Das Boot [Podiatric Sartorialism part deux]

Das Boot is the contemporaneously world famous container which one fills with their beer of choice and tries to drink it in its entirety as a sort of drinking game.  Although its origin is subject to speculation, the below is directly from Wikipedia:

"Beer boots, or Bierstiefel, have over a century of history and culture behind them. It is commonly believed that a general somewhere promised his troops to drink beer from his boot if they were successful in battle. When the troops prevailed, the general had a glassmaker fashion a boot from glass to fulfill his promise without tasting his own feet and to avoid spoiling the beer in his leather boot. Since then, soldiers have enjoyed toasting to their victories with a beer boot. At gatherings in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, beer boots are often passed among the guests for a festive drinking challenge. Since the movie Beerfest appeared in 2006, beer boots have become increasingly popular in the United States. It is an old joke to hand the boot to a young novice drinker with the tip pointing away from his person, which will result in beer pouring over the drinker's face uncontrollably when air enters the tip; seasoned drinkers always point the tip towards their body until the glass is sufficiently drained. Beer boots are made of either manufactured pressed glass or mouth blown glasses by skilled artisans in form of a boot."


Aside from drinking shenanigans, boots are a staple of menswear and have been such a staple from time immemorial, well, far back enough to escape our modern memories.  Winter is the best time to sport a pair to complement your cold weather gear.  Several types exist that are available for every day use, a more business like attire, for snow, mud, trekking, and among sundry other activities.  This form of shoe wear can come not only with aesthetic, but also practical purpose for the surface on which it will travel.
They can range in height, size, material, and colors.  Below are some currently used styles that are quite stylish and in vogue for men which I recommend and wear as well on occasion:

Timberland Chukka 

Allen Edmonds Daltons

Clarks Desert Boots

Allen Edmonds Fifth Street

LL Bean Boots

Red Wing Boots

Podiatric Sartorialism

Sporting Christmas Socks

Socks are often overlooked and never really an area of much focus when it comes to an outfit's priorities for most.  I submit that instead of leaving socks to your fashion 'after thought,' they should be just as an essential part of your wardrobe as any other relevant piece.  A well placed pair of festive socks can often say that under all of that toned down outfit, there is a party waiting to happen.

A conservative outfit at a business meeting can sometimes just blend in with the rest of the automatons discussing figures on a PowerPoint slide.  However, once you cross your legs and the pants ride up a few centimeters revealing a colorful display of fashion sense, the observant onlooker will realize that there is more to you than meets the eye.  You're not just a regular Peterbilt truck, but you can shape your self into quite the  unique individual on a moment's notice (Transformers fans will understand this reference).

More emphasis should be place on what can only be rightfully labeled as the podiatric sport coat.  Some great places for socks can be J.Crew, Vivarati, Bonobos, and sundry others will appear after a quick Google search for fun socks.

Here are some of my own fun combinations to get you started:

Movie: 2012 Genre: Comedy

Soon enough every one and their mother will be proved wrong about a theory that has been heretofore misjudged and misunderstood.  This theory is that the world will end on 12.21.12 (21.12.12).  This is when the Mayan calendar ends, or so everyone believes.

However, a bit of further study into the matter quickly clears up this nebulous subject filled with money making schemes, sensationalism, among other conspiracies that are based on nothing but sheer conjecture.

December 21st is nothing but the last day of the Mayan long count calendar known as the thirteenth Baktun.  A Baktun being calculated as a period of 144,000 days.  At the end of each of these periods in the Mayan calendar, a transition occurs in humanity.  This 'last' transition is prophesied as a shift from the realm of complete materialism to one of cosmic awareness and spiritualism of human kind.

This event can be classified in today's vernacular as a regeneration or purification of the Earth.  This idea is analogous to our long modern earthly calendar that ends on the 31st day of the 12th month.  However, it does not mean that after that day is reached the sun will no longer rise.  Rest assured, just as our calendars are reset, so will we continue to spin on towards progress.  Calamities have always existed, disasters have and will continue to occur, but we remain, rebuild, and regenerate.

So, enough riding on this ridiculous farce, get off the train and think for yourself.

Why do we fall? So we can post again...

After watching the latest movie in the Dark Knight trilogy, yes I'm quite late to the party, I have come to an epiphany.  Aside from the awesomeness with which the movie carries its suspenseful tone all throughout its duration, I was able to reflect upon a trivial portion of it which led me to the following...

The below statement is an opinion and nothing more, I have not checked facts, researched this, nor am I a comic book nerd who follows everything.  However, I do admire the creativity with which many of these stories are created.

"Bruce Wayne is to DC comics what Tony Stark is to Marvel comics." 

Who is the coolest, who is the most bad ass, who is the wealthiest, who has the most gadgets, who is more technologically advanced?

Reflecting strictly upon recent movies and setting aside all comic books stories, alternate reality stories, I believe it is a tie.  Although Tony is unequivocally the most entertaining of all super hero characters, Bruce is up to par with him in many aspects.

Both characters are notorious for the many women which they attract; both are literally billionaires, philanthropists in their own right, have their secret hiding spots, and sundry gadgets.  The major difference between both, one is an ostensible egocentric show off with a computer for a butler, and the other more of an outsider with large emotional scars with a real life British butler.  I'll take my butlers British any day of the week.

In Forbes fictional listing of the top wealthiest characters, Tony has an estimated 9.3 billion dollars net worth  while Bruce comes up a bit short at 6.9 billion dollars.  Also, what Tony has in engineering technology and marvels, is only outdone by Bruce's actual hand to hand combat abilities which are unparalleled for a regular human not yielding a prosthetic exoskeleton that aids its pilot in enhancing his/her senses to extra-human capacity.  Although, Bruce also wears a suit which does offer him an edge, it cannot be compared to Tony's.

However, as far as style and fashion is concerned, I have to hand it to Tony.  After seeing Bruce's 3-button (1990s style) suit, I no longer respect his sense of style.  In my opinion, it is a draw.  Feel free to post your comments about this comparison below, I am sure you are all way more educated in the topic than I am.