That is my buddy Randy Goldberg’s set-up pictured at a concert earlier this summer. The wallet is a custom Billykirk from the Pop Up Flea. I finally got around to pulling those pictures off my camera and this guy stood out. The Billykirk boys are famous for being painfully nice, so I bet if you wanted a special wallet a la Mr. Goldberg’s below they would do it for you for a few extra bucks. Budweiser sold separately.

If you haven’t had a chance to drink some Buds outside, sit around a camp fire, drive fast with all of your windows down, ride on a boat, catch an outdoor show, drink a Dark ‘N’ Stormy and do all of that other fun summer stuff you better get at it. One more month and it is September…

Download Freedom

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Dearest ACL brethren,

It seems the folks at Men.Style.com have been holding a popularity contest for “blue-collar beers” and my beloved High Life is trailing both Pabst and Yuengling. All I can say is what the fuck! I’m a High Life man and High Life men don’t take this sort of thing lying down (hmmm, unfortunate idiom there). So head over and cast your vote for the High Life.

Vote here — then go back tomorrow and vote again. Forward to your friends and tell them to join the campaign. (ACL has no affiliation with Miller except when they get me drunk.)

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I feel like an idiot. Chad Lemke has been blogging about staplers since 2007 and I had no idea. I’ve never met Chad and don’t collect staplers or anything, but when I found his blog the sheer joy hit me like a ton of bricks. The first thing I did was email the Stapler of the Week link to Alex Olch — he’s a stapler lover like myself. The email went something like this. Subject: FUCK. ME. Body: This is why god created the internet. Olch agreed. I imagined him giddy and grinning as he inspected the online treasure-trove of paper connecting goodness.

Not only is Mr. Lemke an earnest and well versed stapler collector, his blog is exactly what you would expect from someone who is fixated with paper organizing devices. Text, coherent and exactly justified in tidy columns with beautiful photography on pristine white backgrounds. Layout simple and uncluttered. The blog is very well done. This discovery renews my sense of pride in Americans. We can obsesses over the most arcane subjects just as well as the Japanese. For that Chad, I salute you. Visit, bookmark and read Stapler of the Week.

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File this under random. I have a strange fascination with hobo culture. In fact, two of my very different interests (it should be pointed out that I have a lot of odd diversions), intersected in the first season of Mad Men when a young Dick Whitman (aka Don Draper) meets a hobo man that teaches him a lesson about life. Amazing! Everything you need to know about how to get by as a hobo can be seen below. Given the current economy, this might actually have real world applications.

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Here’s to a happy, health 2009! I resolve to get up earlier and drink more High Life — not necessarily at the same time.

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Looks like Mom and Dad read ACL — some of my spot-on Christmas gifts are pictured below. In addition to the items seen here, I also scored a classic Lands’ End attache bag in navy. Plus, a monogrammed set of Tervis Tumblers (the original, made in Flordia) from my biz partner and her wonderful mother.  Thank you, thank you! What did you all get? What did you want?

My nice union made Carhartt from Midwest Workwear.

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Hope you are living the High Life today. Happy Thanksgiving!

(Video via 10Engines)

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That’s how much the copy of Take Ivy sold for on eBay. At this point, Take Ivy is said to be more valuable than most U.S. investment banks. To quote Carl Fox (Martin Sheen’s character in Wall Street), “The whole world is off its rocker!”

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The lovely Joanna Goddard from Glamour’s Smitten blog asked me to put together a guy-orientated gift guide for her readers (for the ladies). You can see the full feature here.

Mother and I at the Roc Center Christmas tree.

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For those of you that liked my mixes, I offer you this:

Recover your old playlist here.

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Sometimes marketing works. Take for instance, the Le Chameau video below. Clearly it is a marketing thing, but I don’t have a problem with it. Maybe it is because Le Chameau is French, maybe it is because of the narrator’s accent, or just maybe because the video takes place in a factory. We all know I am a sucker for a factory tour. All of that aside, the boots are terrific. Le Chameau is a good alternative to all of the British Wellington boots you see everywhere. It is also worth noting that the Dollar is in slightly better shape versus the Euro than the Pound Sterling, if you care about such things.

Le Chameau boots, yet another reason to wish for fall. Thanks to Justin for the tip.

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