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RTDNTOTO 🐻 Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 19 (2024)

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Doohickie said:
I just never got the appeal of Jimmy Buffet. I mean, he's okay but I just don't see him as especially great compared to other artists. Maybe cuz I'm not into the beach lifestyle? I dunno.
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It's a valid point: it's not complicated or technically difficult...there's just something there that when it hits for you it hits. You know how you go through phases of music? Like for me when the summer I was 14 my sister brought a James Taylor tape home from college. I already had my tastes in music but that summer James Taylor was really speaking to me. I couldn't get enough. Fast forward 6 years - I had always listened to Billy Joel in my family's house, and loved it but the summer I spent listening to a copy of "Songs in the Attic" was the first time I really heard Billy Joel. My Jimmy Buffet summer came much, much later...but it came. Long after I had heard "Margueritaville" on the radio a million times and liked it. I was driving to the landfill in 2003 and my dad's copy of a mix of Jimmy Buffet songs was in the tape deck. It was "Incommunicado" that got me...and all summer long it was Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy. A couple of summers ago, I was fifty years old and listening to "Atlantic City" and heard Bruce Springsteen for the first time.

Music. Sometimes it's just all in front of you, but you don't really see it until it's the right summer. Who knows? You never can tell, maybe this summer will be your Jimmy Buffet Summer. :)
 
Doohickie said:
I just never got the appeal of Jimmy Buffet. I mean, he's okay but I just don't see him as especially great compared to other artists. Maybe cuz I'm not into the beach lifestyle? I dunno.
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I think that does with any music. We all have different taste. I've caught flak in the past for not listening to some obscure or not so obscure artists with political statements. Music for me is entertainment. Plus, I don't wear skinny jeans, have a beard, ride a fixie, or drink Mossy Loon IPA with notes of stone, tree bark, and finishing with lemon aftertaste.
 
the copying others reminds me of one of my favorite scenes in LA Story - where everyone is ordering coffee and when someone says I'll have a twist of lemon, then the whole table does it too

lol

 
ursus said:
A couple of summers ago, I was fifty years old and listening to "Atlantic City" and heard Bruce Springsteen for the first time.
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My Bruce Springsteen summer was 1976 when I really got into Born to Run. The album is a full-on masterwork. It starts out with Thunder Road and the rest of Side One is classic Bruce. Side Two though is sublime: The title track, then the uptempo love ballad She's The One, followed by contrastingly quiet Meeting Across The River, then closing with Jungleland.

That same summer Billy Joel released Turnstiles. I liked the song Piano Man, but I wasn't a true fan until Turnstiles. Just a fantastic album. As the nerdy middle child in my family, the song James really spoke to me and helped me figure out who I was.

For a long time I had those two albums recorded on a 90 minute cassette tape. Even though I have spent very little time in NYC and its environs, I viewed that tape with its two albums as NYC "bookends" - the genteel, suburban life of Long Island, and the gritty inner-city New Jersey.

I guess I need to cue up some of these CDs in my player for my next work from home day.

As an aside, I feel that the definitive version of the song Atlantic City is the 1993 cover by The Band with Levon Helm on vocals. I like Bruce's version but there's just something about The Band that captures the song better for me.
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
I think that does with any music. We all have different taste. I've caught flak in the past for not listening to some obscure or not so obscure artists with political statements. Music for me is entertainment. Plus, I don't wear skinny jeans, have a beard, ride a fixie, or drink Mossy Loon IPA with notes of stone, tree bark, and finishing with lemon aftertaste.
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IPAs are so 2013, dude.
 
We've had family in town for the past 10 days -- at various locations nearby. When we left the house yesterday morning, I vowed to get home before dinner so we could relax before the work week started again.

We got home around 9pm... and I'm exhausted today. WHY do I never give myself an extra day off at the end of family time?
 
RandomPlanner said:
We've had family in town for the past 10 days -- at various locations nearby. When we left the house yesterday morning, I vowed to get home before dinner so we could relax before the work week started again.

We got home around 9pm... and I'm exhausted today. WHY do I never give myself an extra day off at the end of family time?
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We normally try and schedule vacations so that we have a day in between coming home and work starting back up.

When we went to Cancun in July it was Sunday to Sunday though. I got to bed around 2:30 am and was up at 6:30 am for work. It was brutal.
 
Speaking of taking extra time off, I've got a medical thing coming up and the doctor recommended a full week off. My appointment is on a Thursday and I debated just taking the Friday off and playing it by ear the following week. Then I reminded myself that recovery recommended by a doctor is a perfectly legitimate use of my PTO -- and I scheduled a full week off.

If I'm feeling energetic, I can get stuff done around the house, right?
 
You have to have stepped on a pop top and blown out a flipflop and limped back home to a boozy blender etc.

I was never a fan, having moved on into mainstream jazz etc. but always found him funny.
 
fringe said:
You have to have stepped on a pop top and blown out a flipflop and limped back home to a boozy blender etc.

I was never a fan, having moved on into mainstream jazz etc. but always found him funny.
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What's not to love about lines like "The weather is here I wish you were beautiful."
 
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Wondering how I should play up the Planning Commission meeting on September 19th . . . Should I just throw in a few random "arrr"s and "avasts," or should I go all-out with the Pirate? I'm inclined toward the latter . . . (Or latt-aaaar)

"Arrh. Next bein' on the agenda here is the use permit for the landlubber scallawags Mr. and Mrs. Smith . . . they be a wantin' to put a center for the little tykes in the port in this existing strucutaaar . . . be a beggin' for approval from me and me officers."

Jim
 
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Who never had white loafers?

I was neither trendy nor fashionable to have them.
 
kms said:
I had a pair of white buck loafers. Wish I still had them.
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When I used to be stylish I had some oxblood loafers. Cordovan, I think is the other way to say that color, but we always said oxblood in my family. The real question is: What color are @WSU MUP Student 's loafers, and IS he wearing them today? It's September, and I feel like there is a better than 60% chance that he is....
 
ursus said:
When I used to be stylish I had some oxblood loafers. Cordovan, I think is the other way to say that color, but we always said oxblood in my family. The real question is: What color are @WSU MUP Student 's loafers, and IS he wearing them today? It's September, and I feel like there is a better than 60% chance that he is....
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My mother always called them oxblood, and I have a pair.
 
kms said:
I love that food reheated in aluminum foil is piping hot and the foil isn't too hot to handle. Some kind of science would explain why, but I really don't care.
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Yes, something about lack of air and/or density of a thin sheet of foil. Pull something out of the oven with a foil cover and you can immediately take off provided you don't touch or push through the foil to anything else like the dish or pan.
JNA said:
Who never had white loafers?

I was neither trendy nor fashionable to have them.
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1980s, does this apply?
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ursus said:
When I used to be stylish I had some oxblood loafers. Cordovan, I think is the other way to say that color, but we always said oxblood in my family. The real question is: What color are @WSU MUP Student 's loafers, and IS he wearing them today? It's September, and I feel like there is a better than 60% chance that he is....
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Fun fact... the term "cordovan", when referring to a color, is derived from a specific type of leather, shell cordovan which is generally made from the under layer from the hindquarters of horse skin (the "shell" portion refers the the fibrous flat tissue beneath the horses butt and the "cordovan" portion comes from the city of Cordoba, Spain where the type of leather is believed to have first been widely produced). The easiest, and by far most common, color to dye shell cordovan to is that deep burgundy color often called oxblood. Because the color is so ubiquitous, "cordovan" is now often (erroneously?) used to refer to the color instead of the type of leather itself.

As a leather, shell cordovan is particularly sought after because the oils in the leather, combined with how smooth it is, make it extremely resistant (as far as natural materials are concerned) to water and the thickness means the leather sort of rolls over time instead of creasing and cracking. It is extremely durable. I have a pair of shell cordovan lace-up bluchers that I bought in Okinawa in 1998 that still look fantastic and still get worn frequently (they've been re-soled and professionally cleaned a few times but really minimal maintenance has been done to make them last this long).

I do have a couple pair of shell cordovan loafers (one pair of tassel loafers and another pair of penny loafers) in the traditional oxblood color, though I refer to the shade as "Color #8", because the shoes are made from shell cordovan from the Horween Leather Company in Chicago and "Color #8" is their proprietary name for the color of the dye they use. If you go into most any high end men's store and ask for a shoe or boot in "Color #8" they'll probably know exactly what you mean. Some folks really like to get shoes or boots (or wallets or bags or belts or watchstraps) in "Color #8" because they can start out such a deep burgundy that they look almost black in certain lights but will gradually, and beautifully, age and lighten and redden over time.

I am not wearing loafers today, but I am wearing a custom pair of lace up moccasins in navy shell cordovan, from Rancourt - a company that still handmakes boots and shoes in Maine. I've never done more to take care of these than hit them with the horsehair brush on occasion but they still look pretty good for being close to a decade old.

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FWIW, I did almost put on my Color 8 shell cordovan tassel loafers this morning as I really like them in the fall and winter, especially with jeans or casual trousers like I'm wearing today, but they have leather soles and after work I've got a fantasy football draft at a bar that I know always has really slick floors so I didn't want to risk a slip and fall as I walk up to the board to make my pick at the highly coveted 7th spot in the draft!
 
ursus said:
When I used to be stylish I had some oxblood loafers. Cordovan, I think is the other way to say that color, but we always said oxblood in my family. The real question is: What color are @WSU MUP Student 's loafers, and IS he wearing them today? It's September, and I feel like there is a better than 60% chance that he is....
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it is cordovan - my Mom would never let me say oxblood and when I sold shoes to unsuspecting men in high school, I said cordovan - sounds more chic
 
Laces = Boat shoe?
No laces = loafer?

I actually have no idea.

My brother did not want to rent formalwear for his wedding, so we bought nice sport coats, slacks and shoes. The shoes were Oxford bucks, in white. Had the authentic Goodyear rubber soles. I'd still be wearing those if they weren't stupid white ...
 
Gedunker said:
Laces = Boat shoe?
No laces = loafer?

I actually have no idea.

My brother did not want to rent formalwear for his wedding, so we bought nice sport coats, slacks and shoes. The shoes were Oxford bucks, in white. Had the authentic Goodyear rubber soles. I'd still be wearing those if they weren't stupid white ...
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If you still have those shoes, and I hope you do, you have to put them away until Derby Day. My mom always told me not to wear white until Derby Day.
 
ursus said:
@WSU MUP Student
I KNEW you would not disappoint! And my brother, the SOCKS, man! The SOCKS! You make me wanna be a better dresser.
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Socks are another weakness of mine, especially thick wool or wool/cotton boot socks. There are a few stores I frequent that always have some fun patterns and I have a tendency to buy a few pair, regardless of whether or not I need them, whenever they have a sale. I've done really good this past year and actually have bought zero new socks, but I've still got a big box tucked away in my garage full of unworn socks folded up with with the tags attached. Instead of buying new ones, I'm trying to be better about wearing the ones in my dresser until they fall apart and then replacing them with a pair from the garage. I've got enough to choose from that it's like going to the store anytime I open up that box!

The ones I'm wearing today are from a smaller designer in NY called Wythe New York that focuses on workwear/Americana and Western-inspired clothing. Chup and Anonymous Ism are a couple of Japanese brands that make probably my favorite socks - the designs and colors are always very vibrant and the quality is fantastic. American Trench is another U.S. brand that has pretty good socks and often has really good prices for bundles of 3 or 5. Every year, my MIL buys me a bunch of the cotton rag boot socks from LL Bean and I really love those too.

I kept hearing good things about "Darn Tough" socks but had never tried them. My wife bought me a few pair for my birthday last year and they look great but I've put them away in my box o' socks in the garage... maybe I should try those out next. They look and feel almost identical to the socks from SmartWool so I wonder if they're actually from the same factory.

I have a few pair of cashmere boot socks from the English company Corgi. They are crazy soft but also super delicate. I wore through the heel on one pair relatively quickly and took them to be darned by a local knitter/reweaver. I haven't worn them much since then because I'm afraid of wearing them out again, but I'm trying to be less precious about my clothing so maybe this conversation will inspire me to wear them again this fall.... even if it's just to wear around the house. There's a guy with an alpaca farm near my parents and one year my mom bought everybody socks made from wool from his alpacas and those were extremely soft too and a bit more durable than the cashmere socks.

One of my aunts has always been into knitting and sewing and when she retired from her teaching job a few years back she got a part time job at a knitting studio in her downtown. She bought herself a spinning wheel and loom and now makes her own yarn and the past few years at Christmas she has bought a big bag of socks for everybody to pick a few pair from and I've really liked some of the ones she's made. But she hasn't quite figured out a good system for sizing and the wool she starts with has no elasticity so the socks aren't the best if you have to do a lot of walking since they'll fall down relatively easily, but if I'm just sitting around most of the day, it's fun to have a pair of handmade socks where I actually know who made them.
 
TIL there is a girls prep flag football league here. It doesn't appear that our high school has a team but the other school in the district does.
 
This just in: urinal scent update, from my City Hall: new scented urinal accessories have been instigated for September. Still with pleasant, melon undertones, but the citrus is much stronger, and more tangy. The color of the item is now tangerine-orange.

As you were.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I kept hearing good things about "Darn Tough" socks but had never tried them. My wife bought me a few pair for my birthday last year and they look great but I've put them away in my box o' socks in the garage... maybe I should try those out next. They look and feel almost identical to the socks from SmartWool so I wonder if they're actually from the same factory.
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Nah, Darn Toughs come from Northfield, VT. Most of my sock stable are Darn Toughs and they have all lasted longer than my Smartwools. Also they have a lifetime guarantee (though I am too sheepish to use it when I finally wear a hole in a sock).
 
I purchased a tailor-made completely white three piece suit, including a pair of white loafers, when I was in Okinawa. I guess I was picturing myself wearing it while holding a daiquiri in my hand like Mr. Rourke on Fantasy Island ("Smiles everyone. Smiles") but ended up never wearing it a single time when I was in the service and got too fat to wear it after I got out of the service. What an utter waste of money.
 
Is it safe safe to say almost everybody (including women) have worn/have a white button down/collar oxford shirt?
 
Maister said:
I purchased a tailor-made completely white three piece suit, including a pair of white loafers, when I was in Okinawa. I guess I was picturing myself wearing it while holding a daiquiri in my hand like Mr. Rourke on Fantasy Island ("Smiles everyone. Smiles") but ended up never wearing it a single time when I was in the service and got too fat to wear it after I got out of the service. What an utter waste of money.
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One of my younger cousins (Army paratrooper) purchased a couple of tailor-made suits while stationed in South Korea - the best description I heard of them was his brother (USMC) referring to them as "pimp-tastic".
 
JNA said:
Is it safe safe to say almost everybody (including women) have worn/have a white button down/collar oxford shirt?
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I'm wearing an oxford cloth button down (OCBD) today! Though mine today is a blue/white stripe one with the Grateful Dead Steal Your Face skull embroidered on it.

Whether I'm WFH or in the office or just lounging around, I wear an OCBD probably 5 days a week. Blue/white and pink/white stripes OCBD shirts are my favorites but solid white or blue or other stripe combos are great as well.
 
Maister said:
I purchased a tailor-made completely white three piece suit, including a pair of white loafers, when I was in Okinawa. I guess I was picturing myself wearing it while holding a daiquiri in my hand like Mr. Rourke on Fantasy Island ("Smiles everyone. Smiles") but ended up never wearing it a single time when I was in the service and got too fat to wear it after I got out of the service. What an utter waste of money.
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Bubba said:
One of my younger cousins (Army paratrooper) purchased a couple of tailor-made suits while stationed in South Korea - the best description I heard of them was his brother (USMC) referring to them as "pimp-tastic".
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I purchased a set of custom monogrammed silk sheets and a very heavy mink blanket emblazoned with the EGA and something about the "far east tour" from the papasan taking orders in my Camp Kinser barracks parking lot in Okinawa. I recall the sheets being super hot and basically horrible and I think I tossed them when I was moving back to the states. The blanket we've still got and get quite a bit of use out of it. Most of the year it lives on the couch in our den but on really cold nights our kids fight over who gets to drag it across the house to their room.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I'm wearing an oxford cloth button down (OCBD) today! Though mine today is a blue/white stripe one with the Grateful Dead Steal Your Face skull embroidered on it.

Whether I'm WFH or in the office or just lounging around, I wear an OCBD probably 5 days a week. Blue/white and pink/white stripes OCBD shirts are my favorites but solid white or blue or other stripe combos are great as well.
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The last time I wore a fully button down shirt was at a wedding a couple of months ago. I very, very rarely dress up anymore.
 

The play acting in this video cracks me up, especially since Billy Davis, Jr., and Marylin McCoo were married in 1969 shortly after this was filmed, and they're still married 55 years later. :heart:
 
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