By Julie Rath, on Fri Apr 4, 2014 at 8:30 AM ET Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh, excuse me, someone was talking to me about navy blazers, and I fell asleep.
The idea of navy blazers typically conjures memories of a first trip to Brooks Brothers for a rite of passage Sunday jacket, gold buttons and all. But not all navy blazers have to be a snoozefest. In fact, there are ways to take this conservative stalwart and give it a good shake-up. Read on for 5 tips on how to make a navy blazer your own:
1) Get it tailored so that it FITS you. I’ve you’re a current Rath & Co. client, or if you’ve been following me for some time, you know I’m a stickler for clothes that fit perfectly. So if you have a navy blazer that’s been hanging around your closet for a while, and the fit is within striking distance (the first thing to check is if it’s right across the shoulders), take it to a tailor you trust, and have him or her check the rest, including waist, arms and length, and make adjustments as needed. You’d be amazed at the 180 a jacket can take with a few nips and tucks.
2) Swap out those trad gold buttons for ones made of horn or gunmetal, like in the image above of a blazer I designed for a client. You’ll go from preppy to polished in no time.
3) Rather than standard navy, consider a blue with some kick to it, like midnight, cobalt or royal. Check out the same shot above of my client in his spanking new bright blue blazer. (His fiancée wasn’t complaining.)
 4) Instead of a solid, try a subtly patterned fabric, like this tone-on-tone windowpane (above left — you have to expand the image to see the pattern) I just picked out for a different client. A blue hounds-tooth or pin-dot (above center and right) would also work, as would blue tweed in cold weather. From 4 + feet away, these fabrics read as solid, but up close you can see the extra oomph.
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Julie Rath: Wake Up that Navy Blazer
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Apr 3, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET If a roulette ball had “free will” which number and color would it try to land on?
Makes you think, doesn’t it?
At least it does if you have an hour drive into work every morning and can dictate random thoughts into Facebook posts on your smartphone.
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Typical Monday morning blues…
Feeling Michael Mcdonald but looking Lyle Lovett.
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I know our month calendar is based on the Roman Justinian calendar but I sometimes wonder if our week calendar is based on Greek mythology and the story of Sisyphus.
Sisyphus is a mythological figure who was condemned for eternity to repeatedly roll a boulder uphill — experiencing a momentary sense of relief (the weekend)– and then watching it roll back down and having to start pushing uphill all over again (Monday).
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 What is up with this fickle weather?
When did weekend weather reports routinely become “sunny with a couple inches of snow on Monday?”
I can’t tell if Spring is really just around the corner or if we are just experiencing intermittent hot flashes.
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If a 3 year old needs to plead his or her case for a cupcake and isn’t having success, there is a 3 year old in San Jose, CA I recommend you hire to represent you.
And I am guessing he’s willing to work on a cupcake contingent fee basis.
By Josh Bowen, on Thu Apr 3, 2014 at 8:30 AM ET “You either prepare to succeed or prepare to fail…there is no in-between.”
You have great intentions. You want to eat better. You want fitness results. But you didn’t bring any food to work today. So you go out with the rest of the crew and eat Mexican.
Is this you?
Professor JB here! I am prepared to take you through a course of food preparation. But first lets digress on why you would prepare your food:
1. Selection- I find that clients that prepared their meals ahead of time select better foods. Clients that do not prepare meals, tend to select whatever is available. Selecting whatever is available is a great way of messing with your fitness results.
2. Cost Effective- Today I fixed 3lbs of chicken and a half pound of rice. This will last for 10-12 meals. The total cost $60 or $5-6 per meal. To eat out and get the same meal would cost $10-15. That is a savings of $5-10 per meal. In other words, prepare your meals.
3. Results- Everyone wants results but few are willing to do what it takes to get them. If you want results, prepare your meals. It is that simple.
Now let us get down to the “nitty gritty” on how to prepare your food.
1. Prepare ahead of time- Take a day or two and prepare your meals for the week. Plan what you are going to have (in accordance of your goals) each day and only cook what you need.
2. Keep it simple- Try your best to keep it simple. A great protein source, a steamed vegetable and a small amount of carbohydrates (depending on goal) is a great way to prepare your meals.
3. Variety- If you want variety for taste purposes, use different seasoning and sauces to switch it up. Keep the additives to a minimum but also it is important to have fun with your meals. Getting a cookbook and trying different recipes is a great idea as well.
4. Fun- Try you best to look at this as fun, rather than a chore. This process is to help you see fitness results and keep you on track and more efficient.
For you enjoyment, here are some of my lovely clients food prep pictures:
Yours in fitness,
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Apr 2, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET I will never personally explore outer space or the mysteries of the ocean depths.
But after becoming a “morning person” in middle age I have discovered an exciting new world that I never knew existed between about 530am- 8am each morning. It doesn’t involve identifying new stars or planets or observing a new underwater species or rare coral growth. Bu…t there are some real characters, fascinating behaviors, impressive routines and surprising activities that I never knew about that exist in this mysterious “early morning” world.
And you don’t need a spaceship or bathyscape to travel there. Just a functional alarm clock that doesn’t have a snooze button.
And astonaut helmets and swimming goggles are optional.
By Michael Steele, on Wed Apr 2, 2014 at 10:00 AM ET Awesome piece by Roger Simon in today’s Politico on recovering politician Michael Steele:
Steele, who is a resident fellow at the university’s Institute of Politics, manages to traverse the entire breadth of the Midway before the inevitable happens: A passing car comes to halt, and the driver lowers her passenger window and hails Steele as an old friend, even though they have never met.
While Steele was once the (first black) lieutenant governor of Maryland and the (first black) chairman of the Republican National Committee, today he is far better known than he was then. This is largely due to the airtime he gets as an MSNBC analyst and his appearances on “Real Time with Bill Maher” and “The Colbert Report.”
He is outgoing, bright, magnetic, recognized on streets and in airports and is the one thing he was not while he ran the Republican Party: popular.
“I am the most misunderstood man in politics,” Steele tells me.
Steele was elected to a two-year term as Republican Party chairman on Jan. 30, 2009. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Barack Obama had moved into the White House, and a lot of people were talking about a “post-racial” America. Nancy Pelosi was running the House, Harry Reid was running the Senate and it didn’t seem as if the Republican message was selling all that well.
So maybe it was time for a change.
Except Steele’s election took six ballots and, though Steele had conservative Republican credentials, the reaction of some of the party kingpins ranged from displeasure to dismay. And then there was the race thing. Maybe the country was not so post-racial after all.
“After I was elected chairman, there were some people who refused to shake my hand,” Steele says of some Republican bigwigs.
He was a different kind of chairman. He got involved in controversies that earned him the wrath of Sen. John McCain (not that hard a thing to do, actually) and made a series of statements that some found baffling.
He said the war in Afghanistan was a war “of Obama’s choosing” and that he was going to tell local Republican chairmen, “Don’t think this is a country club atmosphere where we sit around drinking wine and eating cheese and talking amongst ourselves. If you don’t want to drill down and build coalitions to minority communities, then you have to give that seat to someone who does.”
Some of his ideas were actually pretty good. He said he wanted an “off the hook” public relations offensive to reach out to “the young, Hispanic, black, a cross section” and apply party principles “to urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”
This earned him the wrath of Rush Limbaugh, which could be considered a badge of honor, but Steele was the chairman of the Republican Party, a party that didn’t actually think of itself as being that “off the hook.”
Click here to read the full piece.
By Lauren Mayer, on Wed Apr 2, 2014 at 8:30 AM ET like to joke that I have 3 boys, ages 17, 20 and 47. (One is my husband – cue rim shot.) Husband 2.0 came along when I was a single mother with really young kids, and he proceeded to endear himself to them by doing silly impressions (his Yoda and Scoobie-Doo sort of mesh together) and inventing a game he called ‘Dodgeball In The Dark,’ in which they raced around the backyard throwing whatever wasn’t nailed down. But he really bonded with the boys via male humor – first Simpsons, then Family Guy as they got (almost) old enough, with a healthy dose of “that’s what she said” jokes thrown in.
Many writers have weighed in on why women are less amused by this type of humor – in fact, Google “Why men love The Three Stooges and women don’t” and you’ll get over 2 million entries, with a wide range of explanations. I’m constantly trying to give my boys a bit of refinement and elegance, and moms are traditionally the ones who discourage rough-housing and bad language, but there is also something to be said in favor of letting our hair down a bit – especially since at my house it’s a losing fight anyhow.
I’ve learned to enjoy Family Guy (okay, it can be horribly offensive, but also really funny, and the song parodies are a riot), and I’ve been known to crack an off-color ‘that’s what she said’ on occasion. Plus this week, when I was at my wits’ end trying to figure out a topic for my song, Husband 2.0 suggested I do something juvenile with the rhyming name of Hobby Lobby – and this is the result. (Maybe we’re the reverse of the old saying about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, that he gave her class and she gave him sex appeal. . . I give him class and he gives me bawdy humor suggestions?)
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Apr 1, 2014 at 12:00 PM ET Finally!
My long-time trusty alarm clock broke several months ago–and I have relied on my wife, Rebecca, to wake me up every morning using her alarm clock.
Why?
Because for 4 months I have been unable to find an alarm clock for myself that is “idiot proof.”
In other words, that I can figure out how to use–like my old one dimensional alarm clock. It is a Sony from Walgreens and costs $14.99 and I am elated.
Every other alarm clock I have looked at seems to require an advanced degree in engineering to operate. (It’s not the one pictured but is as scaled down and limited to its original uses) When did clocks become easier to make than to use?
I am so relieved. Imagine…having a clock that I can set all by myself.
Most alarm clocks I am passing on, I am sure, have many wonderful new fangled features. Some project the time on the ceiling; some probably connect to NASA and can track satellites. But I just need an alarm to go off around 6am every morning and am willing to give up all the other cool clock “value adds.”
I just need a loud alarm buzzer and something that tells time–and I’m good.
Finally.
By Erica and Matt Chua, on Tue Apr 1, 2014 at 8:30 AM ET Palm trees, surfboards, sandy beaches and seafood are the images that come to mind when someone mentions Sri Lanka. The tiny island is known for it’s beaches, however their cultural sights are stunning, if expensive. The north of the country is definitely worth your time, maybe not all your money, but don’t let the ticket prices scare you away.While visiting Sigiriya, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa will all set you back a pretty penny, Dambulla is an easy and affordable day trip from Kandy.
If all these foreign names aren’t familiar, here’s a crash course: the ancient cities of Sri Lanka that lie north of hill country were formerly known as Rajarta, Land of the Kings. For 1500 years this was the heart of Sinhalese culture and today offers a glimpse into the past. In the last decade both Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa were unearthed by archaeologists, revealing an incredible irrigation system. The enigma of Sigirya has been studied offering both royal and military explanations for the huge rock structure jutting out of the desert as a result of an extinct volcano. Possibly the oldest of the ancient cities are the rock cut Buddhist temples at Dambulla, which are thought to date back to the 1st century BC.
With the mini-history lesson out of the way we can jump right into photos of the phenomenal Buddhist caves in Dambulla. There are five separate caves containing over 150 Buddha images. Most of the paintings in the temples date to the 19th century, however the just barely ten year old structure at the base of the caves is your welcome to this ancient worship sight. If a spiritual place can be kitschy the entrance to the Golden Temple is just that. Although the enormous golden Buddha perched on top of the building claims to be the largest Buddha in the world (later research found it wasn’t even the largest one in Sri Lanka).
Past the kitschy entrance, several flights of stairs and hoards of feral monkeys carry visitors to the first of the caves. Devaraja Viharaya, the Temple of the King of the Gods, features a massive reclining Buddha. At the Buddha’s feet is Ananda, the Buddha’s loyal disciple.
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Erica & Matt Chua: A Buddhist View of Sri Lanka
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