Expense Report #34

I stuck to it last week, buying only a couple of very inexpensive household items--and using PayPal credit to do so. But it isn't going to last forever, especially with all the deals around...

He Brought The Funny

There's a nice tribute to the TV work of Leslie Nielsen, who passed away over the weekend, by Alan Sepinwall over at HitFix.

This Week in Awesome (11/27/10)

Hope everyone is having a nice holiday weekend. I trust you're not out partaking in the holiday shopping madness, because you are all smart people with better things to do, and savvy enough to know there are easier ways to score good deals.

I know it's hard to believe, but a good deal of the advertising of decades past would be considered highly offensive today. Would you like to see some examples? (Very Short List via Racked)

Here's a hilariously awful current ad (which is for a web site but looks like a cheesy local TV ad) for a knife store that hopefully will be considered highly offensive by a future generation. (Videogum)

The artist Chris Burden has built a kinetic sculpture that sends hundreds of diecast toy cars cycling around various tracks. If you live in the Los Angeles area, you will be able to see this in person at LACMA once the installation is completed. (Autoblog)

And finally, now that Thanksgiving has passed, we can officially and guiltlessly welcome the Christmas season with another ambitious homeowner's holiday light display programmed to music, though this one has a slightly more, um, esoteric soundtrack. (BoingBoing via Videogum)

Holiday Plans

Our holiday is going to be a bit different this year. Last year, the Mrs. had to work, so I took the train to my family's house. She has to work again this year, and due to some other staffing issues, she was asked if she could work a double shift. It's not like a regular work day anyway, it's more like someone just has to be present and conscious.

The double shift means I can't go to RI by myself again, because there wouldn't be anyone here to take care of the dog's needs. So we asked my mother if she would consider moving dinner to Friday. She agreed willingly, and as it turns out, my brother, who is a restaurant manager, has to work the closing shift Thursday night, so he would have had to leave in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner anyway.

So my mother and sister will go out to dinner somewhere tomorrow, and not have turkey. As for me, I'll be enjoying some down time and solitude, watching the football game, and working on some of the other stuff stored on the TiVo that the Mrs. isn't interested in watching. And walking the dog.

Expense Report #33

Well, I kept my word and didn't buy anything discretionary last week (beer is not optional, a sentiment I believe I've expressed before). And I'm sticking to it this week as well.

Of course, it's now time for holiday shopping, but in recent years most of the family gifts have been in the form of gift cards or certificates, and the purchase of those can be delayed so the expense is absorbed over multiple pay periods.

And the holiday shopping season always results in new temptations that need to be resisted, like this handsome red wool coat from Orvis:

It's a very nice coat, but it's $400, which is steep for this sort of thing. Similar coats from Filson would be between $250 and $300 and made in USA, though they no longer offer them in red. Maybe after the holidays, though Orvis tends to be somewhat less than generous with sales and markdowns.

Soundtrack

I was at a volunteer event this evening that had a DJ. The music was primarily to keep people motivated, so it was a bit of everything--70s, 80s, current stuff, rock, pop, soul, even a little country.

The person in charge of my group asked me at one point how I was doing. I replied, "I had hoped I would never have to actually hear a Justin Bieber song, but otherwise I'm fine."

After 8 PM the DJ started to string together some rather unusual segues. She went from "Boom Boom Pow" to "Dueling Banjos," which officially qualifies as the most batshit segue I have ever heard. A short time later she attempted to challenge that with a transition from Barry White's "You're The First, The Last, My Everything" to "The Chicken Dance," but since the latter is somewhat common at weddings, I decided that pairing of songs could actually occur somewhere else.

Fortunately I left before being subjected to any further sonic cataclysms.

This Week in Awesome (11/20/10)

It's possible that at some point I may get back to posting these on Saturdays, but I'm not making any promises...

The web site Bnter (don't look at me, I don't know how it's supposed to be pronounced) takes text-message conversation submissions and turns the best ones into comics. (UrbanDaddy)

If Jeff Goldblum and Biz Markie doing a duet of Biz's minor classic "Just A Friend" on Jimmy Fallon doesn't qualify as awesome, then I'll just have to stop doing this. (New York Times Artsbeat blog via Videogum)

The Daily Show did an excellent piece on John McCain's hypocrisy regarding the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, and in the process also did a clever mock version of an It Gets Better video. Just watch it and everything will make sense. Well, not everything. (Splitsider)

This week's 30 Rock featured a web site called Pronouncify that turned typed text into spoken words. It looks like NBC went ahead and made it into a real thing, but it still exists within the 30 Rock site, and they want you to sign up for some reason, so proceed with caution.

Eddie's (Sorta, Kinda, Maybe) Back?

(TWiA will appear later, but I want to mention a sale opportunity.)

For the past five years or so, I have paid very little attention to what Eddie Bauer has been doing. They used to be one of my second-tier stores, where I could usually pick up one or two items each season. But they always seemed to be charging more for their merchandise than I thought it was worth, and they tended to be slow and stingy with the sales. Also, their offerings didn't seem to change from season to season and year to year. Everything was just stiflingly boring, and it made me think of guys who don't care about style who have their significant others choose their clothes for them.

EB further disingratiated themselves to me last fall when I attempted to buy a pair of loafers. I ordered an 11 wide, and those were too tight. I returned them and ordered an 11.5 wide, and those were too tight. At that point I had to wonder, if I have to go up to a 12 to get a shoe that fits, did I really want those shoes? I did not.

Also, EB charges a $3 handling fee per order, something I consider highly offensive as a consumer, and borderline outrageous in this era of common free shipping. They are the only online/catalog retailer I am aware of that currently has a policy like this, and if all those other retailers have figured out how to work the cost of handling orders into their pricing, why can't Bauer?

So why am I even talking about them? Because I was looking through some of their fall offerings, just out of curiosity because it had been a while since I'd bothered to notice, and saw that they have a few items this season that are made in USA. I guess they started doing a "heritage" line last year, like everyone else, though I'll acknowledge that they probably have more right to make a claim to their brand's heritage than many of their competitors.

These field pants look pretty nice (though I have no idea how they fit). They are priced at $79, which is the same as similar pants from Orvis that are imported (which probably means made in China, though I don't know for sure); the pants they have that are made in USA are close to $200. There are other Bauer pants at higher price points, like these at $99 and these at $149, but these are nicer pants in heftier, less common fabrics like moleskin or cavalry twill, so you're not going to find these at your average mall department store.

Better still, if you are interested in any of these items, Eddie Bauer is offering 25% off any order, plus free shipping on orders of at least $50. I think you have to sign up for their rewards program, but it could be worth it. You can also take advantage of this offer at EB stores, though I sort of doubt they are carrying any of the nicer heritage items in-store. This deal ends tomorrow, though, so if you're interested, don't procrastinate. But given the economy, I wouldn't be surprised to see them offer a similar discount again this season, and if they do I'll pass along the info.

TV Notes

It's two months into the TV season, and the networks are already shuffling their lineups and touting new shows that will start premiering in January. (I wish the big networks would just embrace the idea of two seasons, fall-to-spring and spring-to-fall, but no one's going to listen to me.) NBC is going to try running three full hours of comedies on Thursday nights, which strikes me as perhaps a bit of overkill, but at least it means Parks and Recreation will be back on come January.

Of the shows that premiered this September, I've only been watching a couple. I tried to get into The Event; I think I watched four episodes before I decided it was just trying too hard to be another Lost, and that I didn't care about anything that was happening. I've been recording Blue Bloods, the NYPD family drama on CBS, but I'm several episodes behind. I've been watching the new Hawaii Five-O as popcorn TV, but I don't know if or how long I'll stick with it.

The one new show I really like is Raising Hope, a comedy about a young guy who has a one-night stand with a woman who turns out to be a serial killer, who is put in jail where she learns she is pregnant, gives birth, and is executed. The guy, who lives with his parents, gets custody of the baby and suddenly has to deal with parenthood. Did I mention it's a comedy? It's a bit loopy, but it's also very warm and sweet and quite funny.

This Sunday night, the US version of Top Gear has its premiere on the History Channel, and I'm going to recommend you at least check it out. I've seen only a short clip, but everything I've heard and read about the show leads me to think it's going to be worth watching, though I've also read that it takes a few episodes for the show to jell. It will never top the original, but there's nothing wrong with having our own version.

The Low End Theory

The retail gods have seen fit to bestow an Ocean State Job Lot ("Home of Adventure Shopping ™") upon my fair city. It's literally right down the street, where Stop & Shop used to be before they opened a new, bigger store adjacent to the old one two years ago. The building has been vacant since, so I guess it's good for the strip mall operator too.

There had been rumors that OSJL was going to open in Somerville, on Broadway at the bottom of Winter Hill where the crappy old Star was (and coincidentally, also right near where we used to live). But that space is only about a quarter of the size of the location they ended up taking over here in Medford.

Job Lot, as my mother calls it, is not for everyone, but it serves a purpose. Think of it as a modern-day equivalent of a five-and-dime. (If you don't know what that means, ask one of your grandparents.) I'd say it's a step or two up from Building 19 on the niceness scale. That's not saying much, I know, but the "charm" of the 19's veneer of grime wears thin quickly.

Sometimes you just need a household item quickly, cheaply, and simply. We got our dog's leash there; it's a double-thickness length of nylon, so it's extremely durable. I think it was $6. In fact, they have a large selection of pet supplies at very reasonable prices, but I wouldn't buy the dog food they sell.

They also have hardware, bedding, drugstore items, packaged food, clothing, and so on. Maybe you've driven past one of their stores many times and wondered about it, but never went in. Maybe next time, you should stop and check it out. You might find something good, and cheap.

Expense Report #32

I imagine (some of) you want to know what I bought in New York. I didn't buy much, really. The obligatory visit to Uniqlo yielded a couple of gray undershirts (even though I finally got that situation straightened out, it never hurts to have a couple of extras) and, what do you know, a red oxford-cloth shirt very much like the gray one I bought there last year (at the time I was hoping they would make them in additional colors, but I thought red was too much to hope for).

The best part about this is that it will replace the lesser-quality Chaps shirt I bought at around the same time that has the awful embroidery on the pocket, so I no longer have to worry about covering it up. The shirt was $20; the undershirts were $5 each.

[Side note: Broadway in SoHo has really turned into a horrible mall-circus; now that there's Forever 21 and Hollister and all these other crap stores that are in pretty much every single mall in the US, the crowds are borderline unmanageable. (And let's not even go into why people would bother to shop at the same stores they can shop in at home.) But away from Broadway, even just one street parallel, SoHo can still be quite pleasant, even charming. Uniqlo is prepping a gigantic (seriously, around 90,000 square feet) second location on Fifth Avenue around the corner from the Museum of Modern Art, and after that opens I probably won't bother with the SoHo store anymore.]

I made just one other purchase, but it was a substantial one. Last year Wolverine introduced a line of "1000 Mile" boots based on work boot styles from their archives. It's a blatant ploy to cash in on their workwear heritage, but the boots are really nice, especially the model that is made in the United States using Horween leather (which is produced in Chicago).

I'd been thinking about getting a pair of Red Wing Gentleman Traveler boots (another brand parlaying its heritage into sales to the Americana/workwear crowd), but I found from reading comments and forum posts that several people feel they tend to run narrow, which eliminated them from consideration. I'm not a big fan of the Alden "Indy" boots (I don't like the shape of the toe or the moc styling) so those were out too. The 1000 Mile boots came across to me as just a bit more sophisticated than either of those, and lend themselves to being dressed up somewhat.

The "1000 Mile Original" boots (the ones I was interested in) are allegedly available in wide width, but the few online sites that carry them had only medium. Since I knew I was going to be in New York, I decided to visit the genteel Greenwich Village men's shoe store Leffot that I had read about in the New York Times's "Critical Shopper" feature a couple of months ago. Leffot carries the boots, so I knew I could try them on.

Unfortunately they didn't have any of the boots in wide (calling into question, to my mind, whether or not they actually exist), but the boots are cut rather generously in width and have a fairly high, roomy toe box, so it turned out not to matter. One turn around the store and I was sold on them. And besides being superbly comfortable, they smell fantastic. (Of course, the whole store smelled fantastic.) Until I can get around to treating them with Obenauf's, I'm going to wait to wear them when I know it's not going to rain.

[Edit: The Shoe Mart has some in wide, but in very limited sizes, and none at all in rust. There's also a store in San Francisco called On The Fly that seems to have them in wide.]

The boots are available in black, brown, and rust, which is the color I chose. You can see them here.

And yeah, they were expensive. They're the most expensive shoes I've ever bought. But they are made to last, and I will have them a long, long time. So let's call them a "practical indulgence." I won't be buying anything else for a while.

Last Week in Awesome

As promised...

A cool little time-lapse video from last week's New York Marathon. (Jalopnik)

A site that collects mistakenly auto-corrected text messages caused by overzealous phone software. (Consumerist)

A pretty fascinating (to me, anyway) comparative analysis of the quantity and quality of jokes on two sitcoms, Shit My Dad Says and 30 Rock, that air at the same time on competing networks. (Splitsider)

A Bit Behind

We're still in New York, and I had hoped to post TWiA yesterday, but I haven't had access to a real computer, and dealing with copying and pasting links on my phone is a bit too daunting. Look for it tomorrow evening.

Rest Easy

It's been two months since we got our new mattress and box spring, and I couldn't be happier with it. I sleep so much better now. For me, the biggest difference is that, below the top couple of inches of memory foam, is a much denser foam that is much more firm and supportive.

What prompted me to think about this was when I was vacuuming the other day and noticed a twinge of back pain. I realized that I had not been waking up with an aching back since we got the new mattress. And if my back does hurt when I get into bed, it feels better by morning. What a great investment.

Prep Time

It'll be nice to have Thursday off, but we're heading to New York on Friday, so it's not really going to be a day of leisure for me. There's laundry to be done, decisions about what to pack that are contingent on the weather (which is looking like it's going to be really nice), like how many pairs of shoes, what sort of outerwear, that sort of thing. And I need to make those decisions so I can decide which suitcase to use.

Denim, Full Circle

About a month ago, the Mrs. and I embarked on a serious cleaning and decluttering of our apartment, mainly on weekends when we have enough time to devote to it. It's now cleaner than it's been in a long time, and while the decluttering continues, there has been progress.

As I was putting my summer clothes and shoes into storage in the basement and bringing boots, jackets, and other items upstairs for fall/winter use, I went through everything to determine what I should keep and what I should sell or donate. In the process, I ended up with only a couple of pairs of jeans that were appropriate to wear to work. (I have other jeans that I wear on weekends that I wouldn't wear to the office, for various reasons.)

This raised the question: what jeans should I buy? I'm really liking the olive J. Crew "vintage slim" jeans I got a few months ago, but those were a clearance item; their jeans normally sell for $96 a pair. Plus, J. Crew has shifted production of their jeans from Canada to China, making me even less inclined to buy them.

I'm not the sort who goes out and spends a lot on denim anyway. The whole selvedge denim thing is completely lost on me; the way I understand it, you buy the jeans smaller than your actual waist size, so they start out too tight, but then they stretch out, and you're supposed to wear them as long as possible before washing them, like six months. Huh? The whole thing sounds like a big pain in the ass, and pretty disgusting to boot.

But I digress. Back in my 20s, and well into my 30s, I wore nothing but Levi's. They were cheap, they were well made, you could buy them pretty much anywhere. I remember a point around 1986 or so, thinking that I could not imagine myself wearing any other jeans besides 501s. But Levi's somehow lost my interest in the late '90s. I started wearing relaxed-fit jeans, first the 550, then other brands.

When I heard about the Levi's/Brooks Brothers collaboration, I was intrigued, but I couldn't justify spending $150 on those, even if they are made in the USA. (If they were retailing for under $100, I'd probably go for them.) That said, I've seen them in the store, and they are really nice jeans.

But that got me thinking about Levi's again. One day I took a look at their site, and I was nearly overwhelmed by the variety of styles they now sell. But when I took a good look at the fit measurements and filtered out the low-rise, skinny, boot-cut, loose, and other styles I wouldn't be interested in, what was left was the 501. The rise is just high enough, but not dad-jeans high. The leg opening is just wide enough to fit comfortably over boots, but not so wide that it flops around when you walk.

I ordered a pair, for $37. (Free shipping if you sign up for emails, and of course you then get lots of other offers.) Dark stonewash, dark enough to wear to work, with a hint of the indigo shade they'll fade into over time. When I first put them on, the thighs were tight, but they loosened up a bit after a couple of hours. Otherwise they felt great. I looked in the mirror and realized that they made me look trimmer. For comparison, I put on a pair of the relaxed-fit Arizona jeans I've been wearing for the past few years. They looked awful. So when I went to JCPenney over the weekend to buy more cord jeans, I took another look at the Arizona denim.

Their original fit has a much trimmer silhouette then the relaxed, but they're still not what you'd call skinny, so I thought I would try on a pair. I couldn't button them, but then I realized that was because even though the tag said 36, there was no way they were actually 36 inches around. I could just tell. So I went back out onto the sales floor and got a pair in size 38, and those fit like 36's (I confirmed this at home later with a tape measure), so I bought them. A nice, dark rinsed blue, darker than the new 501s, even darker than my other Arizona jeans.

So I have two new pairs of jeans to wear to work. And I guess those Relaxed Arizona jeans are going to end up going into the weekend pile, or I'll wear them when I have to shovel snow, or something. I'll probably end up buying another pair of 501s at some point. Funny how I'm back to wearing the jeans I was wearing 25 years ago. (Of course, back then I think I was wearing a 30 waist.)

And if anyone wants to know what to get me for Christmas, a Brooks Brothers gift card would be great...

PS. J. Crew also had some Levi's 501s done just for them. Those aren't made in the USA either, and they sell for around the same prices as J. Crew's own jeans. But when I was at the mall in Natick over the weekend, the J. Crew store there had the 501s on clearance for $20 a pair. They had my size, along with about a dozen others, but I didn't buy any because I didn't care for the finish: very dark blue, but with whiskering and sanded knees. I mainly mention it as a PSA, if you're looking.

Expense Report #31

I took a break from the shoe onslaught (for the moment at least), but I did get a couple new pairs of pants on Saturday. The five-pocket corduroys I got at JCPenney a couple of months ago have worked out great, so I bought two more pairs to replace some older, worse-fitting cords. These are described as "easy fit," but I would say they are closer to a straight-leg fit. (Of course, this may vary depending on your body type.)

They were already on sale for $20 each, but JCP was doing one of its periodic $10 off $50/$15 off $75/$20 off $100 coupon promos. I needed another pair of jeans anyway (the jeans update is coming tomorrow), and those were on sale for $14 (seriously), so I got three pairs of pants for $44. When you need basic items, you should be able to get them for basic prices.

This Week in Awesome (11/6/10)

Busy weekend, kept thinking I'd forgotten something... yup. To be honest, I have only a couple of clips, so I guess that's why I forgot. But why not share them anyway?

You know that Conan O'Brien's new show starts Monday night, right? He posted a (very) compressed warm-up "show zero" online this week. (Splitsider)

Oh Amy Sedaris, how we heart you. Amy appeared on the fourth hour of Today this past week, promoting her craft book Simple Times. Hilarity ensued, mainly from hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb apparently not quite knowing what to make of Amy's exuberance. (Videogum via Oh No They Didn't!)

Catalog Conundrum: Paul Fredrick

As the holiday season approaches, the flow of catalogs into my mailbox has picked up over the past couple of weeks. Some of them are regulars, while others I haven't seen in a long time. It got me thinking about how some of the men's clothing sellers tend to stay below most people's radar, and the sometimes odd niches they occupy on the spectrum of design and taste.

[Acknowledgment is due to the fine lady site Jezebel, as this is more or less a blatant ripoff of their "Today In Catalogs" feature, only guyish.]

Paul Fredrick is an excellent example, so I've chosen it to inaugurate this occasional feature. They offer a full range of men's clothing, but when I look at the catalog I can't help but wonder who would actually buy it. The styles tend to be just a little too colorful or excessively fashionable for the average guy, but not fashion-forward enough for cutting-edge types. Prices are on the high side of moderate, though they do tend to have sales.

And I do have to wonder why they chose that particular spelling of "Fredrick," since it's technically incorrect. I like to imagine that the company was started by three friends: Paul, Fred, and Rick.

Quallty? I don't have any idea, really. I bought a tie from them maybe 11 or 12 years ago, and since I don't need to wear ties very often, it has not seen much use. I think I still have it, but if I were to go look in my closet, I suspect it would look too wide, since wider ties were more in style back when I bought it.

But let's face it, you're really here to see what sort of craziness I was able to dig up on their site, so I won't keep you waiting any longer. How about we start with these fugly suede loafers, in three rather, uh, distinctive (and some would say un-masculine) colors. WTF? But then the designer thought, "these shoes aren't quite jazzy enough... I know! We'll add a metal bit detail." Yeah, that'll do it.

Not a loafer guy? Not to worry. Did you see the piece in last week's Times style section about wingtips? Somehow they overlooked this pair. I know, right? What hipster isn't going to want to walk around in two-tone brown leather and purple suede wingtips? And don't forget the matching belt.

I was under the impression this sort of crime against style had been outlawed in this country. Guess I was wrong.

It seems like every men's catalog on the planet has employed this Obamaesque model.

This sportcoat is almost normal-looking, but then there's the suede trim on the pocket edges. Huh?

This striped dress shirt has the stripes on the collar and cuffs going against the traditional orientation. They call it "continuous pattern." Can I suggest a different name? "Oops, we made this shirt wrong." The curved spread collar, here called the "varsity spread" (and sometimes referred to as the "Pat Riley"): unless you are Pat Riley, no one will take you seriously if you wear this. And this one? Paulie Walnuts, all the way.

This whole ensemble is so full of fail, I don't even know what to say, except my eyes hurt...

Where Are the Watches?

The Watch Wednesday feature has been neglected lately, I know. I haven't bought any watches since the last one I featured, about a month ago, and I've pretty much exhausted the rest of the collection.

Since I've been focusing on my shoe upgrade project, I thought it best not to spend money on any watches for a while. But I did also make noise a while back about featuring watches that I don't have but would like to have. One recent watch that did catch my eye is a somewhat military-looking Timex, part of their new Originals collection based on designs from the company's archives.

Nice looking watch, huh? It's $95, which isn't quite Timex-for-J. Crew territory, but it's getting close. But I bet if I wait a few months, I can find one for less.

(Image borrowed from Nordstrom web site)

Matters of No Real Importance

--My workplace started supplying us with tissues again. They stopped during budget cutbacks about a year and a half ago. This is more of a convenience than an actual perk, because the tissues they buy aren't really that great, but it's still nice not to have to go to Stop and Shop or Walgreens and buy my own.

--The city of Medford switched to a new trash and recycling system this week, the kind where the truck with an articulated arm comes along and picks up your trash container and empties it into the truck. I was kind of pleased about this, because the city distributed shiny new trash and recycling cans to each unit. The upstairs neighbors have never had any trash cans of their own, and when they'd add their trash to our can, it tended to get a little overfilled. Now the container for trash is about twice as big as the one we had, and even though we got two, one will probably be sufficient most weeks.

The recycling containers are huge, 50% bigger than the trash cans. This is an even bigger improvement, because recycling is collected every other week, and our standard-size bin was often overflowing by the day of collection. No sorting or bagging is needed; everything just goes into the can. It's too wide to fit between the car and the next-door neighbor's fence at the bottom of the driveway, but there's plenty of room to roll it out on the other side of the house.

When I got home from work last night, it was kind of strange to see the cans sitting right where I'd left them the day before. I looked inside; the trash can was empty, but the recycling can was still full. I put away the trash can and went inside, and about 20 minutes later I heard the truck outside. It was literally the first day of the new system, so I guess they were still getting used to things.

Expense Report #30

I should be calling this the "shoe expense report." The smarter thing would have been to be looking for shoes during the summer, say one pair per month. But when do I do the smart thing?

This week I finally found a decent pair of penny loafers. I bought a couple of vintage, made in USA pairs on eBay back in the winter, and neither one worked out--one was too narrow, the other was wide enough but too big in length. I didn't pay much for either pair, and I'm hoping to resell them.

I ended up with a pair of Cole Haans with Nike Air in the soles, which seems to provide a little extra spring when walking. They are also generously cushioned inside, which you don't find that often in penny loafers, and the soles are a leather/rubber combination, which should work better for me as well. And of course, they're available in wide. These shoes normally sell for $168, but they were (and still are) $50 off at Zappos. Not sure why, but I'll take it.

I also ordered a pair of jeans, which should be here in a couple of days. I'll do another post on them after they arrive.

So It Begins...

Thank you, eBay, for alerting me this morning that there are only 54 shopping days left until Christmas. I'm sure I would have completely bonked on all my holiday shopping had you not provided me with that helpful reminder.