It's 95F. Time to buy a coat.

After just spending over $1,000 on having my car's air conditioning gutted and replaced, the last thing I should be doing is shopping for clothes. But I fell to temptation at lunch today, and opened the e-mail that offered me 35% off anything at J. Peterman.

To digress a bit, one reason I've always been fascinated by the J. Peterman catalogs is that they break a cardinal rule of marketing: they do NOT show photographs of their products. Instead, they show nicely- rendered pictures. Just about anyone in advertising, from David Ogilvy to Dan Draper, will tell you that the buying public tend to distrust an artistic version of a product. This goes across the board, from chewing gum to luxury cars.  But the folks at J. Peterman have never, ever shown a photo of a product. Not even in their earliest catalogs. 

The reason I like their products is admittedly a bit childish. Most of their clothing is a bit retro-quirky. Like this coat I just spotted and may order:

It's the collar of this coat that really attracts me. I have this odd weakness for clothing with asymmetrical features.