Serendipity and Mike Tyson

When I started this blog over a year ago, my plan was to strive, to seek, and to find a prep sensibility in the Pacific Northwest region of the USA. Well, in the wise words of boxer Mike Tyson:

“Everybody's got plans...until they get hit.”

Strived and sought I did; finding a true prep sensibility, I did not... at least not yet. But I will keep with my plan, even after being hit with "ubiquitous zip-up hoodies" and bitten on the ear by those who wear hats in nice restaurants.  I will not yield because I know that there are at least 15 of you out there who believe we can do better.  (See last post.)

Mike Tyson

So with the same serendipity I found the above picture of Mike gently holding this little French Bulldog, I also hope to find some true preps in Pugetropolis.  POW, Sucka!!

A Different [Preppy] Drummer

In Mark Twain's 1897 travelogue, "Following the Equator", he begins with his maxim, "Be good and you will be lonesome."  Now, I'm no English professor (yet), but I take that to mean that if you are well-behaved and tend to conform with the mainstream, you might not be too popular.  In fact, you might be viewed as a one dimensional bore. And that to do things a little differently - to PAVE the road less travelled - you stand a chance to live a better life - rich with a multitude of friends and experiences.

I couldn't agree more.

One thing I've attempted to do in The Cascadian Prep "blog" (really "experiment") this past year is to approach things a little differently than the majority of my Cascadian cousins; to challenge the norm, and, at times, to admonish the mainstream. I have done this all with tongue planted firmly in cheek. And I have done this, hopefully, with a "prep twist." I love "prep" because it's what I grew up with and I'm proud of my upbringing. So naturally, it's the sensibility I've sought in the lovely Pacific Northwest for the past 12 months.  Well, I have been disappointed with what I've found... the hipsters who wear fancy-stitched jeans, untucked dress shirts and black (always black) Euro-trash shoes have really dug in here, as have the hoodie & backward-hat wearing, skater shoes set. "Northwest Prep"... Cascadian Prep may just be for blogs.

I think it boils down to pride - pride in oneself and pride in where one was born and raised. "Original  Prep" (New England) and "Southern Prep" are as distinct and full of pride (not vanity) as their regional dialects and accents. Both of these parts of the country have rich history and deserve to be proud of their traditions. Cascadia, on the other hand, is a region with unparalleled natural beauty, but no distinct regional dialect, accent, traditions or hometown pride... NONE.

So I think to myself, we must be patient; we are the new kids on the block, after all. These things take time; give it another hundred years. But until then, don't be "good". Be a little uncommon... be a little unexpected... be a Cascadian prep!

You Are A Tourist [in your own town] - DCFC

The Double Life

How very simple life would be
If only there were two of me
A Restless Me to drift and roam
A Quiet Me to stay at home.
A Searching One to find his fill
Of varied skies and newfound thrill
While sane and homely things are done
By the domestic Other One.

And that's just where the trouble lies;
There is a Restless Me that cries
For chancy risks and changing scene,
For arctic blue and tropic green,
For deserts with their mystic spell,
For lusty fun and raising Hell

But shackled to that Restless Me
My Other Self rebelliously
Resists the frantic urge to move.
It seeks the old familiar groove
That habits make. It finds content
With hearth and home - dear prisonment,
With candlelight and well-loved books
And treasured loot in dusty nooks,

With puttering and garden things
And dreaming while a cricket sings
And all the while the Restless One
Insists on more exciting fun,
It wants to go with every tide,

No matter where . . . just for the ride.
Like yowling cats the two selves brawl
Until I have no peace at all.

One eye turns to the forward track,
The other eye looks sadly back.
I'm getting wall-eyed from the strain,
(It's tough to have an idle brain)
But One says "Stay", and One says "Go"
And One says "Yes" and One says "No"
And One Self wants a home and a wife
And One Self craves the drifter's life.

The Restless Fellow always wins
I wish my folks had made me twins.

by Don Blanding

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

"Take the Adventure, heed the call, now ere the irrevocable moment passes! Tis but a banging of the door behind you, a blithesome step forward, and you are out of the old life and into the new! Then someday, some day long hence, jog home... when the cup has been drained and the play has been played, and sit down by your quiet river with a store of goodly memories for company."   -  Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

The cabin (rented for "business") on Coeur d'Alene River

The view from the cabin

In the summertime, CdA is popular for golfing, fishing, and general boondoggling. Last week, this Cascadian prep did just that - golfed for pike and fished for golf balls. I've never been very good at either. Now boondoggling - there's something in which I have great skill.

A Family's Dog

Today our beloved 12-year old Black Lab left for the happy hunting grounds, or more appropriately, "that beach in the sky."  Thank you for the happiness you brought to our family. You will be missed!

"Miga"

  

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." - Dr. Seuss



Feria de San Fermín (in Cascadia)

In honor of the annual event in Pamplona, I whipped up a nice Spanish paella last night. As usual, I imbibed throughout the whole process and forgot the peas! Nonetheless, it turned out to be a fantastic dish - the color, aroma, and taste of saffron is one of my favorites.  So, too, is Rosé...

Last Night's Paella

No, we didn't have the traditional Albarino or a Rioja Blanco to compliment the dish, so we made due with this nice French (Rhône) Rosé.  We don't get too uptight about that kind of stuff - mixing countries of origin and cultures at the same time. We are American, after all, and, as such, are used to bastardizations borrowing the best from what any particular culture has to offer. (If mixed breed dogs are better, why can't the same theory be applied to food?)

The accompanying wine.

  

I say don't limit yourself! Leave all that pretentious BS at the door.  You just might get gored if you don't.

"This wine is too good for toast-drinking, my dear. You don't want to mix emotions up with a wine like that. You lose the taste."

- Chapter 7, The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

Seersucker in Seattle - GTH Pants?

For God's sake, when does it end? It broke 70° F here yesterday, so in a rapturous moment of summertime cheer, I busted out my Jos. Bank blue seersucker pants. I snuck these new babies into my closet, right under the nose of the Mrs. I found that when I procure new garb, if I can sneak the package off the front porch, get it out of the plastic bag and into my closet undetected, I'm home free. Well, not this time.

"When did you get those?" she asks wryly.
"Oh, I've had them a while. They've just been in the back of the closet." I reply.

"First with those red pants, now with the stripes? Can you say 'mid-life crisis?'"
"No!  I can't say 'mid-life crisis' and I won't, I won't, I won't."

An LA stomach with an Oakland badonkadonk

The rumpled writer in repose

I have to admit, I do, at times, resent living in a region where seersucker pants and jackets are as uncommon as the Oregon Spotted Owl, but come on, why should the South and Eastern Seaboard have all the fun?  And as far as the West Coast goes, California probably encourages seersucker to be worn to their famous garden and poolside parties. So WTF Pugetropolis?

That's OK, I'm wearing them anyway, but I probably will wait until the temperature hits the upper 70's/low 80's, when Cascadians are whining about how oppressively hot it is.  I will wear them when my fellow citizens are so tired and rundown from the heat that they can't muster a smirk or laugh. And if they do manage a chiding laugh, I will respond with a laugh and remember what that favorite of all seersucker-wearing icons - Mark Twain - said. 

 Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand. - Mark Twain

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. - Mark Twain 

Perspective

I don't care for baseball, but I do like going to weekday afternoon baseball games when the sun is shining.  Today was one of those days.   Every once in a while you just need to blow off work and hang out with friends. Hey, the French do it!  And if those masters of the 35-hour work week can take great pride in ditching out of work, why can't we? Here's to you!  Viva le France!  But here's also to that great American pastime for giving us a reason.

The beergarden - more about the sun & beer than the game!

Bless her heart

Like a vacation, "screwing off" lets you reconnect with who you really are.  It makes all the other crap make sense  tolerable.  It gives you perspective. "You are only what you are when no one is looking."

P-E-R-S-P-E-C-T-I-V-E

To my knowledge (and unlike Ferris) we weren't spotted in the crowd on ESPN highlights.  But if we were, so be it!  I'm the boss anyway.

The home team won... a walk-off win against the Halos. The other team lost the pop fly in the sun... in Seattle, if you can believe it.  Not a bad Cascadian afternoon.

Ernest Hemingway

BEST. AUTHOR. EVER

Ernest Hemingway was a man - a real American man. He liked his drinks cold, his women hot, and his guns loaded. He was "Less is More" before "Less is More" was cool; scholars called his writing style "The Iceberg Principle" - there is more than meets the eye, calling the reader to use his or her (but mainly his) imagination. He had a style that resonated throughout the 20th Century and beyond.  In fact, his writing style could translate easily into the Twitter tweets of today.

inside La Bodeguita del Medio - La Habana, Cuba   2010

"Papa" may not be "preppy," per se, but his style is timeless and is much emulated by the sartorially-minded, traditionally-inclined, and preps in Pugetropolis. So, what's all of this have to do with searching for a prep sensibility in the USA's Pacific Northwest? Well, if one were playing "6 Degrees of Pugetropolis Prep," one could posit the following: A) Hemingway's final resting place is Ketchum, Idaho B) Ketchum is in the vicinity of Sun Valley C) Sun Valley is popular amongst preps, bon vivants, trads, etc. D) Idaho is in the Northwest E) Pugetropolis is in the Northwest... you see where I'm going with this!

Prep Props

The author owes a debt of gratitude to the exceptional blogs, "The Daily Prep" (http://thedailyprep.blogspot.com/) and "The Trad" (http://thetrad.blogspot.com/), without which, he would yet to be re-awakened, re-inspired, and ready to re-join the ranks of his prep heritage. And so the prodigal son returns.

Where has the author been lo these many years (approximately 17 years, marked by a few moments of prep/trad lucidity)? Like so many people - trying to make his way in the world. 

New jobs, new relationships, new locations cause one, at times, to want to fit in with the environment, to hold the Present and the Future in higher regard than the Past.  Each has its place; each is always making you who you are. The Past is Prologue. 

"You are only what you are when no one is looking." Robert C. Edwards