Hand update

Several people have asked for an update on my hand, and I thank you for your concern.

Back in September I had a cooking accident with a knife that severed a number of things in my left hand, requiring surgery to correct. The one question mark was whether the nerve repair would work or not. Five months later I have regained most of my mobility but lost about 1 1/2" in my hand span (bad for playing piano); worse, I still haven't regained any sensation in that part of my hand so it looks unlikely that I will.

Though I hold the needle with my right hand, it is my left hand that holds the cloth and controls the depth of stitches. When pad stitching, blind stitching, making buttonholes, etc. you can't see what is going on underneath so you rely on your finger tips to tell you if you have pierced the cloth far enough, or if you have gone too far. My first few attempts at sewing made this painfully (or rather, not) obvious, when I instead drove the needle into my finger without realizing it. Bleeding on my work, I had to put it down and get cleaned up. I haven't picked it up since.

I'm still hoping the nerve will eventually grow back, if not I will have to figure out a new way of manipulating the cloth in order to get the desired results.

Sprezzatura: You are doing it wrong.

My reaction to the news that yet another person is about to start pontificating on mens style on the internet ranges from *facepalm* to *foreheaddesk*.

This one, however, may be different.

In what I believe to be one of his first posts on Slate, Troy Patterson addresses one of the questions that we hear the most in these circles, namely, "Can I get away with this?". To which he provides one of the most reasonable, intelligent, and well-articulated answers I have heard on the subject which, in summary, amounts to this:

"If you need to ask, you probably can't".

It's worth a read.