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

Nearly all of the cool stuff I had before I was 25 belonged to my father or my elder brother who turned his own 25 in ’72 when I was just 15, which also happens to be the same year that I  stole  his Schott Perfecto and raided his closet for some well-worn Levi’s 501s.  My father had a trunk of khakis and shirts from the War and his later Madman period when I was born.  I figured I could make a clean getaway before either of them noticed I'd raided the ark of the covenant.  That Schott jacket was later stolen from me in a bar.  Karma.  What goes ‘round comes ‘round.  Those wide chinos that were Pop’s I wore into college in ’75: he never commented on the pilferage but I am sure he noticed.   So speaking of which, finally.  I noticed this past year mainstream makers like JCrew and Todd Snyder have finally brought  sorta’ almost not really yet   straight  denim and chinos into their current ...

When I was a student living in India I once had a very personal close encounter with a king cobra, an actual  Ophiophagus Hannah .  It was, I kid you not, under my sink.  Lemme tell ya’, this was nothing like knocking on the glass at the San Diego Zoo trying to get the snake’s attention.  It obviously looked like a cobra to me and it was certainly big enough and scary enough to warrant the appellation “king.” But I later found out that the King Cobra is monotypic, it is the only one of its species and so not  really  a cobra but  something else .  What appeared to me as a snake, a cobra  under my sink right before my eyes  was something  more ,  even other .    Don’t let appearances fool ya’.  Enter the Ship John Wills jacket.   I got my Ship John Wills when they announced increased production and availability.  It took about a year before it arrived.   Mine’...