If you haven’t been to the Barbour archives (don’t feel bad, I haven’t either) you might be unfamiliar with the Ursula Suit story. The Ursula suit is a coveted British WWII artifact made expressly for Lieutenant Commander George Phillips (pictured above c.1939) and the crew of the submarine HMS Ursula. Mr. Phillips was unhappy with water stopping ability of the issued Navy kit, so he took matters into his own hands and commissioned Barbour to make what would become the famous (and standard issue) Ursula Suit.

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I must confess that, for whatever reason, I haven’t been to Chicago in years. I was meaning to go for a music festival or two last summer, but never made it. Everyone I know from the capital of the Middlewest raves about the city — all livable and everything. It is a different beast than New York though, that is for sure. The argument for me to visit got a little more compelling last week when I discovered Agent Gallery. I actually found them through some of their auctions on eBay and eventually wound up digging through the company’s online shop. It has some nice industrial lighting for sale, and some other interesting objects and furniture. I’m not a lighting expert so some of that stuff could be crap, but it looks good to me. The prices also aren’t necessarily cheap, but they aren’t New York prices either.

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Take a few minutes out of your day and spend it with this audio tape of Lyndon Baines Johnson, our 36th President, while he orders a few pairs of trousers from the Haggar company in Dallas, Texas. It seems LBJ liked the lightweight pants Haggar had sent him and wanted to get a few extra pairs made, you know, for the evening, after work. Plus, when LBJ would gain a little weight his pants would start to get uncomfortable. “In the crotch, down where your nuts hang. Feels like you are riding a wire fence.” Well, I don’t want to spoil it. Have a listen for yourself. You won’t think about LBJ’s nuts the same ever again. [LBJ White House Tapes] (Thanks to Sinuhe for the tip)

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First things first, lets be happy that it is still cold outside and we can take full advantage of wearing all of our favorite winter goods. This catalog from 1969 is the convergence of two of my favorite things: nostalgic ephemera and L.L. Bean. This booklet features some choice goods, along with a cover shot of a hunter about strike down Bambi. Safe to say that 2010 Bean is not going to be using cover art like this — but some of these goods are a bit less controversial and have been much more long lasting. That Flotation Jacket sure does look familiar.

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We all have our obsessions. Shoes, clothing, cameras, vintage issues of Playboy (for the articles of course). Nicolas, from the blog One-Upmanship, seems to have a slight infatuation with outerwear and has amassed quite the collection judging by one of his Flickr sets. His vintage mini-archive has a strong offering of throwback jackets from the golden age of foul-weather-design. Sierra Designs, Barbour and Peter Storm all make an appearance in these well styled pics. You’re welcome in advance for the newest additions to your eBay watch list and for the day-crushing new addition to your RSS reader. —SEAN SULLIVAN

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• How to do Nashvegas right. [Details]
• Shorpy never ceases to amaze me (read the post then the comments) [Shorpy]
• William Burroughs’s Stuff (The Medical Implications of Karate Blows!!) [The Morning News]
• I love letterpress, this song and this video [Selectism] [Pictured]
• I want to be like Duke Riley when I grow up [Secret Forts]

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