For Tessa : The Friday Belt Returns

Schweppes Slimline Indian Tonic Water


The Strategy

When Tessa Scoffs tells me she wants something - - I jump. So, for Tessa, the Friday Belt returns.

Except for one or two falls off the Conestoga -- the Lent sacrifice went well while 15 pounds disappeared. I know that weight can come back in a heart beat so the focus is on sugarless drinks. It's a helluva motivator to look at the scale in the morning and watch it tick down. I want to take that and use it as an incentive before I have to give all my medium sized shirts to ADG.

Schweppes "Slimline Indian" Tonic is off the boat from the UK. Much better than their diet tonic in the states and with half a squeezed lime it makes a pretty darned good G&T. I don't where the hell you're gonna find Slimline Indian but I get mine at Myer's of Keswick (they also have Schweppes Bitter Lemon) in the West Village. It seems to me a perfect time for the G&T. The idea of drinking brown Scotch or a Bordeaux just seems wrong.

And so does wearing my brown Sling Belt. I stick pretty close to the rules when it comes to white bucks and seersucker but who says you can't break out a Madras belt before Labor Day? I ordered this one for spit last Winter. Earlier this week, ADG and I were shooting the crap with Jay Kos and we all agreed that when J Crew is offering tons of patch madras it's time to look for alternatives. But the Madras patch belt is a subtle little flash of 1965 college wear. And subtle, as Tessa will tell you, is key.

The Friday Belt: Madras & Farnum Hill Cider

Update: The missing Washington & Lee Yearbook from 1965 was found

Farnum Hill Extra Dry Cider - Madras Belt Free With Purchase

Aetna Casualty & Surety - Far Right -The Trad (awake) in a Brooksgate 3 piece

Madras Adjustable Belt in Esquire (September 1960)

Just kidding about that free belt. Besides, you're never gonna find this cider. Neeever gonna find it. And that's a shame because it's mind blowing stuff. I was turned onto Farnum Hill just last week at the Basque restaurant, Txikito. My server suggested cider and I pooed - pooed it right away. "Too sweet. Save it for the little old ladies" "No." She said, "This stuff is bone dry. It's made in New Hampshire but it's very much like ciders the Basques drink." Bang. That sold me. I took a sip and man was she right. No sweetness at all. Tart. Soft little bubbles...an almost champagne like mouth feel. And the best part is...it's dirt cheap! Cue the balloons.

At the Farnum Hill web site I click on the, 'where to get it' link and was happy to see a ton of NYC retailers. I called them all. Some never heard of Farnum Hill. Most were out. Only one, Sherry Lehman, had the Summer Cider. But I had to have the Extra Dry. So I called the two distributors. A disconnected number and a, "leave a message" recording later...nothing. What's with distributors? How hard is it to do this job? I mean, I have to read Director's & Officer's policies. All these people have to do is get the product out there. They don't even have to sell it.

My call was never returned. But a retailer who was out it mentioned a distributor who might have it. Not on the web site but what the heck. I gave them a call. "All out. Except for a case of Extra Dry I have here in the office. Do you want that?" "Uh, how much?" I ask. Licking my lips. "$96.00" He says. "I can deliver it if you want? No extra charge." This distributor, Bayfield Importing, gets my vote for sainthood.

The madras belt is from the Leather Man and I think it's as American as Cider despite the Indian thing. I mean, it's pretty much just Americans who wear Madras in Go-To-Hell trousers, belts and blazers. My London friends find madras vulgar but they can't find socks that stay up so what do they know.

As hard as it is to find Farnum Hill Cider - - you should have no problem finding this belt. And if you're close to Essex you may want to run by the Leather Man Factory Outlet. Back in (hike up my coveralls and spit) nineteen and eighty-six when I was attendin' the Aetna Casualty and Surety training center in Hartford (the most boring 4 weeks of my life) -- I spent a beautiful October weekend touring CT. Stayed at the Griswold Inn and The Inn at Mystic. Had dinner at the nearby Copper Beech Inn where Morley Saffer was at the bar smoking Marlboro's and drinking a martini. God, how I wish I was a journalist. And I visited the Leather Man Outlet where I found a Griswold Inn surcingle belt for $1.95 - - A great deal had I not paid $20 for the same belt at the Gris bar in one of my many, "Is this the greatest place or what?" fits of passion.

The madras belt seems to come and go with retailers but it's getting very difficult to find them without the D ring / ribbon style that I find so below the salt. Back in the mid 1960's there was the adjustable madras belt. Popular in places like Washington and Lee and seen in Esquire Magazine adverts. I'm looking for one. Perhaps the folks at Farnum Hill can get Leather Man to make one with their logo in madras so that I might have another one of my fits of passion.