Guest Blogger: A. Jones I remember the yellow and black canister like it was yesterday. A pungent odor of rotten eggs hung in the air as my father mixed the shaving powder with cold water in a shallow powder blue bowl. I’d noticed his morning ritual in passing, but this was the first time I studied his actions, knowing that my turn was coming. He walked me through preparing the mixture, application, and removal. I was intrigued by the slow and deliberate way he progressed through this ritual. He talked about learning to use a safety razor, shaving cream, and brush from his Dad. I suspect that the new routine he was teaching me was adopted as his way of...
From Route 1 on the East Coast to the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) on the West Coast and everything in-between, it’s time to hit the road and enjoy the long days of summer.
If you want to know about a man, look at his shoes (and his watch, but we already talked about that). A couple of things to note are the type of shoes a man is wearing, and the condition of the shoes. The devil is in the details, and the shoes tell a story and offer information, not all of it good. It’s important to emphasize that I’m not concerned with the “cost” of one’s shoes, necessarily. I’m more impressed by a man in well-tended Florsheims than a man in neglected Ferragamos. It’s about the presentation. Whether in Aldens or Jack Erwins, a man with conditioned and polished uppers and well-tended heels tells us that the wearer has self-respect, that...
Take it from this not-so-recent graduate—these can be the best years of your life. Or the worst I have no regrets about my college years, at least none that I remember. As much as times may change—no internet, e-mail, or cell phones when I went to school, and much of our music was on cassettesone thing does not: College is a unique time in your life. In many ways it resembles something like the Camelot legend, a fair time that cannot last, or maybe even Band of Brothers, a very intense and insane period spent in close quarters with good people smelling bad… and then it’s over. Point being, and you’ll hear this often from aging farts, enjoy it while...
The patois of bourbon has developed over centuries. During that time, the language mostly stayed within the confines of distilleries. But now a rekindled obsession for American whiskey is pushing the jargon into the mainstream. Chalk some of it up to a more sophisticated market, and the rest to promotion. Bourbon Visiting bourbon country makes one thing inherently clear: very little separates one distillery from another. It’s a game of technicalities. Every bourbon distiller is in the business of aging corn-based whiskey in barrels to put into bottles, but distinguishing their product amid a sea of tempting amber liquids is a different art form entirely. Understanding a few core terms can help any curious whiskey fan understand what they’re buying,...
