Month: September 2023

On cuff links, a sartorial detail.

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If you are a keen reader of this blog, you might remember that I mentioned before that my dad was an international banking executive. This added to the fact that his brother-in-law (my uncle) was a top tailor (to the king and other celebrities) means that my dad was always impeccably dressed. Top it all off with the fact that we lived in London in the early to mid-eighties where he had access to Jermyn St. Shirts, and you get the full picture.

As would be expected, I inherited his shirts as soon as they were slightly worn, which was awesome! But there was one main issue with these shirts: they had French cuffs that required cuff links…

So, over the years I have accumulated a little collection of cuff links, mostly given to me, some purchased, some exchanged with other cuff link wearers, some lost, some broken.

Hard core traditionalists insist on wearing “chain” cuff links where a small chain holds together the two buttons. The problem with these is that they take much longer to put on since there is no place to leverage power to push the button through the buttonhole. Stiff cuff links with a swinging barrette are easy to slip on. A third variety are silk knots, these come in many colors and combinations and are fairly easy to put on, although they are frowned upon by serious sartorialists, I occasionally wear them with no shame!

An added plus of interesting cuff links is that they are automatic conversation starters, you just need to pay attention to the wearer of cuff links to see if there is a story there. You guessed it, many of mine do have stories, from just showcasing my passions: coffee, Real Madrid, the Camino, etc., to personal stories of who gave them to me, etc.

Can you guess my favorite cuff links in the picture? Hint: My girlfriend gave them to me so I would not lose my true North…

Do you wear cuff links? What is your story? Share in the comments below!!

Ask not what your country can do for you… Jury Duty

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The first thing the judge asked was to raise our hand if we were happy to be there -I was- but nobody raised their hand, so I didn’t either, I was not going to be the first one to be kicked out of jury duty.

My summons for jury duty came in the middle of the Summer, when I was in Spain, so I postponed it to Sept. 11th. Coincidence? We know there is no such thing.

I was surprised that I was on the first call for jurors, I was not expecting that. Another thing I was not expecting were the views from the 11th floor of the West Palm Beach Courthouse. Amazing!

The case in question was a criminal case involving stalking. Obviously neither the prosecution nor the defense wanted a hyper-educated, suit and bow tie wearing old professor on the jury panel. But I still had to wait all day and answer all sorts of questions before getting released in the afternoon with the other 20 people not chosen: the wife of a polo player from Wellington (Polo capital of the world, a neighborhood of Palm Beach), a Louis Vuitton sales advisor, and all other sorts of interesting and not so interesting jobs…

Happy to have done my duty as a citizen. Fortunately, I will not be considered again until next year.

The oldest house in Miami

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Confession time: Although I hate Miami traffic and expansive development, I must admit that I am discovering more and more redeeming bits about an otherwise unpleasant city. But first, a little history.

The Tequesta people lived at the mouth of the Msimiyamithiipi river for centuries. The only remains of the Tequesta village is now a dog park… welcome to Miami! The first Europeans to settle in Miami were Spanish Jesuits who set up a mission there in 1567 (although both Jesuits and natives later fled Miami to Cuba when the Brits started to make trouble). Then nothing much happened in the area until Julia Tuttle set up agricultural development in 1880. When Flagler’s railroad arrived in Miami in 1896, the population was a remarkably interesting 444 inhabitants (¿?). Then there was a boom with Collins and Brickell and Fisher building hotels and developing everything in sight, until a massive hurricane in 1926 destroyed pretty much everything, hitting the reset button for Miami, kicking of its Great Depression almost three years before the rest of the country hit it.

Only a few structures remain in Miami from before the hurricane; The Cape Florida Lighthouse from 1825, in Key Biscayne is the oldest building in Miami.

The oldest remaining house in Miami belonged to a yacht designer called Ralph Munroe. His home, called the Barnacle, is fortunately now a Florida State Park, and it is a bit of a jewel and an oasis in the middle of crazy Miami. The Barnacle is right in downtown Coconut Grove, the bohemian, Rive Gauche type of neighborhood of Miami.

The house where Munroe designed and built his beautiful sailing boats sits in a hammock which is a park with native plants and trees right on the water. Also, at that time you were better off travelling around Miami by boat than by land, so most properties were on the water.

The house is a lovely Victorian mini mansion well worth the visit. There is also Munroe’s boathouse down by the water, and a couple of the beautiful boats he designed are in the water!

You are welcome. Let me know your thoughts on this and other Miami jewels in the comments.

I ❤️ Land Rover

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Lebron or Jordan? Messi or Cristiano? Ferrari or Porsche? What you might consider the best this or the best that is hardly based on science, it is based on your specific circumstances. My favorite cars are Land Rover, not because they are necessarily the best, but because I was conditioned as a child to love them.

The story goes back to my uncle Antonio. Like his late brother, (my dad), he is a keen motoring enthusiast, and he loved Land Rover. At a point in his life, working for Esso (now Exxon) in Barcelona, he had a fleet of them at his disposal. In fact, my dad bought one of those for a pittance as my first car!

It was a six-cylinder, gasoline engine 88-inch chassis, topless model and I loved it! It was not particularly comfortable and definitely not fast, but boy was it fun!! Then one day my dad sold it.

A few years later, when I could afford to buy my own car, it was a Defender 90. I got 10 great years out of it, travelling and off roading all over Spain, until it was stolen from my front door in Madrid, never to be seen again.

In a bit of a rush, I bought a far more sophisticated Discovery in 1998, which is still serving me well to this day.

Unfortunately, Land Rover, like many other brands, is no longer what it used to be. It is now owned by an Indian industrial conglomerate Tata, and some private equity funds that only care about squeezing every last drop of profit for their shareholders, thus taking production from the hallowed Solihull factory to much cheaper India, for example. So please if you have a post 2008 Land Rover (or Range Rover) do not flex, I am not impressed.