Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Useless parts of a sports jacket
Cuff buttons have two possible explanations
Big buttons kept the troops from wiping their noses and mouths on their sleeves.
Dear Matthew Alice: My husband’s sport jackets have three buttons on the sleeve that seem to serve absolutely no purpose. One of his jackets has something that looks like a flap that the buttons are supposed to be holding closed, but the flap isn’t real and there are no buttonholes — just three stupid buttons. Why, WHY do men’s jackets have those buttons on the sleeves? — Rosemary F., San Diego
Like most questions for which no one has the real answer, there are two answers, the rational-sounding one and the goony one. Life being what it is, the goony one is probably correct. If you like your explanations tidy and tasteful, then the buttons are vestigial decorations, a sort of fashion appendix, left over from the days when wealthy men buttoned tight-fitting coat sleeves over their lace-cuffed shirts. Buttons actually were a fashion decoration mania a few centuries ago. The ruder, cruder explanation credits either (a) the French or (b) the Prussians with covering the cuffs of military jackets with big buttons to keep the troops from wiping their noses and mouths on their sleeves. Today’s cuff buttons are said to be the only reminder of the more disgusting days of yore. Actually, the two explanations are not incompatible. Mix ’em, match ’em. Take your pick.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Useless parts of a sports jacket
Cuff buttons have two possible explanations
Useless parts of a sports jacket
Cuff buttons have two possible explanations
Big buttons kept the troops from wiping their noses and mouths on their sleeves.
Dear Matthew Alice: My husband’s sport jackets have three buttons on the sleeve that seem to serve absolutely no purpose. One of his jackets has something that looks like a flap that the buttons are supposed to be holding closed, but the flap isn’t real and there are no buttonholes — just three stupid buttons. Why, WHY do men’s jackets have those buttons on the sleeves? — Rosemary F., San Diego
Like most questions for which no one has the real answer, there are two answers, the rational-sounding one and the goony one. Life being what it is, the goony one is probably correct. If you like your explanations tidy and tasteful, then the buttons are vestigial decorations, a sort of fashion appendix, left over from the days when wealthy men buttoned tight-fitting coat sleeves over their lace-cuffed shirts. Buttons actually were a fashion decoration mania a few centuries ago. The ruder, cruder explanation credits either (a) the French or (b) the Prussians with covering the cuffs of military jackets with big buttons to keep the troops from wiping their noses and mouths on their sleeves. Today’s cuff buttons are said to be the only reminder of the more disgusting days of yore. Actually, the two explanations are not incompatible. Mix ’em, match ’em. Take your pick.
Comments