proposition.  Hell, I once even read an article where Martha was telling me how  to wash my car.  Can you imagine?  Martha out there all hung over on a Saturday morning washing her car?  I always felt that underneath her pretty veneer there was a man.  Martha was no Elle, but she was far from bad.

Fast forward another ten years and what have we got?  Oprah.  These are the dark days, my friends.  You're better off staring at a wall than looking at an Oprah magazine.  There is nothing worth looking at in Oprah.  Even when they're talking to someone good, Oprah makes them talk about stupid stuff.  And that Dr. Phil guy gives me the creeps.  I don't buy his crap for a second.  Thank god Brooks Brothers sends me a new catalog every week, and it can usually be found lying around the bathroom.

Wikis, searches and blogs

I've been thinking about wikis the last couple of days. I bought a book about a week ago called Web 2.0 Blog. It's basically an introduction to blogging. And a pretty good book. Toward the end of the book is a chapter about wikis. While going over this chapter it became apparent to me that a wiki would make an excellent group trad project. The project would be, of course, creating The Encyclopedia of Trad. Having now spent some time thinking about this, I've reached a couple of conclusions:

1. Wikis really are a great tool for creating The Encyclopedia of Trad.
   
2. I'm not the right person to head up that project.
   

It is, I think, a great job for anyone who has the time, the leadership skills and the desire to make a mark on the trad. It's just not going to be me. I'm already busy. I hope someone will do it though.

So while I'm thinking about this, I create a site, trad.wikidot.com . You can go there. It's pretty empty. Once I get it created I'm naturally looking for ways to create classes, categories, the proper containers that information needs. But guess what, you can't do that. Wikis defy my need to create outlines, table of contents, structure. This actually induces panic. What? How can information exist without structure? So this gets me thinking even more.

People who created wikis are smart I figure. Maybe they're onto something. What if all this structure is extraneous. A manmade artifice that we have needed in order to try to understand the chaotic universe. Take for example the taxonomy of living things. One could persuasively argue, I think, that phylums, classes, orders, genus, and species are things that really don't exist. The are basically BS. But they have been very useful BS because they have been our gateway into the understanding of critters. And the understanding eventually transcended the BS structure that we used to get there.

But now, maybe all that is history. Maybe now we are able to treat all this chaotic information not in some artificial structural way, but as the chaotic web of interrelated things that it really is. Understanding chaos as chaos. And perhaps the thing that has allowed us to do this is the search. The search is now our gateway into information. Is this true? Hell, I don't know, but the search is clearly the way into a wiki.

Let's say I search "Mercer" at the not yet extant Encyclopedia of Trad. I start off learning something about David Mercer and his company, but then I'm following links off to oxford cloth, OCBDs, collar rolls and collar lining. From there, who knows where I will end up (I never do).

I guess some of you guys, if anyone is still reading, are saying, "duh, so what?" But I'm a little slow and to me this represents a pretty significant departure in the way we relate to information. At least the way I relate to information. And it's something I've never given much thought to before. It's not occurred to me until now that the search is a pretty big deal.

So what about blogs? Blogs are pretty conventional compared to wikis and searches. But they are backwards which takes a bit of getting used to. Reading this blog top to bottom you first get me thanking Chops for a weird and wonderful post. Then you get Chops's weird and wonderful post. Then you get me introducing Chops. But they say that time doesn't really exist either so maybe that too is for the best.

Thanks again for reading, if anyone did. Tomorrow is Trad Lifestyle Blogging and I have no idea what I'm writing about. Could be a disaster. Stay tuned.

Update: This made sense while I was writing it. 6 hours later and even I can't follow it. I'll try to fix it tonight.

wessex and the NST

wessex over at AAAT has done what I've always wanted to do. He has provided us with a side-by-side of the Alden cordovan Norwegian Split Toe on the Aberdeen and Barrie lasts.I'm pretty sure that the Aberdeen is on the left. Many over at AAAT prefer the barrie for this shoe but I'd have to go for the Aberdeen myself. No question about it.

wessex is in the enviable position of having to actually choose. We'll see what he does.

You reach a point in life ....

.... where these things actually start to look good:

Is it the years or is it the weight? I'm not sure. I have a very nice (and expensive, thank you) pair of Russell Moc boat shoes. They are awesome. They are quite unique. Look great. I've even been known to polish them from time to time, unheard of. But wearing them sunrise to sunset on a summer saturday can leave the old feet just a little sore. Enough to get my attention anyway.

When I was a younger man, like you, I was perplexed by the fact that old people were always attracted to ugly shoes. Well it's no mystery anymore. As one who is well into middle age I can tell you that shoes getting ugly is the least of your getting ugly problems. But I'm not going to get into all that.

Anyway, being a man of half measures, my next pair of topsiders are more likely to look something like these:
but the truth is that those on the top don't look as bad as they used to.

Off to get some insoles ......

The Shoes

It seems to be a big day for shoes.  Admiral Cod talks about how he developed a love for brogues and Tucker is showing off his Alden penny loafer collection.  I've got some shoes too.

These are what I call my A list leather sole shoes.  I actually have several more pair of Aldens that I keep hidden away because I like to pretend that I don't have as many shoes as I do.  I even keep my longwings out of sight.  If anyone wears a 13C (or even a 13D) we could have something to talk about.

For work, I'm usually wearing either the blucher or the tassel loafer.  The penny loafer is mostly for leisure, sometimes fridays to work.  For dress up I will go either with the tassels or the black cap toes.  Mostly I'll go with the cap toe only because it's usually been a very long time since I've worn them and I just feel like it.  I think I get to wear them sometime next week to one of those dinner functions.  Oh boy.

And this is what I was wearing yesterday.  I'd show you what I wore today but I'm still wearing it.

Back

Done with the dentist. Thanks as always to Chops for his great and confusing posts.

Trad P()rN 2/X

"Dirty White Bucs"

Trad P()rN 1/x

"Social Image"






Hopefully the first of many; (you'll know it when you see it)

Crown Me

The only posting going on tomorrow morning will be what my dentist is doing to one of my molars. 

Should be fun. Don't wander.

A piece of your mind.

Tucker has moved over to blogger ( right here ) so you can now tell him what you think anonymously.

B.Y.O.B.

One of the features of mass production is that each time the manufacturer figures out how to cut costs by a quarter, he makes an extra bazillion dollars and you get either a cheaper or more efficient product. Well I hope that Mr. Claudio Del Vecchio is enjoying all his extra money because he must be saving a fortune on buttons.

Up until about a year or so ago one of the nice things about a Brooks Brothers jacket was that they used corozo buttons. In my view, these buttons set Brooks jackets apart from other similarly priced jackets on the market. Well those days are over my friends. Mr. Del Vecchio must have gone out and found the cheapest looking buttons in the world.

Here is my suggestion to Mr. Millionaire Del Vecchio: Just sell the jackets without any buttons, alright? The buttons you've got on there now are an insult to the jacket anyway. Why bother? Just put little dots on the jacket where the buttons are supposed to go and I'll go out and find some buttons myself.

Pocket Squares

Another righteous Sunday morning.

Here are some things you can say about pocket squares:

• A well dressed man wears a pocket square.
  
• I love pocket squares.
  
• Pocket squares really complete the look of my outfit.
  
• I turned my car around when I realized I forgot my pocket square.
  
• I feel naked without my pocket square.
  

Here is one thing you cannot say about pocket squares:

• Pocket squares are trad.
  

This is true in general but an exception can be made for white squares using either of the folds shown to the left. (Images taken without permission from Sam Hober. ) And in my always humble opinion that is trad only when wearing a dark suit.






I'm not generally one to complain about the state of affairs over at AAAT, but anyone reading the trad forum would likely get the impression that all manner of pocket squares are trad. They aren't. I wouldn't go so far as to say that they are somehow un-trad, that they diminish your tradness, but they certainly don't help (with the exception mentioned above).  The are at best trad-neutral.

The pocket square properly belongs in the provenance of the dandy.  There is nothing wrong with a trad borrowing from the dandy, just as there is nothing wrong with the trad borrowing from the redneck. It happens all the time.  Dandy's have been known to borrow from the trad every once in a while also.  It's  what makes getting dressed fun. But pocket squares don't make you more trad.

I just had to get that off my chest.  Thank you.

Prescience

PL Sullivan's advice was in the nick of time it seems.  I have learned that just yesterday a new RL Polo outlet shop opened within an hours drive of my house.  Lately I've been checking out their ties whenever I've had to be in Dillards, but $115 is too much for me.  I wonder what I'll find at the outlet?  Hmmmmm.

Go To Hell

Not you, the pants.

You guys may have already noticed that longwing has a rather underdeveloped sense of style where pants are concerned.  And some of you may assume that I fall into the camp of those who sneer at the GTH aspect of the trad.  But this is not totally true.

It is true that critter pants, or any type of embroidered pants are a mystery to longwing.  However, I must confess to having a growing admiration for vwguy due to his collection of brightly colored poplin trousers.  Sometimes I imagine myself having a social life, living large with the prep set for no other reason than to have an excuse to buy some pants like vwguy's.  Particularly the kelly green and christmas red ones.  And once I got used to those I'd probably need to get them in corduroy also.

Last summer I did some experimenting.  I bought a pair of madras shorts and a pair of nantucket pink shorts.  I was wearing them both rather happily until I saw a picture of myself in the madras.  It was like OMG WTF LOL, that's just wrong.  So now I'm even afraid of madras shorts.  Fortunately I do still like the pink ones.  

So what's the point, I'm sure your asking?  Well the point is that there are a lot of clothes that longwing likes but is just too chicken to wear, and vwguy's pants are at the top of that list. Maybe I should move to Virginia.

Trad Lifestyle Blogging - The Arizona Biltmore

Is there such a thing as southwestern trad? Probably not. But there are places that trads go when in the southwest. Although you will often hear people say that they are off to Scottsdale, a trad will more likely say that he is off to Phoenix because that is where they keep The Arizona Biltmore. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and opened in 1929, the Biltmore is the granddaddy of Arizona resorts. It's been around since Scottsdale was a one tumbleweed town.

There are plenty of newer and glitzier properties in the area, but it's hard to imagine one with more class. I wouldn't really know because I've never been tempted to go anywhere else. Well, I've been many places in the area, but this is the only "luxury" resort. Why stray?

In a couple of months the tempuratures will be rising, the misters will be pumping and the room rates will be falling. That is the time of year you are most likely to find the family of longwing at the Biltmore. I'm not sure it's the best way though. Sure they give you a nice discount on the room when it's 110 degrees, but do you think they discount the eggs benedict or the burger by the pool or the filet mignon? No. The Corona or the margarita or the Chabis? No. The massage or the yoga class or the body wrap? No way.

By the time I check out I've realized that for just a few dollars more (relatively speaking) we could have gone when the weather was nicer and the people were more beautiful. Ah, but such is the life.......

Trad Weekend Plans: not much. It is the weekend of my annual roller coaster ride. Thrilling stuff for longwing. A half star trad weekend.

New Addictions

This will be a quickie because I've got to beat it to the airport. This taking pictures is kind of habit forming. You start off wanting to show a little and before long you want to show everything. It's a good thing that tomorrow is Trad Lifestyle Blogging or you'd probably be getting a picture of my cell phone.

And this is most of what I had on yesterday.

Bush

Unless you boys have never stepped off your yachts, you've probably noticed that we have different plants here in the southwest. This is a spanish broom, which usually doesn't look like much but looks very nice right now. I am happy because for once this winter I remembered not to cut it back along with everything else. I'll whack on it once it's no longer in bloom.

What goes around ...

It feels wrong to link to a post that links right back over here, but P L Sullivan has serious problems.

Oh, and lunch is on tintin.

Wait, there's more: Tucker says: get a haircut.

A big day in the blogo-trado-sphere.

Another New Tie

This is another one of my new ties. I bought it at the same time as the Tie of the Year. It is going to be one of my favorites. I wore it yesterday with the pink shirt and shoe. I didn't get any compliments but I never do.

Have you ever noticed that almost all of your ties look good with a pink shirt? Like almost none of your ties look good with a yellow shirt? This is just one of the reasons that pink shirts are great. Another reason is that they make the ladies think that you are secure with your masculinity.

Back to ties, the purchasing of them continues. I seem to have enough shoes, jackets, and gray or tan pants to last a long time. Now all that's left to do is buy more and more ties. And maybe a couple of madras shirts. Oh, and I put the shoe in the picture just for fun.

A Trad Abroad

Not me, Tucker.

doodads

People write funny things on the trad board. I'm not the first to mention this, but we say things like "I didn't go to an Ivy League school, but if I had I would have gone to Yale." Or "I didn't go to Yale, but if I had I would have joined Skull and Bones." It's kind of like longwing saying "If I were a competent writer instead of a hack blogger, I'd be writing for the New Yorker or the Atlantic or Playboy."

I said to my mother a few days ago "Mother, I started a blog recently and I think some people may be reading it." She said "That's very nice honey, what's your blog about?" Oops, I should have expected this. "hmmm, it's kind of about men and clothes." She started to go a little gray on me, like she had seen a ghost. After an uncomfortable pause she recovered and said "Well, maybe someday you'll write a book." And I thought: yeah, maybe a book with really short chapters.

Shirt Care

They say that no trad is an island, but I say that if there is one area in which each trad stands alone, it is shirt care. I have great admiration for those who can wear their OCBDs unpressed, but this is not the way of longwing. And those who send their OCBDs off to be professionally cleaned and pressed I consider to be downright masochistic (it is longwing's POV that anyone who sends their shirts off should switch to pinpoint). For me, it is the middle way.

I'm a self care shirt care junkie (no starch, thank you). I am a man that is never happier than when performing a completely mindless task, and ironing is just the thing.

Oxford cloth must have been invented for the self care shirt care man. The beautiful thing about it is that it doesn't matter if you do an excellent ironing job or a lousy ironing job, the shirt always ends up looking the same. It's wonderful. Broadcloth is a completely different matter. I can't seem to make my broadcloth shirt look worth a dang no matter what I do and if I weren't so cheap I'd send them off. This is why I'm still thinking about those non-iron shirt over at Brooks.

Be warned though, like everything else trad, there is a dark side to ironing. I am the father of two teenage boys who often arrive at the house with friends, both male and female. It is not every kid's dream to walk in, friends in tow, on dad ironing his shirts. It seems to give the wrong impression. This is something we have had to talk about. It has even been suggested that perhaps dad could be a bit more discreet with his ironing habit. Such is the life blah, blah, blah.

Tool of the Trade

Not me, the iron.



You said you wanted more pictures.

Hey PLS, can you shoot me the code for centering text? Safari lacks all the buttons and I can't find the code on the internet.
Thanks.

Notice to commenters

2 weeks into this and I'm already making up rules.

LST will not become the place for bashing the godfather. There are already places for that.

Thank you.

The Hypocrisy

People always say to me "longwing, although you are known to preach the good news of trad minimalism, I think that maybe you are full of baloney."

And I always say back "That's right. And the reason is because even though longwing is a man of principles, I also want to look good."

It has been this way since the beginning. How does one maintain his ideals while daily involved in the nitty-grittiness of everyday life? It is a struggle that separates the great from the merely ordinary. And so it is true that those who speak much of greatness are often revealed to be the most ordinary. Such is the fate of man. Such is the life of the long-suffering trad.

More Photos

I keep telling Longwing he needs more pictures if his thing is to ever develop a following. His response is always the same, "So put some up". Trouble is, I'm in the wholesale flower biz and my idea of 'still life' might not make the grade here.

Nevertheless, here's the old college try;

I wore this tie and shoe (as well as its match) earlier this morning while meeting with a buyer at the office. The khakis are not as frayed as those pictured in Longwing's photo, but a nice patina is developing. Just the thing for a blue blazer and crispy white shirt.

The headphones? See you at the Funplex.

Old school,

Karate,

Chop

Still Life

What I'm wearing, if you care.


Is it possible to do a caption in blogger?

Another request.

It's no secret that longwing lives in the Siberia of trad, but I haven't always. And if there is one thing I begin to miss about this time each year it's sundresses. So if you guys can grab any live action shots of sundresses please post them in the usual locations or send them to me and I will post them here. Bonus points will be awarded for ribbons.

Sorry to be such a demanding blogger.

Tie of the Year?

While I was in New York for a few days in January, I saw some variation of this tie just about everywhere I looked. I knew I'd have to get one. And sure enough, J. Press offered this specimen in their Spring lineup. I ordered it as soon as I saw it on the website. Even a trad can be in style, I guess.


And yes, I did rip off Chops on the photo.

Request for Submissions

No trad internet site can hope to be legit without some discussion of Metropolitan. I like movies and books as much as the next guy, but I never seem to have anything to say about them. So if anyone can write something intellegent and maybe even original about the movie I would be very happy to put it up here.

The authors of the selected pieces will receive a FREE one year subscription to "longwing's Traddest of All Newsletters" which doesn't actually exist yet but when it does will go for about $500.00 per year.

Or if you can say anything about Cheever that would be great too.

Spokesman Needed

The Trad Governing Body is currently seeking a spokesman. Competitive salary with benefits for this full time position. Candidate must have credentials, at least forum cred.

If you would like to suggest someone for this position please respond in the comment section.

*Longwing was offered spot already, but refused due to time constraints. Though he was generous to pose for our flier. (*hint pink oxford)

On behalf of the TGB,

Chops

Trad Lifestyle Blogging - Country Clubbing

I had to laugh when I read one of Richard's posts last week. It's the one where he is wearing the very nice navy suit. It looks like he's changed the post around a bit but at the time I think he said that he was dressing for dinner with friends at the country club, which wasn't a very nice club. Well of course my thought was that if you're dressing like that, it's a hell of a lot nicer than my country club.

It's not very often that you see anyone wearing a suit for dinner at my club. Sure, the place gets rented out for weddings and funerals and whatnot, but very rarely do you see a suit at dinner. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Several years ago many specially assessed dollars were spent trying to make the place nicer. And for the most part it worked. But not in the dining room. What happened was that we ended up with a very nice bar and lounge, but due to a combination of irredeemable architecture and shoddy interior decorating, the dining room is as bad as ever.

One of the tricks you learn there is don't ever make a dinner reservation. If you do, they will try to stick you in the dining room which is the last place you want to be. You really can't help but pity people when you see a party of them sitting by themselves in that dismal space. I sometimes think that people already feel a little sorry for old longwing, so I avoid it like the plague.

The bar is where the action is. You may occasionally see a guy wearing a sportscoat in the bar, but if you do and the fellow looks like he may have a pulse, it's probably just me. I'm not even going to get started on the food. That deserves a post of it's own.

Trad Weekend Plans: My wife has a very busy weekend planned for herself so I will be left alone to pull weeds. I will attend a saturday afternoon meet and greet for the new director of a local chamber music organization. High brow stuff for longwing. A 3 star trad weekend, at least by my lax standards.

On safari

Much has been made of the Brooks Brothers safari catalog, but today I have on my tan linen sportscoat with khaki pants and I feel like the king of the jungle, the Bush of the bush.

cool science factoid

I woke up this morning with nothing trad to say so I thought I'd share with you something interesting that I learned while watching the old boob tube a couple of years ago. This won't take long.

You know the earth is hot, right? Lots of heavy metals swirling around inside it. Well it's the swirling around of these heavy metals that creates the earth's magnetic field. And the earth's magnetic field has the important task of deflecting solar wind away from the surface of the planet. This is critical because solar wind, if not for the protective powers of the magnetic field, would quickly sweep away all of the earth's atmosphere and moisture. So a hot earth is a living earth and a cold earth is a dead earth. Of course, the earth is cooling off very, very slowly, but we probably have about a billion years before we have to start worrying.

Thanks for reading, if anyone did. Check back tomorrow for Trad Lifestyle Blogging.

Trad talk

After the underwhelming response to yesterday's post, I think I had better get back to basics before I'm left with the corpse of a blog on my hands.

Someone posed this question over on AAAT a couple of days ago: "Why is a 3 button sack jacket better than a regular old 2 button jacket?" It seemed to be an ernest question, which is nice. Very often questions like this one are really just traps intended to make the answerer look foolish.

The best way to answer this question is just to say "Because it is more trad." People might get irritated because they think you are being circular, but there is simply no coherent, straight forward answer to such a question. The bottom line is that nothing in the trad wardrobe is better. It's just trad.

This is easy enough to understand, but it does get harder to swallow when talking about cordovan shoes. These shoes, as you've noticed, are expensive. It seems reasonable to ask why they are better, but you will regret trying to answer that one. They aren't better. They're just trad.

This, I think, is the reason that all efforts on the trad board to talk only about clothes are doomed to failure. Clothes, especially trad clothes, without their connotative attachments are ultimately meaningless. And talking about them in that way is just too boring to bear.

PL on PLs

P. L. Sullivan turns off the TV and gets serious here.

Armchair Economics

Today, trads, I'm shifting gears. It's a risky think to do because once I start talking about anything more complicated than button down shirts I can get out of my depth very quickly. But I'll take a chance and write a bit about one of my other screen time activities - reading about current macro-economic issues.

I won't launch into a one sided diatribe about what's wrong, who did it, or how it can be fixed. I'm not qualified to do that and I don't have enough readers to intentionally drive half of them off. If you're interested in that sort of thing, you only have to go over to The Interchange. My interest is just to point out that 1) for those who haven't yet noticed, these are very turbulent and interesting times in the world of finance and economics, 2) there are many smart people writing about these issues daily on the internet and 3) in my opinion, the educated need to understand some of these issues better than they do.

One of the things that makes it interesting is that although there are many alarming things going on, the effects on the broader economy have been relatively mild. The fact that the dollar, housing, mortgages, oil prices, food prices, financial institutions, auto sales, and airlines are all going bonkers at once yet so many of our lives continue on fairly normally (except for that scrubbed trip to Paris) is a testament to the overall robustness of the old American way. Even so, there is enough going on to justify paying attention.

Given the title of this post, I'm going to take the risk of suggesting some places to begin for anyone interested in following developments. The suggested writers are all left of center types. None in my opinion are off the charts commie lefties but we all draw that line where we do. It is, however, true that if you still believe that tax cuts pay for themselves or you think that Alan Greenspan is a god or your sister is married to Lawrence Kudlow you probably won't find much to like here. I'd gladly offer a list of writers of right wing economic thinking but I'm clueless.

I started off by reading Paul Krugman. He is easy enough to find, he writes most Mondays and Fridays for the NY Times. Easily the most well known of the economists I'm mentioning today and thus the most despised. There is even a fellow named Donald Luskin who had devoted his career to Krugman hatred. In addition to his column, he also keeps a blog going.

After reading Krugman a while I stumbled across Brad Delong. Delong is a Berkley economist who was somehow involved in the Clinton administration. Like Krugman, he doesn't mind wandering off into other political issues so you may want to stay away if you think your blood may boil.

Finally there are 3 sites that focus on economic issues for the most part but tend to get a little technical. I won't pretend to understand much of what they say. If you like graphs and charts and formulas then you will love these guys. Angry Bear is a group blog by people who wish to remain anonymous. Calculated Risk, also anonymous, and Economist's View by Mark Thoma round out the suggested readings. It's a lot to keep track of but if you have time on your hands you could do worse with it.

Finally, I'll say again that there are a lot of interesting things currently going on in the world of economics. If you feel like your brain needs a stretch or you are just curious or bored, take a look.

Babbling about Brooks

Back now after a few days on the road. Thanks to Chops for putting up a couple of great posts in my absence. I see no reason to rescind his posting rights. I hope he'll continue contributing.

While I was traveling I was able to pop into the Brooks on the south side of Denver. It is not Denver's nicest Brooks, which is the new one at Cherry Creek. And it will soon be replaced by a Country Club concept store nearby. But it was on my way and the corporate discount days were on so we pulled over.

I've been thinking about ways that I can spend less on trousers and do my part to bring on the economic downturn (I'm actually not that cynical, it's the bank's fault for shutting down my HELOC). Given the time of year, it is tropical trousers that are on my mind. The Brooks tropicals are offered at a twofer price which can be very attractive after 25% off. I've hesitated in the past because I've been stuck on the idea of cuffed plain front trousers, a concept that Brooks doesn't seem to go in for. I was in the shop looking over the tropical trousers and noticed that all the tropicals had about 3 inches of extra fabric on the inside of the hem. I told the very pleasant sales lady that I wanted to buy a couple of pairs 2 inches too long and have the bottoms turned up 1 3/4 inches for cuffs. She said no problem and got the onsite seamstress to stitch the cuffs while I waited. All done in 10 minutes. So I ended up with 2 pair of tropical wool trousers the way I like them for about $110 each.

While waiting and looking around I noticed that they had some nice looking non-iron shirts out. I haven't bought any of the Brooks non-irons in about 4 years but these were tempting. I particularly liked the bold blue/black tattersall and a point collar pencil stripe. The non-iron fabric get knocked hard on the MBs and I've stayed away from it, but this fabric had a nice feel. If I hadn't recently been on a shirt buying spree I probably would have bought.

Brooks greatest strength is that they make it so easy. Stores are never far away, the catalogs are nice, the website is logical, sales are frequent, and they keep sending me $20 gift cards. Some people are turned off because they try to appeal to a broader population, but that's how a big company stays in business. Still, it's not that hard to find something I like.

Bow Ties and Mr. Smith

Mr. Smith first taught me to tie a bow: a black grosgrain number he bought for me along with my first tuxedo. I was a natural or so I thought, the ordeal requiring less than 10 minutes. After reading the numerous posts on the gentlemen's forums bemoaning the the knotting of the bow I'm certain my prowess has more to do with his instruction and less to do with any natural inclination I might possess.

My preference is a bold colored bow with a white shirt and navy blazer. And though I don't wear them often, as a tribute to Mr. Smith, I've selected this approximation of the jewell he often wears and will wear it next week when we celebrate his 5th year anniversary with us.

Perhaps I'll get the nod.

kind of you to read,

Chopper

Gotta Start Somewhere

I confess to having spent too many hours reading the varied postings regarding trad on Ask Andy, Style Forum and even Flip Noir. And while I haven't read enough to know who's serious and who's in it for laughs, most seem to share a love of traditional clothing and more importantly a love for what the clothing represent.

The poor "Trads". They have to be the most criticized minority on all the web for their apparent desire to come off looking moneyed, old money in particular. I say, 'what's the big whoop'? If you are able to weed out the all to frequent lampooning interloper's ruse you could do a lot worse than to heed the advice of the self professed trad. His style isn't a vulgar one and through it the outermost reaches of cultivation are sure to be effected. More power to 'em! No doubt a societal moral reclamation will follow or so rests my hope.

I'm not moneyed, old or new, but I admittedly do alright. My wife's late uncle, now he was rich (timber). When he died he didn't leave us a house in Maine or on the Outer Banks, but he was generous to us and a lot of other people, both in life and in death. Which brings me round to Mr. Smith his personal assistant and now our houseman or house manager or whatever you want to refer to him as. We just call him Mr. Smith. He lives with us now and takes care of most things, not the least of which molding our lives into the practice of virtue. But I confess it all started with clothes, trad clothes, as seen on AAAT for the most part. Gotta start somewhere.






with special thanks to The Long-Suffering Trad for entrusting me with the reins, and trads everywhere sufffering the slings and arrows of the enemy,


Chops

Trad Team Blogging

As I promised a couple of days ago I'm leaving in the morning for a long weekend. Sadly, I won't be needing any patch mad where I'm going. I'll mostly be driving and when I'm not doing that I'll be sitting in a high school gym. If you're keeping trad-weekend score, that's one point for you and zero for longwing.

The good news, I hope, is that I'm handing the reins over to this chops fellow. I really don't know much about the guy but he appears to be trad-to-the-bone. Seems to know his stuff. No Kennedy wanna be, old chops. Says he can put some very informative and/or entertaining pieces up on Saturday so keep an eye out. But don't wait too long because if he gets out of hand I may have to take it all down on Monday morning. I'm expecting the best though. Almost anything would be an improvement.

It's been a fun week for longwing. I've learned a few thing, the main one being that there is a thin line between humor and sheer stupidity. Sometimes I can't see it very well. Anyway, I'm happy with a few of the posts and hope to have some better ones in me. We'll see. Maybe this chops fellow will work out and we can get a little variety around here. That would be nice.

Until monday, I give you chops!

Trad Lifestyle Blogging

Today, trads, I am introducing what will hopefully be a weekly feature at The Long-Suffering Trad called "Trad Lifestyle Blogging." In the future this will run on fridays so that you can compare your Trad Weekend Plans with longwing's Trad Weekend Plans. The comparison will probably make you feel very good about yourself. As people have recently grown fond of saying, today's my friday so your getting it today.

If you've been around long enough you surely remember the days when the newspapers had an entire lifestyle section. It was filled with waspy people doing waspy things in their beautifully waspy homes. Back in those days non-waspy people must have taken a genuine interest in what the wasps were up to. And do you remember how all the newspapers had a reporter lady who got invited to all the parties? You could always tell who she was because she didn't quite fit in but was extreemly popular anyway. Well that lady is me.

I don't really have anything to report on today. I'm hoping that once this gets rolling some really great invitations will come along. I'm thinking Martha's Vinyard or the Hamptons, that sort of thing.

So in the absence of any real news, I'm going to sign off with some advice for all the young trads out there: When your out having fun at a party and suddenly it's party-pic time, please put down your drink. I know you're young and foolish and party,party,party and you think it looks good to have your picture taken with a drink in your hand, but it doesn't. To normal people it just makes you look like a jerk.

ttfn

Spread Collar Shirts

You've probably been thinking "longwing, how come you never wear spread collar shirts"

So I'm thinking that's a very good question. I don't wear spread collar shirts because I only know how to tie a tie one way and it looks like hell with a spread collar shirt.

Now you may be thinking "dummy, why don't you learn how to tie a different kind of knot."

And I'm thinking it's because I'm kind of tall so I have to make my knots very small to keep my tie from looking all short and goofy.

Now I'm thinking your thinking "dummy, why don't you just buy some longer ties?"

And what I'm definitely thinking is enough with the questions already.

And then there is this:



I don't have to tell you because you already know that longwing is not from New York or London or Paris even. longwing may be from the sticks but have you ever seen anything like this in your life?. More like a where's-the-collar shirt if you ask me.

Recommended Reading

If, like me, you get a thrill from the old gloom and doom, then reading the Irvine Housing Blog is a must.

Lifted from the Comments

Just wanted to move this anonymous comment to the front page because it seems to capture a bit of the elan that we are all about here at The Long-Suffering Trad:

Less than a week in and things are already balls to the wall. I'm going to bookmark this one.

Thank you, anonymous. High praise indeed.

Speachless

Well, I just received a not very nice email from one of those upscale trads saying that this blog would be better called "Gags for Gagging." Such is the life of the long-suffering trad.

One of these days I will tell you what I think of upscale trads.

Announcement

Sadly, longwing will have to be away from his computer and the internet this friday thru sunday. Anyone interested in doing some weekend guest blogging should let me know ASAP. As you can tell, our standards here at The Long-Suffering Trad are quite low, so this a great way to get your ideas in front of a very small audience. I only ask that you try to keep it clean because we're trying to develop a sophisticated clientele here.

The Secret of My Success

People always say to me "longwing, now that your blog is 4 days old, I think I'm starting to see some interesting patterns developing here."

And I always say back "That's right. And the reason is that each day I try to put up an Awesome Post of the Day and an Inane Post of the Day."

And they always say back "But longwing, I can't tell which is which."

News You Can Use

Today, trads, I will be telling you the secret to getting really great Christmas presents.

This is what you do. First you call David Wilder at J Press NYC and have him set aside some really great things. Then you call your mother and ask her to call David Wilder at J Press to buy you these things. Now, if your mother is like my mother, she will think this is great because she likes to talk on the phone and it's even easier than sending you a check.

I don't know exactly what it is that David Wilder at J Press says to mothers, but mothers think that David Wilder at J Press is a very nice man. He seems to know how to talk to mothers. David Wilder at J Press must have a very lucky mother.

And then after that, David Wilder at J Press will send your mother a very nice thank you note. Your mother has probably not gotten a thank you note from a clothing salesperson in a long time. If your mother is like my mother, she probably hasn't gotten a thank you note from you in a long time either. David Wilder at J Press will make your mother feel like a million bucks.

Now whenever it's almost Christmas or my birthday, my mother always says "longwing, is there anything you would like from that nice man, David Wilder at J Press?"

And I always say back "Oh, yeah, I'm sure I can think of something."

It's all about me.

People always say to me "longwing, now that you're a blogger, you don't post as much on the message boards." And I always say back "That's right. And it's because on the message board I've always got to talk about what somebody else wants to talk about and on my blog I get to talk about what I want to talk about."

The Dark Side

I know many of you think that this trad thing is all sweetness and light, but I tell you there are many pitfalls. I suppose you think I will be discussing the evils of boozing or womanizing or snobbishness or condescension. But the treatment of those must wait for another day. Today I will be discussing the twin evils of thrifting and ebaying.

I know some of my many readers will recoil and say "longwing, please not a lecture on the ickyness of wearing used clothing." And I assure you that is not what this is about. In fact, just last weekend I swiped a nice tie from my brother-in-law. No, I am going to attempt to keep this on a higher plane.

The problem with thrifting and ebaying is that they encourage the wrong kind of shopping. Let's assume that you have already become one with your body. When your body needs protein, do you give it a pop tart? Well, you must learn to become one with your wardrobe as well. Your wardrobe is a not quite living thing that has it's own needs. Once you have become one with your wardrobe you can begin to sense what it is that is needed, is lacking.

Thrifting and ebaying encourages the wrong way of shopping. It causes you to shop like my wife. My wife will go into Anthropology thinking she wants a pair of jeans and come out with all sorts of stuff and no jeans. I think the jeans were just an excuse. See, when we see something we like we naturally want to buy it. And when thrifting, why not? It hardly costs anything. It's a great deal. Who cares that you had no idea that you wanted this thing 5 minutes ago? Who cares that half the rooms in your house are already filled with clothes?

Shopping is not about buying what you want. It is about providing for that not quite living thing called your wardrobe. When you are one with your wardrobe, you shop with the mind of a zen master. Diamond mind is what it's called, I think.

Anyway, the good news is that when you shop properly you really don't spend any more money. When you are shopping with diamond mind you buy less and have a higher level of satisfaction with your purchases. And you avoid having to explain to your new girlfriend why your house is filled with stinky old clothes.

Ivy for Everyone???

There are those who wish to subvert the trad.
They say things like "Trad is a derivative form blah, blah, blah."
They say things like "Trad didn't even exist until 2004 blah, blah, blah."
They say things like "Trad only exists on the internet blah, blah blah."
To these people I say: Pfuie!

These people I think are mostly British. They don't like the trad because it is so much bigger and better than their little ivy thing. And there are some major differences between Trad and Ivy. Trad is mostly worn by American men who wish to look nice but can't afford the really good clothes. And ivy is mostly worn by Brits who wish to annoy their relatives.

The DB Blazer

Yesterday I suggested to Richard over at wasp101 that he could do better than pairing his double breasted blazer with his nantucket pinks. So far, about 5 people disagree with me and about 0 people agree. Such is the life of the long-suffering trad.

Which reminds me of a story: A couple of years ago a woman I worked with said "longwing, I'm fairly controversial around here." To which I said, "You're not controversial, everybody hates you."

A Really Great Contest !!!

Here at LST, we will be having many really great contests and this is the first one:

I will send a check for $1,000,000 to the first person to leave a comment.

Has there ever been a greater contest?


Update Your too late, Patrick has won the million dollars.

What is really trad.

This is one of my favorite posts from AAAT. It's by tom22, from a few years ago:

There have been a lot of threads but there hasn't been a lot of clarification. But I think there is a list.

1. Button down shirts from Brooks or JPress
2. Shetland sweaters made in Scotland.
3. Tartan trousers in Black Watch, Dress Gordon or Royal Stewart Patterns. (Think press or Orvis).
4. Shoes made in England or by an old new england maker.
5. Ties from Brooks or Press.
6. A Camel Hair coat with a half belt.
7. A school boy scarf or a scarf in a cashmere plaid.
8. Wool grey flannel pants.
9. Embroidered whatever.
10. A duffel coat (If you live in NE).
11. bean boots (if you live in NE).
12. Underwear from Brooks or Press.
13. Suits from Brooks or Press or some English maker that you were referred to by your father.
14. Argyle socks or the dress ones you get at Brooks or Press.

That is about it. This is the way a trad dresses. Head to toe.
Get a few dance lessons. Become witty and charming and read a lot of books and subscribe to the Times, Post or Globe and that is about it. People say you can't fake it but actually that probably isn't true. Lots of people do and no one minds.

And take some sailing lessons.

tom22 was an established poster when I started on the board. Had some good things to say. Unfortunately, he went through an angry phase sometime latter and got himself kicked off the board. Now he spends time on the Island of Unwanted Trads. I think he was banned for saying some very unpopular things about hedge fund managers. But I say that time has proven tom22 right about hedge fund managers and he should return in glory to AAAT.

Really? You look like a Republican.

This one is really irritating.  Why do people think that all liberals are supposed to look like stinkin hippies?  I'll tell you why: because so many of them do.  I must be some kind of idiot but I don't understand what it is about liberalism that makes people want to look like bums.

Sometimes people look at me like I want to take away their Social Security. I don't want to do that. Why would a tie and blazer make people think such a thing. I like FDR and all that.  Give me the WPA.  Let's fix some bridges.

Why should conservatives get to wear all the good clothes?

I say "Look at Gore, look at Kerry, look at Obama - they all wear nice clothes."  But people think it's only OK to wear nice clothes if you're running for office.  I guess it's so maybe they can fool some of the not so bright Republicans.  

Trad with a difference

Have you noticed how all the other trad bloggers keep telling you that they were born trad?

Not me.

Refreshing, isn't it?

Why are you wearing a tie?

I get this a lot.  And because we're all such good friends here, I'll tell you.  

A couple of years ago, after I'd spent some time with those AAAT boys, I started buying ties.  It just seemed like the thing to do.  I had all these shirts with collars.  After about a year I had about a dozen ties and had only worn a tie about once during the year.  So I said to myself "longwing, you've got 2 choices.  Either you're going to start wearing ties or you're an idiot."  So I started wearing ties.  I started at about once a week.  Now I'm up to 2 or 3 times a week.

In truth, I actually prefer buying ties to wearing them.  Especially when on sale.  The ties at J. Press are priced just below the guilt threshold, so it's a relatively pain free purchase.  And let's face it,  ties aren't very comfortable.  In fact, sometimes I wonder if my brain is getting enough oxygen. And it's even worse with a tie on.

Now, when joe-blow-on-the-street asks me why I'm wearing a tie, I don't tell him all this.  I usually just say something like "Because it's still a free country, jackass."

Pictures

I keep getting these comments asking "longwing, when are you going to post some pictures?"

I will.  Be patient.

Hi y'all

Well, that was easy.

Trad blogging is all the rage.  And now I'm a trad blogger!