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.

This Week in Awesome (10/30/10)

It's back, as promised. Happy Halloween!

Trick: do you own Ray-Ban sunglasses with the stupid little logo printed on the top edge of the lens? The Trad shows you how to remove it with relative ease.

Treat: fast food items available in other countries, but not the US. Hm, maybe this should count as a trick also. (BuzzFeed via Consumerist)

Got you costume squared away yet? If not, maybe some of these featured on Racked will inspire you: costumes for couples, the sexy and/or slutty (there's only one in this group for guys, but don't let that stop you--if there was ever a day for trashy cross-dressing, Halloween is it), and even some cute baby and pet costumes. You're welcome.

Matters of Style

SAR must-read site The Awl launched a sister site this week, The Hairpin. By "sister" I mean primarily by and for the ladies, but of course anyone can read it, and they've already gotten a fair amount of attention around the webs with this hilarious piece, a woman's perspective on the recent trend of guys dressing better. I strongly urge you to take a few minutes and go read it.

Elsewhere, I came across a deal I want to share: Lands' End Canvas is offering an extra 20% off anything that's already on sale. Currently the sale section is a mix of items from fall and the earlier spring/summer collection, and there are some pretty good deals in there.

But among them are two pairs of Allen Edmonds shoes, the MacNeil wingtip and the Leeds calfskin plain-toe, both of which normally retail for $325 per pair. That's not terribly unreasonable for made-in-USA dress shoes that, properly cared for, will last you a lifetime, but here each style is on sale for $260, and the additional discount brings them down to $208, which is 36% off the original price (I checked that with a calculator), a really excellent discount on these shoes.

(The offer is good through next Wednesday, 11/3, and includes free shipping if you spend $50. You'll need to enter the codes CANVASPLUS20 and 2050 in the appropriate places during checkout.)

Addendum: I guess I wasn't the first person to notice this deal and post about it. Some of the commenters over at Sartorially Inclined are reporting varying degrees of success with this promotion; the upshot is that you are probably better off getting a customer service rep on the phone.

A Rationale for Helping Out

Our friend Dave's band The Rationales have finished recording their first full album, The Distance in Between. To accomplish the last few steps leading to its release, they're asking for a little help from friends and fans.

To that end, the band has teamed up with Kickstarter to raise the funds to cover the mixing and post-production costs. Interested parties can donate as little as $1 to help the band achieve its goal, with various reward packages available, including merchandise and tickets to the CD release party.

They are already more than 40% of the way to their goal, so as a friend I'm helping them out by spreading the word.

Ad Nausea

Have you noticed how stuff follows you around on the web now? Go browse some shoes at Zappos, and you'll then notice display ads on other sites with little pictures of the shoes you were looking at.

That's one thing, but because we're in the final week of election season, I'm now getting pestered by political ads. I saw a couple of ads for local races on a site that wasn't local. And yesterday, while I was watching a show on Hulu while eating lunch, I got a political ad between segments of the show. They must be using IP addresses to determine location, and then serve an ad pertinent to my area, as if the biannual bombardment of them on regular television wasn't annoying enough already.

Expense Report #29

The shoe upgrade project continues... last Wednesday I got an email from Endless, the shoe site, for a two-day promotion: $25 off $100, $50 off $200, $75 off $300.

Endless marks stuff down fairly frequently, so sometimes you stumble on bargains when you aren't necessarily expecting to find them. That was the case here: I found a pair of Cole Haan three-eyelet moccasin-style shoes with lug soles that had been marked down from $200 to $110. They were available in wide, which is always a plus for me, so with the additional discount they were $85.

Endless offers free two-day shipping on most shoes (certain shoes qualify for free overnight, but I can't discern any logic to it), so I had them on Friday. Since I never really know what to expect these days in terms of fit, I was pleased to find that these shoes are quite comfortable. They're a dark brown tumbled leather, different from anything else I have at the moment, and they will nicely replace an old pair of Johnston & Murphy shoes in a similar style that just aren't comfortable enough to walk in any longer.

I also acquired a very nice charcoal herringbone tweed sportcoat from a seller on Style Forum. It's J. Crew, from two years ago, with fabric from the Moon mill in the UK, but unlike some of their lower-priced sportcoats, this one was made in Mexico. Finding stuff on Style Forum in larger sizes is a challenge, so that's why I grabbed this. The sleeves are a little long, so it's already at the tailor, and I'll pick it up Saturday.

Programming Note

This past week was a bit too much for me, with various issues to deal with at work on top of my main monthly deadline, and family visiting for the past four days. Basically what I'm saying is that there is no TWiA this week--there's plenty of awesome out there on the internets, I just didn't have time to go out there and find it. We will resume this feature next Saturday. Thanks for your patience.

Kid Wrangling

The whole Santa Cruz contingent is in town, including our infant niece, to attend a wedding. They arrived Thursday morning, and the nephews had expressed interest in going to the aquarium. When the Mrs. first told me about the plan to go yesterday, I thought she meant everyone was going, but I found out on Thursday that her intention was for us to take the boys, allowing their mother and stepdad to do other things that day.

It took me by surprise at first, but I didn't really have a problem with it. The boys are about to turn ten (in fact, turning ten tomorrow) and three months from being 13. In the past we would have hesitated to consider this kind of an outing, but they're old enough now, and in the past couple of years they have made a lot of progress in moderating their public behavior.

So yesterday morning we drove over to Harvard Square so I could purchase discount passes to the aquarium (a perk offered by my employer) and then out to Concord to pick them up where they are staying. They got some stern warnings about behavior from both mother and stepdad, but they know from experience that their aunt doesn't put up with any crap. Basically that's her job description: not taking crap from people for a living.

During the car ride they reenacted scenes from their favorite movies and YouTube clips, which kept them occupied most of the way into the city. When we were driving around the Greenway area, hoping to find a parking space, they got a little antsy, so we gave up and parked in a garage. We had warned them that it was chilly and windy, but the younger one insisted on wearing shorts. As we made our way along the waterfront from the garage, they got a taste of just how chilly it really was.

Our visit to the aquarium went just fine. In fact it lasted less than an hour, because both boys said they were bored. The penguins held their interest better than just about anything else. We had thought they would enjoy the museum of science more, but the aquarium had been specifically requested. Whatever; we were all hungry by then, so we went off in search of lunch.

Our original plan was to walk to the North End and go to Pizzeria Regina, but before we'd even made it across the Greenway, we realized that it was too cold to walk that far, so we detoured to the Quincy Market location. The boys devoured the pepperoni pizza quickly, declaring it good.

We drove back to our house, because we had to tend to the dog, and the boys wanted to see her. They also got an hour or so to indulge in the pleasure of the Cartoon Network, because while they are allowed to watch movies at home and have access to Netflix, they don't have any regular TV service.

When we got in the car to return them to their parental units, they started getting kind of aggressive toward each other. We sat in the driveway and waited it out. By the time we were on route 2 heading west, the older one had fallen asleep, possibly still jet-lagged, so the rest of the ride was quiet.

When we got to our destination, their stepdad said, "You didn't lose them? We would have paid you extra."

Beep. Beep. Beep.

One of the upstairs neighbors set off the smoke alarms about a week ago. We're not sure exactly what happened, but in the past former residents did things like leave something in their toaster oven too long, causing it to go off.

This only merits mentioning because the detectors are hard-wired, so if one goes off, they all go off, including the ones in our apartment, and they are painfully loud. When it goes off, we literally have to cover our ears until it stops. The dog isn't too thrilled, either.

And then, as a bonus, there is one detector on the wall at the very top of the stairs going up to the second floor that has been beeping once every 30 seconds or so for the past week. You can hear it anywhere in the house, even in the basement, even from outside. It's not loud enough or frequent enough to keep us from sleeping or anything like that, but in the lack of other sound (from the TV, for example) it is fairly noticeable, and after a while it's kind of maddening.

I emailed one of the folks upstairs, and she said she doesn't know why it's continued to beep all this time. She's asked the landlord to come around and deal with it, but who knows when that will happen?

And Another Thing...

I had another thought about the Mad Men finale, which I should have included in last night's post, but it was getting late and I was worn out from work:

The pregnancy thing is getting a bit overdone. In season one we had Peggy's stealth pregnancy and the relinquishment of the subsequent child, which still echoed into this season when Pete announced that Trudy was pregnant.

At the end of season two Betty tells Don she's pregnant, and it goes on to figure in the first few episodes of season three.

Now we have Joan, pregnant by Roger, planning to have the baby and pass it off as Greg's. The show is running out of (significant) female characters to impregnate, and maybe that's just as well, because it's getting a little soap-operaish up in there.

On the other hand, it was nice to see Joan and Peggy share that moment after Don's announcement. It was nicely played, and after working together for almost six years, you'd think they would at least be friendly, if not friends, and this short but telling scene suggested that was the case. Perhaps we'll see their alliance strengthen next season?

Mad Men Season 4, Episode 13: "Tomorrowland"

Apologies for the lateness--it's deadline week, and work did a good job of getting in the way of life yesterday and today.

[Standard disclaimer: I have avoided reading any other recaps, writeups, or other commentary on this episode before writing this, so if I express something similar to thoughts you've read elsewhere, it's entirely a coincidence. If you have not watched the episode, assume there are spoilers ahead and act accordingly.]

For a season-ending episode, this wasn't what I was expecting. I feel like Matthew Weiner and company threw us a little bait and switch here. Story lines took surprising turns that I'm sure not everyone feels happy about.

We had the big buildup about the uncertainty of the agency's future, and the only real change there was the pantyhose account, not exactly a big deal. No disrespect to Peggy and Ken; they saw the opportunity and made it happen. But didn't you feel like something bigger was about to happen? So the agency is still in business for now, and maybe everything's going to turn out fine, but it ended up being anticlimactic.

It looked like Don was moving toward a serious commitment to Faye, then he gets stars in his eyes for Megan. I think this had at least something to do with Faye's reaction to Sally's behavior and her admission that she isn't comfortable around children, and Megan's subsequent comforting of Sally after she fell down in the hall. Don saw Megan's maternal side in that situation, and I think it affected his judgment.

Don's proposal ended up seeming like a bit of a desperation move, like grabbing onto the first thing he could, and it was out of character--maybe that was the point? It's even more puzzling than Betty's attraction to Henry. And of course Roger, having married one of Don's previous secretaries, is congratulating Don the quickest and loudest.

Remember, too, that when Faye and Don first met, she told him he'd be remarried within a year. I assumed at the time that the line would end up coming true in regard to Faye herself.

And even the answer to Joan's situation was a bit of a fake-out, though certainly the one most people saw coming. But again, it doesn't fit with everything else we've seen. What if the baby looks like Roger? Greg is so jealous, he's not going to miss that. Or is this maybe the clue that Greg won't be coming back from Vietnam after all? And the business about her breasts being bigger from the pregnancy was kind of a sideways smirk at all the fuss made about Christina Hendricks's voluptuousness.

I guess we'll all have plenty to ponder and discuss until next summer. First question to my mind is, when will the story pick up? Will we see Joan in the last trimester of her pregnancy? The poor woman will barely be able to stand. Will we see Don and Megan's wedding? I kind of think they'll just go down to city hall.

Expense Report #28

No shoes this week--I need to take at least a couple more weeks off from that. I did buy a shirt from L.L. Bean Signature, my first purchase from the line. Since the Mrs. and the Proper Bostonian both enjoy making fun of how many shirts I have, I have been following a closet policy of "one in, one out" for shirts, and I did not deviate from this practice.

Bean was offering 20% off everything last weekend, and free shipping, which I get from them all the time anyway, along with free returns, because I have a Bean Visa card. Another perk of this card is that I accumulate $10 credits. I believe you can apply only one per order, but they do allow you to use them with other discounts, so I got $10 off the shirt on top of the 20% off, which brought a $60 shirt down to $37.

I was pleasantly surprised by the fit. I had been led to believe that Bean Signature was cut very slim, but at least as far as the shirts go, this one is not as slim as others in my closet. (My Lands' End Canvas shirts are cut slimmer than this one.) This shirt in large is almost exactly the same size as a J. Crew extra large, but with the added benefit of the sleeves being a more reasonable length on me. Unlike some people, I don't care what size is on the label, as long as it fits.

This Week in Awesome (10/16/10)

Foiled again... busier yesterday than I'd expected to be.

Who doesn't enjoy time-lapse videos? This one is of the dismantling of an old building in Paris and the construction of its replacement. (The Daily What)

Here's an interactive map of Springfield, the home town of the Simpsons. Someone put a lotta work into this, folks. (The Daily What)

This guy was having a good day--he'd just passed his driving test--then it all went downhill. Bonus: video. (Story: AP via Jalopnik; video: Gawker TV)

Have you noticed that sometimes movies or shows will appear in your Netflix Watch Instantly queue, then sometimes they drop off the list before you have the chance to watch them? The site Feedfliks aims to help you keep track of these comings and goings. (Consumerist)

Live from New York...

Did you watch the live episode of 30 Rock? I know I didn't mention it beforehand, and of course I should have. It was a lot of fun--lots of great guest stars, a couple of them unexpected, and a clever gimmick for doing flashback cutaways in the live setting.

They're doing the whole episode live again for the west coast, and NBC will be posting both the east coast and west coast episodes on their site; I'll update this post with a link when they do.

Who says I don't care about any other shows besides Mad Men?

Update: As promised, you can watch the east coast and west coast episodes at these links on Hulu.

Update 2: The Vulture blog compiled a list of all the differences they could spot between the two airings.

Bucky

But wait, there's more... shoes.

Back in the spring, when I bought a pair of light tan suede bucks from Lands' End, I talked about some other buck-style shoes I'd seen at Nordstrom. For fall, they have returned, but with the traditional brick-red rubber soles instead of the goofy white ones, and in seasonally appropriate colors. They are sold under the store's 1901 house brand.

I was very excited to find that these shoes were being offered in gray, because I've been looking for a pair of gray bucks with red soles for some time. I hadn't been in Nordstrom in a while, so I discovered the shoes while looking at their site. They are offering free shipping with any shoe purchase, and the bucks are available in regular, narrow, and wide widths, so I ordered up a pair of the gray ones. (They are also available in the traditional dark khaki "dirty buck" color, dark brown, navy, loden, a very odd mustardy gold, and rust.)

For $100, these shoes are a very good value: they have excellent cushioning in the footbeds, are fully leather lined (this isn't that common at the $100 price point), and are made in Brazil, which isn't Italy or the US, but it isn't China either. There was only one problem: the toes were worn down or something. The nap of the suede was gone, and they looked black in front. The Mrs. said she thought they looked like it had been done on purpose. I kind of thought she was right, but I hoped she wasn't. I went back and looked at the shoes online; it wasn't obvious from the pictures that there was anything going on with the toes, or I would not have ordered them.

Over the weekend I took them back to the store (anything you buy online from Nordstrom can be returned to a store, saving the cost of sending it back to them if there's one near you). Sure enough, a salesperson in the shoe department explained to me that the "burnished" (her word) appearance of the toes was so "they look like you've had them for a long time." I decided not to bother trying to explain to her why this was a terrible idea.

I was going to just return the shoes, but she pointed out to me that the dirty buck ones did not have the distressed toes (perhaps in a gesture of appeasement to fussy old guys like me?), so I exchanged the gray ones for those. I figured, they are really comfortable shoes, which aren't always that easy for me to find these days, and the dark khaki is probably easier to coordinate with than the gray ones would have been. But I still hope to find gray ones some time.

Expense Report #27

Last week was shoe week. As part of my goal to upgrade my shoe choices, I went to check out the Allen Edmonds sale. Most of their shoes are made in the United States (a few styles are made in Italy, and a couple in the Dominican Republic). Having never owned any AE shoes, I figured it was a good idea to go to the store so I could try on the shoes and make sure I got the right size.

In Boston we have two AE stores: one on Newbury Street, two doors down from Brooks Brothers, and one on State Street on the corner of Devonshire, across from the northbound entrance to the State T station (for you suburban types, there's also one in the mall in Natick). Both stores are more or less on my way home from work, but I decided it was a bit easier and quicker for me to get off the train at State and get back on when I was finished. This store is a tiny sliver of a space, but that makes me like it more. It's cozy and calm inside.

When's the last time you went to buy shoes and actually had someone measure your foot with a Brannock device? I couldn't even remember. I tend to be a 10.5 in better-quality shoes, and this was confirmed. I impressed on the salesman my need for a wide shoe, which he agreed with--to a point. He said that getting shoes in wide was fine for lace-ups, but that for loafers I should go with medium, because they would be more likely to stretch and mold to my feet. I'm not sure I agree with this--for one thing, I have a pair of Sebago penny loafers in size 11 medium that I wore a few times but can no longer deal with because they're too painful, and I should have gotten wide. For another thing, I tend to wear thicker socks.

I ended up buying a pair of medium brown moc-toe lace-ups with contrast stitching and rubber soles. Most AE shoes are dressier, but they do have styles that work well in business casual settings. The shoes are very comfortable, and they make me feel more grown-up when I'm wearing them. That may be because they set me back $200, and yes, that was the sale price; they're normally almost $250.

I have to look at the purchase as a long-term investment in my feet, and if I'm going to do that, I might as well at least do it when they're on sale. There was more than one style that I liked, and at some point in the next six months or so I'll be looking to get another pair. But when I'm ready to do that, I can at least look for them on eBay or Style Forum, or go up to the AE outlet store in Freeport and see if they have what I want.

One other thing: the next day I looked for Brannock devices on eBay, and found one in excellent condition for $18. I'd been thinking about getting one for a while, primarily because it's a classic piece of American industrial design, and also it's just a cool object. Sometimes I like to have certain things just because they're cool or interesting.

Mad Men Season 4, Episode 12: "Blowing Smoke"

[Standard disclaimer: I have avoided reading any other recaps, writeups, or other commentary on this episode before writing this, so if I express something similar to thoughts you've read elsewhere, it's entirely a coincidence. If you have not watched the episode, assume there are spoilers ahead and act accordingly.]

I felt like we were treading water a bit this week. Not a lot happening at the agency, other than the start of layoffs. Of course they're saving any significant events for the final episode of the season, but I'm not expecting anything as big as last year, mainly because from the story-telling point of view, it doesn't make sense to have a game-changing scenario two seasons in a row.

The writers used this episode to have some fun at the expense of the tobacco industry. Aside from the obvious, we had Danny asking if the ad meant Don was going to stop smoking (the same thought had crossed my mind before he said it), Roger puffing away while telling the partners about the call from the American Cancer Society, and Glen offering Sally a cigarette, which she declined. (Where does a kid his age get cigarettes? Probably stealing them from neighborhood houses.)

Even though Don's encounter with Midge ultimately gave him the idea for the Times ad, the incident still left a bitter aftertaste. I think we have a tendency to think of the first half of the 1960s as a more innocent time, but people were still struggling with drug addiction before the Summer of Love. I think Don wanted to help Midge, but knew there was nothing he could do.

Betty says she doesn't need to see a psychiatrist, but she still wants to have her monthly chat with Dr. Edna. Sally's probably made more progress than Betty has, though now it looks like the Francises will be moving away from Ossining, which could wipe out whatever progress Sally has made.

Harry's desk is completely ridiculous.

Did Cooper just give up?

This Week in Awesome (10/9/10)

So yeah, I was kind of busy yesterday, like I was saying I might sometimes be. Today we were up in Rockport with some friends--it was an absolutely perfect day to be out walking around a cute seaside town.

Interestingly, there are no videos in this week's collection, which made me realize how much we've come to take online video for granted.

An illustrated alphabet of douchebaggery. (The Daily What)

Do your photos need to be punched up with more guns, explosions, and such? Use the Bayifier. (Vulture)

I love this one: maps of the world, as seen through the stereotyped eyes of its various nations. (Very Short List)

Rebrand yourself in the questionable style of the Gap's new (and possibly short-lived) logo. (The Awl)

Watch Wednesday Thursday (10/7/10)

Sorry about that... we went grocery shopping last night, and when we got back I completely forgot I was supposed to do a watch post.

This story goes all the way back to 2003, when the movie SWAT came out. There were two styles of Hamilton watches worn by the characters in the movie: this one, and a fancier version with touch controls borrowed from Tissot. They were sold to the public as limited editions, and I wanted one of these right away.

I looked for one for a while on eBay, but then I got laid off and tried to avoid buying stuff for a while. A couple of years later, Hamilton re-released the watch, but without any mention of the movie (the movie watches came with an aluminum box). The second batch of watches floated around the web for a while, and eventually you could get one at Overstock. I really don't know why I didn't just buy one then.

So I've been looking for one of these, on and off, for a while now. A couple of months back I found a seller on eBay who seemed to have a stockpile of them; the person would auction one watch each week, and start a new auction as soon as one ended. They weren't the movie watches either, because they had just a regular box.

The problem was that people were bidding these things way past what they are worth; one auction ended at over $300, which is just ridiculous. It's just a basic quartz Hamilton field watch with a couple of minor differences: the black plastic bezel, the red numerals, a flat rubber strap. Luckily I found someone else selling one, and it has been well taken care of because it looks like a new watch.

And yes, I'm probably going to get a different strap for it, but for now this one is fine.

Mad Men Season 4, Episode 11: "Chinese Wall"

This episode was almost entirely focused on the agency, as Lucky Strike's decision to take its business away from SCDP got out (given what we already know about Lee Garner Jr., did you really think he would keep his 30-day promise to Roger?) and began to affect their relationships with other clients. Only two episodes left--wait, what?

[Standard disclaimer: I have avoided reading any other recaps, writeups, or other commentary on this episode before writing this, so if I express something similar to thoughts you've read elsewhere, it's entirely a coincidence. If you have not watched the episode, assume there are spoilers ahead and act accordingly.]

After this dramatic development emerged last week, I was thinking that I would have expected it to ramp up closer to the end of the season, as has been the case with the agency storylines in the past two seasons, so I guess we should be expecting at least one or two more twists in the story before this season is done.

The other thing I thought of after last week's writeup is Conrad Hilton: Hilton Hotels would be a large enough client to keep the agency afloat. I admit that it seems sort of obvious, but Hilton did tell Don that he hoped they could work together again at some point, and the show has a tendency to revisit significant characters, so maybe Don reaches out to him.

If you're the sort who likes to dig really deep for possible signs or clues, let me point out that when Roger called Joan during his faked trip to try to salvage the Lucky Strike account, he told her he was staying at the Statler, the full name of which at the time was the Statler Hilton (it's now the Hotel Pennsylvania, across from Madison Square Garden).

Speaking of Roger, he's a mess. The loss of his only real work-related responsibility has left him questioning his identity, his self-worth, and his very existence (he made vague noises about ending his life last week) and his partners certainly feel that he has let them down. Even Joan, who probably understands Roger better than anybody, is no comfort to him when he needs her--she has her own reasons for feeling that way, but she made it clear she's with the others regarding the agency's situation as well, and she sees what I think maybe Roger doesn't, at least not yet: that he brought this on himself.

When Roger finally goes home, to the person who should be his primary source of comfort, he looks and acts like he doesn't even want to be there. Jane shows him his memoir (vanity published, it would seem)--well-intentioned, but at the worst possible moment. And it's obvious he hasn't told her a thing about what's going on at work. I couldn't help but think that if Roger had stuck with Mona (and stayed faithful to her), she would have been able to give him the support and comfort he so desperately needed at that moment.

Don would have liked some comfort from Faye, but they had a disagreement about business ethics, which made his behavior with Megan even more ethically questionable than it would otherwise have been. I'm not necessarily trying to be a defender of Don here, but I could see how Faye might have made him think she wanted to break up with him, and Megan really threw herself at Don, and he did make at least a token attempt to resist, but can a man really resist a woman in that situation?

Megan made it clear that she knew what she was doing. She is certainly more self-possessed than lovestruck Allison; in fact, she acted like a man, and on some level I think that bluntness, that open display of her desire, was what Don was responding to. But I suspect Megan wants something, in the way that Jane wanted what Roger could give her.

And then Don goes home and finds Faye in the process of slipping a note under his door, so of course we're supposed to think she is breaking up with him, but no--she's arranged a meeting for him with a potential client. Now Don has to lie to another woman, after he's tried to be (at least partially) honest with her, and after she's decided to breach her Chinese wall for him.

Parallels again: both Faye and Megan seem to be trying to help Don keep his drinking under control. Jane snugged up against Roger on the sofa, then in the next scene Faye did exactly the same thing with Don.

Meanwhile, Peggy takes it to the next level with Abe, who still hasn't quite learned when to keep his mouth shut (she points this out to him), and floats into work late the next day, all dreamy until she learns what's happened. She reacts as though it's some sort of punishment--Catholic guilt, still undefeated--but that struck me as somewhat out of proportion. Peggy's had four or five lovers that we know of, so does she always feel this way the first time she has sex with someone?

To the surprise of exactly no one, Stan manages to be an even bigger jerk. Payback's a bitch, buddy. Plus, Lucky Strike's exit--assuming the agency survives--opens the door for the possible return of Sal Romano. Who would you rather work with?

Expense Report #26

Last week I bought a watch, but you'll have to wait until this week's Watch Wednesday to see and read about it.

Otherwise it was business as usual, although I did get a good deal on razor blades at drugstore.com: if you buy three Schick products they're taking $6 off, plus I had received an offer for $10 off a $20 purchase if I checked out via PayPal, so I ordered six packages of four Hydro 3 blade cartridges each. With this stockpile, I shouldn't need to buy any blades for at least 18 months, maybe even two years.

I believe the Schick offer is still available through this Wednesday, and drugstore.com ships really fast: my order shipped literally one hour after I had placed it, and it arrived two days later.

Confusion

Can someone please explain Kanye West to me? I'm referring specifically to his performances on last night's Saturday Night Live, but it's also more of a general question. Because I seem to be missing whatever it is everyone else thinks is so great about him.

This Week in Awesome (10/2/10)

Still under the weather here, but slowly climbing back to feeling normal again, so this week's collection is a bit smaller than usual...

I haven't seen The Town yet, but I think anyone who lives around here, or has spent any time around here, can appreciate this takeoff. (ImprovAsylum via Universal Hub)

Photoshop Disasters is a blog devoted to the more egregious misuses of the image editing software. (Jezebel via Racked NY)

Watch this clip of a guy getting a piece of heavy excavating equipment onto a flatbed without the benefit of a ramp, and think about it next time you're trying to parallel park. (Jalopnik)

The State of Things

After patting myself on the back Wednesday, it's time to come back to earth and see where things are.

First of all, this weather is disgusting, and it needs to go away. It's like soup out there. We're in October now, for crap's sake. I want some fall. I have stuff I want to wear, and talk about.

Second, I caught a cold somewhere (probably from the T), and it bloomed yesterday. At first it was just sneezing, so I thought it was regular allergies, but by the time I got home the various other symptoms were evident. I made it through the night with some slightly-expired NyQuil, and hit the drugstore on my way to work for a combo pack of NyQuil and DayQuil with vitamin C. We'll see how quickly I can beat this thing into submission.

You may have noticed that for the past month or so, things have been a bit off schedule sometimes. In particular, I haven't been doing many posts on Fridays. This isn't intentional, it's just worked out that way. A couple of months ago I took on some new responsibilities at work, with an attendant raise, change in title, and step up the job scale. It was a genuine promotion, something I hadn't been expecting.

Things have been going well, but of course, the added duties mean my time in the office isn't quite as... flexible as it used to be. In addition to my monthly deadline, I now have certain weekly and even daily tasks, and the structure of our business means that other people depend on me getting my work done on time.

That's probably the main reason I didn't take a sick day today. I contemplated it once or twice when I woke up during the night, but when my alarm went off I hopped right out of bed without considering staying home. But the truth is I probably should have stayed home. If things go all right today, I may leave early and try to catch some extra sleep.

I'll keep juggling things as fluidly as possible, but there may be days when I can't post, or a post doesn't appear at the expected time. I would love to do more TV writeups, but given the amount of time those have been consuming, I don't see being able to do it on my current schedule. (I had wanted to start a separate TV blog a long while back, but I just don't have the kind of time to invest to do it right.) And if I decide to keep doing Mad Men writeups next year, I may have to reevaluate what form those might take. But that's a decision I won't have to make for a while.

My Fourth Blogaversary

Yes, it's true: I started this blog four years ago today. That's a long time--the length of a presidential term, or the interval between Olympic games (never mind the alternating winter and summer thing, you know what I mean).

When I began, I had no idea how long my motivation would last. As it's turned out, the blog has become its own source of motivation. The process of thinking, observing, and critiquing, and the writing that emerges, encourage me to do more. And I'm at the point where I actually have a small but fairly steady audience (hi!), which acts as another form of motivation and encouragement.

True to form, I debated how to spell "blogaversary." I could have gone with "blogiversary" because that's closest to "anniversary," but that "i" in the middle didn't look right. "Blogoversary" reminded me too much of "Blagojevich," and I'd rather not be reminded of that. I know that "blogaversary" has its faults, but it feels like it shares something with "bloggah," which has the right local flavor.

Each year I look back and reflect on how the blog has evolved, and I'm sure that will continue. But for now, I just want to say thanks to all of you for stopping by to visit.

Mad Men Season 4, Episode 10: "Hands and Knees"

No one died this week (that would be tough for even this show to pull off two episodes in a row), but plenty of other stuff happened. It feels like the show is revving up and moving the pieces into place for whatever is going to happen in the last few episodes.

[Standard disclaimer: I have avoided reading any other recaps, writeups, or other commentary on this episode before writing this, so if I express something similar to thoughts you've read elsewhere, it's entirely a coincidence. If you have not watched the episode, assume there are spoilers ahead and act accordingly.]

Several unexpected, unwelcome surprise visitors popped up this week: Don's past, in the form of the two G-men; Lane's horror show of a father, in place of his expected son; the fetal product of Joan and Roger's tryst.

Don's panic at the possibility of being exposed was far worse than when Pete confronted him about his identity back in season one, perhaps because he feels he has more to lose now, perhaps more because he walked right into it by not paying attention. Those were the exact words Pete ended up using to explain the "loss" of the North American Aviation account. It was one thing for Pete to keep quiet all this time, but now Don has asked Pete to fall on his sword for the sake of helping Don keep his secret. That isn't going to sit well with someone as ambitious as Pete, and eventually he's going to expect Don to repay the favor somehow.

Faye handled Don's revelation pretty well, considering. She immediately began to analyze the situation, trying to find a workable solution. I got the feeling it wasn't the first time someone close to her was in a tight spot, given what she's said about her father.

Roger was not literally on hands and knees with Lee Garner, but he might as well have been: he did say "I'm begging you" twice. The agency has done well, but they are still too heavily dependent on the business from the American Tobacco account, which now looks like it's going away. Given that cigarette advertising will be banned from American television in about five more years, SCDP would be losing some business there anyway, but now the situation is much more urgent. Storywise, this could go a few different ways: a last-minute account acquisition to save the day, a merger or takeover, the failure and dissolution of the agency as we know it, or possibly some other scenario I haven't thought of.

My heart broke for Joan, again. She's had to endure so many setbacks, affronts, and indignities that I can't help but wonder if she'll ever have her share of true happiness. Her decision to abort the baby was more for Roger's benefit than her own, though surely part of her must have wanted to keep it regardless of the circumstances. Joan's in her mid-30's (we know this because of the driver's license prank from the first episode of season two) and very much wants to be a mother, but she may not have much time left, and after three abortions she may not even be able to conceive again.

When Joan lied to the woman in the doctor's waiting room, it made me wonder how old she was when she had her first abortion; when she said, "Fifteen," was it just a number she chose at random, or was it because the other woman said she had gotten pregnant at fifteen, or did Joan abort a pregnancy early enough that she would now have a fifteen-year-old child had she not had the abortion? I think Joan is the most tragic character on the show, and if we ever learn more about her background and earlier life, I have a feeling we'll find that her pain goes way, way back.

I've seen a lot of speculation (some simply because people dislike the character so much) about whether or not Joan's husband Greg is going to make it back from Vietnam; Roger even suggested that if he was killed in action, it would be a solution to the baby problem. When Greg told Joan he had enlisted I immediately pegged him as a goner, but given the way the show continues to heap suffering on Joan, I now think it may be more likely that he comes home wounded and in need of care, becoming another burden for her to bear.

Regardless of what happens between Sally and her parents, I have no doubt she will always remember seeing the Beatles. That was about the only light moment in the whole episode, save for Trudy, in her summer maternity nightgown, looking like a decorated Easter egg.

Style Over Substance

In its weekend edition, the Wall Street Journal had this article about the resurgence of the traditional, outdoorsy look in men's clothing, and how high-fashion designers are either collaborating with brands like Woolrich and Barbour, or creating clothing inspired by these brands and styles.

I find this amusing for a couple of reasons. First, the Journal article makes this sound like a recent development, but it's at least a couple of years late in the trend-spotting department. Second, I have a hard time buying the conceit that men will embrace designers' versions of classic rugged clothing.

Or maybe it's more accurate to say that I find it difficult to envision much overlap between the pools of potential customers. The kind of stuff we're talking about is, and has always been, the antithesis of high fashion. People who care about the authenticity of a Filson coat or a pair of Red Wing boots are unlikely to be interested in a designer's fussy, overdone interpretations of classic American workwear. I mean, did you see the runway shots accompanying that article? Those are clothes for posers.

I may know who Daiki Suzuki is (he''s the outgoing designer of the Woolrich Woolen Mills collection, and one of the driving forces behind this re-imagining movement), but I only know because I read a lot of style coverage, and while I can appreciate his talent as a designer, I have no interest in anything from WWM precisely because it's too fashiony, esoteric, and outrageously expensive. It's American style filtered through a Japanese designer's point of view, making it much too far removed from anything I'd care about.

I suppose there's likely to be some overlap among the denizens of hipsterdom, but you already know my thoughts on that subject.

Expense Report #25

Last week I admit I was back to prowling eBay again, somewhat more vigorously than I've typically been allowing myself. But with the arrival of fall (more or less), I found that I needed to do a shoe evaluation, and several pairs need to go away for various reasons (poor fit, lack of comfort, worn appearance), leaving me at something of a shoe deficit.

I see this as an opportunity to initiate a shoe upgrade program, where I stop buying whatever is convenient and inexpensive and start investing in buying grown-up shoes, preferably ones made in America or somewhere where quality still matters, that will last me many years.

In that spirit, I bought a barely used pair of Allen Edmonds business-casual shoes for $40, including shipping. This particular model goes for about $250 new, so that's 80% off. Not a bad start to the shoe upgrade program.

This Week in Awesome (9/25/10)

It's still Saturday, so I'm making progress...

If you've ever wanted to convey a message to the driver behind you, this gadget is what you need. Seems like something most Massholes would make good use of. (ThinkGeek via Jalopnik)

Some of you may know comedian Kristen Schaal from her appearances on The Daily Show or as the obsessed groupie/fan Mel on Flight of the Conchords. Well, she and her boyfriend have written a humorous book about sex, and they've made a pretty funny promo video for the book. Probably want your headphones for this one. (YouTube via Videogum)

This ad, for Diesel sneakers, is one of the strangest things I've ever seen. Presumably it's not intended for US television. (AdFreak via Jalopnik)

I'm about two weeks behind on this one, but there's a lot of internet out there to keep track of. This is a video for a song that's a nice little takedown of (British) hipsterdom. (The Daily What via Look at This Fucking Hipster)

Just for Guys

Word arrived in the inbox earlier this week that J. Crew has opened a separate men's shop in Copley Place. (It must have happened fairly quickly, because I was over there about a month ago and it was still just one store.) This is their first men's-only store outside of New York, so the company must consider this a worthy market to make this move. I stopped by after work today to have a look.

The whole palette of the store's design is darker and more masculine, as you would expect. The shelving is a darker tone of wood, the tables have black top surfaces, the floor is black, and the walls that don't have shelving are a dignified green. The space isn't very large, but the tones and colors make it feel cozy. There's a free-standing set of shelves in the middle that divides the space and holds shoes.

In the past couple of years, the men's section of the other Copley store had been compressed into less space to give more space to women's clothing, so this seems like a good move. They seem to be stocking more items that were previously web-only, like all the suit-separate choices (the mini-herringbone is particularly nice) and a nice selection of shoes from Alden and Red Wing that goes well beyond the previous meager shoe offerings.

There is one drawback to having this type of store: there is no sale merchandise. I also noticed this when I visited the New York stores in Tribeca and Soho. This keeps the sales per square foot nice and high, but it means if I'm looking for an item that's on sale, I have to order it from the web site, or hit the mall stores in the suburbs.

On the plus side, this new store is carrying the Red Wing Gentleman Traveler boots I wrote about a while back, so if nothing else I can at least try them on.

Watch Wednesday (9/22/10)

Yes, it's another vintage Caravelle. I had to do some rummaging around to come up with a watch for today--could I possibly be running out of watches to feature?

Back when I first got into collecting watches, there were loads of watches like this on eBay, as people started cleaning out their drawers and attics for stuff to sell, and many of those watches went for just a few dollars because they are not intrinsically valuable, and there were not as many eBay shoppers as there are now.

I bought plastic zipper bags full of old Timexes and Caravelles for a few dollars for the lot, just because they were there and they were so cheap. Most of them didn't work, and I had grand ideas about learning how to fix watches so I could start assembling working watches from the ones I had accumulated. I still have a couple dozen, and some of them even run, so a few may end up back on eBay at some point.

I do not believe this watch was part of a bulk-lot purchase, because it's condition is too good. Sure, there are scratches on the crystal, like the Timex from last time, but I think they could be buffed out (by the way, Put This On recommends Meguiar's Clear Plastic Polish for acrylic crystals; I need to get some and try it).

The strap is a plain Speidel with a fairly pronounced grain and no accent stitching on the edges. This watch dates to the mid-1960s, and this style of strap is period-accurate in its appearance, like something the elfin copywriter Danny on Mad Men might wear.

T Etiquette: School's in Session

I realize that some of you just arrived here a couple of weeks ago to start college. I was in the same situation, almost 30 years ago. And I doubt anyone else is going to tell you, so let me help you out:

You cannot sit on the steps of a Green Line train obliviously reading a book, especially during rush hour. One thing that you will notice very quickly is that people around here, especially the ones taking public transportation, are in a hurry. We want to get the hell home at the end of the day, and you are in the way.

By sitting there blocking the steps, you are slowing down the process of exiting and boarding the train. You are asking to get growled at, hit in the head with someone's backpack or purse, or flat-out pushed off the steps and out of the train. I don't care if all the seats are taken; suck it up and stand, like the rest of us. You probably didn't roll out of bed until 11 am today, anyway.

Mad Men Season 4, Episode 9: "The Beautiful Girls"

I've only been able to watch this episode once so far, so I may not have picked up as much as I might otherwise have.

[Standard disclaimer: I have avoided reading any other recaps, writeups, or other commentary on this episode before writing this, so if I express something similar to thoughts you've read elsewhere, it's entirely a coincidence. If you have not watched the episode, assume there are spoilers ahead and act accordingly.]

As the title implies, the ladies were the focus of this episode. Don has decided that he's ready to be more deeply involved with Faye, and they're even sneaking away from work for nooners. Made me think of Don's fling with bohemian Midge from season one, and how different things are for him five years later.

Peggy's crusading journalist flirtation Abe from back in episode 4 returns to give it another try (dude, that was what, four months ago in show time--what took you so long?), only to blow it by basically telling her that he doesn't consider women's rights as important as civil rights. He then tries to make up for it by writing an expose of an SCDP client's hiring practices, which only makes things worse. But even so, you can see that these issues are getting under Peggy's skin, and you know that in a few more years, when the women's movement becomes a serious societal force, Peggy's going to be right in the thick of it.

Sally shows up in the middle of a presentation, having sneaked onto a commuter train--I guess things aren't going so well with Dr. Edna after all. (When Don first went out to the lobby, I thought that was Dr. Edna with Sally.) And then, as if one minor crisis in the midst of a client meeting wasn't enough, Miss Blankenship strokes out at her desk. This was a great scene, with Don sitting in the conference room watching Joan and Pete struggling to get the deceased out of sight without the clients knowing, distracted from the meeting by both that and the thought of Sally sitting in his office.

At first I thought the simultaneous occurrence of these two events was meant to be seen as parallel, the way parallel structure has been used several times this season. But after some thought, the more obvious parallel for Don is between Sally and Faye, being pulled in different directions by them, and what each of them represents and means in his life. Poor Sally is so needy right now, with good reason, and Don can't see it. Obviously having Sally live with him isn't going to happen, and I can't see Betty ever agreeing to that anyway, but if he could somehow meet Sally halfway, she would be so much the better for it. But I fear that connection is going to elude Sally, until it's too late for Don to have any sort of meaningful relationship with her.

Meanwhile, Sally's outburst gave Don (and us) the chance to see Dr. Faye's maternal instincts, or lack thereof. "I feel like that was a test, and I failed." Well yeah, you kinda did. I'm not criticizing her; like a lot of people, she just isn't comfortable with kids. But she lies and says she loves kids, and it would have been much better if she had just admitted as much. In the mid-60s she still would have been seen as unusual not being maternal, and she ends up having to defend her choice to be a professional woman rather than a wife or mother, which brings us back around to... Abe and Peggy's conversation. And how ironic that the glamorous, young, single, thoroughly un-maternal Megan is the one who ends up comforting Sally after she falls.

Viewers hoping for a Roger-Joan hookup got their wish, and in a doorway, after a mugging, no less. But Joan never would have done this while Greg was around; he's thousands of miles away, and she's scared and lonely. She is willing to accept it as a one-time thing, and reminds Roger that they are both married, but is that enough to keep him in line?

And then we had the final image of Joan, Peggy, and Faye on the elevator, each with something on her mind, all of them looking unhappy, or at least unsatisfied. What I want, vs. what is expected of me... Don does not have a monopoly on that dilemma.

French toast with rum sounds like a good idea. Remember, Sally used to be the Draper household bartender.

"My mother made that!" (Harry, in the background, about the afghan from his office they used to cover Miss Blankenship's body)

Expense Report #24

I actually didn't make any discretionary purchases last week--got my father a birthday present, and I bought a $5 watch strap on eBay. That was it.

This Week in Awesome (9/18/10)

What was that about getting back to Saturday for these? Oops. Hm, maybe next week...

Somehow I missed this one, because it's been around for a while: Passive Aggressive Notes. (New York Times City Room blog)

There's a movement to correct the imbalance between single women and worthy, eligible men. (Onion News Network via Put This On)

Those animated Taiwanese news stories are not limited to celebrities. A word of warning, though: this one involves obstruction of the digestive tract. (The Awl)

InfoMania continues its "Security Cam Theatre" feature with its interpretation of the recent British woman-stuffs-cat-in-trash-bin incident.

I'm sure you've noticed that Halloween candy, decorations, and costumes have already been in stores for a bit now. This blogger offers insightful and humorous commentary on the wrongness of many of the costume offerings. (Occupation: Girl via Consumerist)

Home Improvements

We've had our new mattress for almost a week, and it's just the best. Most of the foam mattresses I've tried have been comfortable, but still too soft overall for my liking. This one has a couple of inches of the memory foam on top of a more dense foam, so it's pliant but ultimately more supportive. Along with the cooler nights, I've been sleeping so great, I hate to get up.

We picked up our new living room area rug the same day as the mattress was delivered, and we're very pleased with that as well. I kind of wish we had gotten the next size up, one more foot in each direction, but it isn't a big deal. I should have taken a picture; I'll try to remember to do it over the weekend.

It's All in How You Say It

This morning at my workplace's weekly group breakfast, one topic discussed was slang and colloquialisms, which led to some talk of regional terms. (I'd love to go into this in more depth at some point, but it's late, so that will have to be a post for another time.)

One coworker said that lately she had found herself saying "bubbler," a word she hadn't used in a long time. She exaggerated the pronunciation on purpose, so it came out "bubblah." Another person said, "Bubalah? That's what I used to call my grandmother."

Mad Men Season 4, Episode 8: "The Summer Man"

After last week's tour de force, I expected a slightly more low-key episode, and that's what we got--which isn't to say that this episode wasn't interesting or satisfying.

[Standard disclaimer: I have avoided reading any other recaps, writeups, or other commentary on this episode before writing this, so if I express something similar to thoughts you've read elsewhere, it's entirely a coincidence. If you have not watched the episode, assume there are spoilers ahead and act accordingly.]

After we saw Don so drunk that he couldn't land a punch on the equally drunk Duck Phillips, it seems he took that as a sign that he needed to get his act together. As the summer begins, Don is making a conscious effort to drink less and take better care of himself. The pool was a pretty obvious symbol of cleansing, of purification, but the use of "Satisfaction" reminded us that Don has a long way to go on his journey, and there's no guarantee he'll make it.

I don't recall Mad Men using a voiceover before, but I quickly realized it was being done in order to allow us to share Don's thoughts as he wrote them down. This raised the question: is he in some kind of therapy? That seems unlikely, but it also seems unlikely that Don would begin such a self-examination process on his own. AA? Probably even less likely, given the fact that he's still drinking, somewhat.

Joan was a bit on edge due to her husband's impending departure for basic training, and was having a rough time at work with Joey the freelancer, and with the whole class-clown boys' club in general. Perhaps the looser environment at the SCDP office lends itself to creativity, but you know this sort of behavior never would have been tolerated at the old Sterling Cooper.

Peggy tried to help Joan, and in doing so thought she was standing up for her, but Joan pointed out that firing Joey was really about trying to feel powerful, like a man, and that there were other ways of accomplishing the same thing without either of them ending up being disliked. Peggy still has a lot to learn, both about being a woman and about making it in a man's world.

Don had a good time on his cab rides, especially with Bethany. But the idea of engaging in any sort of intimate behavior in a taxi is completely unappealing to me. In a limo with tinted windows and an opaque divider, maybe.

In spite of Bethany's effort to keep Don interested, he overheard Faye break up with her boyfriend (in the lobby phone booth, just like Peggy last week) and seized the opportunity to ask her out again. It's been fairly obvious since they met that she was as attracted to him as he was to her. Not only is she closer to his age, but she's much more intellectually interesting to him. But even with her being newly available, I'm inclined to think that if Don hadn't gotten himself straightened out, Faye would not have accepted his invitation. And I think that he chose not to go home with her (or to go to his place, "right around the corner") showed that he's serious about her.

There was a nice reprise of the parallel structure used in "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword," with Betty's therapeutic conversation with Francine followed by Don's similarly insightful dinner conversation with Faye; afterward, each was able to let go of at least some of the lingering anger and resentment, and put the hurt feelings aside for the sake of Gene's birthday party. That image of Don holding Gene aloft at the end may be one of the series' most touching moments to date.

P.S. Little Gene's cake looked awfully lopsided when Betty was frosting it.

Expense Report Catch-Up

I haven't abandoned this idea, but I did kind of let it slide last week...

Two weeks ago, when I had the week off, I bought a cashmere cardigan from the sale section of the J. Crew site, but I used gift cards for 75% of the purchase. I also bought last year's Beatles box set, brand new, from eBay for $85 including shipping, which is a hell of a deal considering people are attempting to sell used ones for $100 or more on half.com, and Amazon currently has the set for $188 (down from $206 on the day I bought mine).

Continuing to get ready for fall, last week I bought a couple pairs of corduroy jeans from JCPenney online for $25 each, with free shipping. (I'm going to continue to try to convince you that Penney has some decent clothes for cheap.) I also picked up a J. Crew shirt from two falls ago (that I'd been looking for off and on ever since) on Style Forum for $20 including shipping.

One other thing that's helping me control my credit card spending is that a lot of web sites now accept PayPal, which means I can pay for stuff out of my bank account, like the birthday present I ordered yesterday for my dad (spoiler alert: more Omaha Steaks goodies).

This Week in Awesome (9/11/10)

I was too tired to do this when we got back from seeing Machete last night (it's a blast, go see it); I need to work on getting back to posting these on Saturday morning. Or at least midday...

Here's some crazy footage from inside a cruise ship that's being tossed around pretty violently during a storm. (The Awl via BuzzFeed)

I had never heard of the site Christwire, but I was intrigued by this article in the New York Times that explains that everything they've been posting for the past couple of years was meant as a joke. The only problem is that some people haven't realized that. (SplitSider)

Looks like The Amazing Race is more hazardous to its contestants' health than I had realized. (Videogum)

And finally, the comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade does a staged reading of a screenplay based on Glenn Beck's novel. (SplitSider)

Watch Wednesday Thursday Friday! (9/10/10)

Well, apparently I haven't been paying attention--according to my self-imposed schedule, I was supposed to do a watch post last week, and I'm a couple of days late in getting to the make-up post. So...

This watch is about 20 years old, so it splits the difference between modern and vintage, as far as I'm concerned. Carriage was a cheapo sub-brand of Timex that was sold at discount stores; I bought this one at the late, unlamented Bradlees, probably for around $20. I guess I liked the military-inspired styling, and it's easy to read.

I had not worn this watch in a decade or so, but recently I was digging through some boxes of stuff, looking for something else, when I came across it. As you can see, I wore it pretty hard; there are numerous scrapes on the crystal around the 8 and 11 positions. I used to wear this when I was working in retail, so that probably explains the scratches. I have a feeling I could buff at least some of them out, if I set my mind to it.

Last week when I was off from work, I went downtown one day to the Watch Hospital on Bromfield Street and had them put a new battery in this, and it's been running fine since. It didn't have a strap when I found it, but the one that originally came on it was very similar to this tan one, which I took off another old Timex that isn't really keeping accurate time at the moment. I wish I could find more straps this color.

Now, the other thing about this watch is that it looks almost exactly like the one that J. Crew sells for $150 (snort). Some people are really into that watch; I think anyone who pays $150 for a modern quartz Timex is foolish. I may even buy a nylon strap for this so it looks like the J. Crew one, just to see if anyone notices and asks me about it.

Some Good News for Bus Riders

Continuing the unofficial SAR "I tell you some helpful stuff, thereby justifying the existence of this blog" week: have you T-riding locals been using NextBus? Because it's pretty useful. NextBus uses the GPS data from MBTA vehicles to monitor the locations of buses along the T's routes.

I mainly use it in the morning when I'm getting ready to leave the house, to see how my bus is running and whether I need to dash out the door right at that moment if I want to make my usual bus, or if I have a couple of minutes left to calmly gather my belongings. It remembers my most recent route query from one visit to the next, which saves a few potentially valuable seconds. And it's accurate, even a bit conservative (perhaps an intentional margin of error, but I don't know).

Route information has been available for certain routes on a pilot basis for some time, but according to Universal Hub, the MBTA is now making the data for every one of its bus lines. Hopefully this will be expanded to the subway line soon.

Tuneage

I've been using iTunes since it was introduced, and after all these years something still bugged me: I have quite a few instances where I have many albums by one artist, and I didn't know how to sort all the albums by an artist so that they appear in chronological order of release. (The default seems to be alphabetical by album title.)

My old friend Dr. Hackenbush (of the southern-central Hackenbushes) has always been a bit more under-the-hood with computers than me, so it finally occurred to me to ask him. The answer is so simple it made me feel kind of dumb, but it isn't necessarily obvious, so I thought I'd share the info.

In iTunes, if you click on the "Album" column, it will rotate through three different choices: Album, Album by Artist, and Album by Artist/Year. That third one is the one I wanted. If the metadata fields (the stuff under "Get Info") are not filled in with the correct info, those songs/albums won't be part of the sort, and will (I think) appear at the top of the artist listing, but you can fix that by going in and adding or correcting the info.

With the release of version 10, I've seen a lot of stuff online about how unhappy are with the program's appearance. It's not really an issue for me, but if you're feeling hacky and want to improve the look of iTunes 10, Cult of Mac has information on how to change the program's icon, return the window-control buttons in the top-left corner to a horizontal orientation, or just make the whole thing look like version 9 again.

Masshole Moment

The other night we drove to the Station Landing complex at Wellington Circle. The parking lots there are a bit on the snug side, and just after we turned in off the road, there was a car ahead of us blocking the way, with its right turn signal on.

We waited a few moments to see if anything would happen, and then the Mrs. put up her hands with her arms out in a "what gives?" gesture, hoping the driver ahead would see it in the mirror. An arm appeared from the driver's window, waving us around. In this lot that is not always a save maneuver, but there were no cars coming in the other direction, so we pulled around the car.

As we came alongside, the driver looked at us and called, "Couldn't ya see my blinkah was on? I'm waitin' for a space!" The Mrs. looked down the row a few spots ahead of us, gestured, and said, "There's a space right there." The woman's face got red and scrunched into a scowl, and she bellowed, "I WANT THAT ONE!!" while pointing to her right, to a space occupied by another car.

We looked at each other, confused, and drove off. Later, as we were leaving, we saw the woman's car, backed into the very space she so desperately needed to park in. We wondered how many other people she had inconvenienced while waiting for that space. We wondered why that particular space was so important. The only thing we were able to come up with was the possibility that she worked in the Walgreens that faces that part of the lot, and wanted to be able to keep an eye on her car while working, but even that seemed kind of flimsy.

Mad Men Season 4, Episode 7: "The Suitcase"

Hard to believe we're already at the halfway point of the season, and last night we got quite a juicy episode.

[Last week I neglected to attach my standard disclaimer: I have avoided reading any other recaps, writeups, or other commentary on this episode before writing this, so if I express something similar to thoughts you've read elsewhere, it's entirely a coincidence. If you have not watched the episode, assume there are spoilers ahead and act accordingly.]

It was interesting to realize that after working together in various capacities for five years, there's a great deal that Don and Peggy don't know about each other (and that we don't know about either of them), and though Peggy said she preferred it that way, it seemed that by the episode's end she had changed her mind. I don't think we've ever seen an episode with this much interaction between the two of them, and after some shouting and some consoling, each knows some fairly personal stuff about the other.

The Samsonite campaign that gave the episode its title and served as the focus of the story also gave us some handy metaphors. When Betty first banished Don from the house in season two (suspecting him of having an affair, but having no proof at the time), he stayed at the Roosevelt, essentially living out of a suitcase. Later, when he decided to abandon his business trip in Los Angeles to go off to Palm Springs with the beautiful people, he left his suitcase and all his belongings behind, because he no longer had to pretend to be "Don Draper" with them, or on his subsequent, revelatory visit to Anna.

During last night's scene at the Greek diner, Don talked about his uncle Max, who had a saying about how a man always needs to have a packed suitcase ready. This was still Don in season one, when he tried to get Rachel Menken to run away with him. Later that night, in the midst of his drunk-sickness, Don awakened to a ghostly vision of Anna in his office, carrying a small suitcase (no way to know whether or not it was a Samsonite) and knew that she had died.

Of course, the suitcase also represents baggage, of which Don and Peggy both have their share. When their talk at the bar turned to Peggy's pregnancy and Don asked if Peggy knew who the father was, I thought for a moment that Peggy was going to tell him, but I also got the feeling that Don was not especially interested in knowing the answer; he was more interested in whether or not Peggy ever thought about it, which makes perfect sense given his own past.

Peggy's baggage is also in the form of her family, her rather unimpressive (now ex-)boyfriend Mark, and of course, the even less impressive Duck Phillips, whose drunken late-night visit to the SCDP office in search of Peggy led to a most pathetic excuse for a fight between him and Don (and a hilarious attempt to leave a calling card, of sorts).

I think the boxing match was meant to represent Don's inner battle between his Don and Dick selves, his drunk and sober selves, his humble and proud selves. His comments about the fighters Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston could be interpreted as comments about himself, particularly in the wake of the Clio victory.

Don is at a crossroads, and clearly his life and career could go either way at this point. Now that we have seen just how deeply into the bottle Don has sunk, Duck's miserable attempt to prop himself up with the crutch of Peggy showed us very clearly where Don is headed if he is unable to straighten out. The question still remains as to whether or not Don got that message.

This Week in Awesome (9/4/10)

Because I wasn't at work this week, I ended up spending less time online overall, meaning I didn't find quite as much fun stuff as I usually do. Hopefully you have other things to occupy you on this long weekend anyway, and thus the lack of TWiA fodder won't bring you down too much.

For you all-thumbs types, here's a texting accessory that aims to prevent the wrong person from seeing the wrong words. Or something. (Videogum)

This chihuahua struggles mightily to escape its human-imposed confinement. (The Daily What)

Half-scale, drivable replicas of classic sports cars with tiny lawn mower engines? Awww... I want one. (Group Harrington via Gizmodo)

Waxed

Yesterday I discovered the sort-of secret sale going on at Hilton's Tent City. I went there because I was interested in trying on a Filson waxed cotton coat, and Hilton's is one of the only places in the area that carries them. I wanted to try on the coats in person because I was unsure about sizing, but I hadn't planned on buying it from Hilton's, mainly because there's a place in Missouri called Crane's Country Store that sells Filson at a discount, and offers an additional discount to members of Style Forum, of which I am one.

Hm, let me back up a bit. I've had a waxed cotton coat for about eight years now. I found it at Banana Republic back when they still made some things I cared about, marked down to 1/3 of its original $225 price. It was made in England too, like a Barbour. It kind of resembled a Barbour in general, and I got a lot of wear out of it, but it's starting to look a little worn, and it's brown, which is the only color it was available in, but never a color I really wanted. I wanted dark green, which is the classic color for a waxed coat.

So last year I started thinking about getting a replacement, but I wasn't really inclined to spend $400 for a Barbour. I started looking on eBay and was able to get an older model Barbour that's no longer made for about $175. It was green, but more of an olive. When it arrived, I was crushed to discover that the sleeves were an inch too short. The seller had given all the measurements, but the only one I was really paying attention to was the chest. I was able to resell it without taking a loss, and the buyer seemed very pleased with it.

Meanwhile, I had bought another coat on eBay, this one from J. Crew from several years back, and quite a Barbour copy, but it was only $30. It was a very, very dark brown, closer to black than to my original coat, but still brown. It served me well for much of last fall, winter, and spring, but I knew it wasn't quite what I wanted. I bought another Barbour on eBay, and this one fit better, but I just didn't care for how it felt or looked on me. I had tried on other Barbour coats in stores, and those had seemed okay. Then I did something pretty dumb: I bought yet another Barbour on eBay, a different model that's cut a bit shorter. I didn't like how that one fit either.

Part of it may have been the shoulders; Barbours traditionally have raglan shoulders, which are supposed to be more comfortable, but I have always disliked the look of the angled seams coming down across the front and back of the shoulder. I probably could have thought things through a bit better before making these purchases, but I was caught up in wanting to look the part of a sophisticated city guy, the kind who eschews Gore-Tex for something more traditional. (I do have a Gore-Tex slicker that I use in summer, and it's fine for what it is.)

All this time, Filson had been in the back of my mind. It's sort of the American alternative to Barbour, used by a lot of hunters and outdoorsmen. Filson also makes things like old-fashioned wool hunting coats, and they've been around since 1897, so they know what they're doing. Filson still makes the majority of its clothing and luggage in the United States, too. And the model of coat I was interested in has regular, set-in shoulders.

The trip to Hilton's started as just a size-testing visit. I was surprised to find that a large was a bit more snug on me than I would have expected, especially since Filson claims their coats are cut for layering, but the extra large fits just right, with room for a sweater or other layering piece, but not cut so big that it looks boxy with just a shirt under it.

So, if you've been keeping track, I still have two Barbour coats, and I'm going to be selling them soon. I will probably try putting them on Style Forum first. Both are size 44; one is a sage green Beaufort, the other is a black Bedale (links for more info). The Bedale is new, never been worn (I did remove the tags, but I still have them) and the Beaufort had been very lightly used before I bought it. If anyone reading happens to be interested, please get in touch.

Attention, Shoppers!

Consider this a public-service announcement for those of you who live in the Boston area: the below-the-radar clothing and gear store Hilton's Tent City near North Station and the Garden is offering 25% off everything in the store, through the weekend (I think that's what I heard, but you may want to call them to confirm: 617-227-9242).

You won't find the info on their web site, though: I only found out because I went there today to try something on, and there was a large sandwich board in front of the store with a hand-lettered sign on bright green poster board.

Now, you might be thinking that I don't seem like the camping type, and you would be 100% correct. But Hilton's sells much more than camping gear: they carry a wide selection of Barbour outerwear and clothing, Filson, Woolrich, and Carhartt; serious outdoor clothing from high-end brands that you almost never see on sale anywhere, like Marmot, Canada Goose, and Arc'Teryx (I still have no idea how to pronounce that); bags from the likes of Crumpler and Bailey Works; a selection of footwear; and, yes, just about anything camping-related that you might require. Plus the place has been around a few decades and is sort of cluttered, and it's just fun to look around.

Their site says they're open weeknights until 9 and weekends until 6. There are some excellent deals to be had; tomorrow, I'll tell you what I bought, and why.

Saying Goodbye Is Always Hard

Dear TV Squad:

I don't know how to say this, so I'm just going to say it: it's over between us. We've grown apart, and I have to move on, for my own sake.

I remember when we first met, and I was immediately smitten. Almost overnight, you became my favorite site for TV news, show recaps, and thoughtful critical pieces. I dreamed of a long, happy future with us together.

Then, four or five months ago, everything changed. You started hanging around with your "business partner" AOL TV. You said it was a "merger," but it was clear that AOL TV was taking over your life, and it changed you. Within a month or so, you were filled with celebrity gossip and video clips from the previous night's talk shows--the stuff that used to be tucked away over on AOL TV, where I didn't have to see it. The features I had enjoyed so much were still there on your site, but it got harder and harder to find them amongst the other dreck.

And then, as if that wasn't bad enough, you started getting sloppy. I found mistakes in your articles. First it was just here and there, but then I started seeing more and more of them. What happened to your dignity, your self-respect? If you want to be taken seriously as a source for TV information and criticism, you have to follow the same journalistic standards as newspapers and magazines regarding grammar, spelling, punctuation, and proper usage. But I guess that AOL TV junk had gotten into your bloodstream and poisoned your ability to write properly.

I wanted to help you, but I'm only one person and there are limits to what I can do. I posted comments, hoping it might shake you up and get you back on the right track, but it didn't do any good. I heard you were bringing in Maureen Ryan as a contributor, and I know she's one of the most respected TV journalists in the country, but it's too late--I just can't let myself be involved anymore. I've removed the link to you from my blog, to show that I'm serious about this, and I'm deleting you from my bookmarks too. I hope you can understand why I have to do this.

I admit, it's going to be difficult to replace you. But there are others out there who are capable of expressing themselves in a healthy, mature, adult way, and that's where I need to focus my energy and attention. Part of me will always care about you, and who knows--maybe some day you'll find your way back to the way things used to be. But I know how these things go, and I can't wait around, hoping against hope, for something that may never happen.

Goodbye, TV Squad. I'll miss you--not as you are now, but as you used to be.