“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.” Mark Twain Ever noticed how many people have 'a look' and how much trouble they go to in order to maintain it? I'm not talking about good grooming and dress or looking fashionable. It is something different than that. A unique look that is theirs. Before I slip in to this morass any deeper, I hasten to point out that I am not (a) questioning anyone's right to be an individual, (b) making fun of anyone, (c) being judgmental. So save those accusations. I always wonder about the lengths to which men particularly, will go to make a statement about themselves in their appearance. Merle Wayne Sneed prefers to remain an enigma by looking nondescript, but to each his own. I am thinking of some guys that I see on a regular basis around here. One guy is an old hippie that I see at the bookstore near our house. He drives an old pick up and is usually wearing bib overalls and a long sleeved denim shirt. The ensemble is completed with a floppy hat. He has really long gray hair. He looks like a moonshiner or what I imagine a moonshiner looks like anyway. His is a look that takes a lot of work to maintain I would guess. Another guy comes into our store nearly every day. He is a former Marine. The Marines insist that there are no former Marines, just Marines, but that's a technicality. This fellow is a retired Marine. He is also scary odd because he never buys anything, he just walks around the store like he's conducting an inspection. Attempts at conversation are futile. The Marine is very fit for a man of sixty or so. He is always dressed the same way, in crisp shorts, a Marine Corp embelmed tee shirt and one of those olive drab Marine Corp caps. Every day, same thing. I get that the whole The Few, The Proud, The Marines thing, but this Marine Corps pride taken to the extreme, if you ask me. Anyway, that's just an observation. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky