Favorite Blog

If you have a taste for satire, especially for satire that sends up the ridiculousness that plagues much of modern evangelicalism, check out a new blog called Tom In The Box. Headlines include: "Extreme Home Makeover Church Edition Hailed A Success," "Robertson Declares Himself the Winner of the 2008 Presidential Election," and "Amillenial 'No Behind' Novel Suffers from Lackluster Sales." It's quite funny stuff, but doesn't feel as sacreligious as sites like Landover Baptist

A (somewhat heavy-handed) Parable

I didn't catch the Bears-Saints playoff game last week; I was busy doing other things and didn't have time to sit down and watch it. So on Monday morning, I asked a coworker who had won, and he told me that the Bears had been victorious. But then I was talking to another person a bit later, and he said that, in fact, the Saints had won the game. This confused me, so I asked some more people, wanting to know the truth. But I didn't get any satisfactory responses. Some people said the Bears had won. Some people said the Saints had won. Some people didn't know. Some said nobody could say for sure, because it had been a close game decided by a questionable call from the referee. Finally, I decided that since people couldn't agree on the truth about the outcome of the game, there must be no truth. Since everyone saw the outcome of the game from their own perspective, with their own bias, it must be just as true that the Saints won as that the Bears won. For all I know, there was no game at all. It doesn't matter to me; I'm a Saints fan and I choose to believe that the Saints won. That's the truth...as I see it.

Favorite Site

Sometimes, in my current employment, I do work that...well, let's just say it doesn't require intense concentration. To stave off boredom, I've found a great resource to help me pass the time: . Similar to Project Gutenberg, LibriVox (the name comes from the Latin words for 'book' and 'voice') hosts audio recordings of scores of classic books that are now in the public domain. Like Wikipedia, it's an open-source, collaborative project, so anyone can expand the site's catalog by recording chapters of books and adding them to the collection. I'm slightly ashamed to admit it, but this is how most of my reading has gotten done in the last several months. Here are some of the LibriVox books I've consumed recently

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
Dracula, Bram Stoker
Ghost Story collections (1) (2)
Gift of the Magi, O. Henry
King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Iriving
My Man Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories, Ambrose Bierce
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Psmith in the City, P.G. Wodehouse
Right Ho, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe

When I'm tempted to complain...

...that my apartment is too small, I need to remember that it could be worse. Thanks be to God for the (relatively) palatial space that Andrea and I have.

(HT: Randa)

Entertainment of the Day

If you're in the mood for some entertaining reading, check out the Amazon customer reviews for a gallon of milk. I'm not kidding.

Style on the Page

Back in September, I posted about online resources for learning about classic men's style, and I said I'd mention some books on the topic at a later date. Well, that time has come, and I'll start with two books given to me for Christmas by my wonderful wife.

First up is The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men's Style, by Nicholas Antongiavanni. Possibly the most entertaining and inormative book on men's style that is in print today (it certainly tops the non-illustrated list), it is also the most recent. Mr. Antongiavanni has fashioned his book in the style of Niccolo Machiavelli's classic The Prince. While the language might be somewhat confusing to those who miss the connection, for anyone who has read Machiavelli's seminal work The Suit will stand out as an artfully crafted imitation with class and significance all its own. This book is perfect for that special Straussian in your life.

Next is Alan Flusser's Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion. Flusser sets out to demonstrate (and illustrate, with scores of photos) that permanent fashion is not an oxymoron. Rather, with careful attention to fit, proportion, color, and pattern, any man can acquire a wardrobe that will help him look his best for years, no matter how fashion-runway frippery may change. Mr. Flusser's writing style can be a bit florid, but the real gems in this book are the illustrations. Every page has photos of stylish men from the 1930s to today, and, as they say, each one is worth a thousand words.

Flusser has also written Style and the Man, a guide on how and where to buy the fine men's clothing that he describes in the previous book. It is composed partly of instruction on what to look for when you're in a store, and partly of a directory of where the best haberdashers are worldwide. The latter section is now somewhat dated, and at any rate will be of limited use to men who, like myself, don't have thousands of dollars to spend on clothing each year. In most of the stores he lists, I daresay I couldn't afford a pair of socks, let alone a custom-tailored suit. Still, the guidance on how to shop for clothing will be helpful to a man on any budget, and will arm you with better knowledge than most store salesmen possess today.

Also of great sartorial significance is Gentleman: A Timeless Fashion, by German author Bernhard Roetzel. Like Dressing the Man, this volume is indispensible for its illustrations of how to wear clothing of different styles, patterns, and colors. Roetzel meticulously examines all the elements of a stylish man's wardrobe, and he covers many areas, including shoes, accessories, and formalwear, with a thoroughness that Flusser's books can't muster. This book is currently out of print, but used copies can be had from several online sources.

These books are just a few of many available that seek to give fashion advice to men, but they're some of the best--far better than anything Kressley or Molloy can offer. Any man who takes the time to peruse them carefully and apply their advice to his buying and dressing habits can hardly fail to cut a fine figure and impress those around him with his taste and refinement.