Mr Pitt & Penance Hall Socks

"You're hired, Penance Hall. Hello!" Mr. Justin Pitt, Doubleday Publishing

Shortly before Mr Pitt's death, he sat down with the boys at Penance Hall and designed a sock that would stay up but that wasn't too tight. "Pitty," as the boys at Penance lovingly referred to Mr Pitt, and who  loved to say, "Stay up, but not too tight -- Sounds like a cocktail to me." And of course it is, Fino Sherry and Mezcal, shaken and served up with a slice of orange.  But I digress.

Mr Pitt promised a story of 500 words to The Trad about the Penance Hall sock but we wound up in a dispute over a non-compete clause that I thought was only right to include. I didn't think two years was too long for Mr Pitt not to write for anyone else. I was, after all, paying him $1 a word but he didn't think so and sadly things escalated. Finally,  after five years the matter was settled…with Mr Pitt's death.

Despite the contractual language, Penance Hall and Mr Pitt really knocked the cover off the sock with this one. Merino wool, in classic Ivy school colors, and only $20 a pr. Mr Pitt suggested they retail for $20 per sock, but the boys felt differently and agreed on $20 a pair. If you invest in their Kickstarter, they'll lock you in for life on the $20 deal. The fine print is around here somewhere.

As a quick aside, Mr Pitt, before his death, offered a personal tour of NYC to Kickstart investors with Elaine Benes but... that has sadly fallen through. Pitt is dead and Benes is no longer in NYC.   Instead, Penance Hall has offered up, for the paltry sum of $5,000, lunch (and all we can drink) with myself and G. Bruce Boyer at the Four Seasons as well as a shopping excursion with yours truly that will blow your nuts off.

So open your check books for a good sock. You would make Mr Pitt very happy.