New 'Essays in Idleness' & Other Reviews from The Hard Flex Cafe

  22 November 2022   It wasn’t long after lunch when the teacher from across the hall burst into our classroom.  She was sobbing uncontrollably.   She rushed to her colleague, my own 1 st  Grade teacher, Mrs Dawson who immediately came to her side.  I watched her face turn ashen, aghast. Their horror faces was unmistakable, something a six-year old never forgets.   Mrs Dawson turned to the class and said, “President Kennedy has been shot.”  I knew who the President was.  I knew what shot meant from watching westerns and war movies on TV.  But I did not understand what  this  meant.  She instructed us to sit quietly and within a few minutes we were gathering our things, dismissed early from school.   I remember the walk home---we nearly all walked to school and it was at least 15 minutes door to door.  The weather was warm for November and most of my friends took our “long route.” But I said that I was going straight home.  We often dawdled and my pals were less concerned.  Some how I f

  Tuesday, November 1, 2022   When it comes to learning the ins and outs of the boots, jeans, jackets, and the rest that we love, m akers and retailers are undoubtedly our most important resources .  But in the end all of this stuff is personal.  How it works for  you  will count most.  What someone else thinks about something you dig really can help you figure it out for yourself.   For me, clothes tell stories, conjure memories, make associations.  Clothes are a vital part of a personal mythology and, after all, myths are the lies we tell to find our deeper truths.  I could wax on (wax off) more about how I became so obsessed with all of these made in Japan brands but that’s not today.   Today is about one pair of boots that are more like shoes, maybe more like sneakers or  even something else .  The Clinch Mast Trainer is a “trainer” though I’m still not sure what we are training for.  Certainly they aren’t only “trainers” in the Brit sense of sneaker.  Just  what  are they?  In sho