I fully concur with shoe criticism. Contrary to the author’s adjudication, Welch’s shoes were… not the best of the lot. But you know what, at least Welch wears a tie!
Even finance and white shoe law types forgo the tie nowadays. I recently met my (tieless) division chief and he lightly chastised me for wearing one!
Ties are wonderful garments and a suit (which Welch consistently wears for public events) appears incomplete without one. I’m not a tie-nazi (or any other kind), and I understand that the tieless look can be pulled off well and is the norm. Nonetheless, I genuinely appreciate that Welch is one of the few to sustain this dying tradition.
Also, ties can be super fun! They don’t have to all be silk/polyester blend with traditional patterns. I’m a big fan of knit ties which have a more casual air to them and add a nice variety of textures to a look.
“A necktie is not an obligation, it’s an opportunity.”
“A man in a good suit and tie looks chic. A man in a good suit without a tie looks more chic. A man who used the word ‘chic’ had better be kidding around.”
Those are just off the top of my head, from Esquire’s Things A Man Should Know About Style, published in 1999, which, along with the work of the late, great Glenn O’Brien — Details’ and later GQ’s Style Guy — served as both reference and validation during my sartorially formative years.
Another from ETAMSKAS, as exhibited by A to the G, that has stayed with me (really, it’s all stayed with me):
Knit ties of quality can look good! Same goes for other ties with texture, like a wool Donegal or herringbone. I want to know if The Scotsman rocks tartan ties, which can be tricky to pull off.
I do rock BOTH donegal and herringbone (though obviously the herringbone ties aren’t knit). I don’t rock tartan, yet. Will give it a go when I find a suitable (lol) one.
My current favorite tie is a simple, inexpensive, 2-inch wide black knit tie from the Tie Bar, which I like to wear with my J. Crew navy blue suit, and a crisp white shirt. (A white pocket square, and black shoes/belt/watch band/frames should go without saying.) The ensemble never fails to generate compliments, often from strangers, which I don’t court but which always lift my spirits.
In the words of Andy Warhol, a good plain look is my favorite look.
The Tie Bar is great! They’re good for trying out styles before (or instead of) investing in the pricier ties. Also, don’t sleep on their colabs! I got a plum Vitale Barberis from them for like $20. It’s excellent quality and the only tie that I still wear that I don’t make myself.
I forgot about that! The last time I encountered the movie was during college at a friend’s house, and they were watching it while listening to Pink Floyd.
Shame on me for completely forgetting Szeps! I blame his damned handsomeness. Who can picture him as anyone but himself?
My other runners-up for Wizard, though they aren’t scary but are good men who were ill-suited to and in some cases defenestrated from roles in the Emerald City of partisan press/politics were Strauss, Pesca, or Meijer.
I also considered Gillespie, who might be a little scary at first, but Nick seems comfortable being the man behind the curtain.
Fun Wonka fact: until his very recent retirement, the OG Charlie Bucket was a large animal veterinarian in my mother’s tiny NNY hometown. Congratulations to Peter for achieving the most wholesome post-acting lifestyle & career a former child star has ever had.
Moynihan's shoes: "I have this totally legit modeling agency you'd be perfect for".
Matt's shoes: "These were the latest fashion in 1990s Prague, and I've never washed them since."
Kmele's "shoes": even someone with his vocabulary would lack the words to describe these abominations. Definitely leaning towards "preposterous", not towards "remarkable".
Kind of just find Coleman’s Debate Me Bro tactics super lame. TFP should obviously just issue corrections to Coleman’s piece. A 30K word, three-part series on the piece already seems sufficient enough to me! Should Radley take Coleman out to dinner too!?
Hi! I couldn’t agree more about what you guys said about the media going after people w out due process. I started listening to podcasts in general in 2020 because I was so confused about what the media was becoming and why it was changing. TFC has been like therapy because they can vocalize my often confusing thoughts about the current state of affairs unlike any other.
Michigan native here. If you really want to get to the epicenter of all the political buzz around the primary, I highly recommend a beach on a lake up north 😎
WOW! Watch the Finkelstein clip if you have the time. Per Norman, Moynihan is nuts and Coleman Hughes is essentially "a coconut" justifying everything bad in Gaza-by saying Coleman's arguments are like (pre-Civil Rights era in US) white people saying black people in the US had it better than Africans. Strawman much, Finkelstein? Somehow Ben Shapiro gets dragged in and called dumb (Coleman also implied to be a dumb). I'm no Shapiro fan but even his most rabid enemy will acknowledge the guy is smart. Finkelstein does another cute rhetorical trick saying you can't reject the "Gaza is a concentration camp" argument by pointing out there's a tremendous difference of suffering between a Nazi concentration camps and living on a Mediterranean beachfront where you can buy what you want (if Hamas let you have a job), vote for who you wanted (if Hamas let you vote), say what you want (if Hamas didn't kill you for disagreeing). Why acknowledging a hierarchy of suffering is bad-other than it invalidates Finkelstein's arguments-was never explained. He also started talking about concentration camps, then shifted to talking about the Jewish ghettos in Poland during WWII. Those were AWFUL-but not the same as concentration camps (Normie'd have a much stronger argument if he said Gaza was like those ghettos-still weak, but stronger-He likely doesn't want to do that, because "ghetto" lacks the rhetorical power of "concentration camp.") ALL the suffering in Gaza is placed at the feet of Israel, not at Hamas, which is why it is an Israeli concentration camp. "Gaza isn't like Ecuador, therefore, Gaza is a concentration camp." In Norman's world, Hamas has no agency for conditions in Gaza and the theft of aid money, corruption, intimidation, and murder choking the economic development there have no role in why Gaza and Ecuador are different. The fiends who launched a war with a murder and kidnap spree aren't mentioned by Normie. He'll dredge up every obscure quote from an Israeli supporting his side, but he won't acknowledge atrocity gleefully recorded and put online by the same people who decided NOT to build bomb shelters for Palestinian civilians before launching a war against Israel. Perhaps his heart is in the right place, but the Finkelstein seems despicable in his tactics, not least because he couches what he's doing under the mantle of merely being the elderly learned scholar sadly reporting unpleasant truths. Finkelstein's blather is a non-stop litany of ad hominem, appeal to authority, strawman, etc.
I listened to it at 1.5 speed. He's an impossible self-absorbed self-righteous loves-to-hear-his-own-voice imbecile. Sorry but ad hominems is all I got for Finkelberry. I don't think his heart is in the right place. Maybe at some point in time he did but now he's stuck just reciting quotes from books and incompetently too, where he chooses them out of context and omits parts where it doesn't serve his narrative. He's dishonorable and dishonest. He's not a scholar - he produces no actual scholarship. He's the Ibram X of Jew hating except that he is a self hating Jew. I hope he gets eviscerated by Benny Morris and Destiny on the Lex Fridman debate but I doubt he's capable of a debate in good faith.
Although he's a self hating Jew (he's projecting his psychopathology onto Coleman Hughes, now that I think of it), he's not QUITE as bad as Kendi. Normie will at least talk to people he doesn't agree with-Kendi's ego and arguments are too fragile to sustain that. Of course, "slightly better than Kendi" is about the most "damned with faint praise" thing one could say about any alleged intellectual. For both "X" and Normie, lazy, bad-faith bullshit seem their stock in trade.
Matt! You are such a cool dad and thanks for taking the criticism in jest but also purchasing a new pair. *applause*
The other two, we'll deal with at another time.
We all love you so very much as you're the backbone of this pod. Grateful for all the work you put in! You're our Fifdom Dad!
Matt is our dad, Moynihan is the crazy uncle, and Kmele is the kissing cousin.
I fully concur with shoe criticism. Contrary to the author’s adjudication, Welch’s shoes were… not the best of the lot. But you know what, at least Welch wears a tie!
Even finance and white shoe law types forgo the tie nowadays. I recently met my (tieless) division chief and he lightly chastised me for wearing one!
Ties are wonderful garments and a suit (which Welch consistently wears for public events) appears incomplete without one. I’m not a tie-nazi (or any other kind), and I understand that the tieless look can be pulled off well and is the norm. Nonetheless, I genuinely appreciate that Welch is one of the few to sustain this dying tradition.
Also, ties can be super fun! They don’t have to all be silk/polyester blend with traditional patterns. I’m a big fan of knit ties which have a more casual air to them and add a nice variety of textures to a look.
“A necktie is not an obligation, it’s an opportunity.”
“A man in a good suit and tie looks chic. A man in a good suit without a tie looks more chic. A man who used the word ‘chic’ had better be kidding around.”
Those are just off the top of my head, from Esquire’s Things A Man Should Know About Style, published in 1999, which, along with the work of the late, great Glenn O’Brien — Details’ and later GQ’s Style Guy — served as both reference and validation during my sartorially formative years.
Another from ETAMSKAS, as exhibited by A to the G, that has stayed with me (really, it’s all stayed with me):
“Women notice shoes.”
I was so with you until "knit ties". Might as well wear a crochet thong.
I shall not let this slander go uncontested! ⚔️
https://substack.com/@notatruescotsman/note/c-50832966?r=s0aic&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Sir, your matching trunk(s): https://www.etsy.com/listing/210772338/pattern-only-crochet-elephant-thong?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=crochet+thong&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&dd=1&organic_search_click=1
Knit ties of quality can look good! Same goes for other ties with texture, like a wool Donegal or herringbone. I want to know if The Scotsman rocks tartan ties, which can be tricky to pull off.
I do rock BOTH donegal and herringbone (though obviously the herringbone ties aren’t knit). I don’t rock tartan, yet. Will give it a go when I find a suitable (lol) one.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a507/esq0999-sept-things/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/935454.Esquire_s_Things_a_Man_Should_Know_About_Style
https://www.gq.com/story/glenn-obrien-style-greatest-hits
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2170440.The_Style_Guy
You’re cool. You know that? You’re cool and I like you.
Likewise, sir.
My current favorite tie is a simple, inexpensive, 2-inch wide black knit tie from the Tie Bar, which I like to wear with my J. Crew navy blue suit, and a crisp white shirt. (A white pocket square, and black shoes/belt/watch band/frames should go without saying.) The ensemble never fails to generate compliments, often from strangers, which I don’t court but which always lift my spirits.
In the words of Andy Warhol, a good plain look is my favorite look.
The Tie Bar is great! They’re good for trying out styles before (or instead of) investing in the pricier ties. Also, don’t sleep on their colabs! I got a plum Vitale Barberis from them for like $20. It’s excellent quality and the only tie that I still wear that I don’t make myself.
Hope for the future...
How a 3rd grader wearing suits to school led to a 'Dapper Day' movement in Maine: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/02/06/dapper-day-elementary-school-maine-third-graders/72425022007/
Maine, of all places! Then again, I was this kid when I was growing up in New Hampshire.
Am I the only one who sees something of the Wizard Of Oz in that first picture with Megyn?
We know Kmele can’t be the cowardly lion as he has assured us that he could best Joe Rogan.
The Lion relied on mock courage until actually tested in battle.
I forgot about that! The last time I encountered the movie was during college at a friend’s house, and they were watching it while listening to Pink Floyd.
I don’t think it happened in the movie but in the book, the Wizard gave the Lion *liquid* courage. Fitting.
“Put ‘em up! Put ‘em uuuup!”
Not sure who's who but I think it's self-evident what they all want/need!!!
Ha! I totally see it now. You gotta give us who is who now.
Me: Tin Man (taller, stiff)
Moyn: Scarecrow (not tall, won't STFU)
Kmele: Snoop Lion
Interesting; I was seeing Kmele in a gingham dress!!
Rats! I didn’t see that you beat me to it.
Remember, it turned out they were all brave (and called bullshit). So, left to right: Moynihan, Scarecrow; Matt, Tin Man; Megyn, Dorothy; Kmele, Lion.
Not pictured: Nancy Rommelmann, the Good Witch of the Northwest; Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Wicked Witch of the Left; Ben Dreyfuss, the Wizard.
Or…
Eli Lake, the Wizard; Ben Dreyfuss, an anthropomorphic Toto?
This is strong work, aside from the Wizard (and the Josh Szeps erasure). Who in Fifdom is a very good man but a very bad (if initially scary) wizard?
Bari Weiss, who’s pulling the strings of the space lasers and the Israeli government and who knows what else.
Nick Gillespie
Yeah, the more I think about it, Gillespie as a slightly sardonic Wizard.
Not in Fifdom, but Rufo seems to fancy himself as a wizard behind the curtain.
Shame on me for completely forgetting Szeps! I blame his damned handsomeness. Who can picture him as anyone but himself?
My other runners-up for Wizard, though they aren’t scary but are good men who were ill-suited to and in some cases defenestrated from roles in the Emerald City of partisan press/politics were Strauss, Pesca, or Meijer.
I also considered Gillespie, who might be a little scary at first, but Nick seems comfortable being the man behind the curtain.
Who represents the Lollypop guild and who are NHJ’s flying monkeys?
Who is who?
Needs Toto
Fun Wonka fact: until his very recent retirement, the OG Charlie Bucket was a large animal veterinarian in my mother’s tiny NNY hometown. Congratulations to Peter for achieving the most wholesome post-acting lifestyle & career a former child star has ever had.
Forget the shoes. Since 2020 and the rise of Zoom, we should be grateful they were wearing pants.
Grateful?
Two things for Kmele: 1. Them shoes gotta go. 2. Get your chest to the deck on those push-ups. (OK, #1 is just my non-drip-having opinion.)
Moynihan's shoes: "I have this totally legit modeling agency you'd be perfect for".
Matt's shoes: "These were the latest fashion in 1990s Prague, and I've never washed them since."
Kmele's "shoes": even someone with his vocabulary would lack the words to describe these abominations. Definitely leaning towards "preposterous", not towards "remarkable".
Yeezy’s are an excellent illustration of the difference between “fashion” and “style”.
They’re certainly fashionable…
JFC just because “RFKJ” can unleash a firehose of stats means fuck all.
Kind of just find Coleman’s Debate Me Bro tactics super lame. TFP should obviously just issue corrections to Coleman’s piece. A 30K word, three-part series on the piece already seems sufficient enough to me! Should Radley take Coleman out to dinner too!?
Kmele’s shoes might be “drip” currently, but years from now they will be filed under “What were they thinking?!” in fashion retrospectives.
Hi! I couldn’t agree more about what you guys said about the media going after people w out due process. I started listening to podcasts in general in 2020 because I was so confused about what the media was becoming and why it was changing. TFC has been like therapy because they can vocalize my often confusing thoughts about the current state of affairs unlike any other.
Michigan native here. If you really want to get to the epicenter of all the political buzz around the primary, I highly recommend a beach on a lake up north 😎
WOW! Watch the Finkelstein clip if you have the time. Per Norman, Moynihan is nuts and Coleman Hughes is essentially "a coconut" justifying everything bad in Gaza-by saying Coleman's arguments are like (pre-Civil Rights era in US) white people saying black people in the US had it better than Africans. Strawman much, Finkelstein? Somehow Ben Shapiro gets dragged in and called dumb (Coleman also implied to be a dumb). I'm no Shapiro fan but even his most rabid enemy will acknowledge the guy is smart. Finkelstein does another cute rhetorical trick saying you can't reject the "Gaza is a concentration camp" argument by pointing out there's a tremendous difference of suffering between a Nazi concentration camps and living on a Mediterranean beachfront where you can buy what you want (if Hamas let you have a job), vote for who you wanted (if Hamas let you vote), say what you want (if Hamas didn't kill you for disagreeing). Why acknowledging a hierarchy of suffering is bad-other than it invalidates Finkelstein's arguments-was never explained. He also started talking about concentration camps, then shifted to talking about the Jewish ghettos in Poland during WWII. Those were AWFUL-but not the same as concentration camps (Normie'd have a much stronger argument if he said Gaza was like those ghettos-still weak, but stronger-He likely doesn't want to do that, because "ghetto" lacks the rhetorical power of "concentration camp.") ALL the suffering in Gaza is placed at the feet of Israel, not at Hamas, which is why it is an Israeli concentration camp. "Gaza isn't like Ecuador, therefore, Gaza is a concentration camp." In Norman's world, Hamas has no agency for conditions in Gaza and the theft of aid money, corruption, intimidation, and murder choking the economic development there have no role in why Gaza and Ecuador are different. The fiends who launched a war with a murder and kidnap spree aren't mentioned by Normie. He'll dredge up every obscure quote from an Israeli supporting his side, but he won't acknowledge atrocity gleefully recorded and put online by the same people who decided NOT to build bomb shelters for Palestinian civilians before launching a war against Israel. Perhaps his heart is in the right place, but the Finkelstein seems despicable in his tactics, not least because he couches what he's doing under the mantle of merely being the elderly learned scholar sadly reporting unpleasant truths. Finkelstein's blather is a non-stop litany of ad hominem, appeal to authority, strawman, etc.
I listened to it at 1.5 speed. He's an impossible self-absorbed self-righteous loves-to-hear-his-own-voice imbecile. Sorry but ad hominems is all I got for Finkelberry. I don't think his heart is in the right place. Maybe at some point in time he did but now he's stuck just reciting quotes from books and incompetently too, where he chooses them out of context and omits parts where it doesn't serve his narrative. He's dishonorable and dishonest. He's not a scholar - he produces no actual scholarship. He's the Ibram X of Jew hating except that he is a self hating Jew. I hope he gets eviscerated by Benny Morris and Destiny on the Lex Fridman debate but I doubt he's capable of a debate in good faith.
Although he's a self hating Jew (he's projecting his psychopathology onto Coleman Hughes, now that I think of it), he's not QUITE as bad as Kendi. Normie will at least talk to people he doesn't agree with-Kendi's ego and arguments are too fragile to sustain that. Of course, "slightly better than Kendi" is about the most "damned with faint praise" thing one could say about any alleged intellectual. For both "X" and Normie, lazy, bad-faith bullshit seem their stock in trade.
If Radley Balko could get his blood sugar under control I'd bet he'd be less of disgruntled hog. No disrespect.
You misspelled "Michael Moynihan".
Again, no disrespect.
Coco, those shoes are not drip.
I think she meant the whole package.
Shoes matter
Fascinating how language changes. It’s good to have drip, but not to be a drip.
Just finished the most recent episode and did my “I only listen to Megyn Kelly when the fifth is on.”
same