Andy Brown and his label soldierleisure are profiled in this week's Phoenix New Times. It's the feature article. Pick up the New Times for free, right off the curbside stands or read it all online.

Congratulations, Andy. That's a big, big article.

JimmyZMac's MGB finally made it into the October edition of MG World with a five page spread. Go on with your bad self, James. This also marks the third and final time James gets props for his car and its louder than thou paint job. You better line up another stunt, bucko, or you're gonna be yesterday's news.

Hey people. Just wanted to send a long a brief update. I'm having a blast at Oxford. My course is so-so, but everything else is great. I've joined a kung fu club so I'm learning to hurt people. I'm also getting up at 5:30am about three days a week to row--Brrrrr. It's actually a lot harder than it looks, and I have multiple ruptured and re-ruptured blisters to prove it. It's a good thing the cold eventually numbs my hands. We had our first race today. It hailed briefly. We lost, but I'm blaming it on a dodgy herd of imaginary geese--makes me feel better. We have two more races over the next couple days, so hopefully we'll do better. I just got back from a brief sojourn in Paris, where I spent too much money on artery-clogging cheese fondue and Belgian beer. I checked out Versailles, which is cool but would probably look better in the Spring. In January, I will escape for a week in the sun-drenched Canary Islands.

Anyway, I will be back in AZ from about December 11-18 and am eager to catch up with many of you then.

Oh, and check out the most recent Op-Ed from Thomas Friedman. He talks about a recent Marshall event in London at which he gave a speech. I got to see Prince Charles there as well. The Prince is funnier than I thought he'd be, but he's definitely not a smart cookie. Christiane Amanpour is cool.

Cheers!

Last night was the kick off party for the Wreaths of Hope Charity event I have been coordinating. Wreaths of Hope is to benefit Whispering Hope Ranch.

The party was to thank all the donors and give them a chance to preview the wreaths before they go on sale on Friday. And I just had to let all my boys know that our bottle cap wreath sold -- even among all the professional wreaths made by architects, interior designers and well known artists!!! Somebody actually bought it before it was even for sale!!! A lady on the board at Whispering Hope Ranch bought the wreath because her little boy liked it!!! She was also very excited to receive the Soldier Leisure shirts I had included. Thanks Andy!

And thanks to all the boys who got wasted in the name of charity!!! The Brophy art teacher was commenting on how she liked my wreath and I told her about our drinking project and she grinned and said "That's it! It takes a Brophy boy to drink that much beer!" I think she got a kick out of it. So here is to charities, drinking, and tons of colored bottle caps…cheers!

Come check out all the other wreaths -- especially the wreath made out of $20,000 worth of jewelry and pearls! There is also a Von Ducth Hubcap wreath, a Harley Davison wreath and a Curt Schillings Diamondbacks wreath.

The wreaths will be on sale from November 28th through December 12th at The Shops At Gainey Village. All proceeds benefit Whispering Hope Ranch.

Digital Photography Review has always been the go-to site for well-written, well-delivered reviews of digital photography equipment. Tonight I discovered that they also offer a timeline showing the order in which cameras were released. That's badass.

What a great title. So many newspaper articles have cheesy, gimmicky, catchy titles. That title is telling, it has rhythm, and it rolls quickly, and the punchiness speaks to the subject matter.

The subject matter? Oh, right -- the article is interesting too. The piece was front page in the New York Times magazine this weekend, and it's 10 pages all about the changing nature of dating. Like most of the other stuff that makes its way to feature articles in major publications, it's not something that we weren't already discovering through our own experience and fringe commentary, but the NYTimes has composed an elegant pieces that reviews where we are and how we got here without getting to excited about the whole affair.

Basically, we all wait longer to marry so we're less likely to meet mates in school and because many other social institutions, notably churches, have faded from social prominence, there are few avenues to comfortably meet substantial partners. But we can't not couple and mate, so we adapt (see Darwin, et al.). Enter online dating, frustration, casual sex, and in some cases, marital bliss.

Enjoy.