Handkerchiefs are useful and classy. Kleenex is gross.
A little aside brought about by The Art of Manliness' Everyone Should Carry a Handkerchief: it is my humble opinion that embossing stuff does not lend "a touch of class" to anything (see Paul Fussell's absolutely classic Class). One might be excused for engraving one's initials on a prized possession, a lighter, a knife, a beloved book. Putting one's initials on an item of clothing or a towel shows an inappropriately bourgeois attachment to these unimportant things. You are not a hotel; you don't care if someone takes your towel. And you're not worried if the nice, clean hankie you lent to that girl when she stared crying ends up in her purse. You, sir, are a gentleman. Allow her to discard that hankie without guilt if she wishes, or to return it if she cares to. You are not concerned about such pedestrian things.
A little aside brought about by The Art of Manliness' Everyone Should Carry a Handkerchief: it is my humble opinion that embossing stuff does not lend "a touch of class" to anything (see Paul Fussell's absolutely classic Class). One might be excused for engraving one's initials on a prized possession, a lighter, a knife, a beloved book. Putting one's initials on an item of clothing or a towel shows an inappropriately bourgeois attachment to these unimportant things. You are not a hotel; you don't care if someone takes your towel. And you're not worried if the nice, clean hankie you lent to that girl when she stared crying ends up in her purse. You, sir, are a gentleman. Allow her to discard that hankie without guilt if she wishes, or to return it if she cares to. You are not concerned about such pedestrian things.
Amen.
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P.S. Thanks for the link.
Well-earned, sir. Cheers!
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