On Ebay Saturday

Gents: Just in time for spring. One pair Kenneth Cole brown and linen weave men's spectators, marked size 10.5 (US) medium, although I would be happier if you thought of them as a US size 10 D. I've worn a 10.5 D most of my life and the width is comfortable, but these are a tad short. Pre-owned, made in Italy, with many years of wear left in them.

I offer them here first, on Saturday morning they'll be posted on EBAY.

$100 USD includes shipping within the US.

Inquiries to Toadoftoadhall.pat@gmail.com please.

Toad

it takes a very rich man...

Several weeks ago I was seeking the source for the quote "only very rich men wear seersucker clothes." As so frequently happens, fate stepped in in the guise of The Elegantologist who led a post with that quote, attributed to Damon Runyon.

In the late 19th century US, seersucker was a poor mans cloth. Found mostly in the south, it began as a cheap, lightweight substitute for silk. In 1909 Haspel began making seersucker suits in New Orleans. By the mid 1920's fashionable northern college students picked up on it. Runyon went on to write " that his new habit for wearing seersucker was "causing much confusion among my friends. They cannot decide whether I'm broke of just setting a new vogue."

Brooks Brothers introduction of light cotton summer suiting, including seersucker, lent the suit it's patrician image. The idea being, only the rich could afford to look disheveled. Brooks still vends a great off the rack seersucker suit.

What prompted this history lesson was a trip through EBAY. BB's Black Fleece headboy Thom Browne has designed a seersucker suit for the new millennium. An yes it takes a very rich man, gone soft in the head to wear it. Shown above,$3200 retail, pre worn for your convenience $1450. I merely report the news, I have no hand in this sale.

Toad

M Magazine The Civilized Man

M Magazine

Gentlemen: mayhaps you were not alive then, or are just late to the party, and are curious about what all the noise was about. Here is your chance to find out. 13 issues on EBAY.

Naturally, I have no interest in this auction, and will not be bidding.

Toad

Have you seen?

Last Sunday's NY Times Magazine did a brief story on street fashion blogs and those who take the photographs. Scott Shuman of the Sartorialist got an honorable mention and ever the opportunist he subsequently posted the story on his blog.

One of the sites mentioned was garance doré . Admittedly, I am too old, too male to spend any time here, but there is something captivating about Paris. Only recently has Garance begun posting in English, but scroll back awhile. Many of her exclusively French posts are stunningly beautiful. Take a look periodically.

2. This from EBAY. Two year Garden and Gun subscription . $6.99 Garden and Gun: The Magazine - eBay (item 280296870897 end time Dec-30-08 11:21:28 PST)

3. I know that there is a word for this, and perhaps knowing is half the illness, but there are 3 words I misspell EVERY time I type them. Should I blame my keyboard, my fat fingers, or the parochial school nuns who instilled in me a great abhorrence to sloppy spelling and grammar?

4. ?GOOD Magazine Goodmagazine - The 51 Best* Magazines Ever There are a few I think he missed including M, 80's edition. Whatta ya think?

Once again, Happy Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy day before Boxing Day.

Toad

Picks and Pans

PICKS

How the States got their Shapes by Mark Stein

Take a look at a map of the United States. Ever wonder how or why the states are shaped the way they are? Why don't borders match where logic says they should? Why are some large, and some small? Oddly enough, a great deal of thought went into each bend, bootheel, and arc., and this book is here to tell you why.

Mr. Stein's book "How the states got their shapes" is a state by state history and geography lesson on how the American states shapes evolved. In amazing detail he tells of pre colonial land grants, wars with foreign powers, territorial mineral wars, shifts in river banks, voting blocs, slave and non slave states. Is all here, in elaborate detail, yet concise and highly readable.

I highly recommend it.

PANS

I am not a frequent EBAY shopper, but I well understand its utility, and as an asylum for American's pack rats it was a genious invention.

To me, its greatest innovation was the feedback mechanism. The original idea that buyers and sellers could rate each other on how well they performed was insanely great. Somehow though, the whole idea became corrupted by the inmates and then EBAY f'ed it up even worse.

While I appreciate the notion of feedback, somehow I never caught on to the idea that as a buyer, I had to furnish feedback first. It seems to me if I won an auction and paid for the item, I'd completed my end of the bargain and feedback was due NOW! not after I received the goods and stroked the seller a bit.

Consequently, I have never provided feedback to sellers who did not see things my way. You'd be amazed at how testy they become.

Recently, EBAY pissed in the pool by requiring sellers to provide positive feedback if they met the basic terms of the sale, ie: won and paid. Becomes sorta meaningless at that point.

So now feedback has become ingrained in the fabric of internet sales. I hope it catches on. I always appreciate things that save me from myself.

Stop in and say hello.

Toad